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Aug. 2nd, 2008 09:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ewtYesterday I saw a perfect picnic basket in a charity shop. I didn't buy it because I didn't want to carry it home; also, knowing I could carry it empty is not the same as knowing I could carry it when full of food and it was rather large. But it was rather lovely.
I got to thinking about what is required for a picnic and which things it would be possible to keep on hand in a sort of picnic kit. I already have a miniature version of this in my backpack much of the time: spork, perhaps my travel mug (I am going to start using this when I get tea at Trinty instead of the paper mugs they provide), some sort of cloth to sit on, multi-tool for opening things and slicing cheese... but at home I could do a bit better than that, really. I have various picnic-friendly dishes scattered throughout my things and it wouldn't be too hard to pack them all in one place, and when the picnic blanket stops living in the laundry pile it really ought to go to the same place. Bottles of elderflower champagne really need to be kept refrigerated until ready to drink and I don't have the space for that, but I could keep some home-made squash and a couple of bottles of sparkling water, or a bottle of sloe gin and some tonic water, at room temperature quite happily for some time. Cheese and bread and veg would have to be bought or made on the day but there are plenty of non-perishable crackers I could pack, and some olives and perhaps things like salsa-in-a-jar or preserved artichoke hearts would be easy to tuck away; some nuts and seeds would work well too and maybe some dried fruit (though fresh is always nicer); when I next make jam or jelly I could make some rather small jars and keep one or two of those in an instant-picnic box. This is starting to sound like a rather posh picnic but what's the point of sitting in beautiful surroundings and then eating crap?
What goes in your picnic basket? What would you take on the perfect picnic?
I got to thinking about what is required for a picnic and which things it would be possible to keep on hand in a sort of picnic kit. I already have a miniature version of this in my backpack much of the time: spork, perhaps my travel mug (I am going to start using this when I get tea at Trinty instead of the paper mugs they provide), some sort of cloth to sit on, multi-tool for opening things and slicing cheese... but at home I could do a bit better than that, really. I have various picnic-friendly dishes scattered throughout my things and it wouldn't be too hard to pack them all in one place, and when the picnic blanket stops living in the laundry pile it really ought to go to the same place. Bottles of elderflower champagne really need to be kept refrigerated until ready to drink and I don't have the space for that, but I could keep some home-made squash and a couple of bottles of sparkling water, or a bottle of sloe gin and some tonic water, at room temperature quite happily for some time. Cheese and bread and veg would have to be bought or made on the day but there are plenty of non-perishable crackers I could pack, and some olives and perhaps things like salsa-in-a-jar or preserved artichoke hearts would be easy to tuck away; some nuts and seeds would work well too and maybe some dried fruit (though fresh is always nicer); when I next make jam or jelly I could make some rather small jars and keep one or two of those in an instant-picnic box. This is starting to sound like a rather posh picnic but what's the point of sitting in beautiful surroundings and then eating crap?
What goes in your picnic basket? What would you take on the perfect picnic?
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Date: 2008-08-02 03:21 pm (UTC)So, a picnic I arranged: In 1990, I announced to my then bf that I wanted to observe Christmas Day with a picnic. Yes, in New England. Yes, out of doors.
He said something about "we could pick up chips and some subs" and I cut that off at the knees. I assigned him the responsibilities of (1) getting two thermos bottles, and on the day-of, getting one filled with hot black tea, the other with hot clam chowder, (2) a bottle of good white wine, and (3) a full tank of gas for the car. And to dress warm. I packed our wooden plates and bowls, our ceramic goblets and mugs, our bone and wood and steel utensils (and a bottle opener. :) I packed cucumber sandwiches on Portuguese sweet bread, and boiled eggs and similar finger foods. I packed a blanket.
I dressed all in white (w/ a layer of long underware!), with a big white skirt, and over all a long pale grey winter coat.
Christmas was sunny. We drove up to NH where there was an old ruined fort, now a park, that I knew of, right on the river. We spread out our blanket on the stone wall and our lovely archaic dishes, and there dined on hot chowder and icy wine, warm tea and cool cucumbers, and generally had a fine party. Wow, said the bf, This is really nice.
We fled as the sun got low and it got really cold.