The Picnic: Recipes and Inspiration from Basket to Blanket

by Marnie Hanel, Andrea Slonecker, Jen Stevenson

Overview

Winner, IACP Cookbook Award

A picnic is a great escape from our day-to-day and a chance to turn a meal into something more festive and memorable. The Picnic shares everything you need to plan an effortless outdoor get-together: no-fail recipes, helpful checklists, and expert advice. With variations on everyone’s favorite deviled eggs, 99 uses for a Mason jar (think cocktail shaker, firefly catcher, or cookie jar), rules for scoring lawn games, and refreshing drinks to mix up in crowd-friendly batches, let The Picnic take the stress out of your next party and leave only the fun.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781579656089
Publisher:	Artisan
Publication date:	04/07/2015
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	121,120
Product dimensions:	6.56(w) x 9.56(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

Marnie Hanel writes for The New York Times Magazine, W magazine, Departures, and Marie Claire. Andrea Slonecker is a cookbook writer, food stylist, the recipe editor of Kinfolk, and the author of Pretzel Making at Home and Eggs on Top. Jen Stevenson runs the Portland food blog Under the Table with Jen and is the author of Portland’s 100 Best Places to Stuff Your Faces. Together, Hanel, Slonecker, and Stevenson lead the Portland Picnic Society, a group that was founded to celebrate the art of picnicking.

Editorial Reviews

06/15/2015
Separately, Hanel, Slonecker, and Stevenson have impressive portfolios of cookbook, blog, and magazine writing under their belts. Here, as proud members of the Portland Picnic Society, they have created a summery guide to outdoor eating that’s full of tips, recipes and quaint illustrations. The authors have never met a list they didn’t like, and they scatter many throughout the book. Several are more whimsical than practical, such as “99 Ways to Use a Mason Jar” (#99: small hat), but most are food driven and fairly irresistible. Their choices for “Ten Best Baguettes” include a simple strawberry and Camembert sandwich, as well as a more complicated country pork pâté, while “The Deviled Dozen” offers 12 variations on the classic egg snack, utilizing pesto, curry powder, dill, and olive tapenade. About 100 recipes are spread across five conversational chapters: Bites, Salads, Plates, Sweets, and Sips. There are some creative versions on favorite dishes, such as the smoky tea-brined fried chicken: prior to being battered, the chicken rests in a sweet brine of honey, orange, and lapsang souchong tea. And for the utensil-deprived, or those wishing to keep Yogi Bear at bay, there are six different “salads on a stick.” The Cobb involves skewering a cube of ham, half a hard-boiled quail egg, a cherry tomato, a bit of bacon, and a crumble of blue cheese. (June)

Publishers Weekly

Smart new ideas include salads on a stick and a dozen kinds of deviled eggs.”
—Food & Wine
 
“The Picnic is a gorgeously illustrated cookbook and a treasure trove of inspiration. In addition to its whimsically adorned recipes, there are instructions for solving picnic crises and tips on food presentation.”
—Entertainment Weekly
 
“Terrific. . . . Picnic basket essentials to make everything easy.”
—Portland Oregonian

“The Picnic will turn you into a sort of MacGyver of picnics.”
—Eater Portland

“Ridiculously pretty . . . this book is your guide to getting food from your kitchen to the great outdoors.”
—Epicurious
 
“A lovely, hand-illustrated cookbook which covers the ABCs of picnicking. It’s full of useful tips.”
—Design*Sponge

“The only picnic guide you’ll ever need.”
—Food Network DISH

“Charming. . . . Perusing these colorfully illustrated pages, readers will learn how to select an appropriate site, cope with inclement weather, transport unwieldy or temperature-sensitive foods, and assemble a ‘glorious’ charcuterie board. The authors’ classy recipes for appetizers, salads, drinks, and more (e.g. kale panzanella with burnt lemon Caesar dressing, smoky tea-brined fried chicken, vanilla bean shortcakes with strawberries in basil syrup) all include thoughtful instructions for storage and serving. A fresh look at outdoor entertaining that’s just in time for spring and summer. Highly recommended.”
—Library Journal
 
 

From the Publisher

03/15/2015
A growing number of cookbooks—including Teri Lyn Fisher and Jenny Park's Tiny Food Party! and Jennifer Shea's Trophy Cupcakes & Parties!—explain how to plan enviable gatherings with professional aplomb. Similarly, this charming planning guide from food writers Hanel, Andrea Slonecker, and Jen Stevenson demonstrates how to throw a picnic for two to 20 guests. Perusing these colorfully illustrated pages, readers will learn how to select an appropriate site, cope with inclement weather, transport unwieldy or temperature-sensitive foods, and assemble a "glorious" charcuterie board. The authors' classy recipes for appetizers, salads, drinks, and more (e.g., kale panzanella with burnt lemon Caesar dressing, smoky tea-brined fried chicken, vanilla bean shortcakes with strawberries in basil syrup) all include thoughtful instructions for storage and serving. VERDICT A fresh look at outdoor entertaining that's just in time for spring and summer. Highly recommended.

Library Journal