CHRISTMAS WEEK!

I had a lovely Christmas weekend of not cooking as Xmas Eve was Saturday and partner cooks anyway and Xmas Day the man feels like it’s his job and always takes over the kitchen. Woo hoo!! 

So, slow cooked haunch of venison (I put money in the local butchers Xmas fund every month so we can have a decent bit of game as no-one likes turkey in this household) along with roast potatoes, parmesan parsnips ala Delia Smith, Brussel sprouts cooked with bacon, mashed potato, carrots, homemade gravy, Yorkshire puddings (normal and gluten free for me) and gluten free chipolatas (courtesy of the butcher).  He also insisted on steaming the Xmas pudding we’d made and defrosting a pavlova even though I knew none of it would be eaten as we’d all be stuffed with the main course; which we were.

Barmbrack

Boxing Day was cold cooked ham, leftover venison, cheese, salad and pickles; traditional I know, but rather lovely and I actually prefer it to the big event day’s food as I do like to pick.  Barmbrack was also served up, but very little was eaten as, once again, we were all stuffed.

Tuesday I decided to check out what was left in the fridge; plenty of cheese, mushrooms, leftover meat (still!!!), salad stuff and the remaining cooked veg from the big day, so I decided to blitz the veg and some cooked bacon and make, sort of, bubble and squeak patties which I froze flat on a tray ready for removing individually as and when we need them.  As I was off out early, I left them to fend for themselves as there were still plenty of leftovers.

'Bubble & Squeak' Patties

Wednesday, son had a mate round so I thought pasta would probably go down well all round. Fried off some chopped mushrooms, a courgette, one onion and some garlic in butter, stirred in half a glass of flat champers and then whisked 2 egg yolks into rest of tub of the cream and topped up with milk before pouring into the pan to make a creamy sauce.  I then added the last of the ham which I’d chopped up into smaller strips.  Once pasta was cooked I strained off the majority of the water and stirred in the cream sauce.  As it was still hot and only just cooked the pasta soaked up the sauce pretty well and was promptly devoured by all.

Didn’t feel too great on Thursday so knew it was going to be a chuck it together dinner again.  Veg tray contained a ton of veg still including carrots, celeriac, red onions, celery and red cabbage.  Also still had quarter of a sack of spuds, so used up the last of the carrots, half of the celery and celeriac, 3 red onions, garlic, potatoes.  Chopped up into cubes and shoved into a roasting tray with chopped rosemary and oil and roasted off for 40mins before lightly crushing and roasting for a further 10mins.  Served this with the last of the venison in which I stirred half the remaining gravy and a huge dollop of hips and haws jelly.  Wasn’t the most complicated of dinners, but was rather tasty. Froze the remaining gravy as it won’t get used up otherwise and I hate waste.  It’ll get put into a pie at some point in the future.

So I still have half a celeriac, a red cabbage, onions, mushrooms, salad leaves, tomatoes, half a red pepper, leeks and celery left!  Also cheese, nuts, cake and half a Xmas pud!  Hmmm, nut roast I think is required and probably a couple of pots of soup! As I have plenty of chocolate in the baking part of the cupboard I can see Xmas pud truffles being made if no-one eats it up soon.

Have a great new year people!!

BIT LATE! KITCHEN DAY ON 19TH DECEMBER

Well the week started better than last week that’s for sure.  Woke up after a proper night’s sleep; first one since last Tuesday, and didn’t have a headache!!!!  So an afternoon in the kitchen was called for.

Barmbrack needed to be finished so mixed the dry ingredients into a bowl, added the egg, mixed as best as possible and poured the now well soaked fruit into the mix and stirred it all together with a wooden spoon.  Transferred to loaf tins and baked for an hour and fifteen minutes until knife came out clean.  Smelt beautiful and I much prefer this to a Christmas cake.

Barmbrack recipe (this makes one loaf tin, I doubled to make two):

375g dried mixed fruit

50ml whiskey

250ml cold tea

225g plain flour

2tsp baking powder

125g soft light brown sugar (although I use Sainsbury normal caster sugar as it’s sugar beet and not sugar cane and therefore grass free)

½ - 1tsp of mixed spice

1 large egg

Mix the cold tea and the whiskey in a jug and pour over the dried fruit in a large bowl.  Leave overnight to soak.  The following day mix the flour, baking powder, sugar and mixed spice into another large bowl, beat in the egg and the liquid from the soaked fruit a little at a time to form a soft dough consistency, then stir in the fruit.  Because of the type of flour I use, I tend to just tip the fruit and the liquid all in at the same time as the flours do absorb quite a bit.  Turn into a loaf tin, I think mine is a 2lb one but you’ll know what size tin it will fit into, and bake in the oven at 170C for 1hour or until knife/skewer comes out clean.

This should be kept for at least 1-2 days before eating and can be sliced and eaten as it is or spread with butter.  I love it and you may have noticed that there is no fat used in it.

I wrapped one in foil and put in tin for Christmas and the other was wrapped and frozen for later.

I also indulged in a rather extravagant game pie recipe that was in my Farmhouse Cookery book.  I made one large one for us to freeze for later and a smaller one to give as a present to someone who has been dropping hints ever since I mentioned I’d made a game pie a few weeks ago.

Also made Brownies using Chilli Chocolate so I had something to give to a couple of people and some left for us.

SINUS, HEADACHES AND A DAY IN THE KITCHEN

Well, we are still getting kale, parsnips, cabbage, swede, leeks, chillis and turnips from the garden although it is all beginning to look a little bedraggled as we’ve had some early morning frosts and a fair amount of fog this week.  There is also fresh mint, thyme, oregano and marjoram, sage, bay and rosemary.  Rest of garden needs a good tidy which might have to wait until after Christmas now as I have to get on in the kitchen.

