And another thing I meant to mention: I loved the kimchee!

First off, a giant thank you to everyone who organized, came and contributed to the picnic yesterday (especially Mhays and Cathy2 for securing a wonderful picnic site, running a tight organizational ship and somehow ensuring glorious weather). This was my first picnic and it was just fabulous.

Thank you Michele for posting the dish list above. I was waiting until I could jog my memory again before I posted because I'm sure I forgot something I ate. Long before my stomach stopped cooperating, I was lost in information overload. With so many enticing options, it was hard to choose and even harder to make sense of the delicious tidal wave.

I enjoyed everything I tried yesterday. Here are some bites that made my mouth especially happy: JimTheBeerGuy's candied Szechuan bacon, Khaopaat/DosaGirl's pav bhaji, Santander's miang kam (only tried one of the 3 ways), Mrs. Ingie's tart refreshing lemonade, Cookie Monster's plum tart, Pucca's peanut butter crispy bars, DRC1379's whole set up (lechon asado, Cuban black beans and accoutrements), Mike G's Extramsg's pastrami, and RAB/REB's table full of pickles.

And I certainly do not want to leave out those who helped provide the ample table-space, at-the-ready plates, forks, and ice and the much appreciated to-go containers.

As I mentioned yesterday, I think the picnic perfectly combines the LTH eating enthusiasm and some leisurely European dining sensibilities. And the resulting diet plan: one mid-day, 6-hour meal.

thaiobsessed wrote:the rigatoni pasta salad (who made that? Was that Bari sausage?)

This was made by my friends Dara and Andria, LTH newcomers whom I will encourage to post the recipe.

stevez wrote:
It looks like next year, I'll have to bring two briskets instead of the one that disappeared quicker than a politician when the check arrives. .

I dont think (3) of those excellent briskets would be enough.

First, thanks to Cathy and Michelle for all the work they did on planning the event. You did a wonderful job. I bow to both of you and am grateful for all the time you put into the event.

I don't know what more can be said other than I had a great time! I enjoyed the food and company equally. I appreciate all the creativity and time the LTHers have put into the food they prepared.

If I haven't said it before I'm saying it now, I love being a newer member to this food community.

Let me add my thanks to Cathy, Michele, and everyone who helped to the chorus. It was a lovely afternoon with undoubtedly the best food of any picnic around! Everything I ate was fantastic, and I only wish that I could have tried all the dishes. Great to see folks we already know and meet new ones.

Here are some more pictures:

Cathy, Queen of the Rodeo (thanks for everything!)


Jazzfood's Beet Napoleons






Brisket




Cinny's Mom at the Smoker with philw & Smoked Chicken


jimswside's Martucky Pulled Pork




Geno55 & Friend With Their Ice Cream & Sorbet


The Chow Poodle (Julie)


Poodle Pita Chips

Photo by Chow Poodle

Pickle & Salad Section (Partial)

Photo by Chow Poodle

Ms. Wiv & Kerensa

Photo by Chow Poodle

Lucas


G Wiv & Buttermilk Brined Chicken Thighs


irisarbor's Smoked Meatloaf


Louisa Chu's Pan Bagnat


Piñata Master Ramon




Chicken of the Woods


My apologies to anyone who's food I didn't get to eat or who's picture I didn't get to take.
Photo by Chow Poodle

special thanks for bringing the pinata to Ramon, my daughter had a blast. thank you.



my wife was in charge of the camera, so that meant alot of pics of Shay, here is one I got of Steve slicing the brisket before i gave the camera up:



and a pic of the pork butt I did after it came out of the foil:

Great food, great weather, great time. It was a pleasure meeting and eating with all of you.
Will post some pictures soon.
Thanks for all things peanut butter and some of the best pork I've EVER had.
Looking forward to getting to know you all better, and of course to the next social gathering.
Liz (lazygal09)

We had a fantastic time and I really overdid it on the food...I am embarrassed to admit how much I slept last night

Highlights for me were the brisket and pastrami, the raspberry sorbet, the pear and bacon tart, the korean style wings, Gary's buttermilk chicken, the little raspberry tartlets, and the beet Napoleons!.

Fifille was far more involved than just providing the kimchi. I could not have pulled our offering off by myself. Thanks, honey! This was an even more special picnic to me as it marks the anniversary of my meeting Fifille at last years' picnic I am so glad I went last year!

This was the best picnic so far! My boyfriend will regret going to Vegas! I look forward to this every year b/c I know I will not get to eat this good on any other day during the year. I have definitely learned to pace myself and choose my portion sizes w/my stomach rather than my eyes. Everything was so delicious, and I enjoyed seeing familiar faces and meeting new ones.

Thank you to all that contributed your time and efforts, especially Cathy2 and Mhays. I'm sorry I couldn't stay to help clean.

I'll add my thanks to Cathy 2 and MHays and all whom I am not naming who organized and put this on while I just enjoyed.

