Picnic Potato Salad

We're heading to the lake today and bringing a request of the host, picnic potato salad. It puts the goopy yellow stuff at the grocery store to shame. Here's how to do it:

Hard boil three eggs; I keep it old school and cover with water, bring to a boil, and pull from the burner and let them sit in the hot water for 20 minutes before peeling and chopping.

While the eggs are doing their thing, preheat the oven to 450. Once it's up to temp bake a half pound of bacon for about 17 minutes. Pull when crispy and then dice.

While the oven is preheating, rinse off about four pounds of redskin potatoes, cover with water in a large pot, and put on high until the water boils. Lower to a simmer, and drain when potatoes are fork tender. Chop into cubes.

While bacon and potatoes are baking and cooking, prep the follow ingredients and put in a large mixing bowl.

3 celery stalks, diced
4 green onions, thinly sliced
2 T chopped fresh dill
3 hard boiled eggs, diced
1 cup mayo
1 T Dijon mustard
1/2 pound bacon, diced

At this point the bacon and potatoes should be chopped and ready to go. Pour the bacon grease in a large cast iron skillet; I scrape all the brown bits in, too. Over medium heat, warm the pan and add potatoes and cook until browned and just starting to soften.

Add the potatoes to the other ingredients, salt and pepper to taste, and gently stir as to not break up the potatoes too much.

It's best served warm, but it is also great if you have to chill it and take it to a picnic.

On an aside, I made extra hard boiled eggs and prepped extra celery so I could toss together a quick egg salad, too. I added diced chives from the garden, mayo, a pinch of salt, and a couple cranks of pepper. I put it in the fridge for a quick lunch tomorrow that was prepped today with minimal extra work!

Pop-Up Dinner Party

Dinner parties are great fun, right? So are picnics in the park. When you combine the two together you get the best of both worlds: a pop-up dinner party.

My sister and I hosted our first pop-up dinner party last summer, and it was such a success that we've been plotting and planning our next event for months now.

Here are some recommendations for what you'll need if you'd like to host your own event that is guaranteed to dazzle your friends.

1. Plan ahead and share the load.

In our prep, we divided the work so that I prepared an appetizer, the main course, and dessert. My sister took care of the drinks, an appetizer, and the tablescape. This perfectly suits our interests and made everything so much less stressful than trying to tackle the project solo.

In retrospect, I think this is actually less stressful than hosting at home because I didn't have to clean the house and make the food and decorate for the event. That's a win-win in my book.

2. Select a gorgeous setting.

I scouted several locations around town that were picturesque and accessible. Some were ruled out because they were too far from the parking lot (a strong consideration when lugging coolers and folding tables!) or required a pricy permit.

We settled on Hunt Park; it's perched at a high point in the city and overlooks the tree framed skyline of downtown Ann Arbor. It was shaded, close to street parking, and picturesque. In other words, just perfect for our pop-up party.

When sending out the invitation, we opted to tell guests that the location was a surprise that would be texted and revealed two hours before dinner. This allowed us to have a backup plan in case the weather was poor or some other unplanned occurrence spoiled our first choice.

We also planned our start time for 7:00 p.m. so we'd have over 2 hours for dinner and enough time to pack things in before it got too dark to see. Everyone was handy with the cleanup, so we got it all in the trunks just as the last glimmer of light was fading.

3. Create a menu that suits the setting.

We debated the menu and finally came up with warm weather favorites that didn't require warming up. Everything was made ahead, wrapped tightly in plastic, and unwrapped at the park.

 We started with pimento cheese and celery, a recipe from local favorite Zingerman's, and baguette topped with creamy goat cheese, chopped pistachios, fresh thyme, and summer fruit compote from American Spoon. 

We sipped on two craft cocktails to start and had sangria and Pellegrino for later in the meal.

I made a summer favorite, lemon linguine with Cajun shrimp as the main dish, a huge loaf of wonderful French bread, and blueberry buckle for dessert.

4. Come prepared.

We showed up with folding tables and chairs as well as everything we needed for table settings. These are the easy to forget items I made sure I had before leaving home:

wet rags for wiping up messy serving dishes
serving spoons and forks
garbage and recycling bags
plastic wrap for taking leftovers home
crates for taking home dirty dishes
card table and table cloth for prep

We're plotting our next pop-up dinner for late June, and I'm excited to give it another go at our next secret location. More details to come!

Cheers!

