Making Memorial Day memorable

Bring on the flags and bunting. Trim the bikes and trikes. Gather everything you can find that is red, white and blue for the Memorial Day celebration.

For cooks the celebration may well include many a dessert of red, white and blue easily handled with strawberries, blueberries and something in the vanilla or white chocolate family. Below is my easiest version of a “flag cake,” I submit it to you knowing full well that the cake decorators amongst us are able to embellish beyond imagining with rosettes, swags and all manner of festooning in creaming or fondant icings.

Then, too, I recommend to those who are challenged with decorating… simply decorate with flag-topped wooden picks. These work wonderfully well for anything from a cake to a casserole.

Above all, remember to give thanks to God for our forefathers’ love and service to freedom for all.

If there is anything better than chocolate chip cookies, it might be triple chocolate chip cookies. Bake only until the cookies are the way you like them… some like them soft… others like them crisp.Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter, softened

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1 egg

2 tsp. vanilla

2 cups flour

½ tsp. baking soda

½ cup chopped nuts, optional

¼ tsp. salt

½ cup white chocolate chips

½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

½ cup milk chocolate chips

In a large bowl, beat butter and sugars with an electric mixer until fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Add flour, soda and salt. Beat at low speed, scraping bowl, until well combined. Fold in chocolate chips and nuts. Drop onto greased cookie sheet and bake in a 375-degree oven until just beginning to firm, about 10-12 minutes. Remove to cooling racks. When cool, store in airtight container.

Remembering that visual appeal is important, here is a salad that beckons with its simple combination of vegetables. Then it delights taste buds with its crisp texture enhanced by a surprisingly tangy dressing.

Vegetables with Pineapple Dressing

2 cucumbers

3 medium zucchini

12-15 baby carrots

Boston lettuce leaves

Dressing:

1 cup sour cream

1/3 cup crushed pineapple

2 tbsp. fine-cut orange marmalade

½ tsp. dill weed

Peel alternate strips of cucumber to make a striped design. Cut thin slices from cucumber, discarding ends. Cut thin slices of zucchini, discarding ends. Arrange cucumber and zucchini on a platter lined with lettuce.

Combine sour cream, pineapple, marmalade and dill weed. Drizzle just a little over vegetables. Serve salad with dressing. Makes 5-6 servings.

Marinated flank steak makes a good choice for a Memorial Day meal. It cooks quickly, is lean, tender and with this marinade, full of zesty flavor. Grilled vegetables make a colorful accompaniment.

Marinated Flank Steak

3 flank steaks

2/3 cup soy sauce

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 tbsp. molasses

2 tsp. ginger

2 tsp. dry mustard

6 garlic cloves, minced or 1 tbsp. minced garlic

Mix soy sauce, oil, molasses, ginger, dry mustard and garlic. Smear mixture over both sides of the steaks. Place steaks in a single layer in glass or non-reactive pan. Cover well and refrigerate for 24 hours. Remove from refrigerator one hour before grilling. Place steaks on pre-heated grill or bbq. Grill about 7 minutes per side, turning once. Slice diagonally in thin slices. Makes about 8 servings.

Neighborhood potlucks are one way some folks celebrate a holiday. This recipe for “Mildred’s Crazy Beef ‘n’ Beans” have been to many potlucks… and there is never any of the casserole left over.

Mildred’s Crazy Beef ‘N’ Beans

½ lb. bacon

½ lb. ground beef

1/4 cup brown sugar

¼ cup regular sugar

¼ cup catsup

1 cup diced onion

1 can butter beans, drained

1 can kidney beans, drained

1 can Northern beans, drained

Dice bacon and fry crisp. Drain. Brown beef and onion in skillet and add to remaining ingredients. Transfer to a casserole. Bake, uncovered, in a 325-degree oven about l ¼ hours.

Easiest Flag Cake

1 9x13-inch baked yellow cake

1 container prepared Vanilla Frosting

Strawberries, stemmed and thickly sliced

Blueberries

1 tube vanilla frosting

Spread vanilla frosting over top of cake.

Place overlapping sliced strawberries in rows to simulate stripes of the flag, leaving the left corner blank. Fill in the left corner with blueberries to simulate the blue background for the field of stars, leaving spaces blank for the frosting “stars.” Squirt “stars” from the tube of vanilla frosting into the blank spaces in the blueberries.

Buy or prepare an assortment of veggies… carrots, broccoli, red peppers, celery sticks, cherry tomatoes… and serve with this sour cream dip flavored with dill, onion and parsley.

Dilly Dip for Veggies

2 cups sour cream

2 cups mayonnaise

1 tbsp. seasoned salt

2 tbsp. onion flakes

2 tbsp. dill weed

¼ cup fresh chopped parsley or 2 tbsp. dried parsley flakes

Combine all ingredients and stir well. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours. Serve with veggies for dipping.

A three-day weekend sometimes means there is time for leisurely breakfast or brunch. Here sausage links team with pineapple and cornbread for a most unusual main dish that is served with warmed maple syrup.

Corn Bread and

Sausage Bake

1 lb. link sausages

2 tbsp. sausage drippings

1 can (13 ½ oz.) pineapple tidbits, drained

1 pkg. corn bread mix, prepared according to package directions

Warm maple syrup

Pan-fry sausages. Coat bottom and sides of an 8-inch-square pan with 2 tbsp. of drippings. Arrange sausages in bottom of pan. Spoon pineapple tidbits around sausage. Spread prepared corn bread mix over sausage and pineapple. Bake in a 400-degree oven about 25-30 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes. Turn out from pan. Serve with warmed maple syrup.