Labor Day Picnic

Labor Day symbolically marks the end of summer, and that means the last real party of the summer vacation season. You want to make it a real blast, and there’s nothing like a picnic to celebrate with family and friends. 
You can reuse the plates and cups you had for Memorial Day and the 4th of July. Red, White and Blue is still a good color scheme. Decorating with flags and stars and stripes.
You meal doesn’t have to be expensive. You can utilize fresh vegetables from the garden for salads and munchies while the good is grilling. Roll your silverware up in a napkin for each place setting. If you don’t want to do all the cooking yourself, have each guest bring a pass around dish. Make sure you specify dessert or salads so you don’t have too many of one and not enough of the other (balance).  Prepare as much as you can ahead of time so you can enjoy the meal and your guests.
Make sure to have plenty of watermelon on hand, and to make it special cut the fruit out of the rind and decorate the rind before putting cubed fruit back inside. Also, have pitchers of lemonade and tea in addition to any other type of beverages.
Here are a couple great recipe ideas for your party:
Broccoli and Chicken Casserole
4 oz. dried medium noodles
2-1/2 cups chopped cooked chicken or turkey
1  10-ounce pkg.frozen chopped broccoli, thawed
1/2 cup sliced green onions
1 10-3/4 ounce can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1/2cup skim milk

1/2 cup shredded Swiss cheese (2 ounces)
1 teaspoondried basil, crushed

1/8 teaspoon pepper
Paprika
1.Cook noodles according to pkg. directions. Drain well.2. In a2-quart casserole stir together noodles, chicken or turkey, broccoli andgreen onions.
3. In a medium mixing bowl stir together soup,milk, cheese, basil and pepper. Stir into noodles.
4. Bake coveredin a 250 degree oven for 40-45 minutes, or until heated through.Sprinkle with paprika. Makes 6 servings.
Note: This casserole canbe made 24 hours ahead and refrigerated until ready to serve, thenreheat.
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Grandma’s Best Potato Salad Ever!

5 lbs. red potatoes – cooked, cooled, peeled and chopped into cubes
2 cups sweet onions – dices
1 large green pepper – diced
8 hard boiled eggs – dice 6 and slice the other two for the top
1 cup real mayonnaise (Hellmans or Kraft is best – not salad dressing)
1/2 cup yellow mustard
Salt
Pepper
Garlic Salt
Paprika

Combine all ingredients (except the two sliced eggs and paprika) in a large bowl, adding more mayonnaise and mustard if it appears to be too dry. Season to taste.  Put into serving bowl and place egg slices on top. Sprinkle with paprika for color.