No one wants to spend a glorious summer afternoon slaving in the kitchen. The team at Maggi have put together this collection of 80 easy to prepare summer meals, perfect for the barbecue, the family picnic or a pot-luck dinner with friends.

Kiwi Backyard Cooking gives you lots of new ideas to dress up your favourite cuts of lamb, chicken, beef, pork or seafood. It emphasises barbecue recipes, but also has salads and sides and perfect summer desserts.

Review

"About a year ago I became a house husband. After seven years of avoiding the kitchen I had to start cooking.

This winter I found the Maggi crockpot cooking book great and thought Maggi Kiwi Backyard Cooking would be right up my alley.

The first thing I tried was the caramel slice. I haven't baked in years. My 3-year-old daughter has more experience.

The base was easy to make but I soon figured out my tin was too big (made mental note to double recipe next time).

The filling was straightforward but I made a small mistake with the chocolate topping (OK, I didn't read instructions properly) but it turned out OK.

That night I gave a piece to my wife and she thought it was from a shop. Even my mother-in-law (best baker about) didn't believe I baked it. They all loved it. Big brownie points.

Next I tried the jerk chicken drumsticks, which is just a good marinade including a cup of rum which you can taste in the chicken. Very nice, even for a person who can't drink black rum any more. Kids liked that one too.

I was scared the Asian marinated rump steaks recipe might destroy a great bit of meat. But to my surprise the steak was cooked beautifully going by the timing guidelines and the marinade was perfect.

All of the recipes in Backyard Cooking unsurprisingly use Maggi and Nestle products. Often it's as simple as a spoon of stock. They are summer-based recipes and most can be cooked on the man oven (barbecue).

There are sections on each meat type, including recipes for kebabs, burgers and steak marinades, sections on salads, vegetables, nibbles and deserts.

Next on my list to try are barbecued corn and green herb butter, the potato, spring onion and mushroom puffs and black pepper and lime zest fish parcels.

The recipes are simple, tasty and straightforward. An easy way to impress the family." KARL ARGYLE, stuff.co.nz