Are you guesting on Memorial Day or holding your own shindig?

If it’s the former, and you don’t have an assigned dish to bring, here’s a fresh idea:

Instead of a bottle of wine or a pan of brownies, how about a basket of freshly picked vegetables? Your hosts will have something to grill and enjoy after the party food is gone.

Melissa’s, purveyor of premium produce, has put together a barbecue gift basket of Anaheim chiles, Asian eggplant, red or yellow bell peppers, chayote squash, elephant garlic, fennel, cipolline or Maui onions, plantains and portobello mushrooms.

The idea is to provide better versions of standard grilling favorites, plus something new. (When was the last time you grilled fennel or plantains?)

A gift for your barbecue hosts. Photo courtesy Melissas.com.

 
The price is $64.99 on Melissas.com.
 
Send it as a Memorial Day gift for dear friends and family, or a thank-you gift to your Memorial Day hosts.

You can put your own basket together by going to the best produce market in town and picking out unusual versions of family favorites (Asian eggplant instead of conventional Italian eggplant, for example).

May is National Egg Month. How many of these egg-spressions do you use?

This content was developed by Dictionary.com, one of our favorite resources for words and word fun.
Egghead

This term entered English as a reference to a bald person. But it gained traction in the 1952 presidential campaign as a pejorative term for “intellectual,” used to describe Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson (who was bald) and his followers. Stevenson responded cheekily, “Via ovum cranium difficilis est,” roughly translated as “the way of the egghead is hard.”
 
Egg Someone On

This expression, meaning “to incite or urge; encourage,” has nothing to do with eggs. Instead, it derive from the Old Norse word eggja with a similar verbal meaning.
 
Egg Sucker

A flatterer or sycophant.
 
Go Suck An Egg

American slang, meaning “get lost.”

Originally, “egghead” referred to a bald person. Photo courtesy Fresh Direct.

This expression conveys humiliation or embarrassment, resulting from having said or done something foolish or unwise. It came into usage in the mid-1900s, and its origins are uncertain. One theory is that it evolved from teenage slang, and that it referenced a messy manner of eating that might leave food around one’s mouth.
 
Lay An Egg

This expression means to be unsuccessful, especially in front of an audience. Its origins are obscure, but its association with failure had been firmly established in the lexicon by the early to mid-1900s, as evidenced by Variety magazine’s famous headline from October 30, 1929, the day after the stock market crash: “Wall St. Lays an Egg.”

 
Nest Egg

This phrase been around since the late 1500s. When it entered English, it referred to an actual egg placed in a nest to induce a hen to continue laying eggs; it was often used in figurative contexts to refer to an object used as a decoy or an inducement. Today, it refers to money saved for emergencies, retirement, etc.

Put All One’s Eggs In One Basket

English speakers have been using this turn of phrase, if not heeding its wisdom, since the mid-1600s. This idiomatic expression means to venture all of something that one possesses in a single enterprise. It is often used in negative constructions, such as “don’t put all your eggs in one basket,” to caution against the risk of such behavior.

 
Teach Your Grandmother To Suck Eggs

This curious expression emerged in the 1700s, meaning to presume to teach someone something that he or she knows already (i.e., elders know more than their juniors imagine). Its first recorded use was Henry Fielding’s “Tom Jones,” published in 1749.
 
Walk On Eggs

This expression means to walk or act very cautiously, especially so as not to offend or upset anyone. The expression first appeared in the 1740s as “trod upon eggs.” By the mid-1800s, people were walking on eggshells in addition to eggs. Around 1990 this changed, and the expressions “walking on eggshells” skyrocketed in use, while “walking on eggs” waned in popularity.

A good filling comprises not just spinach and crumbled feta cheese, but leeks, dill and parsley. It’s the leeks and lots of fresh dill and parsley, plus nutmeg, that make homemade spanakopita so much more flavorful than diner and deli versions. (We like nutmeg so much, we double the amount.)

While spanakopita is typically layered in a large pan from which individual servings are cut, it can be rolled into individual triangles—more elegant but more labor intensive.

In Greece, spanakopita is usually eaten as a snack. In the U.S., it makes an attractive first course, a light lunch with a salad or a dinner entrée for vegetarians.

Because it can be enjoyed warm or at room temperature, we like to serve spanakopita at parties, picnics and cook-outs as well. We’re making a tray of it as our contribution to upcoming Memorial Day festivities.

Spanakopita is one of our favorite ways to enjoy spinach. Photo courtesy Kontos Foods.