This week hasn’t been too brilliant as I ended up with sinus problems which made me feel like I’d been punched in the face and the headaches were awful.  Also not sleeping too good; combine the two and you’re not looking at a very productive week.

So Monday’s leftovers were turned into a pasta dish with the remaining roots in the cupboard.  Tuesday’s slow cooker dish was a white fish chowder using up the oddments of frozen fish, some green beans, potatoes, onions, leftover cream and veg stock with a bit of mashed potato added to help thicken. Wednesday was a fry up of bacon, gf sausages, eggs, beans and mushrooms and Thursday’s slow cooker meal was a Sumatran Lamb Curry which I found in my new Farmhouse Cookery book.  Used my spice grinder for the first time on this and I think it is now my favourite piece of kitchen equipment along with the zest grater.

Started feeling a little more with it by the weekend and after a lovely woodland walk with a mate on the Friday to clear the cobwebs I made Chilli Chocolate Brownies and soaked the fruit for Barmbrack on the Saturday.  Partner was out most of the day and all of the evening which meant a free kitchen.

Started on the Xmas decs at the weekend too; we have a real tree and I don’t like my decs up too early, so it’s normally the weekend before Christmas that they all go up.

Anyway, as promised, I can now list the flour combination that I use.  So if you are gluten free and/or have a problem with rice (as I do) this is it:

1 cup of potato flour

1 cup of gram (chickpea) flour

1 cup of soya flour

1 cup of buckwheat flour

½ cup of coconut flour

I’m sure that you could replace the coconut flour with ground almonds (need to experiment), but I would definitely include some sort of nut flour (unless you are allergic) as it seems to keep the moisture so I can now, eventually, make a decent shortcrust pasty.  If you are worried about using soya or can’t use, up the ratios of the other flours; as long as the potato, gram and buckwheat are of equal quantities you could miss out the soya.  I make this up as I need it and this quantity gives at least 8oz-10oz of plain flour (depending on size of the cup).  I have a large Kilner jar that I measure it all into and shake the crap out of it to mix it up.  I then top up as and when I need it, so if having a baking day that could be several times.  Most of these flours are of reasonable cost.  You could replace the soya with quinoa flour, but that is rather expensive in comparison to the others.

Cya next week

KITCHEN BLITZ AND PLANNING

Hi all,

This week has been clearing out the fridge and freezer of any bits and bobs and frozen 'half' dinners so that I have a fresh freezer to fill with baking and all the final leftovers have been used. I try and do this at the beginning of most months, but definitely at the beginning of December as there will be cakes, extra bread, Christmas Day meat, pastry, biscuit dough and all the other extras that will be needed over the festive season, although I'm sure that some of it will be still there in January.  Also the kitchen itself gets a winter clean with cupboards and drawers cleared out of 'stuff' and washed down along with double checking on cleaning tiles and those hard to reach corners.  Why I do a winter clean I don't know, but it's become traditional for me to do a pre-Christmas blitz.

So after a mega blitz, Monday's dinner was a big moroccan spiced 'stew' made from a fairly large, already moroccan spiced, veg dish I found in the freezer, last week's sweet potatoes, tomatoes and carrots, quorn pieces, lambs lettuce (in place of spinach) and more spice.  This was basically shoved in the slow cooker all afternoon whilst I cleaned the kitchen.

Stores cupboard (left side)

Stores cupboard (right side)

Tuesday was breakfast with a friend I hadn't seen for a while, bit of shopping, posting a parcel and some Xmas cards and then work in the evening.  I have to admit that after a very large breakfast I wasn't that hungry before work, so I passed the responsibility of dinner onto my partner and requested he bunged a pizza in the oven for me for when I got home.  Sainsbury do a rather good gluten free pizza and I do tend to keep a couple in the freezer for those days when either I really fancy one or when the boys are having them themselves; normally a Saturday when it's partner's turn to 'cook'.

Mushroom 'risotto' on Wednesday as I had a tonne of mushrooms in the fridge.  The risotto is in quotation marks as I didn't have risotto rice so used quick cook long grain rice instead.  After frying off some onion and the tonne of mushrooms in some olive oil, adding plenty of fresh thyme from the garden and a twist or two of black pepper and salt, I added this and a large mug of rice to an oven proof casserole dish, then added two mugs of boiling water, gave it all a stir and put in the oven, covered in foil, for 20mins on 180C.  Another stir and more boiling water, about another mugful, and back in the oven for another 10mins whilst I grated a largish piece of parmessan and a big chunk of cheddar.  Out of the oven again, check to see if rice cooked and then stir in all of the cheese.  Check seasoning, add a little more water if dry and back in oven for another five mins to melt the cheese.  Voila!

Thursday was another slow cooker day as it was son's weekly group trampolining lesson and then back to work a couple of hours later.  This time it was an 'anything goes' stew, meaning leftover roast veggies from the weekend, couple of spoonfuls of mashed potato which thicken the stew, sweetcorn, any veggies that were found in the bottom of the fridge, tin of tomatoes, tin of beans and some water.  Plenty of salt and pepper and herbage and I've finally got rid of all the odds and sods.  Hoorah!!

Friday is my first day of not cooking dinner, so after a private lesson in trampolining for my son, it was home to wade through a pile of cookery books with a cuppa and plan out some menus/dishes for the next couple of weeks so that I don't have to think too hard about what to cook whilst I get on with baking, present wrapping, decorating and card writing.  Shopping lists written and I can relax for the weekend. Although I actually did a fair amount of visiting, shopping and a rather lovely amble around a Christmas Fair where I bought a rather ingenious bowl that folds flat when not needed, so not a huge amount of sitting and relaxing, but was a well spent weekend.

