You know the World’s Fair Grounds that you see when you’re driving on the Grand Central Parkway and the LIE?
Well, that’s where we live: Forest Hills, Queens. Our local park is Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, which is huge and includes a museum, a zoo, a botanical gardens, the USTA Tennis Center, Shea Stadium, a public theatre, the 1964 World’s Fairgrounds, a pool, a ice skating rink, numerous fields, the New York Hall of Science, and a sailing school.
We packed a picnic and rode our bikes over to the park and picked a great plot of grass to feast.
We made:
Egg salad:
6 hard boiled eggs, peeled and chopped. The best way is to put the eggs in a pot with cold water, and bring to a boil, uncovered. When the water comes to a boil, cover the pot and turn off the heat. 9 minutes later, the eggs are perfectly hard-boiled.
Diced gherkins, chopped scallions, 1 finely diced carrot, chopped dill and chopped parsley, 1 T whole grain mustard, 1 T mayo, salt, pepper.
Quick Pickled Radishes:
Bring to a boil: enough water to cover the radishes with equal amounts (in this case about 2-3 T) salt and sugar dried tarragon, diced lemon rind, and mustard seed. After it boils, and the salt and sugar is dissolved, pour the liquid over sliced radishes in a glass container–Ball jars or Working Glasses. The pickles can be kept in the pickling liquid until eaten. This method can be used for pickling most root vegetables (carrots, daikon, beets…)
Roasted Potatoes:
Toss potatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast in a 400F oven until cooked (between 30-40 minutes, depending on size…)
Olives:
My favorite are the cracked green Sicilians from Fairway (marinated with jalepeno peppers).
Cheese:
Kasseri: A Greek cheese that we got at fairwary… Delicious!
Strawberries and Whipped Cream:
To finish it off, strawberries with freshly whipped cream (whipped with sugar and a little vanilla).
