Monday Catch Up

Well I have managed to do a tiny bit of food shopping today.  Being as it has turned so cold I have bought a meat pie and intend to serve it with shredded steamed buttered cabbage, carrot and swede crush and mashed potatoes with lots of gravy.  Something substantial to keep the wolf from the door.  Comfort food.  OH although he is taking pack-up to work needs a good cooked meal at the end of the day as do I. I am concerned about him not eating regularly and often as I think it could potentially be too much for his system just to have one meal a day.  So I bullied him into taking pack-up and have since I have been at home (not that I did not before) make sure that he has a good evening meal, even if that meal is what I call a scratch meal i.e. baked beans on toast and some fruit for afters. 

I also got a bargain with a smoked piece of haddock and a monkfish fillet. I spent £3.50 on them both as they had both been drastically reduced.  Although not big pieces they will for OH be padded out with some mushy peas and home made chips.  Mine, which is the smoked haddock will be padded out with a poached egg and a little bit of bread and butter.

It is slow going on the cleaning front but I am going to keep at it.  I am in all day tomorrow and I intend to start after tea again and do a load more work.  Realistically it is going to take a little while as I am so slow to what I used to be but I want everything as clean as I can get it.  Lots of orange vinegar being used.  

I am hoping to get some veg tomorrow from the veg shop. Things like leeks, swede, a bag of potatoes, onions and eggs.  If this weather continues I shall be making soup on a daily basis and home made  bread. Very filling is a bowl of soup and as I have said before when I do not have a sack of potatoes inhouse I get very twitchy.  The same with the onions and the eggs, milk and cheese and you can with the addition of a little meat have quite a feast.  But soup is a good filler.

Whether it is me not working or not, but food prices have gone up astronomically to what they were.  If we have another summer like we did last year although beautiful on a practical basis it did not do the crops a lot of good.  As the freezers are on the list of jobs to be sorted out i.e. stripped out, defrosted and cleaned I thought I might try and freeze reduced veggies as I came across them and hoard them away. A little and often.  

I was looking at butter in particular today and decided to leave it for now and to have a much better look around to see if I can get any cheaper.  We do not like the artificial spreads here and have always used butter even when they said it was not good for you.

I also spotted an idea in Waitrose for freezing more exotic fruit.  Normally from the veg shop you can get mangoes at £0.50 each and they are quite large.  There was frozen mango and a mixture of pineapple, mango and kiwi fruit that were being sold for smoothie mixes but I think you could freeze it and then use it as a pudding in its own right or turn it into something else.  Might look at that as well.  As I have said before the veg shop often has good reductions so to make sure we eat well and for the minimal amount I intend to take advantage of this more than I have been doing.  However food has gone up a heck of a lot.  Is this a sign of things to come. I think perhaps it is wise to try and get the garden up and running with veggies to eat in the long run.  Perhaps it would do us all a lot of good in the longer term.  A return to the War years  and making the most of what you have.  That is the most important lesson.

Have just walked Missy its that cold out there it would freeze of brass knobs.  I was cold even though my coat usually keeps me warm.  The wind is bad again too.  Thank goodness we have a nice hot comfort food meal for tea and the heating is on.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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