I love picnics
Tips and tricks to having perfect picnics
I love the warmer months for many reasons but the one that trumps all others is: picnics. There is nothing that sparks more joy and more perfectly marries everything that I love do in these months of 70 degrees and above than to sit outside on a picnic blanket in the park with friends and enjoy delicious food. I love the versatility of a picnic, too, from the environment to the menu, there are very few rules and regulations when it comes to picnicking. (Nonetheless, there are certain tips and tricks to make your picnics the best that they can be.) I like to consider any meal spent huddled in the outdoors to be a picnic. Sitting on a bench with a slice of pizza: picnic. Sitting in the sand on the beach with sandwiches and chips: picnic. Sitting in the bed of a pickup truck and eating wraps from the deli: picnic. (I remember doing just this in high school in the back of my dad’s truck with my friends in downtown Chappaqua so many years ago!) You can eat cheese and crackers as an antipasti-situation and call it a picnic or even eat cake with strawberries and whipped cream—as you will see my friends and I did below—and that’s a picnic, as well. Picnics come in all shapes and sizes, as you can see and I definitely don’t discriminate against any type. My most favorite spot, though, is on the huge grassy lawn in Sheep Meadow in Central Park, as I’m sure nearly every other New Yorker would say, as well.
The menu is another part of what makes picnics so special to me. There is an art to writing every menu—whether that’s for a party, a dinner date, a luncheon, a BBQ, a picnic, and so on so forth—there is a way to craft the menu to fit the vibe of the gathering. No matter how big or small this gathering is, I still love to focus on creating a menu that aligns with the guests, season, environment, and atmosphere to make it the very best and most fulfilling few hours as possible.
I like to create my menus around one focal point, or a main dish. The rest of the menu then consists of little bites to pick at but everything should taste good being eaten together. I think the magic of a picnic menu lays in the little bites. Like any dinner party, having multiple “courses” helps with the flow of the meal, even if these bites aren’t actually coursed out during the picnic. It’s nice to take a bite here and there while sitting around and chatting. A picnic is meant to be relaxing and having multiple little bites makes everything more casual and inviting.
Some Tips and Tricks:
Don’t overcomplicate
That means in the items on the menu, the ingredients in each dish, and the time that it takes to make any of the dishes.
Pick a central theme and go from there
It’s easier to wrap your head around what you’re trying to accomplish if you build your picnic around a central dish.
Simple flavors, easy methods
This goes hand-in-hand with don’t overcomplicate. There is absolutely a time and a place for complex technique and multiple steps to reach the final product but I firmly believe that picnics are not this time or place.
Everything should be able to be eaten at room temperature
The reason why pasta salad, chicken salad, chickpea salad, or anything else in the same category are so ideal for a picnic is because they’re best enjoyed at room temperature. We don’t want to pack foods that must be eaten piping hot, like soup, or even chilled, like ceviche. This is why a sandwich or wrap is most often seen among the picnic scene.
Everything should be able to be left out for several hours and not spoil
Personally, I would opt for no fish. It’s just too touchy when it comes to fish in the sun. Smoked salmon or gravlax, on the other hand, would be okay on a bagel with cream cheese, capers, dill, and red onion since it’s cured and is often part of brunch spreads which are left out for many hours at a time.
Don’t be afraid to round out the meal with some packaged items like chips or pretzels
I don’t think picnics are the time or place to pride yourself on making everything from scratch. Sometimes the beauty of a picnic lays in its spontaneity and in times like these, it’s more than okay to rely on Cape Cod chips or the best chocolate covered pretzels from Savor by Suzie.
Dips are your best friend
Guacamole, salsa, hummus, aioli, baba ganoush… people always love dips. It’s the perfect accompaniment to any meal where the main event is just sitting around and picking at your food in the midst of chatting.
I’ve had several very different and very refreshing Central Park picnics these last few weeks to ring in the (finally!!) warm weather. The first one of the season was with Sam and his cousin, Henry, where we ate quesadillas and guac on a Sunday evening. The second one was actually not in Central Park but in Riverside Park on the Upper West Side with my family where we sat at a picnic table where we deconstructed an entire (not homemade!) lobster and clam bake. The third one was your run of the mill dinner at sunset picnic with my friend, Lauren. And finally, the fourth and most recent one was with some of my home friends where we reimagined the Chappaqua Strawberry Festival as a picnic.
With Sam and Henry, I learned that quesadillas are not the most picnic-friendly meal. I just really wanted quesadillas since I recently ordered the famous Carmelo tortillas and have been obsessing over them ever since. Nonetheless, quesadillas don’t stay warm when you travel with them and the melted cheese causes the once crispy and crunchy pan-fried tortilla to get soft and soggy. Thankfully, Carmelo tortillas are just that good that they weren’t inedible. But, I would recommend against serving anything with melted cheese—it’s not very “melty” by the time it reaches the picnic blanket.
With Lauren, this picnic happened to align with Lauren’s birthday the next day, so, I thoughtfully crafted an easy-to-travel meal to celebrate her. It consisted of a somewhat classic Trofie al Pesto Genovese with Green Beans and Potatoes, a Lingurian pasta dish that I felt would be still delicious eaten at room temperature. This is my take on a grown-up pasta salad. To go with this dish, I wanted to do flavorful, easy bites. I didn’t want the rest of the meal to be too complicated. I packed a couple of pieces of a sourdough focaccia that Justin gave me, some Castelvetrano olives marinated with coriander seeds, lemon peel, black peppercorns, bay leaves, and dried chiles. For dessert, I made chocolate chip cookies from Samantha Seneviratne’s newest cookbook, Bake Smart, and they were phenomenal. Some of the best cookies that I have ever baked, I highly recommend this cookbook!
For our Unofficial Strawberry Fest, I procured some delicious first-of-the-season strawberries from the Farmers Market and macerated them in sugar and lemon juice so that the strawberries softened slightly but still held their shape and their sweet juices bled out of them and soaked into the cake and whipped cream. I made a cornmeal cake from Claire Saffitz’s cookbook, Dessert Person, and whipped heavy cream with a dash of vanilla and a pinch of salt. The result was a deconstructed strawberry shortcake! The one thing that would have made the spread even better would have been vanilla ice cream but when it’s 80 degrees and sunny, I figured melted ice cream was not the most intelligent addition.
And this is just the beginning! There are so many more picnics to be had and menus to craft, cook, and serve. I look forward to seeing you at the picnic blanket!