2011.04.30 My Day

Its been a lovely bright and breezy day here in Peterborough and a busy one to boot.  First port of call was the butchers.  We use Willowbrook Farm at Helpston for the best part as they support the rarer breeds and the meat although not cheap is so full proper meat full of flavour.  They have "specials" on a regular basis and we went for one of their offers today.  

For those of you interested they have a web site
http://www.willowbrookfarmshop.co.uk/

This is the pack we have gone for this time round.

The Willow Brook Farm Eat For A Week  -  Premium Pack

1.5lb Mince Beef

1lb Pork Sausage

1lb Diced Beef

4 x Rib Eye/Rump Steak (they are larger than the palm of my hand and the best steak for eating - forget fillet these are wonderful)

1 x 2lb joint of Beef/Lamb/Pork (we chose lamb)

4 x Chicken Portions

1 x Home-made Meat Pie - steak and onion (standard size but we paid extra for the larger one)

8 Rashers of Back Bacon (their bacon especially smoked is smashing)

Only £39.99   

They also have further offers inside on the chalk boards which are well worth a look. and are shortly to start a delivery service.  We have also spent a little more money on other bits and bobs, such as sausagemeat for home made sausage rolls, cheese, haslet, Asparagus, eggs etc.etc. So there is quite a choice for meals over the coming weeks.

We have had chicken kebabs mid-day for lunch bought already made up and they were thoroughly delish served with chilli sauce and they were extremely tasty (I usually do these myself ) but for the sake of quickness.

Since then however I have stripped the  pantry fridge out (I have a fridge in the pantry and one in the kitchen) and given it a good clean out using the steam cleaner and it did this brilliantly.  I shall not hesitate in using it again for the fridge.  I have also packed some of the meat like the rib eye steaks, chicken portions, etc. into the large deep freezer, packaged into portions for ease of use.


I have also been pottering in the garden this afternoon, although I did not get any more seeds sown.  Will hopefully get some more done tomorrow.

This evening we having had home made sticky ribs for tea (like we had the other week.)  I promised pictures and yet again the battery is flat on the camera, so if we have these again I will make sure that some photos are posted. They were scrummy.  These are a particular favourite.  This time round though we used some of my home-made chinese plum sauce too in the mix together with my homemade ketchup. We play around with what we have in the house if we haven't got the exact ingredients to hand and use something similar.  It creates some interesting combinations, but that is partly what cooking is about.


I have a ham hock to cook up later for sarnies during the week, which will also I am hoping produce a lovely light stock that can be frozen down  for gravies and soup. Tomorrow for a change we are not having a roast, but are going to have some Chicken Kiev's.  Not sure what to put with them yet, but hopefully am popping into Lidl's tomorrow morning so may pick up some salad amongst some other bits and bobs I need.


I am also hoping to take Missy for a long walk; I have missed my long walks of late  and I want to poke around the hedgerows to see what I can find.  Particularly looking for nettles as have some recipes I want to try out.  Last year I didn't get to make my nettle wine in the end, so this year I am hoping to get at least a couple of gallons made.  This is really a lovely light sweet wine.  I also want to have a go at making some nettle pasta and also nettle pesto.  Will have to see what I can find. 


Catch you all later


Pattypan


xx