A little Shopping

I nipped into Waitrose today, and found several bargains.  I tend to buy ingredients for the best part rather than the finished item.  Occasionally I try new things to see whether I like them and then go looking for a recipe or make one up myself.

There were quite a few empty shelves, but that seems to be the case wherever you go at the moment.  There was this sign however from Waitrose apologising as the issue is down to countrywide issues.

The first item on the list was a couple of Lamb Shanks, quite a fair size for £7 the two. These were in the freezer section.

Then I found my Seville Oranges.  There was an offer on of three boxes for the price of two at £2.79 a box. 3kg in weight.  At the moment they appear to be cheaper than they were last year.  I like to have marmalade on the shelf and love it on toast for breakfast but there is so much more that you can do with it.  It can be used as the base for sauces, you can use it for glazing the Christmas cake just sieve out the orange strands.  You do not have to use Apricot which is the traditional glaze for a Christmas cake.  More often than not most people do not always like Apricot jam so it will probably get wasted if just bought in to glaze the cake.  So you have to get a little bit adventurous and creative. The general rule is to use something similar.  So if you do not have onion, but have Leek you could add this and some garlic instead (obviously not in Seville Orange marmalade).

Six bags of Pears were also acquired at £1.25 per bag. These are the pears that have used for general eating and for cooking with.  My pear butter which is lush was made from these pears.  All are destined for pears in syrup.  Hopefully I will get to those tomorrow night.

I also bought two nets of small oranges.  For picking and eating between meals.  Keep the peel though from any citrus fruit and strip as much pith off the bits of skin that you can.  Can be used in crafting, but if you dry it, it can be added to home made mulled wine mixes, stews and casseroles and also used in home made firelighters.  When popped on the fire you will get the aroma of oranges. Can be used to create your own cleaning vinegars, mixed peel, ground orange peel powder for flavouring foods.  So never chuck the peels away.

I have also stocked up on a couple of bags of Canadian Bread flour. This can be used both for bread and home made pasta. I find this the best flour to use when using a bread machine.  However, I am going to be experimenting a bit.  I also bought a bag of Wholemeal flour as well.  I tend to buy the Canadian as really does get a rise on the bread.  I hope to add to the bread flour and ordinary flour stock over the next few weeks as I am intending to buy a couple of bags here and there.

However, when we were on holiday and I made bread by hand I had been to the local Sainsbury shop (this was when we were at Woodhall Spa) and I bought their bread flour and used the recipe off the back of the packet.  Would like to get a couple of bags of this as well.  Hopefully OH will take me in the next few days.  Sainsburys is nowhere near where we live and a little too far for me to walk to and back.

Waitrose also had some back bacon unsmoked on offer.  I have bought a couple of packs of this as it is always good value and not bad to boost.

I also bought a couple of bottles of Crabbie's Ginger Beer.  Have not seen this for ages.  I particularly like this it goes down very nicely.

I also spotted a porridge tin whilst in Waitrose in the cereal section it is for Scott's Porridge Oats and cost me £3.  One has come home with me for now and I may end up buying another as I always have porridge oats inhouse as they are very useful for all sorts of things including my Flapjacks.  I have managed to squeeze a 1kg bag of Co-Op Porridge oats at 85p for the bag into the tin without crushing it, and once the Dry Pantry/Larder has been sorted out, they can go on one of the shelves therein.

I mentioned that I had bought some seeds the other night at the Co-Op.  Here they are:

Sweetcorn x 2

Alpine Strawberries x 2

Lupin x 1

Trailing Nasturtiums

Dwarf Nasturtiums x 1

Red Cherry Tomato Cerise x 2

Spinach Perpetual x 1

Sweet Pepper x 1

Chillies x 1

Pumpkin x 1

Curly Kale x 1

Parsnip x 1

Carrot x 1

Cauliflower x 1

Broccoli x 1

Cabbage x 1

Leek x 1

I still need to go to B & M, but that may be later in the week or even next week.  I want to top up on more packet mixes, and tinned goods, namely Soups, Tuna, Red and Pink Salmon, Pilchards in tomato sauce, Stockpots, Ham (Ye Old Oak - nice with chips).  No Spam though.  Hate it with a vengeance. Tomatoes whole plum ones and chopped, Baked Beans, sauce mixes etc.

I would just mention that I saw an offer on Aldi Special Buys yesterday for an Ambiano Dehydrator.  It is only a small dehydrator and very similar to the one I already have, but if  you want to do some drying but cannot afford a larger machine like the Excalibur Dehydrator this would be an ideal size for drying herbs, elderflowers, mixed frozen veg, green leaf powders etc.  It is cheap at £29.99 and the link is here:

Ambiano Dehydrator

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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