Happy Memorial Day to all!

Not a lot planned for this weekend here, going to be ridiculously hot and humid so not a lot cooking in the kitchen either. A couple of friends stopping over later to kick off the weekend, so I am thinking of grilling some flatbread and topping it with some combination of fresh ricotta, basil, proscuitto, tapenade, etc. Got a couple of cases of beer and wine chilling, maybe mix up some rum punch too.

Another friend just got her first CSA box and is stumped with what to do with some of it (I have no idea of the contents yet) so she and I will get together tomorrow to menu plan so she can use up some of the goodies.

Monday is the parade and a couple of softball games (1864 rules - no gloves!) and hanging at the park. I will probably pack something to eat, thinking Mufuletta or some sort of big sandwich that can be sliced and shared.

Have a relaxing and safe weekend all!

Alexa

Memorial Day weekend is Lobster Fest in Mystic so the town is packed with tourists. Took DH half an hour to get gas for the mower this morning & the station's only a couple blocks away. There's also a parade here in Mystic plus a road race in Stonington & another parade in Pawcatuck. So, we don't ask friends/family over for Memorial Day 'cause of the traffic. We're having BBQ dinner at the marina on Sunday.

Tomorrow, we are having a garage sale in conjunction with our neighbors. That will undoubtedly consume the entire day starting early & we'll be tired. We'll just make a sandwich after finishing the sale.

We're also in the middle of a complete bathroom remodel. The house is a mess with "stuff" sitting everywhere. Contractor had to take out our kitchen pantry to reach the bathroom plumbing. Between the pantry contents, what came out of the old bathroom, plus the new waiting installation the chaos is driving us both crazy. This is a small 2 bedroom, 1 bath coastal cottage. We've been basically living at the marina. No cooking happening here for another couple weeks, at best. I'm looking forward to the new bath though...think it's going to turn out spiffy & fun. It'll be a bit different than everybody else's bathroom. lol

Have a fun holiday weekend everybody!

/tricia

Happy Memorial Day!! One of my favorite holidays because May is my favorite month, at least in California. In Texas it was March.

It rained a bit this morning, and is only in the upper 60s today, but will be back in the mid 70s for the rest of the week-end. Typically it is overcast or foggy at the beach here on Memorial Day, and so if I wanted sun, I would go to Palm Springs. This week so far has been quite warm, and so a bit of coolness is nice.

After seeing Bizzo's picture on the photo thread, I want to make fried green tomatoes. Otherwise, I had planned to make Chinese style food, since I got a lot of Chinese ingredients last week-end at 99 Ranch. I got a Cherimoya that is ripe and also a small seedless watermelon, and so we'll have plenty of fruit. I would have bought a Jack Fruit, but they were huge! Anyway, I was thinking of a Chinese style barbeque, or maybe Thai and make satay and some lettuce wraps. I'll probably also make spring rolls or summer rolls, or maybe both. All of these are good because they do not make so many leftovers.

My niece is going to be at LAX tomorrow morning for five hours on her way to Korea, and I'm hoping we will be able to see each other, but that would involve her leaving the secure area of the air port. I told her that once she did that, she might as well come to our house, since we are an 8 minute drive from LAX and could still get her back three hours before her flight. We'll talk in the morning and will play it by ear. She's going to Korea with her husband to teach ESL. She didn't like the winter there last year.

I might make a large calzone (resembling a stuffed focaccia) because that is fun for eating outdoors and stores easily.

Lars

Triciae, just wait until the earth's population gets
to 12 Billion people. Luckily, December 21st of this
year, all of our problems will come to an end. Haleluia!!!
Happy Last Memorial Day!!!!!

lbpod, we like tourists in Mystic! Glad to see them returning after a couple year dry spell.

Here's a description of what's happening here on Monday. We'll go with friends from the marina, as every year. This year, Civil War vets will be especially honored...the program varies.

