Checking the freezer + another way to save £1

Welcome to Stephanie a new follower over there on the right.

I came across other poems with the title "November", one is by Ted Hughes and starts

The month of the drowned dog. After long rain the land 

was sodden as the bed of an ancient lake.

Another poet American William Cullen Bryant also wrote a November poem and that's weather related too it finishes

..............we will try to bear.

The piercing winter frost,and winds and darkened air

Whichever way you look at it, November poetry is depressing.

A couple of weeks ago I went to the freezer to get out some tomato and herb bread rolls and there were none there. I usually know when we are running low, so it was time to make a double batch of rolls and maybe time to do a freezer check just in case there is something else we are running short of.

I'm even re-hashing old photos too!

I've seen lots of freezer inventories in blog posts and I often think - Good Grief - what a lot of food people keep in their freezers, but then I remember that when the children were at home we had 2 chest freezers full and when we bred sheep there were 3 large freezers running when the lambs came back from the butchers, before we sold them in half lamb freezer packs.

Now we have 2 freezers - a medium sized chest freezer out in the shed and the bottom half of a normal sized fridge freezer in the kitchen and I don't want to store too much in case we move soon.

Got my gloves on, rummaged around and here's what I found

FRUIT:- Several small bags of apricots about 15-20 maybe more, a few bags of raspberries, cherries and a couple of pounds of pears and 4 bags of cooking apples left  from last year (Do I use them now we have tons outside or chuck?). All home grown. 6 small bags blackberries from the hedgerows.
VEG :- Lots and lots of chopped peppers, 1 bag cauliflower and 1 bag sweetcorn from here and half a bag shop bought frozen peas
CAKE:- Small box of sultana buns, one layer of coffee sponge, one layer plain sponge and a few chocolate sponge squares. All home made.
MEAL PORTIONS:- 2 boxes of pizza topping, 2 portions salmon and broccoli pasta bake, 1 portion bol. sauce, 1 portion veg curry,1 portion Liver and gravy, 1 portion Aubergine and tomato sauce. All home made.
PASTRY:- 2 Chicken and leek pies, 2 cheese pasties. 4 quiche bases, 1 pie bottom and top. 1 Apple pie. Home made except the cheese pasties.
MEAT. 400g and 200g beef mince. 4 chicken wings, 3 chicken thighs, 2 x 8oz chicken breasts, 2 x 6oz sausage meat, 4x4sausages, 2 x 2 pork belly slices, 2 bacon steaks, 4 x 6oz bacon bits.
FISH:- 5 pieces of Fish in crumbs,1 smoked mackerel fillet,1 random salmon steak
BREAD:- 10 Home Made Tomato and herb rolls, 8 HM Naan breads, 1½ packs Tortilla wraps, 6 finger rolls, 1 sliced Granary bread. 2 HM loaves.
ODDS & ENDS. Box crumble mix, box dried breadcrumbs,bag white breadcrumbs. ½ pack Chinese mini veg.spring rolls. 3 Tesco Vegetable quarter pounders, Remains of 2 litre value vanilla icecream. 2 choc/mint Tesco"Magnums"(His! I don't like them otherwise they would be long gone!) Small bag of chestnuts, pack of puff pastry divided into 3 and the too salty dried tomatoes that I can use in the tomato/herb rolls.

Save £1.... day 2 of the 2013 list
TRY VALUE RANGES IN SUPERMARKETS to see if you can use them in place of branded products.  Aldi and Lidl are more widely spread than when this list was first published and often better quality than value ranges but at much the same price. Use My Supermarket price comparison website to check before you shop. Especially if you live somewhere with choice - that is most places except here!!


I will be watching the new Hugh FW programme on TV later. When I mentioned it the other day Jen left a comment which I have only just come across about The Real Junk Food project, running cafes using food that would otherwise be wasted. There's one in Ipswich which we will try out when we go into town in December.

No Spend November Challenge - Yesterdays spending = Nothing

Back Tomorrow
Sue

5, 6, Pick up Sticks and Yet Another List.

The weather forecasters told us we would have showers overnight and wake to rain this morning, but they were wrong again. The sun was shining merrily when I let the chickens out at 7 am and we had no rain at all.

