Picnic Basket Style

Styles in fashion have changed and so have picnic and outing menus! Yes, the old-time picnic, accompanied by an orgy of cooking and baking days in advance, has been outmoded. "Good eats" play a vital part in making that carefully planned and long looked for, or on-the-spur-of-the-moment picnic a successful event, and yet it is entirely unnecessary for food to take so much attention that mothers and others dread the word "picnics." Since picnics go by types, your first task is to pick the kind of picnic you like best and then plan your menu accordingly and bring the necessary supplies and "eating tools" together.

Eating out of doors can, however, have tragic results unless the meal is carefully planned. (See the section on picnic food safety) On every pantry shelf there should be a supply of food products conveniently packed in containers which can be added to the picnic basket. A few such products suitable for picnics which can be purchased at the corner grocery are: canned meats and fish, sandwich spreads, pickles, olives, jams and jellies, cheese, cookies, crackers. When the desire to hold a picnic comes upon one suddenly, leaving no time to make elaborate preparations for refreshments, the menu might he termed the "out-of-the-can" type. Here is where the can opener is an essential item in the picnic "kit." Then there is the picnic where everything, hot or cold, is prepared in the kitchen at home and transported to the picnic grounds in pinic baskets full of preserve jars, thermos bottles, paper containers, and packages of every type and description. And finally, the picnic long to be remembered is the one where a part or all of the food is cooked out of doors.

There are certain kinds of outings when one wants to travel "light".
We offer the following picnic suggestions:

• Wrap sandwiches individually in plenty of wax paper to keep them fresh and make them easy to eat.
• Carry cake or cookies in covered tin boxes.
• Some picnickers carry hot foods in covered casseroles wrapped in several thicknesses of newspapers to retain the heat, or in covered electric roasters which retain heat well.
• Carry radishes, celery, tomatoes and lettuce in ziploc bags such as you use in your refrigerator.
• Dry ice can be packed around ice cream or chocolate coated ice cream bars, giving a light weight, but long-keeping package.
• Carry salads or fruit sauces in screw-top Mason jars or vacuum jugs.
• Eggs wrapped individually in napkins or soft paper and packed in a cardboard box will stand considerable hand ling.
• Measure coffee ahead of time and tie it into a muslin sack. It is all ready to drop into the boiling water when you arrive, and there'll be no grounds in the coffee.
• Carry lemon juice and sugar, mixed, but undiluted, for lemonade.
• Temper vacuum jugs with hot or cold water before filling to insure loss of heat or cold in food itself.
• Small jars or tin boxes with tight covers make excellent containers for sugar, salt, pepper and other spices.
• In packing, it is advisable to pack the heaviest articles at the bottom of the picnic basket so that other things will not be squashed by them.

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