Spring Picnic

I’ll be the first person to admit that I do not like being outside. I hate bugs, I hate dirt, I’m not even a real big fan of being in the sun. On most days I’d rather be inside in a comfy spot reading a book or watching a movie or surfing the ‘net, or even baking. And I love dreary rainy days so that it feels even more cozy to be inside – it gives me an excuse to not suffer through taking the kids out to play!!

Well, all that said though, I can’t refuse a picnic. Maybe it’s because picnics remind me of the carefree days of being a child. At my parents’ house, we had a classic-style picnic table in our big backyard and a grill. Many things happened at that table, not just eating. They’re all good memories that almost make me want to tear up when I remember them. I also loved going out into our woods just past twilight, when it was a little scary in the darkened shadows of the trees, where my dad would light a fire inside a circle of stones and we would roast hot dogs and marshmallows.

Eating outside evokes a lot of childhood memories for me, but that aside, eating outside is just plain fun. Except for the bugs and dirt, ew.

Yesterday was one of the nicest days we’ve had in weeks, literally. We’ve had to endure wind, rain and cold and it is supposed to be spring, Australia, come on! Even though I love the rain, enough is enough! I decided that it was a good day to enjoy a break in the weather and have a picnic in the backyard for lunch with the kids.

I took them to the grocery store first thing in the morning to get some ingredients, having decided upon chicken wraps, a basic salad, strawberries, strawberry cupcakes and fresh homemade lemonade for our picnic. Luckily, I had received a bounty of products from Kitchenware Direct – an Australian online kitchen supplies shop – that would help me get my picnic together quickly and easily, which I will review for you in this post.

The most fun for me was the Zyliss salad spinner. This is the first ever salad spinner I have owned in my entire life. After the first time I used it, I wondered why it had taken so long for me to get one. It’s simple to use – just place your salad leaves in the colander-style basket, rinse the leaves and place the basket back in the bowl. The fun part is making it spin. My kids couldn’t get enough of this! This particular spinner has a locking lever and a stop button, which will fluff the leaves back up when you’re done spinning.

This was just a basic salad – I bought the mixed salad leaves in a bag and added chopped tomatoes and cucumbers. I used a homemade balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing.

I also needed a bowl for our salad and this salad bowl was perfect. It’s a very attractive clear glass bowl to show off all the beautiful colors in a salad – a definite must! See it in my pictures of the actual picnic below.

Next, I needed to make the chicken wraps. This is a very healthy wrap that is super easy to prepare. Lebanese bread is wrapped around a delicious filling of chicken tenderloins, lettuce leaves, tomatoes, tabouli, hummous and tzatziki. The entire wrap was quite gigantic, so I had to slice the wrap in half to make it easier to hold and eat. What better way to do this than with a Scanpan sandwich knife (which I didn’t even know existed until I found it at Kitchenware Direct!).

This sandwich knife will cut through your sandwich (or wrap) easily without crushing it. It’s a very heavy knife that feels great in my hand – I was so impressed that I immediately fell in love with it!

On to dessert – strawberry cupcakes! Okay, so these aren’t homemade, I’ll admit. They’re a Betty Crocker box mix, but my kids certainly don’t mind. How hard is it to travel with cupcakes, by the way, when you don’t have a cupcake carrier? I had a Cupcake Courier while in the US that I had won from Iron Cupcake: Earth, which was great, except that I found it very difficult to store because it was so large.

Kitchenware Direct has a collapsible cupcake carrier that makes it easier to store, yet it can still hold 2 dozen cupcakes or a cake. This what I used to carry our cupcakes to the picnic blanket.

Here you can see the cupcake carrier on the left and the glass salad bowl on the right. In the center in the back are our chicken wraps and right in front is our fresh homemade lemonade.