Food&Drink
Salads
Packed in good quality containers a good salad can be a great accompaniment. Leave the dressing off until you serve it up on the blanket to avoid limp leaves and an unpleasant consistency. Try potato or pasta salads with a mixture of radish, cucumber, celery and onion. Good hearty salads which will make the guests feel satisfi ed. Place a good handful of leaves on a plate and serve up your pasta salad on top to help you to avoid the dreaded wilt. Boiled eggs are a great addition as well as feta cheese, just add everything at the end or you might just have a recipe for disaster.
Streusel
INGREDIENTS: • 2 packs Doughlicious Classic Chocolate Chip cookie dough (12 dough balls), at room temperature
• 1 pack Doughlicious Chocolate triple chip cookie dough (6 dough balls), refrigerated • 400g full fat cream cheese
• 80g sour cream • 130g caster sugar • 2 tbsps cornflour • 1 tsp vanilla extract • Zest of one lemon • 2 medium eggs • 150g strawberries
The main event To really wow at the picnic, prepare a
show stopping centerpiece. Picnic pies or quiches are a great idea. They travel well and you can cut hearty slices when you get there. Choose the ingredients carefully as you will be serving it cold and don’t make it too saucy, we are going for a picnic not a swim. I opted for an old family favourite, chicken and bacon picnic pie − see opposite for full recipe. It travels as well as it eats.
Dessert
I am sure you have a great array of puddings in your arsenal but most of them will not travel well. They will either be affected by the heat or need special handling to make sure it doesn't end up looking like an Eton mess. Your get out jail dessert is the good old tray bake. Slice up and pack in your tupperware for an on the go option, whilst adding summer fruits to elevate it from just a brownie or a sponge. If you do want to go a little fancier layer up individual cheesecakes in jars, screw on the lids and away you go.
Don't Cheesecake Bars METHOD:
Pre-heat oven to 160°C and grease and line a 20cm square tin. Bring together the room temperature Classic Chocolate Chip cookie dough balls to form one large ball. Lightly dust your work surface with fl our and roll out into a square. Trim to fi t the tin. Carefully transfer to the base of the prepared tin, using the trimmings to press into the corners to ensure there are no gaps in the dough. Prick with a fork. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Once ready, remove from the oven and let it cool. Meanwhile prepare the cheesecake fi lling. In a large bowl combine cream cheese, vanilla extract, sour cream, lemon zest, eggs, sugar and cornfl our. Pour the mixture evenly on the cookie base. Rinse the strawberries, pat-dry with paper towel and cut in halves or quarters depending on the size of the berries. Gently press them in the cheesecake fi lling. Remove the Chocolate Triple Chip cookie dough balls
from the fridge and using a cheese grater shred the dough on top of the cheesecake fi lling. Increased the oven temperature to 180°C and bake for 35 minutes. Cool before serving. Use a very sharp knife to cut into 16 bars. Decorate with fresh strawberries and mint leaves.
forget...
Shade, sunscreen & sombreros
Ok... maybe not a sombrero – unless it is 24 July which is National Tequila Day – but you defi nitely need a hat and sunscreen. Your picnic is probably not going to have large amounts of shade to protect yourself from the sun, unless you can fi nd a good spot under a large oak tree, so you will need to take hats and sunscreen. Take spares just in case someone forgets. Middle-eastern neck scarves called Shemaghs are really useful and can be used to keep the sun off the head and neck. Check out our guide to sunscreen on page 51.
When to go
& what to do... Most people think of picnics to be a lunch time activity, but you can head- off early to enjoy a sunrise breakfast on the beach. Wrap up warm just in case and a fl ask of coffee will make it extra enjoyable. Or you could enjoy a glass of bubbly and nibbles for a romantic North Norfolk sunset. Whilst you are there you might
want to take some activities to keep everyone entertained, especially if you are with the little ones. Make sure to get everyone involved and make it competitive with a prize for the wining team. Keep it simple with a game of cricket or football. You need to keep it fun... jumpers for goal posts and all that. There are some reasonably priced fun cricket sets available, just remember not to bowl at grandma Margaret like you are playing for the Ashes. Last but not least... remember to clear up and leave the place as you found it.
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