The Memorial Day Weekend Lineup

Summer, we meet again. Here in Texas, it’s humid and muggy as can be and my summer kickoff energy has been somewhat dampened by the rainy, cloudy weather. The vibes are more needlepoint-while-watching-TV and less shotgun-beers-at-the-pool this year. Nevertheless, I hope sunny weather, a cold beverage and some delicious food are in store for you this weekend.

For this year’s Memorial Day recipe lineup, I really wanted to focus on side dishes (and one dessert!) that would fit seamlessly into any potluck menu. We have five recipes in total: Chicago Dog Macaroni Salad, Whipped Ranch Feta, Chilled Bean Salad, Cornbread Panzanella and a Strawberry Rhubarb Pretzel Icebox Cake.

All of these recipes can be made in advance, will travel well if you’re venturing out to your in-law’s house to use their pool, and pair well with virtually anything that might be thrown on the grill. Hopefully one or more of these recipes will serve you well all summer long, far after this long weekend has come and gone.

If you’d like to browse last year’s lineup of MDW recipes, you can find them here:

Onto the recipes! Paid subscribers, keep scrolling for full access to this newsletter as well as printable PDFs for each recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ditalini pasta, or any short, tubular pasta

• 1 pint cherry tomatoes, quartered

• 1/2 large yellow onion, diced

• 6 dill pickle spears, diced

• 1/3 cup sliced sport peppers (about 15 small peppers or 5-6 larger ones)

• 1 1/4 cups mayonnaise

• 1/3 cup yellow mustard

• 1/4 cup pickle brine

• 1/2 cup sweet relish

• 1 heaping tsp celery salt

• 2 tsp poppy seeds

• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and season generously with salt. Add the pasta and cook until al dente. Drain, and set aside to cool while you chop the tomatoes, onion, pickle and sport peppers. Next, make the dressing. In a bowl, combine the mayonnaise, yellow mustard, pickle brine, relish, celery salt, and poppy seeds. Season with salt and pepper and whisk to combine.

Add the cooled pasta to a large mixing bowl. It’s okay if it’s still a little warm. Stir it around to break up any clumps. Add the tomatoes, onion, pickles and sport peppers, then drizzle over the dressing. Stir to combine. Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour before serving, and sprinkle the top with more celery salt.

Note: Sport peppers can be hard to come by in certain regions. Short of ordering them online, you can swap in any mild to medium spicy pickled green pepper, such as pepperoncini, banana peppers, cascabella peppers, or piparra peppers.