Cheese Platter Picnic – Kitchenware Direct Product Review

It’s nearly autumn here in Sydney (how did that happen so fast?), so why not enjoy these last few weeks of summer outside enjoying some good food?  This was the idea Brad Russell must have had when he asked if I’d like to review some summery products from Kitchenware Direct!

We don’t have a lot of picnics, but when we do, I realize how much fun we always have and then wonder why we don’t have them more often.  There’s something about eating a meal outside that feels refreshing, and I swear it makes the food taste better.  The sun shining through the trees onto a picnic table, a cool breeze ruffling the paper napkins, the birds tweeting, a few ants, and the smell of a barbecue… it’s heaven!

Brad owns a fledgling business called Swish Plastic, which specializes in quality unbreakable plastic drinkware.  The beautiful glasses you see in these photos?  They’re not actually glass – they’re made of the highest quality polycarbonate!  Despite the fact that they’re not real glass, these Swish Plastic champagne flutes have a similar weight to real glassware, which I love.  And as you can see, they even look like real glass.  They completely fooled my husband, who almost had a heart attack when he saw one of our children grab one of these and run off with it!  Little does he know, he could even drive his car over one of Swish Plastic’s products and it wouldn’t break (there’s video of this actually happening!)! They are absolutely perfect to take with you on your picnic!

Another item you may need for your picnic is something to cover the table with.  How about something bright and colourful like the Rapee picnic table runner you see featured in my photos?  It’s sure to brighten up any picnic table and give you a clean space to place your food.  And almost best of all?  It’s 100% cotton and machine washable!

I just love the vibrant colors!

Lastly, if you’re going to be serving cheese at your picnic, you’re going to need a cheese serving board.  This 3-piece Scanpan cheese knife and slate cutting board set comes highly recommended!  As you know, I love rustic, and you definitely can’t beat the rustic look of this slate board.  It’s gorgeous and you may have already seen it in a few of my Instagram photos!  The board is not dishwasher safe, which means a little bit more manual work when it comes to clean-up time, but it’s surprisingly easy to clean.

The set comes with two cheese knives; one for slicing hard cheeses (lined with holes along the blade to stop the slices sticking to the blade) and one for spreading soft cheeses.  As you’d expect from a high-quality brand like Scanpan, the knives are classy-looking and feel great in your hand.

Now all you need is someone to share a wonderful cheese platter and a glass of champagne with!

For some side notes… I had to do some research for this post!  I have never, in my life, served a cheese platter and I had no idea what type of cheeses to place on this board!  I borrowed some ideas from this page and ended up with a block of cheddar, a round of camembert and a log of truffled goat’s cheese.  I am currently not drinking alcohol due to breastfeeding, so in the champagne glasses is nothing other than fizzy apple juice!  It is actually a great substitute for champagne, especially with cheese platters.

Another note, I had to do a bit of work in order to get these pictures.  See, my husband loves cacti and ever since we moved into our house, he’s claimed our gazebo, which shelters a picnic table, for his potting shed.  So we’ve never actually eaten on the table for all the pots of cacti and potting soil scattered around.  It’s really a waste of a beautiful outside space, but we don’t have room for him to have a potting shed and this is, unfortunately, just the way it ended up.  In order for me to take these photos, I had to clear off the table and scrub the daylights out of it, which was a lot of work!  In the end, I think it was worth it, because the pictures look bright, cheery and fun.

So, have you ever served a cheese platter?  What cheeses did you use?  If you’ve never served one, what are some of your favorite cheeses?