Picnic Menus

modom

I recently had a picnic on a rather chilly beach. We had:

A thermos of tomato-orange soup Pasta salad with ham, olives, fennel, and shaved Parmesan A loaf of rustic bread A wedge of Humboldt Fog cheese A bottle of Quady's Electra

I wrote the following last June:

==========================================================================

Over the summer, I plan to go on picnics with my girlfriend on a regular basis. I came up with the following menus, and thought some of you might like to see them as well. I can keep everything chilled, but the places we'll be picnicking don't have any cooking facilities, so everything will be pre-made and must be eaten chilled or at the ambient temperature. None of the menus are very extensive; it'll just be the two of us and she's not the hearty eater that I am.

I welcome comments and suggestions for additional picnic menus, or suggestions for altering the menus shown. The items with *'s are bought from a store rather than prepared by me, so if you want any of the recipes for the items which DON'T have *'s, let me know. Oh, and a couple of the iced teas are from The Republic of Tea; I've denoted those with a +:

Grilled chicken wraps Yogurt-cucumber dipping sauce Lebanese stewed green beans Baklava

Pan Bagnat Moroccan Carrots Saffron cooler Chocolate Truffles*

Salade Ni�oise Sourdough* White wine* Strawberries and cream

Goat cheese torta Sourdough* Peaches* Blackberry-Sage iced tea+

White Gazpacho (she doesn't like tomatoes) Mixed-starter bread Cold roasted chicken Homemade mayonnaise Chive butter Marinated artichoke hearts* White grape juice with lemon Peach Melba cobbler

Chilled Asparagus-Lemon soup Herb Bread Emeril's Lobster and Vanilla Bean Salad Raspberry-Quince iced tea+ Shortbread cookies

Baba Ghanoush Pita* Romaine* Egg salad Olives* Spiced Honey-Lemon Iced Tea Galub Jamun (Yes, I know it's not Middle Eastern. Sue me.)

==========================================================================

Some more picnic menus from last year are:

Pasta salad with chicken, soy sauce, scallions, and sesame oil Romaine leaves: We piled the pasta salad on the leaves and then ate with our fingers Fresh plums Iced jasmine tea

Modified Waldorf Salad: Added Cabrales cheese and used Asian pears instead of apples Gewurztraminer grape juice

Crenshaw melon with prosciutto Muffaletta Prosecco

Bob