Dear Cooks,

While the school year, which many of us see as the routine part of the year, is tapering off, there’s still breakfast to be made every morning and supper to find its way to the oven and table every evening. But even if we’re still in “year-round” mode for the most part, we can all use a little pinch of color in our meal prep routine. This is why I was excited to see the Levines’ collection this month. Who says we need to wait for the official barbecue season to begin before we can give grill recipes a try?

In our house, even though we live in the most urban area where you’re lucky to find a postage-sized patch of grass, we recently started grilling on our porch. Yup, my husband came home one afternoon lugging a gift for the family: a proper gas grill. Until then, we either waited for summertime to do proper grilling, or I used the grill pan to create dishes with a similar taste. But unless you have an incredibly amazing grill pan—let me know which one it is—they’re simply incomparable.

Now that we’ve upgraded our culinary equipment (ours folds very compact, so extra points for that), grilling has become a built-in part of our weekly menu. As the woman of the house, that’s bonus points for me come Wednesday night. I simply marinate the proteins and veggies earlier in the day, slide a pan of quinoa or rice into the oven, and my part’s done— until kitchen cleanup, which is also relatively minimal. Some weeks, the kids end up eating on the porch while watching their father and older brother charr the rest of the fare, and that helps out on the feeding side.

Now, with the Levines’ fabulous recipes in this issue, we’ve got some new grilling ideas to add to our repertoire, so we’re good to go for the season ahead. While new recipes are always welcome, there’s also something about those oldies but goodies, don’t you think?

On that end, we’re introducing Encore in this issue’s Seasoned, where we’ll be reprinting recipes that have gotten the ravest reviews. If you tried them once, this is your chance to try your hand at them again. And if you haven’t, now’s the time to say hi to more goodness in your kitchen.

If there’s any particular recipe you’d like to see in this section, I’ll be happy to hear from you,