Sunday lunch by a fire
Spring is finally here and with the warmth it becomes easier to meet up and hang out in a safe way. Outdoor Sunday lunches with our friends might just become a bit of a tradition.
Last week we decided to meet up with some friends at a little lake not far from town. Me and Dan drove there with some firewood and prepped the fire to have good cooking embers ready by the time our friends Kim and Jon showed up. They went there by bike and got a little lost along the way haha but what’s an outing without some sort of small adventure?
Svarttjärn
I found this location by using Naturkartan (available as an app or on the web). It’s such a great tool for exploring your own home and discovering new places. I simply opened the app on my phone and had a look near us. I decided to filter spots based on where there was parking, a shelter, a place for a fire, recreational areas etc. We chose this spot because it was by water and because the walk from the car was only about 5 minutes – perfect when hauling firewood!
Fire hack:
Trimming off small sticks from firewood and then snapping them in half causes the ends to be very splintery. These then work in the same way as if you were to feather a stick – which is very useful to get a fire going.
It felt good to be outside and get some social quality time together. It feels more important than ever to find safe ways to meet every once in a while; Share stories, laugh and check in on one another’s health. Not to mention that hanging out around a fire with tasty food is always a good idea.
We had prepped chicken at home and had it sitting in a tasty smokey honey marinade. Veggies where pre-cut and ready to go on a skewer. We’d brought bread, hummus and salsa and all off this combined turned into very tasty wraps. We enjoyed lunch together with a cold, locally produced beer made from old bread from one of our grocery stores as a way to reduce food waste. What a luxurious Sunday lunch! I love cooking over an open fire, and food outside just tastes so much better.
Personally I am absolutely okay with this being the normal way we meet and hang out. It’s so enjoyable. We already used to do stuff like this with our friends a lot, but I do hope this will be something good that comes out of the pandemic and that people will have a change in their lifestyle and be outside more in general.
We saw a lot of people walk around, cook or have fika around the lake – both young and old. My hope is that as people have been “forced” to spend time outside, they’ve learned how lovely it is and how much good it does for mental health, and that they will continue to do so as we get a grip of all of this.
Covid is not going anywhere, but we will learn to live with it and have better ways of handling it being a part of our lives – hopefully nature will, for the majority of us, have a natural part in that from now on.
