Last night was so much fun!  I headed to our local beach in Del Mar for a wonderful Friday night picnic with friends and family.  It’s so much fun to enjoy a picnic as you watch the sun setting over the Pacific Ocean.  It’s a lovely sight and one I refuse to take for granted.

The sun setting over the beautiful Pacific.  The bird is enjoying the view too!

My friend and I had the idea to have a Friday night picnic at the beach. Our husbands scored a couple tickets to the San Diego Chargers football game, so it was going to be a girl’s night.  I invited my sister-in-law and my nieces to join us.  They just moved here which is so awesome!  Kylie loves having cousins nearby and I love that I can see my lovely nieces all the time.  LeeAnn brought her new husband and his son and daughter and her son to the picnic as well.  A fabulous time was had by all! We had a few different cheeses, some crackers, salami, chips, wine … you know, the necessary picnic appetizers – for us, anyways!  My friend, Elizabeth, brought an amazing cheese called fog goat cheese.  Oh my goodness, this is an amazing cheese!  She gets it at Costco, Whole Foods or a local market here called Jimbo’s.  I am definitely buying this cheese and putting it out when I host my book club in September.  It was amazing!

The kids all walked to the local pizzeria, Del Mar Pizza, and ordered pizzas for us to have for dinner.  The adults kicked back at the beach while they did this, which was perfect!  What a fun and relaxing night.  I loved it!

I made a salad to go with our dinner.  I decided to make a salad with capicola, pepperoni, marinated artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes, pitted Kalamata olives, red onion, and mozzarella cheese chunks.  This was all put over a base of iceberg lettuce.  Sprinkled over the top and within the salad was the fabulous Sicilian seasoning I use quite often in my cooking. I did not use any salt on my salad because the meats and olives added enough of a salty flavor.

I made enough salad for 13 people, so feel free to adjust the amount of meat and lettuce you use to fit your needs.

Ingredients

• iceberg lettuce, 2 heads

• 12 slices (medium thickness) capicola

• 12 slices (medium thickness) pepperoni

• 6 ounce jar of marinated artichoke hearts, cut up

• 3 ounce bag of sun dried tomatoes, cut into bite size pieces

• 1 jar Kalamata olives

• 8 ounce chunk of mozzarella cheese, cut into chunks

• 1/2 red onion, sliced thinly

• juice of one lemon

• 1/2 teaspoon Sicilian seasoning

• salad dressing of your choice (I used Light Sweet Vidalia Onion)

Directions

Tear lettuce into a large bowl.  Squeeze the juice of one lemon over the lettuce.  Add the sliced red onion to the lettuce.  Cut the meats into bite size pieces and lay over the salad.  Add the artichokes, sun dried tomatoes, and kalamata olives.  Top with the cheese and sprinkle with Sicilian seasoning. Toss everything together. Enjoy!

I used bottled salad dressing for this salad.  I chose light Sweet Vidalia Onion.  It was the perfect flavor dressing for this salad.

 Until next time, Kris