Memorial Day
605 recipes found
Hard Lemonade
This recipe is far removed from the spiked six packs of yore. The cocktail’s hard lemon base is a combination of fresh lemon juice, vodka or limoncello, simple syrup and a pinch of flaky sea salt. The salt serves to enhance, balance and brighten, while a final topping of bubbly soda water lengthens and elevates. When choosing between vodka or limoncello, follow your palate. Vodka offers a more straightforward flavor. The limoncello variation is sweeter — though nothing approaching cloying — and a bit more complex.
Lemon Bars With Pecan Crust
Lemon bars, with their buttery shortbread crust and their tart-as-you-like curd, have become one of the great American desserts ubiquitous to the 20th century cookery canon. These have a little twist with a rich pecan short crust, making them just a bit more well-rounded, the toasty nuttiness serving as a counterbalance to the tart lemon zing. While there are some official notations of its origins in print — most notably in the Chicago Tribune in 1962 — it remains one of those desserts that has seemingly lived in the hearts of modern Americans for as long as we can remember. As a friendly harbinger of spring and a favorite for every summertime cookout or picnic or backyard hang, these bright bites are a great option to make ahead; chilling them overnight makes them easy to cut and sugar right before you plan to serve or carry them to your festivities. For all these reasons and more, lemon bars will likely keep their rightful place as a great American standard for many years to come.
Lemon-Blackberry Shortcakes
Berry season is the time for shortcakes, a classic dessert with berries, whipped cream and freshly baked sconelike biscuits. Here, a bit of sweet-tart lemon curd, prepared up to a week in advance and perfect with blackberries, makes these particularly special. Serve these assembled, on individual dessert plates, or, if you prefer, set out all the elements for guests to build their own.
Paprika-Rubbed Pork Chops
A marinade based on salt, sugar, ground coriander and various red-pepper powders infuses these easily pan-cooked chops. Double or triple the marinade for use on any fish, fowl, meat or vegetables (eggplant is especially nice). These chops can also be prepared on the grill. They cook quickly – 2 minutes on each side – over medium-high heat. Take care, though: Loin chops are quite lean and become tough and dry when cooked over high heat.
Turmeric Potato Salad
This French-style vinaigrette potato salad, infused with Indian flavors and finished with a tadka built on cumin and mustard seeds in oil, is a delicious picnic side, with or without the lettuce cups. Choose small, yellow-fleshed potatoes, such as Yukon, and top them with cherry tomatoes, sliced scallions, chiles and cilantro for a bright, perky and robust accompaniment to summer.
7Up Sheet Cake
This old-fashioned Southern dessert, commonly seen at potlucks, church picnics and family barbecues, is a true center-of-the-table cake. Part lemon cake, part sheet cake, it uses 7Up in two ways: first, for moisture and, second, for leavening, replacing traditional leaveners, such as baking soda or baking powder. The carbonation in the soda helps the cake rise and keeps it tender. (If you don’t have 7Up, you can also use Sprite.) While this cake is traditionally made in a Bundt pan, this recipe uses a half sheet tray, which is perfect for feeding a crowd.
Pimento Cheese Dip
This take on pimento cheese dip, a Southern favorite, brings together three cheeses (cream cheese, Cheddar and Colby Jack), mildly sweet pimentos and spicy hot sauce, then goes into the oven until deeply creamy. You could pair it with some crostini, but buttery Ritz crackers are especially good for scooping. They double down on this spread’s richness and make the dip irresistible enough to be a conversation piece for generations to come.
Oven BBQ Ribs
Oven-baked ribs are a great way to enjoy barbecue flavor without stepping outside. This is a foolproof, supersimple recipe, using seasonings you probably already have in your pantry, plus store-bought barbecue sauce that caramelizes into a sticky-sweet, smoky finish. Instead of using traditional pork ribs, this recipe uses beef back ribs, which are juicier. If you can only find them in chunks, rather than a whole rack, that’s more than OK: Wrap the pieces in aluminum foil, which creates a moist environment that yields fall-off-the-bone meat, and start checking them early. When they start to shrink down and the meat pulls away from the bone with the gentlest tug of a fork, they’re ready.
Grilled Chicken Legs
The best grilled chicken smells like summer. To achieve that charred aroma, you want to crisp the skin while cooking the meat through and keeping it juicy. Setting oil-slicked meat over direct, moderate heat and covering the grill prevents flare-ups, which can burn the skin before the meat loses its rawness. Because fire lends its own flavor, the chicken really doesn’t need anything more than salt and pepper, but if you want a little sweetness, savoriness and spice, you can brush on the simple soy glaze toward the end of cooking. As it heats, it caramelizes onto the skin and seeps into the meat. A final swipe of sauce over the chicken after it’s off the grill gives it a sticky shine.
Double Strawberry Shortcakes
With fresh berries in both the filling and the biscuits, these strawberry shortcakes double up on the fruit, making them especially juicy. To keep the shortcakes from turning soggy, the berries are briefly macerated before baking, which keeps them from weeping into the pastry. Poppy seeds add a slight nutty crunch, but you can leave them out if you prefer. Bake the shortcakes up to eight hours ahead, but, for the best texture, don’t layer them with the cream and berries until serving.
Strawberry Cream Cheese Tart
Briefly simmering fresh strawberries in a light sugar syrup before baking them into a tart keeps the berries plump and juicy and the crust from becoming soggy. Here, the syrupy berries are layered with a cream cheese filling and baked on a sheet of store-bought puff pastry, which turns golden and flaky in the oven. Quick to put together and elegant to serve, it’s a terrific way to showcase the fresh berries.
