what to cook for summer cookouts
plus what I'm packing in my hospital bag
I’m within the one month countdown of my due date, which is a truly wild time to be alive! I’ve got an “irritable uterus” (cute medical term!) this go around — AKA I’m basically contracting all the time? My nose acne is raging thanks to hormone fluctuations, I have random shooting pains down my legs that literally make me double over in pain, my pelvis is starting to feel like it’s splitting in half at all times, I haven’t slept through the night in about seven months, and lots of other wild symptoms that I don’t need to go into detail about here.
I’ve been induced for all three of the labors I’ve experienced thus far, so I know better than to expect to go into labor any second — even so, all the physical changes make it hard to think about much else.
Thankfully I have three other children, an impending move, and a job I love to help distract me, but to channel the anxious energy that’s inherent with an approaching birth, I updated my phone note for what to throw in my hospital bag. I deleted a lot (underwear! you do not need extra underwear! you ain’t going home in normal panties, gf), and added a few things from my last birth. Here’s what I’ll be packing!
For mom:
Earbuds for music
A comfort book for the down times of labor. As a fourth time mom, giving birth is basically a silent retreat. I’m thinking about re-reading It’s A Love Story by Annabel Monaghan. I love re-reading favorite books during anxious times, it both soothes me, and I find it impossible to get into a new book while my mind is elsewhere, such as, say, thinking about dilation.
Eye mask with bluetooth speakers to blast white noise. The nurses come in and turn the lights on all night long to check your monitors, etc., and I like to sleep through as much of that as possible!
Unisom, or whatever sleeping drug you’ve been taking, so that if you send the baby to the nursery for the night, you can actually calm your hormones down enough to get some sleep. Note: We accidentally put Gels in the collage but I am a Tabs girl!
A nice pillow in a pretty pillow case. Pretty because 1) It’ll be in the background of all your new baby photos and 2) You won’t accidentally forget it. From Molly: Yup, I forgot to swap my white pillow case out for a colorful one before I went to the hospital for Cole’s birth and indeed left my favorite pillow at the hospital!
Phone charger (people will tell you that you need to buy an extra long cord to reach to your hospital bed but just charge your phone by the wall and then bring it over to your bed… you’re fine).
Comfy nursing-friendly pajamas (Lake snaps nightgown for all the vag checks and pants sets for once the vag checks subside!)
A robe (optional — you can also just wear a hospital gown turned around so that the opening is in the front)
My fave nursing bra
My coziest crewneck
My current favorite shampoo and conditioner for that blissful first post-birth shower
Whatever toiletries you can’t live without (deodorant, toothbrush and toothpaste, face wash, face lotion, contact solution and glasses, body lotion, mascara)
Snacks and candy
A few adult diapers. Some people love the hospital mesh underwear + gigantic pad combo but I hate it, it makes me feel like a patient. I switch to Adult Depends ASAP, especially for heading home from the hospital.
One “going home outfit” — sounds dumb but vanity is sanity, I like to have something I feel great in to head home in. I’ll probably bring this gauze pant + button-down set since the days of my boobs needing to be accessible within a moments notice will have begun!
I will be stuffing it all into my XL Lands End tote.
For baby:
Pacifiers!!! The hospital will give you some to try but my babies always like these. My pediatrician was on vacation when my second son was born and the one I saw while she was away told me not to use pacifiers, instead to teach him to suck his thumb so that he could never lose it. I thought he was a genius at first but this turned out to be a huge problem. You can’t take a thumb away — so my second’s teeth got super messed up because he was such a thumb sucker for so many years! I love a pacifier, I do not believe in nipple confusion, I give them the paci and try to get them addicted to it right away. Sucking on something soothes them, pacifiers rock, I’ll die on this hill. From Molly: I’m with you on that hill! All of my boys have been paci suckers from day one.
Swaddles. The sweet angelic labor and delivery nurses will try to teach you how to swaddle a baby using swaddling blankets. You do not need to learn this. This is simply not knowledge that you need to waste your precious postpartum brain space on. Bring your own velcro swaddles to the hospital and tell ‘em thank you but no thank you on the swaddling lesson. I’ve used a different brand of swaddles in the past and am switching to these based on recs from friends who have had babies more recently.
One “going home” outfit. Otherwise I just keep them in diapers for constant skin-to-skin!
