Freitag, 8. August 2014

Night picnic





A night picnic is simply an inherent part of warm summer nights:
Pack up pillows, blankets and baskets full of food, the car full of chattering kids – plus special guest Lotta who has returned from her journey around the world! – and off at sunset towards a beautiful place!










Noelle and I took about an hour in the kitchen to prepare the provisions – I prepared the salads and she baked the little cheese cakes and gathered the dishes.

We use the small mason jars as votives – you can simply use small jam jars, too.

I prepared a salad of lukewarm zucchini and dried tomatoes, and a green quinoa salad: both were delicious and gobbled up in no time.
Yet the little cheese cakes were tasty beyond comparison – funnily Noelle made a mistake at first when preparing them and the result was so much better than the original recipe!
To die for delicious!

The white boxes are coated on the inside, by the way – which means you can use them to transport salad in them.
All the same I put the dressings into pickling jars and poured them on top of the salads on arrival.






I love the space around Solitudeschloß (Solitude Castle) in Stuttgart – when night falls you look down upon the city lights and enjoy the wonderful atmosphere.

Ingredients are approx. for 4 people each.





1. Zucchini salad with dried tomatoes and pine nuts.
3 large or 4 small zucchini
16 dried tomatoes in oil
3 handful pine nuts
1 red Paprika
200 g bell pepper

Dressing:
5 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 pinch of sugar
salt, pepper
10 Tbsp olive oil

First briefly dry roast the pine nuts in a frying pan until lightly browned.
Cut zucchini in slim and even slices and sauté in a frying pan portion by portion, until lightly browned.
Add salt and pepper.
Cut tomatoes and bell pepper into cubes, sauté bell pepper in olive oil in the same frying pan for about 2 minutes.
Add all other ingredients to the pan and mix gently.

Add dressing to the lukewarm vegetables, sprinkle with feta cheese and pine nuts.

The recipe was inspired in parts by THIS one, thanks for the inspiration!





2. Green quinoa salad
(Quantities are a little vague, since this recipe was created spontaneously)

2 cups quinoa
3 cups sugar snap peas
1 cucumber
3 cups frozen peas
4 shallots

Dressing:
Juice of 1/2 lemon
salt, pepper
olive oil

Cook quinoa according to instructions on package.
In the meantime cut sugar snap peas into small strips, cube the cucumber  and slice the shallots into small rings.
Throw the frozen peas into boiling water for 2-3 minutes, they are supposed to remain al dente.

Mix quinoa and vegetables and carefully stir in dressing.



3. Raspberry cheesecake muffins

For the crust:
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
3 Tbsp melted butter
1 Tbsp sugar

For the raspberry topping:
ca. ½ cup raspberries (frozen)
1 Tbsp sugar

For the filling:
14 oz cream cheese
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
a little vanilla essence


Preheat oven to 350F.
Mix all the ingredients for the crust until well combined.
Now put 1 Tbsp of the crust mix into each of the paper press down well.
Place the liners into a muffin tin and bake for 5 minutes.
Take out of the oven and let cool.

Raspberry purée:
Purée raspberries with the sugar – if you want you can press the mix through a sieve to get rid of the seeds.

Whisk cream cheese, then slowly add sugar, add eggs one at a time, the vanilla essence last.

Add 3 Tbsp each on top of the cracker crust, then distribute raspberry purée with a spoon and swirl lightly with the help of a wooden stick (marbling).
Bake for about 22 minutes, let cool and place into refrigerator for 2 hours before serving.

(if the part with the refrigerator doesn’t work out anymore, don’t worry – they taste great even without it!)




A little advice:
I bought big, old cutting boards on the flea market:
I like taking them along to picnics, because not only can you arrange everything nicely on the plain surface, you can also use them as straight-up cutting boards. 
Have the most beautiful summer week-end!



Love,
Joanna




This post was translated by Ginnell Studio.

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