What will you cook this Memorial Day weekend?

I’m thinking of making french fries from scratch (my very first time). Some kind of seafood (a whole roast fish?) And a birthday cake for Diana, whose birthday is on Sunday. What are your plans, loyal readers?

36 thoughts on “What will you cook this Memorial Day weekend?”

  1. Tonight I’ll make chicken enchiladas, with crimini, spinach, chicken and Swiss cheese in the filling. The enchiladas then get smothered in a sauce of roasted chilies, sour cream and stock, topped with more Swiss cheese and dotted with taco sauce. Bake til browned! To drink – watermelon margeritas – my first time trying those! I may try a grilled pizza for the first time ever too, with some grilled corn on the side.

  2. My boyfriend’s birthday is on Sunday as well so I’m making creamy mac and cheese at request(with Tillamook of course!… we’re in Oregon) and an ice cream cake filled with homemade oreos.

  3. Yo AG, make sure you “double fry” the fries… seems to help quite a bit. Bourdain has a good recipe for this that he uses with his steak frites (or used to, when he worked in a restaurant)… I can’t find it online though. Most decent recipes will probably call for the double frying approach. have fun!

  4. I am working on a menu for a cook-out right now. So far I have veggie kebabs(Moosewood), lentil & couscous salad (epicurious), chickpea & red pepper salad (Deborah Madison), melon & cucumber with a lime vinaigrette (ditto), cheese phyllo pies (epicurious), dulce de leche brownies (a la AG), lime bars (MS Everyday Food) with strawberries with beer and sangria (MS) to drink. We’re vegetarian so we asked our guests to bring their own meat. Is that strange? I am sure Anthony Bourdain would have a heyday with this one . . . selfish, stupid vegetarians.

  5. I don’t know Angela, I think if the vegetarians were drinking heavily enough, Bourdian would be just fine… :)

  6. I’ll be serving Mac and Cheese (Velveeta recipe) with Pringles fat free chips on Saturday and Sunday we’re going to Burger King !!!!!!! Can’t wait !!!!!!!! ( Oh, and those red/white/blue popsicles for dessert, since it’s a holiday):)

    ( Just kidding…..couldn’t resist ) :0

  7. We’re moving this weekend so most like pizza and some Mike’s Hard Lemonade. I’ll be too beat to cook anything :P

  8. I am planning on some basil turkey burgers with chili sweet potato fries(and some gewurztraminer to accompany). For my oven fries: toss sweet potato slices in chili powder, roast @ 400 degrees until done(start watching closely after about 30 mins, so they don’t turn to mush). Squeeze fresh lime juice over the fries right out of the oven and EAT!

    Have a great weekend, AG, and good luck on your meal!

  9. I started my holiday weekend cooking Friday afternoon, giving a final salute to winter dishes: Mark Bittman’s short ribs with prunes (and dried figs)and Martha’s friend’s mother’s fast version chicken soup w/matzo balls (from the back of Streit’s matzo meal box–perfection!). Later today I’ll pan fry a “split” fresh porgie that I bought at Citerella on 125th–for $1.99 a pound, a special promotion worth heading up there for!

    Tomorrow we’ll head down the block to Amy Ruth’s for the best five-grain waffles (w/ or w/out the fried chicken and whiting).

    No BBQ in sight.

  10. I’m making kimchee for the first time. I’ll be grilling burgers made from home-ground beef. Okay, actually food-processed (Alton Brown’s Burger of the Gods recipe). To be served on homemade buns. I like to go all out for the first cheeseburgers of the season.

    Sangria to go with.

    For another meal, there will be shrimp, jicama, and mango salad. And I’ll probably make some cantalope sorbet to go with it.

    Those sweet potato chili fries sound pretty good – I’ll have to try that.

  11. I’m visiting friends in Boston, so brought the cookbooks along to pore over–haven’t made a choice yet. For now, I stopped off at a great Italian deli for cheese, olives and bread for a mid-afternoon snack.

    AG, the recipe in Cooks Illustrated for the “perfect pommes frites” (or something over the top like that), also touts the double-frying method. Recipe also includes a toss in cornstarch–something about getting crispier outside while remaining tender inside. Good luck! We await the results. :)

  12. We’re having tamales with tomatillo guacamole along with cactus margaritas one day and the next, onion rings with porcini dust in the batter along with fiddle head soup with an onion flan base.

  13. everydayfoodie

    We’re having friends over on Monday for a southwestern-inspired porch dinner party. We’ll start with grilled green Hatch chile quesadillas and tomato-corn salsa. I live in Texas and we eat chiles all year long thanks to our freezers. The main course is Chili Rubbed Beef Tenderloin with Marscapone Poblano Sauce (Paula Lambert, Cheese Glorious Cheese), a recipe I’ve been dying to try for a while. It’s beef tenderloin rubbed with a spice mixture, roasted, and smothered with a poblano and marscapone sauce.

    To go with the beef I’m trying a Latin Risotto (Food Network), Spicy Black Beans, and blue corn or home-made flour tortillas on the side. For dessert I’m trying a blender chocolate mousse recipe (Bon Appetite) served in martini glasses.

  14. I’ve made fries (and onion rings) before but I bake them. 425 degrees for 25 minutes or so. MMMMM.

    This weekend, I think I’ll actually be making pizzas..a white pizza and a margherita pizza. I might serve them with an antipasto salad and garlic knots.

    For dessert, I’ll make ice-cream sandwiches. Chocolate chip cookies, vanilla ice cream, and the sides coated in mini chocolate chips. Yum.