C was off early down the road to Friston to sort out the irrigation system on the fields there. He had to move some of the pipes too so it was a 2 hour job today. He also had to go back and find all the valves that get hidden in the field edges during the winter , ready to go back again, turn things off, move the big reel thingy and connect everything up again just before dark. It's a good thing he only has to drive a mile down the road to do all this. And of course he will get paid which will include our diesel costs.( My description of the big watering system is a bit vague - I really have no idea how it all works These are the pictures I took last year which don't do anything to explain it !)

After coffee this morning we got the front fence sorted, after 4 months with a broken fence all the boards are fixed back, so we are nice and tidy again.

 We always have plenty of pallets that I can chop for kindling so I don't really need to pick up sticks and fir cones from the garden but it's nice to do it now and again as it makes me feel just a weeny bit as if we really are " living the simple life!"

I didn't really spend all day yesterday writing lists as I also got the big chest freezers sorted ( and all the usual house and egg jobs too of course). With so much of our stored fruit now eaten I wanted to squash everything back into one freezer. It does make it annoying when getting stuff in and out but running one freezer instead of two for the summer saves several pounds I think. We have also got the usual fridge/ freezer indoors for keeping things used regularly and small packs that get lost in a chest freezer. Our chest freezer shed is several steps up the garden and when it's raining it feels further away!

Frugal Queen was blogging about using frozen food as it is often cheaper and sometimes better quality than fresh. I do agree with her about peas and fish but not the green beans she had served up. They lose all their colour when frozen and if you've grown your own in summer and cooked them quickly so they are green  and full of flavour then there is no way you could eat the sludge coloured frozen ones!
So as I don't have green beans in my freezer, what do we have?
Last time I did a freezer list (in January) it was just the meat but this is everything that is squashed in.

2 packs of Sainsburys value Salmon Trim
1 pack of 2 value salmon steaks
1 pack of 12 fish fingers
2 thirds of a pack of fish pie mix
2 loaves of Aldi Multigrain sliced bread
1 loaf of extremely cheap white sliced  bread for making breadcrumbs
1 loaf of home made bread
1 loaf of yellow ticket gluten free bread ( for a friends visit)
1 pack of 4 "        "      Burger baps
2 packs of 700g minced beef ( divided before freezing into thirds)
2 packs of stewing steak
2 Home made beef and beer pies ( feed 4 and feed 2)
4 Home made meat pasties
8 Home made cheese,leek and potato pasties
2 Packs of 2 bacon chops ( Sainsburys value  bacon scraps sorted before freezing)
4 x half pound packs of bacon ("            "              "         "                      "          "   )
2 Packs of 4 sausages ( Co-op yellow ticket - divided before freezing)
1 Pack of 8 pork chipolatas ( "       "      "           "            "        "        )
Half a pack of sausage meat - Divided before freezing
3 Packs of 4 chicken wings
3 Packs of 3 chicken thighs
1 very small chicken ( all chickens look small now, because in the past, when we could get them easily for finishing, we always raised them to about 7lb or 8lb)
Lots of bags of home grown peeled and sliced cooking apples
Several various small bags of home grown fruit including 2 bags cherries, some redcurrants, raspberries and a bag of strawberries that I didn't know were there !
Rather too many small bags of gooseberries.
A few small bags of home grown broad beans
Ditto of sliced red peppers
4 boxes  of home made cakes
3 Home made pastry cases
A tub of  value vanilla ice cream.

In the indoor freezer are things like frozen peas, home made Naan bread, Ice cream that's in use, boxes of home made pizza topping and tomato sauce for pasta, the very last small bag of home grown sweetcorn, a bag with a few lemon slices ( left since Christmas?) and some Basil frozen in ice cubes that I keep forgetting to use.

It's good to have a sort out and write a list now and again because now I know I've got enough fruit to make a batch of Tutti Frutti Jam and I need to make Tomato and Herb bread rolls next week.
We also have enough of a variety of meat so that I don't need to buy anything unless I see it reduced .
As you can tell we have no intention of starving!

