Coronado Concerts in the Park – Childhood Favorites

My inspiration for our latest Concert in the Park culinary challenge came from a recent Tasting Table e-mail, Pop Up, a grown-up childhood standby, featuring a recipe for Buzz Bakery’s Peach Pop Tarts.

Pop-Tarts were one of my childhood favorites, along with Mom’s spaghetti, canned Spaghettios, Stouffers Macaroni and Beef, Beanie Weenies, Grandma’s fish and chips (with the fish Grandpa and I caught), Van de Kamps Cinnamon Twists, cinnamon toast, and Oreos. I thought childhood favorites, updated and/or with an adult spin, would be a fun theme, so I challenged the rest of our group to prepare one of their childhood favorites to share at the park. Here’s the recap!

The recipes I used for my Pop Tarts can be found here.

John was excited for this challenge, and even jumped in to write about it:

Once old enough to take care of ourselves, mom would tell us Sunday evenings were fend-for-yourselves nights. My sister found sustenance elsewhere, and my brother would rummage through the refrigerator, hoping for an easy way out. To me, it meant finding the can opener, emptying a can of chili into a pot, and experimenting with spices I found in the spice cabinet.

John’s 3rd Grade class provided favorite recipes for a class cookbook

For our Concert in the Park Challenge, I had to figure out a way to make my childhood favorite my own. Since Challenge Peru, and falling in love with the Aji Amarillo (a Peruvian yellow chile pepper), which I used in my Aji de Galina, I knew this pepper’s wonderful, unique flavor would complement my pot of chili. My next challenge was to preserve the bright yellow color of the Aji Amarillo.

We stopped by the Little Italy Farmers’ Market for ingredients, and discovered a treasure trove of yellow fruits and vegetables. We even found dried yellow beans, similar to pinto beans but yellow in color. Keeping with my yellow color scheme, I also paired the yellow peppers and tomatoes with yellow spices.

I prepared my Yellow Chili entirely on the grill – blackening the peppers and tomatoes, grilling the chicken, and simmering the chili on the side burner.

For the “kid” in me, I served the chili with stacks of saltine crackers. For garnish, I offered Cilantro Crema, hominy and cojito cheese. John’s Aji Amarillo Chile recipe is coming in my next post, and it’s a definite contender for Coronado’s Chili Cook-Off!

Kai was also excited about the challenge, and wanted to share one of his German favorites. He called his mom, who still lives in Germany, and adapted her Königsberger Klopse recipe.

One of Alec’s favorite childhood memories was visiting his grandmother, Racchael, for gnocchi. He liked to sneak the frozen ones and eat them raw…naughty boy! He prepared his mom’s Ricotta Gnocchi recipe for us, with a fresh heirloom tomato sauce.

Sandra was right in there with her Baked Ziti and Meatballs (her upscaled version of Hamburger Helper). With a family of eight, casseroles were easy to whip up to feed the crew.

Olivia, our youngest chef, made pickles. She had a hard time deciding on a current childhood favorite.

I’m not quite sure where Jim’s Watermelon Shark fits into his childhood. We were all expecting hoping for martinis again 😉 I think he may be a bit delirious from the raw diet, but this carved masterpiece drew quite a crowd of admirers.

Carmen, Jim’s better other half, who is also tackling the raw diet this month, made Raw Vegan Peanut Butter Cups, from this recipe. She sprinkled a little Celtic sea salt over the top.

It was a bit nippy towards the end of the evening, and we were all thankful for a steamy cup of Nina’s grown-up version of her childhood Hot Cocoa. She would go out to play in the New Hampshire snow for five minutes, just so she could come in and have some cocoa. Instead of Swiss Miss and mini marshmallows packets, Nina used cocoa, sugar cinnamon, cloves, milk, cream, vanilla, and Grand Marnier. She garnished with mini marshmallows and Italian Bow Cookies, another favorite during the holidays.

We’re moving our picnic blankets on Sunday, for a change of venue and early afternoon concert at the Ferry Landing. Our kitchens are closed, the dogs will be joining us, and we’ll be enjoying a leisurely afternoon down by the bay, in the warm sunshine.

***