Veggies and Potterings

Whilst cooking tea last night I nipped to the shop last night as I wanted some veggies available for use during the rest of the week.  In our household we eat a lot of veggies, in fact there is invariably more veggies than meat on the plate.  I very luckily managed to get three trays of new potatoes off the reduced counter for 20 pence a tray, (should have been £1 a tray)  so three trays for 60 pence saving £2.40.  two cauliflowers reduced from 80 pence each to 64 pence each (I am thinking Cauliflower Cheese here), some Spinach £1 a big bag, and some parsnips  I have petit pois in the freezer and a bag of broccoli and carrots.  I already have some loose carrots, sweet potato leeks and squash and a cabbage and onions in and some cannelini beans and a soup mix so I am looking to make a veggie soup in the next few days or so using a chicken carcass that I have for stock.  You don't need meat to make a meal, but you do need reasonable quality vegetables to start with.  Perhaps I am a tad old fashioned but generally I go either to the veg shop (they were closed when I got home tonight or to the market)  It is only on rare occasions that I buy veg from the supermarket.  The only exception really is Kale.  I love this as does my OH and I generally find this in Waitrose.  I haven't seen it on the market or at my local veg shop.

Another meal for the week that I might do this week is leeks wrapped in slices of ham and then coated with a cheese sauce and baked in the oven.  A quick simple tasty meal which is not heavy.  Will have to see what the weather is like as If its cold we will want something comforting and hot.  I tend to have an idea of what I would like to cook or what ingredients I need or need to use up but the day by day mechanics change depending on weather.

Tonight we will be having home made lasagne as I have a tray of mince that needs using up and it is a while since we had one.  I shall pop some of the spinach in and use one of my home made bottled passata sauces currently in storage in the jam store.  Sorting things out the other week has really made it easier to locate items  In fact I have a lot of goodies to use up and baking is going to be a regular feature during the winter.  I don't think that will be much of a problem.  I will show some photos in due course of my reackifubated Jam Store where I keep the majority of my home made preserves, all my spare bottles, my sack of potatoes and usually a net of shallots, pickling onions and ordinary onions which I tend to have in there all year apart from when the new seasons potatoes come in as they are very handy especially when it comes to making Onion Soup. I also prepare a couple of bags of onions or shallots and pop them in the freezer so that when I fancy some roast onion with roast potato and parsnip I just pop out four or five straight into the hot fat from frozen.  An added bonus of this is that when the onion cooks it caramelises and therefore encourages your other roast material to colour and it also adds a lot of flavour. They also go into stews and casseroles.

 OH snaffled some of the buns I made for his pack up and just had to road test them before doing his pack up they got the thumbs up.  It is satisfying that when you have gone to the trouble of making things that people show their appreciation by eating it all up.  I have a couple of buns with some ham and some salad in to take with me to work too.

Right upwards and onwards have to wend my way to work.

Hopefully I will catch up with everyone later on.  Hope you have a lovely day wherever you may be

Love and light

Pattypan

xx