"Decoration Day 1876 at Mystic Seaport

Monday, May 28, 2012 / 10:30 a.m. - 2:45 p.m.

Mystic Seaport will pay tribute to fallen Civil War soldiers during the Museum's annual Decoration Day ceremony on May 28.

Known today as Memorial Day, Decoration Day was formally instituted by the U.S. Government in 1868 as a day of national remembrance of those killed during the Civil War. Decoration Day observances included tending and decorating the graves of the fallen, as well as church services, solemn processions and community suppers.

Mystic Seaport observances will begin inside the Museum's Fishtown Chapel with the "Roll of the Dead" at 10:30 a.m. Names of the fallen soldiers that lay in Elm Grove Cemetery, located in Mystic, CT, will be read and visitors can lay a remembrance in their honor. At 12 p.m., tolling steeple bells from the Greenmanville Church will invite visitors inside for a brief memorial service and hymns.

Following the service a uniformed color guard playing a funeral dirge and citizens of 1876 Greenmanville will lead a solemn procession to Middle Wharf for the playing of Taps and a wreath laying upon the Mystic River. The day's observances conclude at 2:45 p.m. with a gathering in the Seamen's Friend Society Reading Room."

/tricia

We're going to be having a group over for a themed dinner - dairy - and I told hubby we should fire up the grill and make grilled cheeses. That led to a menu planned around 'make your own grilled cheese' creations, so we'll provide several breads, cheeses, toppings, and have fun.

One quesadilla, which I got from a Nava Atlas vegetarian cookbook, is tortillas stuffed with Monterey Jack, green chilies, and roasted sweet potatoes. Believe it or not, it works.

Vegetarian menus are always.....interesting. Grin. I'm not complaining!

No plans here. Maybe something will surface.

Trying to make the best of my husband's unilateral neighborhood party. 45 replies and counting.

Wine, beer, mixed drinks, iced tea, sodas, water...decaf coffee...

Hummus, crudit�s, pita chips
Smoked bluefish pate with wasabi rice crackers
Rice black sesame crisps with homemade quacamole and pico de gallo

Barefoot Contessa chicken salad with tarragon, pecans and grapes
Grilled Portabellos
Grilled hamburgers/ cheeseburgers
Pulled pork
Grilled Italian sausages peppers and onions

Baked "cheater" beans
Jane Butel 's pickled coleslaw
Greek orzo salad
Black bean, roasted sweett potato and corn salad
Elbow macaroni salad (h.b. eggs, celery leaves, sliced pimento stuffed green olives, diced sweet onion, mayo and celery seed). A perennial Midwest fave not common in New England...

Desserts by friends

This is to be a garden party. Forecast is 50 percent rain.

Your kind thoughts encourage and support me. I am living with cancer and am not what I used to be. The weird gout (if that's what it was) has abated and thankfully my foot is ok.

Grateful for the friendship here. Wishing everyone a safe, happy and delicious Memorial Day.

seagrass

Seagrass, I am sorry to hear that and wish you good health and healing. I hope you're not making that all by yourself! Quite a spread- lots of yummy vegetarian options. I'll be making my curried dill couscous salad with slow-roasted tomatoes and pearl onions.

The weather is iffy. No plans. It depends.

There will be corn. A ton of sweet corn. $0.17 a ear in the store.

Sounds like everyone has great dishes planned.

Jenny, the couscous sound deliciouscious. Not to pick a fight with you, who knows a lot more about vegetables than me. I prefer tomatoes quick roasted, otherwise slow roast can make them watery. I also steam or microwave onions before I roast them.

Seagrass, very impressive. Good luck to everything.

dcarch

We will be celebrating our friend's 70th birthday with a Classic Cookout tomorrow. Menu will be shrimp cocktail and cheese straws, grilled steaks, twice-baked potatoes, Caesar salad, saut�ed mushrooms, chocolate cake, creme de Menthe parfaits and Moscow mules.

