dr.com 2nd Annual Spring Picnic

[jparrott]

If you woke up this morning, are reading this thread and suddenly decide you would like to join us please do! Bring what you think we are missing, or more pork, and come on over.

Water. There are going to be a hundred people there and a lot of salty pork .

[Halloween]

Water. There are going to be a hundred people there and a lot of salty pork .

I'll bring some water.

[tfbrennan]

(Replying to Restaurants with Names as their Locations)

Judging from the menu, the talented and passionate chefs, and the perfect weather, it seems that the best example is the culinary equivalent to pirate radio known as "Area C-2", unfortunately (for non-attendees) open only today, June 4, in Ft. Hunt Park.

[DameEdna]

Richard Feynman has made an appearance at Cellar Cull Central, providing an added, um, boost to proceedings.

Um, wasn't Feynman a teetotaler? Jake has some no-alcohol wine? The horror.

[dcfoodie]

Do people usually bring pets?? I'm debating on whether or not to bring our dog.

Edited to say: DOH!

[Escoffier]

More to follow...

[StephenB]

I got 18lbs of tri-tip in on the red-eye from California last night, so it will be beef for my dish.

This barbecued meat, with outrageous hot sauce, was the best thing going. It had several levels of flavor that kept on exploding. Lots of competition from an amazing variety of offerings from all corners of the world, but in in this instance Guam ruled the planet. Thanks for importing the meat (from California) and cooking it so well.

Another standout was the cherry cheesepie. And as one who's spent time in Brazil, I can say that Shogun's caiparinha had an authentic, tart sting to it.

This was not an occasion on which even the most demanding epicure would go hungry.

[Escoffier]

Quit yer gritchin'

[RaisaB]

Marks Butt kicked ass!

[DanielK]

Sorry I missed those of you that left early, and to all of you who didn't leave me any of JG's smoked butt.

The futbol game was a big success - more spectators than players, but no broken bones or heart attacks, so we're all winners.

[Mrs. B]

Little Mrs B says

I liked bbq4me's tritip meat because it had a good flavor, was not to fatty, and was perfectly cooked

I liked both the Challenge "European Style" Salted Butter because it was a perfect balance of salt and butter and the Plugra because it tasted almost like french butter with its' sweet refreshing taste and rich texture.

[Pat]

This barbecued meat, with outrageous hot sauce, was the best thing going. It had several levels of flavor that kept on exploding. Lots of competition from an amazing variety of offerings from all corners of the world, but in in this instance Guam ruled the planet. Thanks for importing the meat (from California) and cooking it so well.

This was great meat, though my husband and I disagreed. He thought this was the best meat there. I thought JParrott's ham was the standout (of course there was also a pork shoulder and Rissa's chicken pork adobo and more...). I don't eat much meat. This was about a month's worth of meat for me, and it was totally worth it . I had a good time. Hubby is now eating dinner. Where he puts it all I don't know

Those cognac-limoncello drinks Barbara made were extraordinary.

[hillvalley]

Administrative stuff first: There are a number of us who are not comfortable with having our photos posted on the web. If you receive a PM asking you to remove our pictures, please honor our request and do so. Thanks.

Want to know what you missed this afternoon? Homemade head cheese (no, I'm not kidding), martian pig slop, kick ass cinamon brownies, more amazing pork than any one picnic deserved, ol_ironstomach's complete camping set, bratwurst that were worth the wait, ricotta filled strawberries, pig skin, fried risotto balls, babies and more butter than any of us should ever indulge in.

A massive thank you to mktye for her signage and everything else she did and to crackers and jacques for all of their help, and everyone else for their help in making this picnic a fantastic success.

[porcupine]

Want to know what you missed this afternoon? Homemade head cheese (no, I'm not kidding), martian pig slop, kick ass cinamon brownies, more amazing pork than any one picnic deserved, ol_ironstomach's complete camping set, bratwurst that were worth the wait, ricotta filled strawberries, pig skin, babies and more butter than any of us should ever indulge in.

I thought the babies were a touch underdone. Maybe more sauce would've helped.

