First, grilled nectarines are a wonderful accompaniment to a juicy grilled flank steak, because they make all the spices and the flavors of the steak stand out.

Here is what you need for this delicious recipe:

You will need 1-1/2 pounds beef flank steak, 1/4 cup beef broth, 1/4 cup honey, 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar, 3 tablespoons soy sauce, 2 tablespoons brown sugar, 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger root, 2 cloves minced garlic, 1/4 cup minced onion, 1/8 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes, and 4 nectarines cut in half.

Directions:

1. First, cut the beef in a crisscross pattern 1/2″ apart and 1/8″ deep on both sides of the steak.

2. Next, place beef in a zip locking heavy duty plastic bag.

3. Combine beef broth, honey, vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger, garlic, onion, and red pepper flakes in small bowl and mix.

4. Pour this marinade over beef and seal bag. Place bag in glass baking dish to catch any leaks.

5. Lastly, refrigerate the steak for 6-24 hours.

At the grill:

1. Remove beef from marinade and reserve liquid.

2. Then put the steak on the grill and cook 4-5″ from medium heat for 12-15 minutes until medium (10-12 minutes for medium-rare), brushing twice with marinade.

3. Add nectarines to grill the last 6 minutes of grill time, turning once and brushing with marinade.

4. Cut beef across grain, and serve with nectarines.

This recipe takes around 30 minutes to prepare, and it will not disappoint!

Making stars is a great activity to do with kids. It will allow for bonding time, plus give you an avenue to discuss the significance of Memorial Day. This particular star is three-dimensional.  It can stand on any table. To make this fun craft, you need stiff paper (card stock, cardboard, meat trays), scissors, and crayons or color markers.

Directions:

1. On a piece of stiff paper, draw two identical stars. Get the kids involved with this one, so you can see who is the artist in the family.

2. Decorate the two stars in two colors. For example, color one star with red stripes and the other with a blue background and white stars. This can be a great fun for the kids.

3. Carefully cut out both stars.

4. Make one slit in each star. On one star, the slit goes from an inner corner to the center point of the star; on the other star, the slit goes from an outer corner to the center point.

5. Slip the two stars together through the slits you just cut. For stability, you may have to tape the stars where they meet at the slits.

This craft usually takes 15 minutes or less, and it is a great way to honor soldiers on Memorial Day.

First, the food and beverages are key to a successful Memorial Day party. Having a barbecue is not a bad idea, since great summer parties are often spent outside. Serve dishes that kids and adults alike will be sure to enjoy, like juicy hamburgers, hot dogs, and even corn on the cob. Pasta and potato salads round out the menu, and for desserts, blueberry tarts and apple pies are excellent choices.

Beverages are also a factor in the party’s success, so keep the cold drinks plentiful. Iced tea is a summer tradition, but why not try it with a new twist? Serve peach or raspberry tea or cranberry lemonade. A cool, fruity summer sangria is also a great choice. But of course, beer takes top priority for many. Finally, make sure the kids have juice boxes or pouches available. (These are hard to spill and can be taken wherever the action is).

To engineer a great Memorial Day party, have footballs, frisbees, and baseballs for the kids to play with.  Even bubbles will provide hours of fun. Let’s face it, games are great for parties, because they will keep the kids occupied. You can have conversations with your friends while the children exercise. It is a win-win.

Hopefully, these party ideas will be useful for your Memorial Day bargeque, or for any of the many parties you will hold this summer.

If you’re celebrating… anything… this summer, a cookout is the way to go. All cookouts are pretty great, but there are some things you can do to ensure that your summer festivities are extra special.

1) Repel the bugs. A fine summer day can devolve into an itchy bugfest with the onset of dusk. Setting a bottle of Off on the picnic table isn’t enough to protect your guests and your reputation as a host. Prepare your yard ahead of time with a lawn spray. You can generally get a full day of bug free living with one application.

2) Food. Cookout time is no time to worry about diets. The grill is meant to cook meat, and lots of it. Hamburgers, hot dogs, and various sausages are the preferred fare. You can supplement with salads and fruits and such, but don’t neuter your BBQ by taking away the good stuff.

3) Plan for the Weather. You can’t control the weather, but you can mitigate its effects. Consult the Farmer’s Almanac when picking the date. If you live in an area prone to late afternoon showers, move the party earlier in the day. Work around the things you can’t control.

4) Shake things up. It’s easy to plan one great cookout. Planning a string of them over several months year after year requires a little more. You can’t just do the same thing every time. Adjust the theme for each event. Aunt Betty’s 70th birthday party should feel distinctly different from your Memorial Day celebration.

5) Piñatas. If you’ve got kids at the party, you can’t go wrong with a piñata. Just remember two important things: Make sure you’ve got a video camera and keep out of the way. Trust me on this one.

It may be true that the holiday was deliberately placed at the beginning of summer — one theory is that this time of year was chosen because, by then, all regions of the U.S. would have plenty of flowers to decorate soldiers’ graves. But summer-kickoff events like pool openings and barbecues sometimes overshadow the real reason for Memorial Day. (Not that a barbecue isn’t a great way to celebrate.)

So how do we reclaim Memorial Day as a patriotic occasion AND have fun? Here are some ideas:

Take part in the National Moment of Remembrance. At 3pm on Memorial Day, pause for one minute of silence to honor the war dead. “In this shared remembrance, we connect as Americans,” says remember.gov, where you can find more information. Ask your family and friends to gather for this moment. You can keep it very simple (remember.gov says you might want to ring a bell three times) or organize other activities around it.

Kids will probably be impressed by the minute of silence, so rare in our world. To reinforce the theme, show them VA kids, which has online coloring, games, and other activities, including one that lets them design their own military medal, for Memorial Day.

If you’re on your own, Public Affairs at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey has some suggestions for you: Join other singles for a theme potluck. If you’re not feeling that friendly, stay home and watch a patriotic movie. (When you get hungry, they say, go crash the singles potluck.)

Anything you can do in the spirit of Memorial Day will help it be more than just another long weekend.

As to why Memorial Day came to be celebrated on the last Monday of May- on May 5, 1868, three years after the end of the Civil War, Decoration Day was established by the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) in order for the war dead to have their graves decorated with flowers in remembrance of their sacrifices for their country. It was Major General John A. Logan who chose the last Monday in May to be Decoration Day because flowers were in bloom all over the nation and therefore easily accessible to place on graves.

The very first Memorial Day was celebrated on May 30, 1868. On that day, flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers. A speech was made at Arlington Cemetery by General James Garfield. Once the speech was finished, 5,000 people decorated the more than 20,000 graves of soldiers buried there.

The south would not honor those who died in the war on the designated holiday until the end of World War I. At this time, the meaning of Memorial Day shifted- it became a day not to honor those who died in the Civil War only but Americans who lost their lives in any war.

The very first state to recognize the newly named Memorial Day was New York and that was thanks to President Lyndon Johnson. On Memorial Day across the country flags remain at half-staff all morning until noon time. They are then raised to the top.

The Memorial Day flower is the red poppy. The custom of wearing red poppies on Memorial Day was first started in 1915 by Moina Michaels who felt it was a fitting way to honor the war dead.

Memorial Day Quotes

“For love of country they accepted death …” -James A. Garfield
“We come, not to mourn our dead soldiers, but to praise them.”-Francis A. Walker