3 Kid-Friendly Picnic Salads and Sides

Bring these family favorites to all your summer potlucks, picnics, and cookouts

By Kristen Sturt

[photo cover max-width=150 align=right]Whether it’s a potluck, cookout, or picnic, odds are you’ll be attending an outdoor celebration sometime soon this summer. What’s more, odds are you’ll have to bring something to eat. That’s where Sunday Dinner at Grandma's (Gooseberry Patch) comes in. From the best-selling Gooseberry Patch cookbook series, it’s packed with hundreds of favorite family recipes and traditional dishes handed down from grandmothers all over the U.S. And while breakfasts, breads, soups, main dishes, and desserts are all well-represented, it’s the Sides & Salad chapter that’s handiest during these hazy, humid days of August. With an emphasis on fresh produce and feeding large crowds, it’s an invaluable resource for sunny lunches and dinners.
Now, the fine folks at Gooseberry are sharing three of their late-summer favorites with Grandparents.com. Filled with the vegetables of the season – tomatoes, corn, basil, and more – they’re wholesome and delicious additions to any family get-together.
Go to the recipes:

Excerpted from Sunday Dinner at Grandma’s © 2010 by Gooseberry Patch. Reprinted with permission of Gooseberry Patch.
Want more picnic ideas? Check out the Grandparents.com Recipe Archive. It’s full of delicious, portable dishes, like French Potato Salad.

Comments

Alex Farnum

Sometimes, you want a five-course lobster dinner, replete with wine pairings and sterling silver tableware.

Sometimes, you want a microwaved pizza – hot, ready almost instantly, and just-about-acceptably edible.

And sometimes, you want something in between: a sumptuous homemade chocolate pie, the best meatball sub you’ve ever had, or the most satisfying breakfast sandwich you’ve treated yourself to in ages. In other words, comfort food.

Happily, that’s where Max and Eli Sussman’s This is a Cookbook (Olive Press) comes in. It’s packed with 60 cozy, satisfying recipes – many accompanied by gorgeous photos – that you can serve to family or eat all by yourself, curled up in a fuzzy blanket. Today, the Sussmans are sharing three of their most rewarding, delicious dishes with Grandparents.com. The pie alone is worth the price of admission, but each dish stands ably on its own

[photo cover max-width=150 align=right]It's time to fire up the grill for a round of family cookouts. Whether you own an old-school charcoal Weber or a shiny new propane-fueled monster, Andrew Schloss and David Joachim's Fire It Up: 400 Recipes for Grilling Everything (Chronicle Books) has the recipes you're looking for. Whether it's simple-but-superlative cheeseburgers or Mint-Brined Lamb Rib Chops with Red Currant Vinaigrette, you'll find it inside. The book kicks off with a thorough chapter on good grilling technique, and also devotes significant attention to rubs and marinades, vegetables, fruits, cheeses, and even desserts.
And now Schloss and Joachim are sharing three great grilling recipes with Grandparents.com. What are you waiting for?
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[photo cover max-width=150 align=right]If you don’t know Sara Moulton as the host of PBS' Sara's Weeknight Meals, or as the executive chef of Gourmet magazine (for 23 years!), you might be familiar with the New York native’s popular cookbooks, like Sara’s Secrets for Weeknight Meals or Sara Cooks at Home. A respected, masterful cook, Moulton is also a mother of two, so she knows that Monday-through-Friday suppers can be tough to pull together with little time and limited resources. That’s why she wrote Sara Moulton's Everyday Family Dinners (Simon & Schuster, 2010), a collection of 200-plus family-tested, family-pleasing recipes designed to get you and your grandkids through the week. Her simple and delicious meals, many of which are globally influenced, mean you can kiss last-minute McDonald’s trips goodbye.

Now, Grandparents.com is thrilled to be sharing two of Moulton's easiest and most kid-friendly recipes with readers. Grandchildren will love the no-preservatives-necessary fresh fish sticks, and can even help assemble Fruit Pot Stickers, a sweet, super-cool alternative to heavy summer desserts. Enjoy!

Shoemanblog

Saturday, September 8, 2012