Michael's cake

It was Michael Bentley's birthday on the 31st of January, so as a gift I baked him a January Challenge cake.....thought it would neatly wrap up the challenge which Lucy had tossed in our direction at the end of last year....so I concocted a cake loosely based on an old tried and tested recipe which used up all of my remaining flour, muscovados sugar, butter, mixed dried fruit and apricots. It seemed to sum up neatly the nature of our task....so job done, challenge completed, all thoroughly enjoyable.
So thanks Lucy, great idea, interesting talking point and lots of fun.....although I have to say that I'm somewhat tired of carrots and parsnips, and am aching for a few platefuls of salads and greens.

Good luck with Vegan February.....good job it's a short month!

Nearly There

Well, the weekend casserole spilled over into Monday,

and on Tuesday we found a trout in the back of the freezer which, when  defrosted, checked for smell and flavour, skinned, and cooked up with desiree spuds from the cellar,

made six delicious fishcakes which we enjoyed along along with carrots and swede and a handful of chard from the garden, and finished off for me with a baked apple stuffed with mincemeat from a jar found in the back of a cupboard!

Inbetween the main meals this week, lunch has been a very tasty soup made from one of the half dozen remaining summer squashes with added savings of chopped carrot and vegetable stock and a packet of pureed tomatoes.

Just a few days to go now before the end of the week and the end of the challenge, and there's no doubt that we shall finish in satisfactory style. We are making note of the items still in the cupboards and the freezer which we haven't used as yet, and thinking ahead to meals for next week. There's a curry waiting to be done as well as one or Italian dishes to use up some of the packets of pasta, not to mention the noodles which have been hiding away for many years! We are eating well and interestingly, but at this stage Sue is missing her fresh greens as there is little of that left in the garden. We have parsnips, carrots, leeks, and a few beetroots there (as well as the potatoes in the cellar), but the chard is only just about hanging on.

Mmmmm.....sausage casserole

Mmmmm.....sausage casserole, yum yum, what a scrummy winter warmer!

Friday's [24th] foray into the hidden depths of the store cupboard and the freezer rewarded me with unexpected treasures....a small pack of Andy Creese sausages [frozen], and for JT a quartet of veggie sausages [also frozen]; the store cupboard offered up tins of tomatoes and chilli beans; and from the basket of home grown vegetables I chose onions, garlic, celery, butternut squash and carrots.
All were combined in a 'casseroley kind of way'....in two separate pots I hasten to add, so as not to contaminate JT's supper! [mine had the addition of the remains of a bottle of red wine, over from Christmas, which added a certain 'je ne sais quoi' to the delightful results].
All served up with clouds of the fluffiest, most divine mashed potatoes you ever did taste. Again, there's enough for at least two more meals....maybe next time I'll serve it up with mashed parsnips, or perhaps use some of the several packs of cous-cous found lurking in the back of the store cupboard.
Pudding was stewed apple and bottled plums served with a dollop of home-made yogourt.
I ducked-out of pudding....far too full of the savories to be tempted by the sweets, but JT does love his puds!

A tip for potential frozen sausage users....on their release from the freezer, the pork sausages had a rather unattractive wrinkled, shrivelled and somewhat inedible look to them, but after defrosting them in a bowl of cold water they returned to their plumptious re-hydrated selves, and tasted quite delicious!

Thai green salmon and squash curry

  

  Sometime during last week this was a photo of our 'plat du jour'.....delicious it looked, delicious it tasted.

It was a delightful concoction of slightly suspect salmon from the freezer (currying it might mask any dubious 'frozen fish' type flavours....it worked), onions, garlic, butternut squash ( from our store in the barn) and a bag of frozen spinach from last year's crop. Plus the remains of a jar of Thai curry paste and a tin of coconut milk. The result, together with a pack of slightly out of date naan breads, homemade yoghurt, mango chutney and fragrant basmati rice, was an absolute blast....and there was enough for two days.....even better!

This comment, written by Sue (otherwise known as head cook) is rather late in coming....and I apologise for that....but we had problems, and still do, with the computer allowing me access to the site as a co-author. Still, better late than never!

Puy Lentils and Kimber's Men

Saturday evening and we had ticket's for the Oxenhall extravaganza up at the Parish Hall - maximum seating is 50 with the temporary stage made from old pallets, green agricultural netting, and a few bits of new planking to look smart at the front. Thanks to AIR in G Arts the Parish was having a visit from the Kimber's Men, and although the tickets had stated that refreshments would be included, we were sticking with the challenge and enjoying a puy lentil sheppards pie with a carrot and apple salad, and the company of friend Chrissy who was coming along to the concert with us. Chrissy's husband Michael was on his way back from skiing in France. It was a delicious meal and there is more than enough left, as you can see, for another day or two! And a hearty evening with the singers, and all of us joining in the shanties.

The Long Road to pommes dauphinoise and fishcakes

Well, so far so good. We had a pommes dauphinoise the other evening with anchovies in it for me, out of a tin found at the back of the cupboard which was 9 years old (not the cupboard, that's much older), and bacon for Sue which had been in the fridge for a little while but was still within it's eat by date. Today's lunch managed to use up some blue cheese which was developing a mature smell; I made a toasted sandwhich with it in the Rayburn, using up a bit more from the the jar of rhubarb chutney which we found tucked away. Delicious.

Yesterday we took time out from the challenge, apart from breakfast, as we took a trip into Cheltenham to see Mandela, the Long Road to Freedom at Cineworld and as it was an Orange Wednesday it also included a pizza at Pizza Express. Tonight's delight will be fishcakes with some salmon from the freezer, potatoes from the cellar, and a mix of carrots from the veg plot and swede from the fridge, followed, for me, with a baked apple, yet again. Must get through them somehow, although I have been looking up how to make cider vinegar, and it does seem quite do-able.

Fishcakes in the pan

Fishcakes on the plate

Making a Start

Here are a couple of starters which got us underway. Saturday lunch was a squash and sweetcorn soup with a leftover french bread warmed up in the old Rayburn. We have a dozen or so squashes from the summer veg garden, now sitting in the barn and waiting to be used. Saturday's dinner was baked potatoes with a leftover turkey filling for Sue and baked beans from the cupboard for me.

Saturday lunch

Saturday dinner