Back Tomorrow
Sue
PS Thanks to blogging friends for comments yesterday

Wassailing the apple trees + whats in the freezer

I said yesterday that today, January 17th, was  a special day in the apple orchard. 17th January was Twelfth Night before the calenders were  changed. In many parts of the West Country Old Twelfth Night is the night for getting into the Orchard for a party and a bit of Wassailing.
So we shall go wassailing in the orchard in the hope of a crop as good as last years. If you want to join in  just soak some slices of bread in apple juice or cider and hang them on the tree.

Then Recite this poem
Old apple tree, we wassail thee, and hope that you will bear,
Hat-fulls,cap-fulls,three-bushel bagfulls
And a little heap under the stairs
Hip! Hip! Hooray!
Hit the trees with a stick as you say it!

Drink the rest of the cider.

Who knows if it will work, certainly does no harm.
( in some of my books of traditions Old Twelfth Night was the 16th, but tonight will do)

Him Outside was away early again working for the County Council, dodging the showers. Plenty of those last night and this morning. Water is standing all over our flat meadow even more than before.
I was doing more housework and odd jobs and getting the Tomato seeds into the propagator
I've sown a few of each of 4 varieties
Favorita- A cherry tom.
Shirley. F1 the best for poly tunnel growing 
San Marzano - a  plum tomato, these didn't do too well last year but as I had seeds left I want to use them
Agro - Not tried these before. Again a Plum tom but perhaps better for poly tunnels than San Marzano

A lovely parcel in the post today was my surprise giveaway gift from Morgan at Growing in the Fens. I've been lucky lately with two gifts, if I was a person who gambled by buying  lottery tickets I would be thinking I was on a winning streak and  buy lots, but I'm not so I won't!

A beautiful soft scarf, 3 little notebooks and a bar of chocolate - YUM.
Thank you Morgan.

Unlike many bloggers, I don't do menu plans. As I've said before we economize in many ways so that we don't have to economize so much on food. For  many years here we produced all our own meat which means there was always something in the freezer, and of course almost all our vegetables are growing in the garden.  I've also not worked full time for a long time so have been at home to rustle something up everyday. I don't shop weekly for meat or fish preferring to stock up when we are shopping in various places. So we might only go to Sainsbury once every 3 months and then I'll stock up on value bacon, 3 for £10 packs of mince and stewing steak. Every now and again we go to a butchers about 20 miles away for cheap chicken thighs and chicken wings. From the Co-op I get anything with a Yellow sticker ( not very often) and locally produced sausages and occasionally a pack of their ham off cuts. From the local butcher I will buy whole chickens. I have a rough idea each week of what we will have for dinner but I'm quite flexible. I usually just get something out of the freezer the night before we eat it.

Our cheapest meals are probably omelet ( free eggs), vegetable curry  or a veggie quiche.
When my mind goes completely blank - about once a month-  we'll have Fish ( Tesco Frozen in breadcrumbs) or fish fingers and chips. I also keep Tesco small value pizzas in the freezer and then top them with home made topping - batch made and stored in boxes - and some cheese.

Today I had a sort out of the chest freezer and this is what we have to make a meal from - enough for ages!
2 Packs of Sainsburys value salmon trim
2 Packs  of 12 Fish Fingers
1 and a half Tesco  small value pizzas
1 Pack of stewing steak
1 Pack of minced beef, divided before freezing into 3 small amounts.
1 Box of  Home made meatballs in spicy tomato sauce
6 Homemade Pasties
2 Home made Beef and beer pies
3 Packs of 2 Bacon chops ( Sainsburys value cooking bacon separated before freezing)
2  Half pound packs of bacon bits  "   "    "    "   "   "   "   "     "        "        "          "        )
1 Pack of sausage meat
1 Pork tenderloin ( for pork medallions in cream sauce -  this is our special occasion meal!)
2 Small chickens ( Butcher often has these packs of 2 on special offer.)
1 Pack of 4 Chicken wings
1 pack of 2 yellow sticker pork chops
1 Pack of  yellow sticker Pork belly slices
2 Home made pastry quiche bases

Wow what a list! We won't go hungry will we?