Another Busy Day

 It has been a busy day again here.  Have been pottering in the kitchen, as today is a cooking day, and I have put the big oven on as I have a couple of recipes in mind to make over the next few days.

We are having roast chicken and I have prepared and blanched potato and parsnip in readiness for roasting and I have also added in a bunch of pickling onions for roasting as well. I have found from personal experience that onion, shallots or pickling onions caramelise rather quickly and will help brown parsnip or potatoes.  Sometimes depending on what you are cooking they just do not brown off properly.

The chicken is roasting in its tray in the oven for a full roast meal this evening.  However, I also have a couple of pumpkins roasting whole in there as well.  One is for pumpkin soup and the other may well be used in Risotto or Ravioli.  The lids have been chopped off and the innards scooped out and a knob of butter has been popped in to keep the pumpkin a little moister and tastier.  There are also further parsnip, and potato roasting in the tray with them.  I have kept the innards and am going to attempt to save my own seed and set it this year.  I understand that this can be a bit hit and miss, as sometimes if it is an F1 variety that the pumpkin has been bred from it can revert to one of its original parents!.  My view is nothing ventured, nothing gained, so will see what happens.

I still have quite a bit of veg left over from the Christmas shop however, I will need to stock up again later in the week.  I thought that if any veggies were left over they could then be turned into a kind of Minestrone type soup for general eating as and when we want it.

If I can get to the Butcher's this week, I am after some mince, Beef skirt, Sausagemeat, and bacon and sausages.  Mince can be used in a Lasagna, Cottage Pie.  Beef skirt can be used in stew and also in Cornish Pasties, Sausagemeat can be used for sausage rolls and also for meatballs.  Bacon is universal can be used in meals as well as in a meal in itself and the chipolatas, used in a toad and for breakfasts, sarnies etc.

I took part in the #Threerivershomestead Preserves challenge earlier in the year and thoroughly enjoyed it.  There is currently a Pantry challenge that has just started, and I had hoped to take part in this, using up the contents of freezer, fridge and pantry this time round.  The link on instagram is here for those of you who want to have a look.

https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/threeriverschallenge/

Realistically speaking though as I do not have my freezers or the extra fridge I am going to defer this until I have a proper stock built up i,e, replacement fridge and freezers which have been filled (we have nowhere to store them at present).  As part of the challenge is to use what you have rather than go out shopping for it, as I am currently having to go and buy when I need and store in the fridge, it kind of defeats the object of me taking part in it until I do have the freezers and the extra fridge.  Otherwise I would be constantly at the shop, which is something I do not want to do either.  I am however watching and reading the posts, as there are some really interesting ideas for using different ingredients and quite economically.  I do miss stuffing my freezers with goodies though, as if we were fed up with eating something I would freeze it and make a meal for another day out of it.  I also used to buy in loads of fresh veg from the Veg shop and prepare and freeze it myself.

I am also keen to get a garden growing as well this year; even if it is only small stuff, like salad, cucumber, tomatoes.  A little is better than nothing.  Will see what happens and whether we can get away to the caravan this summer like we did last, but that covers prime and premium growing time.  I had thought to ask my s daughter to see if she would help, but it depends on her working schedule as to what she could do. I do no want to go away and then have another baking summer like we did last year and then lose the lot.  A bit of a dilemma at the moment, but hopeful that things will work themselves out. I have already been rooting through some seeds.  May be pipe dreams, but something has to be done and I do have the seed.

Do any of you intend to make sure you have a growing garden of some sort even if you usually do not.  I would be interested to hear as to what you intend to grow.  I am most definitely thinking herbs, of any variety, Nasturtiums edible as being very colourful, beans, cucumber, tomatoes, lettuce, beetroot.  May be a bit more yet will see how it goes. 

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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