Wednesday and Thursday

Busy, Busy, Busy.  It is how I like things generally speaking although I do like to come up for air and do something different.  Things are likely to be very busy until Christmas.

Wednesday

Yesterday was a fighting day.  Everything I touched ended up taking me in a different direction and then G wanted some assistance with something, so I may as well not have bothered at all as not much achieved.  

Today however:

G ordered proper Cornish Pasties from a company in Cornwall called "Proper Job".  They arrived this morning, were frozen and we had eight traditional Beef Skirt Pasties arrive with four Sausage Rolls.  I quickly got those out of their packing which was excellent, plenty of cold bags that were still frozen in a Polystyrene container.  I can recycle this for taking cold stuff down to the caravan or using it for growing seedlings in the greenhouse for an early start.  The ice bags can also be re-used and re-frozen so ideal for taking stuff with us down to the caravan.  The pasties were excellent and very tasty.

Saying that though I did pull a later night in order to get all the tomatoes processed and roasted which I did manage to achieve, and I did get to string a lot of herbs as well that were left over.  Kitchen smelt wonderful from the Basil, Garlic, Thyme and Sage.  A lot of the Sage is strung on my Dresser drying. This is intended for the Sage and Onion Stuffing for the Roast Turkey for Christmas.  The bread crumbs are already dried and in the Pantry.

I ended up processing four large roasting trays of tomatoes overall (three of them today) the first one was started last night.  All got cooked today. I am hoping for about four or five jars from the contents.

Now I will process the tomatoes tomorrow and get them through the Mouli, before warming the resultant sauce and then transferring into warm jars for heat processing.  That will be a few jars for the Pantry shelf.  Smells gorgeous and already tastes very good.  I will probably make another batch as well as I use a lot of tomatoes. I have processed about 6 kilos of tomatoes since Tuesday.

I also prepared, cubed, blanched, drained and cooled four more reduced Swedes.  There are three hefty bags which have been flat packed now residing in the Freezer.

There are a whole host of other projects on the go as well.  It therefore looks as though it is going to be an early start tomorrow morning to get a wriggle on with all the bits and bobs that need sorting out.

Organised delivery of a specific cheese for the Christmas celebrations.  It is a once a year job when we can afford it, but most of our treats tend to be food orientated in any event. We do not go out, we do not go to the Pub, or go out anywhere  We like our food and tend to push the boat out on things we do like every so often.  However, it is push the boat out and often have compensated elsewhere in the household budget like not having a roast every Sunday like we used to do, or not going to the main Butcher that we like and using our much cheaper Butcher; sometimes you have to cut your cloth according to your kelt.  You also have to have things that make your soul sing to eat very occasionally.  Fortunately because I have been doing a bit at a time for the past few weeks in readiness for Christmas, it has eked the pennies out that bit more and we have obtained several bargains as a result and it has certainly helped me time wise.

Thursday

Ordered the rest of the cheese from a different supplier.  Just some Stilton and a little Baron Bigod.  That is the cheese all sorted now bearing in mind I have a big lump of Cheddar for general cooking residing in the fridge.  Some of the cheese I have ordered is really stinky and so I need a separate container for that.  That should be arriving in a few days time so must source a container.  This should keep until the end of January, but I could not be doing with the Christmas rush!

Outline Plans at the moment today are:

• Process the Tomatoes and heat process; 11 Pint Jars all told.  Pretty pleased with this.  Will probably do another batch in another few days.

Not much done today, but hey what I have done is a big bit all told.  Hopefully will get a wriggle on tomorrow.

Tea tonight was fish, chips and mushy peas.  Went down very nicely.

Keep warm and safe wherever you are.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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