Picnic in Central Park

Oh boy, I'm done with Lucas' birthday party for this year. We were able to go for a picnic, I was so stressed out not for the party itself but for the weather conditions. The weather report kept changing from rainy to beautiful to "it might rain". I said to my husband "We will only know on Sunday". Luckily, it was a beautiful day, 80° F.  I said "It's perfect! lets pack!" 

When we got to Central Park, we saw the prettiest cherry blossom tree and I said "There! We found our spot!" I was surprised that spot was available as the park was full of people. 

Lucas is completely an outdoor kid. The minute we got there his face lit up and and started to run and run like he had been in a cage and had just been released. It was funny to see that and I'm so glad he had a great time.

There was also a picnic basket. I made two types of sandwiches. I found a fantastic olive flat bread (similar to focaccia) that I used to make goat cheese with roasted red peppers, baby spinach and sopressata sandwiches. I also made Mozzarella, sun dried tomatoes and basil pesto sandwiches.  For dessert, a flour-less chocolate cake (his favorite) with lemon curd. 

We had some lemon curd left that we brought back home and I made strawberry brulee. It was a fun way to use the leftovers. You can stuff them with many things such as pastry cream, chocolate, orange cream and it always comes out fantastic. 

Here is a tutorial on how to do strawberry brulee.

Ingredients

Lemonade

1 cup fresh lemon juice

4 cups water

1/4 cup sugar (or add more 

adjusting to your taste)

2 sprigs of mint

Ice to serve

In a pitcher, combine all the ingredients (except the ice) Stir until 

the sugar dissolves. Serve with ice. 

Mozzarella sandwiches

Quantity on this recipes depends on the amount of sandwiches.

pesto

bread

sun dried tomatoes

Fresh mozzarella

baby spinach

Spread a thin layer of pesto sauce onto the pieces of bread. Layer few slices of mozzarella cheese and a couple of sun dried tomatoes, top with baby spinach. 

Goat cheese sandwiches

roasted red peppers

sopressata or salami, sliced

baby spinach

bread

goat cheese, at room 

temperature

Spread goat cheese onto the pieces of bread. Layer few slices of sorpressata and a roasted red peppers, top with baby spinach.