Chicken Bowl

Chicken Bowl flat

Do you think this lot will fit in the bowl??

WINTER IS MOST DEFINITELY HERE AND I'M BACK!

Sorry, sorry, sorry.  I've not been posting as the past couple of months have been mentally rather draining and time in the kitchen was limited to quick meals, old favourites and not a lot of baking. Been dealing with family issues, but that is now over (for the time being) and I'm getting my mojo back. Oh and I now work two evenings a week which means I've been getting to grips with the slow cooker.

I have a new friend in the kitchen who I have affectionally called Alfred, after the King who alledgedly burnt the cakes.  He's a garden spider and although I normally hate spiders; huge arachnaphobe, I've become quite attached to him and as he isn't bothering me, I'm not bothering him.

Alfred the Spider

Not a good photo admitedly but hey. :-D

So, Winter is here and the garden is producing leeks, turnips, kale, parsnips and swede.  There is a lot of clearing up to do and some cutting back, although now the frosts have arrived I might have to leave that until Spring.  Ivy and Castor Oil Plant is producing berries and I have robins hiding and popping out for seed in and amongst them. I may also have a wren, but it's so quick I can't ID it properly.  Tiny thing.  Plus there is the usual sparrows, collared doves and pigeons, blue tits, great tits and the occasional magpie and crow.

So what have I been doing in the kitchen for past week or so?  Well, firstly there was Stir Up Sunday! Has become a family tradition over the years to get the kids, and now grandchild, to come over for Sunday dinner (meaning daughter and granddaughter come over as son already here) and we make up the Christmas pudding mixture ready for steaming the following day and everyone in the family gets a stir and a wish.

The mixture made one large and one small pudding.  The large was steamed the following day overnight and the smaller during the day after; both using the slow cooker meaning I don't have to constantly worry about topping up water and Alfred doesn't get steamed along with the puddings. I've got a timer switch attached to the slow cooker and am wondering why I never thought of doing it before; it's been amazing.

Main Christmas pudding getting it's rewrap after cooking

We also seemed to have a glut of vegetables in the rack at the beginning of the week, so a large chutney making session was in order.  As it had celeriac, onions, apples, green toms from garden (the remaining tomatos after pulling up the last of the plants), butternut squash, raisins, carrots and one parsnip I named it Glut Chutney and followed a basic chutney recipe that I found and added a few tweaks.  It has a fair amount of spice and chilli in it and the initial tasting wasn't bad at all and I'm sure it will mature rather well.

Lots of leftover veggies and a spice bag

Glut Chutney

Also did a couple of jars of pickled celeriac with dill, garlic and turmeric as I had two of those and didn't want to overpower the other veg in the chutney.

Pickled Celeriac

The rest of the week has been basic dinner cooking including mixing the last of the fish pie, which partner made over weekend, with chopped leftover roast veggies, leeks in cheese sauce and remaining sauce in fridge to make a fishy, saucy, bubble and squeaky mix up.  I was actually rather surprised how it turned out as it was lovely and was devoured in minutes by the boys.  Never feel afraid of mixing stuff up a little differently and it's a great way of using up cooked food from weekend to make a simple Monday night dinner.

So, a quickish catch up and hopefully I'll be back to normal with a weekly write up.  It'll be more pickling and chutneying probably over next few weeks and, of course, the big Christmas cook ups with baking.

Cya

UPS AND DOWNS WITH PAIN; BUT AUTUMN DEFINITELY HERE AT LAST.

Been an odd week in the kitchen as I’ve had bouts of back ache and I’ve started a new job two evenings a week, meaning I’m dragging out the slow cooker from the depths of the dusty drawer and using that for dinners.  Not been too adventurous with it at the moment, but I’m sure I’ll start Winging It up within the next few weeks.

On the up side it looks like Autumn has finally arrived.  No more scorching hot days where I neither want to cook, nor bake or, to be honest, do much else.  The weather is still warm, T-shirt weather for me anyway, but with a glorious breeze and there have been a refreshing couple of days of rain.  The tomatoes are continuing to turn red, so I’ll leave them for a few more weeks before I dig them up and use the remaining green toms in either a chutney or ‘marmalade’.

Anyway, back to the week.  Monday didn’t start too fab as woke up with back ache; so a slow start.  Finally cut and rolled up my plum leather and it’s now stored in the cupboard.  Then attacked the basket in the chest freezer to clear out stuff that wouldn’t get used in a month of Sundays and to chuck away ice cubes that had taken on the smell of surrounding foods; not pleasant.  This led to discovering sliced bananas and cut strawberries which I’d frozen to make a ‘healthy’ ice-cream; both were food processed to a smooth creamy consistency and it’s now in an ice-cream tub waiting to be eaten.  Then after squeezing out the remaining juice from the crab apples that had been straining overnight, the juice was measured, sugar added along with lemon juice and crushed dried mint and the whole lot boiled until setting point reached and then jarred; apple and mint jelly!  Quick wash up as kitchen now looked a mess and a quick cuppa before prepping dinner.

Plum Leather

Raided the fridge for any veg that was left which included some celery, a punnet of baby plum tomatoes, three quarters of a red pepper and a small bunch of spring onions; this lot was chopped and poured into a roasting tin with three large garlic cloves, salt, pepper and paprika, bit of olive oil and a glug of balsamic.  Roasted off for 20mins then a tin of chopped tomatoes added and half a large bag of quorn ‘chicken’ cubes and back in the oven for approx another 20mins; served with pasta.  I know I did something similar last week, but it’s nice and simple and can be adapted week by week to use up bits and bobs in the fridge and happens to be, not only simple, but a family favourite.

