Girl dinner, but outside
Picnic season is HERE
My friends got us a picnic basket as a wedding gift, and it’s exactly what you’d imagine: a wicker basket with a handle for carrying, filled with little plates and cutlery strapped to the inside. It’s nostalgic and whimsical and I love it.
One of the ironic advantages of living in a place that is very cold for 6+ months out of the year is the complete and unbridled joy when the sun comes out. It’s cause for celebration throughout the city — even (maybe especially) if it’s April and we know that we may have one more snowstorm until we’re on the other side. And by the time June rolls around, the vacations have been planned for months and the traffic to the Cape is horrendous.
But the thing that I think is severely underrated this time of year is sitting in your local park and having a little picnic.
Memorial Day weekend gifted us glorious and perfect weather — which is not always the case here, as I’ve written about extensively — so I went to the park with my new library book and a plastic carton of cherries. I spread a blanket out on the grass, prayed I wouldn’t get sunburned or eaten alive by mosquitos, and sat (creakily, I might add, which is becoming more of a trend the further I get into my 30s).
There was a group of 20-somethings (youths) on a blanket nearby all wearing those little paper birthday hats with the elastic that wraps around your chin. Friends came and went throughout the afternoon, each arriving with a branded tote bag (usually Bon Appetit or an independent bookstore) full of snacks to share. At one point they started applying butterfly temporary tattoos. Community! Celebration! Bliss!
I walked home and had a popsicle because Boston heat is sticky.
Later that weekend, we headed to a nearby beach with a picnic blanket, more snacks, and our library books. We watched the tide recede, leaving striped sand in its absence, little rivulets of ocean water snaking down to the water. You could walk out for what seemed like miles and the water wouldn’t even come up to your knees.
I guess all I’m saying is in this wild world where the news is devastating and the future can feel kind of bleak, I would simply recommend taking yourself on a little picnic.
In fact, I plan to eat outside as much as possible this summer, mosquitos be damned! (I will almost certainly go back on this statement but for now I am optimistic.)
I think that part of what I love about a little picnic is that it’s just girl dinner but outside. It’s some little hunks of cheese, maybe even a cheese knife if you thought to pack one so you don’t have to struggle with a plastic knife that is very much not up to the task. If I’m feeling very fancy there may even be a little cutting board on which I can arrange some ripe summer berries or melon, some little cured meats and some fancy nuts (I am partial to these). A bottle of wine is fun but not always practical; a sparkling water (but it must be cold!) will suffice, and a San Pellegrino Aranciata or one of those nicely branded probiotic soda-not-sodas would be a good beverage option.
(Picnicking is one of the very few situations where I don’t believe in chocolate. It will melt and go everywhere and it’s just not worth it.)
Games like Bananagrams or just old-fashioned playing cards are good if you get bored, but I will likely be reading my book or pretending to read my book but actually people watching/eavesdropping. Napping and hammocking are also encouraged.
Sure, a picnic can be an organized event where you invite your friends and make a special trip to the grocery store, but my favorite types of picnics are the ones where it happens to be nice outside and you happen to not be doing anything so you grab the half of a tub of hummus or jar of salsa in your fridge, some salty snacks you have lying around, and maybe you treat yourself to a $5 bevvy from Whole Foods on your way there. In this way, picnicking is not really an event so much as a state of mind, a spontaneity prompted by the delight of really beautiful weather.
But if you want to really do it up, I’m all for that, too. I’d make this pasta salad and this cold carrot cake, or maybe this cake if the strawberries are finally sweet and reasonably priced. You could even picnic right after the farmer’s market for instant gratification — you will almost certainly find ripe summer fruit, some very good hummus or dips, and good crispy vegetables.
Is picnicking a form of escapism from all that is painful and difficult in the world? Maybe. Is it also a good way to put down your phone since the sun is too bright to even see your little screen? And to get outside and enjoy your local park/beach/bench/picnic table/patch of grass? I say yes.
If you see me this summer, I’ll be the girl in the park with the laughably large picnic basket.
As I write this, I am eating half of a chocolate croissant and half of an almond croissant from Trader Joe’s. It’s tradition. (And I’m leaving the other halves for Tyson.)
I’m still on a big matcha kick, and Bel (hi!) let me know that this is a delicious preparation. Since I’m a nerd, I keep a matcha whisk at work and can be found in the office kitchen doing my whole matcha process (and it’s a process).
In line with the theme of this week’s newsletter, I plan to get outside as much as possible this weekend. I hope the weather is just as good where you are. See you next week!