4th Picnic

This weekend was a busy one full of cooking and time with family and friends. On the 4th we decided to take in the fireworks at the Pentagon. After the pool and a visit to the grocery store I started cooking! We decided to pack a picnic and get there early for some good seats. Bellow are the things that I prepared for the picnic

- No Fail Chocolate Chippers (p.597)-- These cookies truly are no fail and just the right mixture of chocolate, walnuts and oats. My only issue is that I am unable bake cookies that do not turn into bricks the next day. We had these cookies last night with some ice cream and they were so hard but still yummy!
- Open Faced Lobster Salad Sandwiches (p.156)-- These sandwiches were so good and super easy to make. The recipe called for me to boil the lobsters myself but I found it easier to have the Giant seafood counter steam them with some Old Bay while I did the rest of my grocery shopping. I allotted one lobster tail per sandwich which I felt would be better then the one tail shared between two. Another change to the recipe is that I did not keep them open faced. Since we were talking them to eat at the Pentagon I bought some fresh sub rolls and placed the lobster salad on those.
- Guacamole (homemade but not from cookbook)
- Sparkling Raspberry Lemonade (p.701)-- Matt Helped me out with this one and I have to say that I felt awful because as much as I have been boasting about what a quick and easy cookbook we are using… this drink was NOT quick and NOT easy. If you want some sparkling lemonade just but some at the store and add raspberries and some sparkling water. One hour to make lemonade is not worth it.
- Raspberry Sour Cream Tart (p. 613)—Not sure where to begin on this one… After we got home from the pool I realized that I needed 4 hours to make this tart (which of course I didn’t have) so I ran to the store and got home with two hours to cook. I immediately mixed up all the ingredients for my tart and in the process broke a lot of recipe rules…
1. I didn’t let the crust cool before adding filling. Causing the filling to have some of the gram cracker crust mixed in.
2. I didn’t have time to refrigerate the dessert for 4 hours. From the recommendation of my super smart (and cute) boyfriend I placed it into the freezer for the time I did have left
3. Instead of enjoying the dessert it fell out of the refrigerator (I had moved it there after the filling hardened) when I opened the door. So we did not get to enjoy the tart. I had tried a little when I made sure that the filling was correct but I am sad that it was not enjoyed by all. This will be a desert that I will try again.

That was my interesting afternoon of cooking. When it is all said and done though we had a great evening and it was worth every bit of the time and effort. It was wonderful to spend time with good friends and to see Emma’s excitement.