[Mrs. B]

A gathering as outstanding as today's could not be realized without vision and hard work. Everyone that enjoyed today's stellar beyond words picnic needs to send out good karma and thoughts to the organizers of today's event. (you (organizer goddesses) know who you are and I bow before you)

This is evidence of the power of food and the power of passion. This is the beginning of something big. We love food, we eat well and go to great lengths to prepare and share our passion with each other.

I met a whole lot of new folks today that I know I will call friends (after my gotta see you 2 times alzhimer's wears off).

Thanks Don, Hill, Crackers, Jacques, Mktye and everyone for creating a very special moment for food freaks and their friends.

Well Done - I raise a toast to y'alls health.

[mame11]

Wow. Thank you to Mkytye and the rest of the gang for organizing an amazing afternoon. The range of dishes was fabulous and each was delicious. You could tell that everybody took care in what they contributed.

It was nice to meet new people and put names and faces with names :-)

The butters and salt were quite yummy.

So thank you all for such an enjoyable and delicious day.

[shogun]

And as one who's spent time in Brazil, I can say that Shogun's caiparinha had an authentic, tart sting to it.

Thanks, but to be fair, Porcupine did the mixing on that...I just brought a couple zested limes left over from the (abject failure) gravlax process crushed with some sugar!

[Chica Grace]

Just wanted to echo the THANK YOU to everyone who organized today's picnic. Totally fabulous, as usual & this is a much bettet location. Really liked the space and privacy we had. Plus - we had a roof over our heads for the slight bit of rain that decided to come down. Inconvenient... depends on how much vino you had at the time.

Again, THANK YOU. My personally favorites were the Thai Shrimp, the homemade Bratwurst, and that awesome Dulce de Leche dessert.

[crackers]

Now THAT was a picnic!

Here are as many photos as I managed to randomly take before the Martian pig slop and Fancypants began to get the better of me, which unfortunately was before many of the beautiful food reinforcements had arrived, including desserts, of which I have zero photos - a real shame because they were gorgeous:

jparrott's incredible ham was the first of the juicy, flavorful pork to arrive (if you don't count JPW)

Lots of starters, including hillvalley's salmon mousse with salmon roe from salmon caught by Native Americans from Oregon:,

(I wish I had a photo of Zora's wonderful lavendar cheese with quince paste, it was great.)

StephenB's colorful contribution - Mktye's awesome assortment of crackers: feta-stuffed eggplant:

onion and rhubarb tartlettes More! ,

Mel'Gold's mango mold made an encore appearance:

Waitman contributed this incredible head cheese - a work of art that he was kind enough to allow me to photograph

Head cheese antithesis - assorted grilled tofus

Then more meat! Tri-tip grilling: Puerto Rican roast pork with its coveted cracklin skin and the brats!

The butter and salt tasting was quite interesting

- everything from goat butter to Russian butter - black salt, pink salt, salts from just about everywhere!

. . . The spread

. . . And babies!

The t-shirts looked great, and some people even wore theirs.

There was frisbee tossing (jparrott managed with a glass of wine in his left hand while tossing the frisbee with his right) and DanielK brought soccer gear for a rousing game of kids-kick-ass soccer

Ferhat "GQ" Yalcin exudes cigar chic

And a big thanks to everybody who helped us by emptying all the bottles so we could recycle them:

[mktye]

What a fun picnic!

I also want to add my thanks to those who came early in the day to help set up. Specifically (and I am sure I'll forget someone): crackers, JPW, jparrot, and squidsdc. And, just when my and squidsdc's hands were getting tired of wielding the staplegun to attach the tablecloths to the tables, Ilaine & her husband arrived and took on that task. JPW's Peanut was also very helpful in thoroughly inspecting all arriving boxes, bags and coolers.

Also, a big "thank you" to those who supplied the paper goods for the picnic. It would have been really messy eating, drinking and taking home the leftovers without your contributions.

Lastly, thank you crackers and hillvalley for making the t-shirts a reality. Great idea, great design and great shirts!

Little Mrs B says

I liked bbq4me's tritip meat because it had a good flavor, was not to fatty, and was perfectly cooked

I liked both the Challenge "European Style" Salted Butter because it was a perfect balance of salt and butter and the Plugra because it tasted almost like french butter with its sweet refreshing taste and rich texture.

Little Mrs B has very good taste.

