Last-minute Labor Day recipes for your holiday, a charred okra salad and more.
The first Labor Day parade was in New York City in 1882. More than a decade later, Labor Day became a national holiday, the fruit of activists who wanted to underscore the social and economic achievements of the American worker.
I wonder what those activists might think of quiet quitting, work from home and the unionization of baristas. I know what my dad thinks. He was a human resources guy for companies that made tires and dug coal, a real old school management type. He used to introduce himself by saying, and I am not kidding here, “Jim Severson’s the name, personnel’s the game.”
My membership in various unions at the newspapers that have employed me has always been a topic we avoid. But we agree that Labor Day should be celebrated in the manner a founder of the holiday described it: “a general holiday for the laboring classes.”
Today, I am going to honor my hard-working sisterfire Melissa Clark by putting together the charred okra salad (above) that stars in her column this week. We still have plenty of okra at the farmers’ markets here in Atlanta. I try to pick okra on the smaller side, and snap the tip off one first. If it’s a crisp break, it’s fresh and I load up.
Sprinkling the okra pods with a little cumin when they are just out from under the broiler is an essential step in building flavor that will hold up under Melissa’s garlicky dressing, all of it resting on a bed of greens and vegetables. You may be thinking that the dish might need a little acid. Melissa thought so, too, which is why she thoughtfully added a little red onion pickled in lime juice.
If you are still weighing what to cook on this holiday Monday, may I point you to some of our excellent roundups of recipes for vegetarian dishes, grilled chicken and more. You could learn how to reverse sear a steak, or grill cauliflower like steak. I’m definitely making the great Iranian spinach yogurt dip called borani-yeh esfenaj and kicking back.
And just because I need to give my Southern summer one last salute, I’ll make a perfect peach pie. If you don’t want to labor too much, the filling can be used in a sort of free form galette made from a packaged pie crust. I’ve become very partial to the one sold at Trader Joe’s.
While we’re on the subject of baking and not working too hard, I’m going to use up the zucchini I have renting space in my refrigerator and make a chocolate zucchini cake. It’s a little like a dump cake, in that it takes only one bowl.
And I hate to remind everyone in the Northeast, but school is starting. Those of us who have been at it already would like to flag the timesaving magic of overnight oats. You might also take a look at this collection of school lunch ideas. Orwake up early and send everyone out the door with Millie’s biscuits and gravy in their bellies. The recipe has a clever twist to with the biscuits, one of those time-saving tricks that actually makes something more delicious.
If you don’t have kids, you probably know someone who is returning to the office and would like one of the lunch recipes. A cold noodle salad with spicy peanut sauce or a pimento cheese sandwich might be just the balm for the cubicle bound.
Now, it has nothing to do with the end of my newslettering or the perfection that is mango Hi-Chews, but have you dipped into the way Cher brushed back Dua Lipa? I stan Cher 4 ever.
And I stan Sam and Melissa, who will be taking care of you from here on out.
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September 05, 2022 at 10:00PM
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