Kitchen Potterings Things Going on in the Kitchen For the Past Few days

Friday

A Blessing arrived this morning that will enable me to get cracking on the Preserves front.  A box full of 100 standard jar lids and a box of 50 bigger diameter lids from Love Jars. Love Jars website Excellent service, promptly dispatched and excellent quality. I am going to be able to get cracking.  I had more or less run out of standard lug lid jars and had no spares on the larger diameter ones either.  So well chuffed. This time round I have gone for red and white spotted lids for the standard jam jar size and gold lids for the larger sized. Very pleased with my order and this is my independent view of the items paid for by me and received from Love Jars.  

A lot of work this week has by necessity revolved around my freezer and freezing items to stock that with.  I think ideally anything to do with the Freezer on this blog should be referred to as "The Freezer Diaries" going forward.

 Today's efforts have included:

• Decanting the frozen cherry tomatoes into a bag, labelling and storing in the freezer; ✓
• Decanting the three trays of frozen sweet pepper into a big bag, labelling and storing in the freezer.  The big bag I have ended up with involved two packs x 3 peppers i.e. six peppers which had been reduced down to £1.50 from £2 per pack;✓
• Preparing two packs of Brussel Sprouts for the freezer by peeling and blanching and then packaging into one bigger bag. As they have been open-frozen it will be easier to take out a few Brussels when required quite easily;✓
• Preparing some Leeks for the freezer;✓
• Preparing Sweet Potato for the freezer; ✓
• Making the Pork sausage and sage and onion stuffing for preparing Belly pork for roasting. I had two sticks of sausage meat and have used one stick (the other having been put in the freezer for sausage rolls etc.) together with a load of stuffing mix.  My view is that if there is too much for the joints, I will freeze the rest and then have stuffing to go with any hot meal cooked up going forward.  It is the little things that often bring and affords the most pleasure and taste out of food and it makes the most of what you actually have to hand and help make the best of it.  Not always easy, but can generally be applied and found if a little thought goes into what you are actually doing at one time.✓
• Preparing the Pork Belly, stuffing and rolling into joints before bagging, labelling and freezing; Two large joints obtained and one has been kept out in the fridge for our Sunday dinner this week.  We are looking forward to that as it has been a few weeks since we had a proper roasted joint.✓

Saturday

I have since gone on and bought other vegetables with a view to putting some into the freezer but also keep the bulk in the fridge for fresh eating.  Sometimes making stuff up into a finished dish saves a lot of time i.e. when making a Cauliflower cheese for instance and it pays to batch make these types of items.  

The veggies have bought today (Saturday) are as follows:

• Cabbage
• Sweet Potatoes
• Onions
• Bunched carrots
• Carrots
• Turnip
• Swede x 2
• Squash x 2
• Courgette x 2 (2 a bag = 4)
• Broccoli
• Tomatoes
• Eating Apples

Will probably make up a couple of stew packs ready prepared and to make a quick stew in the future with hardly any preparation work because it has all been done beforehand.  There are a few things I need to concentrate on to add some things to the Pantry shelf long-term but I cannot do these until a couple of pieces of equipment I am waiting on arrive.  That will happen in due course though.

I therefore feel, that things are starting to move on a little bit at a time. I am pacing myself though as there is a heck of a lot to do.  My overall focus is feeding us well in the longer-term by doing what I can on the preparation front and also planning forward a little bit more when I can to ease things up further down the line.  It is what I have always done historically in the past.  I also want to get some bits into my food storage for Christmas as well.  At the moment I am considering making a couple of Chocolate and Chestnut Terrines, and a Feasting Pie and Pork Pie and some Pate.  I am very fond of Chicken Liver pate.  I am therefore going to have to source some reasonably priced Pork for the pies and the chicken livers for the pate.  The bonus is that when you make stuff yourself, you end up with a lot more of it as a rule for your money. It therefore does not only do for Christmas but through the year as well.  I think this is why I like using the freezer.  I have found though over the years that each type of preserving brings something different to the table and that they all complement each other at the end of the day.

Sunday

I do though have a lovely selection of veggies to hand for our Sunday dinner.  Today I have chosen to add mashed potato, roast potato, roast parsnip and roast onion. Then there is carrot, runner beans, peas,  and cauliflower. Lots of gravy as per usual is planned.  Looking forward to that. 

I am also going to add a couple of packs of lard to the roasting tray to make "Pork Dripping" for roasted veggies for the next couple of weeks. Basically, I add the lard to the tray after the meat juices have started to run and the Crackling has started to crisp up. After that has happened, I drain the lard off and add to pre-warmed jars.  As glass is volatile and can be subject to thermal shock this is how I do things.  I then pop the lids on straight away.  Shortly after there was a distinctive pop as the lids sealed on both jars.  This does not happen every time but it is satisfying when it does.  This time I got just under two jars.  One is predominantly for the "Roasties" the thicker squatter jar as there is no real "jelly" in that jar.  However, there is a layer of jelly in the second jar, so that one will get used first and work my way down to the jelly.  We can then have some on bread for "Bread and Dripping".  I do store this in the fridge at all times, especially an opened jar. 

After prepping dinner, I started work on my fridge which needed a really good clear out.  I had bought a load of veg on Saturday and needed to get the bulk of the green stuff in there, which I did on Saturday.  However there were a load of root veggies as well which needed to get in there.  The reason I have added so much on this shop is that I am attempting to get some of the veggies (not all) into the freezer in order that we have a supply of veg available to us in here.  Predominantly though the freezer contents will be put over to meat, however just need a few things in there.

The bottom half of the fridge has therefore received a really good strip and scrub out and the veggies popped in there.  I have the rest of the fridge to do, but that will probably be on Monday now.  In any event a job that needed doing and another thing off the check list.

Dinner was lovely and tasty.  Plus we have a duplicate meal for tomorrow which frees me up to do other pottering jobs and get other things off the check list.  Sadly by its very nature Monday tends to be the day when I do try and get a lot of washing done, weather permitting.  Having a meal ready prepared gives me a bit more time to do things.

Monday

Did not end up as anticipated.  I was going to do a load of washing.  In the end I have managed to get a couple of boil washes done.  I tend to check the weather forecast these days as to when I try to do a load of washing.  I only put the tumbler on if absolutely necessary.  If washing is hung outside to dry it always smells so much fresher.  Getting the bulk of it dry naturally helps a lot, if needs to go into the tumbler then at least it will not take so long.  That is my logic in any event.  Weather forecast for tomorrow shows low percentage of showers now (earlier on it was showing as a fine day).  Think it will be Thursday or Friday before will get a clear run.  Will see what happens.

It has been a very bitty day with nothing really much achieved although bits have been done.  I also ended up receiving a book I have wanted for quite a few years; a preserving book by Pam the Jam (Pam Corbin), called the Book of Preserves.  Have managed to have a little look and I think that there are several recipes that I would like to try in there.

I still have preserving to do, and vegetables to get into the freezer.  I also have some tidying to do in the dining room and some sorting.  So it is going to be a busy day tomorrow in any event.

Neither of us wanted a cooked tea tonight; therefore that has been postponed until tomorrow.  All the food is in the fridge in any event.  We just had cheese and crackers (well we do have a lot of it).  I had cooked G a full breakfast earlier on in any event.

Arms are still playing up from the jabs on Saturday.  Finding it difficult to get comfy in bed at night.  It will soon pass though.

Have a lovely evening.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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