OOOOHHHHH YUMMMM!

We have had such a mad few days thanks to life in general. The food situation may have suffered slightly, having indulged in a couple of takeaways, though the children really have been spoiled. It all started with another shocking mess up by the worst supermarket on earth. In my desperation on Friday morning, because my fav supermarket messed up my online shop, I bought a large pork shoulder for our weekly Sunday feast. Well, I went to cook this pork on Sunday, and, having bought it on the 22nd soon realized due to disgusting colour and stench that this pork actually went past its use by on the 15th! I managed to buy it a whole week after the use by. Oh, my oh my. By the time I had calmed down and realised I did actually have the receipt it was too late, it had been thrown away ready for bin collection on Monday morning.

Luckily, I had some fabulous and fresh Venison steak which was a bargain in the best supermarket, so we had an amazing casserole with very creamy mash. 

Among all the others, I have made a couple of soups (leek and potato) and yesterday, a Lamb stew, using minimal and cheap lamb cuts., and adapting a very old recipe. My children all absolutely adored it. 

I have Yule/Christmas feasts to plan and our Mexican night next week coming up, we are also very busy setting up a more formal website for the recipes and step by step guides to the shopping/cooking aspects of happily and healthily feeding so many people. If it is formal meals, themed nights, parties, or just everyday casual yummy stuff, I will post everything I know and I can about how to get the best food shopped for, cooked and eaten, for as cheap as poss. Very much looking forward to having my veg box delivered tomorrow too (hmmm... they said Wednesday, now I am told about 3am Thursday!) but I don't know what will be in it so loads of improvisation with gorgeous fresh, local vegetables to come!

IN THE MEANTIME: A very simple recipe for one of my favourite potato dishes:

Easy Daupinoise!

I find that so many people are scared of making this dish, but I find it so easy and totally delicious. It is quick to prepare even if the cooking time is a little longer than a portion of chips. Wonderful as an accompaniment to most meat steaks, chicken or good quality sausages.

Feeds 4

6 medium sized floury Potatoes (Maris Piper work wonderfully)

400 ml Double Cream

4 Garlic cloves, crushed

Fresh Thyme, leaves picked

good pinch coarse sea salt

Butter for greasing

Use the butter to (generously) grease a shallow casserole dish, I find glass ones work best. Preheat oven to 150 degrees or 140 for fan ovens. Finely slice the potatoes either by hand or with a food processor, they need to be about 3-4 mm thick. Put them in a mixing bowl and with your hands toss them around with the cream, garlic, thyme and salt, making sure to coat each potato slice. Layer them in the casserole, stacking up layers as you go. Try to make the top look a bit 'pretty' but don't worry too much about the lower layers, as long as they are even.Pour any left over cream over the potatoes and cook them in the oven for approx 90 mins or until tender. Check them frequently for the first 20 mins, if the cream starts splitting, your oven is too hot so turn it down a bit.

 For true indulgence dot some small chunks of broken up Brie or other lovely cheese on top for the last 10 mins of cooking. Wow!

C xxx

What can YOU do with a Gherkin?

Loads. They are also another essential staple in my kitchen! More later :) C xxx

Weekend = FOOD!!

So I did manage to do my food shopping in the end today though it was a mad dash around Sainsburys due to loads of other annoying life things that were going on. I was absolutely delighted to find that they stock Venison. Steaks, and diced, and even sausages! Plenty of gorgeous, warming and succulent casseroles this week. I did order a veg box online, it was so much cheaper than I thought it would be., And is being delivered on Wednesday. I can't wait! My daughter Bea wants to try liver, so liver and bacon my way will be on the menu at some point this week.
Tomorrow is Sunday, my fav day of the week, I will spend most of it in the kitchen with Planet Rock on the radio, while cooking up a glorious feast or 3 for the family. Actually, some of it will be started tonight. I have a lovely pork shoulder for The Main Event tomorrow, a roast is simply my most fav thing to cook, but I couldn't resist a little joint of Beef brisket while shopping today, so I shall stick that in the slow cooker tonight so its ready for tomorrow. I put the brisket in with onions, garlic, a couple of tablespoons of molasses, a good seasoning of old bay and some salt. Cover it with plenty of beef stock and a splash of red wine vinegar. I'll put it on at about 10pm on low and after 10-12 hours the beef will be a dark brown/burgandy colour and will just fall apart. Beautiful.
Its nice to just have a bit of this for a snack during the day, my children are always hungry (?) and a chunk of this usually keeps them quiet for at least half an hour!  Sunday night is special sarnie night for me and my man though, we rarely want a big dinner after The Main Event (massive Sunday lunch) so I usually knock up an interesting sandwich. The brisket is lovely if its almost 'pulled', mixed up with plenty of mayo and a bit of american mustard, and then used to overfill a crusty roll with plenty of rocket leaves and finely chopped fresh tomato and cucumber. Yummmmmm.....

