Kitchen Capers Thursday 5 January 2023

I am not sure today what will be achieved on the Preserving front apart from finishing the stock off as I do need to get on with some other chores.  I still have another double batch of stock to process which is currently in the fridge.  I still have the Turkey stock to make and then process.

I started off by checking all the preserves from yesterday.  They have all sealed. I managed four batches yesterday.  A couple of jars of chick peas have absorbed the water as I do not think I put quite enough in so I will make sure to make some Hummus with those two jars first.  The other jars are taller and I appear to have put more in.  A learning curve as have never done these before.  So will get to taste some Hummus a bit earlier than anticipated. I do have a mild bought Salsa so may pair them together with some crackers over the weekend.

I have also decanted all the thyme dried the other day on its stem into a jar.  I intend to pack the jar tightly with stem herb as I sometimes prefer to use it like this when cooking.  Any that comes loose from the stem will just fall into the bottom of the jar.  I have in mind to use some in some home made Bouquet Garni in due course with Bay leaves.

I have cleaned the jars and polished them up and labelled them.  Something that I do as a matter of course once they have cooled and stood for a period of time.  All the lids had pinged!

They are all now stashed in an old wine box pending me finding a more permanent home for them.  Some may end up in the Pantry or the under-stair preserve store.

I had planned on processing some fruit today however in the end I did not as I ended up doing a lot of deep cleaning which I will continue with tomorrow.  However it has meant that I have managed to find some things I had been looking for and another small section of items has been sorted out a bit more.

I found some ends of bags of potatoes and so have amalgamated these all together and intend to process these for the Pantry shelf in due course. Some of the potatoes are starting to shoot but I shall sort them out when I get them ready.  I am not wasting anything.  That will be a job for another day.  I have some other veggies to process as well so I may well do these all at the same time probably sometime over the weekend. The bottled potatoes can then be used for roasties if need be.

Bearing in mind that a lot of tomorrow will be given over to carrying on with the cleaning.  Then hopefully sometime on Saturday I should be able to start on emptying out the Pantry in readiness for sorting that out, giving it a good wash, repair some of the shot plaster and repaint the whole Pantry and the shelving.  However that will take place in tranches.

I also ended up scrubbing out a lot of jars that I had come to the end of this week.  None for a week or two and then like taxis they all turn up at once.  I also prepped up some of my Kilner jars in readiness for the fruit I am going to be processing in the next few days.

The next batch of cleaning vinegar has also been strained, bottled and put away.  This version is Orange vinegar and I have managed to produce three bottles bottles of this.  No doubt the next batch will be started in the next couple of days or so as I have some fruit projects coming up.  This vinegar is brilliant used in a spray form for counters and any grease that needs mopping up.  Especially good for the cooker top used neat.

All of the individual elements will all add something useful either to my Pantry or to my cleaning supplies at the end of the day and I do not see the sense of wasting anything and in the longer term I am making the most of what comes my way and watching the pennies.

Every little helps so the saying goes and in a quiet way I am enjoying the process as it were.  It is very much a means to an end but at least I can do this as I do have the majority of the skills.  It is just the energy that goes AWOL without permission.

Tomorrow is another day.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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