Cob Loaf

The last time I can remember going on a picnic was in primary school. And when you leave 12 year olds in charge of bringing food, all you'll get are cakes, chocolate and chips (or Korean onion rings because we're Asian).

If anything, that experience taught me that snacks are no replacement for real food!

10 years later, it was about time to take a stab at doing a picnic again, even if just to prove to myself that I can actually do picnic food properly. And because this was a serious picnic, the first thing that went on our shopping list was a picnic blanket- which turned out to be a difficult thing to find which I'm not sure if it's because we weren't looking in the right places or if picnic blankets aren't a popular item these days. A picnic basket would have been nice too but given the recent heat, a cooler bag was a much more practical solution.

As for the food, we thought we'd go a little fancy so off to the deli it was to pick out some nice cheeses, prosciutto and smoked salmon. I made some bruschetta with balsamic reduction which was quick and easy to make and assemble.

But if you ask me what the most exciting part of the picnic was- it'd definitely be the cob loaf. I was torn between making sandwiches or a cob loaf after seeing plenty of delicious looking sandwich recipes online but decided on the cob loaf which is something that's been on my to do list for quite a while.

For those of you who haven't made a cob loaf before, the process is pretty simple- cut a hole in the middle of your loaf, scoop out the bread and then fill it with whatever you like! I filled mine with a little bit of everything- pesto, turkey, cheese, avocado, spinach and roasted eggplant. You need to pack everything in to make sure there aren't any empty spaces- that way the layering looks nice, and each slice gets a good amount of filling.

It's great for sharing, and next time I make this, I'd definitely invite a few more friends- we found it difficult to finish between four, especially with all the other food we'd brought along!