[JPW]

Now THAT was a picnic!

jparrott's incredible ham was the first of the juicy, flavorful pork to arrive (if you don't count JPW)

Why crackers, you're going to make me blush. Let's just hope that Mrs JPW doesn't read this!

Thanks to all who helped in the clean-up. To test whether or not they would actually evict us at 6 as the permit says, a small group of us stayed on in an attempt to kill off some of the remaining wine. I believe it was 8:30 by the time we finally dragged our lazy butts out of there. I guess we just didn't want the day to end...

[DameEdna]

Started off the wine with a red from Nova Scotia and a rosé from Greece ... it was going to be a most unusual day ...

Thanks to jparrott for the many bottles of wine: more thanks for some bottles than for others.

I never did get to hear the end of hillvalley's "History of DonRockwell.com (the very condensed version)" ...

So much excellent food, especially liked the Turkey Tonnado (sp?), Chicken with Cranberries, Rissa's Adobo.

And Barbara's cheesecake.

Those little info cards for different dishes were very nice, even if they did tend to wander down the table.

Many thanks to all who made this possible, especially for the efforts behind the scenes that I will never know

about.

[jparrott]

Yes, indeed, the winner of the Thunderbird Prize for first bottle emptied--2001 Jost Marechal Foch Reserve, from the only producing winery in Nova Scotia!

[JPW]

2001 Jost Marechal Foch Reserve

I liked it.

[Jacques Gastreaux]

It was great to meet so many new people at the picnic and to be able to put faces with the noms de screen. The food, as usual, was excellet (I made off with a whole pan of the brownies and a baggie of the leftover shammi kabab). *

[hillvalley]

Instead of putting together a recipe book like we did in the fall, we are going to have a recipe thread in the Shopping and Cooking forum. Please post your recipes here

[bbq4me]

Kudos to our organizers, would have never happened without you guys Lots of fun, lets do it again

[Barbara]

My thanks, too, to all who organized this event. It was the best picnic EVER. I thought the food (in terms of quality and inventiveness) was ratcheted up a couple of knots, as well. All of it was good, and I wasn't able to sample everything by any means. I'm glad that clayrae has posted the recipe for the Turkey Tonnato. Very nice, indeed, and something I will happily steal and present at non-DR.com pot-lucks.

It was so lovely seeing old pals and meeting some new folk, while everyone was in such a good mood and having such a swell time. Rocks just doesn't know what he's missing. Having been decorated with Gazpacho by Peanut and barfed on by Aaron (?), I consider the whole thing a rousing success. We need more babies!

[hillvalley]

BTW-just to clear up any confusion, that really tall guy in the dr.com shirt Was Not the infamous Rocks. He's just some random guy that keeps showing up at things with good food claiming to be MDT

[JPW]

BTW-just to clear up any confusion, that really tall guy in the dr.com shirt Was Not the infamous Rocks. He's just some random guy that keeps showing up at things with good food claiming to be MDT

I always thought that he was Sietsema.

[Pat]

Instead of putting together a recipe book like we did in the fall, we are going to have a recipe thread in the Shopping and Cooking forum. Please post your recipes here

What about recipes from books with copyrights? I tend not to change baking recipes at all and others I sometimes change and sometimes don't.

And that homemade Gouda was also awesome. I just kept going back and picking up pieces of it, the same as I did with the ham. All of the food I tried was very good and better than very good, but I ran out of room and couldn't eat any more. It's been over 24 hours since I last ate and I'm only starting to get hungry. At this point, I think I can make it until dinner

[Pat]

The "general" rule is that recipes are not subject to copyright protection. A simple list of ingredients and the order in which they are combined along with cooking temperatures and times are not subject to copyright. Any written part of the recipe that moves in to the territory of creative exression would be subject to copyright.

ETA: If you can find a copy of the recipe on the web somewhere, the easier thing to do would be to simply link to it.

I guess I'm wary of attempting to deviate much from the directions because I don't want to screw it up and tell people the wrong way to put the food together. I have posted links on that forum to posts I've made on usenet for other recipes. Some of the picnic ones I can just give a google link for, but others I'd have to post somewhere and then link.

[babka]

my stomach hurt because, I thought, I'd taken at least one bite of everything on the tables, but I'm still not recognizing half the favorites of this thread.

