The three summer holidays of Memorial Day, the 4th of July and Labor Day, plus all the weekends in between provide ample opportunities for the gathering of the clan. And, gather we do, whether in bigger extended family reunions or more scaled back immediate family get-togethers.

Regardless of size, the venue for these events is most often the picnic. The casual format allows for lots of mingling for catching up as well as ease of coordination and hosting. The food, always important, has certain requirements depending on the family.

Ask people what food they have at these occasions and you will likely get something along the line of, “Well, we always have to have Grandma’s this, Mom’s that or Aunt Mable’s famous something or other. It wouldn’t be a family picnic without it.”

Growing up my family had at least two of these picnics every summer. The first was on or around the 4th of July and the other later in August when the sweet corn crop was at its seasonal height.

We always met at my Uncle Rich and Aunt Harriet’s home because they lived on the river. The yard was large and offered the additional benefit of a lovely view. Better yet, my uncle had a motor boat which meant boat rides for all of us kids.

The main dish was usually hamburgers, hot dogs and/or brats on the grill. In August they were accompanied by the corn, roasted in its husks over just the perfect temperature coals to cook it without too much singeing. My grandmother always made her signature baked beans and potato salad.

Today things are different. My grandmother has been gone for quite a few years and many of my parent’s generation, including my mom, have passed away as well. We now meet at my sister’s lake cottage where there still is a water view and a boat, albeit a pontoon, for after supper rides.

The food on the grill varies and seldom includes the grilled version of the corn. It is simpler to boil it and it doesn’t require a full grill dedicated only to the corn. It’s still good but not as good. Perhaps it is just my childhood memories enhancing the flavor of Uncle Richard’s grill roasted corn.

No one makes Grandma’s baked beans either, not that they are difficult to make, but, they require planning to soak the beans and then allowing enough time for the long, slow cooking. Instead, my sister Sally has introduced a very good bean recipe that uses canned beans, which eliminates the long soak and simmer.

If the potato salad is up to my other sister, she will probably buy it at the deli. She hates to make it. I do make potato salad but rarely think ahead to make the cooked salad dressing which was the foundation for my grandmother’s. I also refuse to peel the potatoes. The peel adds color and nutrition. That’s my excuse to avoid that messy time consuming operation.

Since all of us love to bake, we never had a special dessert for our picnics. There was always something, usually a bar cookie like brownies, to accompany watermelon.

Watermelon was a requisite for our gatherings. Remember those big, oblong babies with lots of seeds for the seed spitting contest? My husband insists that the new round basketball shaped seedless watermelons are not nearly as sweet.

He knows his sweets. His whole family does. His mother’s side of the family has labeled it the “Strelow sweet tooth.” When I asked for examples of food they always desired for reunions (they have one every year, by the way) it was desserts that were named.

I was referred to a collection of family recipes in which I discovered that out of a total of 54 pages, 23 were dedicated to desserts!

The most famous is associated with my husband’s Aunt Ruth. Even at 93 she made them for this year’s reunion. Although I wasn’t there, I hear there wasn’t a single one left, as usual.

Times change and traditions evolve. We wouldn’t want it any different. But, I recommend that you request the recipes for those special dishes if you haven’t already. There isn’t a summer that passes without someone in my family wistfully saying, “Do you remember Grandma’s baked beans?”

This month I’m going to make them. Enjoy!

Grandma Wilke's Boston Baked Beans
3 lbs. navy beans
1 (5-lb.) Boston butt pork roast
2 small onions
2 tsp. salt (or to taste)
6 Tbs. brown sugar
1½ tsp. dry mustard
ketchup

Soak beans overnight in enough water to cover plus 1 inch. Drain the beans. Lay the whole onions and the pork roast in the bottom of a Nesco. Pour in the soaked beans.

Mix salt, brown sugar, mustard and ketchup together. Add enough water to create a thin sauce. Add to the Nesco. Add just enough boiling water to cover the beans.

Cook on high until the beans are steaming. Stir. Reduce to low heat. Cook 6 – 8 hours.

Remove the whole onions. The roast may be removed, bones and fat discarded, and the meat shredded before returning to the beans.
Yield: Enough for a medium sized reunion with leftovers! (The beans freeze very well.) A one pound batch yields about 10 cups of baked beans, depending on the amount of meat used.

Note: Grandma’s recipe did not include any measurements for the ketchup. I like a good amount of tomato flavor so I use at least ½ cup per pound of beans. I also like the added flavor of barbeque sauce and sometimes mix a good squirt or two of it into the beans. I have always been taught to add salt after the beans are tender. I prefer adding it to taste at the end of cooking.

Make It Smaller: 1 or 2 pounds of beans may be made in a slow cooker (depending on the size of the slow cooker). Then I use pieces of pork steak instead of the roast.

Make It Larger: Grandma noted that it takes 6 pounds of beans for a full large Nesco!!!

