"MemorialDay" news and stories

Today's Feast Your Eyes post is my attempt at stretching out the relaxation and outdoor cooking of Memorial Day just a little bit longer. This image, of a freshly grilled basil burger, was taken by Flickr user Coneslayer and from the looks of things was pretty darn delicious.

How did you spend your Memorial Day weekend? If you made some good food and took pictures, make sure to upload them to the Slashfood Flickr page, so we can all see your tasty creations.

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Today is the official start of grilling season, and what better way to kick it off than with a book that offers a different burger recipe for every week of the year. Sally Sampson's Recipe of the Week: Burgers (we looked at her ice cream book last week) is a nice book, with clearly written directions for every dish and lots of pictures that will make you want to fire up the grill.

This book does a good job of looking at the full range of burgers. She doesn't just focus on the classic beef patty and instead casts her net to include ground chicken, turkey, lamb, tuna, salmon, black beans and portobello mushrooms. Additionally, if you're tired of the same old burger toppings, this book offers a wealth of inspiration that will keep your grilled patties exciting for weeks to come.

As someone who eats a lot of turkey burgers (the favored recipe around our house is to include chopped onion and peas in the meat mix), I'm excited to play with some of her flavor combos. This would be a fun book to show to your kids as well, because with all the yummy pictures, even the youngest of kids will be able to help pick out the picnic fare.

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Here, it is -- a classic potato salad recipe, adapted from the Big Book of Backyard Cooking.

Old-Fashioned Potato Salad

Ingredients:

Approximately 2 pounds of potatoes, the above salad used 3 large baking potatoes
4 large, hard-boiled eggs
1 3/4 cup chopped celery
2/3 cup red onion
1/2 cup of mayo
The juice of half a lemon.
1 1/2 tsp cider vinegar
Approximately 1-2 tsp of mustard -- ball park, dijon, or other tasty varieties.
Kosher salt
A few shakes of cayenne pepper

First, boil diced potatoes, whatever size you want in the salad. When they're tender, drain. I often make them a little more tender to make the mix a bit more creamy rather than crunchy. Let the potatoes cool.

Mash up the eggs in a bowl, and then mix with the celery and onion. Once that is well mixed, add the mayo, juice, vinegar, mustard, salt, and cayenne.

Add this mixture to the potatoes when cool, and mix well. Season to taste and enjoy!

Warmth is great and all, but one of the best things about summer is potatoes -- growing, barbecuing them, and of course, lathering them in all sorts of tasty things and making a potato salad.

For years I didn't go near the German variety of tater salad -- I was a strict mayo and potato gal. This is probably a good thing since I never would have dug the sauerkraut flavor that lingers in the obviously German mix. Now, they're both pretty darned tasty. The mayonnaise variety offers the creaminess of the lathered potato with the crisp crunch of celery and onions. The German variety, on the other hand, offers a warm and tasty mixture of potato and vinegary sharp goodness. (And it isn't too shabby cold either.)

With this being the start of Memorial Day Weekend, there's no better time to whip up some potato salad and kick off the awesome season of warmth. Check out the recipes that follow, revel in all things tatery, and be sure to comment about your own special touches.

I tend to think of Memorial Day Weekend as the time when the summer grilling season really starts to heat up. While the weather has already been nice for as much as a month in some areas, by the end of May, nearly everyone is having a surfeit of warm, sunny days and is ready to move the bulk of their cooking outdoors (so as to avoid heating up the kitchen).

Here at Slashfood, we're going to spend a lot of time focusing on all this summer outdoor cookery. We'll have a bunch of posts up for you this week, to get you ready for the weekend, but we'll be writing about grilling, barbecuing and even what to do if you don't have any outdoor space in which to grill, all summer long. Our friends at AOL Food are also featuring grilling this summer, so make sure to check in over there often for fresh tips, tricks, recipes and bbq related quizzes.

To get you started, here are some grilling links from past years:

1. Seven kabob recipes from Real Simple
2. Bobby Flay's grilling for Dad's Day
3. Maple Chipotle Glazed Grilled Corn
4. Maple Bourbon Barbecue Sauce
5. How to grill corn on the cob
6. Cook outdoors in style with this Barbecue Belt
7. No room for a big grill? Try this tiny, bucket-styled one.
   
8. Slashfood weighs in on the gas verses charcoal debate.

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