Tuesday Part One
In many respects my blog is like an ongoing diary of things I have been up to or having a go at or just being experimental and playing around. It does not however record every single thing that goes on in my life a lot I choose not to tell about and keep to myself. Such is life and each of us are very different. I share what I want to share, as do so many of us. It is another outlet for creativity on either the home front with the cooking and preserving or on the creative side itself. Sometimes the greatest creativity is achieved by using those things that are around us or indeed using new and different techniques with which to do something. However feeling the joy of everyday or indeed in just enjoying the crafting for the pleasure that it brings. To me it is a much needed outlet as I need to be useful and productive. That is me, and with what I do, I do not mean to make people feel "useless" that is far from the contrary. I am not perfect, I have a go at most things, and some things are beyond me as they are just not within my skill set but I do not intend to make people feel inadequate; all I set out to do was to encourage everyone to have a go at doing something different or something that they have never done before or indeed revisit and dust off the cobwebs from a previously used skill and try it again. At the end of the day we each do what we do and it does not matter how much or how little we do as long as you enjoy it.
I tend to live up to my star sign of Taurus and tend to be the proverbial bull in a china shop. Either all or nothing - no inbetween! It is usually a strong learning curve with me things are either tickety boo or come rattling down round my ankles. Tiz just the depth that varies. At the end of the day I am just me - don't know any other!
Today we have been to the Butchers for things like Bacon, Sausages and a load of other items that they sell not strictly meat related. We went for curry sauce Tikka Masala as I have chicken pieces coming in the meat delivery from our other Butcher. Unfortunately they did not have any of that variety in so we have come away with the other varieties they did have to try them.
So we shall see how we get on with these.
This is the box we came back with from the Butchers. Lots of goodies inside.
And a first for me. OH has tried and does not like Duck eggs. I have never had them but a couple of friends have suggested that they are quite nice and a lot richer in flavour. I was talking to an internet friend yesterday and she has Ducks and recommends them highly especially for cake making. So tomorrow I am going to try a boiled Duck egg and at the weekend am going to bake a cake with them. It is nice I have located somewhere locally that sells them.
Cheese a nice strong cheddar
Some good items for the footcupboard there. You have a decent butcher by the sound of things. The one down the town is very good - I bought a kilo of stewing steak last week and oh my goodness, it was superb (though not cheap!)
ReplyDeleteDuck eggs make nice omelettes, and are great to bake with. I sometimes used to have them off my smallholding neighbour Nikki, back at the old house.
Hi BB, yes very lucky in that we have quite a few good quality Butchers in this area which I do tend to buy from although if I spot a joint or meat at a cheaper price I am not averse to buying it. I have a meat delivery tomorrow and have some stewing steak amongst other things to come as well. I am hoping to try the Duck egg boiled tomorrow and have a go at a cake at the weekend. Strange really that I have never tried them and it probably comes down to the fact that my grandparents never kept them. Hope you are keeping well and "settling" in your new home. Take care Tricia x
DeleteDuck eggs make for delicious scrambled eggs too, really rich and creamy if you can bear to have them a little less set than some people like them.
ReplyDeleteHow long do you think it will take to finish your needlework? I remember as a child doing a willow pattern cross-stitch table cloth that was kept at my grandmothers. Every time I visited (and I stayed overnight quite a bit) I'd work on it but it never seemed to be anywhere near finished. I'd completely forgotten about it until I came across it in the back draw of a chest in my grandly-titled sewing room at the old house, which also served as a guest bedroom and book room. I'd set it up to make 43 pairs of curtains when we moved in and then barely used it again - I think that many curtains cured me of my interest in sewing. They're so boring but we couldn't afford to buy them or have them made for so many windows and besides, having grown up in the garment industry, it felt like the most massive waste of money to pay someone to basically sew straight lines! I wound up giving it to a lady in the village who did the most beautiful hand-sewn quilts and other crafts, and she sent me a message to say she'd just finished it. Given that my grandmother started it as a child, it was over 100 years in the making!
I'm quite surprised to see someone as enterprising as you buying ready-made curry sauces though... but unless you cook a lot of curries investing in all the herbs and spices and other ingredients is both expensive and more time-consuming. Not to mention that I have to give over a whole cupboard and most of my spice draw to my Indian ingredients so I can see why a quality pre-prepared product might be a better option. But there is nothing like a curry made with roasted and freshly ground spices, fresh herbs and aromats - but I would say that as it's my favourite cuisine both to cook and eat.
Keep on stitching - we want to see the finished product!
Hi Fifitr am looking forward to trying the Duck eggs - think it will be tomorrow before I have now.
ReplyDeleteThe project is going to take a while I am under no illusions about that. I have already nearly worked 30+ hours this week alone on it so it is going to be many hours. I intend to pop up a post on progress tomorrow.
When it comes to curries I am careful as I cannot stand too much heat. It has in the past made me very unwell. I am also not confident with mixing the spices. Every so often I do have a go, but I am wary. I have a temperature issue in that my temperature can rise very quickly, coupled with acidosis and a sliding hiatus hernia, my body does not cope well with heat/spiciness and the last time I attempted to do this I ended up having a fit and being out of action for over a week. My normal inclination would be to do everything from scratch. However I have a very temperamental system to take into account as well. Mum used to cook the traditional English curry when I was a kid and I was not very keen then. It has taken me many years to eat what I do. Each of us are different. These sauces are normally very good. This time they did not have the Tikka Masala sauce, so we have gone for four we have not tried before. So we shall see how we get on. I hope you are keeping well. Tricia
I hope the sauces you've chosen are nice and mild and rounded - a hot curry certainly does warm up the body very quickly, and then cools it so I can see why you'd need to avoid that. The nice thing about cooking them yourself is you can make very complex and rich sauces with almost no heat at all; I've cooked several curries for friends who can't tolerate heat that are still satisfying to someone like me - I like the heat turned up full. Not that I'm suggesting you don't cook enough from scratch!
ReplyDeleteApropos of nothing, have you ever had oak leaf wine? A lady who used to work for my father made it, faintly sweet with a sappy sort of flavour, and absolutely delicious, especially considering it was made from what's essentially a tree's waste product. Of all her many brews that's the one I remember.
Thanks for the embroidery update - absolutely fascinating to see how you go about it and watch it building up!