Great Picnic and BBQ Recipes

Great picnic and BBQ recipes are easy to come by. During the summer you have a huge variety of produce and foods, many on special in grocery stores, so you have no excuse not to get out there and expand your culinary dimensions with some new meals. Plan ahead, though. A great balance of a good picnic or barbecue meal is exceedingly fresh food mixed with other food that is rich in flavor. To accomplish this flavor yourself, you'll need time to marinate and set many of these foods in order to provide that great flavor. Here are a few ideas to get your planning going.

A good salad goes a long way. First off, nix any idea of iceberg lettuce. Though watery and refreshing at times, it has pretty much no flavor to speak of. Instead, try to find greens that provide a lot of flavor and variety like arugula and frisee, as well as less green vegetables like Treviso or radicchio. A good mix of these, a splash of a simple red wine vinaigrette, is delish in its own right. Add to this a couple roasted nuts like pine nuts or walnuts and maybe a sharp cheese like gorgonzola or chevre, and you'll have a salad that blows anything that you or your friends have had out of the park. As a further variation, try adding roasted beets to your salad as well. This will take a few hours of prep time followed by some cooling. However, these cut up and thrown in the mix are wonderful and reflect the season quite well.

Bbq Recipe

For meats, it's all about marinating or brining. To brine something, you'll basically be letting it soak in a salt and sugar solution will a whole mess of herbs and spices for a few hours or overnight. How long really depends on the size of the meat and how thick it is. These recipes will make your meat so much more juicer and the flavor will run throughout the meat. Find recipes online or in various books to get the right amount of sugar and salt for your tastes as well as the exact brining time for your meat.

Marinating meat provides a great flavor base and gives you a great crust whenever your meat hits the grill. The already applied sauce will char quite nicely and give a great textural quality to any of your meats. Try your own with mustard, fresh herbs, or olive oil and see what you enjoy best. You can always keep picnicking while the weather's good.

Great Picnic and BBQ Recipes

Peggy Olson writes numerous articles for Web sites on gardening, picnicking, barbecuing, outdoor products, and home decor. Her background also includes teaching, gardening, barbecuing and professional chef. For more of her useful articles on picnicking, please visit Picnic Baskets, supplier of picnic baskets, accessories, and more.

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Tired of Winter? Have a Barbecue Picnic Theme Party!

Many of us get tired of winter - the dark, cold days, the gray landscape, and feeling of being cooped up. Here is a fun idea to help you break out of the winter blahs. Have a barbecue party! Following are some ideas to get you going. Barbecue and picnic traditions vary from family to family and region to region - so tailor these ideas to appeal to your crowd.

• Serve barbecued foods (duh!). You actually can barbecue outdoors in winter, even in the colder climates - but you may not want to. First of all, someone will need to stand out in the cold to do the grilling, and secondly, the food will get cold on its way from the grill to the house. Consider instead using your broiler or indoor grill to "barbecue." Or purchase pre-cooked barbecue foods at your grocery store, a discount retailer, or a local restaurant. If your group is small, you can even roast hot dogs on sticks in the fireplace.
• Decorate for a picnic. Use a checkered tablecloth, and lay some seashells randomly on the table. You can purchase shells at craft stores if you don't happen to have any lying around. Use casual tableware or paper plates, and don't forget extra napkins!
• Serve side dishes that you generally have only in summer, or that you typically serve with picnics. This varies widely from place to place and group to group. In the Northeast, you might include macaroni or potato salad, baked beans, corn-on-the-cob (available in the frozen food section) and lemonade.
• For dessert, think "s'mores" (graham cracker, roasted marshmallow and chocolate bar), ice cream sundaes, fruit pies, or whatever says "summer" to you.
• For drinks, beer always goes well with barbecue, but serve what appeals to you and your guests.
• Turn up the thermostat - just for this couple of hours - and invite your guests to wear short sleeves. The kids in particular will get a kick out of being able to wear shorts or a sundress in the middle of winter.
• Put on some summer party music. Go retro with The Beach Boys - nothings says summer like "Surfin' Safari."
• Pin up pictures of summer scenes, beaches and sunshine. Or have the kids make suns out of yellow construction paper and post them all over the party area.
• Most adults will be more comfortable at a table - but have blankets laid out for the kids to picnic "on the ground."
• Invite guests to bring a favorite picnic recipe to share, or steer the conversation to your guests favorite memories of a summer picnic or barbecue.
• Keep it simple and easy. Remember that the atmosphere you are aiming for is "relaxed and carefree." Consider asking your guests to bring side dishes, beverages or desserts, as they would to a family picnic in summer.
• Enjoy this slice of summer while you wait for spring to come!

Bbq Recipe

Tired of Winter? Have a Barbecue Picnic Theme Party!

Cheryl Lyon is a Certified Professional Life Coach, meditation leader and author of the At Home Retreat Kit.

Cheryl aspires to live, and to help others to live, what she calls "The Winged Life." A life of purpose AND fun. A life of work AND play. A life of accomplishment AND creativity, planning AND spontaneity, peace AND adventure. A life of one's own choosing.

Visit Cheryl's websites at http://www.wingedlifecoaching.com and http://www.athomeretreatkit.com.

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