Picnic heaven

First things first: the pork pie. I visited our local deli and was confronted by 'the perfect pork pie', as reviewed by Giles Coren in The Times and Tony Turnbull on Times Online. It's made by Bray's Cottage in Norfolk and also won the title of 'best pork pie', awarded by BBC's Olive magazine.

So, of course, I bought two. The high praise is certainly richly deserved: this is a top-quality pie. It's clear straight away that the meat used is far superior to the cuts found in your average pork pie and the slight hint of bacon and onion enriches the taste. We think we also detected a hint of rosemary ('sausagey-tasting' was the phrase that came to mind). The pastry was perhaps a little bit crumbly for cutting into wedges with a picnic-grade knife, but I'd imagine it's a little bit better directly out of the oven (I bought them freshly cooked beforehand and refridgerated them). All in all, though, they made a good addition to our lunch.

I went a bit meat-crazy in general when planning this picnic. As well as the pork pies par excellence we also had some mini pork, cheese and pickle pies, serrano ham and a platter of Italian cured meats. Oh, and some chicken pieces although they never made it to my side of the rug!

We gave the Swiss cheese industry a bit of a boost too, trying out some Emmental, Gruyere and Jarlsberg. The Fine Cheese Co. make some nice walnutty oat biscuits to accompany cheese, although I think they'd have been better matched with something softer (brie would be my preference). A bit of coleslaw and potato salad completed the perfect picnic experience - I'd love to say I made them myself but I'm not Nigella.

I managed to plan the perfect weather too - hurrah for that! Now if we could sort out the boat situation so that we get to have a good pre-picnic row rather than a punt-based slalom, everything would be just right.