The Best Insulated Picnic Basket: Peterboro Ice Master

We're pretty obsessed with This Thing Now. Here's how to get it into your life.

In a perfect world, I pack an old-school wicker picnic basket with a specially made blanket just for the occasion, a fancy French spread (including pâté en baguette) and a few bottles of sparkling, because it's not a party without some bubbly.

And though the last two are nonnegotiable, the reality is that said feast usually ends up in a crappy old cooler (or, if we're being honest, in a tote with strategically placed ice packs). Because when it comes down to it, picnic baskets, though adorable, aren't usually designed with practicality and function in mind.

Or are they? The folks up at Peterboro Basket Co., a New Hampshire-based company that dates back to 1841, addressed ye olde picnic basket/cooler conundrum with a brilliant solution: Insulate the picnic basket. (Yes, it's one of those crazy-simple, million-dollar ideas we all wish we had thought of.)

So now, even if I go to hell (read: crowded Central Park on a sweltering Saturday), it will be with a properly chilled picnic basket.