SEASIDE PICNICS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19833, 31 December 1927, Page 6 (Supplement)

SEASIDE PICNICS.

Picnics on the beach are a delightful feature of the seaside holiday. Children enjoy «thera tremendously. In their view any meal that takes them away from their beloved beach is a waste of time, therefore they are thoroughly happy when lunch or tea is brought down to the sands to a sheltered sp*>t among the rocks or to the family tent on the beach. Their elders love the informality of a beach picnic, too, and they seldom demur when the children say, "Let's have tea on the beach to-day. If one ha 3 a small and not very convenient shelter, or perhaps just a bathing tent on the beach, it is better to make all tho preparations at home and carry a picnic ba*ket down with one to the beach. thermos flask can be used for tea or coffee. Two things should ' always be remembered with regard to thermos flasks; always scald the cork as well as tho flask after using, and never add milk to tea in the flask. _ If milk is added the flavour of the tea is curiously spoiled. ' , Bathing, paddling and digging, even just lazing on the sands in the fresh, sea air, all increase one's appetite, so picnic fare for the boach should be plentiful and nourishing as well as dainty. The children's capacity for sandwiches or patties'at lunch should not bo plenty of these, filled with meat, cheese or eggs, should be provided. Salad should accompany sandwiches of the varieties mentioned; or delicious sandwiches can be made with combinations of lettuce, cress, cucumber, tomatoes and eggs, meat or cream cheese. Fresh fruit is the> simplest and nicest sWeet fo'r the beach lunch. A delightful •way of preparing fresh currants, raspberries or loganberries is to pick them carefully, place them in the bowl 01" dish in which they will be served, and cover with castor sugar. Shake the bowl so that the sugar mingles with the fruit, und let it stand for several hours. If this 13 done in the early morning there should _ be plenty of juice in the bowl by lunch time. With cream or without, the flavour of tiie fresh fruit is preferable to that which has been stewed. With fresh fruit, cake or biscuits can be served, or little fingers of plain short pastry. Short pastry is nourishing, and, when not too rich, is a quite suitable sweet for children. Small fruit pasties are a favourable sweet for the picnic lunch, and fruit jellies set in cups that are not too fragile are also appetising. After bathing, a hot drink is always desirablo, so if the bathing ' hour is just before lunch, provide hot coffee, or, for the children, cocoa or chocolate. For the beach tea, buttered scones, teacakes and wholesome attractive small cakes are required.