Recipes for your Memorial Day Weekend

Yesterday was National Hamburger Day, and oddly enough we had hamburgers, although I had forgotten about it until I looked at my blogging calendar today. Many of you will still be out grilling various animals this weekend, it being Memorial Day and all, so I figured I’d pass along the link to the recipes for my grass-fed beef burgers and my fabulous potato salad. (That sounded a bit more conceited than I intended…oh well.) If you can't find fresh grass fed beef  (Costco even carries some I think), you can use conventional just as well. You might not need to add in the olive oil though, since conventional beef has more fat than grass-fed. Whatever you do, do not use dry herbs in place of the fresh. Treat yourself right, and splurge on ones that are actually still green.

 I came up with these dishes last year when I cooked a locavore meal for my bookclub-and wrote an essay about it, which you can find (along with the recipes) in the spring edition of Edible South Shore. (pg. 15 & 16)

They didn’t have room to print my deviled egg recipe, but in the event you need an appetizer or side dish for your Memorial Day extravaganza, the recipe for those is below. If you aren’t a big fan of deviled eggs (I wasn’t until I started making my own) then you need to try these. No nasty pickle relish. No disgusting Miracle Whip. And very few ingredients. Mediocre effort, but magnificent taste! I've been craving these for weeks, and last night I made a batch, which I finished off today for lunch. My kids even eat them for breakfast. Rock on.

Rachel's Deviled Eggs

Ingredients

1 dozen hard boiled farm fresh eggs

½ cup mayonnaise

2 teaspoons mustard

½ teaspoon seasoning salt

½ teaspoon curry

1 teaspoon fresh dill, minced (or more to taste)

1 dash hot pepper sauce (or more to taste)

freshly chopped chives for garnish

Directions:

1. Peel the eggs and slice each in half lengthwise. Remove all yolks from eggs and place in a separate bowl.
2. Mash the yolks with a fork or pastry blender until they are a fine consistency and no large chunks remain.
3. Add mayonnaise, mustard, seasonings, herbs, and pepper sauce to the egg yolks. Mix thoroughly until well incorporated. Salt and pepper to taste.
4. Scoop yolk mixture into quart size zip-lock bag, remove air and seal tight. Cut off one corner of the bag.
5. Pipe filling into egg white halves.
6. Sprinkle chopped fresh chives over eggs before serving.
7. Refrigerate until serving.

Makes 24 deviled eggs.

Happy belated National Hamburger Day and happy Memorial Day weekend!