Fourth of July, Manomet-style

There is nothing quite like the magnitude and excitement of a Fourth of July in Manomet. Celebrated on the night of the 3rd of July, the beaches are full of bonfires and fireworks, allowing for downtown Plymouth to run a fireworks show without conflict on the holiday’s traditional night of the 4th of July.

In Manomet, the change in sound and feeling begins in mid-June, around Father’s Day. It’s entirely possible that the popular Father’s Day gift in this area is a daytrip to New Hampshire for a trunk load of fireworks. And you hear these things shot off in the streets for two solid weeks, night after night, until the night of July 3rd when the rest are fired off down at the beach…beginning right at dusk. Each year, I wonder if they’ll run out of these things that’ve been shooting off into the trees for weeks, and each year, there seem to be even more… And while it’s disturbing to think of a wayward professional-quality firework zooming into my house there is also a very strong emotional memory connected to shooting fireworks off in the streets. It’s a “tension of opposites” that I embrace each year. Or maybe I just brace for, each year. It really doesn’t matter…it simply is…

…It’s a happy time of year, The 4th of July, with the words of James Taylor in my head:
“With a tear in your eye for the Fourth of July,
For the patriot’s and the Minutemen,
And the things you believe they believed in then,
Such as freedom, and freedom’s land, the Kingdom of God and the rights of man.”

My excitement in planning begins in mid-June, too. Scattered thoughts of things to grill, wondering who’ll join in this year’s festivities, hopefully “the regulars” will be visiting along with friends who’re visiting for the first time…unsuspecting of my plan to turn them on to Manomet, making them fall hopelessly in love with the area to where they feel the need to move here? Too much? Will there be small children at the house this year?, where I can bring up the beach toys from the basement, and ensure there are enough s’mores to jolt them into another dimension?

Friday night’s dinner: I’m thinking grilled salmoncakes…and my good friend, Debbie, will bring her pasta/feta salad. Two sauces for the salmoncakes: a homemade horseradish-y cocktail sauce, and a sauce of mayo, horseradish, fresh lemon, and capers. A side-dish of grilled asparagus tossed with a little fresh garlic, lemon, and peeled chopped apple to give it a sweet summery seal of approval.

Saturday, our big dinner on the night of July 3rd: served on disposable plates so that minimal time goes toward clean-up – the object of this night is to head back down to the beach after dinner for the sunset excitement, the bonfires at their highest, the beach hasn’t yet become dark with the glow of firelight, and you can still pick out which kid is yours! This year, Saturday night’s dinner: marinated grilled London Broil sliced thin and served with grilled carrot strips/onions/garlic, grilled pineapple, marinated grilled scallops, warm tortillas, chimichurri sauce, avocado/cilantro/lime, and Big Al’s homemade potato salad like Mom used to make.

Few things on earth are as valuable to me as good friends, loving company, making people happy thru laughter and food, stories and music, and wine. I look forward to the next few days as my most major holiday of the year…it is my Passover, or my Christmas…in fact, it is my favorite kind of Fourth of July.

Can It

Zucchini pickles - I look forward to canning my way thru Dorothy’s recipe box of pickled everything. Recently, the pickling cucumbers are not what they used to be - not what they appear to be – they are salad cucumbers posing as pickling cucumbers. Small enough to appear as a pickling cucumber but then seedier and squishier on the inside – and that kind of thing just doesn’t hold up to hours of icy salted water.

Zucchini provide a great pickle alternative! They’re a real team player…working well with others and anticipating the needs of the common goal. The original recipe calls for zucchini, onion, turmeric, sugar, mustard seeds, celery seed, etc. I went for celery flakes, instead, and less sugar. Then I decided to also offer a spicy version of these zucchini pickles, which include slices of fresh jalapeño and garlic.

Bread ‘n’ Butter pickles – these pickles are my…well…bread and butter. Adored from coast to coast, these are not ordinary bread ‘n’ butter pickles. With thin slices of onion and garlic, sweet but not overly so, all floating in flavorful brine that is unlike the heavy-goopy bread ‘n’ butter pickle standard. People have said they’ve shamelessly powered thru an entire jar while sitting (and some standing) at the kitchen counter.

Worcestershire Sauce – once you’ve had homemade Worcestershire sauce you can never go back to the jarred varieties, except maybe when you’re out of the homemade stuff. In which case, use something else! This sauce is a labor of love. I get as excited to make it for people as they get about eating it. Like making maple syrup, so much more goes into this process than the end result that I could charge $10 per pint jar, but I’d never dream doing that. Doubling the recipe is the only way to go when embarking on this project and so that entails boiling it for 12 hours or so. Beginning in the early evening, cooking thru the night, up every hour or so for a stir, which is not difficult to do since the extreme smell of this on the stove will certainly knock a person out of bed. With 12 cups of chopped onion, 8 jalapeños, cans of anchovies, vinegar, over a pound of fresh chopped horseradish, and other powerful ingredients all cooking for a day…your sinuses will thank you and your house will smell of bbq sauce for a week. Steen’s Pure Cane Syrup from Louisiana is the real key - no substitute will do! The caldron has to cool down for hours before you can even touch the outside of the stockpot…the intensity exploding as it cools. More to come...

Regular zucchini pickles without turmeric and using celery seed instead of flakes...