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dr.com 2013 Spring Picnic - May 5th, 12-6, Fort Hunt Park


DonRocks

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I will bring crudités, as well as caprese.

I could bring fancy, high-falutin' dip and have a dip-off against the Liptons, but I know the Liptons would win.

I agree, can't have too many devilled eggs. I could bring that, too, but my eggs are too new, wouldn't peel.

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I will bring crudités, as well as caprese.

I could bring fancy, high-falutin' dip and have a dip-off against the Liptons, but I know the Liptons would win.

I agree, can't have too many devilled eggs. I could bring that, too, but my eggs are too new, wouldn't peel.

Crudites sound(s) great. And, no, never too many deviled eggs, the ultimate picnic food (or one of them, anyway...)

Give it a shot on the dip, if you want. Maybe you'll be surprised ;)

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I plan on getting there around 12:30. I will bring a bag of ice, but no cooler...so if you have an empty cooler I will have some ice for it.

Great! Thanks. I'm bagging up some ice from my ice maker to get a start, but won't be anywhere near enough.

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OK, dip it is. I am thinking a couple of recipes from Cooks Illustrated, Caesar dip with anchovies and Parmesan, and Green Goddess dip.

Also a couple of Mason jars of homemade, naturally fermented sauerkraut, one green cabbage, one red cabbage. I like the red better.

Also, a tub of Pico de Gallo I bought at either MOM or Whole Food on a whim but don't think I am going to actually use.

And four bottles of Malbec and/or Zinfandel.

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I'm also going to bring some cookbooks to swap-picked up some new ones recently, so I must jettison a few. I have so much miscellaneous stuff I need to bring, besides food, I should start loading the vehicle tonight...

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I'm now +1 semi-jet lagged companion, so I'll go ahead and make some GF mad scientist cookies and potato salad. Please bring bags if you want some herbs. I've got loads of Kentucky Colonel spearmint, "chocolate" peppermint, and rosemary.

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I got a cooler and I've got a bag of ice, so those are coming.

I made the GF lemon bars this evening and they are not up to my standards..... the store is carrying a different variety of GF flour and it didn't perform as I expected. Still edible but I hate when things don't turn out.

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And thanks for the deviled egg support. I'll bring those, one cooler w/ ice, an empty cooler or two & some wine. Pat, anything else?

Since there's going to be plenty of wine, we might need some more cups. There aren't too many things that require cups, but wine is one of them :) .

Non-water non-alcoholic beverages would also be welcome, if anyone wants to provide some.

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Wasn't sure until just now, but I should be able to attend, either plus .5 or plus 1.5. I'll bring some cold nettle soup, and a bottle of wine. Looking forward to it!

Wonderful. Anybody who hasn't RSVP'd and can come by, please do. We'll be at site C-2, our regular site. I see that's omitted from the title.

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What a wonderful day for a picnic! And what a wonderful picnic!

Despit the fact that the turnout was low, perhaps my favorite picnic of all.

I admit I did not try everything, in part because of issues with wheat and sugar, but I still indulged in the GF lemon bars and cookies, which were stellar. I know lperry was not happy with the lemon bars, but I thought they were great.

Still, my favorites were the pork ssam and ribs, and DH's caprese.

I further admit that I did not try The Matt's Lipton onion dip, but joyfully dipped his Ruffles into my own dips, which came out pretty good. At the end of the day, made sure that Becca went home with all the potato chips. And am sitting here, rueing that fact, and wishing I had potato chips right now.

Dang it, The Matt, those potato chips were so good!

Please, someone, remind me, next picnic, I need to make layered Jello shot mold. And Ambrosia salad. And The Matt needs to bring green bean casserole. Or I will.

Edited to add, DH ( Dear Husband) was hiding a big bag of Grandpa Utz's handcooked potato chips fried in lard in his closet, and just presented them to me, along with the two tubs of leftover dip I made for the picnic. Oh, I do love this man.

I may be going to cardiovascular hell but with a big smile on my face.

Over and out.

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Agree the picnic was intimate, but really enjoyable. Great food, people and conversation.

Shouts out to the buttermilk pie (so creamy and recipe, please), GF lemon bars, ribs, jalapeno mac n cheese casserole (I know I got the recipe last year, but will need it again), shrimp, saffron deviled eggs and Matt's potato chips ;)

Thanks all for a great afternoon, and let's do it bigger and better next time!

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a second request for the buttermilk pie recipe, Bettyjoan! scrumptious! the bo ssam was also kick-ass, as were the ribs. And Matt's guilty pleasure was indulged in by.........well, I'm not naming names, but it was popular.

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I am so glad I was FINALLY able to attend a DR picnic - it did not disappoint! It is now quarter past seven, and I am not even the least bit hungry. The jalapeno mac and cheese casserole was delish, and I would second a request for that recipe (not even sure who brought it?). All of the piggy goodness was divine, and really, there wasn't a bad bite to be had, but the people really made the event. Thanks to all who made it happen.

Here is the recipe for the pie: http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/raspberry-buttermilk-pie-00100000089312/index.html

I told you everyone would laugh when they saw how stupid easy it was. :P I used store-bought crust (still had to parbake it), but made sure to use really good raspberry jam (would normally make my own, but not quite time for that yet).

So...when is our next event??? :D

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Thank you to everyone for the food and company today. I can't take credit for the lemon bars - I think those were Weezy's?

Everything was wonderful, and even though the weather started out chilly, it warmed up to sunny and glorious. The best part of the day was the deviled-egg to person ratio, which I would estimate to be 3:1. See you all next time!

