The Season: Car Park Picnics

Cherry Menlove is passionately dedicated to the lives of homemakers and in making life more simple and beautiful. Tune in weekly for her inspirational tips and advice that celebrate every aspect of the domestic arts, homemaking, cooking, crafting, gardening and decorating.

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Finally, the summer Social season is upon us, which means that every Domestic Goddess in the land will be competing to host the biggest and best car park picnic. You need to eat drink and be merry but you need to do it in style.

Think of it as the smarter cousin of the humble picnic. The picnic might be happy lazing in a poppy field on a thick tartan blanket, but the car park picnic much prefers the surroundings of Henley and Ascot and is more about pristine tableware and crisp linen.

A smart picnic blanket is acceptable, but for the seasoned Domestic Goddess a handsome table and chairs set arranged under a gorgeous gazebo is essential.

Opt for foldable wooden chairs – these come with tie-on cushions, but the crafty amongst you may prefer to magic up your own.

Domestic Goddesses never underestimate the importance of crisp table linen to bring the inside, outside.

Our best-kept secret is Blueblack and Red, and specifically their heavenly Sage Emblem tablecloth (pictured right). Prepare for disaster of disasters – a strong wind – and weigh it down with these adorable Garden Bugs Tablecloth Weights.

For car park picnics, dips in Waitrose packaging and carrot batons on a paper plate simply won’t do. Instead, pop a generous helping of houmous in the centre of Oka’s elegant Rattan Dip Tray (pictured above) and arrange baby carrots, sugar snap peas and skinless cucumber batons around the edge.

Keep it simple for the main course - an exquisite poached salmon or a melt-in-the-mouth fillet of beef are every Domestic Goddess' favourite. Whatever you choose, roast, season, and serve it with new potatoes leafy green salad.

The easiest addition to an alfresco feast? Cheese, and plenty of it. (Cheese tastes even better come tea time a few glasses of champagne down.) Arranged on this gorgeous Natural Slate Cheese Board, it makes for easy pre-picnic packing; the cheese sticks to the slate so simply cover with clingfilm and pop it in the back of the car.

The table is laid, the delicious food is ready to be eaten, but as every D.G. knows, detail is everything.

Place this Moyses’ Summer Basket (pictured below) in the middle of the table for a striking centrepiece and breathe in the gorgeous peony scent.

Your floral fancies needn’t stop there – get creative and pop dried flower heads in ice cube trays before freezing for pretty flower ice cubes – The Real Flower Company’s Pot Pourri or even some daisies from the garden will do just the trick.

The best car park picnics have a healthy supply of champagne, so pick a winning bottle (or six) – we love Moet’s Rosé Imperial for glassfuls of summery pink fizz.

No matter how yummy the champers is, if it’s luke-warm, you might as well be serving Babycham. Keep it cool in Culinary Concept’s handsome Leather Handled Ice Bucket and get guzzling - you deserve it after all that planning...

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