Fridge raiding

Tuesday was the first of the slow cooker days and, after a morning trip to our local Aldi, it was slow cooked ratatouille with instructions left for partner to cook a jacket spud for me that I could have when I got in at 9.15pm and mashed potato and the buttered chicken pieces I found in yesterday’s freezer raid for them.

Wednesday was non-existent as I woke up feeling awful.  I must have slept awkward, as my spine and surrounding area from back of head all the way down to shoulder blades hurt like hell and it was causing a mini migraine with nausea; so back to bed with ice pack and painkillers for me.  Managed to feel a little better by lunchtime and did paninis with ham, pepperoni, grilled cheese and salad for son’s lunch and a cup of soup for me as still didn’t feel that brill in the stomach area.  By 4pm, I was feeling really rough again, stomach playing up, felt incredibly sleepy and generally unwell, so text partner to say he was in charge of dinner, he did shop bought pizza and garlic bread, and I went back to bed and slept until 7.30pm.  Bake Off on the telly, an episode of Criminal Minds and back in bed by 11pm!!!  Was really annoyed as I’d had to cancel breakfast with a friend that morning.

Luckily, Thursday, I was back on my feet as we had my son’s ESA assessment in the afternoon and I was back in work that evening.  Slow cooker dinner of beef mince, chopped potatoes and carrots, last of the mushrooms, onions and fresh spinach and flavoured with salt, pepper and horseradish mustard.

Friday was a beautiful day and I had intended to do some baking, but decided to have an impromptu trip to Dobbies Garden Centre (https://www.dobbies.com/) instead for a browse and a coffee; bumped in to a friend which was an unexpected bonus.  Needed candles which I managed to get in the sale and after walking around and around the plants for a second time found a gorgeous white old rose in the sale at £7.  I kept picking it up, putting it down and picking it up again; mainly as I was going to have to transport it on the bus and it wasn’t that tiny.  In the end I decided to get it as it was the only one left of its kind and also picked up a packet of perpetual spinach which I should still be able to plant out as it’s still quite warm.  Got to the till, found out the rose had been further reduced and with my 10% off and my £2.80 voucher I got both the seeds and the rose for less than £4; bargain! Mixed salad with cheese and ham for me tonight as they were having chips.

Weekend was shopping and then a glorious walk down by the river to pick rosehips and hawthorns, also managed to find more red crabbies and an eating apple tree; that’s next week sorted out then.

Eaters

Crabbies

Rosehips and Hawthorn berries

Hawthorns

Rosehips

WEATHER IMPROVES! HOORAH!

Rogue raspberry from under fence

Well it's been a week of hit and miss; some days have been brilliant and others have been, shall we say, a little stressful.  But the Wing It kitchen has been reasonably busy along with the Wing It garden.

Monday was last of the frozen pumpkin, last of the carrots from last week and chopped swede, coconut curry.  Problem was I thought I had some coconut milk in the cupboard which I didn't; whoops! I did, however, have desiccated coconut, so I stuck a couple of handfuls in a bowl and poured on boiling water and left for half an hour.  This I then drained and squeezed which gave me a very watery, but coconut flavoured liquid which I used to cook the veggies in before adding the curry spices and the coconut at the end.  Good flavour, but wouldn't recommend swede in a curry unless a tomato based one.

Tuesday was eventful to say the least as I had a hospital appointment to check my ears as I suffered from a dose of tinitus a few months ago and my ears felt blocked, but there was no wax or infection. On the way up to the hospital I get a phone call from a job I'd applied for many months ago asking if I was still interested and would I like to come along for an 'interview/chat' the next day.  Eeek!  Anyway, ears all fine, no hearing loss; probably just a dose of blocked sinus/ear canal and that is now drained.  Phew! So nice and easy dinner of spaghetti bolognese made with quorn mince and my oven roasted and slow cooked tomato sauce with added sliced mushrooms and a splash of balsamic vinegar.  Again I had the buckwheat pasta which I am definitely liking.

Weds arrived and I walked son up to his course, popped into docs for results of blood test and all now fine!  Eh???  So one week they are fine, two weeks later they are borderline diabetic and two weeks after that they are fine again!  Osteo after a quick Aldi shop and I can finally walk without feeling like an old lady.  Getting older sucks!  Haha.  Interview in the afternoon and I'm offered the job!!! Double EEEEEEEKKKKK!!!  So two evenings a week as of next week I'm a working woman again after many, many years.

Dinner was a disaster!  Yep, I have those days too.  Wanted to do a stir fry noodle dish and try out my new gluten free noodle find which are made with sweet potatos.

White haddock fillets were marinaded in the morning in a curried spice mix with a tsp of sugar, pinch of salt, crushed garlic and a tablespoon of olive oil and then cooked in a dryish pan until cooked through.  Then stir fried pak choi, baby corn, spring onion, sugar snap peas and mushrooms, with chopped ginger, coriander and a splash each of water, tamari sauce and fish sauce.  Noodles were soaked and then tipped into veggies to finish cooking as per instructions!  Yuck!  They looked like see through worms and tasted like plastic and acted like elastic bands.  I ended up attempting, and exceeding pretty well, picking the lot out of the stir fry and spiralising some courgette instead.  Meant the fish ended up cold, although nice flavour and my son refused to eat the stir fry as there were a few remaining 'plastic worms' left. He made himself toast! Never again!!

Thursday and I'm having doubts!  What the hell am I doing?  Am sure I'll be fine!  Ached like hell all day and brain was all over the place so it was an easy dinner of slow cooked chicken, butter beans, chickpeas and sweetcorn with leeks and plenty of freshly chopped parsley to have as a soup bowl dinner with bread for dunking.

