Starting to get there and Foodie Bits

 Back into the kitchen today and have been stuck in sorting out what goes where.  I have started although not completed cleaning cupboards and re-arranging appliances. I have a big box of herbs and spices to sort out and decant where I can into jars as well.  That will have to wait for another time though.  I also have two drawer towers double stacked (four units) which I store my hand appliances in as I have no drawers at all in my kitchen and do not have room for any.  These provide a home in the meantime.  However I also need to start working my way through drawer by drawer and organising the tools so that I can find things quickly and easily.  I am intent on concentrating on the kitchen at the moment as I want to do a bit more work to it

I have several Pantry projects to complete i.e. make up my own mixes for different things the most pressing of which is the different bread machine sachets I use.  Makes it easier for me when I am in a hurry.  Those will be made  up first followed by my Dumpling mixes.  Some of the Dumpling mixes are left plain but others have mixed herbs in them.

At the end of the month I am planning to go to the Butcher to get stocked up on a variety of different meats including meat for turning into other items such as Haslet, Savoury Ducks, Pork Pies, Scotch Eggs, a Ham.  I really want to have a go at curing my own Charcuterie items this year.  I am eager to get into a routine of doing this as buying it in packets is expensive (Charcuterie), Salami, Pastrami, Braesola, cured Sausages  In the past have cured own Pork Belly and made Bacon. different Terrines and Pates and Gravadlax (herbed cured Salmon) which both turned out very well and we enjoyed them.  I am planning for Christmas 2026 to have a choice of different meats, pies, fish, pates that sort of thing homemade a bit at a time rather than having to go and buy a lot of stuff in.  For this last Christmas I already had in-house a lot of different meats in the Freezer available to us.  I bought these in on different offers or chance finds and I am so glad I did.  I took the view that I was going to be doing a lot of preparation cooking before Christmas and for the Christmas meal and if I chose too a few things in-between.  After the main meal at Christmas we always have cut and come again meals with cold meats, pies, quiches. flans that sort of thing with pickles, chutneys, relishes which makes eating easy.  This took me back to my childhood as these were the type of Christmas's I grew up with.  I shall be doing the same again for Christmas 2026.  Yes I am already planning.  I am very much an ingredients cook in any event however I am also realistic and time is my enemy whenever I do anything as I always take my time when doing something which makes me slow.

Everything I am doing is somehow connected to other things that are also going on in the background.  There is a natural rhythm to what is planned overall.   

I also want to re-introduce Baking Days, however I am a little way off that at the moment until the Kitchen and the Pantry are back under control.

We were down to -5 last night and it was really cold; fortunately the heating kept coming on sporadically to try and keep this very cold house a little warmer.

The snow is starting to dissipate but is not clearing fast.  It has been cold again today but not at the moment as cold as yesterday.

Yesterday we finished off the batch of French Onion soup I made the other day.  It was delicious.  Will be making more soup this week probably a vegetable one.

Another warm comfort meal is therefore on the cards again for today. We are having Toad in the Hole with mashed potatoes, steamed cabbage and onion gravy.  Keeping things simple.

I was in the middle of cooking this evening's tea and I went to the fridge to find what I thought was Cabbage in the Fridge (It was Purple Sprouting Broccoli) and found that the Freezer and the Fridge were not connected to the Electric.  Mass panic as they are stuffed to the Gunnels.  Therefore spent an interesting couple of hours trying to get them back on again.  Heating also went off. After dealing with what we thought the issue was, went in to flip the mains switch and it was not having it.  Turns out that there is a problem in the kitchen.  Have disconnected all the appliances for this evening and will deal with it tomorrow.  However the Fridge and the Freezer are now back on.  Phew!

Managed to get tea and it was lovely and warming.  Some evenings are a little more interesting than others.  We could have done without the excitement!

Have a lovely evening everyone; keep safe and warm.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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