FIRE UP YOUR GRILL FOR THESE MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND RECIPES🇺🇸
italian chicken skewers with a hot honey watermelon and feta salad + fresh veggie pasta salad and cookout sides + sunset spritz
WE LOVE A COOKOUT
Memorial Day weekend is upon us! Typically my family and I go to our cottage for the holiday to enjoy Michigan’s hit-or-miss May weather. Per usual, this weekend‘s forecast looks questionable (rain? sun? cold? hot? all of the above?) But it never stops us from dusting off the grill and having a good old-fashioned American cookout. We’re making Wisconsin Beer Brats, German Potato Salad, and Grandma’s Coleslaw this year. We’re also celebrating my Mom’s birthday with an Italian-style al-fresco dinner party (more on that next week).
But if burgers and hot dogs are boring you, I suggest trying my Italian Herb Chicken Kebabs with Watermelon, Feta and Hot Honey Salad this holiday weekend. It checks all the boxes of a cookout meal - it’s grilled, easy to eat outside, fresh, and includes watermelon. When I make this, I usually put together a simple Italian marinade for the chicken but if you have Italian dressing in the fridge you can use that instead (dressing as a marinade is always 10/10). And don’t forget to soak your skewers so they don’t catch fire when on the grill!
Adding the watermelon feta salad with hot honey complements this meal perfectly. Salt, sweet and heat are an elite combo. If you’re interested in making your own hot honey it’s extremely easy, but you can also get it at the grocery store (I like Mike’s Hot Honey).
MORE SIDES PLEASE
No cookout is complete without sides! Last weekend, I made a pasta salad with mini bell peppers, cucumbers, feta, chickpeas, and pepperoncini in a chili oil soy dressing and was shook by how good it was. We had it as a light dinner, but it would be perfect as a side pasta salad.
And since I believe you can’t actually have too many sides, here are a few more to add to your Memorial Day feast.
AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST, HERE’S WHAT WE’LL DRINKING THIS WEEKEND
It’s a spritz, obviously.
This cocktail originated when I was with my parents at our cottage making drinks to bring with us down to the beach for sunset. We were craving a spritz, but also had opened bottles of OJ and pineapple juice that we wanted to use up…the result was a fruit-punch-esque flavored spritz that looked just like the Lake Michigan sunset we saw that night.
You can easily turn this into a mocktail by adding a little grenadine at the bottom of the glass and adding OJ, pineapple juice and soda water.
And don’t forget you can access my entire recipe library with all your favs.
THANKS FOR READING!
Cheers 🥂
Hil & Nat
