Sunday evening Catch up

I have had the best part of the day on my own pottering away at my own housework for a change.  One of the jobs on the list was to sort out and clean the pantry fridge I use lemon juice in water to clean out the fridge and dispose of any out of date items.  That's the pantry fridge sorted and I can now find what I am looking for.  This fridge houses all the dairy and meat products as the fridge gets really nice and cold and its a little too cold for my salad stuff.  The small one in the kitchen is for storing fruit and fresh veg as although cold it keeps the veg well and it is this fridge that is raided when I do a home made stir fry.  I still have the kitchen fridge to clean out but will set about that in a little while.

Its the end of the month again where I start running out of things or have not go the wherewithall to go out and add an item here or there to make a meal out of something.  OH was moaning last night that we were down on provisions (what he meant was things he could get quickly without really having to think about them); but on review I thought well we have got quite a bit of stuff in really and all potentially good meals, but I think the real crux of the matter is he did not fancy eating up what we actually had and so I went rootling to see what we had to hand.

Admittedly I haven't got that much meat in at the moment but I did find a leg of lamb  which I got out and I always have lots of vegetables  and there are always things like peas or mixed veg in the freezer as well.  So this evening we have had roast leg of lamb stuffed with garlic and with a mint jelly glaze (the last of a jar of mint jelly - and then the jar was put in the dishwasher to recycle) served with shredded buttered cabbage minted peas, new potatoes, french beans, broccoli carrots and cauliflower served with lashings of gravy and mint sauce.  There is plenty of gravy left and plenty of meat so it will be cold cuts tomorrow for tea.  I have cooked extra potatoes to make a potato salad and am going to make home made coleslaw for later on in the week (probably  to go with the cold cuts if there is any left on Tuesday evening) I have veggies left over with the gravy for  quick and simple tea tomorrow evening and in turn using up what I have in the house.

One night in the week we will be having stuffed marrow and another night home made pizza as when I emptied the pantry fridge out I came across some saucisson and some chorizo and ham.  I have tomatoes and peppers and pineapple and also some anchovies in the pantry.  Its another meal where you can use what you have to hand to use up bits and bobs like the stir fry  although a slightly different principle but one where you can get the whole family involved.

Later on I have some Souper Mix to make whilst the new veggies are coming in to give a simple stock paste for the winter months.  I have a double batch to make but is very useful in making gravies, soups, risottos, casseroles etc. So this is another ingredient that has earned its place on my pantry shelf

the links are here:

 http://tarragonnthyme.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/souper-mix.html 

and here  http://www.ecen.org/uploads/10recipe-stock.pdf

Right am off to potter some more hopefully catch up later on

Pattypan

xx

P.S.  I did double the amount of the Souper Stock paste my mix consisted of fennel, carrots leek sweet potato parsnip  turnip celeriac celery parsley rosemary thyme basil bay  and the salt.  I did not add much of the celeriac celery as both are quite strong flavoured.  The simple rule I kept to was for every kg of vegetables I used 250g of salt.  It is the salt that preserves this paste but of course the bottles and lids need to be sterilised. 

PP

xx