TARRAGON & THYME

 At long last we are going to be having the Rib of Beef bought in originally for Christmas Dinner to be eaten.  This was a considered expense, but we have gone without a few other things in order to have this. For the best part of the week we have been grazing on the leftovers from the Turkey and the Ham.  The Turkey has now gone, but there is still some Ham left; no doubt that will not last long. I therefore fancied a change in meat and so the 4 Rib of Beef (weighing 4kg) has now taken up residence in my large cooker.  It has been turned onto Gas Mark 9 the top temperature for half an hour and will then be turned down to Gas Mark 5.  I have added in to the bottom of the tray 4 thick chunks of onion which will do double duty. They will support the joint of the base of the pan in order for the heat to circulate and will also caramelise during cooking to add flavour to the meat juices. I am all for extracting all the flavour I can from whatever I am cooking. ...

Our World is such a noisy world, such a destructive and chaotic one.  So much unnecessary Wars, warfare, death and anger which all pollutes the world as we know it and all down to too much ego and Testosterone!  There is no excuse for War and the damage it causes. On a personal note, a difficult year for many and for ourselves as well.  However despite the difficulties we are very grateful for what has come our way. even though we have not been able to do what we wanted to do. We are having to go with life's flow at the moment, whether that be up or down and we deal with things as and when they happen.  It is in times of difficulty which makes you appreciate the good times even more.  When things are really tight, we end up not doing a lot of stuff basically because we cannot afford it.  However that does not stop creativity in fact on the contrary I would put forward that indeed it helps with things.  It certainly has come into play with the food I ha...

.......Buy them as you can do all sorts with them.  The other day I went to the Veg shop and they had Bananas reduced in a bowl for £1.  I bought 6 Bananas for that price.  Yes they were past their optimum, but not mushy or mouldy, just a little darker on the skins.  No need to waste at that price and so with this first batch I decided that I was going to make Banana Bread.  Not had this for a while. There is a caveat to this post.  I love Bananas and have since I was a child where we regularly used to have Banana Sarnies.  However as I have matured, my system has been less tolerant of them shall we say.  Making this now is more of an experiment to see whether I can eat them again or whether it is forever going to be a "No-No" for me. However, you can make lots of other goodies too and whilst Banana bread is a staple in many households you can mix things up a bit and also make lots of lovely other items too.  For example: Banana and Chocolate...

I bought in some fresh Sage and fresh Thyme when I did the Christmas shop.  I have used what I needed of the Thyme and the Sage and in an effort not to waste anything I have popped up the remaining stems of Sage and the Thyme to dry.  I intend to do this on a regular basis through the year so as to build up a useful and hopefully substantial stash of various herbs for use in the kitchen through the year and in my preserving projects  I do not want to waste anything. There was only a little stock from the Turkey and so that was used in the gravy for the main meal itself.  I do however have the carcass to boil up for stock.  That will probably happen tomorrow.  Friday I will then process the stock for the Pantry shelf. There was however a lot of stock created from cooking the Ham and that has been strained and popped in the fridge for any fat to set.  I will then process this for some more Ham stock for the Pantry shelf.  Once I cook the Beef I will...

 I had a lay in this morning and I am not apologetic about it.  I needed it after yesterday's efforts and more particularly with the fact that when I went to bed I could not settle and was awake for quite a while.  Just could not relax and settle.  Things are changing again and I always sense changes. I then had a couple of hours baking in the kitchen which I really enjoyed as I could take my time.  I made fresh hot sausage rolls mixing dried Sage in with the sausage meat mixture.  I was also going to do a batch with onion relish in as well.  Maybe with the next batch as I still have more sausage meat and puff pastry in the fridge to use up.   I also made Banana Loaf (three of as I was using up some old Bananas and made a double batch).  Two of the loaves are small singles and the third is a large double sized one.  Must say am very pleased with how they have come up.   Also made a big batch of Golden Sultana Scones. ...

