4. Learn to cook a Sunday dinner

As a woman in my mid twenties I feel that I should know how to do this. Not that I like to conform to the female stereotype but one day I may have a husband, possibly two children and I will want to whip them up a roast dinner on a Sunday from time to time. Now this won't be happening for a long while yet so if I start perfecting my technique now then I can enjoy the outcomes of my cooking attempts with myself and my friends in the process.

I asked my three BFF's who I was sharing a post Christmas hot tub and cabin in the woods break with if they minded being taste testers for my first ever roast dinner; they were very obliging! I can categorically say that the only help I got from them was instructions on how to make cheesy leeks and a little help setting the table. The rest of the time they were enjoyed drinks and snacks in the hot tub. However I documented their post dinner feedback in my phone while we were sprawled on the sofa (which is a good job because I proceeded to get pretty merry to celebrate the success.) The food tasters were pretty wrecked at this point too but their feedback was as follows:

Laura (a seasoned chicken connoisseur)
Comments: "is this what food tastes like in heaven because if it is kill me now"
Improvements: "more leeks and a bigger chicken" - there will never be a bird big enough

Lyndsay (a notoriously picky eater)
Comments: "I wish my boyfriend could do to me what this dinner has"
Improvements: "Thicker gravy" - this was down to the lack of gravy granules and corn flour!

Buttness (a sausage fiend)
Comments: "Holey hell life will never been the same again"
Improvements: "Sausages" - someone should set up a sausages anonymous group

So readers if you would like to get these kind of results follow my methodology below:

Step 1
Preparation.
Read Delia Smith's roast dinner recipe and compose a shopping list and instructions for cooking a roast.

Step 2
Go shopping for your ingredients (I don't have a photo of this step because apparently you get kicked out of supermarkets for taking photos. . .

Step 3
Prep the chicken by massaging butter under and over the skin.



Step 4
Chuck the bird in the oven on top of some veg.



Step 5
Have a drink to take the edge off. My chosen drink of choice Cava and Disoranno.



Step 6
Par boil the veg and chuck in in a pre oiled roasting try, whip up some cheesy smoked bacon leeks, make the Yorkshire's and check the chicken!

Step 7
Take the bird out the oven to 'rest' and make the gravy 

Step 8
Carve the bird

Step 9
Plate up



Step 10
Eat





Here's to the next one *raises glass*

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