A bit of home-grown and home-made.

Oh! Look at me! Back on blogger, two days in a row. This might have something to do with Hubby having commandeered the telly to watch "The Legend of '81"- a documentary about Ian Botham (yawn).

Just look at my veggie patch, there. It has a life of it's own. At the bottom of our garden is an awesome looking field of sweetcorn and in spite of never seeing a farmer, it is all growing in nice neat rows with not a weed in sight. Now, I'm not the most conscientious of gardeners but I do try my best to potter among the veg and flowers, trying to keep things tidy in between school runs, cooking, shopping, teaching, washing... etc etc. I only have to turn my back for 5 mins and all sorts of things crop up/ die/ get eaten before I can stop it. However, some mysterious 'weeds' have grown up among the lettuces bearing pretty purple flowers. I have no idea what they are but I have left them alone for aesthetic value.
But this post is about what I have been up to in the kitchen this week, really. I have been combining our homegrown veg with leftovers to make up this weeks meals as follows:

Sunday: Roast chicken dinner (including my mothers cabbage from her veg patch) (I saved the left over chicken carcass)

Monday: Boiled bacon and parsley sauce with tatties and supermarket veg. (I saved the remains of the bacon joint and some of the cooking water which included onions and celery).

Tuesday: Chicken and bacon pie with broad beans from my veg patch (made with leftover chicken and bacon and parsley sauce adding extra cream in a dish with leek and topped with puff pastry and more of Mum's cabbage).

Wednesday: Summer potage! A soup made from chicken stock that I made from the old carcass plus some of the bacon cooking water I had also saved. Then I added pearl barley, chopped chicken and bacon, more broad beans and lettuce from the veg patch and then I sent Hubby out to get a tin of chopped tomatoes to put in also.

Now, I was in the supermarket a few days ago and found a massive punnet of blueberries being sold as seconds for just 39p! They were fresh. I think, maybe, a few packets had split so they had been done up again like this. So, apart from putting some au naturel in the kids' lunchboxes, I made these blueberry muffins with them. The kids had the little ones for snack after school today. The big ones are for breakfast tomorrow. They are fantastic. The pics are a bit blurry (sorry) but can you see how the blueberries are juicily oozing out of these muffins? Num, num!

So here is today's dinner, the summer soup served with baguette and a selection of cheeses. I wasn't really looking forward to it at first, but it was delicious. I was almost tempted to open my Mum's bottle of homemade plum wine, but then thought "no. It's only Wednesday!" But then Hubby walked in with the tin of tomatoes... and a bottle of rose wine. 'Nuff said. Hubby and I were chatting about how much we both used to dislike pearl barley when we were children. But all our kids love it and we seem to like it now, too. Funny, that!
Look at those happy faces!

Tomorrow: sausage, mash 'n beans.

Spuds!

I like potatoes. I don't mind peeling them, but it is a bit time consuming and I prefer not to do it every day.

Like most people I look for ways to cut costs and time to leave more time and money for other things. Once every month I do a big order, on-line, from Sainsburys. That way I make sure I have all my essentials 'til next pay day and get free delivery. (And I don't have to drag a bored toddler around the supermarket for too long). I always go through their 'basics' range first. Some months ago I came across their bag of instant mashed potato. I can't remember the price but it is something like 20p! So I thought I'd buy a bag to keep in the cupboard for emergencies... like when we get snowed in. But since actually trying it, well, I now use it - a lot! Instant mash has apparently come a long way in the last ten years. I can hardly tell the difference from the real thing, especially if it has gravy on it. It is so quick and easy to do and one packet easily makes enough for 2 separate meals for 5 people.

If all that sounds a bit tacky, well, I would also like to 'big up' baby new potatoes for almost the same reason. They are not as thrifty, but they are easy to prepare - just wash, cut up and boil - and they are delicious with some lamb chops. Mmmmmmmmmmm.