  15. I know for sure that my dad’s making vegetable soup for dinner tonight…it’s kind of grey and rainy down here in Houston, so it seemed appropriate. No idea what we’re doing tomorrow or Monday, but I’m sure it’ll be good.

  16. While I don’t have an outdoor grill, I did buy brautwurst to make sometime this weekend, alongside the fixings to make homemade potato salad.

    Tonight we had a delicious, full-sized salade compose, in the style of a “chef-salad.”

    Check out my blog for the details… and photos.

    messycuisine.com

  17. I just watched a Tivo’s episode of “America’s Test Kitchen” so I think I will try their Pepper Crusted Sirloin in a Port-Cherry-Balsamic Reduction sauce. Yum.

  18. O.k. Here’s the way to make the best fries. Get yourself some large Idaho baking potatoes. Some will think no, but, yes. Baking potatoes. Peel and slice evenly into sticks. There’s a gadget for this, but if your knife skills are good, you should be fine. Place the sticks into ice water with plenty of kosher salt. Soak for at least an hour and add more ice about every 15 to 20 minutes, depending on how warm your apartment is. Don’t hold them in the salt water for any longer than three hours, they break down after that.

    Now comes the fun part. Heat peanut or grapeseed oil to about 350. Take out one potatoes worth of sticks at a time and dry them totally. I use a kitchen towel and then spot dry with a couple of paper towels. Add to the hot oil. Par-cook for 3 minutes. Remove from the oil and put on a paper towel or kitchen towel covered baking sheet. Do this in batches. When you’ve finished par-cooking, turn the heat up to 400 or 425. Again, you’ll do this in batches. (We don’t need no stinking batches. Yes, we do). You’ll notice the potatoes puffing up in the oil. This is good, this is what you want. Fry them to your preference. About 2-3 minutes should give you the fries of your dreams. Have your oven at 350 to keep the potatoes nice and warm. Use a new baking sheet for this. As you finish each batch, place on baking sheet and keep hot in oven. You should have nice crispy, puffy fries now.

    I like to finish the fries with some good sea salt, freshly ground black pepper and honestly, organic ketchup. But mayo or garlic mayo is good too.

  19. Grilling Copper River Salmon. Bought a geoduck clam, morels, porcinis, aspargus that are going to fit in somewhere. Almond Butter Cake with greek yogurt for dessert.

  20. WE ARE HAVING SLOW COOKED PORK RIBS, WITH MY SPECAIL SAUCE, FRENCH BREAD, MASHED POTATOES(CREAM CHEESE STYLE) & A WHOLE LOT OF EACHOTHER FOR DESERT! HAVE A GOOD WEEKEND EVERYBODY

  21. Absolutely nothing! I’m visiting your neck of the woods so I’m doing nothing but eating out. At lest I’m looking for the cheap-o places!

  22. Lasagna from “Chez Panisse: Pasta, Pizza & Calzone.” Nice slow-cooked sauce from scratch with pork bones.

    Happy Memorial Day

  23. No grill, not even on the fire escape…so, baby back ribs, slow-cooked in the oven with a cumin-chili-garlic rub and then glazed for a quick broil with espresso-laced barbecue sauce; creamy, crunch-topped baked mac ‘n’ cheese w/4 cheeses, and greens — collards and mustards with bacon, garlic and red pepper. It’s my first time making greens for my southern-raised husband.

  24. I didn’t expect to be cooking anything, but I am picnicking today on an organic farm with friends. I convinced them to make a couscous salad instead of pasta salad (yuck), and I made Asian cucumbers with seaweed/sesame sprinkles, rice vinegar, etc.; steamed green beans with vinaigrette and toasted pecans; some hard boiled eggs, and no-knead bread.

    Oh, and for dinner I’m making myself strawberry shortcake (with poundcake this time).

  25. Steak, baked potatoes, warm bread. We will probably cook some sausage for the week since the grill will be fired up. We cook only with charoal here.

  26. We bbq’d sirloin burgers on Friday night; bone-in, skin-on (and yes, we did eat the skin) chicken breasts, zucchini/squash and artichokes on Saturday night; yesterday (Sunday) was a bbq at my mom’s and we brought a vinegary slaw as our contribution but ate fantastic tri-tip, baked beans, garlic bread and potato salad (thanks mom!-potato salad courtesy of my sister Mari-thanks for that too! I love that stuff and yes, we did finish all the leftovers later that night); and today is a bbq at my g/friends house. We are bringing a bottle of wine (Bogle Petite Syrah-2003), chipolte lime spinach dip (courtesy of Wednesday’s NY Times food section) and the mint and simply syrup for mojitos (not sure what the main course will be). I just LOVE holiday weekends: good food, good booze and good friends and family-what more could anyone ask for!

  27. for me and my boyfriend, who ran out of propane for the grill recently, i will be cooking mark bitman’s recipe for inside out lamburgers, with ground lamb, some garlic, little cumin and parsley, with mozzarella tucked inside the patty (cooked in a pan, unfortunately). mark bitman is my hero.

  28. HAPPY MEMORIAL WEEKEND EVERYONE ! Sissy & I will be grilling fajitas w onions & peppers, sausage and spicy corn on the cob. With that also serving mexican rice & pintos beans. Sides are pico de gallo and 3 cold salads: cucumber, marcaroni & peas & cheese. For desert, key lime cream pie. and for smiles….rum daiquiris: pineapple & orange juice, grenadine or cherry kool aid (sweetened)7 up and rum….mix & measure to your liking. Perfect company while your floating around in the pool….yum !

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