
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 28, 1995                   TAG: 9506280038
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CAROLE SUGARMAN THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

THE POWER OF POSITIVE PICNICKING

Part of the trick to enjoying a picnic is picking the appropriate bring-alongs. For example, you don't want a cheese sandwich for a picnic after a long bike ride, unless you had grilled cheese in mind. For a sandy beach, don't cart food that needs assembling or slicing, or things that may slide off a plate.

Whatever the setting, here are some ideas from experts:

For car picnics, think compact: raisins in little boxes, baby carrots, pretzel sticks or even soft pretzels. Sally Twentyman, a dietitian and author of ``The Lowfat Epicure'' (Berkley, 1995), likes to bring along little boxes of cereal for her children, or puts dry cereal in plastic sandwich bags.

For larger meals on long trips, Mary Abbott-Hess, past president of the American Dietetic Association and coauthor of ``Healthy Gourmet Cookbook'' (Collins, 1994), suggests a cooler filled with healthy perishables from your cleaned-out refrigerator. That means the fruits and vegetables in the crisper bin; cold, leftover chicken; bread, rolls, muffins.

Bike or hiking picnics. Although they can be heavy to carry, don't forget plenty of fluids, warns Katherine Tallmadge, a dietitian. Water is great, or you can dilute juice with 50 percent water (diluted beverages will empty from the stomach faster, making you feel less full). Or freeze juice and add water to it in the morning; it will melt along the way, and keep everything else cold at the same time. Bring food high in carbohydrates, such as a loaf of fruit and nut bread, suggests Tallmadge.

Brunch picnics. Pick a park, and go there in the morning before the crowds and bugs converge. Take along bamboo skewers filled with chunks of fruit, bagels with smoked salmon, gazpacho and corn muffins. Relax.

Outdoor concert picnics. Salads packed with summer fruits and vegetables are Jordan Fainberg's choice for concert picnics. Fainberg, owner of the Health Zone restaurant in Washington, also likes to mix white beans into chicken, tuna and turkey salads to add fiber and flavor.

Beach picnics. Lotte Wolfe, director of the biannual Slim and Trim health spa at Tween Waters Inn on Captiva Island, Fla., has organized many a slim and trim beach picnic. She likes to pack a cooler full of ``all kinds of cut-up fruit,'' accompanied by a yogurt dip made with fat-free plain yogurt mixed with a little frozen apple-juice concentrate and vanilla or chopped, crystallized ginger. Sandwiches often consist of whole-wheat pita stuffed with shredded carrots, bean sprouts, sesame sticks, lettuce and a touch of mashed avocado. Then she'll pack little bags of carrot and celery sticks, and for drinks, low-sodium tomato juice.

Boat picnics. When Abbott-Hess thinks of boats, she thinks seafood. She also thinks seasick. That means packing a light meal, such as dilled shrimp with a cucumber salad, or a green salad with precooked charred tuna or salmon. Sandwiches that can be eaten with one hand, such as veggie roll-ups, are good if you don't plan to anchor when you eat. If you do anchor, it's still best to serve the plates already portioned, and as Twentyman jokes, don't bring anything that can roll away - like meatballs.

Many purists consider fried chicken, potato salad and homemade cake picnic mainstays. "Reader's Digest Down Home Cooking: The New Healthier Way" ($28, Reader's Digest Books) updates these and more than 400 other memorable favorites for the nutrition-minded '90s. Authentic old-fashioned recipes and their new counterparts, adapted to be lower in fat, calories, cholesterol, salt and sugar, are complimented by food facts and lore, helpful hints, illustrations and tantalizing color photographs.

"Picnics: Over 40 Recipes for Dining in the Great Outdoors" ($9.95, Collins Publishers San Francisco) compiles elegant little recipes and inspiring color photos from several award-winning Country Garden Cookbooks to create six seasonal al fresco fests including a spring breakfast; autumn courtship in an Italian garden; trailside winter picnic; and an All-American Independence Day barbecue. A brief but helpful guide to picnicking logistics also is included.

Whether your picnic is plain or pompous, have a great time at it in the great outdoors.

- Food editor Almena Hughes contributed information to this story.

Recipes for:

Richmond Fried Chicken

Picnic Potato Salad

Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake

Arugula Roasted Red Pepper and Prosciutto Panini

by CNB