Ireland finally got its long-awaited, and likely short-lived summer yesterday. We wilt fairly quickly in the heat of the midday sun - I burn up in about 20 minutes. And we'd been working straight through the weekends in an attempt to meet a launch date, so we really needed a break.
So we came up with a handy solution that solved all that.. We had a weekend-style lie in, followed by a couple of hours in the garden chilling out in the shade, spent the afternoon in the office in our nice cold cave-like house when the heat started to crank up a bit too much for us, and then at 5pm, we packed ourselves a picnic tea, and all the timelapse gear, and went out to do a bit of photography, and as an added bonus, caught the most spectacular sunset at Nendrum monastic site in County Down!
We made up some tabbouleh, grilled some halloumi, and heated flat bread and falafels, packed it all up into a rucksack, wrapped in tinfoil, and it was all still just about warm when we got to our picnic spot.
Nendrum can be quite busy, especially on a nice day in the summer, but since everyone else was at home for dinner, so we got the place to ourselves - which makes for much more successful time lapse footage!
And, we got to enjoy the nicest part of the day, watching the sun go down over Strangford Lough, no sunscreen required!
This works particularly well if you're stuck in an office doing 9-5 hours all through the summer, feeling like you have no time during the week for adventures - just have your picnic dinner out somewhere nice, and you've claimed back a good part of your day! It can take up to an hour to get everything cooked and packed up in tin foil, so you might need to get a bit prepared the night before, but trust me - it's worth it for that blissful moment when the sun goes down, on a work night, and you've got sand between your toes!
Easy ideas for a filling picnic dinner
Quiche
Potatoes with garlic, lemon, parsley, olives, capers and olive oil (just mix the ingredients through hot salad potatoes)
Sweet potato chips
Falafel with flatbread, halloumi and houmus
Salad
BBQ - skewers, veggie burgers, salmon
I'm veggie, so that's all I can think of as a quick and easy dinner on the go, but I'm sure if you can add chicken into the mix, your options would be much greater! Get in touch with any other successful picnic dinners you've created, I'd love some extra inspiration!
