Kinda Pottering Afternoon

Its been a kind of pottering afternoon. I managed to get some sweet peppers very cheaply from the shop today and so I have processed them, they are now freezing on trays in the freezer after which they will be decanted into bags. Its easier to do them this way as it helps segregate the pieces rather than them come out all in one lump. They will come in very handy for chicken casseroles and also the pizza's and stir frys and Thai style meals that I cook regularly. The reason I freeze things down like this is more for quickness during the week when I am at work. Okay so I have to do some preparation but I tend to do this in bulk buying the raw ingredients and then processing them all in one go so I am being efficient with my time. I also do the same with other vegetables as well, and within an hour of getting home we can have a good nutritious hot meal even on weeknights. We have more or less got rid of the takeaways as you spend so much more money, whereas I can be stocking up with proper food. I also have some tomatoes cooking in the oven ready to turn into passata. Yet again for the freezer. Another bargain buy from the veggie shop. All in all I got four bags of tomatoes and 4 bags of peppers for 50 pence a bag grand total £4.00.

I have also been playing with some more roses from the garden. I have had a glorious display in a relatively short space of time. This time I want to keep the roses whole so that they can then be used in a flower display. I have wired them onto sticks as the stems were only very small (Its a rambler). They are currently in the airing cupboard drying. This may or may not work, but I am having a play just to see what I can get away with. But they are very pretty roses. My other rose is in bud but it will be a little while before it flowers.

I have also picked three further large bunches of fresh sage. This also is drying on the dresser.

Two are just plain sage and the third is the Ictarina a limey green yellow variegated sage which is very pretty.


I have also started off some Sage oil. We are fond of Roast Pork (we have this for tomorrow) and I thought that this might be a good moisturiser for underneath the joint which would give some good flavour as well. I always get relatively good crackling without using salt. I just put on gas mark 7 for the first hour and then turn back to 5 and it always comes up nice and crisp. Not a bit of salt in sight. OH has high blood pressure so I do tend to be careful on the salt issue.

Basically because Sage is quite strong I have put a good handful of chopped fresh sage into a preserving jar and topped it up with Sunflower oil. I will leave it on the windowsill in the sunlight for a week and then remove the sage leaves, strain and then bottle and pop into the pantry.

My friend bought me a lovely bunch of flowers as a cheer me up present during the week as it was the second anniversary of my father's passing; I have also had a lot of pain this week from the arthritis, it has been affecting my sleep and I haven't been sleeping too well or moving too well and my joints have been sort of slipping and then I have been having shooting pains around my joints, so thoughtfulness like this out of the blue really is worth its weight in gold and they did cheer me up.




I have also been taking advantage of the fine weather and getting the washing line dried in the sun; its cheaper doing it this way too.

We have had steak and fried onion sandwiches tonight which were quite yummy and they have filled a gap.

I also located some storage jars I had forgotten I had and have put those into use. One of them I thought was just an ordinary storage jar and it turns out it is a Rhumtopf (it is on my earlier post) and has a lovely wheatsheaf decoration on it so that should fit nicely on one of the dressers.

Well must get on still have a lot to do.

Catch you all later

Pattypan