to hate this obsession with Sunday Lunch.

[fckUsundaylunch]

Yes I get that years ago everybody worked long hours and Sunday was the only time people could gather together to eat.
But times have changed.

If I get up on a Sunday and it's a really nice day, rather than spend all morning cooking, we will go out for the day.
We'll have the Sunday lunch on another day during the week..
I don't want my whole day to revolve around a meal.

My DM is always horrified ^But You have to have Sunday Lunch!''
'How can you not have Sunday Lunch?
Me Why?
DM ''Because it's Sunday!''
I think she would have a hear attack if I told her that sometimes we live really dangerously and go a whole month without seeing a roast potato

Before the food police have a go, I cook really healthy meals, and we sit down to eat as a family on a regular basis,
just not always on a Sunday.

Anybody else have older parents who think this way?

I love a Sunday roast, and cook one perhaps 3 weeks out of 5. We usually have a house full at the weekends so there are at least 12 of us for lunch if we have one. A roast is an efficient way to feed everyone, as we have a small oven and a large family.
...but it isn't the law. Yesterday we had a picnic (which I did cook for) and a long walk instead, as there were only 6 of us and the weather was nice.

We have a big Sunday type lunch when we have visitors, as part of a day spent together. Otherwise we eat as and when and we fancy - simple home cooked food, mostly veggie. My dh and/or I and sit round a table with our dcs for evening meals whenever we can and when our dcs (now teens) have friends round they eat with us too. A few of these friends have told our dcs they don't have family meals at home but wish they did - so It seems there is a huge variation in the way families eat. For us the most important element is time spent together rather than what sort of food is on the table and how long it took to cook. These meals incidentally aren't always harmonious but they certainly keep us involved in each others' lives.

It's bloody hard work cooking a full roast. It's at least three hours worth of slog, followed by greasy pans to wash up.

My mum cooked Sunday lunch every Sunday. Yes it was delicious, homemade pudding too. But too much like hard work.

A shepherd's pie with veg is an easy Sunday lunch by my mum's standards, still with homecooked pud, and even that is hard work, two pans, dish, veg pans etc.

It's bloody hard work cooking a full roast. It's at least three hours worth of slog, followed by greasy pans to wash up.

Crikey. I must be making mine wrong. Though DSis says much the same oldlaund so there must be something that we are each are missing in the other's methodology

We love having Sunday lunch (certainly makes Monday supper very easy as there are always plenty of cold cuts left over to have with veg or salad) but we don't always have it on a Sunday, or at lunch time, and particularly in the summer, when there are other things to do, we skip it. Just do what suits you!

We do enjoy eating something a little bit different on a Sunday though and when you and your friends have school age children, it is an easy way of entertaining.

And I disagree that it takes a lot of time. A roast is one of the easiest things in the world to cook. It doesn't have to be accompanied by a myriad of different veg - go continental and just serve one veg with it - or use one of these and just bung a cut of meat or a chicken in with some root veg and a splosh of wine or stock and some fresh herbs, take off lid for last half hour or so, and you have meat, gravy and veg all in one!

You do have to be there, but cooking a roast isn't what I'd describe as hard labour. That would be a medieval spit-roast of a 30 stone ox and dodging the bones the king chucked into the fireplace.

Three hours' slog?? I really wonder what that involves. TBH I've a strong tendency to make roast chicken with a lemon up its arse, baked potatoes, roasted onions, roasted carrots and gravy, followed by baked apples with ice cream. Total actual work about 5 minutes of which most is peeling the carrots. Admittedly my roasts aren't as amazing as some people's, but I think it's an acceptable tradeoff.

Sorry don't know why the link in my post didn't work. It is meant to show an oval enamel roasting pan with lid (sold by The Orchard through NOTHS). It works on the same principle as chicken in a brick. Just remember to take the lid off for the last half hour or so. V easy.

And for those beseiged by greasy oven trays; it's not so bad if you deglaze the meat tray with wine or a bit of stock to make gravy and having a dw really helps!

sounds delicious Annandale!

I find it the easiest meal to cook out of everything. I don't have to think about it, I make sure dishwasher is empty before I start and I shove everything in it after (literally everything - pots, pans,roasting tins etc) and set it going.

