It’s June and cook out season has begun. To be honest, the first two cookouts I’ve been to this summer have actually taken place inside, in the air-conditioning. But you know what I mean.
[dropcap4 bgColor=”#7EB936″]I[/dropcap4] will be the first to admit I’m not crazy about most mayonaise “salads,” be it potato salad or macaroni salad. I’ve gotten less picky as an adult, but as a kid, my plate was always lacking side dishes. There’s one potluck dish though, that I always consider a score when I find it: Ambrosia. If you’ve never experienced it, I’ll tell you right now either you’ll love it or you’ll hate it. There’s no in between.
Picture this:
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- 11 oz. mandarin oranges (drained)
- 8 oz. pineapple chunks (drained)
- 1 c. mini marshmallows
- 1 c. flaked coconut
- 1 c. sour cream
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What are some of your favorite summer/ cookout foods? Do you love watermelon? Are you a fan of a particular type of potato salad? Do you have a great coleslaw recipe? You can tell me. AND you can tell me how your week is starting!
33 replies on “Monday Night Flashback: Cookout Foods”
Oh my. I have Juniper Junior perched on the back of the sofa beside me. I just pulled up P-mag and he asked where the “old red one” had gone! Oh, and tattie salad. Just basic tattie salad will keep me happy! Or for a tiny variation: yoghurt instead of mayo.
When it’s summer, I eat.
I’ve never really had a back yard, now I have a mini-porch like area. Pops says our house-warming present will be a new grill…!
‘Til then, I’m playing with inside summer cooking. So, for now: pickled cabbage (my first attempt at pickling!); raw, vegan, gluten-free lemon cookies (my first attempt at the dehydrator!); flax seed crackers (my first attempt!!! everything’s new to me!!!); kale chips…. mmmm…
We’re super italian, so we always make fettuccine salad. Â Pasta, olive oil, black olives, some kind of cured meat (usually salami), and broccoli tossed together in a huge pot. Â So good! Â I also make Oh Henry bars (Peanut butter and chocolate on a brown-sugary oatmeal base) for every picnic I go too. Â I put them in a disposable pan, because there won’t be any to take home anyway.
And questions: Â (1) Who recommended Bodyrock.tv online? Â I love it, it’s beautiful and I want to thank you, whoever you are! Â (2) Anybody else out there get a rash between your thighs when you work out, and how do you deal with it? Â Once upon a time I was in great shape, but then I got sick and my legs got kind of rub-together-y. Â I ran 4 miles last night, but things got a little uncomfortable. Â Any ideas?
You can usually find anti-chafing/rubbing stuff in outdoor stores and drugstores… or in a pinch, if you have something like Smashbox’s face primer, that works too (it’s mostly the same stuff). There’s a popular one called BodyGlide, and Monistat makes one too, so you might find it on Amazon. And of course conversely, some of them can be used as face primers (again, most of them are the same stuff).
baby powder!
I am very anti-ambrosia. I am actually pretty anti-fruit from a can. But fresh pineapple sliced and put on the grill? Yes please. Also pasta salads made with vinegar/oil based dressings (usually Italian or balsamic vinaigrette) with parmesan cheese and sliced black olives and maybe some cucumber chunked in.
I don’t like the texture of mayonnaise (or whipped cream, or sour cream) hence I cannot eat almost most of the pasta and salad dishes, but fruit salads! With honey! Pineapples, peaches, plums! And grilled fish! Grilled aubergines! Grilled salmon! Berries!!! Sometimes I dine on strawberries, and breakfast on blueberries!
I don’t know what a cook out (cooking in your garden? In the outdoors?) is but it sounds like an exciting bootcamp-like competition. The extreme version of Ready, Steady, Cook. And the recipe made me crave all the pineapple.
Garden usually. It refers to cooking outside on a grill, which can happen in a lot of places, but someone’s back yard is the most common.
What about the poor people who don’t have gardens?! I kid, I kid. This makes sense.
Baked bananas.
Also I had a dream that I was in Buffy, and guess who else was there?
Donnatella Moss!! Best dream ever.
THIS: STRAWBERRY JELLO PRETZEL SALAD!
Best dessert ever! I make special requests for it whenever I go home!
Wait a minute – this is the first time I’ve been on the site today (work was hell, and then massive cooking and cleaning needed to occur) and, just, WOW SO SHINY.
I love the new look!
Thank you! It’s not done, by a long shot, but I just made some coffee and am prepared to knock some shit out.
This really does look amazing!
I think all the small tweaks you’re doing are really starting to come together. It’s taking some getting used to (like all site changes do!), but I think it looks sleek and more inviting!
Same here! My socks, they are totally knocked off!
It’s got that new website smell… ;) Â Seriously, it looks good!
I haven’t gone to any cook outs yet this year but I have a looooong list of recipes that I want to try this summer. Including, but def not limited to:
Strawberry peach ice cream (no machine required)
Lemon blueberry yogurt loaf
Hot fudge covered strawberry doughnut pudding
P.s. add me to the pro ambrosia list.
My mind shut down after reading “Hot fudge covered strawberry doughnut pudding”. I need that in my life.
Potatoes! Â Potatoes on the grill are awesome. Â Just cut them up, put olive oil and thyme or Italian seasoning on them, and they are so good.
And I like German potato salad. Â With BACON!
Tortellini Salad!
I’ve never had ambrosia salad made with sour cream. I think my grammy makes hers with mayo and cool whip, which sounds disgusting, but works.
My go-to summer foods are pasta salad and macaroni salad. And anything on the grill is magical. I cook a lot on the grill b/c it’s fewer pots and pans I have to wash!
I love grilling Salmon.
Ooo… yes. With grilled veggies and redskin potatoes. Yum.
I always bring the same pasta salad to cookouts. I made it today, in fact. Tricolor rotini, grape tomatoes, kalamata olives, feta, grilled chicken (if everyone’s a meatatarian), and a little olive oil dressing. It’s delicious. I’m not normally a huge burger fan, except in the case of cookouts.
Great, it’s going for midnight and I want pasta salad. But I have none of the ingredients. Hmmm… maybe I’ll be going to the store after work tomorrow for supplies.
Oh man, we just cooked out tonight, too. We did salmon filets on the grill, roasted balsamic-tossed brussel sprouts on the grill, then I did a creamy dill sauce on the stove and sauteed chard with garlic scapes. Then a few slices of golden melon (like honeydew). We’ve been grilling for weeks here already. I love this season soooo much. Plus, now I’m getting to use things from the garden, too.
How did you cook your salmon? We usually rub brown sugar and soy sauce on it and wrap in foil. Totally delish!
oooh, brown sugar and soy sauce sounds delicious! last night I just did it will a little butter, then made a creamy dill sauce on the stovetop and added it post-grilling.
As of tomorrow, I can eat solid food again! WHOOOOO!
Thank you, GI doc, for calling in a scrip of Prednisone for me and not even making me have to make an appointment.
Having a doc who’ll call you in a scrip without an office visit is like magic. I have a doctor who wrote me a prescription with six refills for a medication I find myself in need of often, but always at times when an office visit is impossible, and it changed my life.
Yep! Especially as money is tight right now. He also brought that up, that there are two meds I can take, but we’ve discussed it before and one is $5 on my insurance, and the other is $50, so he asked which one I want (the $50 has slightly fewer side effects, which, when you’re talking about steroids, is kind of important). And then said that if it doesn’t get better in a few days or if it gets worse, I should call.