the picnic: recipes & inspiration from basket to blanket

Fried chicken, slaw, pickles, iced tea and crumbles are lying in the pages of The Picnic, the inaugural Wit Wisdom & Food Cookbook club selection. Just waiting for you to turn the pages and plan your summer picnic before it is too late and fall is upon us. Seems like that is far away but we are just over a month away from Labor Day. Around here kids are already heading back to school this week. Whether we like it or not summer is drawing to a close.

If you have been on a lot of picnics or never been on one, The Picnic has all the information a beginner could need and new recipes for the seasoned picnickers. They will clue you in on how to pick the perfect picnic blanket, tips for picking the best spot and how to pack all the tasty morsels you will be making from the cookbook. Overall, I really enjoyed this cute little cookbook. I tried a handful of recipes and found quite a few recipes I still want to try. I will be reaching for this cookbook the rest of the summer. It is a book geared towards an experienced and sometimes expensive palette so don’t expect your run of the mill picnic fare here. If you want to really impress your date, husband or friends this is the kind of picnic food you want to pack.

 

 

I made the Smoky Tea-Brinded Fried Chicken which calls for, you guessed it, a smoky tea in the brine of the chicken. It gave it such an amazing smell and flavor. I was worried it would be hard to find a smoky tea, but found it at many of the large grocery stores. Twinings made the version I purchased. The recipe calls for 1/4 cup which is about 10 tea bags. Bonus for using tea bags you don’t have to strain out the tea.

There should be pictures of that tasty chicken, but I learned a few things about frying chicken by making this recipe. 1.) don’t the oil too hot or your coating will burn and your chicken won’t be cooked. 2.) If this happens to you just finish the chicken in a 350°F oven until it is done. Our chicken was delicious both that night and cold the next day it just wasn’t camera ready.

I also made my own version of their Quickles, quick pickles. I used radishes and apple cider vinegar and I am very much looking forward to putting them on a pork tenderloin sandwich tonight. You can almost guarantee that will make an appearance on Instagram. They are so delicious on their own and I am finding it hard to keep my hands out of the jar. There are a variety of Quickle suggestions like fennel, beets and your regular cucumber pickle in the book. They take less than 20 minutes to make and will sit in your fridge waiting for that perfect picnic day. It is a great way to use some of your extra garden produce or in the off-chance (aka likely-event) that you over buy at the farmers market and don’t want anything to go to waste.

The Candy-Striped Beet, Fennel and Apple Coleslaw was good. I didn’t have beets but really liked the flavor of the dressing on the fennel and apple so I am certain it will be even better when I try it with the beets.

If you won’t be picnicking any time soon don’t despair all of these recipe work great in your backyard or the comfort of your air-conditioned home. Want to get really playful spread a blanket out in the living room and have an indoor picnic on a rainy day. Too much? Well at least try the Pecorino Popcorn with Tarragon Popcorn on movie night. Fresh popped popcorn is so much better than microwaved and easier than you think.

 

Aside from all the great recipes and the cute tips for better picnicking I love this book for the cute illustrations by Emily Isabella. It is refusing to have a cookbook with cute drawings instead of photos. They put me in a whimsical kind of mood that makes me want to pack a picnic basket and go fly a kite.

Let’s go fly a kite, up to the highest heights…. I have a thing for Mary Poppins and this song frequently plays in my head when I get excited about a fun, outdoor adventure that might involve kite flying. This happens to me more frequently than you might imagine.

So don’t hesitate get out there and enjoy one, or maybe a couple of picnics with your special someone, your kids, your dog or just a delicious afternoon by yourself. If you have a little breeze don’t forget a kite.

If you haven’t joined yet what are you waiting for, become part of the club at the Facebook group Wit Wisdom & Food Cookbook Club. The next book will be announced there later today.