A little trip out

It is a cold grey Saturday here in Peterborough and it has been all go here this Saturday morning; OH was scheduled for his Covid Booster (I have already had mine) and had an appointment just after 10:00am. So we went out for that, and then continued out to go to see the Fish Man in Ramsey. Where we picked up fresh Brancaster Mussels 2kg, and some brown shrimp, some whelks, a Lemon Sole and a Plaice Fillet.  The Mussels are for main meal tonight with some crusty bread and butter, cooked simply with water and with garlic and a little butter. I must say that I was eying up the Queenie Scallops as these are delightful served with garlic butter and a little seaweed salt however decided probably would have another week.   It is a while since we had a Fish Fest.  We had been during the week but he was not there.  His stall looked brilliant this morning all sorts of seafood and fish. I wish now I had taken a photo. 

I also bought a tray of large eggs for general cooking and baking.  Some baking is planned for this week.

It is funny how the eating changes more for more solid comfort dishes during the autumn and winter months.  I am fancying a stew but that may happen later in the week.  The Ninja needs dusting off and putting on the worktop for the winter months.  I already have one of my slow cookers on duty as I have made a couple of batches of Pear Butter this last week. I must say that I am very taken with it and can see all sorts of uses.

We collected crusty buns today to go with the Mussels in any event and if there are any buns left over could well end up making a bread and butter pudding to be served with some of my blackberry and apple pie filling I made earlier in the  year.  I have the ingredients to hand with the fresh tray of eggs, so I might as well take full advantage.

Saturday night tea, is the Mussels cooked with water, garlic and a little butter. There are 2kg but they are tasty and a real seasonal treat.

Sunday night's tea is a small Pork Loin roasting joint which I am going to serve with some of my homemade Crab Apple Jelly, carrot and swede mash, mashed potato, peas, roast pumpkin, roast potatoes and maybe some cabbage. I might even make a small tray of sausage-meat stuffing as well.  

I will cook (roast) extra pumpkin (I have several) so that I can also make some pumpkin and chilli soup, also some Leek and Potato and French Onion soup for during the week to maybe have when we are cold or mid-day.  Have to have good food to keep the cold at bay.  Soup is very forgiving you can easily use any left-overs from the left-overs to start off what we in the family called "Nan's Leftovers soup" (Usually made on a Monday with the Sunday roast leftovers).  Any gravies that have been left over from a meal can always go into the soup pot as well as any left over veggies, just make sure you have a carton for the leftover veggies and a jug or kilner glass jar to pop everything in the fridge to store until you are ready to make your soup (obviously during the same week).  Bubble and Squeak is a good one at this time of year as well from leftovers, and goes very well with any left over roasted or cold meat.

Monday, as is traditional is usually left-overs a repeat of the Sunday dinner which makes it easy on the cooking front.

So that brings us up to Tuesday.  I haven't planned anything as  yet but am looking towards either a beef stew or a roasted chicken.  At least a couple of meals out of both for during the week.

There will be some puddings though.  I made some mixed fruit jam yesterday which I have called Autumn Fruit Medley. Basically I started off with some leftover plums which I have sliced and popped into my jam pan, together with an equal amount of cooking apple and a little water.  I have then cooked them up until close to a puree and then I have added in a couple of bags of frozen mixed fruits, added Sugar and then brought to the boil.  The jam tastes well and I have not had to add the amount of sugar I normally would.  I had 3kg of fruit and was expecting to use 3kg of sugar.  I used the Howgate Wonder Cooking apples (Diabetic apple) 2 large ones and they were 1kg in themselves. I used 1.5 kg of sugar expecting to add more, but set was soon achieved and there was no need to add the extra.  Whether this is to do with the fact that I cooked the apples up with the plums am not sure but it is a nice firm set on the jam. I intend to use some of this as (I managed to get 9 1/2 jars) with a home made rice pudding for tomorrow night's tea. Something we have not had in a while.

Simple food that does you good and keeps you warm.

I have some Persimmon Jelly to make at some point and also a host of other preserves.

Last night I started off my Cranberry and Apple jelly; that will not get finished today but it will be tomorrow.  It will hang tonight, I let the fruit steep last night into the juice that had already come out. (It was a bit late to start it last night but never mind). If there is any fruit left will turn it if I can into Cranbrillo a Cranberry fruit paste like Membrillo.

I also have plans for bottling some pears, fruit salad, mulled pears, pears in ginger wine, and several other preserves.  I am trying very much not to overcrowd things at the moment and am slowly getting to these one by one.

I also have plans for stocking up the pantry areas.  I will organise a sack of spuds in the next week, plus a net of red onions and a net of white onions, although they will not be kept in the same storage area as onions give off a gas that accelerate the ageing of potatoes.  I am fairly quick at going through a sack of spuds in the winter months, usually about six weeks, but even so we want to eat them not throw them.  I plan to put the potatoes under the stairs and the onions into the everyday dry pantry.  I use a lot of onions, especially when I am preserving and making soups and stews etc.

So a lot to do in the kitchen as usual, but the effort is worth it as it provides a base from which to create other dishes.  I have a lot of savoury preserves to do as well i.e. chilli jam, jelly, Jalapeno jelly, Lemon Curd, Orange Curd, Apple and Rosemary jelly, Mint Jelly, more Mint vinegar etc. etc.

I also have a lot of housework to fit in with all the preserve making.  Trying to get rid of what I have to hand first before I go on another "forage" to see what else I can find.  I can see a lot more pears, cranberries, persimmons, tomatoes and apples on the horizon at the moment.

I shall never go to heaven!

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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