Waitrose web series: add your tips and questions on cooking for the family and have the chance to win £100 of Waitrose vouchers

[GeraldineMumsnet]

Mumsnet are working with Waitrose to produce a six-episode web TV series that will launch in September and they want your feedback to help shape this episode on cooking for the family and taking the stress out of Sunday lunch.

Maybe you have a fail-safe recipe, or a top tip for making it all go smoothly, or maybe you've always wanted to know how to stop the gravy from going lumpy or the roast potatoes from going soggy.

Whether you're offering advice or looking for it, please post here and we'll try and take the best tips and questions and build some of them in to the microsite where the web TV series is going to be shown.

Everyone who takes part in this or any of the other Waitrose threads will be entered into a draw to win £100 of Waitrose vouchers. And if you want to star in the web series, you can find out more and volunteer here.

When DD went through a tricky "I don't like veg" stage I had to get creative and turned to subterfuge to get some goodness into her.

Her favourite meal was, and still is, spag bol and its the perfect platform for hiding veg in but kids have good eyesight so you have to grate the veg up so it isn't so visible.

Courgettes work particularly well, in all sorts of saucy dishes but particularly tomatoey ones. Aubergines would prob be good too (I'm not a massive fan so haven't used these much).

On top of pizzas is another good place to grate up some veg just cover it with lots of cheese and it's gone, if they can't see it they won't know its there and they'll be eating veg. He he he

How to take the stress (not that there is much IME) out of Sunday Lunch?

Invite the GPs - they keep the DC amused and vice versa, leaving you in peace to cook.

..oh and lay the table in advance if that is an option.

(I have no tips for getting DC to eat veg as my DC just do, for which I take no credit whatsoever)

we do sausage sunday -flavoured ones for ourselves and plain ones for DC. Current favourites are Harrogate 97% meat ones. Served with mash, broccoli and carrots and lots of gravy. Before DD ate vegetables we used to peel courgettes and mash the white bit in with the potato.

For sunday roast,there is always the pub option

Sherry. And some nice music. And DH doing the cooking while I entertain the parents / inlaws

i want to know more about

overnight batter pancakes with bacon/croque madame/scrambled egg and sausage pittas/muffins with poached egg

please fourlittlefeet!!

I'm afraid its all much easier than it sounds. There are the nigella express versions, or the from scratch versions, but neither very complicated! There are also some great Bill Granger brunches which we often do, like his coconut bread which you can freeze sliced, so just toast the pieces you need.

I'll go and get the recipes shortly . Quite liked being called fourlittlefeed. May have to namechange!

overnight batter pancakes:

4oz wholemeal flour
1oz oats (blitzed in food processor - if you do this regularly have a jar of blized oats)
pinch salt
2 eggs
1/2 pint milk with 2 tablespoons thick yoghurt (or 1/2 pint buttermilk, but I can't be bothered buying the stuff)

mix it. bung in fridge.
next morning, check consitency is like thick double cream if not, add more milk. then:

Put on bacon on to grill. Heat large frying pan (then you can do three at once). Dip kitchen roll in butter, grease pan. When it sizzles, use a ladle to do three dollops. Wait for bubbles on surface, then flip them. When both sides browned, move the pancakes onto a plate underneath the griling (streaky) bacon to keep warm.

We eat the pancakes topped with bacon, served with whole bananas to slice on and maple syrup to drizzle. Great for hangovers and the pancakes will be done in the time it takes the bacon to grill (almost)!

Any leftover pancakes, put a pile of grated cheese in the pan, put pancake on top for a couple of seconds, then scrape out. Cheese topped pancake for the toddlers afternoon snack. Voila.

croque madame. best with that cheap white plastic bread.

