Well hiccups happen

On all sorts of things and in real life.

It started on Sunday;

All my plans for Sunday were scuppered when G decided that he wasn't going fishing after all.

I therefore concentrated on preparing our first Sunday night roast in a little while.  It has felt good and I have enjoyed my cooking.

As well as buying all the veg from Tallington Farm shop on Friday we also purchased meat from the Butcher who has a van on site.  Some Smoked Back Bacon was purchased normally £10 a pack for 2kg or buy two packs for £15.,  Christmas dinner was also purchased.  We are having Turkey breast for Christmas Dinner. (The Turkey breast £34 for a 2.8kg breast, is now packed up and in the freezer).  One less thing to think of. We also came away with a Loin of Pork roasting joint.  The joints were on offer two for £15.  G chose to swap out a 2kg pack of Bacon instead of buying a second joint.  Next time though will go for the joints as Pork Loin is also ideal for making home made Back Bacon.  I am itching to have a go again.

This is the Loin joint that G came away with and it is a lovely size for £7!

The meat is also extremely good quality.  This was the Loin joint before it was cooked.

On opening the new sack of Maris Piper potatoes, was pleased to find that a lot of the potatoes are very large sized and this would appear to be throughout the bag.  Normally you just tend to get the big uns on the top.  Not so in this case.  £10 for the 25kg bag.  And they are really good quality no bruising or unnecessary marking in them.  I opted for potatoes in soil as it helps keep the potato that bit longer.

The Cauliflower and Broccoli all prepared in readiness for dinner.  Superb quality.

This was just two large carrots used .  When I cook a joint of any kind I tend to prep up the veg for two meals so that we can have two hot meals running.  Then any meat and gravy is frozen together in the freezer to form the basis of another meal for another day.

Just look at this Purple Sprouting Broccoli.  Superb!

Beautiful Crackling

And a lovely meal.  Was very tasty.  It was also served with my homemade Apple sauce made the other week.  Was spot on and not too sweet which was what I was aiming for.  There is a little sugar in, but not massive amounts.  The recipe I used was for the Chunky Apple Sauce.

Must say that it roasted up lovely and excellent crackling too.

Not content with cooking a super dinner.  I decided to also cook up a homemade crumble using a jar of my preserved Wild Blackberries in syrup.  I used a pint jar.  The Berries had been preserved in an extremely light syrup and these were spot on.  Not over-sweet which is also what I was aiming for. All I did was add in a large Bramley cooking apple (fresh) and sliced and then mixed in with the drained Blackberries.  Has come up very well and as we prefer not too sweet, hardly any sugar was added apart from to the crumble topping.  Went down very nicely indeed.

So all in all a very tasty and filling dinner.  And the bonus, because I took the time out to prepare the extra veggies all I have to do is warm up the meals tomorrow (Monday) and we will have a duplicate meal.  Saves a lot of time and energy on all fronts in the longer term.

It also makes a very big difference in being able to source really good produce at good prices as well.  Your ingredients when it comes to cooking are what you are trying to make the best of, and it is the veggies that are often the bigger part of the meal than the meat.  You need both, but everything is about moderation at the end of the day.

Monday

Was a wet and horrible day where not much got done at all.  It was cold and wet and we stayed in the house as much as possible.

We had a lovely duplicate meal - the same as yesterday and it went down an absolute treat.  I also have meat and gravy for the freezer.

G decided he is fishing tomorrow as it looks as though it will be one of the better days for the next week or so.  Hopefully will be able to get on a bit then.

Hope everything is okay in your part of the world.

Take care.

Pattypan

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