seattle picnic lovers adventure society

Earlier this summer I hosted the second edition of the Seattle Picnic Lovers Adventure Society’s (SPLAS) summer picnics. Here’s how SPLAS works:

There are a number of under-utilized parks in the City of Seattle – places with great views, an abundance of picnic tables, grills, etc. and no one is taking advantage of them! With this in mind, my friends Chip and Viv created SPLAS, for people who like to picnic. They created teams – each of which is responsible for finding a park and throwing a picnic.

My “team”‘ (I use this term loosely because my teammate bailed and in order to happen at all, it had to be turned into a group effort) was scheduled to picnic on Flag Day, which commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States (who knew?!) Basically it seemed like a reason to be patriotic, though I wasn’t particularly excited to make the traditional American BBQ fare that had been requested of me. I’m better than that! AND I didn’t really know any of the guests and the thought of serving them hot dogs and boxed potato salad… ugh. That is not a first impression I want to make. Ever.

So I elevated it. Inspired by a Bon Appetit article, I decided to make “hot dogs of the world” which basically just meant that I made a Global Hot Dog Bar with the following combinations:

• Pacific NW w/ cream cheese, caramelized onions
• Argentinian – w/ chimichurri sauce
• Greek – tzakiti, chopped olives, tomatoes, sliced onions
• Vietnamese – sriacha, cilantro, shredded carrots
• Bacon-wrapped hot dogs

I also served a Cabbage & Lime Salad with Roasted Peanuts, pre-made disgusting potato salad from Safeway (shudder), Hazelnut Nutella Cookies and my pièce de résistance – The Pioneer Woman’s Flag Cake.

 

I also picked up a set of flags of the world from my personal heaven, Display & Costume. Why not celebrate all of the flags on Flag Day? We set them out and everyone tried to match the right country to the right flag. No one got 100%.

 

 

The picnic was held at Bhy Kracke Park in Queen Anne – pretty lovely view, day or night.

 

 

 

 

Everyone walked home with personal American flags and leftover cake and cookies in red and white popcorn boxes.

 

 

And that, friends, is how I threw a Flag Day picnic for my picnic club of picnic lovers. I don’t have anything to compare it to because I haven’t been able to attend any of the other picnics, but under the circumstances, I think I did a pretty good job.