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AN EASTER PICNIC Easter is a good holiday to be outdoors - the world is new, the hills blooming with wildflowers, the air perfumed. For many years Easter at my house meant a big brunch out on the terrace. The children were small, so there would be an egg hunt on the lawn, and then mimosas and lots of food on flower-decked tables in the dappled shade of an ancient oak. As if a spell had been cast, it was always sunny and warm. The hunt was popular because the colored plastic eggs hidden in the shrubs and borders produced chocolates and jelly beans, but anticipated with even more excitement were the egg wars. I don't remember how this custom got started, but it has always been part of my family Easter. It works like this: a large basket of beautifully painted eggs is passed around, and everyone chooses their weapon. Once you have your egg of choice in hand, you can challenge any other player. Eggs are knocked against each other, pointy end to pointy end, blunt to blunt, and the egg that lasts longest without cracking is champion. Children are devoted to this game. One year, in the enthusiasm of painting the eggs, one of my boys accidentally painted a raw egg, and that year's egg war was memorable. The food that followed these battles was a bounty of the spring season. There might be a roulade or a savory tart combining eggs with tender young vegetables. Asparagus always played a part, and salads might include roasted baby beets, new potatoes, and sharp young radishes. Queenly red strawberries reigned over other fruits, and my traditional Polish Baba and Mazurek were served with coffee, hours into the afternoon. I look forward to doing that brunch again, but for the last two years we've had Easter out of town, with a son who's away at school. Traditions can change. One year, a walk in the green hills was planned, and Easter brunch became a picnic. There's something so grand about transporting a festive meal into a rustic spot. It feels more luxurious to spread the cloth on a soft meadow and lay out platters of beautiful food, to pull the cork from a good chilled wine so far from home. (I always take real wine glasses, wrapped in cloth napkins to protect them.) Picnic food has to be practical, though - good at room temperature, and sturdy enough to arrive in fine shape. For this year's Easter picnic, I've made up a menu of foods that are ridiculously easy, but make a wonderful meal. I started with a frittata that combines creamy yellow potatoes with bright green asparagus, fresh dill, and a bit of lemon zest in the eggs. I steam the potatoes before sautéing them gently with the asparagus in a small amount of olive oil, and the result is a tender, fresh-tasting frittata that looks very pretty when sliced. I sketched in rosemary and olive flatbreads, and a couple of kinds of hummus - one with roasted red peppers stirred in, and a simple one with lemon and garlic. A picnic is a good occasion for a crudit , using vegetables that won't wilt, so that will be my salad. But my crudit will have no carrots, no celery and no bell peppers - it will be made of bright, hot radishes, sugar snap peas, Belgian endive leaves, sweet cherry tomatoes, and whole fennel bulbs to be cut on the spot. A dipping oil can be brought in a bottle, and the hummus also makes a nice dip. Goat cheese and cured olives can be added with no extra effort, and the menu is completed with strawberries, as always, and the Easter pastries. The ice chest will be stocked with champagne and blood orange juice for mimosas, and some bottles of an excellent local Sauvignon Blanc. This is a lavish picnic, made of simple things. A frittata, after all, is no big deal. Hummus is made in the food processor, and home-made flatbread is far easier than you think. The crudit is beautiful, but it only takes a little washing and trimming to prepare it. And everything travels. Easter pastries are a labor of love for me, and if you like to bake you can enjoy them twice - once in the making and again in the eating. If you don't bake, I'm sure you have a favorite bakery. The main thing with this meal, as with any, is to do your shopping well. Seek out the very best ingredients. Go to a farmer's market, and revel in the fresh, wonderful produce of springtime. You'll revel in it again when you eat this picnic, which could be an all-day idyll in some bucolic setting, or a delightful party on your porch.
Blood Orange Mimosas |