Chicken Slider Cravings

This is it, folks. This is the sandwich that will be the envy of the lunchroom while still completely doable as a weeknight meal. Behold! The chicken slider.

While seemingly simple, this tasty, easy to prepare sandwich is sure to make its way into your dinner rotation.

You'll need:

One package of chicken breasts, pounded and cut into slider bun sized pieces; I use Amish chicken and get about a dozen sandwiches from it.

12-pack slider buns

Flour

Corn Flake crumbs; these are the secret weapon for this recipe, so don't skimp. You can find them at grocery stores near the bread crumbs and Panko.

2 eggs, beaten

Toppings:

Thinly sliced tomato

Thinly shredded lettuce (or leftover salad mix that's hanging out in the fridge)

Mayo


Directions: 
Cover the bottom of your largest frying pan with oil (extra virgin olive oil or vegetable oil, whatever is on hand). Turn the pan to medium heat.

In three different bowls, set up your dredging stations. Flour goes in the first bowl, eggs in the second, and crumbs in the third. I line them up in a progression leading to the cast iron skillet to make movement easy as it flows from one bowl to the next and into the frying pan.

Salt and pepper each side of the chicken, and dredge in flour, egg, and then crumbs. Test the oil with a little Corn Flake crumb to see that it's sizzling, and carefully slide the chicken in. Repeat until the pan is full but chicken is not too crowded and touching. Fry on the first side for about four minutes, or until golden brown all over. Flip over for another three or four minutes until the second side is also golden brown. I always touch the thickest part of the chicken to see if it's firm and cooked through. Repeat in batches, putting cooked chicken on a plate nearby; I don't worry about covering the plate because I use what's hottest for dinner and what's cooler for packed lunches.

When all the chicken is cooked, assemble the sandwiches by putting mayo (the more the merrier!), a slice of tomato, and lettuce on the bun along with the chicken.

I serve them with cold veggies that are favorites in my house like cucumbers, carrots, and red peppers.

Wine Tour Weekend in Traverse City

When planning for a wine tour with girl friends, Pinterest was mostly a Pintrocity. Slim Jims, Hostess mini-muffins, and bags of cheese and cracker sandwiches sound more appropriate for a tour of Boone's Farm, not the Mission Peninsula.

Looking for inspiration, I fell back on finger foods I serve at happy hours. Looking for snacks that would travel well, stay relatively mess free, and pair nicely with the wine we sipped at each of our eight stops on the tour, I put together this fabulous array.

They were great for cleansing the palate and keeping us from getting too tipsy as our driver crisscrossed across the Mission Peninsula on a bright and sunny May day.

All the items were packed in sturdy containers and put in a canvas tote, happily passed back and forth over the five hour tour. Temperatures were moderate, so I didn't even bother with an ice pack to keep things cool.

We brought:

Manchego cheese
Rice crackers
Mixed nuts with dried fruit
Red grapes
Shortbread cookies with rosemary and sea salt
Chocolate
Water

What have you packed for your wine tour picnics? Do you have any additions to the list?

Our tour of the Mission Peninsula included stops at:

Black Star Farms
Peninsula Cellars
2 Lads Winery
Chateau Chantal
Bowers Harbor Vineyards
Brys Estate Vineyard and Winery
Chateau Grand Traverse
Bonobo Winery

Our culinary adventures didn't end with the wine tour. We had a fantastic time eating out in Traverse City, and it all made for a perfect weekend full of good wine, food, and friends.

Curious about our dining picks in Traverse City? We happily ate out at:
Hearth and Vine Cafe
Trattoria Stella
Amical
The Franklin

Trip to Farmer's Market Steak Salad

A last minute trip to Farmer's Market, and the local butcher next door, inspired this simple weeknight dinner.

A favorite farmer had huge bags of delicious spring mix, so that along with a skirt steak from the butcher were my take homes. I paired it with veggies in the fridge, in this case cucumber and avocado, and my favorite local baguette.

Parents had a full salad, and the kids, who don't yet feel the lettuce love, had theirs sans salad mix.

A quick mince of some fresh herbs from the garden and a small clove of garlic made for a tasty herb butter, and the meal was on the table in under 30 minutes.

Although not for dinner, I also picked up these gorgeous baskets, a true feast for the eyes. They even got catcalled as I hauled them back to the car by a passerby who whistled and cooed, "Ooohh, basket envy." Aren't they gorgeous?