We''re splitting up the cooking so I will be making the salad and the cake.

Yesterday, I did a Cook-a-Thon and made a big pot of veal scallopini, a fruit and nut bread, caponata, cream of leek and snap pea soup, strawberry muffins and tried a new recipe for Swedish meatballs.

Except for the cake and salad, I'm not cooking for the rest of the weekend.

No cooking for me! We're leaving this morning for the Nashville area for our youngest granddaughter's wedding tomorrow so I won't have to cook at all. Outdoor wedding, temps in the mid-90's, DH with advanced COPD so it will be a little difficult, I fear, but we'll make the best of it.

Happy Memorial Day to all and a day of remembrance.

jude

Dcarch, not to sound like I'm defending my methods or anything, that would be silly, especially to you- but I'm wondering how you slow-roast your tomatoes? I do it at 220F for 2-3 hours and they come out dried but still plump, not watery at all.

This is Graduation Weekend in this part of the world....I am cooking up a turkey and a breast and making a sandwich thing for a friend's sons party....potting plants today...have stuff at church tomorrow...
Not as busy as some years....busier than others. Sweet corn at $.17? Wonder what 3rd world country that comes from?

Seagrass....he owes you one!....think maybe a weekend...at least a weekend at an all inclusive resort of your choosing!

lindac wrote "Sweet corn at $.17? Wonder what 3rd world country that comes from?"

The stores here in Minnesota have been selling sweet corn from Georgia and Florida for a couple of weeks now.

lindac - I have a question for you. What exactly do you get out of making a dig like that at dcarch? It just does not seem to serve a useful or informational purpose that is food related.

I am simply asking because I am not understanding that line of thinking. Especially given the fact that Georgia/Florida corn has been a norm in stores this time of the years for years.

Thank you,
Teresa

Corn here too, 10 for $1.00 at a local market that sells a lot of organic foods, although I don't think the corn is organic. The produce manager says it's from California. Probably something simple on the grill and grilled zucchini. We went to a graduation party yesterday - I'm ready for simple the rest of the weekend.

Lee - yum! Now I need to run out and buy some corn - I don't care if it is from California, Florida, or Genovia!

I just ate fresh strawberries from my garden. Granted there were only 9 of them, but so delicious. Fort Laramie and Tri-Star. The Fort Laramie produces two crops per season and the Tri-Star will produce fruit all summer.

Have a happy and safe Memorial weekend!
Teresa

I didn't have any plans so I invited a friend over for dinner on Sunday.

I am going to faux grill (my handy grill pan) some salmon. I'll serve it with mango salsa and fresh vegetable rolls, a recipe for Rollitos Silvestres I found in a grocery store magazine. The dipping sauce is molasses, lime juice, maple syrup, soy sauce, and olive oil. The rolls are made of carrot, cukes, mango (I may sub something else for this because of the mango salsa), cilantro, almonds or cashews, mint, bean sprouts, wrapped in spinach leaves and tied with chives.

I haven't decided on another side. Perhaps a savory brown rice dish. Corn is a natural.

I love real grilled food but I'm not a good grill cook. :(

E

LindaC "---Sweet corn at $.17? Wonder what 3rd world country that comes from? ---"

I assume you are joking.

Speaking of joking, Jenny, I was only teasing you. Looking back at my post, the little smiley face I put behind the sentence never showed up.

I have 75 tomato plants in my garden this year. I use and cook tomatoes in all different ways; roasted , baked, stewed, fried, stir fried, ---- sauce, juice, powdered, paste, leather ------
There is no wrong way to eat home-grown tomatoes.

Slow roasted semi-ripe tomatoes on pizza is one of my favorite ways.

dcarch

Dcarch, I truly wasn't offended, we all have our preferences. Just wondering if there's a better way, that's all. No need for smileys with me- I consider you a friend. And you make me laugh when you say I know more about vegetables than you do! Just returned from the party and my salad was a hit with the (very) few brave souls who tried it. It was very tiresome explaining couscous to these people. Where have they been?

