I’ve been knocking my head against the wall all week, so now I’ll throw it out there:
I’m looking for some kind of barbeque side dish that would either be simple to make or travel well (it’s for an event at the campground and our cooler is not large, though we have a full-size fridge there).
Small print: No onions, peppers, broccoli, mushrooms,…okay, very light on the veggies. 
While I’d prefer a cold dish, bringing the crockpot is a possibility if the dish is worth it.
The event is a pig roast, though my children and myself will be eating hot dogs or cheeseburgers as I’m a little strict about the trimming and cooking of pork and that, combined with general finickiness, is enough to keep us away from the spit. The majority of campers, however, will be eating the sidedish with roast pork.
So does anybody have a fairly simple, non-fancy-cuisine potluck/BBQ sidedish recipe that blows people’s socks off?
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What about fruit salad? It’s always a great complement to bbq and easy enough to make. I do all kinds of melons and grapes in mine. Or you can mix whatever fruits you like in there, unless fruit is also a no no in your family pickiness list. But generally everyone likes a good fruit salad in the summer.
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I have a really amazing baked beans recipe that isn’t difficult.
Something cold: strawberry spinach salad. It’s always a huge hit. You can make the dressing ahead of time and then toss the salad and dressing when it’s time to serve. Super yum. People love it.
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Fruit salad’s a possibility.
And there will be lots of baked beans. If you have a gathering of people in New England without baked beans present, our forefathers roll in their graves. Or our foremothers, I guess.
(Tangent: baked beans are a staple of New England because our very Puritan ancestors began Sabbath Saturday night. She would cook the beans all day Saturday and baked beans were the traditional Saturday night meal—and still are: Franks & Beans are the Saturday night special at many a New England diner. They would then have the beans with Sunday morning breakfast, because there was no labor on the Sabbath. You also find baked beans on the breakfast menu of most NE diners. Tangent over. Oh, and I hate baked beans.)
The strawberry spinach salad sounds intriguing. (I love strawberries AND fresh spinach.) Do you have a recipe or shall I google it?
Oh, I guess I could use that recipe app thing on the iTouch.
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http://nicemommy-evileditor.com/blog/?p=842
^recipe. Just mix the dressing, slice the strawberries and wash salad. Then combine all three to serve.
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If y’all like more meat as a side dish (we do that a lot having more testosterone in the house than can be measured on the planet), I have a crock pot recipe that’s about the easiest thing on the planet.
If you’re really lazy, buy premade meatballs, otherwise just bring along the meatballs
1 jar of Heinz chili sauce
1 jar grape jelly
Toss it all in the crock pot and cook on low for about 6 hours. Stir to mix the sauce and you have sweet and sour meatballs. I usually serve them up with toothpicks, but a spoon works just as well. Sounds gross, but it’s really yummy. Honest. And the testosterone faction loves it.
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I was going to say baked beans, but it looks like that’s covered. Anyway, sounds like a good time. Oooh, and I’ve had the chili sauce/grape jelly meatballs before and they’re very good too.
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In lieu of potato salad, I usually make a light pasta salad for outdoor barbecues, which is usually a hit with most folks. You can eat most types of pasta salad cold or at room temperature, although I prefer it chilled. My sister-in-law used to make hers with tuna and elbow macaroni, although that probably qualifies more as tuna salad.
Another easy one is fruit and cheese kabobs. You slide chunks or balls of any fruit and cubes of various cheeses on skewers and you’re done — no cooking, just chopping and assembling. You can buy the cheese already cubed in bags at the market.
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I’m definitely making the strawberry spinach salad. Right after I figure out what “hulled” means.
Lori, one of the seasonal campers makes a dish like that, but with keilbasa and hot dog chunks instead of meatballs. Too DIE for. I tried to duplicate it at home, with zero success. We’re content to gorge on hers during campground events.
Lynn, I think I’ll make fruit-kabobs, too. I never thought of that. We’ve got an unusually high percentage of folks who don’t like cheese there, but fruit balls on a skewer is a brilliant idea (and pretty). There’s a lot of milling around and snacking, so a lot of bowls get set down and walked away from. Wasted food AND disposable bowls. Being able to grab a skewer on the run=win!
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