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- Food ideas for every holiday plan!
- 8 Life Hacks to Keep Summer Simple
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- Entertaining Vegan and Vegetarian Friends
- 5 flavoured butters to serve with shellfish
- Trends for entertaining this summer
- Freakshakes: 3 tasty ideas for you to try
- Fun and healthy snacks
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- Delicious summer snacks
8 Life Hacks to Keep Summer Simple
Summer’s all about having fun. Here are a few great ideas to make sure you’re ready for a good time all season long!
1Onions on the grill
Can’t find your BBQ brush? No problem! Cut an onion in half to get your grill (and the inside of your BBQ) clean in no time. For tough jobs, mix water and baking soda with a touch of vinegar and lemon juice. This combination will have your grill gleaming!
2Light my fire
Homemade fire starters are eco-friendly and won’t affect the taste of food cooked over the flames. Here’s a super easy trick for making your own weatherproof fire starters: Fill sowing pots with sawdust, small pieces of branches and candle wax. These starters are perfect to take camping.
3Fancy drink covers
Here’s a craft your kids will love. You’ll need a few markers, paper cupcake liners and coloured straws. Decorate the liners with bright drawings, then poke a hole through the middle for a straw. And there you have it! Fancy drink covers to keep bugs out of your bevvies. Fun fact: rosemary, lavender and geranium plants are also effective for keeping mosquitos at bay.
4Lemon love
Cooking fish on the grill can be a real challenge. Stop your salmon from sticking or slipping between the slats by laying it on lemon slices. You’ll get the whole filet to your plate in one piece—and you’ll love the taste!
5Ice dreams
Summer wouldn’t be the same without ice cream sandwiches. Here’s a fast and easy way to make your own with the kids. Take a small cardboard tub of ice cream and cut it into slices. Remove the cardboard casing and place the ice cream between two cookies. There are endless flavour combinations to be made!
6Pretty pots
Turn your old paint pails into works of art with this simple decorating idea. Remove the paper label and brush the cans with leftover paint. Once dry, fill them with sand and use as candle or votive holders. They’ll add elegance to your evenings! You can also try filling the pots with soil and secure them to a fence or wall. Or why not hang them up? The pretty pails are perfect for growing a herb garden.
7Concrete and wood
You’ll love the rugged look of this bench that you can make with no tools in a single afternoon, guaranteed! You’ll need 14 hollow concrete blocks and 12 wood boards (4 x 4) to use as crossbeams. You can also have some fun by painting your creation and adding colourful pillows as the final touch.
8Boxed beauty
The art of setting the table involves surprising your guests with original and unexpected ideas. Flower boxes make for excellent utensil holders, but feel free to use them for bread or raw veggies instead. You can even place more elaborate displays inside. Suggestion: Fill a flower box with all the essential ingredients for making s’mores (marshmallows, graham crackers, chocolate and wood sticks), then toast them under the stars!