Old Bay seasoning is an essential ingredient in my kitchen, I get it from Amazon as have never seen it in the shops anywhere though I believe it is popular thing in the states. I use it in everything from soups, casseroles and even potato salad. I may have to make a potato salad to go with our sarnie tomorrow night!

Claire's Potato Salad recipe:

This is plenty to feed 6-8 as a side dish!

5 Hard boiled free range eggs
1 kg salad/waxy potatoes
good quality mayo, use a jar, it will help the salad last longer
Old Bay seasoning or celery salt (to taste)
2 sticks celery (finely chopped)

Halve the potatoes and boil them until tender, drain and leave to cool (slightly open windows work wonders)
Peel and finely chop the eggs, literally put all the ingredients together and serve! This will happily survive a couple of days in the fridge (covered, I don't understand how People survive when they put cooked food in the fridge uncovered!) Obviously it wont ever make it to the fridge because it is gorgeous! Its great as an accompaniment  or as part of a buffet.

If i'm having family over for lunch I don't always cook a big plateful, i'll do a bit of a buffet/variety. This potato salad works great with cold meats, sticky sausages, chicken satay, deviled eggs, and even my famous meatballs. I'll post some buffet menus soon.

I have a well stocked kitchen, not always of easy to cook stuff, but I can usually create a yummy dish or 3 by just having some basics. Seasoning and stock are always essential. Herbs and spices. Oils and vinegars. Potatoes, Chicken (chicken is so versatile), flours, eggs, sausages, celery. Garlic and the glorious thing that are onions. I use so many onions. Mushrooms. In fact how many meals can you think up just by having a few of these? They are all long lasting and relatively cheap considering how little you use and how long they last. Add some cream and you could make Dauphinoise Potatoes or mushroom Stroganoff. With just the basics you could make soups, meatballs, bread. With a little bit of savvy and some basic skills, no one need ever go hungry, and food need never go to waste.

Good food is wonderful. It is so good for the body, but is also so fabulously amazing for the soul. Its like an aromatherapy oil for me, food, feeding people, the smells, occasions, just excuses for being happy, relaxing, contentment satisfaction.

Onions + Thyme. Oh my, feeling an urge to make a french onion soup now... another thing for the menu this week (and so cheap!)

Tonight though, is Saturday night, I will be cooking all day tomorrow and tonight is mine (and my husbands) so a night off is called for, except for putting the brisket on. I think its a chow mein night and i'm gonna pay for someone else to cook it and bring it to us :)

C xxx

Had a nightmare trying to amend my sainsbury delivery online last night, thanks to verified by visa throwing a fit! Dave is off to work this morning so I had no choice but to go to Add a at 04.30 for essentials ..... £94 later I'm back! Still need to go and do a food shop tomorrow though! Can't say I'm impressed.

I will post some of my fave recipes over the weekend, and possibly a food diary next week. All the cheats, and my stressful prep for a Mexican fiesta that I'm arranging for a couple of weeks time. Also I really want to share the best places to shop locally but I'm having some computer issues! Should have all this sorted soon! C xxx

Sainsburys? Really?

