It’s the 4th of July, and food-wise that can only mean one thing: barbecue!

Amazingly, it looks like the weather might just hold out for a BBQ on the beach tonight. In preparation, I’m currently boiling up a few potatoes to make my Oma’s potato salad, which is, of course, the best potato salad in the world. All it takes is sliced potatoes, chopped boiled eggs, and some finely chopped onion bound together with a lightly vinegary mayonnaise and seasoned generously with salt and pepper. It’s simplicity itself, but it always tastes so good.

Next on my list is my mom’s coleslaw, which is tangy and crunchy and a million miles away from the thick, sickly-sweet, gloopy stuff that too often passes for coleslaw around these parts. Luckily, I happen to have gotten a head of spring cabbage and some nice carrots in my veg box today, so I’ll be putting them to good use.

Thinking about a barbecue got me to thinking about barbecue sauce which prompted me to dig out my granddad’s recipe for pork barbecue which I’ve been meaning to make for ages. The pork barbecue isn’t something you’d make at a BBQ seeing as it’s cooked in a giant pot on the stove—however, the sauce part of the recipe is my family’s default barbecue sauce for everything from cocktail sausages to barbecued ribs, and it’s those barbecued ribs that I’ve really got a hankering for today. I’ve never grilled ribs myself and I’m kind of intimidated by the prospect, but if this craving persists, I might just have to pay a little visit to the meat counter at Waitrose. If all else fails, I’ll whip up some of that smokey, spicy sauce and slather it on hot dogs or something.

Of course, all of this planning and anticipation may well be for naught; even as I’ve typed this, the formerly cloudless sky has become somewhat less cloudless, and it looks pretty breezy outside, so maybe there won’t be a BBQ after all—in which case, I’ll throw a blanket on the floor and Jeremy and I can feast on picnic food in the comfort of our own home. It won’t be quite as fun as having it outside, but I’ll bet the summery food will taste good all the same.

Happy Fourth of July!