What else would you add that you LOVED having at the hospital with you?
I can tell by my DMs that many of you are already planning what you’ll be cooking for your Fourth of July cookouts and potlucks, so we’ve rounded up some dish ideas. I’ll also be sharing a new “summer chop” salad, perfect for toting to barbecues, this Saturday, so keep that in mind as you plan!
Drinks & apps:
greek turkey meatballs with dill yogurt — make the meatballs half the size, cut roughly 3 minutes from cook time (use your meat thermometer to make sure they’re cooked through!) and serve with toothpicks
beef enchilada casserole — as a dip! Omit the tortillas, add extra cheese (both stirred in and on top). You can even add some cream cheese in there if you’re feeling extra frisky
whipped pistachio feta and pita fries — for a hot day, serve with crudités instead of pita (or both!)
hot corn and scallion pimiento cheese or jalapeño bacon pimento cheese
everything but the bagel fried brie (see a video of it here!)
chipotle black bean flautas — cut ‘em up into little bite-sized pieces for grazing
Sides:
For the salads, you can skip the meat to make them more of a side dish than entrée
grilled steak caprese — add peaches to your caprese if you’ve got them!
Entrées:
Desserts:
Last week in the What to Cook chat we posed the question, “do you have any Fourth of July food traditions?” and you all delivered! Here are a few ideas from WTCers should you be in the market for a new idea this year.
2 make-ahead breakfast casseroles. One with sausage and cheddar and one with mushrooms and Swiss. We get up early for the local parade and having breakfast prepped is SO helpful. Also, watermelon. Bottomless bowls of watermelon. —Nicole (here’s the recipe for my go-to breakfast casserole!)
Do drinks count? 🤣 Best made with fresh (skin on) peaches. We always had these peach fuzzes growing up, sans alcohol, at our aunt’s house over the Fourth and I still love them as an adult! —Laura
We do super 1950s Americana foods — grilled hot dogs, et cetera, and my husband's grandma's potato salad which is pretty much mustardy mashed potatoes with hard boiled eggs because she was a terrible cook. It's delicious, though 😂 —Kirsten
A fruit salad w/ watermelon, blueberries, and white chocolate chips! —Sarah
Growing up in MA, we always had a clambake! —Meaghan
Whole-hog BBQ, but my contribution recently has been an old-fashioned ice box cake with chocolate chip cookies and cool whip. —Kate
I make a cold blueberry lemon cream pie with cool whip. Usually make a star or flag out of blueberries on top of the cool whip. So good! —Elise (FYI, Elise shared her recipe for this in the chat!)
And if you’re looking for weeknight meals in the meantime, here’s what we cooked this week over the last four years! The archives have been so strong the past few weeks, I love summer food!!! I want to eat all of these right now!!
1. 20-minute fish tacos, 2024
Tender fish, crunchy slaw (with juicy peaches!), and a zippy sauce all wrapped up in warm tortillas, these are a crowd-pleaser, weeknight hero, and a great “it’s too hot to grill” option. Prep the sauce and slaw ahead of time to make cooking dinner even faster!
2. jerk chicken with coconut rice and strawberry salsa, 2023
Summer on a plate — a little spicy, a little sweet! The chicken can marinate overnight, and the salsa holds beautifully in the fridge (minus the avocado, don’t add that till it’s time to eat), so this is another great one to chip away at so that the time you spend cooking right before dinner — at the end of a long summer day — can be short as possible.
3. balsamic basil grilled chicken, 2022
If you have basil plants going wild in your garden right now, make this meal! It’s a What to Cook classic. Serve the chicken over a big salad, or on a toasted bun with sun-dried tomato & basil mayo with the salad on the side.
4. turkey zucchini burgers, 2021
Shredded zucchini helps these lean turkey patties stay SO juicy (and extra nutritious). They freeze like a dream — stash some cooked patties in the freezer and you’ve got a homemade dinner ready to go on the busiest nights. PS, these are great tucked into a pita with tzatziki or this dilly minty yogurt sauce!
Caro I am so touched, but I think you should know in advance that if you bring my book to the hospital it automatically makes me the godmother. This is a recently passed California statute. Look it up, and I’m cheering for you from here! 💗
“Nipple confusion” is a lie perpetuated by Big Breastfeeding, I am with you both on that hill!