Does your family like to go picnicking? If so, are you advocates of picnic blankets or picnic tables? Normal picnic goers have their favourites, you know! Some picnickers are hard and fast picnic blanket people while others like to sit at a picnic table. In this article we will take a look at the pros and cons of picnic blankets and picnic tables.

The first thought is where are you going to hold this picnic? Is it going to be in your garden, in the country or on the beach? Picnic tables and their chairs do not settle very well in sand, so unless you can nail your table and seats to a set of old skis, you will almost certainly find it easier to use blankets on the beach. In this case, use something that the sand sticks to like wool, because it cuts down on the sand drifting into the sandwiches.

The next consideration is, what was the weather like the day before? That is, is the grass likely to be wet or even muddy? If it is likely to be wet, then you will not want to be sitting on wet blankets and wet grass, although you could lay a waterproof sheet like a tarpaulin under the blanket. However, if it is likely to be muddy, I would be in favour of postponing the picnic until a drier time.

The next thought is the fitness of the people you are going to be picnicking with. Are they physically capable of sitting on the ground and getting back up again? Many elderly people are not, neither are the overweight or people with bad backs or bad knees. If you want to take blankets anyway, you will have to provide chairs for these people and they can eat off their knees.

Another thought is the amount of guests that have been invited. Picnic tables mostly seat four or six; six or eight at a shove, so if you are expecting twenty people, that is quite a few tables and chairs. Not many households can run to four or five picnic tables and twenty seats, but you could think about having the adults seated at tables and the children on blankets.

If you just can not get hold of the required number of tables and seats, perhaps some of your guests could bring their own to supplement what you already have. Most people are quite willing to chip in if they have anything you can use.

Whether you choose picnic blankets or picnic seats depends on several factors including your own personal preference, but it is almost certainly true to generalize that a younger group of picnicker will almost certainly prefer a traditional picnic on a blanket, whilst an older group will prefer sitting at picnic tables.

Therefore, in a mixed group of young and old, you ought to provide both picnic blankets and picnic tables roughly in proportion to the number of your guests who are older or younger, say over and under forty years of age.

Owen Jones, the writer of that article, writes on a number of topics, but is now concerned with the Handmade Baby Blanket. If you want to know more, please visit our website at Woollen Blankets.

Picnics are supposed to be fun and relaxing. They are a great time to bond with friends and family and the food should be simple to prepare and easy to serve at the event, to keep the event relaxed and enjoyable. Easy picnic food includes sandwiches, fruit and salads but what about easy picnic dessert recipes? What kind of sweet treats make great picnic food?

Forget frozen food like ice cream or anything else, which goes gooey or melts. Foods like cookies, brownies, caramel apples, and cupcakes are good for picnics because these taste good at room temperature as well as chilled and they do not melt.

There are lots of different brownie and cookie recipes that you can make for picnics and then you can freeze the leftovers and thaw them out the next time you have a picnic or get together.

Jello Based Picnic Desserts

Perhaps you never considered jello to be a picnic food because it can be messy to eat but this is only if you make it up according to the directions on the back of the package. Finger jello, for example, is a great easy dessert recipe.

When making jello, you would normally stir the jello powder into boiling water and then add cold water. When you make finger jello, add the boiling water, but do not add any cold water afterwards.

Doing this means, you will end up with a non-sticky, thick jello, which you can cut into cubes or slices and eat with your fingers. Finger jello is simple to make, easy to transport in a picnic basket and delicious to eat. You can even use sugar free jello to make a sweet, calorie free snack.

Other Picnic-Friendly Jello Recipes

There are other things you can do with jello, apart from making finger jello, which are also good for picnics. Maybe you have already tried some super easy lemon cheesecake recipes or something similar.

You might not want to serve cheesecake on a very hot day because the cheese layer might melt but if you can keep it cool and upright, cheesecake can be great. If it is someone’s birthday, for example, and you are having a picnic to celebrate, you might want to reach into the picnic basket and be able to produce something more exciting than a sandwich or a banana. Using jello in a cheesecake recipe helps to set the topping and keep everything firm and held together.

Perhaps you would like to make individual jello desserts and little plastic containers with lids are the ideal way to transport these. Add some fruit to the jello before it sets, to make a fruity jello dessert, or throw in some pretzels, nuts, marshmallows, or chocolate chips to make a delicious jello salad. These jello desserts hold their shape even if the plastic containers roll on their sides or turn upside down in the picnic basket.

Pralines are a wonderful traditional confection made of nuts and sugar syrup. For a good praline recipe check online. You can make pralines by themselves, or add this to cakes, cookies and lots of other delicious desserts. Ground praline is used in ice creams, cakes and many types of pastries.

Are you considering throwing a party in the near future, but are not sure whether to have a picnic in the park or a barbecue party at home? People do get pleasure from both forms of party, although some may have a first choice. One of the big differences between a picnic and a barbecue is frequently the food.

After all, you are usually allowed to have a barbecue and cook food in your own backyard, but there may be restrictions on cooking food on an open fire in a park or picnic site for fire safety purposes, so most people take pre-cooked meats and sandwiches.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both kinds of party, but we will start by looking at the food aspect, as most parties centre around food. An advantage of having a picnic is that you will be able to muck in with your fellow picnickers more, because you will have already cooked the chicken wings and legs and completed the sandwiches the night before.

You will have bags of sausage rolls and small cakes and all you will have to do is lay them out for people to help themselves. If you run out of sandwiches, people can make their own with the sliced bread that you will have brought just in case.

The disadvantages of a picnic are that you also have to tie your time up the day before making all the food and you will need transport to get there with your hampers, bottles, flasks, plates, beakers, tissues, flannels towels and whatever else you normally take with you. People may not even like your choice of sandwiches and if you let them make their own with what you provide, there could be a terrible mess. Your sandwiches could also curl up overnight of go off in the heat of the day or in the back of the car. This is a particular danger with pork, chicken and eggs.

You may have to erect a tent or rig up a shelter for those who can not stand strong sunlight. You may also have trouble with ants and wasps and the toilet amenities are often dreadful. Also if it begins to rain, you have little option but to pack up and depart for home or a pub

Barbecue food on the other hand is cooked there and then and cannot go off. The only danger is under cooking, but it is not too hard to get it right. There is not much chance of preparing vast quantities more than you need either as the chef will see when his food is not being taken away.

This is one of the disadvantages of barbecuing though, someone needs to stand there all day and cook, although this can be done in turns and there is usually a bunch of men willing to show off their prowess as a barbecue chef.

With a barbecue you have the advantage of shelter if it rains and the toilets are better than in the park and if it gets cool later on in the evening, you could use a patio heater to prolong the party.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with the outdoor heat lamp. If you are interested in patio heaters too, please click through to Residential Patio Heaters.