Hey Jenny, later spring/early summer is fresh corn and water melons.

Have you tried to use watermelon rind in dishes?

I will be making something with it this weekend.

dcarch

Dcarch, I haven't yet but have been meaning to. It will be fun to see what you come up with. I wanted to say to you all, as someone who often offends without meaning to, that I don't think Lindac meant anything by that remark. We all say things that get taken the wrong way sometimes. I will stop hijacking this thread now and stuff my face with lettuce. Sometimes the only way for me to stop feeling so full is to eat something light. Happy memorial day.

dcarch - How was your 17 cent corn? I also saw it for 17 cents (Shop Rite) but ended up buying it for 24 cents (Fairway) and was surprised that it really was quite reasonable. Certainly not local July/August corn, but not bad at all for off season.

Aside from that my only cooking this weekend was baked stuffed lobster last night. At $6.99/lb, I couldn't pass up the opportunity. So I bought the smallest one they had, a 3-pounder, split it in two and stuffed each half with the claw meat, sea scallops and shrimp. I kept the stuffing light (relatively) and simple and IMO it was the best I've made to date.

Sweet corn here is from Florida and it was not bad at 20 cents an ear. I put an ear in the microwave. It was 95f here yesterday, 91F the day before and we had a three day yard sale thursday, Friday and Saturday, so no cooking then either.

I didn't cook one darned thing this weekend except pancakes for Bud and Makayla, who spent the weekend. Other than that we ate ice cream and cold sandwiches and the kids ran through the sprinkler while I planted artichokes and tomatoes and took a break every five minutes to stand in the sprinkler! I have two flats of tomatoes at the farm, that's 96 plants, a mix of Rutgers and Bonny Best. Here in my raised beds at the house I've limited myself to two of each variety I planted except the white tomatoes. I planted two Cherokee Purple, although they never do particularly well. Also two Pineapple, two Big Rainbow, two Golden Jubilee, two SunGold, two Mortgage lifter and a dozen of the as yet unidentified "white" tomato. Mother saved seeds from last year, I bought a container of tomato plants from the 4H kids last year that were simply labelled "white". They were one of the best tomatoes I've ever eaten, so this year I have a dozen plants, LOL. I think they may be White Queen or something similar, a beefsteak type tomato.

I started two dozen artichokes inside about March, no one I know in Michigan has ever grown artichokes successfully so of course I have to try.

I don't have air conditioning and the pool isn't quite clean yet, so it was way too hot to cook, even outside. Too hot to eat too.

Annie

FOAS, your stuffed lobster sounds wonderful. Perfect ending to a holiday weekend.

Annie, white tomatoes....I've never even heard of them. Are they a low acid type? I thought about you this weekend with the heat.

We had friends over on Sunday for a cook out. We marinated chicken breasts and cooked them on the charcoal grill. The rest of the menu ended up rather retro. Potato salad, deviled eggs, an orange pineapple cottage cheese salad, baked beans and banana cream pie. It was good and I ate too much.
I spent the rest of my free time weeding and planting my flower beds and deck planters. Still have some to finish up.

Nancy

I found white California corn for 17 cents a piece. I'm in California. It was very fine.

I ended up winging a pineapple salsa which we deemed delicious.

half of a pineapple, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 orange, peeled and diced
1 small bunch of green onions, finely chopped
a large handful of cilantro, chopped
juice of one lime
a splash of rice vinegar
a scant 1/2 teaspoon of chipotle powder
a scant 1/2 teaspoon of cumin seeds, ground in my mortar pestle

Served the salsa over wild caught salmon. I made veggie rolls: spinach leaves wrapped around matchstick slices of carrot, mango, and yellow bell pepper with mint, cilantro, and cashews - tied with a green onion. I liked the dipping sauce of molasses, lime, olive oil, soy sauce, maple syrup, and olive oil. My dinner guest did not. It was too molasses-y for her. I liked it enough to tweak it for another time. More lime juice, less molasses.