No dinner cooking over weekend again as that's partners job so out in the garden to start putting things to bed.  Ie, chopping back herbs and seeing what's left to harvest.  And I made a banana bread using up the, now browning, bananas and some candied cut peel I had in the cupboard.

Chillis

Weird chilli

Chilli plants from seeds of a chilli are ready for picking.  As are the tomatos that were also grown from tomatos cut into halves and planted.  And the butternut squash seeds I planted (also from veg seed not packet) have gone a bit rampant.

Butternut squashes

Row of tomato plants from cut tomatoes

 MY BANANA BREAD

200g plain flour (I use a mix of soya, buckwheat, gram and potato starch, but any plain flour will do)

2.25tsp baking powder

0.5tsp of salt

0.75tsp of cinnamon

75g butter or marg

115g caster sugar (mine is sugar beet sugar not sugar cane)

3 ripe bananas

2 eggs beaten

2 tbsp chopped candied peel.

In a bowl sieve flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and sugar and then add marg and beaten eggs. Thoroughly beat the mixture together using a hand mixer if you have one or plenty of muscle and a wooden spoon.  In a separate bowl mash the bananas and then add these to the cake mix and beat again.  Fold in the candied peel and bake for 50mins to an hour in a greased and lined 2lb loaf tin at 180C.  It's cooked when knife or skewer (whichever you prefer) comes out clean and the cake is coming away from the sides a little.  Turn out and cool.

FREEBIES, FORAGING AND PRESERVING

Last week started off rather fabulous! Had a lovely day out with a fab friend of mine who also happens to be a brilliant forager and after a quick nosey around some charity shops in Faversham and a drinkie in the pub, we headed off to Brogdale to see what we could find for free in the car park.

Loads of nuts; but I don’t need those as still got some from last year and haven’t picked my crop from this year yet in the garden.  However, there were crab apple trees!!  So picked a hell of a lot of those (after weighing was approx. 41b of ruby red crabbies) and around the corner was a cooking apple tree with windfalls, so picked up a far few of those too. On the way home we found roadside plums and managed to grab approx 2lb of those as well.

After I'd removed the crab apples for pectin, this was what remained.

Dinner was veggie and chickpea chilli with oven cooked paprika potato wedges and a side of cooked broccoli just so there was some colour as otherwise it was a bit brown, shall we say.  Don’t normally use chilli powder as I prefer either fresh chillies or dried;  underestimated the strength as, even for me, it was a bit tongue zingy (although I rather enjoyed it).

Tuesday wasn’t a good day as I woke with chronic back ache and could hardly move, so ice pack and feet up for the day and an easy dinner of roasted pepper, tomato, garlic and red onion pasta sauce with pasta (of course); normal for them and new buckwheat pasta for me.  Was impressed with the buckwheat as the flour is quite bitter in taste, but in the pasta it was not only bearable but gave a good extra flavour.

Wednesday I was back on my feet, if a little slow and time to tackle the plums which were, by now, beginning to go over and a few had gone a bit mouldy.  However, with no vinegar and very little sugar it was destone, blitz, add lemon juice and sugar and shove in the dehydrator in the hope that after it’s dried out I’ll have plum fruit leathers. Then 2lb of Crab Apples were cut into quarters, boiled and strained, then re-boiled and strained ready to make liquid pectin.  Once I had the strained liquid I poured into an old ice-cream tub and placed in the fridge to be dealt with another day.

Pectin (non heat treated)

Dinner was an oven cooked kedgeree which was made by layering halved mushrooms, sliced onions, a cup of rice, spices, frozen peas and frozen smoked haddock and then covered with 2 cups of boiling water and covered with foil.  This was placed in a preheated oven, 180C, and cooked for an hour, stirring approx. half way through and checking on the rice.  Also boiled some eggs in a saucepan and once rice cooked and water pretty much absorbed, halved the eggs and added them to the mix.  Have to admit to eating the rice as was not in the mood to faff making up something separate for me.  Felt bloated for rest of the evening, but at least I know it will pass by morning.

Thursday I was out most of the day, so easy dinner of sausages, carrot and potato mash and green beans for them and a frozen low fat curry and mash for me.

Onion 'marmalade'

Friday, achy back, but nowhere near as bad as Tuesday.  Partner delivered sugar and cider vinegar so I can get on with preserving. Finished the pectin liquid by boiling until reduced to almost half and poured in sterilised bottles.  Will heat treat over the weekend as I need to go and get some corks, so at the moment bottles are sealed with their original metal lids and they are being kept in the fridge.  As well as that, onion marmalade made; we were given a bag of red onions for free from our local farm shop as they were going over and he couldn’t sell them.  After picking them over we managed to have enough to make the marmalade and have bagged of pre-diced onions in the freezer.

5kg Beet Sugar (It's preserving time again)

Cider Vinegar (It's preserving time after all)

NEW REGIME AND THE MORAL DIFFICULTIES WITHIN

Hiya

I am going to attempt to do a weekly blog instead of daily updates on Facebook and then share on my page plus any interesting bits and bobs I might find on the internet.

www.facebook.com/TheWingItCook

So the past week:
Interesting appointment with doctor on Tuesday means that I'm now on a low fat diet (not a dieting diet I might add, but if that happens it's a bonus, haha) as my cholesterol is a little high; not worryingly high, but I need to bring it down.  Waaaah!  No more cakes, chocolate or crisps for me then.  Although.......fatless cake might be an option and I'm sure I can adapt something else to make it less 'fatty'.  Also my blood results are a bit odd.  One week they were fine after not needing to fast and now, two weeks later and after fasting, they are borderline.  So I'm off for another damn blood test this week; again non fast.  Good job I don't mind needles, hehe

Luckily I have followed a diet like this before which had to be incredibly strict.  I had gallstones and whilst awaiting the operation had to follow a low fat diet which needed to be no more than 2g fat (not just saturated, but total fat) per 100g.  Regardless of how strict this was I ate really well, was never hungry and still could have treats as jelly sweets, jam and marmalade, marshmallows, yogurts were all within parametres.  I'm not going that strict as it meant no eggs, no cheese, no meat and I lived on fish and veg which is fine, but I do rather like the odd egg.  Currently going for less than 2g saturated fat per 100g.

