A Productive Day

 Today has been non-stop so far, I say non-stop as this is the first opportunity I have had to have a sit and a mug of creamy coffee which is going down an absolute treat.

We were up early in order to get to the Surgery to have both our Flu jabs and next Covid injection. Went quite smoothly and the lady who did the injections was both charming and gentle.  An injection in each arm, so I have a matching set now until the next time.  Little bit of discomfort, but that is how my system rolls.  I tend to react to any injection, but it normally soon settles things down.  I produce too many antibodies and my system naturally rejects "invaders" as it sees them, even if it is bits of my own body. But another good job out the way with. I am grateful for the opportunity.  A common cold creases me at the best of times.

We then whilst we were out (and had escaped without Missy waking up) then headed to the Butcher, where I spent a few pennies.  Ended up buying a large Chicken, two Gammon steaks, 4 x 1lb packs of Beef Skirt (for homemade styled "Cornish" pasties or using in a stew). Beef Skirt is a cheaper option but just as tasty. There was an offer on the mince for every 1kg that you bought you got 500g free.  I bought two kilos and ended up with 1kg free therefore 3kg in total.  Always useful for Cottage Pie, Ragu, Lasagna, Chilli etc.  Nothing is ever wasted. I bought a full Pork Belly, it is not massively large, but I should get a couple of decent sized rolled home stuffed Pork belly joints for a Sunday lunch going forward. I have also bought two packs of Sausagemeat to make up my homemade stuffing mix with some of my home-dried bread (so everything plays its part). We also have the ribs so it looks as though they will be cooked up for quick eating as well.  Bought two Rib Eye steaks, 1kg of Diced Beef, (for a proper big stew), 1kg of Gloucester Old Spot Sausages.  I have frozen these in twos, within a bigger bag which gives G the chance to have them for a breakfast, equally if I want to make a Toad in the Hole. I bought one of their steak pies which will do us for a meal which was already made and frozen.  I also bought some lovely proper Leeks and some fresh Brussell Sprouts.  Think these are going into the Freezer for a later day.

From the Butchers I then went to do a bit of a top up shop at Iceland.  Bought a lovely double-sized frozen Leg of Lamb for £20 which am very pleased with as they were dearer at the Butchers. I like using a Butcher where I can, but I am not too proud to buy other bits in as well, especially when overall it will provide good eating.  I also bought some frozen runner beans, and some ice lollies (various boxes as G and I rarely agree on this particular aspect).  A Box of proper Cod Fish Fingers for Fish Finger Sarnies, three Cauliflower cheeses, a standard tray of Chicken which had 7 fat Chicken breasts for about £11 - smallest size at 1.7kg.  Next time will get the bigger pack of over 4kg for £26. Out of the tray today I have packaged 2 bags x 2 breasts and one bag x three breasts (probably go for a Chicken pie this one).  Also bought milk, squash, bread, canned Tuna, mushy peas.  Will go back next week for a shop to predominantly stock up the Pantry tinned items as well as some other items.  I am determined to get the stocks stream-lined more and fully stocked to what they have been for a very long while.   That is going to take in several dedicated style shops as well.  I do not at present have a good store of sugar.  It is non-existent to what it was in the past, and this does have to be remedied.  I have always kept a good stock of basic stuff such as sugar as I do tend to take advantage of reductions, offers bargains etc. as long as they seem kosher.  Sometimes bargains are not quite what they are outlined to be.  If the sugar is in-house then I can quickly get on and process said item for the Pantry shelf or now indeed the Freezer.

My purpose for this Freezer is predominantly meat items with a little bit of veg and other bits as well.  I like fish but I am not always keen on it frozen so will probably carry on with the fresh fish every so often for the foreseeable while we can.

Since coming home, I have set about all the bought meat, and re-packaged it into suitable freezer bags. I sort out the portion control at this point to feed the two of us for a meal without going over-board.  If needs be, I can combine two or three packages of something to make a greater quantity of something.

I have also been to the Asian shop and topped up with one or two items from there.  Not as many as I had anticipated, but it is the sort of shop that has things for a while and then every so often buys something else in, so some of the things I could not locate today.  There is always another day though.  I did get two big bags of golden sultanas in readiness for the Christmas cake and Christmas pudding making.

I have also bought two bags of cherry tomatoes and am open- freezing them.  I also have some peppers to slice and open freeze and bag up as well.  Tomatoes are to start with for G as part of his breakfast. They go into the pan frozen and do not take long to caramelise and cook.  Peppers could be added too if he so wanted; I sometimes do them for him with a bit of Courgette too.  Breaks down the fat nicely on a fry.  I am however primarily freezing the peppers in slices for addition to stir-fries.  The bonus is that the peppers were reduced, so shall add a few of these going forward whenever I see reductions.

I am a bit horrified at some of the prices though that are being charged.  Prices seem to be going  up again or at least they do in the Co-Op.  I always used to use the Co-Op for a lot of basic stuff but I am now going further afield.  When there is at least 60p extra added to any one item compared to elsewhere.  That would be another item or contribution to an item I could put on my Pantry shelf.  

Another thing, I found a reduced wholemeal Warburtons loaf reduced for 65p.  I have bought this and am going to split it into a few slices for me to have every so often as I prefer wholemeal bread in reality.  Reminds me a little bit of the proper Hovis loaves that used to be delivered when I was a child.

I have also ordered replacement lids for my Lug jars, the standard and the larger ones.  I am awaiting delivery of these so that should keep me stocked up for a little while.  I was getting nervously close to not having any replacement lids at all and I do have quite a bit of preserving to do including Lemon curd, Lemon Marmalade, Fermented Lemon and Honey, Lemon Sugar for starters.  There are a few other projects as well waiting in the wings as the saying goes.

So lots of stuff been going on and still loads more to do.

Its a colder night here in Peterborough and I am off to curl up and take my feet off the floor and rest my leg a bit.  Feeling far comfier than I was so things I think are moving in the right direction.

Keep warm and have a lovely evening.  

Catch up soon.

Pattypan

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