I sauteed the corn kernels I cut from the cob in butter and chili lime seasoning. A few blue corn chips and a bottle of Chardonnay rounded it out.

Eileen

Blech, we've got the hot temps too Annie! (In Ontario)
In the history of taking records, since the early 1900's, we set a record yesterday; 33C (91F)
Starting tomorrow, it's supposed to get to normal again 21C or 70F.

Wow Annie! That is a LOT of tomatoes!

I limited my self this year - 1 Mortgage Lifter, 2 Golden Jubilee, 1 Sun Gold and 1 Yellow Pear. That will keep me in BLT's and salads for weeks.

Cooking was hit and miss. I made the appys I mentioned in the firsts post, we ate cold sandwiches and leftovers most of the weekend, and yesterday I made the Mexican Brown Rice casserole I mentioned in the Nesco thread. Good eating, but too hot to really enjoy much of anything!

Tomato plants are almost 2 feet tall here already!

Alexa

Tomatoes plants here aren't two feet, but they're at least a foot, way earlier than I ever remember them being.

I can a lot of tomatoes, make RobinKate's tomato marmalade, can salsa, make Chase/Sharon's chili sauce. Sometimes I can homemade catsup too, it takes a LOT of tomatoes, plus Amanda cans tomatoes and Mother is 79, I don't think she should have to hoe tomatoes and so I grow some for her. Stepmom is 80, she has to have some. So, I garden for the whole darned family, I guess.

Nancy, the white tomatoes aren't low acid, and they are a meaty beefsteak type tomato with few seeds. They turn a lovely cream color when ripe and taste vaguely like tropical fruit, maybe pineapple or mango, they're very sweet. More high sugar than low acid. I think they may be White Queen or White Beauty, this is the description I found for that tomato and it seems like the one:

"Just super sweet, really fruity flavor, like a pineapple, not bland like so many white beefsteaks. The fruit was huge - weighing in at half a pound and up. Perfect coloration, no cracks or catfacing or spots, just pure white with a bit of pink on the blossom end when super ripe. It also gets a slightly creamy yellow when very ripe. This was not only the very first large fruited tomato in my garden this season, but kept on producing all summer long up until frost."

Elery has decided that they'd make a very interesting salsa, at least in appearance, so I'm growing a bunch. I'll have to bring some up to you, payment for that lovage you brought me!

Annie

I'm not growing 'mater's this year, but we did have a BBQ of sorts yesterday. We even provided "entertainment".
First the menu- sweet white corn-- for which I paid more than $.50 each, grilled trout fillets, grilled zucchini & mushrooms, toasted lemon couscous, chicken baked with artichoke hearts, parmesan cheese and bruscetta(for DH who isn't a trout eater) and some very early and costly peaches which we grilled and topped with vanilla ice cream. I also tried a recipe in Sunday's paper for a strawberry sauce pureed with a bit of honey and water and then strained. It tasted good, but not good enough. The addition of Chambord helped, but I think next time it's back to brown sugar, butter(or ersatz) and rum.

The weather was perfect and we dined alfresco. while we were enjoying dessert, I noticed the pool water rippling. We had more guests--two raccoons! One scampered up the pool fence shortly followed by its lumbering mate. They proceeded to play and chase each other around on our lawn, not 20-30 ft away from the table. Bashful they weren't, they tussled then became amorous and scampered up a tree and down again. It was quite the "R" rated show, which his continued for at least twenty minutes!
While we've had glimpses of racoons, bunnies, coyotes and possums for years, we have never seen anything this bold before. Our guests had been curious about the local flora and fauna and were quizzing us earlier. I'm sure this is an evening they'll never forget! LOL