Cooking - Grown-ups can have their cake and eat it too!

Up at the cabin this weekend, a glorious blue October sky called for outdoor activity. A picnic! Love it, the whole concept of a raid the fridge spontaneous picnic. It didn't take us long to re-heat the pumpkin bisque I'd made earlier in the week and pour it into the thermos. Further foraging produced hummus, whole wheat rolls, cold roast pork, baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, spicy peanut dipping sauce left-over from a scallop and shrimp laced noodle bowl the night before, apples, two kinds of cheese and a bottle of chilled pinot grigio. The fancy picnic backpack was already loaded with plates, cutlery, wine glasses and napkins. I pulled seldom used hand-thrown pottery "chalices" from a high shelf - perfect for the soup.

It's amazing how quickly grown-ups can get organised for an outing. An old quilt was thrown into the back of the car, and with no disagreement about destination, we were off.

A three mile drive brought us to a dirt , Forest Service managed road that leads to the Escudilla Wilderness in the south eastern corner of Arizona. We wound up the wash-boarded road through forests of Apache Pine and the occasional cluster of still golden stands of Aspen. We figured we were about three weeks too late for the full glory of the Aspen fall.

At an elevation of around 8,300 feet we took the loop road around a high grass-land prairie. Grass, foliage - all in rich shades of yellow and rust for as far as the eye can see. It was enough to give anyone an appetite.

We pulled off the rough road where we had a panoramic view and set out the feast - the only thing missing was cake but good friends, a perfect day, and a serendipitous feast more than made up for that. A high altitude power nap on the quilt, and brisk walk around Hulsey Lake wrapped up a memorable afternoon. No tantrums, no, "I don't like that", no, "can we go now, I'm bored". Just old friends having fun. Here's to picnics, spontaneous and planned.