Cookbook Club Does Picnics

Do you remember the Cookbook Club I told you about last month? The one where we gather every other month and each cook a dish from the same designated cookbook? Yesterday two of my favorite things collided: cookbook club and picnic season.

We even chose a picnic-themed book to cook from: Good Day for a Picnic, by Jeremy Jackson. I got mine from the library, because I am not supposed to be adding more books to the collection, but I might very well pick up a used copy of this one. There were a number of recipes I wanted to try, rhubarb custard pie being one of them (hello, yum).

We even got lucky with a gorgeous day—not too terribly hot, but sunny and warm enough for me to break out a sun hat and regret not bringing my sunscreen. I am very lucky my friend Megan is more prepared than I am, and nice enough to share. Thanks, Megan!

We met up at a local park, where a picnic table had been reserved. There was a flotilla of blankets laid out on the daisy-strewn grass.

And there was an array of picnic food on the table. Lots of summer salads—though nothing as prosaic as tuna or egg. There was a panzanella bread salad made with cornbread; a chicken and tarragon salad; an Asian noodle salad I will be making soon; a lovely corn, cucumber, and basil concoction; and my own noodle contribution. There were other goodies like green beans with shallots, mustard chicken wings, zucchini fritters, asparagus vinaigrette with shallots and hardboiled egg, and lamb meatballs with sour cherries.

This was my plate from the day. As you can imagine, I didn’t bother with dinner that night.

I love cookbook club, because other people decide to make labor-intensive dishes I would never take on: like these adorable stuffed cherry tomatoes. I don’t have the patience to stuff a cherry tomato, so I am glad there are people in the world who do. And then they let me eat them. Thanks, Maggie.

One of my favorite dishes was this apple and celery salad (below). I never in a million years would have picked this recipe out of the book, but it ended up being one of the dishes I liked best. That’s another great thing about cookbook club: you end up falling in love with recipes you never would think to make.

The other thing I love: all the bare feet reflected in the metal bowl in this photograph. Summer, you are making me very happy right now.

It was a very bare feet sort of a day.

A day to make daisy chains. I learned a new way, far better than the technique of my childhood. My life skill set is now complete.

A day to scatter your pasta in the grass (oh how I adore this photo).

And after all the talk and the sun and the laughter, there were honey macaroons, and little chocolate cookies, and someone was wonderful enough to bring freshly made peach ice cream from a recipe in the book. Peach ice cream at the end of a sun-soaked day on the grass is a very good thing indeed.

I’m not sure how the next cookbook club could possible be any better. As I might have expected, even cookbook club is more fun when it takes place on a picnic blanket.

Hope you all had good weekends, friends. And if some of you are considering starting cookbook clubs, I heartily suggest that you do.  They are so much fun. Happy Summer to us all. I hope you are getting to enjoy it.

This is the dish I brought. It’s super easy to make and quite tasty. I’m definitely adding it to my picnic repertoire.

NOODLES WITH WALNUT AND BLUE CHEESE PESTO
From Good Day for a Picnic, by Jeremy Jackson

Serves 4

12 oz spaghetti or other noodles
1 cup walnuts
1 cup crumbled blue cheese
½ cup loosely packed flat leaf parsley
1 garlic clove
½ tsp paprika
salt and freshly ground pepper (I was surprised how much salt this needed)
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, or as needed.

Bring a big pot of water to a boil. Salt the water and boil the pasta until it is tender, then drain.

In a food processor, combine the walnuts, blue cheese, parsley, garlic, paprika, and a bit of salt and pepper. Process briefly to break down the walnuts and parsley. Then, with the processor running, drizzle the oil into the mixture, adding just enough to make a thick and smooth pesto about the consistency of hummus. Taste for salt and pepper.

Toss the warm noodles with the pesto until the noodles are coated. Top with a little more chopped parsley.

The noodles can be refrigerated for a day. Serve cold or at room temperature.