Thanks to Ramon and Mrs. Ramon for the pinata festivities. My kids enjoy it every year.

I loved gastro gnome's broccoli slaw, justjoan's brownies and little cakes with fruit (I forgot the technical name), RonnieS's old fashioneds, the apple sorbet, jazz food's creations, Louise Chu's pain, and the pastrami. I missed a lot of great food by arriving late but this non-foodie really enjoyed the food.

And Cathy2, I loved the new site. I second the sentiment above that we should try to get this one again this year.

Thanks again everyone.

What's twitter? [/quote]

Oh man, why are you teasing me? I almost grabbed my favorite explanation of Twitter for food lovers & others, but it's you so I know you know.

I look forward to seeing you soon & don't forget the seitan/gluten/ & tofu for the kid here.

pairs4life wrote:I look forward to seeing you soon & don't forget the seitan/gluten/ & tofu for the kid here.

Next year, you should BYOSGT and make a believer out of us (although you've got a leg up on that since I've been eating the lemongrass "chicken" bahn-mi's at Nhu-Lan).

I feel like I should just write: ditto, ditto, ditto.

Thank you to all who made my first LTH Picnic a truly enjoyable experience. The hostesses with the mostess, Cathy2 and MHays; the members who saw my name and knew me from my posts and welcomed me anyway ; and the vast array of food that I, unfortunately, didn't get to sample enough of due to being overzealous at the beginning. We were planning on staying later, but the pre-teen was bored and I was feeling poorly, so we packed it in a few hours early. Next year I'll bring 10 gallons of lemonade instead of five and I plan on bringing something more adventurous on the food frontier.

Until the next event,

Ms. Ingie

Just a few photos....

I feel as though I am repeating so many things that have already been said, but here goes anyways.

Big thanks to Cathy2 and Mhays for organizing, and everyone that showed up for their company, graciousness, creativity, and unbelievable dishes. Thanks also to Gary and Phil for the help at the smoker.

The LTH picnic deserves its own GNR! Always pushing the envelope for new and exciting ways to feature bacon.

There were so many things that I tried that were amazing, and then I would look up, and there were so many things that had just been added. Standout dishes for me were Beth's sorbets (a few people mentioned the raspberry, but wow the canteloupe and apple ones were equally terrific), and Gary's chicken. You know that we have an incredible thing going when something as mundane and ordinary as the PBJ normally is was brought to new heights ( I liked all 3 flavors quite well). Do we have a date for next year yet? I can't wait!

Glenn

glennpan wrote:Do we have a date for next year yet? I can't wait!

I checked the calendar as well as the Jewish holidays, pencil in Sunday September 12th. Location and date to be confirmed in January, 2010.

Regards,

Echoing BIG THANKS to everyone for making the
4th Annual Picnic a great success.
By chance did anyone find a really green pair of reading glasses on Sunday?

villamickey wrote:Echoing BIG THANKS to everyone for making the
4th Annual Picnic a great success.
By chance did anyone find a really green pair of reading glasses on Sunday?

Hi,

I don't know about your glasses, sorry. I hope you will relay your story about showing up at the wrong place. It is a terrific story!

Regards,

LTH,

Wow, what an event. Thanks to Cathy2, Grand Picnic Poobah and Mhays, second in command, a smooth stellar event. Thanks also to Bill, a cleaning machine, you kicked into high gear when the rest of us were fading.

I loved the fact we had two carving stations, Steve Z's absurdly delicious Texas brisket and Mike G's terrific pastrami, one Pork Pulling station, Jimswside's luscious pulled pork, and DRC1379's Lechon Asado prep, one of my favorites.

The list of deliciousness is impossibly long, made more difficult to remember by Ronnie's never ending Old Fashions, BrendanR's friend generously sharing her Modelo and JimTheBeerGuy's Domaine DuPage.

I owe Cinny'Mom an apology. When I brought out my second batch of Buttermilk Brinedhickenen Thighs there was two or three chicken thighs in the same type of pan in the exact same spot I had put my first hot off the smoker batch a few hours earlier. I was a little disappointed to see there were thighs still left and, in the interest of people getting fresh from the fire chicken, I placed the new pan over the old covering the remaining chicken thighs.

What I did not realize is that the chicken was actually Cinny's Mom's delicious Jerk Chicken that had been put out just a short while before. My mistake, which I attribute to not having my glasses on at the time.

Once again, thanks to all involved, my bride and I had a particularly good time, though there were so many delicious items I never got to try.

Oh, and thanks to PhilW for bringing his wood burning Klose for all to use, I saw at least 5-6 different items luxuriating in the Klose smoke, from G Glennpan's terrific Uncle John's hot links to Ronnie's home made Ancho Sausage and all points in between.

