Summer Picnic

The biggest mistake I made was deciding to have a party the last night instead of going to the events last party which was a pool party.  Jim did not want to go to the pool party.  So I decided on a picnic.  I was hoping the weather would corporate and we could eat outside.  It did and I had done a lot ahead, Jim was tired and bitched about having to cook the corn and burgers.  He bitched that I had served the salad “wrong” as the lettuce was wasted as “no one” knew to scoop the lettuce with topping.  He bitched that the cheese was too chunky to melt on the burgers.  And even though they were called beef burgers with blue cheese and caramelized onions there was no way he was putting blue cheese or onions on his burger.  I am telling you that by the time we got to dessert and he bitched that there were too many choices of ice cream and too many brownies I was ready to stop cooking.  He also had turned off the ice maker again, as he does not like it to get full, and had to get more ice when I realized we did not have enough ice to keep the wine cool and serve with drinks.  Maybe he is getting too old to play 63 holes of golf in 3 days. 

The appetizer was a Hot Crab Dip from Martha’s new American Food Cookbook.  It makes 4 cups, but I was a little disappointed as to how runny it was.  It was hard to eat on crackers. 

Ingredients:

1 stick unsalted butter

1 onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

¼ C plus 2T all-purpose flour

1 ½ C milk

¼ t cayenne

2 t dry mustard powder

4 oz. sharp white cheddar, shredded (1 C)

Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

2 T lemon juice

2 t Worcestershire sauce

10 oz. lump crabmeat (I used the whole #)

2 T coarsely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

½ small (8 oz. loaf rustic bread, crusts trimmed, torn into 1” pieces (1-2 C)

Assorted crackers and flatbreads, for serving

Directions:

1.      Melt 6T butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. 

2.      Add onion and garlic; cook, stirring occasionally until soft, about 4 minutes. 

3.      Whish in flour; cook, whishing constantly, 4 minutes. 

4.      Whisking constantly, pour in mil in a slow, steady stream.  Simmer over medium heat, whisking, until thickened, about 4 minutes. 

5.      Stir in cayenne and mustard. 

6.      Gradually whisk in cheese; whisk until melted.

7.      Remove from heat and stir in lemon zest, lemon juice, and Worcestershire to combine. 

8.      Stir in crabmeat and parsley.  Season with salt and pepper. 

9.      Transfer to a 1 qt. oven proof dish. 

10.  (This added absolutely nothing to the dish) Melt remaining 2 T butter; stir into bread pieces.  Season with slat and pepper.  Arrange bread mixture over crab dip.   

11.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees when ready to serve.  I made ahead and held in the refrigerator.  I set it out to come to room temperature before baking. 

12.  Bake until heated through and the topping is golden brown, 25-30 minutes. 

13.  Remove from the oven and let stand 10 minutes before serving as it is like molten lava. 

As we were having burgers with nice buns, I decided Waldorf Salad from Martha’s American Food Cookbook would be refreshing instead of the usual potato salad.  Trivia for all, this salad was created by Oscar Tschirky, the maitre d’hôtel of NYC’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.  I remember having it for the first time in The Palmer House in Chicago.  The Palmer House was big time when I was young.  If it is still there, it probably has a chain name on it now.    

Ingredients:

¼ C mayonnaise

3 T plain yogurt

1 T unsweetened applesauce

1 T lemon juice

Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

1 red apple, cored and chunked

2 celery stalks, thinly sliced (about 1 C)

1 C walnut pieces, toasted and coarsely chopped

1 C seedless red grapes, halved

1 head of butter lettuce (Like I’d find this in Lebanon.  I used baby romaine.)

Directions:

1.      Whisk together mayonnaise, yogurt, applesauce, and lemon juice.  Season with salt and pepper. 

2.      Toss apples, celery, walnuts, and grapes with the dressing. 

3.      Divide the lettuce among 4 plates and spoon salad on top.  Serve immediately. 

I had 8 for dinner so I put the lettuce on a platter type wide bowl and spooned the salad in the middle.  I enjoyed the salad, but felt I had under salted it.  There was leftover but as the salad had sat outside with mayo I did not save.  Jim did not object to saving it as he did not understand why anyone would put apples, celery and grapes in a salad.  He just objected to the wasting of the lettuce as “no one” knew to take any. 

I got the idea for the Beef Burgers with Blue Cheese and Caramelized Onions from an article titled Summer Burgers in Fine Cooking June/July 2012.  I have blogged before about Alton Brown’s Burger of the Gods.  The basic is that you use ½# sirloin and ¾# chuck and pulse separately 10 times in the food processor.  This makes 3 burgers that you can safely eat medium rare.  I knew that anything under charred to death would fall on deaf ears to some of the guests, but I just do not want to eat store ground beef. 

I will have to admit that the quality of meat that I got at Publics, our local grocer, was less flavorful than I am used to. This recipe serves 4.  I used my formula for the beef and increased the other ingredients to a total of 9 burgers.  

Ingredients:

2 T unsalted butter

2 medium yellow onions, chopped (about 2C)  I used Vidalia

1 ½ # ground beef

1 T chopped fresh tarragon

1 T Dijon mustard

1 T Worcestershire sauce

Vegetable oil, for the grill

4 oz. blue cheese, crumbled (about 1 C)

4 brioche or challah rolls, split.  ( I found whole wheat rolls at the bakery.)

Directions: 

1.      Prepare a medium high gas or charcoal grill fire. 

2.      Melt butter in a 12” skillet over medium-low heat. 

3.      Add the onions and cook, stirring often, until golden and soft, about 20 minutes.  Reduce the heat to low if they brown too quickly.  This is a case where low and long wins the race to great onions.  (Jim threw out all the leftover onions.)

4.      In a large bowl mix the beef, tarragon, mustard, and Worcestershire sauce with your hands. 

5.      Form into four ½” thick patties. 

6.      Oil the grate and grill the burgers, 4 minutes per side for medium-rare or 5 minutes per side for Medium.  When you flip the burgers top with cheese.  Do not wait until the second side is done and then complain that the cheese is too thick to melt.

The burgers were served however.  I topped mine with onions, but I put out mustard and ketchup for those that can’t stand the idea of ever putting something in their mouths that they did not have by the time they were seven. 

The corn was grilled with my butter lime baste as is found on my blog at the beginning of each grilling season.   It seems like I am in a bit of a rut here with the corn.   

Grilled Corn with Lime Butter , Serves 8 1 1/2T butter, melted
¼ t grated lime rind
1 ½ T fresh lime juice
¼ t salt
¼ t red pepper
8 ears of corn
Cooking Spray
Prepare grill
Combine first 5 ingredients in a bowl.
Place corn on grill rack and cook for 10 minutes. Jim bastes the corn while it is cooking. We’ve had this several times and find it great. This comes from the Cooking Light Cookbook.

Dessert was Martha’s brownies and a limited selection of frozen yogurt or vanilla ice-cream.   Next year I will enjoy all the club events and pouty boy can go sit in a corner.