Many thanks to everyone who came and helped, but especially to mktye, whose patience, work, and humor were much appreciated. (I liked the bbq pork dish with an mktye-made "vegan" side, myself), and whose crackers beat Komi's hands-down. The drinks, the food, the company, the split lips and bruised noses, the pork, the butter (russian!)--I can't think of a more wonderful crew with whom to eat, drink, and be merry on a sunny Sunday afternoon!

[Jacques Gastreaux]

my stomach hurt because, I thought, I'd taken at least one bite of everything on the tables, but I'm still not recognizing half the favorites of this thread.

Many thanks to everyone who came and helped, but especially to mktye, whose patience, work, and humor were much appreciated. (I liked the bbq pork dish with an mktye-made "vegan" side, myself), and whose crackers beat Komi's hands-down. The drinks, the food, the company, the split lips and bruised noses, the pork, the butter (russian!)--I can't think of a more wonderful crew with whom to eat, drink, and be merry on a sunny Sunday afternoon!

You should be ashamed of yourself for bringing that bottle of foul-tasting chili wine and attempting to pass it off as drinkable. Absolutely outrageous.

[babka]

You should be ashamed of yourself for bringing that bottle of foul-tasting chili wine and attempting to pass it off as drinkable. Absolutely outrageous.

But I was only doing what Jake said to do!

I was thinking something this morning as I pondered my "drink this now" pile in the cellar. Perhaps we should make the fermented beverage aspect of the picnic a bit of a cellar cull? Bring stuff, pop stuff, if it sucks, pop something else.

I'd never dream of second-guessing him on wine provisions....

[shogun]

Don't worry Babka, I gave the remainder a good home while we were sitting around at the end waiting to get kicked out. It was rather neat being visited by dead relatives and pets, the swirling colours were mind-blowing, and when I awoke, I was laying on top of that tower on the other end of the field, in a light rain. Interesting wine!

[Ilaine]

My favorites were the Martian Pig Slop from Hell and the couscous. Yummy.

Beautiful weather, nice people, excellent food.

[squidsdc]

So I missed the previous picnics, but apparently picked the best one to attend! Many thanks to everyone who worked so hard to plan and organize this great event. Mktye, crackers, hillvalley--you've really outdone yourselves. The time and care you all put into this event was very obvious.

One of my favorite desserts was the seis leches---(of course I had to eat both versions of the tres leches!) I also enjoyed the smoked ham, smoked pork, martian pig slop from hell, cous cous, salad, breads, cheese, butter...Ohhh I'm getting full all over again just remembering what I ate

Thanks also to zoramargolis for sharing her lavender with the masses. I walked into the kitchen half-asleep this morning to feed the animals, and awakened myself with a whiff of the sachet from where I had left it last night.

It was a pleasure to meet new people, put faces to screen names, and retire the evening in a blissful food coma.

[crackers]

I always thought the best thing about being on clean up crew was getting the choice leftovers. I was sort of right. The best thing about being on clean up crew yesterday was watching Shogun's eyes spin like pinwheels and roll back into his head right before he fell off the picnic table bench and passed out cold after chugging the last of the chili wine. As the commercial says... "Priceless."

And this evening, the best thing about being on clean up crew was enjoying a late dinner on the back deck with friends as the moon rose, grilling a few bratwurst and chorizo, with mustard, sauerkraut, and homemade pickles on toasted sourdough rolls, dipping some shammi kabob in a fresh mint sauce, sucking the bbq chicken bones dry, munching on some insane brownies and lemon cake, and first of the season cantaloupe, and finishing the last of the tobacco products with our drinks as the coals died down on a cool spring evening.

[shogun]

last of the chili wine.

Sounds like a better show.

(Doo doo deee, do dee dee dooo....)

[edenman]

Hey all, my first post. I was one of the Shogun crew, and I think I can speak for all of us when I say that the event was amazing. It was fun meeting you all, and the food was fantastic.

My pictures from the day (with comments inline):

http://synik.myvnc.com:8008/~eric/pics/062...ies/page01.html

Let me know if any of you want your pictures removed.

[Jacques Gastreaux]

Ferment, welcome to DR.com. Great photo essay. Keep up the good work.

