Nectarine Tomato Salad and a Fun and Games Picnic

Nectarine Tomato Salad and a Fun and Games Picnic. Summer is the perfect time of the year for some fun in the sun. Choose your picnic location, whether in a park in the city, or on the shores of a lake, river, or ocean. Prepare a few, easy, and delicious summer dishes, including this nectarine, tomato, and feta salad. Don't forget your favorite drinks, and bring along a variety of games. Fun is guaranteed!

Nectarine Tomato Salad and a Fun and Games Picnic

As a matter of fact, there is nothing better, on a summer day, than to call up on dear friends, prepare easy foods, pack some games, and head outdoors for a fun picnic. As of late, our blogger friends Margaret and Raymond Kitchenfrau are our picnic buddies. You might remember our elegant Tea Picnic and a Fall and late Fall picnics last year. This past spring we completed another lovely Afternoon Tea and we are planning to host an Autumn one. We sure enjoy the planning aspect. We spend hours, usually in front of some good food, talking about the theme, food, location, accessories and color scheme.

When the day of the picnic arrives, we share the food preparation, check on the weather forecast, pack up, and are more than ready to start our little picnic adventure.

The set up

We head to a popular park in the city, with plenty of space, as we know we won't be the only ones with the "picnic bug". Once we've found the right spot to spread our hand stitched, vintage quilt, we plant a sun umbrella in the ground to create some shade. As often happens, we bring pillows for ease and comfort while sitting on the ground. However, they also add a colorful and more refined look. Seasonal flowers are always part of our picnics. You can call them our signature touch. They sure make every picnic feel more special. Then, we start "setting the table".

For this Fun and Game picnic, we pack colorful, mismatched, summery melamine dishes, an enameled bowl for the salad, plastic cutlery and cups, cloth napkins, thermoses, trays and dome shape metal mesh food covers. We have a picnic basket, coolers to keep the food and drinks cold, plus totes, crates, and other baskets to transport the stuff. Margaret and Raymond also have a folding wagon cart, quite useful to pile up high and drag along from the car to the picnic site.

As part of a summer picnic essentials, we make sure to bring sunscreen, bug repellent and after bite, together with paper towel, wipes, garbage bags for clean-up, and plastic bags for the dirty dishes and cutlery.

While we were arranging the picnic spread on the quilt, our husbands were having fun setting up the games for later. They are our inseparable companions, and we couldn't do any of this without them. Moreover, with Loreto we made the salad together and he made the wraps for this picnic.

Margaret's radish and chive dip with cream cheese was delightful and the perfect refreshing start to the libations. We spread it on top of baguette slices, but it could be just as good on crackers.

The veggie turkey wraps we made are a fun, easy to eat, and tasty sandwich idea for a picnic. We used spelt wraps smeared with a little mayo, topped by sliced oven roasted turkey lunch meat, then havarti slices, slivered carrots, purple cabbage and finished with some dressed mixed salad greens. We rolled them up in wax paper, twisted the ends, and cut in half at a diagonal. Aren't they pretty colorful?

We also made the nectarine tomato salad (see below for the preparation and recipe card). This is a win-win choice for this fun and games picnic. Also, a good partner to those wraps, or any kind of sandwich, really. This is a salad you would want to make on repeat when stone fruits are in season.

For refreshment, we decided on a watermelon rose agua fresca. So thirst quenching on a summer day. We also had water.

Dessert

It is not unusual that we bring two desserts in our picnics. This time, Margaret made both the lemon mousse and the crunchy nut meringue cookies. They compliment each other well, one being so airy, creamy, and tangy, the other crispy, sweet and nutty. The idea of re-purposing jam jars to store the mousse is genius. They transport very well and each person has their individual dessert.

The lemon mousse was topped with fresh berries and stabilized whipped cream that Margaret added just before serving. She brought the components in different plastic containers and put the dessert together at the picnic.

How to make a Nectarine Tomato Salad

When you're at the picnic, you can assemble the Nectarine tomato salad. Pour the dressing on, give it a toss, add the cubed feta and the pecans. Lastly, garnish with basil and mint leaves.

Having those dome shape metal mesh food covers is essential in keeping the bugs away from the food. Leave the food covered until you're ready to eat.

Time to taste

Does this salad not scream summer or what? So much color and freshness. The sweetness of the tomatoes and nectarines just compliment each other. To offset the sweetness, the feta and quick pickled onion offer acidity and umami, while the mint and basil give us freshness. The pecans are a nice added crunch, while the dressing just heightens the flavor of this salad in such a beautiful way.

The games

A summer day, a park, good food, great friends and fun games. What more can we ask for? Remember, you want to have fun at your picnic, so bring lots of games, for the kids, and also the grown-ups.

Let the games begin.

In the end we can say that we all had an amazing time. We played tirelessly, for a couple of hours, moving from one game to another. We tried ladder ball, croquet, bocce, badmington, and the guys even played a few rounds of frisbee. Then, it was time to pack up and head home, with a few sore muscles and a smile of contentment on our face.

Hope we have inspired you to head outdoors in these last weeks of summer for a fun and game picnic. Read Margaret's recollection of the day with more photos and picnic tips. And don't forget to show us your pictures, tag us, or leave us a comment. We love hearing from you!

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