Well it looks and feels like Autumn

The weather is predicted to be the same as yesterday i.e. Damp, chilly and grey.  And I have a lot to do to boot.  A little later though the Sun came out to play and I got washing on the line.  It was cold last night I had to put a blanket over the quilt!

I now have six large 1 litre Pickle jars to hand  and a net of onions and some garlic.  Sometime on Saturday therefore I am going to set too and make a scuttle full of French Onion soup for the Pantry shelf.  If I have room I will also prepare some carrots and maybe some potatoes.  Using what I have to hand rather than going out and buying stuff. It will be a win win on three fronts.  First is will not have to spend any money.  Second is I am making the most of what I have and am using it up and thirdly, I will have something on the Pantry shelf to eat of a weeknight or if we are in a hurry.  The shopping will come at the end of next week when I can re-stock on the veggie front. I have a lot planned this time round.

I had planned on making chicken stock today to can. However this will now have to wait until tomorrow.  I think I am going to make this in the Ninja as I have two carcasses this time for processing.  Just a few jars would help for the Pantry shelf.  We normally have a chicken once a week so with a little effort I can make this quite cheaply and a good homemade stock always adds a lot of flavour and goodness to home cooked food.

Starting to make real progress on the kitchen despite having a flood last night.  I have a Samsung washing machine (the best machine I have ever had) and it has a gadget that collects any bits and bobs like fluff or threads that sort of thing.  It stops the machine from working when it is full.  That is what happened tonight when the machine was full of water so I ended up with a soggy kitchen floor. Soon mopped up with some towels though. So further work to do tomorrow to get that all sorted out. The majority of the water was mopped up but I still need to make sure that everything is as dry as it can be.

I have managed to get my baking bowl cupboard cleaned and sorted and my saucepan, frying pan and colander cupboard all sorted.  I have to re-arrange the baking tin cupboards but the two middle cupboards have stayed tidy.  I have to sort out my everyday and electrical equipment cupboard  and have some stuff to put away in the corner cupboard, but am slowly getting there.  I have stuff in other rooms to go away as well for the kitchen but at least some sorting out has gone on which was very much needed.  Hopefully I will make a lot of progress during the day.

Update:

No more cupboards done this afternoon,  The kitchen did get dried out though after last night's shenanigans.  

I have spent most the afternoon cooking Cottage Pie from scratch.  I fried off onion in butter until golden brown and then added in chopped carrot, leek and mushroom.  The mince was boiled to get rid of the fat and then the strained meat added to the vegetable mixture.  I added in a load of different herbs, seasonings, stock, Worcester sauce etc.  Thatched with mashed potatoes and the last of the cheddar cheese a lovely Cornish cheese called Quartz.  Very nice bit of cheese it is too.

To follow, I have opened one of my jars of plums.  Very pleased with these the colour is delightful. I strained off the syrup from the jar and thickened it with some Arrowroot to pour onto the drained plums in the dish, adding this makes the juice a sauce and it goes lovely and shiny and glossy (a glaze) with no added sweetening in, just using the light syrup I made for the plums.  Saves wasting anything.  I have made an almond crumble to go on top and that will be the first pudding of the season. Going to serve with custard. It was cold here last night and so I fancied something a little bit more substantial to eat tonight.  I am therefore very much looking forward to this.

Update:

On other fronts, due to the flood last night in the kitchen I had forgotten that I had a box with some dried fruit in on the kitchen floor (all packaged up and not open fortunately), so I have also started prepping up a chutney that I like to make for Christmas.  It is an Apricot and Orange chutney by Delia Smith from her original Christmas book. Only had one pack of Apricots so have made the balance up with some golden Sultanas that needed using up. Using up what I have and making substitutions if I have not got the whole complement of ingredients.  Its how you put your mark on a recipe.  There are further Sultanas in the recipe so I may add a little apple instead of those.  It is part prepped the making will take place tomorrow.  More on that another day.

Tea went down very well indeed. Very tasty and warming which was what was needed.  Plus we have a duplicate meal tomorrow.

Pudding was lovely.  It is a long time since I have had plums in a pudding.  My Mum and my Nan used to do this regularly and sometimes just having the bottled plums with custard.  I enjoyed them that much I am considering making some more bottled plums with whatever plums I can locate.  I really enjoyed them.

Still an awful lot of work to do, but slowly inching there bit by bit.  As tea is now cooked for tomorrow that should free me up  to get a lot clearer as I will not have to stop to make tea as everything is ready.

Right am off to put my feet up.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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