Jul 4 Baker Beach Cookout

This Saturday was the second annual cookout at Baker Beach that two of my friends put on. Amazingly, the weather cooperated for a change, and it was a pleasant sunny day at the beach with good friends, many of whom I hadn’t seen in some time.

As I may have mentioned, I have a tendency to make more than one item when invited to picnics and cookouts. This time was no exception. Although I often gravitate to classic dishes and comfort food when bringing things to share, I decided to aim for something that wasn’t likely to be duplicated by others this time, and I thought it would be good to include an item or two that could be used as a condiment for grilled foods. I wound up making and bringing along some salsa verde, salsa de jitomate con guajillo y chipotle, ensalada de nopalitos con elote, tortilla española, 3 pepper cole slaw, and a strawberry-rhubarb pie. That made for a rather frenzied Friday evening and a busy Saturday morning, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

What typically happens when I make several things to bring on an outing is that I misjudge the amount of time it will take, get stuck in the kitchen while everyone else is enjoying the sun, and finally show up some three hours or so late. Amazingly, this time I made it to the beach only about an hour after things got started and was actually able to enjoy myself in addition to cooking up a storm.

I’ll put up some of the recipes this week, but in the meantime I do have photos of what I made.