The Perfect Picnic - Top Ten Tips
Top Ten Tips for the Perfect Picnic
It’s certainly picnic weather right now which means it’s time for some picnic food, my favourite kind.
There is something special about eating food outside in the sun, with my hands, while surrounded by people I like, and something really fun for me to plan all the foods I want to take with me.
Picnics have also taken on a different dimension now that the lovey Mr G and I have our four-legged family member Ellie, it’s become not just about the food I make to take along with us but also about the environment we end up in.
Not that finding a great place to picnic hasn’t always been important, but now finding a perfect place is a little more difficult with all of the new criteria added to accommodate a dog.
Apart from finding places to walk and play with Ellie, mostly everything else stays the same, and no matter what I would like to think, having the perfect picnic isn’t just about the food.
When thinking about food for picnics, I sometimes have to stop myself from making the same old stuff, or the same easy mistakes which I know I’ll regret as soon as my picnic blanket hits the grass.
Having picnics often, it would be easy for me to just grab the stuff from the fridge (and I often do just that), throw it into a bag and get going.
It’s really easy to get stuck in the same old pre-packed sandwich rut. Just for the record, my favourite pre-packed sandwiches are egg mayonnaise and those prawn ones with lots of seafood dressing-my not so guilty secret! But with a little imagination, it’s not necessary to break the bank or have to go out shopping just for picnic food ingredients, it just takes a little imagination to turn eating al-fresco into a fun day out for everyone.
I’ve put together a top ten list of tips, tricks and food recommendations to make venturing outside to have fun a little easier to organise.
Let me know what your best picnic tips are, I’d love to add them to the list?
Enjoy your sweet life.
1) Be Imaginative – Lets jam it Up!
A great way to make sure that that everyone gets what they want, and everything reaches the destination in one piece is to think about jam jars. Yup, that’s what I said, jam jars.
Empty jars are the perfect solution to most picnic problems.
Fill them with food specifically for the people who are going to be there. Someone hates pasta? Make them their own portion of quinoa instead and putting it in a clean empty jam jar means its personal and looks like I’ve spent an age thinking about the food, and that person.
Someone gluten intolerant? Packing their food in their own jar means no cross contamination so everyone goes home healthy and of course having jars filled with lots of leafy colourful salads and layering them next to cool packs keeps them fresh and crispy.
Desserts in jars are also a great way to carry food that may be a little more difficult to transport.
Instead of one big cake which can be a disaster waiting to happen, layer a jar with alternating layers of cake, fresh fruit, and maybe a layer of custard, well, anything you want really.
Making individual jellies in the jam jars is the perfect solution to any pudding dilemmas. A popular raspberry jelly with added raspberries for the kids and something a little more grown up for the adults. Some of the most popular I’ve made are champagne with strawberries and of course a particular summer favourite, Pimm’s and lemonade.
2) Keep It Cool and Pack it Right!
The sunshine is the thing that gets me outside for a picnic and it’s also the thing that can cause problems with the picnic and with the lovely Mr G.
He loves the suns heat but the sun sometimes doesn’t love him back.
Keeping him from burning is a full-time job – I bulk buy factor 30 in the autumn sales.
There are lots of things out there in the market and in the shops to pack along with the food to keep the food cool and edible, but why buy when it’s so easy to use what I’m going to take with me anyway.
I like to take along a few different bottles of fresh juices to mix with fizzy water and letting the bottles freeze overnight, packing them alongside the food I’m taking kills two birds with one stone. The frozen juice acts like a cool bag and as the bottles begin to melt, I’m left with an icy drink to sip on throughout the day.
A perfect way to keep the lovely Mr G from overheating!
Keeping food cool is not just about taking cool things with me, but also about what and when to take them out of my cool box.
I’m not into %s, I’ll leave that to the lovely Mr G, but I know that each time I open my refrigerated box, I’m letting the inside heat up, a bit counterproductive when I’m trying to be chilled! So a tip I try to adhere to is plan when and what to take out to avoid opening the box and letting the heat in and the cool out.
If I’m having a grown-up picnic and want a little something alcoholic, a little bit of white wine or some great light beer is a good choice. Forget bringing the odd bottle along and go for a box wine. Getting this nice and cold overnight is like taking along my very own ice berg to keep everything cool.
Occasionally I like the odd grown up Capri Sun drink of my very own. It’s easy to do and helps keep the food cool too. I make a few margaritas in sandwich bags, freeze overnight and then stick with a straw when I’m all set up and everyone is settled, perfect for when I’m not driving.
It’s not just the adults’ drinks that can help everything from spoiling! Stay away from the fizzy drink aisle when shopping for kiddies’ drinks, instead, grab a selection of carton drinks and freeze these too. The kids love the idea of having frozen drinks with a straw, and if they get too overheated, I cut off the tops and they can have a giant frozen lolly instead.
