Normality Resumed

I am pleased to say that himself has sorted the Washing machine.  No repairs necessary.  Think the bit I referred to yesterday I had not got seated quite as it should be or as tight (which comes of having arthritis in my hands but I tried) which is why water spewed out.  Have had the washing machine on again.  Floor is drying out - as I say normality resumed.  Phew.

I am not good without the washing machine. I have said many times before it is like chopping my right arm off.  I may be untidy, but everything is always clean!  Once I have got the big pile of washing done and dried, it will be time to iron it.  

I have decided as I found a load more baking stuff the other day to turf out my cupboards again and re-arrange them in a further effort to get a few more bits incarcerated and out of the way.  

We are having Toad in the Hole here today.  It has been wet and grey and I needed comfort food.  I therefore got that underway relatively early for us.  

We have some decent sausages from the Butcher (fat sausages) they are £12 a kilo.  OH came back with 1lb in weight i.e. £6 and I have popped some sliced onion in and mixed herbs into the roasting pan as well.

The batter all mixed up and left to stand for half an hour.  Before decanting into the roasting tray I shall add a splash of vinegar, whip it up quickly again and then pop into the hot roasting tray.

I often add raw onion and mixed herbs to the bottom of a roasting tray before adding in the batter mix as this gives a bit more flavour. The onions and the herbs are added to hot fat.  I used a little lard.

Sausages are then added for browning on the top.  They are then turned once brown so that the sausage is brown for the most part.

Once the sausages are browned on top will turn them over and then add the batter mix.  

The onions all prepped up for the onion gravy.

We are having mashed potato and finely shredded steamed buttered cabbage with lots of onion gravy to go with it.  Nice and simples just proper comfort food.

The meal came up beautifully, but both of us were terribly disappointed with the sausages. This is an honest opinion, sometimes you have complete successes and sometimes abject failures.  This is me being transparent as to how things progressed today.  The meal itself cooked very well and there were no hiccups. 

We used to use a well established Butchery practice in Peterborough who were trading for over 150 years in Peterborough and were show winners on the Butchery front across a whole range of their Butchery products for many many years.  The family decided to close the business after all this time and another Butchery business took over the premises.  However they closed at the beginning of Covid (well the Peterborough shop did). They still have a shop in Market Deeping. Even though I grew up in the Deepings and have also used Grasmere Farm regularly I cannot get there easily so we tend to use Butcher's that OH can get to.  As many of you may be aware I am not able to drive due to a medical condition.  The Doctors have told me point blank No!

One of the sons of the original owners then set up in business on his own, not in town in a factory unit out of town and started making the most popular items i.e. sausages, bacon, and pork pies.  Although they did not cook the Pork Pies and ancillary baked goods but gave you everything to do at home as they did not have the facilities for cooking them.  There were also not prepared to pay out for the equipment necessary to do this. The last time we had the sausages was about a year ago and we were not very fussed as they had cut back on the flavour.  We had always enjoyed their product (I have been having their Butchery products since I was a child) and it was the Butcher's that my Mum used frequently when we were in town.  We decided to give them another go just in case it had been a bad batch - it does happen.  Despite paying out in price and the sausages looking really good unfortunately they did not "cut the bacon" when it came to flavour. Unfortunately, they have now lost us as customers. We will not be going back. 

Needless to say we will be going back to Willowbrook Farm near Helpston or Johnsons of Old Hurst for our sausages in future. Paying a fair price for a tasteless bland sausage is not what we want to do and believe you me it was tasteless.  Some of the supermarket sausages are better than these were and I am really finnicky and funny about supermarket sausages at the best of times!

Once I am able to get another freezer, I will make my own Pork Pies in bulk and freeze them; especially in the run up for Christmas.  There are also feasting pies to be made then as well.  I did go on a training course for making Pork Pies at Willowbrook Farm and learned a lot from them and have the wooden Dolly and other pie moulds here at home.  I just do not have a very practical or big enough kitchen or storage available.  My Mum also used to make Brawn from the Pig's Head (after she had bought a half Pig or whole Pig for the freezer). My Nan and Pop always kept two pigs a year and in the run up to Christmas all sorts of various delicacies were made including Tongue, Pheasant, the Goose that was running around the Orchard in the Summer. 

One area I have promised myself to have a go at when I can is the Charcuterie side of things i.e. making Salami, Corned Beef and Pastrami at home.  I do have a very good mincer and sausage nozzles in any event.  We will see what we will see.

Therefore despite the disappointment over tea, it has not been too bad a day.  Any day is a good day as long as my washing machine works.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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