Category Archives: Portable Fun

Backyard Fun, Innovative Solutions, Outdoor Entertaining, Portable Fun

Folding Picnic Tables: For Tailgating and More!

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Football Folding Picnic Table
Picnic tables are a great way to provide ample seating to your outdoor events. Picnic tables, however, are traditionally stationary.  How can you enjoy the benefits of extra seating and the ease of portability? Folding picnic tables! They are available in many designs, including the football folding picnic table shown above, which is perfect for tailgating. I recently spent a beautiful afternoon at The Grove at Ole Miss, rated the top tailgating school in the country by numerous publications. My friends and I enjoyed tailgating and put our folding picnic table to great use! Our table also recently came in handy when hosting my daughter’s outdoor birthday party (below). It provided a place to open presents, eat, and give the children a place to relax after lots of playing. They are perfect for adults and children and support up to 250 lbs. per seat. They are available in green, red, black, and blue. In addition to the football table top, you can also choose a poker design (perfect for on the go card games), soccer design, and plain table. They are easy to carry, sturdy, and fun!

Portable Fun

Make a Day of Apple Month

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Apple Orchard - Apple Month

September is Apple Month, and it’s the time of year when thousands of families look forward to heading out to the local orchard for some apple picking fun.  My family is no exception.  In fact, we live in a part of the country where apple orchards abound.  Picking our peck is a big deal, so we like to make a day of it.

Picnic Basket-ToteAn increasing number of apple orchards have expanded their offerings beyond picking fruit.  Many have on-site cafes where you can enjoy a meal after you’ve spent time meandering the rows of apple trees searching for the perfect specimens.  Our family prefers to take along a picnic basket filled with our favorite foods — chicken salad, crispy veggies, cheese chunks, and buttery crackers.  Just in case the orchard we’ve chosen doesn’t have any picnic tables, we bring along our portable chairs — comfort is a must.  Once we finish our picnic, we can kick back in our chairs and take in the crisp, clean pre-autumn air.

Orchards may not always have restaurants, but it’s not uncommon for them to sell baked goods containing the very treasure you came to pick from the trees.  Apple pies, apple dumplings, and — our favorite — apple cider doughnuts provide the perfect accompaniment to our delicious picnic lunch.

At the end of the day, with bags of apples and packages of pies in hand, we head home with full and happy tummies until Apple Month rolls around again next September.

Outdoor Entertaining, Portable Fun

Tailgating Recipes Sure To Be Devoured!

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It’s officially tailgating season…and it’s about time! The first game was a success with great food and a fun atmosphere. While our team might not win every game, we never lose a party! We cooked the following recipe for this week’s game, and it was a HUGE success. The gumbo-esque recipe was made using the CanCooker Outdoor Food Steamer. It is the perfect tailgating accessory. It has a heavy-duty air tight rubber seal, to hold steam in where it belongs and cook food to perfection. The CanCooker is easy to use, clean, transport and store. You add your ingredients, place on a heat source, and cook to perfection. The shrimp and sausage supper was the perfect meal for an afternoon of tailgating and was enjoyed by all. We hope that you love this recipe from the CanCooker website as much as we did! Happy tailgating!

SONJA’S SHRIMP AND SAUSAGE SUPPER

INGREDIENTS:

 2 pounds new potatoes, quartered 

1-2 onions, quartered 

12 half ears of corn, placed on end 

2 lemons cut in half

1-2 pounds of large, fresh un-pealed shrimp 

1 package of kielbasa sausage, whole

4-3 oz. packages of shrimp or crab seasoning

CanCooker All Purpose Seasoning 

1-stick of butter 1 or 2 12 oz. liquid (water or beer)

 

First, place in the CanCooker ears of corn standing on end. Add potatoes, onions and lemons. Place kielbasa on top of vegetables. Add shrimp or crab boil seasoning, All purpose seasoning, butter and beer (or water). Latch the lid and place on heat source. Once the cooker begins to vent steam, keep on heat source for additional 25-30 minutes (approx).

CAREFULLY open lid and add shrimp. COOKER AND CONTENTS WILL BE HOT. USE OVEN MITTS. Re-latch lid and cook for an additional 5- 10 minutes. Remove from heat source and let stand for a minimum of 5 to10- minutes. Place food into large serving tray and enjoy.

 ****Always spray the inside of the CanCooker with Non Stick cooking spray before you add contents

 

Outdoor Entertaining, Portable Fun, Shade Solutions

Essential Tailgating Supplies That Score Big

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Football - Time for Tailgating

It’s official — the NFL strike is over, and the games will begin in only a few short weeks.  It’s time to gather the tailgating supplies so you don’t have to scramble at the last minute.  Here are a few essential pieces of portable tailgating equipment that you’ll want to bring with you to every game:

  • Portable Grill — Cold sandwiches just don’t cut it at a football game.  Tailgating is all about hearty grilled delicacies like burgers, brats, and even steaks.  Better quality portable grills offer plenty of surface area that allows you to cook for a crowd.  Many come with top-notch features like folding legs with wheels, detachable side shelves for keeping grilling tools handy, and trailer hitch attachments so you can save your table space for other necessities.
  • Portable Picnic Table — Once you prepare your tasty meal on the grill, where will you enjoy it?  Sitting in a folding chair trying to balance a plate full of food on your lap is an awkward situation that can end up as a messy disaster.  Portable picnic tables fold from an easy-to-carry compact size into a comfortable table and chair combination that can be shared with several friends.  Focus on conversation rather than on keeping your food from falling on your shoes.
  • Auto-Mo-Brella Umbrella — The Auto-Mo-Brella portable umbrella was made for tailgating.  It attaches quickly and easily to any vehicle’s receiver hitch, and it provides instant shade and protection from the sun.  A little shade is all it takes to create a comfort zone around your personal tailgating space.

The best way to enjoy any tailgating experience is to come prepared.  It doesn’t take a lot of equipment to have a great time at the game, but it’s important to cover your bases — food, seating, and shelter.  When you’re prepared, you can be sure that the tailgating party will be just as fun as the game itself.  Go team!

Backyard Fun, Portable Fun, Shade Solutions

A Little Slice of Shade for Outdoor Loving Kids

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Kids Chair with Shade Canopy

For many kids, going indoors in summer time is simply not an option.  It’s summer, after all, and outside with friends is the only place to be.  On super hot days, kids can get pretty resourceful when it comes to staying cool — they sit together in the shade under a tree, soak in the coolness of a shallow backyard baby pool, or make a homemade shade shelter using a tarp and some patio chairs.  

Creative approaches to staying cool deserve some kudos, but most parents like to know that their kids have access to reliable shade at all times.  Providing kids with an easy to carry, kid-sized canvas folding chair with an attached shade canopy gives them a comfortable and shady spot they can use any time and any place.  Kids can take a portable chair like this to friends’ homes, to the pool or beach, or to the park, and they never have to be concerned about lack of shade.

All too soon, the days will grow shorter and school will begin again.  Kids can feel it coming.  So, even if intense heat and sun prevent them from engaging in high-energy activities, outside is still the best place to be.  With their own little slice of shade, kids can stay comfy and cooler during the doggiest dog days the summer has to offer.