Pulling things together

I was absolutely shattered last night after all the waiting around and then starting to sort the Freezer out.  I actually went to bed for a lay down and then fell asleep. Unusual for me. I had gone cold and fortunately this has now warmed me up as I got under the quilt and cover. I have had the most horrendous cramp in my poorly leg.  I went yesterday to get the prescription for the cream the Doctor has prescribed.  Unfortunately they did not have it in stock but it should be in tomorrow.  I have therefore just been resting my leg and doing a few leg and feet exercises as well.  It  will take me a few days to get back to some kind of normal.

Medication cream has now arrived and will be put into use.

However, I have a lot to do.

Today's mission is to sort out the side Dresser that contains most of my jars that will not fit in the Pantry.  It needs a good general tidy up and the Dresser needs a good wipe down and a bit of a polish.  It really needs stripping, sanding, a bit of TLC, new brass handles and then a new finish.  I am unsure as to how to approach this, but any help or ideas would be gratefully received.  I have had these Dressers since I was about 20 years of age; about 45 years all told. Pre-G.  They have seen a lot of family life with animals and also children.  They do need sorting though.  There are a few stains that need to come out of the tops as well.  They were beautiful but now need bringing back to life again.  There is a corner Dresser and the two 6ft+ Dressers to sort out at some point.  I also need to sort the contents out of each Dresser. Obviously I am not going to tackle the restoration of the pine pieces today, but they will get a good clean down and a good sort out. Then that complete run of the Dining room wall will be completed.  I also need to sort out one of the two tower stacks I have for housing a lot of hand equipment as well.  Whether that will be achieved in a day or not I am unsure.  However am intent on getting the dining room sorted as much as I can.  I can then re-sort the kitchen and the bathroom once that has been tackled.  Sometimes you just really have to get stuck in.

I may have to go out though to the Butcher at some point to top up.  Will see how things go. Did not make today; maybe tomorrow.  I quite fancy seeing how much a couple of pork bellies will cost and then joint them down, stuffed with my homemade stuffing and rolled then cooked for roast pork joints.  A family favourite.

There are also a couple of small preserving projects that I want to get underway in any event. However more on that a little later on.  I am focusing on Citrus fruits this week. So far I have bought £4 worth of Lemons (i.e. 3 for £1) which equates to 12 Lemons.  I will be buying more in as I have several Lemon projects to do this week.

One thing I am on the lookout for though is a very large Cast Iron Casserole for cooking bread in.  Do not want to pay through the nose for it either. So will see what turns up.

I also need to bag up the open-frozen items that were prepared last night i.e. the White Pudding, Black Pudding, Fruit Pudding and Lorne Sausage slices.  They were soon frozen and that is one of the first jobs to be tackled today.

Let us see where today leads.  Upwards and onwards.

I should have posted the above separately first thing, but by the time I got up it was too late to do so.  I have therefore incorporated into one long post.

The first thing in line to be done is to decant the frozen sliced food which was open-frozen last night into bags where we can dip in and out and get as much or as little of the relevant item as we need.  On average it tends to be two to three bits each time, but this gives a little bit more flexibility on servings.  Say for instance someone comes around unexpectedly, at least I have something to offer that can be cooked pretty quickly.

Achieved all of this reasonably quickly.  Managed to stash everything in either one big bag or two smaller ones. This was why I open-froze the items so that they would not stick together.  All the bags have been marked up and dated as well.

The first batch of plain ice cubes have also been decanted and popped into their storage tray for use going forward.  A second tray has been made.  I may well decant a supply into a bag for the main part of the freezer as well, especially as I want to use the ice when pastry making and possibly for cooling things down when preserving such tomatoes or peaches.  Helps with getting the skins off.

I also have plans for freezing lemon, Mandarin/orange and Lime slices for drinks and cooking as well generally, although am thinking long-term of Christmas here.  They will be open-frozen on clean trays and then decanted into little tubs.  I also intend to make some herb butters and store them in cubes and maybe some veg cubes as well.  It is always the little things that finish meals off, the little touches as it were.

Then I started my Fermented Lemon in Honey.  This makes a super flavoured warm drink that does not have that honey smell that some people cannot cope with.  The clear honey I use is only a cheap blended honey, but honey is honey.  I shall put up a post about this later on for those of you who want to have a go.  

I must confess, I have been and bought another 9 Lemons.  I do have a lot of Lemon preserves coming up this week and probably more on top of that as well including Lemon curd.

I also am going to start a Ginger Bug to be used as the base for Ginger beer but also for using as the base for a Lemon drink which is probiotic.  I also bought a couple of large Sweetheart cabbages and intend to start off some Saurkraut off as well.  I have made this before and G did not mind it, therefore want to have another crack at it.  I am relatively new to Fermenting items and am still learning myself.  The first batch I did not pack down as tightly as I should have done, and I did not put a cabbage leaf on the top to help hold the contents down together with a glass lid to be used as a weight (both of which I intend to do this time around).  Will see how it goes otherwise.

Also pickled cucumber, Piccalilli, pickled beetroot are also on the cards.

Let us just say that there are a few things on the Agenda.  Fingers crossed I get all of them accomplished.

Busy days ahead, how I like it, but once in a while appreciate I need to come up for air.

Tea tonight has been a mixed bag using up things that had to hand. I had been to the shop and managed to find a couple of ready made prawn cocktails that had been reduced from £6 for buying two together to £2 each.  I could cope with that and so it made a nice treat.  Then I cooked up some fresh Corn on the Cob that was bought at the weekend, just simply served with butter.  My oh my was it delicious.  This is the only way I like Sweetcorn it was sweet and very tasty.  Then I cooked up the last of the Toulouse sausages for G.  Pudding is some jam donuts (for me) and a mug of tea.  So a bit of a bitty tea but have enjoyed it

My legs are hurting again off to pop them up for a while and to see if this cream will make any difference to the irritation on my legs.  Blinking varicose veins!

Have a lovely evening everyone.  We have Flu and Covid Booster injections to have tomorrow morning.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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