Part 2 (Celebrating the Fourth Continued)

How It Tasted

Lobster and Salmon Salad

Happily this salad survived the trip…when we opened the cooler it was still thoroughly chilled. The only flaw was the overcooked lobster meat—rather like chewing a mouthful of rubber bands. The taste was good though, but I longed for a handful of crackers to toss upon the salad.

Ham Sandwiches

With only 3 1/2 sandwiches to divide amongst the four of us I wondered beforehand who was going to get the short end of the stick. But this turned out not to be a problem as everyone (including me) only managed a single nibble. The bite of the green olives and chopped pickles combined set our collective hair on end! One taste was enough, more than enough in fact.

Nut Bread Sandwiches

Dry, oh so very very dry. Even the butter spread on the bread was no help, and in the end we fed the sandwiches to a flock of very happy ducks.

Pickles

These were fine, in fact great. As I said before I love pickles, and Vlassic Dills are my favorites.

Radishes

Much to my surprise these radish rosettes consented to open up by lunchtime, and there were reasonably well received by my hungry crew. The radishes lent some much-needed color to the meal, and their snap gave our taste buds a much-needed jolt after the bitter-tasting ham sandwiches and the dry-as-dust nut bread.

Devilled Eggs

Unlike the recipe I generally use these didn’t require onions—much to their detriment, I’m afraid. I never realized before that onions and the parsley I sometimes toss in add some visual interest to the filling—Bettina’s version looked like eggs freshly pulled from boiling water and then simply cut in half.

Potato Chips

Everyone really chowed down on these…by the end of lunch the party-sized bag I brought along was 2/3 empty.

Moist Chocolate Cake

Filip: What is this—gingerbread?

Well, gingerbread mixed with chocolate, I suppose. I myself enjoyed this—it certainly was different—but the boys merely toyed with their slices and my husband wasn’t impressed.

Bananas and Oranges

As expected everyone passed these by—such ordinary fruit couldn’t compete with fresh peaches, cherries, or nectarines.

Torpedo Candies

For some reason or other everyone  found the sight of the candies was amusing. When I filled the star-shaped ceramic bowl with these pink-and-white pellets the boys stared at them for a moment, then at me, and finally started giggling. It did seem like an odd choice for a picnic lunch, but in the end the dish was half-emptied.

Lemonade

I was the only one who drank any of this—the boys insisted on sodas and my husband had smuggled a can of his favorite beer into the picnic cooler.

But I have to admit that Bettina’s lemonade was far better than the bottled stuffed I generally buy. Tt tasted freshly-squeezed and really was refreshing on such a hot day. An extra spoonsful or two of sugar added would have made it better still, but to me this drink was a winner.

Would I Make This Again?

No, I probably would not—the ham sandwiches and nut bread were failures, and the fruit and the cake weren’t well-received. We all seemed to enjoy the lobster salad, I liked the lemonade, and the pickles and chips were eaten with gusto, but frankly this picnic lunch wasn’t worth even a quarter of the effort it took to make it.

Nor in the end was I too pleased with the overall effect of the red, white, and blue decorations. “Corny but festive” paper plates look sad and forlorn when they’re covered with food stains, and I was a bit disconcerted to see the American flag (even in sticker form) being buried under scoops of gooey salmon salad.