As much a travelogue as a cookbook, Rick Browne's Grilling America is an unabashed celebration of grilling and gluttony. As the host of the public television series Barbecue America, Browne has developed a devoted following as the bearded, bespeckled ambassador of outdoor cooks everywhere. As he notes, grilling has become one of the great American pastimes, and there's really no reason not to do it well.

But remember it's not what you cook on. It's what you cook, how you cook it, and most important, how the results taste. Whether you use natural gas, lump charcoal, propane, fruitwood logs, briquettes, grapevines, hardwood pellets, coconut shells, electric heating elements, nutshells, hot oil, or a combination of all of these, outdoor cooking is simply, as the name implies, using some sort of heat source outdoors.

It's no rocket science, Floyd. The same rules apply on the patio as in the kitchen. That $32 butterflied leg of lamb can be done just right inside or incinerated beyond recognition outside. Or vice versa.

Browne incorporates cooking tips (such as combining "direct" and "indirect" grilling in order to keep the food "juicy, tender, and loaded with taste") with recipes and his trips to various events around the country and layers all of it with gorgeous full-color pictures of the often messy, sometimes zany, but always delicious foods one can produce on a grill. Many people seem to think there's relatively little art to grilling: that it's just a flame and some food. But grilling can - and should be - "more of a refined culinary art." Slapping food on the grill and cooking it until it is "done" usually guarantees little more than "dry tasteless meat" with "a charred surface somewhere."

I'm not sure I'm real keen on using Browne's tip on how to test the temperature of a grill: hold your right hand over the BBQ grill surface. "If you can only hold your hand 1 to 2 inches above the grill for 1 second, the temperature of the fire is approximately 600F or higher." His only warning: Please don't burn yourself. Personally, I'm thinking there's got to be a better way. On the other hand, his advice regarding direct and indirect cooking, oiling the grill, and various other tips are undoubtedly ways to ensure a better grilling experience - not only for the cook, but the ultimate recipients as well.

The 150 recipes featured in the cookbook signal the incredible diversity available to the outdoor cook (certainly they represent a far more diverse array than the usual burgers and hotdogs). Browne starts with appetizers such as Armadillo Eggs (technically, they're no such thing: they're jalapenos filled with Velvetta cheese and wrapped in bacon, to be served with "very cold longneck beer"), Oh-You-Devil Eggs, and Stinking Rose Mushrooms (despite the name, they're a stuffed mushroom cap filled with garlic, onion, parsley and Parmesan cheese). The picture alone of Kara Beth's Hot Damn Wings was enough to get my mouth watering, but then again I've always been a sucker for hot wings of almost any sort. Even the Dixie Watermelon Salsa sounds great (watermelon, diced onions, jalapeno chili peppers, and more).