Food on Friday ~ Memorial Day
one of sour, two of sweet, three of strong, and four of weak
And that’s how to make Planters’ Rum Punch, an Englishman’s preferred drink to go along with a summer barbecue. The strong is Caribbean Dark Rum, (or try Woods 100), and the sour is fresh lime juice. You can guess the rest ~ (simple syrup and iced water).
Well now, this coming Monday, the 28th of May, is Memorial Day in the USA. It’s also the Spring Bank Holiday here in Great Britain. For some of us this is the first real day of summer, more or less ~ although the weather in most of England and America hasn’t been very summery of late.
Particularly in the USA, this coming Monday is the time to clean the cobwebs of that old barbecue, dust down the patio furniture, invite some friends overs, and hang out in the yard eating, drinking, and shooting the shit breeze.
So, for this week’s Food on Friday I’m going to feature stuff that goes well with kicking back outdoors.
I know a very nice American girl who really likes cilantro and lime. So, first to the BBQ this week is Jessica Merchant from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and her blog How Sweet Eats. Jessica has this cool recipe for Cilantro Lime Flank Steak, and while it will only take you 20 minutes to cook in the broiler, you need to start marinading the steak on Sunday. Make plenty and take the leftovers to work on Tuesday, (if there are any leftovers).
Cilantro Lime Flank Steak
From San Diego we have the sunshine girl Averie with her Grilled Steak Kabobs, (funny we call these things kebabs in England). You will want a good top sirloin steak for these rich looking skewers. Again, these will cook very fast on the grill, but you want to allow at least 4 hours for the marinade to work.
Grilled Steak Kabobs
If you don’t like steak, then what about these Honey BBQ Chicken Kabobs from Chungah at Damn Delicious. Again this dish will only take you 20 minutes to cook on the grill, but you need to allow a couple of extra hours for the marinade to do its work. Looks tasty to me.
Honey BBQ Chicken Kabobs
To go with all this meat you’re going to cook on your freshly cleaned BBQ, you’re going to need some salad, and from Andrea at Cooking with a Wallflower, we have this good looking dish; Avocado Corn Caprese Salad, dressed with a honey balsamic vinaigrette. Looks so delicious and refreshing.
Avocado Corn Caprese Salad
From the Californian White on Rice couple we have a very different Grilled Romaine and Corn Salad, something you can make on your BBQ in under half an hour ~ while you’re grilling your other vegetables too. (If you’re cooking any vegetables…)
Grilled Romaine & Corn Salad
I know that most of you like the recipe collections I feature, and here’s another one. From Olive magazine we have the 32 Best Ever BBQ Recipes to help you enjoy the sunshine this coming Memorial Day. I particularly like this very quick and easy recipe for Miami-Style Blackened Fish Sandwich with Smoked Paprika Mayo ~ ready in just 20 minutes. Me, I’d use salmon, tuna, or swordfish to make a really top-notch blackened fish sandwich.
Miami-Style Blackened Fish Sandwich with Smoked Paprika Mayo
Should you want to make a dessert for your guests, then Elise Bauer at Simply Recipes has found us a collection of 9 Crowd-Pleasing Desserts for Your Memorial Day Party. I particularly like the look of this Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt Cake recipe by Cindy Rahe.
Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt Cake
And finally this Friday, for those of us who aren’t content just to suck back beers, we have another collection from Wide Open Eats, 20 Best Big Batch Cocktails for Backyard BBQs and Lazy Sundays. As a very practiced consumer of alcoholic beverages I particularly like the look of this Pitcher Hurricane Cocktail. this recipe is to make a gallon of the stuff. Personally I’d just tip in a whole bottle of both dark rum and light rum, (and I’d also miss out the metrosexual umbrellas), but that’s me for you.
Pitcher Hurricane Cocktail
~
jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
the English version of Memorial Day is observed on Remembrance Sunday, as near as possible to November 11th
It’s a solemn occasion.
Food on Friday # 32 ~ BBQ
When an average Englishman has a BBQ he usually makes a mess of it ~ unless he’s roasting a whole animal on a spit. (I can’t even spell barbecue without looking it up.). However, I know the rest of the English-speaking world likes to have a BBQ, so here are some ‘cool’ recipes for things to ‘throw on the barbie’ (as our Antipodean Cousins would have it).
(All men think they can grill a great steak ~ so no steak recipes here.)
We start today with a recipe from the lovely Averie Sunshine at Averie Cooks. Normally I would go a long way to avoid chicken wings of any description, but these baked spicy barbecue chicken wings look very appetising.
Baked Spicy Barbecue Chicken Wings
For me this is a fabulous dish from Real Simple ~ lobster tails with cilantro butter.
Lobster Tails With Cilantro Butter
From Chungah, (aka Damn Delicious), I can offer you these easy Korean short ribs, which are a 10 minute recipe… So maybe my friend from Orange County will like this dish…Personally I like my short ribs pretty well done…
Easy Korean Short Ribs
I don’t think we can do a feature on BBQ without one burger, at least, so from Pittsburgh girl Jessica, (How Sweet It Is), we have this bbq havarti burger with curly sweet potato fries. (I had to look up Havarti, turns out it’s a soft cheese… well there you go.)
BBQ Havarti Burger With Curly Sweet Potato Fries
This looks nice from Heather Christo, bbq turkey with blackberry jalapeno sauce ~ my friend from Southern California may like this too, I know she loves jalapeno chillies.
BBQ Turkey With Blackberry Jalepeno Sauce
This HAS to be my favourite recipe this week. Until I saw this from Tieghan Gerard, I had never heard of cooking on a BBQ grill by placing the food on a cedar plank. But, now I’ve seen this cedar plank salmon with watermelon feta salsa from Teighan’s site Half Baked Harvest, this is something I must try the next time I’m in California ~ that’s if my friend will let me. As I said, I’m an Englishman, and my friend knows I’m terrible at a BBQ.
Cedar Plank Salmon with Watermelon Feta Salsa
Australians do like to barbecue. Ros from the Perth Hills in Western Australia, (aka Cooking Up The Pantry), has a nice and easy recipe for barbecued prawns with smoky chipotle butter. Two greatingredients in this recipe are the garlic, (add more), and the smoked paprika, (be careful), my friend in Orange County likes both of those…
Barbecued Prawns With Smoky Chipotle Butter
I’m pretty certain Petra, (Food Eat Love), is a London girl, but she can cook. Here’s her barbecue with quinoa salad and refreshing coconut water drinks. (You know what? I’ve never eaten quinpa ~ I must get out more).
Barbecue With Quinoa Salad And Refreshing Coconut Water Drinks
At a barbecue most people will drink beer. But, given that I’m no longer allowed booze, here’s a refreshing alternative; fresh mint limeade from Jessica at how sweet it is. I have to try this.
Fresh Mint Limeade
Thank you to all the cooks featured in this week’s Food on Friday.
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
JackCollier7 
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