a day at the beach + our picnic loaf

 ever since our rainy, cold weekend in montauk, i've been dreaming about a good day at the beach. one that's hot enough to love the water and windy enough to cool off. we had planned to go earlier in the week with my sister's family, but the threat of rain had us all a little bit unsure... so we ended up not going that day. later in the week the weather looked up and we headed to ocean city for the day. it really was perfect. we got a leisurely start, didn't hit much traffic, found a good spot before it got crowded and bummed it up. reading and chatting till it got too hot. playing in the ocean until it got too cold. repeat!

we had a great picnic lunch. the picnic loaf was a new sandwich that i'm definitely going to make again.  basically it was a petite french loaf that i cut the top off of and scooped out some of the inside bread to make room for the fixings. you could put anything inside really... it's a rather fun way of keeping everything contained, instead of falling out the sides. this particular combo was tuna with balsamic vinegar, sea salt and olive oil. pesto spread onto the bread, tomato, mozzarella, roasted red pepper and fresh basil. so good.