Yesterday....

 .... when I was a tad younger (as were we all) was a busy day.

We ended up going to the Butchers and came back with:

A Pork Pie - well that has gone eaten in wedges with Tomato ketchup.  Yum

A cooked Gammon Hock for sarnies, salads and if any left a Quiche during the week

1 kg of Chipolata Sausages for breakfasts and Toad in the Hole and Sausage Bake

2 x 500g bags of Beef Skirt designated for a Stew and homemade "Cornish" style pasties

1lb of unsmoked Back Bacon for breakfasts or sarnies

A small 1.5kg Beef Topside joint - that has gone

A Chicken a hefty one; for Roast chicken, perhaps a curry and a stir fry.

Plenty to go at for this coming week.

We had the roast Beef yesterday, cooked simply on a bed of onions, with some water, mixed herbs, pepper in.  This forms the basis for the gravy.  The meat is then covered in foil and cooked for about an hour and a half.  I try not to overcook the meat, and we have it medium rare.

In the meanwhile, if I am cooking roasties of any sort, I prep up the veggies I need, i.e., potatoes, courgette, parsnip, celeriac, squash, sweet potato and whatever else you might be using like Beetroot or Pumpkin.  I then poach them in hot water for about 5 to 10 minutes before straining, and then popping them onto a prepared baking tin which has had some dripping added to it until the pan is splattering.  I then add in the veg and dip into the fat both sides, sprinkle with some salt before adding to a hot oven and starting to cook.  Halfway through, I turn them again to make sure that the colouring is equal on both sides.  Roasted Celeriac today was a new one for us and we both really like it.  Needless to say, it will be putting in a regular appearance on the dinner table.

We also had Yorkshire pudding (homemade), mashed potato, steamed Brussel sprouts, carrots, peas, broccoli and lashings of gravy.  It was delicious.

Followed by homemade rice pudding served with Mandarin oranges.  

The whole meal was lovely and very tasty.

The best bit is we have a repeat performance tomorrow.

I had plans for today, but as it has been so cold, damp, wet and miserable, I decided that I am not going out of the house anymore today.  I am staying where it is warmer.

Tomorrow I will be going to the veg shop to stock up on fresh veggies for the week.  Fresh veggies are important to me.  If you have plenty in the fridge you can eat very well as there is so much that you can do with them. I also buy in a bag of petit pois each week.  You can make a lovely soup with them if there are any left over, so nothing goes to waste.

I have some veggies left in the fridge from last week which will go into the stew and the pasties and also for a root veg roast probably to be cooked with chipolatas and maybe a vegetable quiche or Lasagna. I will probably also make some Swede and Carrot Crush and store it in the fridge for when I need to use it.  I already have the remnants of Sunday night's tea in the fridge, together with Saturday night's French Onion soup remains. The soup will probably get used up in the stew during the week.

Right am off to potter.  It will not be too long before I go and sort tea out.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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