Memorial Day Food Ideas

Holiday meals send me scurrying to my cookbooks, favorite websites, and consultations with my valued "kitchen cabinet" for menu combinations and recipes. Memorial Day is traditionally the start of the American summer eating season.  Whether it's a picnic, a barbecue, or a pot luck, many folks celebrate Memorial Day with family and friends, eating communally and enjoying each other's company.

I've brainstormed through my list of picnic/barbecue recipes and tips to gather a few for you. If you are planning a get together, or bringing a dish to a pot luck this weekend, I hope these will spark your creative juices (pardon the pun.)  

Easy appetizers

These dips, chips and spreads are easy and you can prepare them a day or two ahead of time. You can even freeze the hummus or the goat cheese spread and defrost them on Memorial Day morning. 

• Roasted red pepper hummus
• Homemade pita chips
• Goat cheese with sun-dried tomatoes, basil and olive oil

Sides and Salads

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How to Grill Salmon

When I married my husband, he had a few “tried and true” recipes. Linguini and clam sauce, burritos, and scrambled eggs were his mainstays.  He has expanded his repertoire a bit in the decades since, thanks mainly to our Weber kettle grill. The imperial “we” use the barbecue year round, even in the rain and occasionally when it is snowing. 

Although his burgers are amazing, my absolute favorite husband-prepared dinner is grilled fish and vegetables. When it comes to grilling at our house, I am the sous-chef. Scampering around to find ingredients or to fetch the right size plate, I watch with admiration as he moves the coals, places the food on the grill, and watches over it.

Recently I asked the grill-master to distill his technique with salmon into some useful tips for a beginner. The result is this 5-step guide.  Although I can’t promise that your salmon will taste as good as his, you’ll have a good start toward making an incredible and healthy grilled dinner.

5-Steps to Incredible Grilled Salmon 

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Tuna-Stuffed Tomatoes

I didn't grow up to be a tea-sandwiches-with-the-crusts-cut-off kind of gal.  In fact, in high school, my standard sassy line to my own mother whenever she (frequently) got on my nerves was a question about whether she really wanted me to be just like Tricia Nixon, sitting primly at a ladies tea eating white bread sandwiches with the crusts cut off. Fast forward a few decades and here I am, happily cutting off the crusts for tea sandwiches for a baby shower for the daughter of one of my close friends. 

The menu for the shower was tea party foods. I volunteered to make tea sandwiches (of course) and small scones, along with lemon mousse. Although there were several types of sandwiches, I felt as though the menu needed a colorful, vegetable-based dish.

The stuffed tomatoes idea came to me as I strolled down the produce aisle and realized that Campari tomatoes are the perfect size for stuffing – big enough to easily hollow out, but not so big that the stuffing would be an overwhelming amount of food. Campari tomatoes are bigger than cherry tomatoes and smaller than regular ones. They are typically sold on a stem, in a hard shell plastic box.  As you can see, they are slightly larger than a large-size egg.

This recipe is gluten and dairy-free, a simple but elegant brunch, lunch, or tea-time dish.  

Tuna-Stuffed Tomatoes

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