 A quiet low key day for us.  Just on our own.  I was in the kitchen preparing everything for the meal.  We were supposed to have Roast Beef, but OH saw an offer on a Turkey and so we bought a medium one of those and decided to have it today instead.  One of the main reasons for this was that I had already cooked a Gammon Ham and left it to soak in the stock overnight whilst it cooled down.  Doing this gives the Ham so much more flavour and keeps the Ham moist.  I thought that the option of the Turkey would be a better pairing for the Ham as cold cuts.  We had already eaten all of the Pork pie.  It was decided that I would probably cook the Aged 4 Rib of Beef for Dinner on Wednesday or Thursday. Needless to say there was a bit of a drama.  I usually keep in Sage and Onion Stuffing as a standard but could I find it could I heck.  It is a good job that I keep a variety of different ingredients in different formats.  I turfed ever...

Very gratefully received.  I have been struggling for the past month in that the washing machine played up, we got it working and then it completely went.  As a result have had to wash everything by hand and then get G to wring everything out once I had done it, as I just cannot exert the pressure with my hands these days.  Literally been washing every day for at least half the day in an effort to keep things clean, on top of everything else. To top all of that I have then experienced problems with my phone with it not working at all, even though the computer was working it was still a lot slower than it should have been, so I reported it as a fault.  Needless to say they could not locate what the problem was.  I tend to prepare a lot of my posts particularly for Instagram on my phone in any event and this has caused all sorts of bother. This morning I have been truly blessed; my step-son and his wife when he found out quietly went out and bought us a new washin...

I know we are all extremely busy at this time of year and that the present circumstances have all hit us particularly hard.  I am going through the pros and cons of Christmas this year but am not really in Christmas mode at all truth be told. No Christmas shopping per se this year just focusing on needs rather than wants and making selected choices and using what we have to hand. Christmas is going to be very low key here this year, like many other households. The main considered expense has been the meat and we have downsized on a lot of other things we normally have or have gone without. Does not mean it is going to be a bad Christmas; Christmas is what you make of it. It is just that the creative me enjoys all the planning, the making and the crafting in preparation for this which have not been able to do for one reason or another this year.  I will start Christmas 2024 preparations in January this coming New Year though, in an effort to take advantage of the quieter m...

Fresh Food Cupboard gets bare towards the end of the month and it is a time when I set too and start using up all the little bits and bobs that have accumulated, then when they are gone I get the fridge cleaned out ready for re-stocking. We have reached that point.  G often does not want what has been cooked, but my attitude is and will continue to be that as long as you have good food (even if you do not fancy it) you will get through another day; and the arrival of another day will mean a different day, different scenario and more opportunities. With that in mind I checked what was left in the fridge.  I had half a pack of cream cheese, some leftover Quartz cheddar, half a head of cauliflower, broccoli and some Cavolo Nero.  I also had a half bottle of passata sauce and some onions. When I discussed with G what was on offer for tea this evening, he did not seem convinced but at the end of the day he did not have many options and I knew he was hungry. He has been good in...

Well I eventually got into my kitchen yesterday at 4:00pm and that is when the games began. Achieved on Monday afternoon from 4:00pm I started by doing the washing and drying up which had been missed due to me serving tea late last night. (Sunday).  By the time I had finished tea I was well tired and just needed a sit down which I got. My back was kicking off somewhat.  Due to the shenanigans with the Dog last night and being late up this morning everything got back-tracked. Once the washing up had been dealt with and the drying I then set too with the work in hand. There was still gravy in the Ninja inner pot from making the gravy from the juices from the chicken the night before and so I decanted that into two separate pots.  The gravy is needed for the Chicken Pot Pie I am making but needed to chill.  If there is any leftover it will also go into the stew. Started off with stripping yesterday's chicken.  Recovered lots of meat from it to add to the lefto...

Last night was horrendous as our Jack Russell kicked off tap dancing across the laminate at regular intervals after food.  Anyone would think that we starve her.  Quite the reverse however. She had been fed some chicken scraps earlier (as well as the cat) and both had received a big bowl of food each. Missy even popped her nose into the cats bowl ate some of that and then started crunching biscuits.  She is as deaf as they come these days and not so steady on her pins and despite numerous tries to stop her she just was not having any of it.  She eventually settled down and left us absolutely shattered and like "death warmed up".  Sorry I just am not a happy person if I have not had a regular amount of sleep.  As a result of such antics we of course overslept and all my plans went out of the window as is frequently the case here. Therefore rather belatedly in the day, I have decided that I am going to still do what I had planned on doing yesterday i.e. the c...