Belly Lore - Picnic

Manet's painting, Le Dejuener Sur L'herbe (the luncheon - I prefer picnic - on the grass) when shown in 1863, was considered, well, not acceptable.  A nude nymph with eyes cast down to show shame was one thing, but a woman looking the viewer squarely in the eye was, apparently, quite another.  It was also the first time a painting showed a nude female sitting with fully clothed males.  Now with that I can see a problem...

Picnic

Happy May Day!  After all, everyone knows that (hooray, hooray) outdoor...picnicking starts today.  Yea, that's how it goes, right?  I decided to do a few salads instead of the usual fried chicken or sandwiches for this picnic.  Not because I wanted to keep it light, but because I didn't.  Strawberry rhubarb shortcake is involved.   But first the veges:

Really Yum Green Bean, Walnut and Feta Salad

1 C toasted walnuts (Bake at 350 degrees for about 8 min.)
3/4 C olive oil
1/4 C white wine vinegar
1 T chopped fresh dill
2 cloves minced garlic
1/4 t salt
1/4 t pepper
1  1/2 pounds fresh green beans
1/2 of a red onion, sliced
4 ounces crumbled Feta cheese

Combine the oil, and next 5 ingredients in a jar.  Snap the green beans into 3 inch pieces and steam for 10 min.  Shock the beans in cold water, drain and pat dry.  Toss walnuts, beans, onion, and feta together.  About an hour before you serve, toss that with the vinaigrette.

The other salad is just some red leaf lettuce, strawberries (blueberries are good too), toasted walnuts, and blue cheese vinaigrette.

Blue Cheese Vinaigrette

1/4 C white wine vinegar
1 clove minced garlic
1/4 t salt
1/4 t pepper
1 T Dijon mustard
3/4 cup olive oil
1/4 C blue cheese

Mix all ingredients except blue cheese into a jar and shake well.  Add cheese and dress salad.


For shortcake, I like to use a basic biscuit recipe and top with sugar before baking.  My aunt gave me some Bakewell Cream leavening from Maine and I like the recipe on the can.  You can use any biscuit recipe you like.  If you want whole grain biscuits, just substitute 1/2 of the white flour in your recipe with whole wheat flour.  After I formed my biscuits, I tried carefully cutting a few apart and adding  2 teas. of jam in between the layers before baking.  Yummy but not pretty.

I adore strawberries and rhubarb this time of year so I filled the shortcake with both.  I cut 2 cups of rhubarb into chunks and added about 1 cup water and 1/2 cup sugar.  I simmered that until the rhubarb was done and then drained the juice into a small saucepan to further cook down the sauce until syrupy.  I prefer to top my shortcake with this syrup rather than whipped cream.  Not that whipped cream isn't always welcome.  I tossed the rhubarb, strawberries and a bit of syrup together, broke apart a biscuit, and heaped the bottom with the fruit mix.  On goes the top to be drizzled with the rhubarb syrup.  Great picnic dessert, just don't forget to be equally as clothed (or better yet, unclothed) as your picnicking partner.  Hooray, hooray!