Entetaining special: Amanda Grant's summer picnic; Long, hot days stretch out before us (we hope!), and with them come the sounds of summer... the humming of bees, the cooing of doves, and the dulcet tones of small children whining: "I'm bored!". (2024)

Time to gather up a few other mums in the same boat and head off toperform the second most delightful thing you can do in a field on a warmsummer's day - have a picnic. Let the little ones entertain eachother while you enjoy a glass of wine, some good food and excellentgossip. The trick is, of course, to let your supermarket or deli do someof the work for you - pick up a pot of houmous, some olives, a fewchunks of cheese and bread. All you need do then is make a feweye-catching main dishes between you. Amanda Grant and daughter Ella,eight months (pictured centre), rounded up some friends to show you how.

Tortillas work well with all sorts of different flavours.

Just be creative. As well as these fillings, try meats, pesto androasted toms. You can make the wraps up to four hours in advance or, tosave you the trouble, let people create their own at the picnic. Thatway they can be as greedy as they like!

Tortilla wraps

Makes: 20

Preparation time: 10 mins

150g/5oz soft goats cheese or cream cheese

5 tortillas

200g/7oz sun blush tomatoes,

finely chopped

75g/3oz fresh wild rocket

OR TRY

200g/7oz houmous

2 red peppers, seeded and sliced

a good few handfuls of green salad

Spread some of the goats cheese on to the tortillas, scatter over ahandful of the sun blush tomatoes, followed by the fresh rocket. Rollup, cut in half, wrap a napkin around each and tuck in. For the houmouswraps, spread the houmous on to a tortilla, cover with some of the redpepper strips, followed by a little salad. Serve as before.

Even little ones tend to like garlic, so spice up the salad with aquick dressing. If you like the idea of avocado, you could slice some athome and put it in a pot with some lemon juice to stop it going brown.Add it to the salad when you're ready to eat.

Quick green

salad

with garlic vinaigrette

Serves: 6

Preparation time: 5 mins

120g bag baby salad leaves

1-2 avocado

FOR THE DRESSING:

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar or

lemon juice

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

sea salt flakes, freshly-

ground black pepper

Tip the bag of mixed leaves into a bowl. Cut the avocado in half,remove the stone, peel and slice the flesh into thin strips. Add theavocado to the salad when you're ready. Mix together the dressingingredients, drizzle over the salad and serve.

Okay, so the kids might end up with sticky fingers, butthey'll love the sweet coating as much as you. Serve this with thesalads.

Serves: 6-8

Preparation time:

10 mins (plus 2 hours marinating)

Cooking time: 20 mins

6-8 chicken breasts

4 tbsp honey

4 tbsp soy sauce

1-2 cloves garlic, finely

chopped

1/2 tsp mustard

Put the chicken breasts in a plastic bag and bash with a rollingpin to flatten them. In a dish, mix together the honey, soy sauce garlicand mustard to make the marinade. Add the chicken and coat the breastsin the marinade. Cover the dish with foodwrap and leave for at least 2hours - the longer the better. Heat a griddle pan until really hot, adda tiny amount of oil, add 3-4 pieces of chicken and cook for 3-4 minuteson each side until cooked through, repeat with the remaining chicken.Allow to cool and pack up ready for the off.

This dressing adds a brilliant burst of flavour and the pieces ofvegetables are great for toddlers to chew on. If you have any babies inyour party, mash them some of the sweet potato before you add thedressing.

Roast vegetable salad with a sweet balsamic dressing

Serves: Approx 6 Preparation time: 25 mins

Cooking time: 50 mins-1 hour

2 yellow peppers, seeded and roughly chopped

2 red peppers, seeded and roughly chopped

2 red onions,

peeled and cut into thin wedges

4 small

courgettes, thinly

diagonally sliced

2 aubergine,

cut into small

chunks

4 medium sweet

potatoes (450g/1lb),

peeled and cut into chunks

4-5 tbsp olive oil

1-2 tbsp

balsamic vinegar

1 clove garlic,

finely chopped

3 tsp each of

honey, whole-grain mustard, lemon juice

sea salt flakes,

freshly ground

black pepper

couple of

handfuls of fresh basil leaves

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. Put the

peppers, onions, courgettes, aubergine and sweet potato into aroasting dish, drizzle over 2 tbsp of the oil and roast 20 minutes.Drizzle over the vinegar and roast for another 30-40 minutes. To makethe dressing, mix together the remaining oil, garlic, honey, mustard andlemon juice and season. Once the vegetables are cool, drizzle this overthe salad, toss everything together. Scatter over the basil leaves.

Salmon and

cucumber salad

How very English.

If time is short buy the salmon ready cooked.

Serves: 4-6

Preparation time: 10-15 mins

Cooking time 10-15 mins

4 x large salmon fillets

1/2 cucumber

2-3 spring onions, finely sliced

FOR THE DRESSING

2-3 tbsp rice wine vinegar

1-2 tsp caster sugar

handful fresh herbs

(e.g. parsley and dill), finely chopped

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/ gas mark 6. Roast the salmon for10-15 minutes until cooked through and crispy on top, transfer to aplate and leave to cool. Cut the cucumber into quarters lengthwise,scoop out the seeds, cut the cucumber into thin diagonal slices, putinto a container. Break the salmon into big pieces, add to the cucumberwith the spring onions. Mix the vinegar sugar and herbs together in ascrew-top jar and add to the salmon and cucumber just before serving.

Lemon,

poppy

seed and

creme

fraiche

cake

Serves: 6

Preparation time:

15 mins

Cooking time: 45 mins-55mins

250g/9oz butter, plus a little extra for greasing

250g/9oz golden caster sugar

2 tbsp lemon zest

50g/2oz poppy seeds

6 medium eggs

250g/9oz plain flour, plus

a little extra for dusting

40g/11/2oz self-raising flour

250g/9oz creme fraiche

Preheat the oven to 160C/ 300F/gas mark 2-3. Grease and base-line adeep 8in cake tin. Cream the butter, sugar, lemon zest and poppy seedstogether. Gradually beat in the eggs, fold in a little flour. Fold inthe rest of the flour with the creme fraiche. Spoon into the tin, bakefor 45-55 minutes (if using a ring tin, check it slightly earlier),until golden, risen and cooked.

This cake works extra well if you use a ring-shaped tin to bake itin. That way you can pile all berries in the middle...and make a smallextra cake with the left-over mix.