How to Take Your Picnic to the Next Level
It’s picnic season, which means it’s time to grab your sun hat, some snacks, and a picnic basket and head to your nearest outdoor area for a delicious and sunny meal. The wonderful thing about a picnic is how effortless it can be. When it looks like a sunny day, you can easily organize an outdoor meet-up with a few friends and grab some quick food options on your way there. While we love the relative ease of a picnic, there are so many easy ways to take your picnic to the next level, upgrading the experience from a simple meal outdoors to a charming and elegant lunch al fresco. Here’s a few of our best tips for how to take things up a notch, just in time for spring.
Up Your Basket Game
When packing for a picnic, many will simply throw what they need in a canvas tote bag or backpack and hope for the best as they travel. Any bag without a flat and supportive base layer, however, is unreliable when transporting easily spillable food and drinks. This can lead to disappointment upon arrival as you open up your bag to find its contents have been knocked around on their way there. This is where the picnic basket comes in. The picnic basket is quite literally made for picnics, allowing food to rest undisturbed as you carry it to your destination. Lands’ End has a wide array of deluxe picnic baskets, with features ranging from built-in storage for cutlery, plates, and glasses (which can be included) to matching picnic blankets for you and your guests to dine upon. Showing up to a picnic with a basket made for the occasion is the definition of next-level — it will make your life easier, impress your guests, and make your picnic one to remember.
Temperature Control
Eating outdoors has so many benefits — unlimited seating, loads of vitamin D, gorgeous views. There are some potential drawbacks, however, that can negatively affect your shindig in the park, if not dealt with properly. One of those is keeping things at the proper temperature. This can mean keeping drinks and perishables cold, or it can also mean keeping cooked food warm. Temperature control can seem like a challenge to the novice picnicker, but not to fear, there are tons of easy ways to get a hold on the issue and enjoy your food and drink at the temperature they’re meant to be at. As its name implies, an insualted lunchbag can be the difference between an ice cold and lukewarm (or hot) beverage at your picnic. Filling it with ice or ice packs can keep your food and drink colder for longer. An insulated thermos keeps liquids close to the exact temperature they’re at when you put them in, which can be super helpful to keep something cold or hot all day long. To keep hot food hot, try storing it in an insulated container.
Think Ahead
How many times have you shown up to a picnic to find that the food selection is largely made up of chips? If you’re going to a picnic that’s been planned in advance, there are so many ways to take things to the next level by thinking ahead. This could mean deciding what food you’re going to bring, grocery shopping in advance, and cooking or preparing your meal so it’s ready to go for picnic day. Many who don’t do this find themselves just grabbing a bag or two of chips, maybe a pre-made dip, and arriving to find that nearly everyone else had the same last-minute idea. Don’t get us wrong, every picnic should have a good chip selection. But it’s nice to have some heartier, healthier and more unique foods available to eat as well. This could also mean digging out your favorite picnic throw blanket and bringing it for everyone to sit on and enjoy. Or maybe you bring the things that are always forgotten at picnics: cheese knives and a cutting board for the lovely soft cheese someone brought, cutlery from home so you don’t have to use plastic, or a good selection of plates, napkins and cups. You could also be on playlist duty, charging up your portable speaker and curating the perfect playlist for the day. It’s so much nicer to have a personalized playlist for a gathering as opposed to a pre-made radio station. And making the playlist ahead of time keeps the music going without anyone having to be on-call during the day itself. Planning ahead for a picnic isn’t hard, but makes a world of difference!
Taking a picnic from an ordinary get-together to a classy shindig is simple — just think outside the box and get a little creative! Check out the links below for more tips and tricks from Lands’ End!