Going Shopping, Food and doing something with it and equipment

Not the post I anticipated to file today, that one will now have to wait for tomorrow.  It is quite a long post, but cannot complete it as have had a slight hiatus in being able to complete one item due to outside interference!

Tea yesterday (Thursday evening) was an absolute treat.  Langoustines - delicious and sweet.  Enjoyed what I had but could have eaten a few more.  Just served simply with bread and butter went down a treat.  They are pricey but oh what a treat 6 for £9.  Really could have eaten more - but as I say only had bread and butter with.  Real food served simply is for me one of life's true pleasures it does not need swags and bells to announce that it is something really fantastic.

A lot of my week has involved preserving, however there is a separate post coming up on this shortly encompassing the preserving I have managed to achieve this week.  It is always satisfying for me to be able to pop up a few jars of this or that onto the Pantry shelf, notwithstanding the fact that it also gives a little food security when pennies are tight.  Something is better than nothing and it gives you a choice of different items to have to hand and to mix up things together and even to pad a meal out.  

I was bought up when money and food were tight and nothing was wasted.  There was a set criteria of what a proper meal should consist of i.e. a starter, a mains and a dessert.  This was the template that most households followed when it came to feed their family although even in those times people could not always prepare three meals a day. The logic was simple then either put your efforts and your money into a big main meal once a day, and use leftovers for Rissoles and soups for a midday lunch with bread for dunking or sarnies.  When I was little we often started in the winter months in particular with a homemade soup, then we had the main meal and then the pudding.  The idea behind a starter was to fill you up a bit, that way on you would not have to give a bigger amount of meat to the main course plate and could often squeeze an extra meal out of the meat as a result, especially if it was padded out with lots of veggies, a Yorkshire pudding or individual ones or even some stuffing and roasties.  Then latterly a pudding a small amount of something sweet to finish the meal off and fill up the stomach which also gave the soul a treat.

We always have breakfast here.  Usually quite a substantial one for G in any event.  I am quite happy with cereal such as Muesli and Granola. I love porridge and breakfast oats and  Croissants, Pain au Chocolat, Pain au Lait, etc and I nearly always have cream cheese and some form of homemade jam with them..  A favourite is homemade Blackberry jam or Bramble jelly, however I nearly always have some sort of jam on the go or in the Pantry to go to as I use it a lot in baking as well as everyday eating.

We do not always have a midday lunch, often sandwiches if we do, and then always a main meal at night. I believe that you should have one cooked hot meal a day bare minimum; ours tends to be at night because that is the time of day we have traditionally eaten due to work constraints.  These days it means we can get more out of the day and get things done. 

We do well with our food and the pennies that we have, but I know that there is more that I can achieve longer term.  This is why for me the option of being able to use things that are a bit different helps varies things up a bit.  Sometimes the meals are a bit different, and probably not what you would choose by choice but you are fed! It all helps keep the proverbial engine moving and working.  

I am a big believer in soups - I would quite happily have soup everyday but G is not so keen. There is a lot of goodness in soup especially if homemade.  I am looking to be able to prepare in advance a lot of soups for the Pantry shelf so that we can just grab a jar and have a meal as well as have the advantage of vegetables prepared for the Pantry shelf.  I am hoping to be able to do something about this sooner rather than later although I am finding myself confined on storage at the moment.  It is not stopping me formulating plans though.  The little grey cells are always working with regard to plotting and planning for the Pantry as I know long term what can be accomplished as a lot of it I have done before. I am in the future looking to do a lot more than I have been doing of late.  Most preserving is associated and usually has to do with main crops being harvested.  In reality I end up preserving different things all year around because I find reduced items and bargains in the shops that I do frequent and it would be sacrilege not to take advantage.  It is paying it forward in a different way.

There is always a reason and a method in my madness, some of it well established practical reasons for doing things at different times and seasonally. I was bought up following the seasons with apple picking, plum and pear picking and harvesting from the garden as my grandparents always advocated this way of life that let them live well on the food front when pennies were tight.  There is always something that you can do.

Proper post will be tomorrow.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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