Cheese Plate on the Fly

By Andrew Hunter

All this week, Special Fork bloggers will be sharing recipes for vacation cooking. And to celebrate summer vacations, Special Fork is giving away a beautiful, English-style picnic basket fitted with service for four by Picnic Time. It’s easy to enter the sweepstakes.

We love going on vacation, though we can typically only steal away for a couple of days here and there. Ten minutes west is Santa Monica and an hour up 101 is Santa Barbara. Both quintessential California beach towns are vacation destinations for travelers around the world. Since we don’t have to buy plane tickets or even much gas to vacation in these locales, we justify our splurging on nice hotel rooms and delicious local food.

The other great thing about vacationing close by is friends can pop in for an afternoon play date or even to spend the night. We know where all the great food shops are in each town for picnics and snacks. My favorite snack by far is a casual cheese plate; a variety of soft and hard cheese, olives and fresh fruit all on a quick and easy platter – leave your design aesthetic at home, the goal here is assemblage not presentation.

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Wish you were Here…

By Sandy Hu

All this week, Special Fork bloggers are thinking vacation and sharing their best vacation cooking ideas, as we head towards Memorial Day and summertime.

In anticipation of summer outings and leisurely picnics, Special Fork will be holding a sweepstakes for a Newbury Picnic Basket by Picnic Time. It’s the kind of English-style basket I imagine getting tucked into the “boot” of a roadster by the butler and the contents (prepared by the cook, of course) getting laid out on a blanket in the countryside. This basket, fitted with service for four, has an estimated retail value: $144.95. To see a picture of the basket and to enter our contest, click here. Contest begins today and runs through May 27.

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Gone Fishing

By Sandy Hu

Steve and I were considering a vacation to the Far East or Europe using airline miles later this fall. But in the end, we decided I needed a vacation now. I have been working nights and weekends for too many months.

As I thought about it, I realized that where I really wanted to spend my downtime was not on some foreign adventure, but in Hilo, on the Big Island of Hawaii, where I am from. Normally, I thrive on big-city vacations to cities like Paris, with its multitude of art museums, great restaurants and fabulous shopping.

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