So onto Sainsbury, partly because we have a nectar card, and an order of quorn products, low fat yogurt (use a lot of that anyway) and an attempt to find a cereal I could eat that was gluten free and rice free as I also find that rice bloats me and I'd rather not eat it.  This is where the moral difficulties come into the blog as the only cereal I could find online was cornflakes by...NESTLE!!!  I don't like buying Nestle unless I really, really have to due to the baby scandal and the palm oil problem.

Baby Milk Scandal

INDONESIAN PALM OIL

But, as in this case, I felt I had no choice or at least very little choice.  Doves farm do cornflakes, although they weren't on the sainsbury site, but they contain rice syrup as do their other cereals so no good to me.  Kellogg's don't even do a gluten free range as their cornflakes are flavoured with barley malt!!  Why?  They are cornflakes; they should be just corn!  But, hey ho, what do I know?  So I've relented and bought Nestle *sad face* so I have a choice to have at breakfast between cornflakes and oats (gluten free oats I might add) and I can rotate those with toast or cooked breakie or I can combine if I'm that hungry.

Lunches will be easy as I can have tuna, quorn, cottage cheese, plain cooked chicken or homemade bean paste sarnies, I can also have homemade soups and salads.  And dinners are practically the same, I just need to reduce the oil content and swap ingredients for me when I'm doing meat for the rest of the family.  Puddings and snacks of fruit, yogurt, and any of the above treats should indulge my sweet tooth.  Fingers crossed!

My only problem is my other half who is a big meat and two veg eater and although in the past he's been "if you want to lose weight, it's up to you to do it", he's now tutting and moaning whenever it's his turn to cook and I ask him to do/omit something just for me, ie, cutting the fat off the bacon or not putting butter in the mash; it's not difficult, you mash the potato with milk first, take out mine and then you can shove as much butter as you like into what's left! Pfft!  And, of course, I'm getting the "if it's a 100% beef burger, why can't you have it? It's natural!"  However, a good beef burger will contain approx 5g of saturated fat per 100g and a total of 13g fat per 100g so not really condusive to a low fat diet as this is classified as medium level and only to be eaten occasionally.  So I could eat, but then I'd have to watch everything else in the day and then that becomes a diet diet!

I'm lazy!  I don't want to watch every little morsel or weigh or limit, so if I go completely low fat, or at least as low as I can without starving, I won't need to worry too much and, as I've done it before, I already have the experience of eating that way with the addition of the odd bit of chicken or egg when I fancy.

Anyway, six days on and I'm managing so far.  I've had the odd day when I've had the munchies and have eaten jam on toast or had some marshmallows, but all in all, it's not been too bad.  Hope I can keep it up and not get too bored as I've got to do this for at least six months!!  And, of course, after that, if I've managed to get cholesterol down, I'll have to stay pretty good with maybe the odd relapse for a day if a special occasion.

Eeeek!  Just realised this six month period covers Xmas!  Oh well, jelly sweets for me then when others are munching on chocolate.

Cya

BEEN A LITTLE APATHETIC; MUST BE THE HEAT

Well, it's been an odd few months in the Wing It household.  We've had a few financial downs, followed by a bit of an up and some emotional crap so shopping and cooking has been a bit hit and miss.  Along with the hot weather and me aching like hell (who says warm weather helps the aches and pains?), I've really not been in the mood for cooking or creating something fab.

Dinners have mainly been freezer food standbys like pizza, sausages, burgers and generally the 'unhealthy' food that we keep for quick and emergency meals along with bargain gluten free foods that I've managed to snap up in the yellow label area of the local supermarket.

If I'm honest, I'm longing to get back in there and cook properly, but at the same time, I'm just not that motivated to do it.  I'm sure we all get times like this and I know I shouldn't feel guilty about it.  I think I need to go through the freezer and itemise all the meat and fish and veg that we have in there so I have some advance ideas for menus as that has also lapsed over the past few weeks and I might get some inspiration for doing some proper food.  I really miss my veg box that I used to have delivered as it arrived on Monday and I spent the afternoon working menus around it, but beggars can't be choosers and we are just not in the financial situation to get them anymore.  Hopefully by the end of the year we will be.

I've been posting up some recipes on the Facebook page that I want to try later on, but I haven't been creative myself.

I want the Autumn.  I want casseroles and roasts and curries and all that lovely winter veg.  I always find Summer a bit boring, apart from the wide availability of soft fruits, the new tomatoes and potatoes soon lose their appeal and I get a tad fed up with salads especially as I have a 'what's this rabbit food' male in my household.  I want jacket spuds and decent mashed potato back and the ability to get out in my kitchen, cook all afternoon and not come out looking and feeling like I've been in a Turkish sauna!  Waaaah!!

Seriously considering extending the kitchen into the patio area a bit so I can do some outdoor cooking.  Need a nice built in BBQ and a brick oven I think ;-)  Add a camping stove/open fire and a prep area and I'll be sorted.  Nice to dream isn't it?

Anyway, thought I'd write a quick update as to why things have been a bit slow on the Wing It front and am looking forward to end Aug/Sept when the pickling and the advance Christmas cooking can start.

