Every Friday,the National Gallery of Art hosts Jazz in the Garden, which is a free concert series held outside, in the sculpture garden. It’s a perfect opportunity to have a picnic feast with friends while enjoying the great outdoors and listening to the smooth sounds of jazz. This Friday, I seized the moment and invited a group of my nearest and dearest to join me for food and fun.
Picnic foods can be tricky because the food must be transportable, spoil-proof, and easy to eat without hassle. For this picnic, I decided to go with easy finger foods- stuffed grape leaves, Sonny and Joe’s Hummus, a baguette from Potenza Bakery, asiago fresco cheese and Pop Chips…with wine of course! It was a delicious spread.
The grape leaves were perfectly easy to eat and had a citrus tang that made them light and refreshing. For those of you who are unfamiliar with stuffed grape leaves, they are essentially olive oil soaked leaves wrapped around rice and sometimes meat. These were veggie friendly, of course.
The asiago fresco cheese was perfect a la baguette! The cheese was mild, soft and melty so you could smash it in to the bread and eat it like a sandwich.
We also had Pop Chips! Jessica and I are big fans of these light, low cal crunchy munchies. At this time, I’d like to introduce Pop Chips’ newest flavors- sour cream and chedder! They were so good, I somewhat regretted bringing them to share. Too bad.
We washed it all down with cool, refreshing sauvignon blanc. I chose this wine because it is light and acidic which works well with picnic food. When selecting wines to drink on a hot, summer day, look for wines that are refreshing, tangy, citrusy and fruity. For example, sauvignon blancs and reislings are excellent go-to picnic wines that are easily drinkable on their own, but also pair nicely with most foods. Cheers to picnics!
Other posts you may enjoy:
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
That picnic looks like a lot of fun! Those stuffed grape leaves look really yummy.
yum! i love outdoor music and picnics!
I just went to Potenza for the first time the other week and it was awesome!! The bread looks delish :O).
haha I’m all about breakin’ the rules!
You just gave me a cheaper idea for going out on a Friday!
The sangria is def good stuff, but in order to avoid long lines, over priced pitchers, and a wicked hangover, I like to smuggle in my own wine.
my mom was visiting me one of my last weekends in dc and we went to jazz in the garden. definitely got the sangria! i love the french metro stop there
ah thanks for reminding me of such a good memory!!!
What a great way to start your weekend!
I love Jazz in the Garden… but it’s more approp called Sangriafest! How do you NOT have the Sangria??? On the upside, having Jazz in the Garden makes me happy to be living in DC.