Shrimp

As I was planning a lunch for friends, I decided on a soup and salad menu. A combination of ruby red grapefruit segments, sliced avocado and cooked shrimp tossed in a small amount of curried apricot mayonnaise then mounded in grapefruit halves made a perfect counterpoint to the season's steamy weather. With it, I served iced tea, a chilled cucumber soup and fresh berries with shortbread cookies for dessert. Betty Rosbottom writes for Tribune Media Services. GRAPEFRUIT, SHRIMP AND AVOCADO SALAD IN GRAPEFRUIT SHELLS Serves 4 SAUCE: 1/3 cup regular or reduced fat mayonnaise (but not nonfat mayonnaise)

Nothing could be simpler than this salad of shrimp and mushrooms over greens. At this time of year, it's the perfect quick weeknight dish to allow plenty of time for a walk after dinner or work in the yard or garden. The elements cook separately then unite with the dressing quickly to warm in the skillet. The whole is poured still hot over the greens. It is a very light meal, so bigger eaters might want to increase the amounts or cut the number of servings (in my house this would serve just two)

Marlin Barnett Hopkins loved his mother's "party spaghetti," which was nothing more than a jar of Prego tossed with shrimp, smoked sausage and ground beef. Janice Letmate used to prepare a shrimp Creole that her children savored. And Steven R. Shores was partial to his sister's homemade Jewish apple cake. Those recipes and dozens more have been collected in a 78-page cookbook that is being released today not by the Baltimore Culinary Institute, but, tellingly, by a part of the city state's attorney office.

Cooking meat, or seafood, slowly and at extremely low temperatures changes everything for the better -- the texture turns more tender, the flavor becomes more concentrated -- which is why chefs around the world are so enamored of sous-vide. It's astonishingly easy to get the same effect by bringing a pot of water to just below a simmer. Insert ribs or sea scallops or whatever. When cooked slowly at a temperature barely high enough to singe your fingers, they all become soft and succulent.

Kibby's Restaurant and Lounge Playbook Sports Bar 6700 German Hill Road, Dundalk -- 410-633-2665 Hours --11 a.m.-2 a.m. daily Restaurant's estimate --10 minutes Ready in --9 minutes The chopped shrimp were doused in too much dressing on this sandwich, $10.49. The bread was toasted, even though we asked for plain. Some fries and a pickle spear came on the side. Know of a good carryout place? Let us hear about it. Write to sam.sessa@baltsun.com.

Faye Lowry of Severna Park was looking for a recipe for shrimp dip that she had enjoyed at an open house in the mid-1990s. All she can remember about it was that it was made using canned shrimp. Carolyn Ward of Greenville, N.C., sent in a recipe for a shrimp dip made with canned shrimp that she likes very much. The only addition I felt her recipe needed was a bit of lemon juice. You might want to taste the dip first and see if you think it needs the lemon juice. I put all the ingredients, except the chopped shrimp, in my food processor and processed them until smooth, then I mixed in the shrimp by hand at the end. This dip is delicious served on crackers or with raw vegetables.

Everyday Food: Great Food Fast From the Kitchens of Martha Stewart Living Fine Cooking Annual Edited by Martha Holmberg and Pam Hoenig The Taunton Press / 2007 / $34.95 We love Fine Cooking; really, we do. We look forward every month to perusing its sensible-yet-elegant recipes, handy tips and techniques. The photos always make us hungry. So why weren't we wowed by this first collection of more than 200 recipes from the magazine? For one thing, the type is larger. Normally, that's good for readability.

The eating-out crowd has a new attraction at the Inner Harbor. P.F. Chang's China Bistro has opened in the new Lockwood Place building on Pratt Street. It's the first in Baltimore and the third in Maryland, according to the chain's Web site. The other two are in Columbia and Bethesda. Operating partner David Moss, who's worked at four other East Coast P.F. Chang's, says that those familiar with the restaurant may notice a couple of differences in Baltimore's. He says there have been complaints at others about the noise level, so extra effort was made here to cut down on that.

Melissa Robinson of Hastings, Fla., was trying to find a good recipe for Shrimp Fried Rice. Paula Baranowski of Havre de Grace sent in a favorite recipe. She says the secret to good fried rice is to cook the rice ahead of time and allow it to cool completely. I tested her recipe as written, using cooked and cooled basmati rice and medium shrimp. Pork, beef or chicken could easily be substituted for the shrimp, depending on what you have on hand. If you have made the rice ahead of time, this dish makes a terrific weeknight supper that can be made in under 30 minutes.

Frozen, cooked shrimp is great for so many reasons. The hurried cook will love that it's so quick to prepare; the style-conscious cook will like the elegant note it adds to dishes; the health-conscious cook will appreciate a nutrition profile as high as its calorie content is low. Here we're teaming shrimp with star anise, an evocative spice that is sold in specialty markets and many supermarkets. Typically this star-shaped spice is sold whole, so you'll need to grind it in a clean coffee grinder or with a mortar and pestle.