How to Have that Perfect Fall Picnic

Keep a basket specifically for picnics. It should be roomy enough to hold dishes for each person, plus a spare set for the dishes that get dropped. As well as your picnic blanket, and your food and drink. You will also want to bring a high quality cooler. To keep any meats you have chilled until they are ready to be cooked, as well as keeping your canned drinks cold. Such a basket is found at http://www.picnicfun.com/category/picnic-baskets

Splurge on a real picnic blanket. Look for a water resistant fleece lined blanket or a 100% wool blanket. which will keep you clean and dry. Free from dirt, leaves, and grass stains, unlike the blanket or bedsheets that most people bring along. The website Picnicworld.net has a wonderful selection.You can also bring some camping canvas chairs. Many are built in with cup holders now so you have a place to set your drink.

Rather then use your silverware and dishes, or disposable. Spring for a set of plastic dishes and silverware or matching dish set to keep loaded in your picnic basket. Partysecret.com has affordable dish sets online and Walmart stores have very inexpensive matching sets. You want something sturdy, dishwasher safe, yet pretty looking, maybe even to match your picnic blanket.

Citronella candles to repel mosquitoes. Those pesky bugs are everywhere. Even in fall when the temps are winding down they can still hang around making a picnic miserable. Stock up on citrus candles to help keep the mosquitoes at bay while you eat and play.

Bring along a small BBQ and make Burgers rather then the normal picnic fare of PBJs and Tuna fish sandwiches. You can even go all out and make or bring BBQed ribs or steaks. Just make sure you bring plenty of napkins. Make sure your meat is kept cold in a high quality insulated cooler. Ice packs inside of the coolers will keep your meats chilled as well as loose ice without the melting mess.

Having a picnic in the fall means that the days are cooler. Pre make some soup and keep it warm in insulated thermos' or put it in a plastic container and store it inside an insulated drink pouch or small soft insulated cooler. Keep it separate from other foods so it will stay warm.

A sample Fall Picnic menu could include a warm veggie soup for an appetizer, kabobs for your main meal. With a Fresh Apple and Cinnamon Pie for desert. To drink would be Minty Hot Cocoa and Lemonaid.

To make Vegetable soup
2 large cans chicken broth
1 head shredded cabbage
2 stalks celery, sliced
3 carrots, sliced
1 onion, sliced
1 tomato, diced
1/3 can tomato paste
1 cup peas

garlic powder, oregano, basil, pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a large pot. Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 3-4 hours.

To make Kabobs.
You will need, beef pork and or chicken cut into about 1 inch strips. Red, green, and yellow bell peppers. A Large sweet onion. Pineapple chunks, the large ones, not small ones. Simply skewer the meat, then a pepper, an onion and pineapple and repeat the pattern all the way down. I prefer to use wooden skewers over metal ones, as metal ones get hot when you cook them. Sprinkle seasonings over the entire kabob. I use Mrs.Dash and Seasoning salts. However you can also marinate your meat in any different kind of marinade like Terriaki. Then put over a BBQ or a fire with a BBQ rack and cook until the meat is browned all the way through.

Apple In Cinnamon Pie.
This divine recipe will have people drooling over your Apple Pie.
1 1/2 lb. Red Delicious apples, peeled, cored, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
1 1/2 lb. Golden Delicious apples, peeled, cored, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 cup all purpose flour
3 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Basic Pie Crust
1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon milk
Vanilla ice cream
Position rack in bottom third of oven and preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine sliced apples, 1/4 cup sugar, flour, 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, vinegar and salt in large bowl; toss to blend. Roll out 1 dough disk on lightly floured surface to 13-inch round.

Transfer to 9-inch-diameter deep-dish glass pie dish. Trim overhang to 1/2 inch. Brush edge of crust lightly with water. Transfer apple mixture to crust, mounding in center and pressing lightly to compact. Drizzle with honey. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Roll out second dough disk to 13-inch round. Place atop apples. Trim dough overhang to 1 inch. Fold top crust edge under bottom crust edge, pressing to seal. Crimp edge decoratively. Cut several slits in crust to allow steam to escape.

Place apple pie on baking sheet. Bake 45 minutes.

Combine remaining 1 tablespoon sugar and 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon in small bowl. Brush top crust of pie with milk. Sprinkle with sugar mixture, Bake until crust is golden brown, apples are tender and juices bubble thickly, covering crust edges with foil if browning too quickly, about 20 minutes. Transfer to pie rack and cool.

To make Minty Hot Cocoa.
Because you never know how much cocoa you will need, this is for one serving size, simply duplicate the recipe until you have what you want.
You will need 1 cup of water to 2 teaspoons baking cocoa, sugar to taste about 1 tablespoon. Add in 1/2 teaspoon vanilla and 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract.
To make, mix cocoa, sugar and water, bring to a boil. Add in vanilla and peppermint extracts. Drop in some mini marshmallow if desired.
To dress this up, add a cinnamon stick as a stir stick to each cup of cocoa.

Real Lemonade.
Combine six lemons( juiced) four cups of water and one cup of sugar. Mix well, as sugar is hard to dissolve in cold water. Or make with lukewarm water and chill or add ice before hand.
To dress this up, add strawberries or raspberries to make mixed lemonade. OR freeze the berry in some lemonade making lemonade ice cubes to put in your punch
Other ideas to include is strawberries, raspberries or mint to add a special punch to your drink.