Picnic Essentials

Hooray, it's officially Spring! I am looking forward to warm days that permit picnicking.
When it comes to preparing for a picnic, I like to keep things simple. I don't bring foods that require a place setting. Instead, I bring foods that are both manageable and portable (this goes for utensils too). For a simply satisfying picnic I like to have a superb cheese, quality salame, crusty bread (I bring extra for feeding the duckies) and a tasty beer. No mess, no fuss and very minimal clean up. Just good food with great company.

1. A Sunny Afternoon picnic basket, 2. Crate and Barrel farmhouse cast iron cheese knives, 3. Sartori BellaVitano Gold* (yumm), 4. Pendleton wool blanket from Beklina, 5. Columbus Italian dry salame via Rakuten, 6.Goose Island's Matilda (my favorite beer), 7. Brooklyn Slate via Terrain, 8. Paris Baguette


*BellaVitano Gold is an excellent table cheese. It has the fruity character of a Parmigiano Reggiano  with a smooth and buttery finish, similar to a creamy Monterey Jack.

Serve a Super Bowl Cheese Platter

It's that time of the year again for the Super Bowl-where you can eat to your heart's content and oh, watch the big game. Let's be honest here, I'm excited for the food. I enjoy the bar fare that's typically served on Super Bowl Sunday; however, I like switching things up by serving a cheese platter. I conceptualized a Seattle Seahawks platter made up of cheeses of the Pacific Northwest: Rogue Creamery's Oregonzola and Washington's Beecher's Flagship (also mentioned here). I've added Wisconsin's Sartori Espresso BellaVitano to represent the coffee city of Seattle.

The sweet and earthy black truffle honey is the perfect complement to the deep flavors of Espresso BellaVitano and the sharpness of Oregonzola and Beecher's Flagship. Columbus salami adds a meaty, savory element to the platter, and the walnut bread is that necessary nutty component that brings it all together. Touch down.

Photography Credits: Seattle Seahawks cheese board via Bed Bath and Beyond, Beecher's Flagship, Sartori, Oregonzola via Amazon, truffle honey via Dean & Deluca, Columbus sausage via Amazon, walnut bread via Boudin