it's a pic-a-nic!

It is said (somewhere) that papá a la huancaína is the perfect picnic food because it's good hot and cold. Well when my lovely co-worker suggested a picnic, guess what I brought!?

It shouldn't be too hard to double the amount of what I usually make, right? Halve the recipe if you're cooking for yourself and you'll have plenty for 3 hefty meals!

hardboil your eggs, 4 for the sauce and at least 1 for each person you plan to serve.
Cool in ice water for easy peeling.

boil your peppers for a while (10 minutes?) This makes it easy to blend into the sauce.
This also makes them less spicy, which is important since
the sauce should be mostly creamy and is not meant to overpower everything.
There's 4-5 green jalapeños and 1 red habañero/jalapeño in the pot -
I'm not sure if Safeway knew what they were selling this morning!

boil your potatoes! Here I've dumped an old bag of Trader Joe's golden potatoes into the pot

wash your lettuce... well!

cube your queso fresco (remember to use just one block if you're cooking for yourself!)

dump everything except the potatoes and lettuce into a blender.
Add 2-3 tablespoons each of milk and canola oil, and a dash of salt.

whee!

I usually don't fill the blender to the top - after all, it is a $16 bargain blender from Target. Unless there's a lot of liquid, ingredients don't like to integrate themselves very well. So use a spoon to push the peppers down towards the blades (while it's off, of course!)

After packing everything up - including a few pitted Kalamata olives, I headed over to Dolores Park. It was pretty easy to find my friends since 1. we had already picked out a place on the edge, and 2. we arrived shortly after 1 PM, and Dolores Park doesn't really fill up until 3PM... then it looks like ants milling around a fallen lollipop.

I was thrilled that everyone loved papá a la huancaína so much:

layer cake: lettuce under potatoes and hardboiled eggs under "ají" sauce under a sprinkling of olives

My co-workers did not disappoint with the bountiful spread:

snap peas, divine gouda, hummus and pita bread, and a paperweight (skittles) for the napkins.
Later, a 5-layer dip joined us

salted caramel ice cream from Bi-Rite Creamery
on the corner of Dolores at 18th Street...
instead of waiting in line for individual scoops,
my genius associate walked up to the counter and bought pints.
No wait for more ice cream!

A view of the ants, some taking part in SFPride...

the later you stay, the more that gather

And now we'll end on a delightfully awkward note...

would you rent these for your wedding?