[shogun]

Hey all, my first post. I was one of the Shogun crew, and I think I can speak for all of us when I say that the event was amazing. It was fun meeting you all, and the food was fantastic.

Who cares who he came with, dude brought the Gouda

[RissaP]

SO glad to see so many smiley faces, content tummies and happy babies! All the DR.com picnics have always been so much fun! Beautiful picnic grounds! Gorgeous 70’s weather! We’ve been very lucky every time!

Memories of the spread: Jacques Gastreaux’s smoked pork shoulder, jparrot’s country ham, mdt and CrescentFresh’s homemade bratwurst hit the spot for everyone! I really had to pace myself. Just when you think you’re ready to check the desserts, more food kept appearing. Loved waitman’s headcheese (I want the recipe) and porcupine’s couscous--delish! Plus grandma’s salami, interesting array of tofu, artful Korean sushi, DCFoodie’s risotto cake, bbhasin’s shammi kabab (great dip with it), Nadya’s plump and juicy Thai shrimp with cilantro, dumplings, so much delicious side dishes, oh, and mktye’s crispy, airy, thin variety of crackers had the perfect amount of salt (I couldn’t stop munching on it), I could go on and on… Whoever brought that flat of fresh strawberries—thanks! I couldn’t stop snacking on it! The butter and salt tasting proved to be quite interesting, too. I liked the Indian butter. I especially loved the Organic Pastures (unpasteurized) butter, deep yellow color, rich, creamy, it tasted like it had cheese in it. It’s the foie gras of butter!

I didn’t make it to MelGold’s Mango mold—girl, you need to bring 10 of those! Apparently, it was devoured in a flash! Barbara’s perfect cheesecake, bnacpa’s insane brownies—I mean, LOTS of brownies (I was able to take some to go--thanks Mrs. bnacpa!), lemon bars, and lots of other sinful goodies! Raisa and I cooked up a plan to confuse people which Rissa or Raisa made which Tres Leches! Glad you enjoyed it! There were 2 kinds of empanadas. I missed the meat-filled one, but I managed to sample the empanada with sweet guava filling in it—yum!

It felt like happy hour treat in the beverage department: wines poured in chic stem less glassware (my favorite wine tasting moment was when we were tasting and swirling glamorously in Dixie cups ), porcupine and shogun’s Caipirinha, Barbara’s FancyPants, hillvalley’s berry-infused vodka--I really had to sip slowly—whoa mama!

Thanks to hillvalley, mktye, crackers, others who helped organize, those who set up our private picnic ground, Don who generously reserved the space and for making it possible for us to get together and just have fun at the picnic! The best part is the company!

Next time, we need to line up the babies and create a DR.com calendar babies!

Cheers!

[CrescentFresh]

I second what everyone said. With particular seconding to that tri-tip. Is it October yet?

[Barbara]

Well, now, you see I was kicking myself for not being greedier. I realized (after the fact) that I could have taken home a bunch of stuff I didn't get a chance to sample at the time like the lemon bars, etc. However, Craig managed to snag a container of Goldenticket's Chicken with Dried Cranberries, which he particularly liked. I have to say that it made a lovely lunch for me today, even eaten straight from the fridge.

Next time I am going to plan ahead. I could use a brownie just about now . . .

[ScotteeM]

I'm so sorry that I missed the picnic, but I've thought of a new item for someone to bring next time: disposable containers for spiriting away leftovers.

The picnic area looks wonderful in the pictures. Will we have it again for our fall gala?

[crackers]

I've thought of a new item for someone to bring next time: disposable containers for spiriting away leftovers.

Picnic goers brought plenty of these. In fact, we needed extra large bags to stash away all the leftover picnic supplies for the next picnic. JG's basement now looks like a party supply store after a 7.5 earthquake.

The picnic area looks wonderful in the pictures. Will we have it again for our fall gala?

It would get my vote. wait.... what fall gala? Are you already planning something ScotteeM?

[ScotteeM]

It would get my vote. wait.... what fall gala? Are you already planning something ScotteeM?

Um, no. Just looking forward to the DR.com Annual Fall Picnic . . . like we had last year, only for this year.

[jparrott]

What about the All New, but Soon To Be Annual, Week Or Two After the Spring Picnic Picnic? As the kid says coming off of his first roller coaster, "I wanna go again!"