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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Soda Bread – Traditional & Irish-American

Before this week, I didn't realize that Sister Mary’s Irish Soda Bread is not Irish, it's Irish-American.  I adore the rich and raisin-filled bread, and I've usually made it (or a close approximation) each year as St. Patrick's Day rolls around.

I do fondly remember eating earthy, unsweetened brown bread when my family traveled to Ireland about 15 years ago.  We called it "brown bread" and let it go at that.  I had no idea that the thick hand-cut slices I devoured in every pub, restaurant, and B&B we visited is, in fact, traditional, 4-ingredient Irish soda bread. 

My newfound understanding is courtesy of Steve Webb and his delightful American Food Roots essay on making traditional soda bread.  Since reading his essay a few days ago, I've found lots of recipes and references for the traditional type, and from now on, I won't mistake the Irish-American version for traditional soda bread.

While they are wholly different in texture and taste, both types are easy to make and quick to bake, with no yeast, rising, or prolonged kneading required in either case.  When I raise a glass of Guinness Stout or Harp Lager this weekend on St. Patty's Day, I'll toast them both - Viva La Difference!

I've already given you my husband's family recipe for Irish-American soda bread.  Here is my take on the traditional Irish version.

Because it has only 4 ingredients (whole wheat or white flour, baking soda, salt, and buttermilk), there are limited variations on the traditional Irish soda bread.  I used King Arthur “white whole wheat” as a compromise between whole wheat, which I find too heavy, and white flour, which seemed like a cop-out to me.  The result was quite pleasant, wheaty but not overwhelmingly so.

Traditional Irish Soda Bread - 2 small loaves or 1 large loaf

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Layered Vegetable Paté

When it comes to party appetizers, I go for glitz.  Layers, garnish, a nice platter, fancy serving knife implement - I’m all about presentation.  (Remember the caviar pie?)  Especially on New Year’s Eve, party food should look elegant. 

I tried the original version of this vegetable paté several months ago.  It was lovely but plain, nice but not a “wow”  in my book.  This layered version adds color and flavor.  The layers hold together because you mold them and then refrigerate the finished paté for several hours.  The end result pleases the eye as well as the palate.

Many chefs and others I respect wax poetic over how much better home-cooked dry beans are than canned ones.  (Joe Yonan, when I make your dishes I do try to cook dry beans, honest, I do.)  But for this recipe, I used canned beans - with the other flavorings and the processing step that mashes the whole beans, I don't think it made a difference.

If you hate cleaning up, then this recipe should appeal to you; the loaf pan doesn’t get dirty and you can use the food processer twice without cleaning it in between by processing the cannellini or alubias bean mixture before the kidney beans.

Layered Vegetable Paté

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