I've got a good one for ya.
Money's tight, so you're cutting back on entertaining.
But I'm here to tell you that you don't have to. This post will show you...
How-to have a "recession picnic" and make it nouveau haute hobo!
It's the latest "culinary party happening".
The little money that people have these days can't buy everything and besides that, don't you just love a good penny-pinching fight?
Penny-pinching when the going gets tough - gets the tough going... again.
Anyway... recession picnics are the bear-economy cool that a grip of money can't buy.
They're part performance art, part starving-artist soup kitchen.
Huh?
Part of the "art" of it is creating a community of sorts, incorporating 21st century "hippies" (good, un-affected, "salt of the earth" people), good food, and good music CD's played on your big 'ol boom box.
Think of it kind of like playing "picnic games".
Get your guests to read poetry or act out a scene from their favorite movie. Tell them to blow the dust off their old flutes and guitars and bring them to play. Sit around and read poetry, then lead everyone in a group song. Play board games. Bring chess sets. Play backgammon. Have each person tell a childhood picnic story during dessert.
Everybody talks about the "good, old days".
Do it "old school" picnic-style!
You don't have to be broke or cursed with the sense of the fact that you soon will be broke to partake in a glorious recession picnic.
Just hang your head and declare that "the parties over" and know that you're hip and cool, and on-trend.
You go "Boho chic" in old blue jean cut-offs and faded tee-shirts that tout your favorite oldie rock bands. Or wear a Mama Cass Elliott muumuu dress with a band of fresh flowers in your hair. Just as long as it's not new with a designer label, you're in like Errol Flynn!
Recession picnic food is intentionally simple and good. And cheap.
Serve stuff like hamburgers with chopped herbs, eggs and onions in a pita - barbecue chicken, marinated in cilantro vinegar and jalapeno peppers on a bed of crunchy, purple cabbage slaw (red cabbage doesn't get much grocery shopper attention, so it doesn't cost much) - or quesadillas with cheese (whatever kind is cheap), corn and jalapeno peppers on either flour tortillas or pita bread.
Or recess (hold back, cut back) and serve only one entree.
Make it like the photograph above; on a pita with hummus, cucumber, fresh tomato slices and herbs, and grilled lamb.
Come up with your own cold picnic food recipes or make something like, sides of hummus and homemade fresh fruit salsa served with grilled pita bread.
When you recession picnic your "theme" is to go cheap - so serve ice cold Bud's (Budweiser) and watermelon lemonade to drink. If you want to "fancy it up" just a little, serve Pina Colada snow cones.
Apples don't cost much, so make baked Dulce de Leche apples stuffed with marshmallows for dessert. Or make s'mores.
PS Ask coffee drinkers to B.Y.O.C. in their own thermos
Here's the easy recession picnic recipe:
Baked Dulce de Leche Apples
Serves 8
4 apples, halved, cored, and hollowed slightly
Filling:
1 banana
1/4 cup dried apricots
1/2 cup dried cherries
1/4 cup crystallized ginger
1/2 can dulce de leche (if you can't find it, look in the Mexican food aisle)
1/4 cup brown sugar
Juice of 1/2 lime
1/4 tsp. chili powder
1 pinch cinnamon
Marshmallows
Chop and mix filling, then stuff the apples and wrap in aluminum foil. Place on semi-hot coals and cook for about 20 minutes. Each guest should carefully open foil (beware of hot steam), place one or two marshmallows in the center of their apple, close up the foil again for a few minutes, then open and eat.
Build your picnic table from the ground up!
For your recession picnic table plans, put the food on the table and your people on the floor (ground)! Buy large squares of bright, cheap cotton print fabric that you can catch on sale at your local Jo-Ann Fabric and Crafts store.
You can probably pull off a recession picnic for a little better than $200.00 if you buy as much as you can on sale and from your local Eastern Market, where food is fresh, local and cheap.
If you make it an event, they will want to be a part of it.
So invite as many friends as possible.
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