Take stock before you shop

A week in a rural cottage is a lesson in working with what's there. Farmhouse kitchens tend to be generous in character — a scrubbed pine table, a deep white sink, a range cooker that has been warming the room since dawn — and modest in equipment. Before you unpack the car, spend five minutes opening doors and drawers.

• Check for a large lidded pan, a roasting tin, a baking tray, a colander, a chopping board and one decent knife.
• Look at the oven: does it have a grill, a fan setting, a shelf that actually fits your tin?
• Note the storecupboard basics — oil, salt, pepper, stock cubes, dried herbs — so you don't buy them twice.
• Find the measuring jug. If there isn't one, a mug holds roughly 250ml and a tablespoon is 15ml.

That survey shapes the week: one big pot means soups and stews, a single tray means roasts.

Do more with less: clever stand-ins

Improvisation is half the pleasure of cooking away from home. A few substitutions worth knowing:

• A wine bottle, well floured, rolls pastry and flattens chicken breasts.
• A potato masher crushes tinned beans, avocado or cooked swede far faster than a fork.
• A fork whisked briskly in a mug will beat two eggs; a clean jam jar with a lid shakes up salad dressing in seconds.
• A colander set over a pan of simmering water steams greens — you'll need a lid, and a plate works fine.
• Foil folded into a long strip makes a makeshift rack for draining roasted vegetables.

Treat the roasting tin as the hardest-working object in the kitchen. It browns on the hob, roasts in the oven, and goes to the table as a serving dish, which saves a wash.

Batch cook: one pot of soup, one traybake

The trick to relaxed holiday cooking is to make more than you need once, then coast for two days. Choose one soup and one traybake and you have two suppers, a lunch and a spare portion for the flask or freezer.

The soup. Soften two chopped onions in oil with a pinch of salt for ten minutes, then add about 1kg of whatever vegetables you have — carrots, leeks, a swede, a squash, a couple of tired peppers — plus one chopped potato for body. Pour over 1.5 litres of stock and simmer for 25 minutes, then mash roughly or blitz if there's a blender. Season generously and finish with a swirl of cream or a spoon of pesto. It thickens overnight, so loosen it with hot water when you reheat.

The traybake. Heat the oven to 200C (180C fan, gas 6). Chop roots — potatoes, carrots, parsnips, red onion — toss in oil, salt and dried thyme, and roast for 20 minutes. Add sausages, chicken thighs or thick slices of halloumi, roast for another 25 minutes, then throw in a handful of spinach or halved cherry tomatoes for the last five. One tin, one supper, and the cold leftovers are excellent in a sandwich the next day.

Put the children at the sink

Children eat far more willingly when they've had a hand in the cooking, and washing vegetables is the perfect job: useful, splashy and almost impossible to ruin. Set them up with a bowl of cool water on the table or a colander in the sink, a tea towel each, and a low stool.

• Under-fives: scrubbing potatoes with a brush, pulling leaves off herbs, shelling peas, tearing lettuce.
• Five to eight: peeling carrots with a swivel peeler, topping and tailing beans, halving tomatoes with a table knife.
• Eight and up: weighing, measuring, stirring a pot with supervision, laying the table.

Give each child three jobs and name them out loud, so supper becomes a set of small tasks rather than one vague instruction. Keep a bowl for peelings to go on the compost, and don't fuss about wet sleeves.

A shared supper that always works

The reliable formula is soup, a tray of something roasted, and bread — bought, or warmed through in foil. Put everything in the middle of the table, let people help themselves, and accept that one of them will eat only bread and butter. That is a perfectly good holiday supper.

If there's room in the oven, bake a simple apple or plum traybake while the main cooks. At 175C (155C fan, gas 4), toss the fruit with a little sugar and cinnamon, spread it in the tin, and cover with a sponge of 175g each butter, sugar and flour beaten with two eggs. Serve it warm with cream, then call the rest breakfast.

Keep the washing-up small

Rural cottages often have a shallow sink and no dishwasher. Ration plates and mugs, use the roasting tin as a serving dish, rinse as you go, and let the children dry while you wash. Save the last of the hot water for the pans and leave them to drain overnight. You'll spend less of your holiday at the sink and more of it watching the light change over the fields.