Summer Sunday

Summer Sundays remind me of picnics, backyard gatherings and fun parties. In my opinion, the king of all activities is catching a summer concert at Ravinia. Ravinia, if you have not been, is an outdoor theater, North of Chicago, that has pavilion seating and lawn seating.  The lawn is the way to go. It's truly beautiful. You bring your picnic, candelabra (you think i'm kidding?) haul (or rent!) your chair and table and share a meal or snack with your BFFs, while the music of the day is piped in around you, playing live in the open-air pavilion steps away.  I have seen people show up with their bag of KFC, sitting on the postage stamp patch of mulch under a tree that was all that was left because they came too late.  Sitting next to them is someone that has been there for 3 hours, sipping wine, snacking on their gourmet sampling, and sharing a beef tenderloin on real china. It's kinda funny. 

Another fun perk when you are sitting in the lawn, waiting for music to start, is you get to meet your neighbors. One time we were with a group and suddenly began chatting with our neighboring picnickers and the woman had told us she was a nurse. After a glass of wine (or two) I began telling her how much I admired nurses, my mother is a geriatric nurse and I appreciated what a hard job it would be to have to deal with death on a daily basis. Suddenly my husband's phone rang, and it was my mother (who was watching the children). And she said "Tell Kathy to hang up her phone, and that people don't die every day!" Apparently I had butt-dialed her and she heard our entire conversation! oops! 

Well, whether you have a Ravinia or just a park district that does a summer concert series... or whatever, the picnic is what I love! I do sell some fantastic picnic supplies in my business complete with drink holders you stick in the lawn, bowls that collapse for easy transport and if you haven't seen my cool and serve tray, you really should give me a call. But I digress... Let's talk about the best food to transport to one of these amazing opportunities. 

The Appetizers:

No festive gathering is complete with out a few pre-dinner munchies. 

BLT dip - served with crackers, bread toasts, pita chips or french bread, keep it cold in a cool server, or pack in ice and eat first. See the end for my favorite old recipe. 

Italian Skewers   - skewered ahead, and put in a collapsible bowl or reusable 


(earth-friendly container)  take a 4 in skewer and add a cherry tomato, 1/4 of a fresh basil leaf, fresh mozzarella chunk,  drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt.  If you cant' find a small skewer, just do larger ones and repeat. This is a festive, attractive fun appetizer. 


Fresh Veggie and Fruit tray - It's essential, because when you are sitting and snacking (and drinking) it's nice to have something that is guilt free. My favs are the crisp pea pods, carrot chips (take a slicer and your full size carrot and slice on the bias (about a 45 degree angle) and it will make you never want a baby carrot again).   Now on the fruit side, grapes, strawberries and fresh pineapple. Grapes and Strawberries are a no-brainer, no mess fruit, and then you have that sweet mess of a pineapple, which of course if you have my pineapplewedger and a big cutting board... it's quick pre-event prep, that tastes so good. 

The Main Course:

Stromboli is always my favorite.  What the heck is stromboli? This was best answered in Wikipedia: "Stromboli is a type of turnover filled with various cheeses, Italian meats or 

vegetables. The dough is Italian bread dough." It's basically like a calzone that is rolled 

instead of topped.  Imagine taking a raw pizza and rolling it up and baking it. Serve it by the slice. 

There are many ways to cheat and take a lot of the time out of this, like a prepared dough 

(aka- Pillsbury) or one of my favs, frozen, then thawed Rhodes brand white bread dough or pizza crust dough. And the toppings can be anything. Sandwich meat like roast beef or 

turkey and layers of cheeses. Add sauteed onions or peppers. Or make it a pizza one and 

just do marinara, pepperoni and cheeses. 

Make this ahead and serve cool, or foil it up right away and serve warm. It's great either 

way. I have a pampered chef recipe below for a darn tasty version of my stromboli.  They 

call it something different. 

I would add desserts but I've procrastinated my day job long enough... desserts next time... 

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!  Eat something fabulous and think of me. :)

KATHY

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RECIPES 

Bacon, Lettuce & Tomato Dip

8oz cream cheese, softened

½ cup Ranch Dressing

1 med. Tomato

6 slices of cooked bacon

½ cup chopped celery

2 TB chopped onion

1 tsp sugar

Lettuce Leaves

French Bread, sliced or crackers

Place cream cheese in Batter Bowl. Stir in dressing and mix well. Remove seeds from tomato, dice tomato (reserve a small amount for garnish), chop bacon, celery & onion and add sugar and all the veggies to cream cheese mixture. Cover and refrigerate.  To serve, line bowl with lettuce leaves and fill with dip. Garnish with tomatoes, and serve with toasted bread slices or crackers. 

Stuffed Spinach and Sausage Roll (which I call Stromboli)




Ingredients:


1/2  
pound mild Italian sausage, cooked, drained and crumbled
1  
cup (4 ounces) chopped fresh whole mushrooms
1  
package (10 ounces) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well drained
1  
cup (4 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese
2  
garlic cloves, pressed
1  
egg, separated
2  
packages (10 ounces each) refrigerated pizza crust
1  
can (8 ounces) pizza sauce, warmed






Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°F. In Classic Batter Bowl, combine sausage, mushrooms, spinach, cheese and garlic; mix well. In Small Batter Bowl, separate egg using Egg Separator; add yolk to spinach mixture, reserving egg white.
Roll one pizza crust into a 12 x 9-inch rectangle. Spread half of spinach mixture over dough to within 1/2- inch of edges of dough. Starting at longest side of rectangle, roll up dough, jelly-roll fashion; press seams together to seal. Repeat with remaining pizza crust and filling.
Place rolls, seam sides down, on Large Round Stone. Join ends of rolls to form 1 large ring; pinch together to seal. Lightly beat egg white using Egg Separator; brush over dough. Bake 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting. Spoon sauce over each serving.


Yield: 10 servings
For more recipes and ideas, email me at pcgilmore@comcast.net and I will add you on to my business E-newsletter. It's a good one!