Use the pulldown menus to visit other Food Central sections:
Recipes ---------- Today Recipe Swap	Resources ---------- Additives Alcohol Beer Beverages Coffee Dairy Fat Fruit Grains Herbs Italian Meat Organic Seafood Snacks Southern Sweets Tea Veggies Vitamins	Restaurants ---------- Atlanta Baltimore Boston Chicago Dallas Denver Detroit Fort Worth Houston Las Vegas Los Angeles Miami Minneapolis New Orleans NYC Orlando Philly Phoenix Pittsburgh Salt Lake San Antonio San Diego San Fran Seattle St. Louis Wash, D.C. ---------- Amsterdam Athens Bangkok Beijing Berlin Brussels Cairo Copenhagen Dublin Florence Frankfurt Hong Kong London Madrid Mex City Montreal Moscow Munich Nairobi Paris Prague Rio Rome Singapore St. Pburg. Sydney Tokyo Toronto Vienna Zurich

DO IT YOURSELF Corn & Butter Pea Salad From Ray Overton This summer salad has a distinctly American flair with in-season sweet corn and country ham cooked in Coca-Cola. It can be made a day or two beforehand and kept in the refrigerator. The recipe comes from chef and cookbook author Ray Overton, who prepared the salad at The Cook's Warehouse in Atlanta.

RECIPES Corn & Butter Pea Salad with Glazed Country Ham Chilled Creamy Clam Chowder Dad's Favorite Deviled Eggs Cucumber Granita Chilled Minted Fruit Chocolate Malt Ice Cream

September 3, 1999
Web posted at: 3:06 p.m. EDT (1906 GMT)

In this story: What to eat Picnic panache What to drink I scream, you scream Pack it up RELATED STORIES, SITES

By Wendy Wolfenbarger
Interactive Food Editor

(CNN) -- Labor Day is summer's last sweltering hurrah. Celebrate with a menu of cool food while you can. Pack it up, and you're ready to go. Culinary experts say experimenting is great, but when picking the perfect picnic, lean toward the traditional for such a patriotic day.

"Now is harvest season: Corn is at its peak, cucumbers, tomatoes," says chef and cookbook author Ray Overton. Fresh veggies are quick to fix, with many supermarkets carrying precut carrots, prewashed sugar snap beans and shaved cabbage.

Grain salads are very hip, Overton says. Cooked barley or couscous can replace the traditional greens and corkscrew pasta.

Try different sandwiches, and look beyond cold cuts and hot dogs, says Barbara Scott-Goodman, author of "Picnics." Try instead roasted vegetables or grilled meats such as lamb to fill your bread.

She says cold soups are an overlooked idea. Gazpacho or even clam chowder can be stored cold and transported easily in a thermos.

For dessert, finger foods are best. By the time you get to the end of the meal, you won't feel like spooning anything onto plates or coming up with additional utensils.

Tea and lemonade are summer standbys. But for more grown-up outdoor eating, wine is fine.

The Wine Market Council recommends some simple combinations: pasta with vinaigrette -- pair it with something crisp like Sauvignon Blanc, or White Zinfandel for a sweet contrast. Balance the fat in fried chicken with an acidic Pinot Grigio. Serve fruit salad with something sweet such as Riesling or White Zinfandel. And sandwiches need something light such as Chardonnay or Beaujolais, a young, light red wine.

To keep it cold, the organization says it is OK to add ice cubes to your white and rosé wines.

Ice cream is the chilly darling of the culinary world. Both sweet and savory concoctions are making it to menus beyond the local Dairy Freeze.

"They have their moments," says ice cream author Bruce Weinstein. "But when you are sitting around the pool with friends, you want the classics -- peach, butter pecan."

Still, if you want to be on the frozen edge, try a fancy ice (like the Cucumber Granita) as a light and fruity first course, or finish a meal with a tropical trend -- ice cream with mango, passion fruit or coconut.

Weinstein says ice cream is easy to transport with newer ice cream makers. Just leave the finished ice cream in its freezing container and take it with you. It should stay cold for hours.

Make Labor Day as painless as possible. Make the dishes the day before and drop them in a cooler when you're ready to go.

Keep food cold with a gel pack or ice to guard against food-borne illness . Picnic leftovers should be returned to the cold quickly when the meal is over.