National Picnic Month
by Kimberley Thompson, Tastemaker in Residence
If you had asked me last year about my feelings/thoughts about picnicking...I would have been a firm MEH. A written in stone MEH. I grudgingly did one or two picnics a year, with one of them being the big annual Smith Family Picnic! (Yup. It deserves to be Capitalized!)
Worn out grass, filthy tables, bees, and hornets, other people's shit (literally) doesn't even have a place in my world. Consuming foodstuffs that normally would not be found in my kitchen just, frankly, leaves me cold. And don't get me started on even thinking about eating once warm food that has been out on a table until it is cold...or ripe...if you get my meaning!
Then came COVID 19.
During the middle of moving. With a refrigerator on its last gasps. With bins and boxes strewn everywhere in my house and crammed storage unit. Temperatures in the humid 90's. And as an added bonus; my temperamental 1952 Kelvinator stove that most likely did not turn on when called to action!
Suddenly, picnicking was my only option to save my sanity. And my kitchen. And my gastro-intestinal tract.
Problem was; I only knew how to do hot dogs, steaks, and brats. And frankly, short of the steaks, I knew I could not survive eating hot dogs or brats for 7 days at a time. (My idea is to make most of my week's food in one swoop!)
Do you know how intimidating a 22" Weber kettle grill can be?
Thankfully, my brother stepped in.
Every Sunday morning for 4 1/2 months, he has driven from his home in far western MN to my little farmhouse in the suburbs to fire up my grill and teach me 101 on how to grill anything! One way was 3.5 hours with the usual arrival at my abode by 9 am. We did all the prep work while the grill was started up. (Who knew about those cool chimney starters!?!)
My brother believes food is an adventure, so nothing was sacred. If we could think it up; we tried it.
The failures are another topic...I want to talk about successes. (Those foods that we have made more than once!)
Sweet corn. Tangy red sauce. Pork roasts and GOYA.
Sweet corn. Yes, grilled sweet corn is wonderful...but I am talking about sweet corn fried! On the grill!
Click for Kimberley’s recipe - Fried Sweet Corn!
I have a wonderful Staub cast iron covered dutch oven with an enameled interior that has been a WORKHORSE on the grill! The trick for success? Slowly warming up the pot before you put anything in it. I start it off by placing on the indirect side of the grill after starting the coals. I rotate and put it closer to the coals over the next 15 minutes. (The goal is to evenly AND slowly warm up the metal without causing the metal to expand too fast and damage the enamel.)
Once warmed up, I put all the ingredients in and let the Weber do its magic!