BoatyMcBoat -how sad that you pandered to your H. Next Sunday go to your parents for Sunday lunch and take your DD. I dare you .

We have a Sunday roast at the most once a month but can go months without having one. We also prefer to spend the day out doing things.

Yes I never understand why people use the dw just to wash china and then do all the pans and trays by hand. Like Rousette I literally bung everything in.

I get that it takes 3 hours to cook, depending on what meat you choose, but most of the time it just cooks itself.
For 12-15 people, Meat goes in, then 45 minutes of veg prep/yorkie batter/stuffing or whatever (make that 15 mins plus popping back to drain the spuds if there are only 4 of us midweek), walk away for 1.5 hours. Then roasties go in. walk away for 30 minutes. Then is the faff: Meat out and resting, yorkies and stuffing/chipolatas/leek pudding/whatever needs 30 mins in the oven, make the gravy, set the veg off in bursts depending on how much time each one needs. Last 10 mins while the greens steam, everything gets carved and laid out. Onto the table tada in 3 hours approx. but you've worked for less than an hour of that.
A midweek with a joint which only takes an hour or so to cook for the four of us takes only as long as the meat and I still get to have half an hour doing something else.
Making a lasagne takes me longer than an hour's work, and so many pots and pans!

'And for those beseiged by greasy oven trays; it's not so bad if you deglaze the meat tray with wine or a bit of stock to make gravy and having a dw really helps!'

Oh, dishwasher!

I was picturing dear old wife Marjorie being put on roasting tray scrubbing duty.

Roast lamb tonight. Mmm! Don't tend to eat it at lunch.

Mitzy

I love a homemade lasagne mmmm but I find it more labour intensive and messy than doing a roast lunch.

Homemade bechamel sauce in one pan, meat sauce in one pan, spinach mix in another, all the grating of cheese and layering etc. Much as i love to eat it, I prefer to cook a roast as it just happens

I only have it for Easter or Christmas now!

But I know everyone used to have it and your mother would be one of those.

Come to think of it, how did they bear it either?

You will just have to explain it is never going to happen.

rousette I make a lot of lasagne, but I wouldn't cook the meat sauce on the day.

I batch cook bolognese sauce ( and many other things) I would use 4 Kg of meat to make a batch then freeze into portions.
Making lasagne then is a lot less work as I just pull a couple of bags out of the freezer.

Grew up in a ceremonially rigid Sunday dinner-eating household. Even as a young child and well into my teens the very thought of Sundays would make me retch with gloomy anxiety and depression

i GET you.

I think it's the sameness of it all.
Every Sunday the Same Bloody Thing. Week in, week out.
A lump of roasted cremated meat, accompanied by roast potatoes, 2 veg, gravy, followed by apple crumble or apple pie or stewed something or other, always with lumpy custard. (Pudding usually involved some bitter type of fruit that required a ton of sugar to make it palatable)
There was never any imagination ever used. No experimenting with different flavors and ingredients or deviation from the main recipe . (recipe should be used very loosely in this context)
Except possibly by roasted parsnips which was considered to be adventurous' in our household.
The whole palaver had a depressing routine to it. Everything had to be done in a Certain Way.

To top it all off, Monday and school would be looming round the corner.
Gloom, gloom and more gloom.

the strained smiles for grandparents I didn't like, the simmering tension between my parents, the sound of Karen Carpenter's sad voice on the record player, the smell of polish from the 'best' table, the rain at the window, the unfinished physics homework sneering at me from my schoolbag... Ughghgh

I think we must have been living parallel lives!

I need to get more organised pearly, I can never plan, it's always been my downfall

I like roast dinners very occasionally BUT only if they really are occasional. DH has started doing roast lunches as he thinks it's a nice thing to do but I find getting the kids to sit still and eat it rather a trial.

After having junk yesterday I'm doing a roast today just so we can have cold cuts and bubble and squeak tomorrow.

Everything was prepped this morning - took maybe 15/20 mins.

Lamb has just gone in, it will be ready at 5, then rested for an hour.
Whilst it's resting the roast pots and parsnips go in, plus the gravy is made.
Carrot and swede get boiled up 30 mins later
Green beans and broccoli 15 mins after that.

Everything ready at 6. Easy Peasy