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I am so glad I was FINALLY able to attend a DR picnic - it did not disappoint! It is now quarter past seven, and I am not even the least bit hungry. The jalapeno mac and cheese casserole was delish, and I would second a request for that recipe (not even sure who brought it?). All of the piggy goodness was divine, and really, there wasn't a bad bite to be had, but the people really made the event. Thanks to all who made it happen.

Here is the recipe for the pie: http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/raspberry-buttermilk-pie-00100000089312/index.html

I told you everyone would laugh when they saw how stupid easy it was. :P I used store-bought crust (still had to parbake it), but made sure to use really good raspberry jam (would normally make my own, but not quite time for that yet).

So...when is our next event??? :D

Thanks for the recipe link, Bettyjoan.

The jalapeno cheese squares were courtesy of John G. Williams and his wife Monica.

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Thanks for the recipe link, Bettyjoan.

The jalapeno cheese squares were courtesy of John G. Williams and his wife Monica.

When I die, whether I go to heaven, hell, get reincarnated, or simply become one with the universe again, I hope they serve those jalapeno cheese squares.

I had a great time meeting everyone and I hope to be able to be at the next event!

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It's been a long few weeks and I can't tell you all what a welcome break the picnic was yesterday. Thank you to everyone who brought such delicious goodies and took the time to hang out. The pulled pork, bo ssam, caprese, purple asparagus, and swiss chard/mozzarella salad were some of my faves. But please don't think I missed Matt's potato chips or dessert. In fact, I inhaled dessert. lperry, your gluten free cookies were a major hit with us. So great to see everyone. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm already looking forward to the fall picnic. So great to see everyone and catch up over such great food. Who's hosting tonight?

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This was the year of the deviled egg, i believe had 5 different kinds, all good, all different. The korean pork, the shrimp salad, the desserts, the shredded greens, ribs, pulled pork... Well I could go on and on. Thanks again for the mint and the rosemary cuttings, knife sharpening and electronic cigerette demonstrations.

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If anyone is interested in the Bo Ssam, I followed the wonderful recipe* and guidance of The Bitten Word. They did a test pork roast before serving the Bo Ssam at a progressive dinner, and gleaned a lot, leading their readers to turn out an excellent piece of pig, even for a first timer like me :)

roasted pork>
*I added honey to taste to the Scallion Ginger Sauce and got good feedback on the result.
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I enjoyed all of the deviled eggs I tried: truffle salt, saffron salt, kimchi with fish roe, and plain old regular topped with paprika. They are such a great picnic food and very versatile, as the selection proved. We went from no one bringing them to a whole lot, but that's the way it goes B) . Gotta have deviled eggs at a picnic. I also enjoyed the mustardy potato salad. I'm not sure who brought that.

The buttermilk raspberry pie was my absolute favorite thing (as anyone sitting near me can attest), and I'm not a dessert person. The Bo Ssam was wonderful, even though I was already overdosing on pork. I went to town wrapping those fillings up in lettuce.

Of the dips, it was a tie between the Caesar anchovy and the green goddess. I kept going back and forth, checking and testing. Can you post the green goddess recipe, Ilaine? Someone was asking about it. Interestingly, next after that was the low fat Lipton's Onion Dip. The consistency was just more satisfying that the full fat for some reason. I was trying to stick with the healthy crudites for dipping but ate a lot of potato chips anyway.

A couple of people asked about the chocolate cake recipe. This is it here. I used Left Hand Milk Stout Nitro because that's what I had. (That's what I used when I made it before and didn't want to tinker with the recipe since it came out great.)

The weather was quite perverse in getting warmer once the picnic was over, but my husband and I had a good time. That breeze was quite chilly.

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I want to say a huge thank-you to Pat for organizing our fab picnic! So good to see pals with shared experiences from 8+ years to now, a few of whom I keep up with in person, on DR, FB, Twitter and (gasp) LinkedIn.

Note to LoveHockey: I lived in Nainamo for 2.5 years and could not tolerate the treacle-y sweetness of Nanaimo bars that I sampled throughout Vancouver Island. I tried yours and now I get it. You tempered the chocolate to provide a good snap, stayed light on the coconut and the pastry creme filling and that made all of the difference for me. Nice work.

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I echo the thanks to Pat and thistle for coordinating and getting things set up/taken down! We lucked out with the weather, given the dreariness of the days following the picnic.

Great food - all of it - and fun, as always!

And thanks also to weezy for bringing out her knife-sharpening gear. She had her work cut out for her ^_^ with my dull knives, but I certainly appreciated the time she spent when using them last night!

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It's not the reservation, it's the running of the event. Someone needs to step forward and organize, and the usual suspects that I have spoken with (myself included) are too busy at the moment.

The space is still available 10/13, 20, 27, but 10/6 is now booked.

Personally, I'm iffy on the 20th, and completely out the other two dates.

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I'm just warning you before you begin: expect 20-30 people this autumn - there hasn't been enough momentum.

I've attended just about every picnic since I joined, and each one has been enjoyable no matter the attendance (which seems to be quite weather-dependent.)  There may be crowds and it will be a bit louder with more large-scale cooking going on, or there may be a smaller group and it will be more intimate with more discussion of various wines or foods, and there are enough outgoing personalities that it's really easy to make new friends.  I grant you, there are a core group of regulars, but I haven't heard anyone suggesting we call it all off.  On the contrary, everyone leaves talking about the next get-together.  If there is someone willing to organize, I think it has plenty of momentum and I look forward to seeing everyone at Fort Hunt!

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I have the tablecloths, leftover servingware & cups, & I can be there early to set up (I live right down the road)- the 13th sounds like a good date, & I can start thinking about food to bring-smoked meats & poundcake, anyone? If less people come, we can chip in $10/pp instead of $5, to cover the site cost-the picnics are one of the special things about this group, & anyone that can make it, should try to- so much awesome food, & meeting people you usually only talk to online...

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