Per person:
2 slices white bread
2 slices ham
2 slices cheese
dijon or german mustard
1 egg
oil to fry

heat the grill and put the oil in the pan to heat for the eggs. Grill one side of all the toasts, then turn over and per person top one of their slices (on the uncooked side) with mustard, then ham, the other with just cheese, then pop back under the grill. Put the eggs in to fry, and when the cheese has melted, put the sandwiches together and serve with the fried egg on top.

you can do a slightly more complicated version with mustardy bechamel on top, but this is the one I like. Nigella has one that you put together a bit like a bread and butter pudding, shove in the fridge the night before, and then just bake the next day. Also very tasty.

brown pitta pockets toasted with:

scrambled egg, brown sauce and sliced sausages (you can even cook the sausages the night before, the chope into the scrambling eggs to heat through)

muffins: poach egg with poacher, or break carefully into simmering water. serve on buttered and split toasted muffins with slices of ham, smoked salmon or wilted spinach.

come on... who else thinks brunch should be the new family sunday lunch.

you can always put the meat in too and have cold chicken/beef with your high tea (but you have to have iceberg/salad cream/cucumber and scones with jam too)

sounds so scrummy thanks flf, it must have taken you ages

are the pancakes like scotch pancakes?

Thanks MN! I've just come back from the filming of the series and it was really good. So much work went into the production of three 2 minute episodes!

they aren't as rubbery as scotch pancakes, and I make them slightly bigger and a bit thinner, but they are about as thick, if you know what I mean .

Quick tips for recipies for dairy free/free from food. So many allergies these day and sometimes hard to know were to start. Especially when you start out.

When you are cooking for people who think veggies should be cooked for six weeks so they wibble in the pan, cook your veggies for two minutes less than you would normally, take them off the boil, take out the ones you want, and drench in very cold water. Then leave the remaining ones to stew on the hob. You can turn the heat off and put the lid on they'll carry on cooking. Then nuke the good solid veg in the microwave to reheat quickly. Mush for the oldies, good solid nutrition for those who actually like food

Sunday lunch -
Make batter for yorkshire pud in the morning, and prep the veggies. If I'm doing bread sauce, I make it the night before and keep it overnight in the fridge with the clove studded onion in it - then it just needs heating through.

Put all the veggies in a big roasting tin and cook in the oven - the only veg I cook on the hob is peas.

One Fathers Day, DH got a smart carving set - now carving is his job, while I make the gravy.

Relax and have a big glass of sherry while you do it, and if you don't eat until 3 - so what?

For yorkshire pudding, when you are adding the water, add it last but use sparkling water, then immediately put it into the hot fat to roast. Makes the puffiest, springiest yorkies you'll ever eat.

Also, if you have watery potatoes which don't taste of much add a smear of marmite to the tops before roasting them - they caramellise with the marmite and taste really yummy - even to marmite haters

You add water to Yorshire puds?

Marmite potatoes sound nice, I use marmite on roasted veg.

Of course you add water to yorkshire puddings - and milk too - you have to use both - Delia recipe. Works very reliably. Delia doesn't do the sparkling water thing, I only discovered it a few weeks ago and was amazed it worked.

Questions for Waitrose people please:

(1) The five a day fruit/veg thing - for children under five, is that five different types of fruit and veg and the portion size, is it the size of their hand or mine?

(2) What food staples should we be teaching our kids to eat - my parents only ever taught me to make cupcakes but I plan to teach the urchins basic cookery skills from scratch but what would you focus on?

WMMC- I'm going to try the sparking water....

argh - I spent to much time faffing with the oven shelves and the oven cooled down too much.

Oh dear

BTW I tend to heat the oil on the hob rather than in the oven to make sure it really is sizzling (and you can do it in five minutes rather than twenty.)

I find when there are lots of children to feed of different ages there is always one who doesn't like something and another who doesn't like something else and it is nigh on impossible to find something they all will eat.
My solution - this works best with pasta but you can do it with most things - give each child an empty plate with the pasta on (usually with a bit of butter or olive oil to stop it drying out) - then in bowls on the table for them to help themselves, all the ingredients of the pasta sauce you would have mixed together - that way they can have the bits they like and leave the bits they don't. I've done this successfully with grated cheese, broccoli, bacon, cream chees, cooked peas, chopped cherry tomatoes, and ready made pasta sauces to spoon on. It works with everything really.
The other trick is to leave a plate of food within reach of small hands in the kitchen and then walk off , chances are that if they think they aren't allowed to eat it they will eat far more than they would when sat at the table!!

We make vegetable smiley faces for the most fickle monsters round here.