Labor Day cooking plans

[heidih]

Tomorrow is Labor Day - the traditional end of summer weekend holiday in the U.S. Grilling is what I generally see here in Los Angeles- having people over for a BBQ (grill). I have to work but I took advantage of the sales on cold water lobster tails and test drove some today. I will be grabbing a few more to have when I get home tomorrow. What are you all planning?

[Pierogi]

Great minds, Heidi. I scored a lobster tail at Sprouts the other day ($5.99 !!!) and I also got some tri-tip steaks on the regular grocery schlep. I'm figuring on a surf & turf with one of the steaks on the grill tomorrow, with some grilled corn as well (finally found some that looks good....). Some sliced dead-ripe tomatoes, of which I still have a plethora, and frozen yogurt (Ben & Jerry's, sadly not homemade) for dessert. Sounds good to moi.

[Tri2Cook]

Rubbed the ribs last night, they'll go in the smoker later this morning. Making German potato salad, coleslaw, mac & cheese, corn on the cob and baked beans to go with the ribs. I'm doing a variation on the Estonian Rhubarb Cake (that I remember seeing posted somewhere in the pastry forums but can't seem to find so I'm glad I saved the recipe link) for dessert. Followed the recipe pretty much exactly except I used local wild blueberries instead of rhubarb, adjusted the sugar accordingly and added some lemon zest to the sponge layer.

[iriee]

Here in Connecticut lobsters are $4.99 a pound. They are soft shell now so 2 each should be nice. Farmstand butter and sugar corn, roasted golden beet and nectarine salad.

[FrogPrincesse]

For Labor Day I kept things simple. The green figs at the Little Italy farmers market were too flavorful to miss, so I made a little appetizer with buffalo mozzarella, Parma ham and basil drizzled with balsamic vinegar. This was based on the recipe from Jamie Oliver with the silliest name of "The easiest sexiest salad in the world" (just don't tell your guests about the name, or be ready to joke about it...!). We had an Airmail cocktail which is a Champagne cocktail with rum, lime juice, and honey syrup (I used Banks rum per the recipe in the PDT cocktail book). It's a very festive and elegant cocktail, but maybe a little strong considering the heat we've had recently in San Diego. We also had the Marcona almonds that Trader Joe's currently carries. Hopefully it's not one of these items that they suddenly decide to discontinue as it often happens there, because I really like them.

For the main course, we had duck sausages from Homegrown Meats, a local butcher shop which has great meat (local grass-fed beef, lamb, wild boar, etc) and makes delicious sausages - last year I had made my own sausage but theirs is far better than what I can produce. With the grilled sausages, a couple of refreshing salads: a yellow peach and arugula salad with fresh goat cheese, and the lobster salad from Lucques with cherry tomatoes, avocado, corn and home-cured bacon. Live lobsters at $6/lb - I had to take advantage and it looks like many had the same idea (see upthread). Their shells were soft so they were easy to prepare.

With the food we had a couple of wines from the Santa Barbara area: a rosé from Zaca Mesa and a surprisingly crisp and almost effervescent unfiltered riesling from Demetria, both really nice.

For dessert, we had a chocolate/cocoa nib Racines cake with homemade vanilla ice cream - both recipes were from David Lebovitz - Ready for Dessert and The Perfect Scoop - followed by espresso.

I can't wait to read about what others have prepared this weekend!

Edited September 4, 2012 by FrogPrincesse (log)

[dcarch]

FrogPrincesse, my Labor Day dinner was simple too. Yours was better because you had a nice dessert.

-------------------------------------------------------

Pork shoulder was on sale for $0.79 a lb

Lobster was on sale for $3.99 a lb

With tomatoes from my garden, Labor Day dinner was not very expensive.

dcarch

Hot Dog, Heirloom Tomatoes

Lobster Heirloom Tomato Salad

Lobster Corn Soup

Lobster Roe and Tomalley

Sous Vide Pulled Pork on Beets and Daicon

[kayb]

Though I doubt any of us can top @dcarch's work, above, it IS that time of year again. For me, I always feel like I MUST grill something, possibly several somethings. This year, I suspect "something" will include perhaps a smoked whole chicken, and, depending on how many are showing up at my house over the weekend, I MAY pull out an 8-pound Boston butt from the freezer, coat it down with a good dry rub, SV it for about a day, and then stick it on the grill to smoke. I've also put a big piece of pork loin in to cure/brine for Canandian bacon, and that will need to go on the grill to smoke as well. I will perhaps put them on each end of the grill and put some fresh veggies on to grill over the fire.

 

Oh, and there are there's my impulse buy at Aldi this morning. I always peruse the sausages, as they tend to have an interesting variety, and they had a creature called "Hawaiian smoked sausage." Now, I have no clue what a Hawaiian smoked sausage ought to taste like, but in the interest of research, I bought a package, and I'm going to grill that and make some pineapple-mango salsa to go with it.

 

H'mmm. Maybe grilled pineapple-mango salsa...

 

What's everyone else doing?

