Saturday Picnic Dinner

I'm working on a dinner menu for a bit of a picnic on Saturday The weather is supposed to be absolutely gorgeous around here this weekend and I want to take advantage of sunny skies. It's been a while since we've done anything around here.  So we're doing a BBQ and we'll eat outside by the pool. There will be eight of us, a nice number. Rick's parents are coming and after dinner, he'll take them back home (his dad never wants to stay around after dinner). Afterward, we're going to play cards for a while.

Chinese Barbecued Spareribs 

Jack's BBQ Chicken for the Oven (that I can finish on the grill)

Baked Mac and Cheese with Tomatoes 

Tangy Apple Slaw 

Italian Pinwheel Rolls

A tray of homemade pickles and sliced vegetables

Pumpkin Bars (with a decadent cream cheese frosting)

Caramel Crumb Bars or Blueberry Crumb Bars or Peanut Lover's Brownies (haven't decided which yet)

The spareribs, the pasta, and the slaw are all recipes from Cooks Country that have been "calling" to me; I've been wanting to try them now for awhile and this seems as good a time as any. My MIL has been wanting me to make the pasta dish for quite a while and I just hadn't gotten around to it, so I promised her we'd have it on Saturday night. The pinwheel rolls are just a yeast dough that's rolled out, slathered with butter and sprinkled with Parmesan and herbs, then rolled up (sticky bun style), sliced and baked. I've made them before and they're really good.

I don't feel like messing around last minute with a cake or pie and I thought a nice assortment of cookie bars would look nice on a platter. (Any leftovers can either go home with people or go into the freezer for another time.)

I'm also making fresh lemonade and iced tea. And I have a bottle of Barefoot Refresh, a blush-type wine. Found it at the liquor store and I liked the name.   Have no idea what it tastes like. I like white or blush wines for drinking, but I like to cook with reds.

So that's the menu thus far. Am I missing anything?

Sounds wonderful. What time do you want us there? (in spirit I guess!)

kookycats said:

Sounds wonderful. What time do you want us there? (in spirit I guess!)

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what she said! Can I come??

The menu sounds perfect. Only thing missing is me . I love mac and cheese with tomatoes!

I've had the Barefoot wine before. It's nice. Especially for the price. I vote for the Peanut lovers brownies for dessert.

Weather here's meant to be horrid so think I'll come over too

And what's this?  No marshmallows toasting on your BBQ for afters?    Just buy a couple of packets and away you go - burnt mouths and sticky faces everywhere. 

Sounds like a Cat Site get-together. Thanks Pam!

You know, you're all welcome here any time!

Everything was really good. Not much in the way of leftovers as people took food home. There's just enough for Rick and I munch on for dinner tonight and that's pretty much it.

I did make the Peanut Lover's Brownies and they are to die for....delicious! So are those Pumpkin Bars. Yum! I added just a wee bit of orange extract to the cream cheese frosting, just enough for taste. Decadent. Everybody loved the spareribs....I thought they could have been done just a little more, but they were still very good. I liked the wine, too; I'd buy it again.

Sounds like a great time was had by all.

Sounds pretty much like the perfect evening  Those pumpkin bars with orange/cream cheese topping sound delish'.