Summer Picnic at Wave Hill

The Metro North Train hugs the bank of the Hudson River, winding dramatically between the craggy rocks of the Palisades.

It is one of the first days of summer, and it is a glorious one – azure blue sky, wispy cottony clouds and cool breezes.

I disembark at the Riverdale Station and begin the steep climb away from the station and the river pass stately homes – some which have seen better days – towards my destination.

Wave Hill, a public garden and cultural center, sits high on the banks of the Hudson River. It is the former “country home” of William Lewis Morris, built in 1843 and was visited by such luminaries as Charles Darwin, Mark Twain, Theodore Roosevelt and Arturo Toscanini. In 1960, the grounds were deeded to the City of New York.

My knapsack is packed with a garden fresh picnic lunch. I am determined to prepare more fresh food and eat it outside this summer. I’ve never visited Wave Hill and it seems like the perfect setting.

A blanket of green welcomes me as I enter the estate. The Great Lawn offers expansive views of the Hudson River and the Palisades on the New Jersey side. The Conservatory is wrapped by a charming garden of brilliantly-colored, delicate summer blossoms. The Herb Garden offers such wonders as purple basil, delicate leeks and feathery fronds of fennel. Edible herbs, healing herbs and ornamentals spill from the stone walls.

I stroll through the Arbor Woodland under cool shade trees. Once clear open fields, the caretakers are allowing the Woodland to return to its natural state.

As the noon hour draws near, I settle in a sunny spot at a cluster of jade green picnic tables with smart matching umbrellas, and unpack my portable feast. I dine on French Lentil Salad, perfumed with shallots, sherry vinegar and tarragon, and pencil-thin asparagus coated in a lemon vinaigrette. The petite brown-green Puy lentils once grew in volcanic soil in Velay France. The terroir taste is earthy with the sweet accent of tarragon. The delicate asparagus glisten in the sun, bursting with green life. It is a delicacy of summer, as is this day at Wave Hill.

For more of the glorious gardens, fragrant herbs and majestic trees of Wave Hill, click below.

© 2007 T.W. Barritt All Rights Reserved

Opera Alfresco: I’ve logged eight thousand miles this week in business travel, so when the lunch whistle blows, I am in desperate need of an escape from the office. At exactly 12:23 p.m., I lock down the computer screen and walk briskly down Sixth Avenue to Bryant Park, for “Afternoon Arias with City Opera Artists.”

Despite years in Manhattan, I’ve spent little time in Bryant Park (http://www.bryantpark.org/). The history is fascinating. George Washington’s troops crossed the site of the park in 1776 as they fled the Battle of Long Island, and Union troops held drills there during the Civil War. In 1853, New York hosted its first “world’s fair” on the site in a building called the Crystal Palace, which stood there until it burned down in 1858.

Today, Bryant Park looks like a Georges Seurat painting. There are picnickers camped out on blankets, children frolicking on the grass, and well-heeled executives wandering the perimeter. There are even one or two grand dames with parasol in hand.

At the West end of the lawn, a large stage is set where WQXR evening host, Midge Woolsey is presiding over a lunchtime performance of City Opera artists. As I stand at the edge of the lawn drinking in the production I learn from the commentary that City Opera was founded by Mayor LaGuardia as the opera for the people. So, free performances in the park are a natural. The voices of the performers soar into the sky with the birds, with selections from La Boheme, Carmen and even a lively rendition of “Poor Wandering One” from The Pirates of Penzance.

Regardless of the hefty serving of culture, I am starving, and it’s a prime opportunity to sample the fare at ‘wichcraft, one of three olive-colored pavilions that serve sandwiches, coffee, pastry and ice cream in Bryant Park (http://www.wichcraftnyc.com/). New York Magazine recently profiled ‘wichcraft as one of its 101 Best Cheap Eats in New York. I join the queue and place an order with one of the orange-clad employees for chicken salad, walnuts, roasted tomatoes, pickled red onions, and frisee on multigrain bread, perhaps the longest list of ingredients and condiments for a single sandwich, ever.

