We love to picnic!

We are year-round picnic-ers! Now, I KNOW that in my last post I was saying how nice the weather has been, but here we are in our winter coats - 2 weeks ago - having a picnic. Our ONE cold day was when we had a picnic planned. No matter - we have all kinds of Thermoses to keep things warm/cool. The big surprise was the park already has put away the picnic tables for the winter, but the tailgate makes a good substitute.
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For Mother's Day this past year Little Boy proudly presented me with a very cool picnic bag... and here it is during one of our summer picnics. This is a great bag because the front has plates/cutting board/silver/glasses/napkins/salt/pepper, etc. And the back has a very roomy pocket that holds a surprising amount of food.

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Here is a photo from one of our day road trip picnics this summer. For this picnic I planned ahead for a slightly "gourmet" picnic. I steamed baby asperagus for asperagus roll-ups, we had several different cheese/crackers and crusty bread, roasted potato salad, marinated vegetable & pasta salad, clementines, rum cake, cookies and I am sure we had several other things too but it was awhile ago so now I can't remember. Thank goodness for photos to jog our memories! Often we will add a few packaged salads from the grocery store... it all depends.

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It is pretty simple - picnic-ing. Of course, when it is hot you have to be mindful of foods staying cold. I really love picnic-ing when it is cold out though - those warm foods taste so extra yummy for some reason. There are some basic things to remember to bring - which I usually just keep in a box - ready to toss into the back of the truck at a moments notice. Let's see... charcoal, lighter stick, grill brush (no grill needed because I've already scouted out the area for parks that have stand-alone grills!), plastic table cloth and clamps (or at least a spray bottle of cleaner/paper towels), old picnic quilt (sometimes we go where there are no tables!), paper towels, sunscreen, bug spray, a jug of water for cleaning, empty plastic bags for the plates, etc... and a ball. I think that about covers it - you might need more or less. All that is left to pack is the food/drinks/cups/utensils...

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If you don't have any Thermoses about your house - get some! Plan a brisk fall walk in the woods or a bike ride and then enjoy a nice hot picnic afterward. It is handy to have an assortment of plastic containers, plastic cups, ice packs, coolers.

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We picnic a fair amount - even if we just go down the street a few miles, it is a fun event. We actually sometimes picnic right in our front yard in the summer. Little Boy adores a picnic - I often think that, for him, half the fun of any outing we go on is all the food we pack! After eating we always play a rousing game of ball. Fresh air and exercise, plus good food. Perfect.