Cya

FEELING INSPIRED!

I don't know whether or not it's because I discovered that The Food Network was rerunning Jamie At Home or not, but I've been a bit inspired this week with cooking.  Well, I say inspired, more enthusiastic probably.

I started the week with buying a reduced price celeriac, 4 red peppers, 8 large garden tomatoes, a punnet of baby plum tomatoes, bunch spring onions, 2 red onions, large punnet mushrooms, small fennel bulb, 2 bunches of spinach, 2 packs of feta, 1 pint of double cream, large fresh green chilli and a humongous jar of red peppers.  That lot cost approx £17 give or take a few pennies, but was spent across a couple of shops.

My Bargain Red Pepper Jar

I also had half dozen celery sticks, half dozen rhubarb sticks, leftover slow cooked lamb and venison hock plus gravy.  Also the usual potatoes and onions.

Decided, as not done for ages that I'd do a dauphinoise of potatoes and celeriac. Slice up the potatoes, quartered and sliced the celeriac and placed in large bowl with fresh chives, thyme and rosemary from garden, 300ml cream and 300ml of milk.  Hands in and tossed together to coat all the veg before placing in a roasting tin, topped with grated cheese and cooking for about an hour at 180C.

Before

After

Served this with green beans (frozen) tossed in chive butter and the meat mixed with gravy and warmed through for half an hour with the dauphinoise.

Tuesday I fancied veggie food and as I had lots of nettle in the garden I toddled off to pick the tips to add to the spinach I'd bought.  Prepared the nettle by washing thoroughly (use marigolds for this) and then pouring a kettle of boiling water over them through a colander to kill the stings.  Then I sweated 1 onion, 2 cloves of garlic, large tsp of paprika and once onions transparent added a big squirt of tomato puree and 2 tins of chopped tomatoes.  I had a large tin (probably the size of 2 standard tins) of white beans in the cupboard, so added those (you could use any white bean) and cooked for about half an hour before adding chopped washed spinach and nettle. This was seasoned with salt, pepper, fresh parsley and mint from garden.  To go with this for the boys, I glugged some olive oil in a small baking tin, added salt and pepper and a tsp of paprika.  Rubbed 3 chicken breasts with the oil and cooked for 25-30mins at 180C in the same baking tin whilst beans and spinach was cooking.

Remember the tomato and pepper salad I did last week, well my son liked it so much that I cooked it again but on a larger scale to go with pasta on Wednesday.  Earlier in the day I baked 6 small potatoes in the oven so I could scrape out the innards for some gnocchi for me as I can't eat pasta and avoiding 'grass' foods in general so gluten free pasta is also out.  The gnocchi was made with the cooled 'mash' from potatoes, 1 egg, salt and pepper, Parmesan cheese and potato flour to form a 'dough'.  A teaspoon of mixture was then made into a 'ball' and these dropped into boiling, salted water until they rose to the surface meaning they were cooked.  The sauce for the pasta was made with sliced red onions, 3 cloves of crushed garlic, sliced peppers, halved plum tomatoes, quartered normal tomatoes and cooked down until soft.  Then a large glug of balsamic vinegar added along with chopped black olives, fresh basil leaves and crumbled feta.

Thursday's dinner wasn't such a success.  Pre cooked some rice and green lentils (separate pans) and presoaked mixed dried mushrooms.  Later on fried off bacon until crispy and chopped.  Sweated down onions and garlic and chopped fresh mushrooms adding the soaked and drained (keep liquid) and cooking till soft(ish).  I mixed the mushroom mixture separately into a casserole dish of rice and another of lentils and divided up the soaking liquid.  Bacon was added to the rice and both dishes were put in the oven for 30mins at 180C.  Meanwhile I fried off mussels in butter and the remaining bacon fat from pan and these were served on top of the dishes.  So I had lentil and mushroom mixture with mussels, partner had rice and mushroom/bacon mixture with mussels and my son had rice and mushroom/bacon mixture as he doesn't like mussels.  I have to say that it was ok, but nothing to really write home about so probably won't do again exactly that way.

However, so as not to waste potato skins from yesterday, I fried off a couple of rashers of bacon until really crispy and chopped small, roughly chopped a couple of tomatoes and divided these between the skins, grated lashings of cheese on top and grilled until melted and brown.  Son and myself had these for brunch and I can definitely say I'll do these again.  Need to add tomato as otherwise a bit 'rich'

Brunch potato skins

I have to admit that this week, although busy, hasn't been hectic, so I've managed to do some prep work in the day which is always handy.

Oh and look what I picked up in a charity shop for £3.  Do love books and especially cookery books.

Am looking forward to experimenting with the lavender one as I have two bushes in my garden.

Still have fennel, celery stalks, rhubarb, a few tomatoes and the chilli left.

SUNNY DAYS AND "WHERE'S THE COCOA GONE"?

Hiya

Before I start I would like you to note that I cook Monday - Thursday each week for myself (obviously), my partner and my teenage son; both of whom are strapping lads of nearly 6ft or over and, therefore, have huge appetites.  I often feel like I'm feeding 6 rather than 3, haha.  Fridays my partner always does something and chips and Sundays he always does a roast (no matter the weather!).  Saturdays he tends to 'wing it' with whatever is in the freezer so could be anything from ready made pizza to home made fish pie (something he is making tonight, by the way).  I normally cook for myself on Fridays as I don't want chips every week and, depending on what he is doing on a Saturday, I might cook for myself again.

