Read Anne Braly’s Food Blog: Mouth-watering basil found in garden
We’re well into summer, and I’m ready for a picnic. On my list would be fried chicken from Champy’s, some KFC coleslaw, bread from Niedlov’s. I’ll make the chicken salad and marinated vegetables. Then I’ll pack it up and head outdoors. Maybe I’ll go to the lake, but if I only get as far as my screened porch or poolside, it’s still outside.
There’s something about fresh air and food that creates memories. I’ll never forget the last two meals I enjoyed outside. At Easter, my carefully prepared meal fell to the ground and the dishes broke into pieces when the drop-leaf table collapsed. I can look back on that one and laugh. Now.
The al fresco dining experience before that was last summer, the last one with my momma.
She loved picnics and would always pack a meal whenever we’d drive more than an hour out of town, opting to eat at a roadside table than in any air-conditioned restaurant. I was young and didn’t understand why would she want to eat peanut butter sandwiches and chips out of little baggies on the road when we could sit in a vinyl-covered booth and order a burger and fries.
Now I know why. It’s knowledge we’re granted with the passing of time. Momma could always ignore the passing cars and concentrate on the beauty of her surroundings, whether it be a field with wildflowers in bloom, the mountains dressed in their fall colors or the roar of a river.
Where’s your favorite picnic spot? And what’s your favorite food to pack? Send me your memories.
It won’t be long before blackberries are ripe. I’ve already got berries set on my vines, so I’m just waiting for them to plump up and turn their beautiful deep purple. Here’s a recipe from Taste of Home that takes them from the vine to the dinner table.
Blackberry-Sauced Pork Chops
Also good with chicken.
1/2 cup seedless blackberry spreadable fruit (in jelly section)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon reduced-sodium soy sauce
Dash ground cinnamon
4 boneless pork loin chops
2 teaspoons steak seasoning
1 teaspoons olive oil
1 cup fresh blackberries
In small saucepan, combine the spreadable fruit, lemon juice, soy sauce and cinnamon. Cook and stir over low heat until spreadable fruit is melted. Remove from heat and set aside.
Sprinkle both sides of pork chops with steak seasoning. In a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray, cook chops in oil over medium-high heat for 5-7 minutes on each side or until meat thermometer reaches 160 F. Serve with sauce and blackberries.