Strawberry Almond Cakes
These tender, strawberry-filled almond cakes are a riff on financiers, diminutive French pastries made from almond flour and browned butter. To get the most intensity from the berries, they are briefly roasted before being mixed into the batter. Roasting condenses the berries’ flavor and helps keep them from leaking juices into the cakes, which can make their light crumb heavy and a bit damp. Serve these cakes by themselves as a simple dessert or teatime snack, or with a scoop of strawberry ice cream or sorbet for something richer and fancier. Although they’re at their crisp-edged best served on the day they’re baked, they’ll keep for a day or two stored airtight at room temperature.
Roasted Zucchini Pasta Salad
This pasta salad is loaded with two pounds of zucchini, roasted until golden and caramelized, then tossed in a tangy garlic-tahini dressing. Roasted sunflower seeds bring crunch and nuttiness. (Pepitas, slivered almonds or chopped walnuts are other great options.) Golden raisins add unexpected pops of sweetness that round out the tart lemon. The zucchini can be roasted a few hours ahead or even the night before. Make the pasta salad a few hours ahead and keep refrigerated; bring to room temperature and give it a final toss before serving.
Chive Pesto Potato Salad
This vibrant homemade pesto is made with fresh chives and parsley in place of basil. It’s a bright sauce with savory, onion notes, making it a great dressing for mild, creamy potatoes. Green beans or asparagus are added to the potatoes during the last few minutes of cooking, for an easy one-pot approach. Once drained, the potatoes and veggies are returned to the hot pot to dry out in the residual heat, which means your potato salad won’t end up watery. Toss the potatoes with the pesto while warm so they readily absorb all of the flavors. Make this highly adaptable recipe with any vegetable on hand; peas, corn and broccoli florets are all great alternatives.
Sweet Corn Salad With Buttermilk Vinaigrette
Fresh corn on the cob is given a quick blanch for this salad, an easy yet valuable technique that takes away the starchy flavor and brings out the natural sweetness in the kernels. A cool, light buttermilk dressing is spiked with sour cream, garlic and black pepper for creamed corn vibes without the heaviness. Crisp cucumbers add crunch and pair beautifully with the herbaceous dill; feel free to use any soft herb, like chives, parsley, tarragon or basil. Make the salad a few hours ahead to allow all of the flavors to meld.
Sesame Tomato Salad
This simple yet stunning salad celebrates the beauty of summer tomatoes and highlights their sweetness with a rich, tangy sesame vinaigrette. A mild, buttery California-style olive oil will meld well with soy sauce and sesame oil, so avoid using a spicier olive oil that may be bitter. The dressing and tomatoes can both be prepared separately a few hours ahead and kept refrigerated. The tomatoes will release juices as they sit, which can dilute the dressing, so serve the salad with extra dressing on the side for a fresh hit of umami. Leftover dressing can be refrigerated for up to one week and is delicious drizzled over rice, roasted chicken and green salads.
Savory Fruit Salad
This colorful, sweet-tart fruit salad has a savory twist, making it a vibrant side dish, a refreshing dessert or both. Fresh fennel gives the salad an unexpected, subtle anise fragrance, and adds crisp texture to counter the soft, juicy fruit. A few berries mashed with golden honey and fresh orange juice provide moisture, and a deeper layer of natural sweetness. A final addition of fresh mint, lime juice and salt perks up the fruit and brightens the salad.
Roasted Shrimp Cocktail With Horseradish Sauce
Roasting shrimp for shrimp cocktail intensifies their sweet saline flavor and makes them exceptionally plump and tender, with less chance of overcooking than the traditional poaching. Then, instead of being paired with the usual bright red cocktail sauce, these shrimp are served with a horseradish-forward take on a classic French rémoulade, which is both bracing and creamy. It’s best to season the sauce to taste: Adding more ketchup makes it sweeter and pinker; more lemon juice makes it tangier; more horseradish makes it sharper.
Pasta with zucchini and fresh herbs
A simple and delicious pasta dish perfect for a quick summer meal.
Smoked Wagyu Beef Shank
This falls-off-the-bone Wagyu beef shank is beyond delicious! The shank is covered in a BBQ rub and smoked overnight. The flavorful Wagyu beef is then shredded and served! This recipe is perfect for backyard BBQs, game day, and family gatherings! Try this tasty recipe today!
Salted Margarita Bars
This edible cocktail is an ideal party dessert, mingling all the fun of a margarita — and its salted rim — with the efficiency of a slab pie. Key lime pie’s boozier, saltier cousin, it comes together quickly and maintains its consistency when frozen, making it a great make-ahead treat for a barbecue or a trip to the beach. Any tequila will work, but blanco is preferred for its milder taste. Don’t make the curd more than 10 minutes in advance, as the lime juice will start to thicken it, which could affect the bake.
Peachy Pineapple Cocktail
Memorial Day weekend is here, which means it's time to unwind and raise a glass to cheers for the holiday. Celebrate with a delicious, fruit-centric cocktail that will bring the taste of summer straight to your doorstep.
Vegan Raw Fudge
This five minute Raw Fudge recipe only takes 3 healthy ingredients, no cooking, no baking and only 1 hour to completely set and be ready to eat!
Six Barrel Soda Co. Classic Tonic Syrup
This Tonic Syrup recipe is zesty and citrusy with a gentle bitterness and it’s not overly sweet. It’s made with sugar, lemon juice, lemongrass, zest & quinine.