A Little Thought Adds To The Enjoyment of Picnic Meals

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18587, 22 December 1934, Page 10

A Little Thought Adds To The Enjoyment of Picnic Meals

pi.’O.M now on, for several months, the weather should be ideal for picnicking out in the open, and thos.o who are able to get away into the bush or down by the sea will be doing it almost every week-end.

Just because it is a picnic meal in tho Imsli is no reason why it should not he comfortable. Of course, if you prefer to sit on a rock or a stump, you can—but a folding- table and stools are easily stowed in the car and make for comfort. Like everything else, there is a rigtit and a wrong way of picnicking. A little thought beforehand' will provide ail the necessities for comfortable days out in the open, when boiling the billy becomes great fun instead of a nuisance.

If it is too much trouble to grill a chop and boil tea, there is nothing so very wrong with a cold meal and a thermos flask to obviate the necessity of making a tire at all. The mode of travelling, whether by public conveyance or by motor car, usually determines the kind of meals we prepare for our picnics. If we travel by car, all kinds of things in the way of equipment may he taken for thosvf.iVho like their comfort; out of doors.

There are many people who think a juicy grilled steak, or some chops, ‘cooked over a proper wood fire, tho very best kipd,;.of picnic fare, and' if it is convenient to.have this, it leaves little to be desired in the way of a

delicious and satisfying meal. A gi-illor or frying pan can be used with excellent results if a hot meal is desired, but he sure to have both equipped with lonj* handles. Ham and eggs, for instance, always seem to he particularly appetising when cooked in the open. Fisli Baked. If the picnic is a Ashing expedition, cooking some of the freshlycaught Ash will be most important, and if served with potatoes baked in the ashes will make a meal At for princes.

Clean the fish, wrap it up in white paper, soak welt in water, and lay it on the lint ashes of Ihe wood Arc. Cover well with the ashes. , Flat stones, which may be 'made very hot in the fire, can he upp'd instead of ashes, although the ashes will not affect the Ash, as may bo supposed, because when cooked the paper and the skin of the Ash will peel entirely off.

All kinds of delicious sandwiches and grease-proof paper provide an easy lunch to carry, and will be very welcome, with tho addition of fruit and cake, but for more elaborate fare there is very much to choose from.

Cold pies, such as veal and ham pie, and chicken pic, served with salads, make a delicious, luncheon, Veal and Ham Pie. Cub into; sn\njl places 21b. fillet veal, an<3 a smai} onion, put yito ft sauce-

pan with pepper and salt, and enough water to cover the meat, and gently simmer till tender —about \h hours. Boil hard 2 eggs and make some forcemeat balls in this way: 2 tablespoons breadcrumbs, £ tenspoonful chopped' parsley, h teaspoon fill thyme, a grating of lemon peel, pepper and Wait, a teaspoonful of butter, and the yolk of an egg to bind them together. Make in marbles. Line a pie dish with some good short pastry, dissolve n little gelatine info the veal, or it may be thickened with a little arrowroot. Pour into the lined dish tho cooked veal, some chopped ham, and the sliced eggs and forcemeat balls. Cover with pastry, and cook in a fairly hot. oven till the ,pastry is a golden brown. , > • ! Asparagus Cream. * Take 1 large t in lasparagiis, .and out ' off the tips, and set some ,of them in 1 a mould, which has been lined with 1 some aspic jelly. Hub the stalks and 1 juice of the asparagus through a sieve, and mix into it enough .of some - aspic jelly to set it firmly. Whip up • 1 gill cream, and when the asparagus J is cool enough mix all together. Add the rest of the tips, salt, and pepper, and' All in the prepared mould. This i served with some potato salad makes ; an excellent cold dish for the picnic. I Chocolate Cream. , Take Joz.. grated chocolate, 3 pint i milk, J pint cream, ,‘ioz. cast.or sugar, | vanilla essence, Joz. gelatine. Dissolve the gelatine in a little water. < Whip tho cream to a stiff froth. Add I the castor sugar and vanilla.. Stir I gently into the chocolate and milk, < and lastly stir in the gelatine when : the mixture is fairly cool. Pour into a wetted mould and set in a cold II place until Arm. Orange Rock Cakes. Take lib. Aour, (ioz. butter, 40z,. castor sugar, grated rind',of 1 orange, find j

juice of two oranges, 2 eggs if necessary, a little milk, 2 teaspoons baking powder, pinch salt; rub the butter into tho flour, add the sugar, baking powder, orange rind, and juice. Mix in the eggs, which have been well beaten, and as much milk as needed, but the mixture must be very stiff. Put in little rough heaps on a well-greasdil| baking tin, and bake in a quick oven for about a quarter of an hour. Savoury Eggs. Savoury eggs served with different salads always make an agreeable addition to any picnic hamper. They can bo prepared at home and packed carefully in a box. Cut the hardboiled eggs into halves, take out the yolks, and all kind's of sav.oury mixtures may be added to the yolks before they are returned to the whites. Such things as grated cheese, chopped hnm, anchovies, tomato sauce, capers and' olives may all be used with excellent results.