Spring Picnic

So it's that time of year where the stereotypical picnics happen (do they even happen anymore?).  My idea of a picnic involves fried chicken usually picked up from the nearest KFC on your way to the park.  But while you're not making the chicken yourself there's always home made sides and these are some of the classics that I did with pan seared chicken (wanted to do grilled but my new grill ain't here yet, two more days).

First up was a fruit salad, this version was cantaloupe, strawberries, cucumber with a bit of red onion lime juice, jalapeno, honey, mint salt and pepper.

  

 

After doing all the slicing and dicing this is what the salad looked like.

No picnic would be complete without a potato salad.  This version had salt, pepper, mayo, dijon mustard, sugar, peas, radishes, dill, potatoes and butter milk.

No pictures of it, but I first sliced the potatoes then cooked them in some boiling water.  The potatoes were then combine with the rest of the ingredients.

Another picnic classic, and one of my favorites when I see it on a buffet at a family dinner, deviled eggs.  Eggs, mustard, mayo, apple cider vinegar, sweet pickets (for the juice), salt, paprika, chives and of course eggs.

The first step was to hard boil the eggs, I let those goes for about 10 minutes.  Once cooked I peeled them, sliced them and scooped out the yolk and mixed them with all the ingredients except for the chives and paprika.  From there I refilled the eggs with the yolk mixture and garnished them with the paprika and chives. 

The final side dish was somewhat of a deconstructed caprese salad.  Spinach, white wine vinegar, salt, olive oil, grape tomatoes, pine nuts, basil, parmesan and mozzarella.

All ingredients except for the tomatoes and mozzarella were combined in a food processor in order to make a pesto.  I think skewered the tomatoes and mozzarella.

Here are the completed chicken breasts.  These were pan seared in a bit of oil after being seasoned with salt and pepper.

The completed side dishes.