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Sister Sally's Calico Beans

½ lb. bacon, cut into ½-in. pieces
½ cup onion, chopped
1 (16-oz.) can light red kidney beans, drained
1 (16-oz.) can pork and beans
1 (16-oz.) can butter or Lima beans with ½ of the juice
½ cup ketchup
1 Tbs. mustard
1 Tbs. distilled vinegar
½ cup brown sugar

Fry the bacon until it is almost browned. Add the onions and continue cooking until the onion is transparent. Remove with a slotted spoon to a large casserole dish.

Add remaining ingredients and stir until mixed. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 1 hour. Yield: Approximately 8-½ cup servings.

Make It Different 1: The original recipe calls for 1 pound hamburger, browned with the bacon and onion. We usually omit the extra meat since we serve the beans with burgers, brats and/or hot dogs.

Make It Different 2: Add more or different kinds of beans. I like garbanzo beans and black beans for extra color and flavor. Rinse both cans to remove the juice (and extra sodium, too!).

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Old-Time Potato Salad

3 lbs. small red potatoes
salt and pepper
1 small onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, sliced
½ cup Cooked Salad Dressing (recipe follows)
½ cup Miracle Whip or mayonnaise

Scrub potatoes, place in a medium sauce pan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook until the potatoes are tender but not falling apart. Drain and rinse in cold water.

When potatoes are cool enough to handle, peel the potatoes and slice into a bowl. Salt and pepper the potatoes in between the layers. Add the onion and celery.

Mix together the Cooked Salad Dressing and Miracle Whip or mayonnaise. Add enough of the dressing to create a moist salad. Chill thoroughly before serving. Yield: 6-8 servings

Cooked Salad Dressing

2 eggs, beaten
½ cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. yellow mustard
½ cup white distilled vinegar

Combine eggs, sugar and mustard in a small non-reactive saucepan. Stir until combined. Add the vinegar.
Cook over medium to low heat, stirring constantly until thickened. Remove from the heat and pour through a sieve.

Refrigerate until cold. Use in a 50/50 mix with mayonnaise. Maybe kept in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Yield: approximately 1 ½ cups.

Make It Different: Cook the dressing in the microwave using a large Pyrex measuring cup or bowl and cooking increments of 1 minute or less on high.

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Linda's Everything but the Kitchen Sink Potato Salad

3 lbs. small red potatoes
1 cup chopped onion, red, white, green or a combination
1 cup sliced celery
½ cup mayonnaise
¼ cup sour cream
¼ cup French dressing or Peppercorn Ranch dressing
add-ins: pickle relish, chopped capers, chopped hard-cooked eggs, blue cheese crumbles, cooked bacon crumbles, chopped fresh parsley, diced green or red pepper, chopped unpeeled apple, etc., etc.

Scrub potatoes, place in a medium sauce pan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook until the potatoes are tender but not falling apart. Drain and rinse in cold water.

When potatoes are cool, slice or cut into a large dice, as desired. Do not peel. Place in a bowl with the onion and celery.
Combine mayonnaise, sour cream and Ranch dressing. Pour over the potatoes and mix thoroughly. Fold in desired add-ins. Season to taste. (I use seasoned salt and a bit of curry powder.) Chill before serving. Yield: 6-8 servings

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Uncle Richard's Grilled Corn on the Cob

freshly-picked sweet corn with the husks on
1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter
salt

Loosen the husk enough to remove the corn silk from the cob. Replace the husks. Soak the corn, husks on, in cold water enough to completely submerge the ears. Keep the water as cold as possible, adding ice if it is a very hot day. Soak for at least one hour.

Prepare the grill to medium hot. Remove the corn from the water, allowing the excess water to drain. Place the corn on the grill and cover. Turn the corn about every 5 minutes until cooked on every side and the husks are deep brown.

Allow the corn to rest off grill for 5 minutes. With heavy mitts, strip the husks away from the corn. Use the husks as a corn holder or cut them off close to the bottom of the ears and insert corn holders.

Place ears lengthwise on the stick of butter and roll to coat. Add salt to taste.

Make It Different: Many people use flavored butters with the corn but, hey, this is my family tradition and we use just plain butter and salt.

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Aunt Ruth's (Strelow Fuller) Lemon Bars

½ cup butter
¼ cup powdered sugar
1 cup flour
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup granulated sugar
3 Tbs. lemon juice
1 tsp. lemon zest, finely grated
2 Tbs. flour
½ tsp. baking powder

Mix the butter, powdered sugar and flour together until crumbly. Press into an 8x8-inch pan. Bake in preheated 325 degree oven for 15 minutes.

While crust is baking, mix together the remaining ingredients. Pour over baked crust. Return to the oven and bake for 25 minutes.
While still warm, top bars with sifted powdered sugar. Yield: 24 small bars

Make It Bigger: Aunt Ruth notes, “You’d better double the recipe and use a 9x13-inch pan. They go so quickly! They are soooo good!” Baking times may vary slightly for a double batch.

Make It Easier To Cut: I find that lining the pan with foil allows for easy removal of the bars from the pan and cutting is simple without the pan edges to contend with.