I find a spot to stand on the North end of the lawn and munch on my sandwich. I listen as the passion flares on stage and I rapidly develop a tragic love affair with my sandwich which is vanishing quickly. The flavorful chicken takes center stage, the roasted tomatoes add a subtle dramatic note and the frisee a touch of comic relief, all surrounded by the artistry of artisanal multi-grain bread.

For the finale, I harmonize with a chocolate cupcake with cream filling, which evokes memories of the classic Hostess Cupcake. It is Devil’s Food Chocolate, to be exact. How appropriate, as the Devil has just possessed the stage for a classic scene from Faust, that concludes the Afternoon Arias.

© 2006 T.W. Barritt All Rights Reserved

Camp Stove Cooking - Part Two: We are probably the most refined group of camper-gourmets on the planet. The Sunday dinner tradition at our annual campout is our friend Mary's super rich and creamy Penne a la Vodka.

Mary's been treating us to her special recipe for years. She brings along all the accoutrements including chaffing dishes and sternos to keep the nouveau cuisine piping hot. The Coleman Company never considered our style of "roughing it."

Whenever possible, I volunteer to stir the sauce, a painstaking process that involves combining a large quantity of vodka, butter, cream and tomotoes and reducing the mixture over a steady flame until the texture becomes buttery pink and the fumes no longer shock the nostrils. Mary insists that it must be "cheap vodka, the cheaper, the better!"

Combine the sauce with the pasta and a generous amount of Parmesan cheese, throw in salad and hot garlic bread warmed on the coals and twenty campers are destined for a blissfull food coma in front of the campfire!

© 2006 T.W. Barritt All Rights Reserved

Camp Stove Cooking - Part One: Every year one of the rituals of summer includes a camping trip to the Hudson River Valley where some twenty friends and family members convene for a weekend of outdoor activity and of course, food. Once again, as we have done for nine seasons, we descended on our favorite campground in Plattkill, New York, just south of New Paltz starting on Friday, July 28th. There were trips to local wineries, golf outings, water sports and visits to historic homes perched high atop the Hudson River.

Get a large group together, enhale some fresh air and appetites are quickly on overdrive. Breakfast is typically a communal orgy of protein, carbohydrates and cured meats. Garret, John and Ken serve as breakfast chefs frying up massive amounts of French Toast, pancakes, bacon and sausage. This year, Lauren, a high school senior, added her own creative touch to the breakfast menu, inventing pancakes studded with M&M candies. It was inspiration at the breakfast table, and the chocolate truly did melt in your mouth, not in your hands! Thanks to Lauren for adding a splash of color and sweetness to the morning ritual!

© 2006 T.W. Barritt All Rights Reserved

Summer Garden Fantasy: I love nothing more than dining "al fresco" on the lawn on a warm summer evening. Last Thursday night was simply a garden of earthly delights. The New York Botanical Gardens is showcasing the glass sculptures of Dale Chihuly in the Victorian conservatory and throughout the gardens. Chihuly glass sculptures drift among the waterlilies of the tropical pools in the Edith A. Haupt Conservatory, looking a bit like rainbow-colored Hershey kisses that have been cast afloat.

After a hypnotic walk beside glass objects that glistened in the late afternoon sun, I picked up a piquant Southwestern Turkey wrap sandwich with roasted plum tomatoes and chipolte avocado dressing and a flowery half-bottle of 2001 George Duboeuf Beaujolais-Villages, and relaxed on the conservatory lawn listening to the Waterlily Concert presented by WQXR, the classical station of the New York Times. A musical quartet of two violins, a cello and a bass served up, in the words of WQXR host Annie Bergen, "a Rossini sandwich filled with a generous serving of Hayden" - Rossini's Sonata #3 in C Major, Haydn's Divertimento for 2 Violins, Cello and Bass, and Rossini's Sonata #6 in D Major.

Music, food, wine and art. Truly an enchanting midsummer night!

© 2006 T.W. Barritt All Rights Reserved