As I mentioned earlier, trying not to root around in the box too much is another way to prevent food getting over the healthy temperature and spending a few minutes packing the food is the way to stop this happening.
This is where the lovey Mr G and his Tetrus brain comes into its own, but here’s a couple of my tips to help get you started:
a) Last in, first out: Think about which food is going to be taken out first. If there are young kids around, it might be that they need to be fed first, so make sure what they are eating is right on top.
b) Layer it: If all the savoury food is coming out first, that’s the next layer from the top, and so on until everything is in.
c) Cool It- Placing the cold packs, frozen bottles of drink or children’s frozen drink cartons in between the food layers means that the food in the middle of the picnic box stays as cool as the outside.
d) Fill It - A full container stays cooler for longer so try to estimate the amount of food and drink that’s being taken to make sure the container is the correct size.
3) Make One Centrepiece for Everyone to share – Ciabatta Loaf Sandwich
Layers of flavours in this Ciabatta Loaf Sandwich
Going out for the day doesn’t mean that I want to spend hours slaving over the oven and it’s not necessary to make lots of things to make a picnic a success, but I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t want to make something to be seen and most people would like eat, but it’s not possible to please everyone, right?
Using jars to set everyone up with at least something I know they will love, means that I get to make one major thing that can be a centre piece.
It can be a great quiche, some fabulous baked chicken, an amazing layered summer pie or a particular favourite, a layered ciabatta loaf sandwich:
If you don’t like ciabatta, not to worry, find a loaf that you enjoy and then just layer up with as many tiers of flavours as the bread takes to fill and then leave the rest up to the tasty fillings to make it centre piece worthy.
As well as ciabatta, this works really well with a basic tinned loaf or another favourite of mine, a round crusty cob loaf, yum!
How is it done?
Use a sharp knife to slice along the top of the loaf taking it clean off.
Scoop out some of the soft white inside and set this aside to use on other things. (For this one I used the inside for some stuffed burgers along with the rest of the camembert and red onion).
Then it’s just a matter of layering up some great flavours, placing the bread lid back on, wrapping it all up tightly in foil and pressing it with some heavy objects overnight.
Use lots of charred vegetables, some good soft cheese, a tasty pesto and a selection of salami or good ham or with this one, tuna and boiled eggs – straight from my cupboards and fridge (told you it wasn’t necessary to go shopping for things to use).
This All Goes to Make the Perfect Bite Every Time.
Some of my favourite things are:
Charred or grilled red and yellow peppers.
Charred or grilled courgettes
Soft cheese or goat’s cheese
Salad leaves such as rocket of spinach leaves.
Red or green pesto
Garlic butter
Salami
Garlic sausage
Roasted chicken thighs
Rare roast beef
Mature cheddar cheese
Roasted butternut squash
Sliced beetroot
Pickle
Tinned tuna
Boiled egg
Letting is stand allows the dressings to soak into the bread . Yum
4) Where to sit? Bring your own place! Food is obviously my first thought when I’m planning, but once that’s all sorted it’s time to think about where to eat it.
The bigger where is the first choice to make.
Now that Ellie is around, our four-legged vizsla girl, the bigger question of where is usually dictated by dog walking areas.
Does the place have off lead bits to let her run around in, or is it a long lead kind of walk, those kind of things?
After deciding this, it’s all about the smaller where.
As I’ve mentioned, the lovely Mr G loves the sun but doesn’t brown easily, me on the other hand, I love to sit in the sun and I’m suntanned by the time the car returns to the driveway. (I’ve got my Croatian Dad to thank for that).
Finding a flat and dry place to put my blanket down is important, but I also want a combination of sun and shade.
Partially for sitting in but also to help keep the food cooler and is especially important if there are some people who thrive in the heat and some who don’t, and of course where there are small children.
Trees are the obvious solution to the sun situation, finding a great spot under the dappled shade of a tree will make everyone happy.
If lots of people are turning up, it’s a great idea to ask everyone to bring a cushion to sit on.
Cushions scattered around makes it really easy to find the spot that best suits the sun preference and to follow the sun around to get as much from it while its out.
Of course, in an emergency, if childrens boredom sets in, they can always be used for playing-musical cushions, build a fort, dolls tea party, pirate ship etc.
The colourful the better
5) Take a dressing – Back to the jam jars again.
With individual salads in jars, it nice to bring a selection of salad dressings to liven the insides even more. There are a couple easy peasy ways of making dressings which are great to transport and uses up any leftover scrapings from the bottoms of jam, peanut butter or marmalade jars too.
I’m not the biggest of lover of salad dressings myself, but if I’m going to bring it along, I’ll make a pesto jar dressing but which you prefer is up to you, bringing more than one is always a popular choice.
There are always scrapings of jam, peanut butter, lemon curd or marmalade left that I can’t quite get to so finding a use for them makes me smile.