Well I mainly spend the most money in Sainsburys. Mainly because I trust it. I can afford to get fantastic good quality cuts of meat at the butchers, and wonderful potatoes and salad, at farm shops because I but everything else at Sainsburys. I know superman as rents are not cool, but the are essential. I really dislike that my 3 year old knows how to play games on a Kindle, but it's a sign of the times. Just like supermarkets.
I have shopped in all of the main ones. For quality, price, best offers and consistency I only frequent two; Sainsburys and Aldi. I don't ever feel ripped off by them, and I can only afford the other wonderful groceries that I buy weekly because I buy the bargains from these shops.Basics like chopped tomatoes, my kids lunch box things, pasta sauces, cheese. All if the things that save my sanity when, like everyone else  I Don't Have The Time to shop or cook from scratch, and honestly I don't always have the energy. I always use ready rolled pastry. I just save sooo much time. Basics chopped tomatoes, well for everything from Meatballs to sloppy Joe's I just can't see any difference, other than they are at least a third cheaper, and an easy stock-up-able staple in my cupboard that can be whizzed up into so many tomato based recipes.
I buy my potatoes in bulk, from our local garden centres I get a huge 25kg bag for £7. I use these in a month usually, it is amazingly astounding what you can do with spuds. Do the math, compare it to the £2.70 on average that you'd spend on 2 kg in a supermarket, for my family that little bag would do one roast! All that money saved. It means real, local fabulous, large cuts of meat. Loads of veg for a soup or casserole, or the luxury essentials like cheese, cream, and even the fuel to get yourself to a really good farm shop.
I'm going to look into ordering a box of organic veg from a local farm next week. I want to know if it will make a difference and is worth it financially. I'm also looking for somewhere that can sell me beef or pork in bulk, but ready (y'know, cut up) for my freezer.
Anyone that knows anywhere let me know. C xxx

Baking is boring.....

But there is nothing like fresh shortbread or chocolate brownies, which we have all had the pleasure of eating today, thanks to our daughter Bea. She really enjoyed baking though like me, gets the real pleasure from seeing people enjoy her creations!
I am a bit out of inspiration (and energy) so after a busy weekend of cooking seafood, pasta, Huge roast, bbq chicken baguettes, Salmon.... that after knocking up a sausage casserole for the man and me tonight, I don't actually fancy it. I still want sausages though. I was going to cook some fancy exotic mushrooms (I adore mushrooms) in the rest of the Garlic and Thyme butter I made for the roast chicken yesterday, but have decided that the mushrooms along with some tasty sausages and gorgeous crispy bacon would make an utterly delectable if unconventional Monday night lazy feast. Obviously I will load with chips for good measure, as comfort grub could not be without potatoes! The kids will be having the casserole tomorrow.

So this all sounds totally full of calories. Maybe it is. We eat such a varied diet though, and none of my children or my husband have weight issues (I could do without 3 stone but it does not have an effect on my health and never my fitness, ask Dave :) ).
I have always adored food, the stories of food intrigue me, the social yumminess, we all have to eat. Our childhood memories of food, smells from the kitchen. My Grandmothers gorgeous roast potatoes! Everything my mother ever cooked seemed to be brown. I have eaten in fabulous restaurants in the West End but have had better meals in tiny country pubs, or even music steakhouses and bars. We're not rich, not anything like, we are constantly counting the pence. I just feel peace and an ounce or two of security that I know how to feed my family. Luckily I've developed some methods of creating good food for them, so they have never ever had to feel hunger. My children have an enthusiasm for food that I am proud of. My husband, a builder who had such a limited palate a few years ago (and a delicate one) now eats pretty much anything, even offal, curries, Real pasta, seafood. It's all in the cooking, educating, budgeting and shopping.

Am going to start our dinner, later more on the most important thing of all, the shopping! C xxx

oh and ....

I should have said that I will be sharing my shopping, cooking, entertaining, eating out, and everything tips. Loads of recipes to follow! Just let my roast dinner go down :)

Intro!

Ok so I'm giving this blogging thing a go! I spend so much time around food, cooking it, planning to cook it, shopping for it, talking about it.... I'm quite good at all of that too if I say so myself. I cook real food for my huge family no matter the budget is usually quite small. Food can be expensive at the moment. Not fair. People are not educated about how to cook anymore let alone shop (shopping is half the battle). I am so passionate, I spend most Saturday mornings shopping for food around markets and butchers, farm shops and even garden centres (potatoes!!). The rest of my weekend, other than the usual refereeing and cleaning of uniforms, bedding, towels etc, are spent cooking. Sometimes for 10 people. Oooh I'm so looking forward to sharing. Right now though it is Sunday night, I am bloated and have a few precious moments with my special one before that awful Monday feeling comes back in the morning. C xxx