Edited September 2, 2016 by kayb (log)

[Tri2Cook]

Mine won't actually be on Labor Day, the forecast says 100% chance of a fairly large amount of rain that day so I'm doing it tomorrow. I went to the store yesterday and got them to cut some pork blade steaks about 1 1/2" thick. I coated them in a hefty dose of rub, wrapped them and tossed them in the fridge. They're going in the smoker. Anything else will be decided when I go to the store in the morning. It's going to be a combination Labor Day bbq and game grub for the Alabama vs. USC game.

[kayb]

15 hours ago, Tri2Cook said:

Mine won't actually be on Labor Day, the forecast says 100% chance of a fairly large amount of rain that day so I'm doing it tomorrow. I went to the store yesterday and got them to cut some pork blade steaks about 1 1/2" thick. I coated them in a hefty dose of rub, wrapped them and tossed them in the fridge. They're going in the smoker. Anything else will be decided when I go to the store in the morning. It's going to be a combination Labor Day bbq and game grub for the Alabama vs. USC game.

 

Go, Trojans! (As a Tennessee native who has spent well over half her life in Arkansas, I loathe Alabama.)

 

[lindag]

I think most folk here will be taking a big pass on Labor Day cookouts/picnics, etc.

Forecast is for 59ºF (15C for youse Canadians)  and possible thunderstorms. 

More like soup-making weather.  Fall came earlier than usual this year, it was 39ºF (3.8C) last night.

Edited September 3, 2016 by lindag (log)

[Tri2Cook]

Quote

Go, Trojans! (As a Tennessee native who has spent well over half her life in Arkansas, I loathe Alabama.)

Can't give you a like for that one. Roll Tide! Been a fan since I was a young kid, not likely to change now. But I understand why everybody hates them... they do tend to win a lot.

The food is smelling good but I got a later start than I wanted (had to work this morning). It's looking like this is going to be halftime food. Settled on tossing a pan of beans in the smoker underneath the racks of meat so they'd catch the drippings and have mac and cheese in the oven. Even made a salad so I could pretend I cared about how healthy the meal is.

[kayb]

20 hours ago, Tri2Cook said:

Can't give you a like for that one. Roll Tide! Been a fan since I was a young kid, not likely to change now. But I understand why everybody hates them... they do tend to win a lot.

The food is smelling good but I got a later start than I wanted (had to work this morning). It's looking like this is going to be halftime food. Settled on tossing a pan of beans in the smoker underneath the racks of meat so they'd catch the drippings and have mac and cheese in the oven. Even made a salad so I could pretend I cared about how healthy the meal is.

 

Brilliant. 

 

Sounded like it wasn't a very close game. I went to sleep!

[Tri2Cook]

Quote

Brilliant.

I'm not sure the drippings make a huge difference to the flavor but I figure it can't hurt and it sure makes cleaning the smoker drip tray a lot easier.
 

Quote

Sounded like it wasn't a very close game. I went to sleep!

It was a nervous 1st quarter for me but they settled down and it turned into a blowout by the end of the 3rd. It alleviated some of the quarterback worries I had going in but they're going to face some much tougher opponents than they did last night so we'll see how things go.

[scubadoo97]

staying in my cousins beach condo with another couple.  Saturday dinner was a couple of roasted chickens with a big salad.  Yesterday pizza delivered from a local place and a salad.  Nothing too exciting except the weather was better than anticipated 

[kayb]

Don't know why we didn't talk about Labor Day cooking last year. What's everyone planning?

 

Me, not much on the day itself; going to somke some pork steaks tomorrow for pre-Labor Day dinner with the kids. I'm thinking  I'll throw on some brats and chicken-apple sausage links, while I've got the smoker going, to have Monday, when we have no big plans.

 

[gfweb]

This year it's just me and Henry the Airedale. So  I'll fool around with some meat and potatoes, drink some beer , mow some lawn, listen to the Phillies and play fetch. 

 

A better day than most. 

[chromedome]

GF and I haven't discussed specific plans, but she's back to keto-ing (ugh) after Monday, so I expect it will be "Carbapalooza."  I'm sure there will be something grilled as part of the mix, though.

[robirdstx]

Happy Labor Day!

 

[Tri2Cook]

I once again did my Labor Day weekend food day on Saturday for Bama's opening game against Louisville. Made a couple different sushi rolls, shichimi roasted shrimp and Sichuan green beans. Today, I didn't cook a thing. Ate leftover shrimp and green beans from Saturday and called it good enough.

[kayb]

I will, likely fortunately, be out of town next weekend when Bama plays our hometown and, I'm afraid, sadly overmatched Arkansas State. I hope some of our players are left alive.

[kayb]

Anybody cook anything fun? I did pork steaks, sous vide overnight at 150, then grilled to sear and finish. Cowboy beans (baked beans, the canned kind, sauce drained off and replaced by my blend, plus some browned ground pork), potato salad, mac and cheese, and Brussels sprout slaw. Forgot to take pics, as we fell on it like the Visigoths sacking Rome. But it was pronounced good.

 

The Brussels sprout slaw was a creation of my own. Wanted slaw, didn't have cabbage, didn't want to go out to the store. Had Brussels sprouts, and they're just little cabbages, right? So I chopped them and some carrots up in the food processor and made a dressing out of white wine vinegar, lemon juice, mayo, a little sugar, and Urfa Biber chile pepper (because I had a whim). It was pretty good. The Urfa Biber added a nice note.