Birthday Boating

Happy Birthday to my husband! I wish we had the whole day off to spend together, but alas there is that thing called work. Since we weren’t able to spend today celebrating, we made the most of a perfectly sunny, blue sky weekend and had a little birthday party on the boat.

For once, I actually planned the food for our boat outing instead of leaving it to dips and chips alone.

The spread included a creamy avocado dip with crackers and carrots. The dip recipe will be coming soon!

We also had sopressata with crackers and baguette slices

And Caprese salad skewers, a simple arrangement of mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil on skewers, drizzled with EVOO and seasoned with a sprinkle of salt and pepper.

The weather cooperated for us quite well, with hot temperatures on the shore, and cooler, but still nice and warm out at sea. A shiny black seal swam around us for some time, pretty much making my day.

Did you know that Harpoon Summer comes in cans? They are adorable!

We ate our spread while anchored off of Grape Island and Hingham Harbor. It was a perfect, calm spot to chow down on the food we brought as well as the chicken salad sandwiches our friends brought.

We didn’t have to come back to the dock until almost 9:00 and there was still a little bit of sun; I love that summer light! It was a beautiful, smooth ride back in and a perfect, calm day for us novices to be on the water.

The cherry on top? Strawberry pie, of course.

What are your favorite easy picnic foods?