Kitchen Capers Friday 6 January 2024

Still all hands to the pump here doing what I can both on the preserving front in the kitchen, baking, cooking meals, a very little shopping, plotting and planning and making the most of what comes my way.  

Breakfast

Friday started off with a simple cooked breakfast of eggs and bacon. Sorry no photos but needless to say it went down very nicely.  I do not often eat cooked food of a morning, often preferring something simpler. This morning though I just fancied a little bacon and eggs.  When I cook a brekkie for G I do not normally have one.  That is his thing.  This morning's efforts however went down very nicely.

New Source of Eggs and Produce

We have recently come across another layby seller and we bought a tray of eggs and some potatoes from him.  Potatoes are all mis-shaped which is how they come out of the ground in any event and are not a bad all rounder for a potato.  They are a white potato (by choice I prefer red but there are good white ones out there).  Not sure of the name.  However have been going down well.

The eggs are the largest I have seen for ages - he classes them as medium but compared to shop bought ones they are massive.  Lovely deep golden coloured yolks and the white tastes different too.  Far creamier. Clean nesting arrangements and how they come from the Chicken.  So will definitely be going back for these. I might even send off for some of the preserving medium for preserving eggs.  These still had the Bloom on them.  I want to ask a few questions first though.

Today has not been given over to preserving or to cooking per se. Today I have had a massive effort on the kitchen in order to make space to get into the Pantry.  The Pantry door is right opposite the back door and so have to close the back door off when working in the Pantry.  That area in front of the Pantry door and the back door has now been cleared down and everything sorted.  Some things that should have been moved but in the greater scheme of things got left.  That is a job well done. 

For the past couple of days we have eaten very well and I was not in the mood for a full blown meal.  We therefore settled for a cheese and onion sarnie.  This allowed me to get on with some other jobs as well.

I will try and get back on line with my preserving projects from tomorrow although a greater part of tomorrow will be given over to the kitchen and washing.  I will however do things inbetween everything else.

At some point we are going to have to go to the tip to get rid of the old tumble drier and the old washing machine.  Will want some other stuff to go but will need to sort that out.

As a consequence of having to re-prioritise stuff and adding other stuff in to do, there is now an extremely long list of stuff that needs doing.  Will try and amalgamate like jobs together but basically here is the quick run down of what needs doing.  It will serve as a good checklist for me as more and more gets added.  I am trying to be sensible and I will take a rest where necessary but I am determined, very determined to get this house in order and well stocked.  Pull up the big girl panties and get stuck in basically.

• Dry older bread for Breadcrumbs.  Needed for my home made Bread sauce mix, Different stuffing mixes, plain croutons.  All for the Pantry shelf.
• Prepare Clementine oranges in Pectolase to de-pith them.  In the first instance the Clementines are being prepared whole.  Some will be added to the fruit salad below, but will be split into segments for this purpose.
• Make 2 pints of low sugar syrup specifically for the Clementines in Syrup and allow to cool.
• Make the actual whole Clementines in Syrup and process them.
• Make another 2 pints of low sugar syrup specifically for the Fruit Salad in Syrup.  Allow to cool.
• Fruits being used Pears, Grapes, Orange segments, Clementine segments, apples and Maraschino cherries.  Make fruit salad and process.
• Any leftover syrup can be stored in the fridge and added to cocktails and/or another preserving project or indeed a fresh fruit salad.  Can be kept in a lidded jar in the fridge until needed.
• Use the zest of the Clementines to make Clementine sugar.
• Use some of the leftover peel (prepared peel - I remove the thick pith on the inside of pieces of skin with a sharp paring knife.  The pith makes the peel bitter).
• Any shells can then be used to start off a batch of homemade orange cleaner.  Take a container and add the shells (take out the membranes and discard) cover with white vinegar.  If peel will not remain submerged.  Add in a small plate or add a bag of water to keep the peel down.  Leave for about six weeks and then strain, decant and re-bottle.  Discard shells.
• Any dried peel can be used with the pith on for making firelighters.
• Will make a batch of homemade peel.
• Pared peel can be used in cooking only small quantities though.  Also ideal for crafting projects.
• Make Turkey stock and process.
• Process last batch of Beef stock.
• Preserve and process two large pumpkins.
• Preserve potatoes.
• Preserve parsnips.
• Preserve carrots.
• Preserve swede.
• Dehydrate celery.
• Make vegetable stock.
• Dehydrate any leftover veg.
• Make chicken stock.
• Make Ginger Bug.
• Make Ginger wine.
• Make Ginger Syrup.

I shall concentrate on the Beef stock and Turkey stock first off though.  The rest will keep as it is all stored in the fridge so should be able to tick off a good few each day alongside trying to do all sorts of other bits and bobs.

So lots to do and to keep me busy.  I need to get this house sorted it will make life so much easier but in the first instance it will look as though I am not getting far. However each effort will end up building up to a bigger and more complete picture .

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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