Enjoy,
Gary

Being a creature of habit I made a beeline to the site of the previous LTH Picnics on Sunday.
Smallish gathering of folks at 12:45 seemed weird.
As I was walking to the pavilion with my dish the smell of lighter fluid was in the air, Dunkin' Doughnuts and KFC on the
picnic tables. It was a family reunion of a family I wanted no part of.
As I nonchalantly turned around and headed back to the car, my face was surely as red as my tomato stacks.
A quick phone call to my peanut butter sandwich baring nephew TKent had me on my way to Labagh.
There - I've come clean.

Another awesome LTH event! Thanks to all the planners and participants.

I took a methodological approach and had a list of all the things I wanted to try and I did pretty well.

Had 27 items on the short list and managed to get 15 of the items crossed off and of the 12 items I missed, 3 went so fast that I wasn't able to get to them.

There were about 5 items I tried that were not targeted and a few items I had to go back for seconds on.

I did manage to get in the items on the 'Top Ten List' so I had no regrets.

After the day of rich and savory food, for a late dinner I had a couple of Taco Bell bean burritos just to cool my palate down.

Thanks again! Oh Boy! The holiday party is just a few short months away!

i,m getting hungry looking at all these great pics. great job

Just wanted to ditto all the thanks to Michele, Cathy2, and all who brought their various cooking equipment. This year was bigger and better than last year's, which is a wonderful feat, indeed!

We enjoyed as much as we could of the food and the conversation, but of course, only scratched the surface in terms of both. After rolling home, we had a light meal of fruit for dinner

Looking forward to next year already!

Yet another note of sincere thanks.

We enjoyed ourselves tremendously. Thanks so much to Cathy2 and Mhays for the all their organization and to all the great cooks and participants. It was really outstanding that as total newcomers we were made to feel so welcomed.

And as for the food, OMG. We’ve never experienced a picnic/pot luck with such broad and wonderful offerings.

Next year is on our calendar, and we hope to meet up with some of you thru the year.

I've been remiss in not earlier getting around to thanking C2 and MHays for such a great afternoon. I wanted to help more with cleanup, but I had two tired and slightly cranky ladies I had to get back to Evanston (you know who you are).

All the food was incredible, of course, but the camaraderie and the conversation was truly the highlight of the event. I can only eat so much, but I can catch up with LTH friends ad infinitum.

Having said that, I'm still drooling over MikeG's pastrami, Stevez's brisket, Jazzfood's beet napolean (watching the prep was fascinating), Ronnie's Old Fashioneds (which Lucas, in an unexpected move, kindly got for me) - strong and subtle at the same time - and I rarely drink hard liquor. I'm sure I'm forgetting to mention so many other things that were true standouts.

One thing I really did enjoy, which I don't think has been mentioned previously in this thread, is my friend gp60004's candied grapes. For a master of the fry-o-lator to come up with such a unique dessert - bite sized grapes that tasted like taffy apples - was a huge surprise. And I'm not even much of a dessert person, either.


Good times.

I'm not sure there is anything left to say about how wonderful this event was, it exceeded my wildest expectations. Cathy & Michelle you did a wonderful job of organizing and the warmth and generosity of this community never ceases to amaze me. I have to share two of my favorite exchanges of the afternoon, first, when nr706 put down his appetizers I overheard some people behind me discussing them and one said "well of course everyone here has already eaten rattlesnake". Ahhh LTHer's! My second was Lucas who upon seeing a friend and I were drinking his dad's old fashioned's said "you know my father made them". We assured him we knew and he said "You know, at home I usually make them for him and I'm very good at it". He then told us that's he'd been compared to the daughter on Mad Men, but couldn't watch it yet. One of my favorite stories of the picnic.

Here's just some of my favorite's in no particular order.

Khaopaat -pav bhajo, just amazing!
SteveZ- brisket-people were just hovering in front of him waiting for the brisker to be sliced.
MikeG - who knew Manny's would have competition.
BuddyRoadhouse - that corn casserole, I went back for thirds and forced myself to stop.
Jazzfood - it looked like an art installation.
jimswide - wonderful pulled pork.
Panther in the Den - I now like jerky.
happy_stomach - I'd forgotten how good marshmallows could be.

I already have Sept. 12, 2010 on my calendar.

mbh wrote:My second was Lucas who upon seeing a friend and I were drinking his dad's old fashioned's said "you know my father made them". We assured him we knew and he said "You know, at home I usually make them for him and I'm very good at it". He then told us that's he'd been compared to the daughter on Mad Men, but couldn't watch it yet. One of my favorite stories of the picnic.

LOL! The boy does make a fine Old Fashioned (even though I was inspired by a scene in Mad Men that probably was supposed to have the exact opposite effect on me).

=R=

Love to all. Next years picnic will have two pinatas -- one for the littles and one for the biggers. Apologies to the littles this year who had to dare the scrum for the candy.



B and I planned the pinata to have multiple appendages to wear, including head. We were very happy with the results.



To anyone who lost anything: I was the very last one there. I thoroughly policed the area with a high powered flashlight for garbage and forgotten things. I found nothing of value and disposed of the rest.

-ramon