Ingredients

1. MIX together the spinach, feta, dill, parsley, leeks, eggs, salt and pepper.

2. BRUSH the bottom of an 8×8-inch baking pan with olive oil.

3. PLACE a sheet of phyllo in the pan; brush lightly with olive oil. Use kitchen scissors to trim the phyllo to fit. Repeat until you have 6 layers, lightly brushing each layer with olive oil.

4. PLACE the spinach and greens mixture on top of the 6 layers of phyllo, in an even layer. Flatten with a spatula. To create a “top” for the spinach pie, layer another six pieces of phyllo on top of the spinach mixture, brushing each layer with olive oil as you go.

5. BAKE for 30-50 minutes at 350°F, until golden brown.

 
 
ABOUT SPANAKOPITA

Spanakopita (spa-na-KOE-pee-tah), a Greek savory snack pastry, is a member of the burek family of savory baked or fried filled pastries. The name means spinach pie.

Burek pastries are typically made with paper-thin phyllo dough or a thicker, calzone-like dough. They can also be made with puff pastry.

The pastries are filled with cheese, egg, minced meat or vegetables. This style of pastry is believed to have been invented in the early era of the Ottoman Empire (1299-1922), in what is now modern Turkey.

Tasty basil and mozzarella are available year-round, but luscious summer tomatoes are required to make this simple combination soar. Until the crop comes in, look at alternatives—including cherry and grape tomatoes.

The gifted chef Linda Anctil of PlayingWithFireAndWater.com offers a new way to look at Caprese salad. She balances different sizes of mozzarella balls and tomatoes to a lovely effect.

Emulate her “art” with these ingredients:

Caprese salad on an artistic canvas. Photo courtesy Linda Anctil | PlayingWithFire.com.

Linda actually injected the peeled heirloom tomatoes with basil oil and made mozzarella “balloons” filled with tomato water foam. She painted the “basil leaves” onto the plate with basil gel, and garnished the dish with olive oil powder and Balinese sea salt.

This takes lots of skill!

We adapted her concept with conventional Caprese ingredients, including fresh basil leaves and droplets of fine olive oil, basil oil and balsamic vinegar.

And we loved it!

More ways to look at Caprese salad:

 
All are delicious food fun!

If you don’t mind frequent watering, a pot puts fresh herbs at your fingertips—not to mention, provides lovely greenery and fragrance. You can keep one in a sunny kitchen spot, on the back steps, porch or patio, or go whole-hog like our friend Connie has just done and stake out an elaborate garden plot.

Your local nursery can provide assistance, and there’s plenty of advice online. Here are the steps to snipping:

1. Pick a sunny spot. Most culinary herbs originated in the Mediterranean and other sun-drenched regions, so they need at least eight hours of sunlight a day.

2. Seeds versus plants. Seeds typically need to be started indoors one to two months before it’s warm enough to move them outside. At this point in the season, look for plants (they’re also easier for beginners).

3. The right container. A larger pot of soil or potting mix* dries out more slowly. To keep the plants moist for the longest time, use the largest pot you can.

Your favorite herbs, ready to snip. Photo courtesy Whiteflower Farm.

4. Select your herbs. They should, of course, be the ones you use most often. Basil, rosemary, thyme and parsley are popular. We use chives every day for flavor or garnish. Don’t be seduced into planting something you don’t use, under the theory that if you have it, you’ll cook with it. Odds are that you won’t.

5. Choose watering-compatible herbs. That is to say, plant together herbs that require the same amount of watering. For example, basil likes more water, but rosemary likes drier soil. To keep the basil happy, you’d be over-watering the rosemary. Separate pots are called for.

Thinking outside the pot—and into a
wheelbarrow (with drainage holes, of
course). Photo courtesy BonniePlants.com.

6. Think outside the pot: How about something seasonal? Given that it’s iced tea weather, think about mint—which is a universal dessert garnish, too. How about some edible flowers—marigolds, nasturtiums and pansies, for example? They’re beautiful in salads, drinks, and as plate garnishes.

7. Prepare the container. Be sure there are sufficient drainage holes, and fill the container to a quarter of the pot’s depth with gravel or pebbles. They help with proper drainage.

8. Add the plants; plan to fertilize. The frequent watering required by herbs tends to wash nutrients from the soil/potting mix. Replenish them with fertilizer so your herbs will thrive. You can use a regular houseplant fertilizer every three weeks, at one-half the strength recommended; add a slow-release fertilizer when you plant; or look for a potting mix that contains the slow-release fertilizer.
9. Use daily. From breakfast eggs to a garnish for dessert, enjoy those herbs. The more you cut them back to use them, the more they grow. If you aren’t using a particular herb often enough, snip sprigs as a plate garnish or a cocktail garnish.