Sunday Picnic

After a busy day of sightseeing for Meg and Tyler, working for Jon, and cooking for me, we four took a picnic to the Champs de Mars, the park at the base of the Eiffel Tower.

One of Megan's favorite dishes from our college and early adulthood days is my Spanish Chicken'n'Rice. It makes me very happy to think that I can make something that my friends covet and crave. It has been many a visit, party, or just rainy day when I've gotten a request for a little chicken'n'rice lovin. I learned the secret from my mom, and have passed it on only to Megan and Jamie (wedding shower gifts). Because I haven't made it in a long time, I thought the occasion of an evening picnic justly called for the time involved in making the dish. The occasion also called for the use of real plates and silverware. We settled with plastic wine glasses, however. One must be somewhat practical in these matters, after all.

Our menu consisted of the famed chicken'n'rice, a lovely salad of end-of-season tomatoes and cucumbers, fresh baguettes (they were still warm when we bought them from the boulangerie on the way to the park), cheese, grapes, and butter cookies with slabs of milk chocolate on top. We topped the food off with a couple of bottles of cheap, but good wines.


The weather was fantastic, with just a hint of fall in the air. Arriving around 7pm, we had the luxury of seeing the Tower in all its glory, from daylight to darkness. The sight was the bubbles in the glass of champagne that was our evening. Ah, Paris...