Hollywood Bowl Picnic - Part 2

Ah, Dave Matthews Band... you did not disappoint.  Oldies, new songs and everything in between.  We had great seats and great people sitting around us.  Couldn't have been a better night.  Unless of course, we had time to picnic before the show....

We left the house at 6:15 thinking we would arrive by 7 latest, picnic while the opening act played and have a nice food and wine buzz by the time we sat in our seats for DMB.  Traffic disagreed.  We arrived at 7:30, and had to wait in multiple lines.  First to park, then to will-call for ticket pick up.  Then we had to wait in line to enter the.  We got to our seats by 8:10 and we were on line just a few minutes later for wine.  We finally sat down and thought we would eat a little before the show started when all of the sudden we heard "Ladies and Gentlemen... Dave Matthews Band!"  So much for eating.  The wine went down like water and we were able to snack throughout but we didn't get the whole picnic experience.  Now we know leave at 3 pm to get to the Bowl.  Lesson learned.

The nice thing was that I had everything packed in ice so the food stayed cold, we had a late night snack after the show and the food lastest through the next day for lunch and dinner.

My menu:

Chicken Caesar Club Sandwich

Quinoa salad with zucchini, red onion and Dijon lemon Vinaigrette

Tomato and mozzarella salad with ciabatta slices

Melon balls

Black and White cookies

Unfortunately since I had planned on taking pics at the show while picnicking, and since it was dark while we ate, I have no pictures of any of my dishes (except for the leftover tomato/mozz salad pic below).  But you can find the recipes for Ina Garten's Chicken Club sandwich here and Martha Stewart's Black and White cookies here.

The tomato and mozzarella salad is so easy and a crowd pleaser.  Here are directions for you:

I cut a bunch of heirloom cherry tomatoes in half and mixed them with a container of mozzarella balls (also know as Ciliegine), about 1 T of good olive oil, 1/2 T of balsamic vinegar, some seat salt and pepper to taste and about 5 large basil leaves, chiffonade.  Taste and see what it needs - you may need to add more vinegar or oil or salt/pepper.  Mix well and store in the fridge until ready to eat.  Stir once more before serving.  You can use slices of  bread to sop up the yummy tomato/olive oil mixture at the bottom of the bowl.

Everything I made was easily stored in Tupperware containers in a bag with lots of ice and lasted very well.  I didn't put the sandwiches together ahead of time because I didn't want them to get soggy so I stored each ingredient in a different container.  It worked out very well.

What are some of your favorite picnic "go-to" recipes?  Feel free to share here!