Tips for a fun family picnic outdoors

Rhea Purnita Paine Rhea Purnita Paine
PRIVATE RESIDENCE AT KERALA(CALICUT)INDIA, TOPOS+PARTNERS TOPOS+PARTNERS Classic style garden
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Spring is melting away, summer is here and it is the last chance for those of you who love to be in the lap of nature, to have some fun outdoors before the rains set in. So if you want to beat the heat one weekend with your family, and have a fun picnic, this is the perfect time. When family and friends are around you are bound to have a great time, but if the event is well planned and everything goes smoothly you will enjoy yourself more. So if you done want tempers to flare, or forget the ice chips on a hot summer picnic, follow these 6 simple tips.

The Date

The first and most important thing before going, or even planning of going on a picnic, is to fix the date. In todays busy world everybody has different schedules. Therefore, making sure that everyone in a big fat Indian family are free, and in the mood for a picnic on a particular day, is no easy task! Weekends and public holidays are the best time as most people are available on these days, but if you are planning to have the picnic somewhere apart from your backyard, keep in mind these are the days when public places are also the most packed. So our advice is contact everyone well in advance, and put forth a few dates so that everyone can come to a consensus in time.

The Destination

Now that you have decided on the date, focus on the destination. The venue of your picnic can make or break the day. Be it your backyard, the beach side, a rocky spot next to a river, or even a public park; wherever it is you plan to have your picnic, weigh the pro's and con's of the place before you decide upon it. If you have a backyard, particularly one with a pool, then it's the perfect place for a picnic as you will not need to make any advance reservations, or bother about crowds. If you pick out a place on a beach or riverside, you will have peace but may not be close to any public loos. If you pick a more public spot in a park you will have the amenities, but not peace of mind. So before settling on the place, ask everyone what their priorities are.

Things to carry

Next, make a list of all the things you need to carry. Picnic's are not just about having fun and playing games, it's also about enjoying a good meal, or sometimes even a good nap in the shade. So make sure you have frisbees, bats, balls, board games and other things your family may want to indulge in. But also carry with you more practical things like tiffin boxes, water flasks, a net cover for your food like the one here curated by DOTCOMGIFTSHOPsoft blankets, mats, cutlery, disposable paper plates and cups. Ditch picnic baskets for more modern picnic bags that keep the food warm longer, and carry some mason jars with straws filled with lemonade to beat the heat! Also carry some torches and batteries incase you are going out somewhere, if it get's too dark these will come in handy.

The Menu

Next decide upon the menu. A very elaborate meal may not work out for a picnic, so choose things that are easy to prepare, carry and don't need to be reheated. Nobody wants to have a cold soup or cold chapati's on a picnic. Sandwiches, panini's, croissants, bake's and pastries are some of the best option's for a picnic menu. If you want something more healthy, you can go for a salad. If you want to spice things up, include a cold pasta salad in your menu. If you have a portable barbecue station, you can even carry some ready to make kebabs made of meat, cottage cheese or vegetables. The health conscious can have smoked pineapple, all you need to do is barbecue the pineapple pieces wrapped in foil paper!

Prepare or procure the night before

Don't leave the cooking of the food till the morning of the picnic. If anything goes wrong that morning, or if you wake up late, you may end up with no food for your picnic! So work in advance, and prep, chop and marinate the food the night before itself. You can even make mason jar salads like here, so that you don't have to do anything next day! Unless you are really fond of cooking, don't make things like croissants and pastries by yourself. Buy these the day before and keep them ready in your fridge. If the picnic involves more than your immediate family, have a potluck party and delegate a food item to each person in advance. This way two people won't get the same thing to the picnic and there will be more variety. Also, keep everything else that you need to carry next day ready at hand in one place.

Assemble things in the morning

Lastly, just assemble everything in the morning on the day of the picnic. Be it tossing together a salad, putting the bake in the oven, or making a few quick sandwiches with pre cut ingredients, put all the food together and pack them in tiffins. Pack these tiffins, along with the blankets, mats, cups, plates, cutlery, games, glasses etc in the bags properly if you are going further than your backyard and make sure everything is locked and sealed properly so that nothing spills or breaks on the way. If the picnic is in your backyard, all you need to do is just carry the stuff there. That's it! Now sit down and have a good time with your family at your favourite picnic spot. 

If you have a backyard and want to grow some vegetables there, here are some tips that will help you.

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