Dinner Party Diaries: Volume 1 Issue 18
As summer draws to a close and many return to normal routines, it can be fun to enjoy one last toast to longer days and nice weather with friends and family. This past weekend we did just that at an End of Summer Picnic with friends. These particular friends live about 4 hours away, so our long-standing tradition is to meet half-way for a late summer picnic. It’s always a great time to catch up and enjoy the scenery over some good food and wine.
As you can imagine, planning food for a picnic two hours away requires a bit of a different strategy from your “normal, everyday” dinner party. 🙂 The name of the game is to make everything in advance and either plan for it to be served chilled or heated on a small, portable grill. However, that most certainly doesn’t mean that the food needs to be boring. Take a look at the menu for some delicious, picnic friendly ideas. The only extra equipment required for this was a small table-top propane grill.
What We Had
Apps
We started with a variety of tasty appetizers as a little pre-lunch snack. The list includes smoked salmon bites with Honey Mustard sauce, Jammy Ham and Cheese Low Carb Roll-ups, spinach and artichoke dip, pepperoni, salami, cheese slices, a variety of crackers and chips for the non-low carb people of the group, and veggie dippers. Not a bad start. For wine, we decided to do a “Tour of Pinot” and so started with a Pinot Clair from Domaine Carneros, which is a white wine made from Pinot Noir grapes.
Mains
Our friends brought herbed roasted chicken pieces and mouth watering ribs for the main dishes. I’ll have to request the recipes for both of those, but for now I can tell you that they were fantastic. Since I don’t have the recipes in hand at the moment but don’t want to leave you hanging, these are a couple of suggestions I have that would work well for the same situation. Those were both cooked in advance and then just reheated on the table-top grill before serving.
Sides
For side dishes we stuck to the “make ahead and keep chilled” vibe with a variety of cold salads. To mix things up, we had a Keto Asian Noodle Salad, Broccoli and Asparagus Louie Salad, Macaroni Salad, and Tomato & Cucumber Salad. (If the diversity of these dishes doesn’t illustrate that “salad” is a catch-all term, I don’t know what would.)
In the wine department, we continued the tour of Pinots with an Anderson Valley single vineyard Pinot Noir from Twomey followed by a Dijon clonal Pinot Noir from Domaine Carneros.
Desserts
Then for dessert, we had both keto and non-keto fare. I was introduced by sight only to these not-so-little pies called Jos Louis. While I didn’t partake, others (who actually like chocolate cake) reported that they were very tasty. There were, of course, cookies. In the keto vein, we made Keto Apple Cheesecake Bars from All Day I Dream About Food.
It was a fantastic day spent with great people and tasty food. I hope this gives you some ideas for your own send-off of summer, possible in the form of an End of Summer Picnic.
The Details
Number of People: 5
Serving Style: Buffet
Guest Arrival Time: Joint Arrival at Picnic Locale – 11:00 am
The Menu for Our End of Summer Picnic
Appetizers
Mains
Sides
- Macaroni Salad
- Tomato & Cucumber Salad
Dessert
Wine Pairings
- 2021 Domaine Carneros Pinot Clair
- 2017 Twomey Pinot Noir Monument Tree
- 2019 Domaine Carneros Pinot Noir Estate Clonal Series – Dijon 777
Getting Ready for the End of Summer Picnic
Advanced Prep (2 or More Days in Advance)
Notes:
Since no one is coming over to your house for this picnic, we’ll start with a subset of the “usual” prep items. Depending on your available time in an evening, you probably want to make the Keto Apple Cheesecake Bars 2 days in advance just to space out your prep time.
- Make grocery list
- Go grocery shopping
- Put ice packs in the freezer
- Clean off your cooler, if applicable
- (Optional) Make Keto Apple Cheesecake Bars → See prep steps and rough timing below.
- Keto Apple Cheesecake Bars
- Chop apples (5 minutes)
- Cook apples, sweetener, and water (~15 minutes)
- Make crust and pre-bake it (10 minutes + 10 minutes)
- Make cream cheese filling (10 minutes)
- Make crumb topping (5 minutes)
- Assemble cheesecake bars (5 minutes)
- Bake (~40 minutes)
- Cool and refrigerate (2 hours or more)
Day Before Prep
Notes:
All of this can be prepped the day / evening / night before your picnic. I will give fair warning that the apple cheesecake bars take some time due to their multiple steps, baking times, and cooling times. For that reason, you could also make that one 2 days in advance and just store it in the fridge or even give it some time in the freezer for extra chill before you transport it in a cooler.
- Keto Asian Noodle Salad
- Drain shirataki noodles and heat in a pan to dry off the excess moisture (20 minutes)
- Crush peanuts (5 minutes)
- Mix dressing ingredients (10 minutes)
- Combine and stir (5 minutes)
- Refrigerate
- Broccoli and Asparagus Louie Salad
- Trim broccoli and cut into bite sized pieces (10 minutes)
- Trim asparagus and cut into bite sized pieces (5 minutes)
- Season and Steam broccoli (5 minutes)
- Season and Roast asparagus (7 minutes)
- Make Louie Dressing (5 minutes)
- Combine all ingredients (5 minutes)
- Refrigerate
- Honey Mustard Sauce
- Combine Dijon mustard and honey substitute (5 minutes)
- Cover and refrigerate
- Jammy Ham and Cheese Low Carb Roll-ups
- Make Monte Cristo Sauce (5 minutes)
- Construct Roll-ups (20 minutes)
- Chill Roll-ups (20 – 30 minutes *Inactive Time)
- Slice Roll-ups (10 minutes)
- Refrigerate
Day Of Timeline
- 8:45 am
- Pack up cooler and car
- 9:00ish
- Get on the road
- 11:00ish
- Arrive at destination
- Unpack items from cooler whenever ready for them
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