Whole Foods to Go

I was raised by devout picnickers. My mother thought nothing of packing a picnic dinner of salmon sandwiches, milk, fruit, and cookies–nothing fancy.

My dad would load us all into the car and we’d head down to the seawall in Vancouver’s Stanley Park, spread out the official picnic blanket, open the much-worn picnic hamper, and watch the ships, the seagulls, and the people go by.

Packing a picnic can be as simple as my mom’s version or as elegant as eating local cheese, artisan breads, and olives, and drinking wine on a blanket in your own backyard.

Food Safety

The gold standard of food safety is to keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold. Pack plenty of cold sources to ensure that picnic foods stay cold till they’re eaten. Anything left out longer than one hour should be thrown away.

For cold sources, I use a combination of frozen drinks in Tetra Pak packages, along with commercial ice packs. We use the frozen packages to keep the picnic cold before we eat and then the contents double up as a cold drink or picnic ice milk or sorbet for later.

Recipes

• Muffuletta
• Picnic Ice Milk or Sorbet