Plans for meals and Sunday afternoon

Brunch went down very well some gammon and then fried eggs with bread and butter and the fresh orange juice.

We normally on a Sunday eat of an evening so that we get the most time out of the day to do projects or go out but still have the benefit of a good Sunday lunch which for us as a family has always been the highlight of the week and something to look forward to.

So tonight's offering is roast lamb.  I love lamb roasted with cloves of garlic and fresh rosemary out of the garden and these days it is my preferred way to eat lamb. However if we have guests who are not keen on garlic then I leave this out.  My mum never got to grips with garlic but it is something we love. It also has redcurrant jelly on the top.  The Rosemary will go on a little later.  I normally do with a foil top and some water in but I had run out of foil today.

We do not have it very often as it costs an arm and a leg but it is a real treat when we do have it.  If there is plenty of meat left over (which I think there will be as it is  large leg joint) I intend to turn it into a kind of Shepherds pie with the remnants of the gravy and some mint jelly and then a mashed potato and cheddar cheese crust served with carrot and swede crush and some shredded cabbage and more gravy.  Not sure whether OH will be late tomorrow or not but either way it will be a good decent meal to have especially as the weather seems to be getting a lot colder and when it is cold you need good solid grub in your tum.

Tonight I am serving the lamb with roasties, parsnip, crushed carrot and swede, cauliflower, peas and shredded cabbage and some mashed potato.

I am just about to go down to the kitchen and set things in hand and then do some pottering around in the kitchen and get tidied up a little bit.

I also have a chicken (to roast or do in the slow cooker), a small pork joint, mince (either Lasagna, spag bol or chilli, stewing steak (which I am going to make into a pie filling with some onion and rich gravy), some duck fillets (Duck a l'orange) and so there is plenty of scope for meals this week including casseroles from left overs and also stews and soups.  Anything to keep the cold away.  I have a squash which I might turn into some soup which will be ideal for me or OH to have/take with us for lunch during the week as well as some sarnies for OH.

I need a tray of eggs so will go searching for those tomorrow as I want to make some scones and bits and bobs for the pack up/lunches.  It all helps pad a meal out or gives us a quick snack of something.  My Nan always (as did mum) kept something in the tins for this purpose or to give a slice of something to an unexpected visitor with a cup of tea or a mug of coffee rather than just a few biscuits.  I might even get a chance to make a few flapjacks.  Now they do give you an energy spurt as something inbetween a meal.

Earlier on the Food Channel was a repeat of Gordon Ramsey's Christmas programme.  When it was first aired I was not struck by it, but in retrospect I must say that it is a very good programme and today when I saw it I gained a few ideas and I was very pleased to see that he actually linked the ingredients for several options for meals - especially bearing in mind that some of the ingredients were expensive.  This is how I tend to cook for the best part so that I get the best out of everything and we get to use everything up as I hate waste of any kind.

One of the things that he did was a clove studded ham.  If I remember correctly this stems from the days of the Tudors but if you have never had clove studded ham it really is aromatic and gives the meat lots of flavour.  I can see that it will not be to everyone's taste, but really it is no different, just uses different spicing to pastrami, or lamb studded with garlic.  My mum did this one year for Christmas and I was absolutely hooked on it.  OH is not keen-  He does not like cloves and yet loves my home made bread sauce!  Work that one out.  Any ham left over can be added to pies, or put into a jelly to prepare a meat terrine.  Same ingredients just a different way to tittle the taste-buds

OH during the week tried the Brussel Sprout Walkers crisps.  He says they are fowl!  We love Brussell Sprouts and I tend to buy them fresh on the stalk if I can as they last a lot longer.  I always cook more than I need as we use them in Bubble and Squeak as well.  Bubble and Squeak really can make a game dish come to life and so I plan when I make the Duck a' l'orange during the week to serve with some Bubble and Squeak patties as well (I also add a little fried bacon chopped up to give a little more flavour).  I love my food although my appetite these days is not what it was.  In fact this year I have plans to do a couple of big batches of Bubble and Squeak and then make the patties and then freeze them so that we can have a dose of some seriously good eating (good with a fried egg as well so that the yolk melts and bursts all over the potato).

Right am off to potter.  Hope you have a good afternoon.

Catch you all later on.

Pattypan.

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