Gathering Things Together

Brghh it is cold.  We have Snow forecast with a yellow warning for ice until tomorrow evening.  I have not moved far, and so am taking advantage of the sit down time.  Basically, just planning and plotting and slowly gathering some items together for some up and coming projects.  Not getting stuck in per se just yet.

I have bought in some Litmus paper for testing PH which is needed for a couple of upcoming projects I have in the pipeline. Not strictly necessary but something I am choosing to do for my own understanding more than anything else.

Cheesemaking

I regularly make homemade yogurt, but I want to step this up a bit and start making my own cheese.  There  a few basic items I need though. and I have subsequently ordered these in.  I have ordered a couple of books; one a cheesemaking book i.e. the River Cottage Cheese and Dairy book  the other a book on vegan alternatives to dairy, called The Vegan Dairy by Catherine Atkinson. I also bought some rennet, Mesophilic starter culture, and calcium chloride.  I already have two containers I can use for culturing milk an electric soup urn and also the bowl to my Ninja Foodi on the yogurt setting for fermenting the milk. I have options.  I also have several small cheese moulds, and other cheesemaking paraphernalia.  I also have white bowls and sieves and a colander as well as copious amounts of Muslin.

Meat Preserving

I recently bought in the Paul Peacock The Home Deli book which is a little gem which I am looking forward to trying out some recipes from. I have also ordered a couple of meat preserving books.  The first is The Home Charcuterie by Paul Thomas.  I have also ordered a Jane Grigson book called Charcuterie and French Pork Cookery.  I want to have a look at both books and then I may invest in a couple of kits to get me started with different types of meat curing/preserving.  Or indeed I may start off with Pork Pie making and then have a go at making some Salami and/or Chorizo and other items further down the line.  I am keen to have a go at making some Salt Beef (which is lovely in sandwiches) and eventually some Pastrami - I love this.  So will see what happens.

Pork Pie, is a big thing here and I did attend a training course a while back. I have my own Dolly mould, and various pie tins. Time to get stuck in and make it a permanent feature.  In the past I have made them and also a feasting pie which turned out very nice indeed.  I really need to get to grips with this and if necessary have a once a month session in making various pies, then freezing them raw, cook them and then cool down and add the jelly to ensure that I have a supply of suitable pies (especially for next Christmas) which I could potentially make through the year, or have a day making at the beginning of November thus ensuring a stock of something we do like. It is far easier to take something out of the Freezer, put it straight into the oven and "fresh bake" it rather than set too and start from scratch at a very busy time.  Rather than feeling pressured to get everything done in one session, this can be eased over a few sessions with the minimum of fuss.  Sometimes we can get overwhelmed with things we want to do when coming to putting them into action.  I am trying to stop the overwhelm.  However my basic desire is to eat well at all times.  Am therefore really going to play and get a healthy stock into the freezer.  Will save time and money overall and hopefully be what we want and are looking for in a pie or two.

I already have the ingredients (i.e. chicken livers, pork belly and pigs liver) in the freezer for making Chicken Liver pate, and Savoury Ducks (a type of faggot) and Haslet.  So plenty for me to experiment with and to add variety to our eating.

I love nice things, I love good food but you do not have to pay an arm or a leg for things or indeed "buy into the over-commercialised side of Christmas".  Much of this Christmas to come I intend to be as homemade as possible and hopefully will have some home grown veggies and fruit to add to the stock of food as well.

December was always a busy month in my Nan's kitchen. Everything was always cooked on her vintage Rayburn wood fired oven.  The family certainly when I was under seven used to go to my Nan and Pop's home for Christmas every year spending at least three to four days with them.  The house was always a hive of industry, in the preparations for Christmas.  Hard work yes, lovely food definitely, and a different type of Christmas altogether but far more satisfying and people were happier everyone helped and even us littlies were given jobs. Laying the Christmas table with the basics was always one of my jobs.  Then Nan or Mum would come in and faff with the pretty decorative bits. Nan would cook a Tongue, a Ham, Brawn and then there would be the Goose for Christmas dinner. Often there was Pheasant too as they lived in the country and it was common for a brace to be dropped off (in payment for apples from the orchards earlier in the year).  We always had the Goose that was running around the Orchard during the Summer for Christmas dinner.  It is a long time since I have had Goose to eat - over 40 years.  G has never had Goose, and I cannot really remember whether I like it or not.  I believe I did as a child, but then we had to eat everything then.  I do like Duck, Pheasant, Guinea Fowl, Chicken.

This house where we live is unfortunately not an "entertaining" house. It is a bit like playing "sardines" though. My home when I was married was a lot bigger than this house is with a lot bigger kitchen about three times the size of the one here, an extra large dining room and also lovely large Lounge.

As I say, plotting and planning at the moment with a view to learning new skills and implementing them more into our general eating and having the opportunity to mix our diet up a little bit.

Looking forward to the Playing.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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