MY SUNSHINE PICNIC!
Our Picnic is in honor of Robin, of
for both suggesting the idea of a picnic and nominating a number of fine bloggers for this award.
I will of course nominate at least ten more…with some description of their blog talents and perhaps what they could bring.
Our Caswell picnics tended to be catch-as-can, pretty much different fare every time. Our “New York City Cousins”…Laurie and Faith Mitchell…and their parents, Jack and Myrtle, when they were alive…would visit us in Binghamton, NY, and rave about what new item we would take and what adventure we would find. For them, Binghamton, NY, was rural living (it practically IS…15 minutes away from downtown, in all but one direction). Our family cottage in Douglas, MA, and the relatives around there….THAT was absolute wilderness!!!!
There are actually TWO (2) entrees I’m suggesting for our main course, assuming no food allergies to either one of them (peanut butter or hazelnut spread and jelly always being available!).
Our Cousins (I forget which one…probably both…or all) were forever remembering our “piece de resistance”: Rain-Steamed Hot Dogs! 🙂
RAIN-STEAMED HOT DOGS:
Ingredients:
1. One or two pkgs of one’s favorite brand of hot dog….I currently like HEBREW NATIONAL, or SABARETTE….NATHAN’S is okay, but spicier than the other two.
2. A day trip to some nice picnic place, preferably by a lake with a pavilion.
3. Other picnic fixings, as need be–including an outdoor charcoal grill
4. Uncertain inclement weather.
Instructions: Pack up everything/everyone and transport to picnic place. Use foil to cover grill which is not very clean (never is at these places–if you use the ones provided)–after getting charcoal fire going. Punch holes in the foil and lay hot dogs on the foil…before it starts raining. Watch from a safe vantage point the hotdogs sizzle in the rain and hopefully not be blown by the wind onto the dirt. Finally, pick someone to go out into the rain to collect said cooked dogs and bring them back to shelter for everyone to enjoy! (I’m hungry!)
The OTHER ENTREE….suggested is one less known: Steamed (ground beef) Cheeseburgers! There was a guy around my area in Massachusetts who had a roadside stand selling them for a while…but he’s apparently moved on to greener pastures…Florida, I think he said! There was a YANKEE MAGAZINE article on these a long time ago–they are really very tasty–but I refer you to one place in Connecticut where they have become famous, at Ted’s, in Meriden, CT:
(GOTTA STOP MY MOUTH FROM WATERING!!!!)
AHEM…Ten Things (per the instructions) You May Know About Me:
1. I prefer crunchy-styled peanut butter, even if for a while I couldn’t chew it!
2. I absolutely adore non-alcoholic ginger beer…the stronger taste the better…although I can’t have it anymore, or risk getting lectured by my doctors!
3. I bathed in peanut butter once (when a little boy)–I think I destroyed that photo! It was in my parents’ annual slide show for visiting family and guests., and they still couldn’t get the ring out of the tub in that parsonage!
4. There is a BIG DIFFERENCE between the flavoring put on a corn or potato chip…and the stuff it supposedly tastes like! Eating the real thing is, er, different!
5. How can I say this…? I’m no longer as adventuresome, food-wise, as I used to be. The old taste buds can only stand so much! 🙂
6. Douglas well water, properly cooled, is the best!!!
7. Had to give up Chinese food…because of the salt and sugar content. 😦
8. Made home-made noodles once…they were better fried than boiled! Might someday roll them thin enough.
9. Have eaten salt water taffy and other sweets with the paper wrappers…when the wrappers were stuck on.
10. I have cooked with a wok on a charcoal fire covered by a sheet of corrugated metal suspended between two lawn chairs…in the rain! 🙂
PROVIDERS OF OUR PICNIC’S FIXINGS AND SIDE DISHES…AND TRANSPORTATION!!!!:
A. http://dishingitoutwithclarissa.wordpress.com/ …As Clarissa describes her blog…”From seedling to plate and everything in-between”. The rum-glazed baby carrots she’s presently featuring sound just wonderful!
B. http://hopedog.wordpress.com/ (Hands on Bowie)…I hope we can entice Mr. Bowie (that famous British Blue gentleman cat) and his blog mate, Herman, to come…bringing–or being enticed by–mounds of dark chocolate and jugs of expresso…for we surely will be staying up late that night! Perhaps Mr. Bowie will grace us with some of his more famous and popular poses, while Herman brings us up-to-date on that photographic coursework of his? We’ll entice them to travel to whatever site we choose via:
C. http://catfromhell.wordpress.com/ Using (with permission, of course!) Queen Penelope’s Time Warp Tunnel, we hope to transport Mr. Bowie and all other “outlanders” from wherever they are…to us…and back again. Which means somebody had better come up with treats for rabbits, dogs, horses and innumerable cats…if Nellie brings her gang along. Do rabbits like rum-glazed baby carrots? I’m sure I do!
D. http://moviewriternyu.wordpress.com/ (The Return of the Modern Philosopher) Austin, the eloquent playwright from Maine…and New York City…may well bring some of his personal friends along, including Gary the Gargoyle and Mayor McCheese (and any of his relatives….steamed or unsteamed!). I suppose, if his zombie associates want to come along…we should find something for them….like dead fish?????
E. http://shakeyourtailfeathers.wordpress.com/ (HeartaFire) With her heart-felt poetry on intimacy between people, perhaps we could prevail upon Holly for a reading of her favorites…and bring something luscious to share from Florida????
F. http://positiveboomer.net/ …Irene, who is free to bring her Soul mate and husband, may have something to teach us baby-boomers…but I’m NOT up for a 5-K run….PLEASE???? 🙂
G. http://girlwiththepen1118.wordpress.com/ Irene is busy outside of her blogging…but every so often she blitzes your blog with LIKES and comments…which is fine by me! Perhaps she can bring her favorite photographs…and a salad or two?
H. http://transcendingbordersblog.wordpress.com/ Tazein Mirza Saad is one of my favorite people with experience beyond my (and many) borders. Her poetry, commentary and photographs open eyes to the suffering AND cultural diversity beyond my (American) borders…much like my summer in the Dominican Republic did! Perhaps she could favor us with some dishes from her neck(s) of the woods!
I. http://hortusclosus.wordpress.com/ I hope Esther is willing to read some of her deeply moving haiku and tanka poetry! If she speak French, does that mean we could inveigle some real French cooking out of her? Think about it….maybe a wonderful souffle????? 🙂
J. http://glorialana.wordpress.com/ Glorialana is the last of my invites and nominees. Her recent SNOW QUEEN post is something else….GOOD!!!! I guess I’ll have to ask her to bring something snow-related…white chocolate mousse??? Snow cones???? Baked Alaska (I actually did make this once…a gigantic one, for a residence of eight guys!)–??? A case of “Buster Bars” from DARI-QUEEN”?
ALAS…THE OLD POET SMILED,
He had a crowd and was reconciled…
With so much fine talent
At his picnic was salient,
He could sit back and listen…beguiled!
Thanks for coming!!!!–Jonathan Caswell
By the Mighty Mumford 