I love cooking, but trying to think up something that everyone will eat can be difficult and I know many household cooks will agree with me on that.  It often isn't the cooking itself that is a problem, it's the idea in the first place.  And anyway, as we tend to share household chores, cooking became something else we share.  There is, of course, the added issue that I'm gluten free (trying a 'grass' free diet at the moment) and no-one else is. Also I'm not a huge meat eater, neither is my son, but my partner is.  He is pretty much a meat and two veg man whereas I like Asian, Indian and European foods; in fact I like to experiment with all sorts of food.

Anyway, I'm digressing (as usual) so here we go:
It's been a mixed week weather wise with most days being sunny, but there has been a couple of overcast days and the wind has been particularly chilly towards the end of this week. This meant I was out in the garden a fair bit and managed to plant spring onion, mixed lettuce, spinach and pea seeds in my small salad veg plot.  The peas I'm growing are for pea shoots, peas proper will be grown in one of the bigger veg plots up the garden.  I've also got pots of rosemary, sage, oregano, lemon thyme and ordinary thyme, parsley, fennel, lemon balm and mint near the back door with an additional sage and rosemary in the veg plot for cooking and pest control.

L to R: parsley, sage, fennel and rosemary

L to R: thyme, lemon thyme, lemon balm, oregano

So what did I start with this week?  There is the obligatory sack of potatoes by the kitchen door and a bag of onions hanging on the wall.  Then the veg drawer contained carrots, celery, cabbage, leeks and rhubarb and then the fridge contained asparagus, spring onions, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, little gem lettuce, half a cucumber and 2 red peppers.  There was also left over home made pork gravy, cheddar cheese, feta, olives and gherkins. We buy as much veg as we can from farm shop and use from garden if we have it.

Monday I was out and about, so dinner needed to be quickish and easy which meant jacket spuds.  I know, not exactly cooking, but we all get those days when prep time is virtually impossible.  Tuna was mixed with shop bought mayo (something I need to start making as it contains sugar!), lots of grated cheese, plenty of butter to mash into the potato or, my particular favourite, spread over the empty skins and my son wanted baked beans!!

Tuesday was a lovely day and I spent most of the afternoon in the garden.  Dinner was chopped carrots, leeks, celery, spring onion slowly cooked with fish sauce, rice wine vinegar, a pinch of dried chilli and a touch of olive oil, then I added whole lemon balm leaves (I had no lemons), chopped lemon thyme and parsley and placed frozen salmon fillets on top.  Lid placed over pan and gently cooked so that any liquid from the salmon went into the veg and herbs underneath.  Once cooked, I removed the salmon and strained the veg leaving the liquid.  I added this liquid to cooked and drained mung bean noodles and then served with the veg and flaked salmon on top with buttered, griddled asparagus on the side.

Mung bean noodles

Wednesday I had a lot more time to prepare, so attempted a lasagne-style dish but without the pasta.  I soaked a large mug of red lentils for an hour in cold water.  Then peeled the outer large leaves off the cabbage and blanched them to use as my 'pasta' layer.  Chopped carrots, onion, celery, sliced mushrooms and the remaining chopped cabbage were then fried in a little olive oil and curry powder added (I make my own), then seasoned with salt and pepper.  Once lentils had been soaked I cooked them in the leftover pork gravy and some water until soft and added half a mug of chopped mixed nuts.  A bechamel sauce was made with a pint of milk, 2 tablespoons of gram flour, a large handful of grated cheese and nutmeg.  I tend to make my cheese sauces in a microwave I admit as I find they are less likely to 'boil over' and the glass jug is easier to clean; also it can be done in an all in one method.  Once thick I beat in an egg. Then the whole lot was layered starting with cabbage leaves, mixed veg, lentil mix, cabbage leaves, etc until used up and the cheese sauce poured over the top with extra cheese grated on top of that. It was cooked in the oven for approx 45mins on 190C until sauce was bubbling and I could see bubbles through the glass casserole dish. NOTE: I'd probably omit the nuts next time as didn't like the texture.

Thursday was baking day!  Rhubarb and orange cake and chocolate brownies!  Although I discovered that I didn't have anywhere near enough cocoa powder, so did a combination of 2tbsp cocoa powder (well, I shoved the remaining powder into a sieve, but it was approx 2tbsp) and 2tbsp of espresso coffee powder instead.  Tonight was a help yourself dinner of sausage rolls, chicken strippers, remaining tuna mayo from Monday, green salad of little gems, spring onion, celery and sweetcorn, marinated cucumber in cider vinegar and fresh mint and a warm salad of cooked sliced onions, halved baby tomatoes, sliced red pepper, paprika, chopped olives and crumbled feta cheese plus a tray of potato wedges and jars of gherkins, pickled turnips and more olives if wanted.

Now not much left veg wise except a few carrots and some mushrooms.  Luckily another 'shop' will be done later today or early tomorrow morning.

'Grass' Free Chocolate and Coffee Brownies
Melt 150g of marg in a largish saucepan
Add 250g of granulated sugar beet and stir until melted
Sift together 2tbsp cocoa powder, 2tbsp espresso powder, 75g buckwheat flour, 50g potato flour, 25g gram flour, pinch of salt, 1tsp bicarbonate of soda together in a large bowl and then once sugar has melted tip into saucepan and beat together.  Remove from heat.
Beat together 4 eggs and 1tsp of vanilla extract (I do tend to glug this in rather than measure) and beat this mixture into the chocolate mixture.
Chop 150g of plain chocolate and stir this quickly into the mixture.
Pour into a tin foil square tray (£1 for 3 at Wilkinsons) and bake for 20mins at 190C.  Allow to cool.

This recipe is adapted from a Nigella Lawson Everyday Brownie recipe which, so far has been pretty foolproof when altered.  I've used pre mixed Doves Farm Gluten Free flour before and it's always worked.  The original recipe contains 75g of cocoa powder.