Getting Ready for Christmas

Today has been all about getting ready for Christmas and beyond. Stocking up on ingredients for meals moving forward particularly over this Christmas period.

This year, as it is just the two of us, I have chosen to simplify matters on the food front. We will be eating well in our usual fashion. However I have not been able to do my accumulation of food items as I would normally do a little at a time, and have not been in a position to do what I would normally do or what I wanted to do. That is okay though in the longer term, it is just that sometimes things do not work out how you hoped it would. However, next year I intend to be a little bit different on all fronts. I have decided to take hold of the household reins again a little bit tighter and being more selective in my choices and I will be making a lot more stuff including a lot more home prepared food items for use in my Christmas Pantry rather than buying and paying a lot of money. I will as usual only be buying base ingredients and take it from there.

As most of you know, I am very much an ingredients cook, preferring to buy in ingredients rather than just pre-prepared stuff all the time. This is not because of "snobbishness", but purely down to the reason that the Doctors have indicated that I should not eat a lot of pre-prepared stuff. It means a little more work but at the end of the day I am trying to work with a lot of my conditions with the hope that I can better my situation in the longer term or at least stabilise them to where they have been.

This morning has been a very productive one. Went to Grasmere Farm for Sausage meat bought 6 sticks of premium sausage-meat 2 for £10. Bit cheaper than just buying one stick which is £5.15.

Then went on to Tallington Farm shop. From the meat man (who trades from a Lorry here) Farm to Fork bought a Loin of Pork which has cut down to 4 good sized joints, £25. A Gammon £13, 2.6kg and two Black puddings. I popped all the meat products into a tray in order that I could carry them easily and then get into the freezer from here. Photo further down.

Then off to see Curtis at the Farm shop. Have come away with loads of PSB, a very large Cauliflower, Savoy cabbage, carrots, broccoli, turnip, parsnips, mushrooms field ones, 2kg of Chestnuts (£4 a kilo), cherry tomatoes x 3, a Brussel sprout stalk.

We are still wading through the big sack of Maris Piper which bought for £10 last time and therefore did not need to buy potatoes today. These are the best potatoes have had for a long time absolutely excellent and all the potatoes in the full sack are a fair size and no bruising inside them.

Also bought a tray of Clementines for £3.50 from local shop.

Now looking for a tray of grapes.

All the meat purchased this morning has now all been prepped up for the freezer now to squeeze it in. Have also prepped up Chipolatas, stewing steak and Pigs in blankets. Its all about the ingredients for me.

Now I cannot get anything further in - will need to take some stuff out on Tuesday evening to defrost for Christmas Day dinner before I can get anything else in. However at least all the important stuff has been dealt with and prepped.  Together with the Turkey, there will also be cooked Gammon and cooked Beef to have as part of the cold cuts platters. Any meat left over will be stored in gravy (the beef) so as not to waste any and will then be frozen. No waste if I can help it here. We shall eat well at the end of the day and have meals moving forward and for when pennies are tighter. Planned meals will be simple and tasty.

I will probably go back to Tallington Farm shop in a fortnight to top up on all the veggies. That is the frequency which seems to be working for us at the moment and with keeping the fresh veg in the fridge, seems to be working very well. I also have the option of turning the veg into something else or freezing it before it is past its best as well if necessary. I do not like to waste anything if I can help it and there is also the possibility of making soup with anything that is left over.  Fortunately, I also have plenty of eggs as well in order to do a bit of baking. I do need to get some puff pastry a little more veg and some fruit. Will probably deal with that on Tuesday. I am planning on doing some last minute running around then. Normally I do not have to do this as I manage to get everything sorted well in advance. Hiccups happen. Not if I can help it for next year. New regime going to be tried overall which I hope will save time and money and result in things being in place when they need to be. We do not do bad generally speaking, but there is always room for improvement.

I hope everyone else's preparations are moving along nicely in the greater scheme of things.

Will be another early morning tomorrow as I do need to nip into town before then going onto hopefully a local Farm shop.

Take care.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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