Date: Lunch picnic

Yesterday, little lady and I brought her daddy a picnic lunch.  When my husband and I were first dating, we were living in the DC area, where we took advantage of the warm (ok, nasty and humid) weather to go on tons of picnics.  Our standby was always some variation on the Caprese salad theme, often in sandwich format.  A baguette, some fresh mozzarella, a half a pound of salami, some tomatoes, some fresh basil, and if we were really ambitious, some balsamic vinegar and olive oil, and we were good to go.

So, yesterday I bundled baby up, and we went to the store.  We picked up the usual ingredients, subbing in pesto for the basil and the oil and vinegar.  Since my husband can't go far from the office at lunch due to time constraints, we headed to the courtyard behind his building, which was perfect as it is right next to the river - very picturesque.

And even though it's very different, years later, so many miles away and now with a baby daughter, it's such fun to have an old standby date that takes us back to a time when we were first falling in love.  A time before marriage, mortgage, and babies, when it was just the two of us and everything was so new and so simple.  It helps us revisit the excitement of that time as much as it helps us appreciate all the things we've built together, and all the many things we hope to build for the future, which we'll plan, as we so often have, over many wonderful picnics.

Little lady gets her picnic.  Fear not, I fixed her hat after taking this picture.

Delicious - and I'm about to go chow down on the leftovers!