Memorial Day 2017

Even the kitty cat slept in on Memorial Day.

So here’s the plan.

We had a nice little driveway party on Sunday, and we finally lucked out with the weather. I only took a pic of my beer; Megan got the best shot of one of the neighbor kids running down the driveway to the party. Friends and neighbors and our exchange student and a couple of her girl friends, between 15 and 18 people, depending on how you count the three little kids.

I thawed out 2 packs of Costco organic ground beef, what was left of a something like 28-pack of kosher dogs that I bought at Christmas, and a carton of vegetarian chili I made sometime in the winter.  I made cheese-stuffed sliders, some with cheddar, and some with cheese curds, basically this recipe that I had used before. And grilled the dogs and served them with the chili for topping. I also made a really good noodle salad, soba noodles, cubes of pre-cooked teriyaki tofu, radishes from my CSA box, and cucumbers, cilantro, scallions, and mint from the Farmers Market.Topped with peanuts and scallions.  A recent Bon Appetit had a guide to noodle salads, 8 oz. noodles and 8 oz. protein to 4 cups vegetables and dressing of your choice. My dressing was leftovers of this one from the Pioneer Woman (that I had used on a not very successful slaw back around the time of John’s birthday, but come to think of it, I probably have everything to make a bigger and better batch later this week) mixed with some peanut sauce that I made to go with the satay at Feast Forward, gosh just a month ago, seems like forever.

Desserts were what I was originally thinking of as rhubarb trifle, but it turned out more like what I would call rhubarb ice box cake, very solid, and what I am calling Martha’s “Less-slutty Brownies”. The components of the trifle/icebox cake were Victoria sponge for the cake, a pastry cream recipe that I got from King Arthur that turned out really thick ( did not fold in the whipped cream), lemon curd, and rhubarb puree. The original slutty brownies can be made from all pre-packaged ingredients, for true sluttiness. I never made them that way – but the one time I made them, I used a more from-scratch version. Martha’s are “Less-slutty” because there’s no layer of Oreos.

For snacks, I put out this Sriracha Gouda that I just love, even though I have to buy it from Whole Foods because the co-op doesn’t carry it, and a half log of goat cheese with American Spoon onion jam on top, and crackers. At the last minute I put out a bowl of little heirloom tomatoes from the Farmers Market and the kids devoured them. Originally I planned to make a sheet spinach quiche for another appetizer, since a recipe for that came with my CSA box, based on Smitten Kitchen’s – but instead the quiche was Monday breakfast.

My version has sauteed spinach & arugula, mushrooms (mixed white and Matt Smith’s shitakes, that I sliced and fried to go on burgers at the party), feta and leftover goat cheese & onion jam, and of course my crust, neither Smitten’s nor Lauren’s (nor Pillsbury’s).