Here’s how to make a leftover salad dressing:
Find your jam/marmalade jar/peanut butter/pesto
Add
3 Tablespoon White Wine Vinegar
1 Teaspoon Mustard
¼ Cup Olive oil
Lid on and shake, shake, shake.
Or
Juice of 1 Lime
1 Tbsp Golden Castor Sugar
3 Tbsp Fish Sauce
1 Finely Chopped Red Chilli
Shake, Shake, Shake.
Use all those extra bits
6) Collect to Use - Bigger isn’t necessarily better when it comes to packing for a picnic and collecting small things can help with planning the picnic and with space at a premium, and weight of the bags too, little can be better to pack.
Tic tac boxes are a great start to a picnic set. Fill with salt, pepper, dried herbs or for a bit of a kick, some cayenne pepper to sprinkle over the jar salads.
Those little condiment packs from fast food places are great to take on a picnic too, so start collecting them to take along or if like me, a fast-food burger (or chicken if I have my way) is a rare treat, ask friends with children to keep them for you.
7) Sweet Tooth? - Don’t forget something sweet for after all that savoury. Ive already spoken about jam jar jellies and I find that a couple of tray desserts are a good way to go too.
Tray desserts are so easy to make, most people will like them, they don’t take much planning but at the same time they can be made ahead, and probably the best thing of all is that once cut up into portions, they are easy to transport and can probably be eaten with one hand.
What about giving these a try from the BBC Good Food Website:
Honey Flap Jack
Rocky Road
Lemon Drizzle Slice
Chocolate Brownies
Hazelnut Blondies
Blackberry Bakewell Squares
8) Keep Things Separate and I don’t mean just the food. Space is at a premium on days out, I certainly don’t want to be carrying heavy bags around looking for the perfect spot to eat and have fun.
There’s always more than the food and drink to bring along, and some of the items are needed to enjoy the day and not just last minute add ons that I can shove into the back of the car.
For anything that doesn’t need to be kept cold or is keeping things cold, it’s a good idea to carry these in a different back.
Things such as plates, cutlery, condiments, serviettes and drinking vessels, sun cream, bug sprays, hats, sunglasses, hand wipes etc are best kept separate so the bag with the food isn’t constantly being opened to the elements.
I find it really tempting to keep packing more things in the bag, and the lovely Mr G is constantly reminding me that what we take has to come home again, unless it’s eaten of course.
Paper cupcake cases may seem a little strange thing to bring along, but they come in really handy for a few things.
They are the perfect shape to use as a cap for drinking glasses to stop flies and wasps winging their way into the drinks.
Poke a hole for a straw and everyone is ready to go.
They can also be used as a drip catcher for any ice lollies bought by the inevitable ice cream van, which always seems to be hanging around picnic sites.
Perfect little lids
9) Clean up after yourself
You must know me by now, so its probably no surprise to hear that cleaning up after a picnic is something I feel strongly about, but even so, making it as easy for myself as possible is a priority.
On a good picnic day, I’d hope that the food and drink will have all be gobbled up so the only things I’d be taking home are the containers, blankets, cutlery etc.
I always take at least three rubbish bags with me to make sure nothing gets left behind, and because I’ve a bit of a bossy nature (don’t pretend to be surprised) I point out to everyone what each of the bags are for.
Recycle it!
One bag for discarded items so it gets used throughout the day instead of one big clear up at the end of the day.
Just because I’m out and about doesn’t mean that I’m going to forget about recycling which is what the second bag is for.
It’s not difficult to keep the food waste separated with the use of the third bag for easier disposal or composting when I get home.
Take at least three rubbish bags
10) Have you thought about? -
There are a lot more things that I try to sort out or at least to think about when I’m planning a picnic and I’m sure there are lots more I’ve missed too!
If you have any tips or tricks, I’d love to hear about them?
I’ve added a few ‘spare’ tips here, mainly because I didn’t know which number to put them under ha ha.
Don’t have a posh bag to carry your picnic stash? Just find an empty box, line it with your picnic blanket and you’re all set.
Wasps, I hate them when on a picnic. An effective way to keep them away from my food is to half fill cups with honey water and place them, standing upright, at points away from where I’m eating.
I try to avoid bringing mayonnaise-based dishes on a picnic, even though I love mayonnaise. It’s way too easy to turn bad in the heat.
I bring a few extra ice cubes for drinks that may be getting a little too heated. I grab a few flasks from the cupboard, stuff them with as many ice cubes as they will take and head out the door.
Freezing some fresh grapes are great cooling snacks, an alternative dessert and another way of cooling my food.
I’ve just found a picnic blanket, from Aldi, which is plastic lined on one side, perfect to stop those soggy bottoms I sometimes get when sitting on the ground during an English summer. If you’ve not got your hands on one of these, bring a few extra rubbish bags to put under the blanket.
Frozen grapes great for cool snacks
