Shabbat Picnics

One of the best ways to beat the heat and break up these long summer shabbat days is to have lunch outside. How do I manage this when I live in an apartment building on the upper east side? Our building has a lovely terrace on the second with tables and chairs that is usually relatively empty on shabbat afternoons. Since it wasn't raining today (a rare occurrence this summer) My husband and I packed up our usual picnic supplies and headed down to th terrace for a nice lunch in the sun.

Since we are regular outdoor eaters we have a pair of melamine plates and cups for eating outside. This is kind of dish that shopright or walgreens has in their big summer aisle for one or two dollars. It's my way of being earth friendly and not using paper. The plates and cups also have more weight than paper so they will not blos away as easily. While we carry down a few hot dishes the best summer outdoor foods are room temperature or cold. This corn salad is a great addition to any outdoor meal.

Corn Salad:

2 15 oz. cans of corn niblets
i small red onion, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
3-4 cucumbers or pickles, chopped
1/3 cup vinegar
1/3 oil
1/2 cup sugar
dash pepper
1 Tbs. salt

Place the vegetables in a dish. In a small bowl mix the dressing ingredients together. Pur over the vegetable/corn mixture and let marinate.

The longer the salad marinates the better it gets, so there's no need to worry about what to do with leftovers.