Guest Blog Post: How to Make your Picnic Memorable with Easy Appetizers

This article was written and submitted by a TCFB reader, Katy Cavallero.

For a memorable picnic, prepare unique and mouthwatering appetizers that are also easy to make at home and will transport well.

Ideally, easy appetizers could be prepared the day or night before the picnic so they are ready to go the morning after.

Appetizers are commonly finger foods that need no utensils such as forks and spoons to eat.

Some can be skewered with toothpicks or picked with a napkin, pita bread, or chips. These can include dips, kebabs, skewers, dumplings, pizzas, pies, fries, vegetable sticks, cheese tarts, turnovers, stuffed vegetable, bruschetta, chicken wings, ceviche, cheese puffs, meatballs, pickles, deviled eggs, grilled oysters, clams, or mussels, shrimp cocktail, smoked salmon, caviar, nachos, onion rings, quesadilla, chicken nuggets, and tempura.

Cold vegetable soup recipe or hot chili can also make a satisfying appetizer served with bread.

For a fun and festive picnic, make different kinds of dips and spreads for crackers, chips and pita bread. Not only is this super flavourful, the presentation can also be quite colorful and exciting especially if guests are trying out the dips for the first time.

Some delicious dips you can make ahead at home are artichoke lemon dip, guacamole or avocado dip, hummus, baba ganoush or eggplant dip, cheesy beer dip, chili dip, tomato and black bean salsa, sour cream and crab dip, pesto cream cheese spread, caponata or eggplant relish, tepanade or olive paste, caramelized onion dip, chicken liver pate, curried egg salad, edamame dip, fava bean dip with garlic and goat cheese, mushroom caviar, oxtail pate, salmon spread, shrimp dip, and tzatziki or yogurt dip.

You can also make a seven layer bean dip of refried beans, cheddar cheese, tomatoes, chilies, sour cream.

For a very simple yet elegant picnic appetizer, prepare a cheese plate with different kinds of cheese and pair it with a selection of red and white wines.

You can also make a platter of cheese and cold cuts as well as slices of bread and fresh fruits. For a wonderful meze, you can include olives, roasted peppers dressed in olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and sundried tomatoes.

DISCLAIMER:

This review is a guest review and reflects the reviewers’ own personal opinions on the product. The Casual Food Blogger accepts no responsibility for anything that is said in or caused by this review or anything contained in, caused by, or arising out of, the videos or photos contained in or referred to in this review.

Guest Review: East Village- Wagyu Beef Burger

Address: 234 Palmer St Darlinghurst NSW

Tel: (02) 9331 5457

Website: http://www.theeastvillage.com.au/

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One of the final burger reviews in the Guest Blog series by Mike & Dave, this review checks our the Wagyu Beef Burger at the East Village Hotel.

Mike’s Review

After the long anticipated “Return to East Village” we were finally able to sample the last of the five burgers on our list. Unfortunately, the burger’s fate was sealed as soon as I sunk my teeth into the bun.

Ironically enough, we postponed our review of this burger because they had run out of burger buns and I’ve got to say that it certainly wasn’t worth the wait. The bun seemed to be cold, stale and hard to chew. It didn’t match up with the soft meat patty, cheese and aioli. The tomato relish was also applied fairly lightly and absorbed into the bun so it hardly made an impact.

The flavours were all there, don’t get me wrong, but the bun spoiled it for me. It wasn’t quite as disappointing as the burger at Three Weeds so I’m going to give it a 7/10.

Dave’s Review

East Village Balmain was to be my first review, but for a cruel twist of fate which saw us awkwardly exit the premises after being informed that the kitchen had run out of buns.

A few months later, we were back, nervous, excited and most importantly, hungry. Somewhat ironically, it ended up in fact being the last burger we reviewed (of the initial 5).

I’ll dive straight in.

The burger was great. It presented well, with cheese and aioli blending in and oozing over the paddy, which was succulent and jammed full of flavour. The chips, delicious, and the salad was served as a side, which was a nice touch. Unfortunately, the burger was let down by the bun.

I’ll admit straight away that I generally prefer pre-warmed, toasted or charred buns, though, when fresh, an unaltered bun can sink in quite nicely to a warm paddy. With this particular bun, however, I wasn’t impressed. It was almost stale, and certainly detracted from the burger as a whole.

I would’ve loved to have given the burger a 9 or more based on flavour, however the bun really did bring it down to an 8.

The guys also made a YouTube video review which you can find here.

DISCLAIMER:

This review is a guest review and reflects the reviewers’ own personal opinions on the product. The Casual Food Blogger accepts no responsibility for anything that is said in or caused by this review or anything contained in, caused by, or arising out of, the videos or photos contained in or referred to in this review.