Memorial Day Food

For Memorial Day we ate picnic food. One of my all time favorite side dishes is Easy E's Mom's Beans. She made them when we were on our cross country trip to move E to NYC.

Easy E's Mom's Beans

A few strips of bacon
1 onion, diced
1 large can of baked beans, your choice - I just used Campbell's Pork n Beans
a good healthy squirt of Heinz 57
a good healthy squirt of Mustard
a good healthy dash of pepper
a good healthy dash of chili powder

Fry the bacon and remove to cool. Brown the onion in the bacon grease, then add the rest of the ingredients and cook over low heat for a while - like 15 to 20 minutes or until the rest of your food is done.

Another of my favorite sides is tabbouleh. Making it was great timing because my mint needed pruning.

Tabbouleh

3/4 cup bulgur wheat
2 cups cold water
5 green onions, chopped
4 cups chopped parsley
3 T chopped mint
1/4 cup olive oil
2 T lemon juice
1 1/2 t salt
1/2 t pepper
2 tomatoes, diced

Place bulgur in a bowl and cover with water. Let soak for 15 minutes. Drain. Add the rest of the ingredients, cover and chill for at least 1 hour before serving.
Finally for the main course we had brats with mustard sauce.

Mustard Sauce

2 T butter
½ onion, finely chopped
½ c dry white wine
1 Dijonon mustard
1 t vinegar
juice of ½ lemon

Melt butter and cook onion until translucent. Add wine and reduce by half. Stir in mustard and vinegar. Add the lemon juice and the last tablespoon butter. When butter is melted pour over brats and serve immediately.