Sunday Afternoon

I have been taking my time, but I have been doing a little bit in the kitchen this afternoon.  I just cannot sit still anymore it's driving me crazy!  I know Rose,  I am dutifully told off but I can't just do nothing; its just not my style.  Needless to say it has been quite a cost saving afternoon really, but then I hate wasting anything.

 The chicken stock is just about finished bubbling and smells gorgeous and I will use some as the base for Onion Soup for my cold and the rest will go into the freezer for use another day either for a soup or gravy base, but it can also be used in a rissotto or as stock with potato boulangere.  So for the sake of a few veg and a chicken carcass or two its best to make your own stock no matter what; for what you pay in the shops you get loads more to use and once you get used to using your own stock on a regular basis you will never go back.  There is no excuse not to have had a stock pot on the boil once a week making use of whatever you have to hand even a vegetable stock which is very easy to make.  Will post a recipe later on for this.

Whilst the stock pot has been bubbling away I have been making use of some vegetables left over from last week which I haven't had chance to use and rather than waste them I have been preparing them for the freezer.  

I have peeled some parsnip and blanched it and packed it up ready for the freezer.  We are quite partial to roast parsnip with a Sunday lunch so I am making sure we have enough to go round for the months to come.  I have prepared about 1kg. I am extremely fond of root vegetables as I think they do you so much good along with the greens especially flowering purple or white broccoli.

I have also prepared 1 kg of swede and 1 kg of carrots.  They are going to be steamed and then I am going to use my favourite gadget at the moment a Potato Ricer for breaking the cooked swede and carrot down, mixed together and put into dishes and frozen.  This is a regular favourite of ours Swede and Carrot Crush and its a good way to get youngsters to eat swede without them knowing it as it looks orange just like carrots and most kiddies like carrots! Bit of a con job really but it works.  When I had the step children at home I tried to teach them about food from an early age; I found that you have to tell them little bits but not everything otherwise you would just get "I don't like that" without even having tried it which used to really annoy me.  Fortunately we got past that stage; and they became extremely healthy eaters demolishing nearly everything and anything in sight.

I also have some potatoes from the last sack of potatotes to use up and I intend to steam these, crush them down with the ricer once cooked mix in some butter and then freeze into pots for quick mashed potato.  It can be warmed through easily in the microwave for using later on which takes another pan off the top of the cooker.  It can always be passed through the ricer again and more milk and butter added if needed or you can always ring the changes by adding grated cheese to the mix.

OH was supposed to cook dinner but he has gone off the idea so it looks as though I will be cooking tea.

Its still raining on and off here; which isn't a bad thing the sun came out mid afternoon which was nice to see and I haven't had the heating on today either.  

Right upwards and onwards I have to make my soup and also the cottage pie with veggies and yorkshire puds; great little fillers that pad out any meal.

Hopefully will catch you all later on,

Pattypan

xx