Friday evening catch up

Its been a very busy and active day and I met up with my friend and had a lovely lunch with her.  

On the way down into town to meet her (I nearly always walk into town) I passed through Waitrose and nabbed some lettuce and also some rhubarb as in the past if I have not got it when I have seen it when I have gone back there has been none left so I bought what I needed en-route.  I had intended going back into town to Waitrose but never got back.  Will either nip in over the weekend or sometime next week.

I ended up going into M & S and bought some bits in there and then came back home.  

After I had put things away I went over to the veg shop and came back with six fresh sweetcorn ( three for £1) a spring type cabbage, and a stone of Bramley apples.  It looks like I have quite a bit of work to do over the next few days!  The sweetcorn is a treat when it is fresh as both of us love it.  I cook from fresh and then serve it with lashings of butter.  That might be handy for something light at mid-day.  We have a breakfast appointment at our local café first thing.

I had anticipated and planned on preserving this evening but have not got there.  We went out for a meal instead which was lovely and then flopped when we came in as too comfortable and full which kind of made us very sleepy (indeed OH has crashed out whilst I am typing).  So tomorrow I am going to have double the fun amongst some other stuff I need to do as well.  

I did not get to go Blackberrying and Elderberrying either so that will either be tomorrow or on Sunday as well.  Fortunately the plums are due on Tuesday and I have another stone of Bramleys to come then as well.  As mentioned in a previous post I also intend to get the piccalilli veggies too

• Bottled Cherries
• Cherry pie filling
• Cherry Brandy
• Black Cherry wine
• Apple sauce/Apple pie filling
• Apple slices
• Lemon marmalade
• Lemon slices
• Strawberry pie filling
• Rhubarb wine - needs starting
• Peach wine - needs starting
• Lemon curd
• Long lasting mint sauce
• Pickled shallots.
• Strawberry wine next stage

That is quite a bit to be getting on with and I am not sure I will have enough time but I am going to go for it.  Fortunately I keep a good stock in of vinegars, oils, sugar, dried fruits etc. so I normally have what I need in house and I just replace what I use out of the pantry stock so that it is nearly always topped up always using the older stock first.  It is how I have always managed the pantry and it seems to work saving us pennies when there are too few around.

We have a roast chicken dinner for tomorrow night's tea as well with all the trimmings.  We were supposed to have had that tonight.  So am juggling again with all balls in the air.  What's new!  It is just the depth that varies but I am very lucky.

I need that pantry filling from top to bottom as a security measure more than anything else as no matter what happens if the pantry is full you have the knowledge that there is good food to keep you going even when there is less money around.  I also have the freezers to sort out as well but that should be fairly manageable as I freeze a lot of veg myself in any event.  It is the meat I am going to have to be "canny" about but with careful and sensible management this should be achievable.  I would like to add duck, game, venison to the freezer stores as well as our usual range of beef, gammon, pork, chicken.  We like venison, we also like Guinea Fowl, I like Rabbit OH is not keen and pheasant.  The pheasant however we do not have hung.

This world of ours is very volatile and there are veiled threats about the Brexit issue impacting on everyone and everything and what will happen etc. etc.  all of which may well not happen in any event.  I am filling my pantry because it needs filling and re-stocking and next year I hope to grow far more than I have been able to achieve this year, which includes investing in fruit bushes and trees and new plants. I also intend to have potatoes next year.  What happens in our household is up to us at the end of the day and the bulk of this planning is something I do on a year in year out basis.  The new thing however is the canning which hopefully should expand my repertoire somewhat.

I am hoping to get the canner in use sometime during the week as well initially starting with some chicken stock (I have some carcasses in the freezer) then to making soup, stews, pasta sauce, pot pie filling etc.  Anything I can do to achieve good eating all helps keep the Wolf from the door.  It will also if he wants it provide OH with a decent meal mid-day if he wants it during the winter months as they have access to a microwave at work or indeed an evening meal here.

Right upwards and onwards.  I had a slight moment of panic as I was typing this as the electric went out. It would appear that we have had a main power cut lasting a good ten minutes  Everything is now back on though.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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