The daily planner …

 … and the countdown begins!

Friday

final shopping for fresh ingredients

Sunday

bake the jacket potatoes – cool, peel and cut into small

cubes, bag and fridge

sauté the onions and add the mustard – cool, box and fridge

grate the cheeses, bag and fridge

Monday

shred the cabbage, carrot and finely slice the

spring onions

make the mayo

make the paté

complete the pie filling and place in your

dish of choice ready for the lid, cover and return

to the fridge

mise for the bread, cover

pm – take the dessert and the pastry from

the freezer and place in the fridge

Tuesday morning – bright and early!

make and bake the bread

roll out the pastry, add to the pie filling, egg

wash and then bake for 20 minutes only, the pie

will be reheated before actual serving – set aside to cool

garnish the paté with chopped chives

combine the slaw ingredients, add the mayo

then adjust seasonings, box and fridge

The other thing I had to think about was transporting the treats - thinking “outside the box” has now become thinking “inside a box” – except the box is a cool bag with an ice pack and the brown paper packages tied up with string are now sealed boxes without string!

All that remains is to pack the cool bag – it may be stating the obvious but the largest and heaviest item goes in first, on top of flat ice packs. I layered each tier with clean cardboard to give support.

A small tip – I reverted to the original menu and the recipes I printed out - the daily planner helped too. I used a highlighter (a different coloured pen would do) to mark off as I packed the bag – I checked it twice! My final addition was a note of how long the pie would need in the oven to finish off.

Oh – I included a pot of clotted cream to complete the dessert.

Time to go … verdict up next!