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Backyard grilling is nice, but it's no picnic

Sylvia Carter |
A La Carter

June 26, 2008

As backyard grilling reaches its yearly frenzy, old-fashioned picnics are often forsaken.

There are lots of valid reasons for this. It's so handy to grill in the backyard, with the kitchen close at hand. You can dash inside for anything you may have forgotten to bring. There's no lugging of heavy coolers full of ice, food and beverages. There's no sand in the food. These are all good reasons for staying in your own backyard.

Some of my most cherished memories, though, involve picnics. Some were impromptu, some planned. There were the juicy tomatoes bought by the side of the road and eaten with leftover fried chicken under a shade tree. There was the pickled okra, eaten on the grounds of the Cloisters in Manhattan, also with cold fried chicken. There were cold baked beans, and too many deviled eggs and potato salads to count. There were jugs of lemonade and iced tea.

Time was when I thought that a homemade layer cake was the perfect picnic dessert, despite the attraction that icing holds for ants. (Aren't ants necessary to a picnic, though?) Nowadays, I might pack a simple fruit salad instead. (And I might make a pork roast, delicious cold, instead of labor-intensive fried chicken.)

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Those roadside signs that depict a picnic table and a welcoming tree up ahead always gladden my heart. Packing my own lunch, even something as simple as a tuna sandwich and potato chips, means I can stop at a scenic overlook instead of a crowded fast-food stop with a parking lot full of cement and lines stretching 20 minutes long at Starbucks and Cinnabon.

One man in my past even brewed espresso over a tiny Sterno stove when we went on car trips. It was a treat, far better than any we could buy.

Often, a homemade picnic will cost less, too, in these days of high prices.

So if you plan to travel by car for the Fourth of July, or anytime, freeze some ice packs, stash an old quilt in the trunk of the car and hit the road.

BOILED DRESSING

The dangers of leaving mayonnaise at room temperature are vastly exaggerated. Those warnings date back to the days when mayonnaise was apt to be homemade using raw egg. Still, then or now, boiled dressing is an excellent substitute to use in picnic sandwiches and salads. This is a recipe I clipped from the St. Louis Post Dispatch in 1986.

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon dry mustard

2 tablespoons granulated sugar, divided

Pinch cayenne pepper

2 egg yolks

3/4 cup milk

1/4 cup white vinegar

1 1/2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled to room temperature

1. In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine flour, dry mustard, 1 tablespoon sugar and cayenne. Stir in egg yolks, milk, vinegar and melted butter.

2. Place over low heat. Stir constantly and gently until thick and smooth, 20 to 25 minutes. Do not boil (despite the dressing's name). Remove from heat and stir in remaining 1 tablespoon sugar. Let cool. Makes about 1 1/4 cups dressing.

Note: If the dressing gets lumps in it, despite your best efforts at patiently stirring it, strain before using. Or, cook it in the top part of a double boiler, set over hot water.

THRIFTY KITCHEN A LA CARTER

Buy "seconds" of local peaches in season and slice and freeze them; buy seconds of farm-stand tomatoes for making sauce. You'll save - and appreciate the full flavor of riper fruit.