Put away your purse & become debt-averse

crazy_cat_lady

I bought a mini chest freezer a few years ago and it was a godsend. Hope that you get sorted with yours - it'll just take a bit of getting used to.
I wish I lived closer - I would help you use up some of your produce

foxgloves

Lol, CCL, I'd be sending you home with healthy leftovers in a tupperware x

foxgloves

It's been an odd sort of day today. Firstly, it's been raining pretty much non-stop......just a short break early on, long enough for me to nip down the garden to pick another 3.5 kg of pears. Apart from that, I've been indoors all day, tackling a few gentle domestic tasks & dealing with a fair bit of admin. While doing this, I discovered I've a £10 John Lewis voucher coming courtesy of my 'just for points' credit card & that I was also owed one from a survey forum group I'm currently on, so I cashed that out too. £15 of John Lewis vouchers is bound to come in useful for Christmas shopping or as part payment for something we need. I've also taken the time to sit down at my desk & check a few financial things which needed doing, so I shan't need to do those on Friday now, which is my next Big Budget Day.
No, so far so good.....the aura of sadness hanging about me today has come because it is the two year anniversary of my Dad's death. Although it is two years since he died, it actually feels like the first anniversary because last year, I was so busy dealing with my Mum in her final two weeks of life & all the terribly stressful hospital visits, etc, that I just didn't have time to think about it being the first anniversary of losing Dad. So today, I have very much been thinking of him. Mr F phoned me at lunchtime & said he had, too, as they both got on well. I'm not feeling tearful or maudlin or angry or anything like that, I just think that the feelings surrounding the first anniversary of a close family member's death weren't really able to surface last year, as I was just trying to keep going, so it actually feels like the first anniversary this year, rather than the second, if that makes any sense at all.
If there's one thing Dad liked at this time of year, it was either coming up here to visit us, or us popping down to them, & being given a nice big bag of our pears........he liked it even better if I'd made them into a cake or pear & ginger muffins! I did think I might bake one of these in his memory to share with Mr F while we watch 'GBBO' tonight, but I haven't any butter & it is so plibbing it down with rain here that I don't want to go out on my bike. But I've carried out my intention to try making fruit leather (Oh, HHoD, I think it was you who asked me what it is? Hope this helps!) & it is in the oven on the most impossibly low setting drying out. I wanted to save my remaining blackberries for a potential crumble at some point, so I changed Hugh FW's recipe to pear & cinnamon. I also used sugar instead of all that honey, as much as I love HFW's ethics & foodie acitivities, we're not quite working on the same sort of budget! Anyway, the mixture smelled gorgeous as it stewed & then I pushed it through a sieve, all ok so far. All that was left was spreading it into a flat lined baking tin & drying it out in a low oven. I've been checking it & it's definitely drying out. When it's sufficiently dry that I can peel it off the baking parchment, leaving one big sheet of dried fruit, then it's done, & I just need to cool it & cut it into strips, before rolling them up & they're ready to go for snacks, etc. I suppose they will be like some of those quite expensive (because you get so little in a bag) dried fruit snacks in the supermarket. The recipe says they will keep for up to 5 months, though not much lasts that long in our house! The slowly drying mixture does smell really nice & autumnal......I am at my desk in my little HQ room atm & I can even smell it upstairs.
Oh & I've been a proper frugal bunny with some leftover chestnuts too.......Had forgotten about a pot of frozen chestnuts from last Christmas Eve. I'd got too many for the stuffing so bunged them in the freezer. As I need the space for our sweetcorn & all that fish which is arriving next week, I've added onion & garlic, breadcrumbs, herbs, a bit of celery & plenty of seasoning & made 3 chunky nut burgers. I had one for lunch with yesterday's leftover quinoa salad & it was lovely! Mr F doesn't like chestnuts so all the more for me, nom!
Well, I think that's all I've got to talk about today. I might squidge down to the veggie garden to pick another couple of corn cobs. The ones I cooked yesterday were lush & I think they will make a nice side veg to go with the fajhitas I'm making tonight (yay for rubber chicken!)
I'll look for a little break in the rain & run down there.
Hope everyone's managed to stay fairly dry,
Love F xx

crazy_cat_lady

Lots of love foxgloves - I hope that you've been ok today, and it's been quiet contemplation and nostalgia rather than the memories of the stressful time you were having last year.

Elnora32

I'm sorry you've had a sad day and like CCL I hope you've also been remembering better times.

HairyHandofDartmoor

Anniversaries do make a lot of memories rise to the surface and they can feel very sad. But it's good to remember our loved ones, they deserve to be remembered.

PurpleFairy26

Sorry you've had a sad day foxgloves but lovely you were able to think about some of those happier times with your dad at this time of the year.

Sending hugs.

foxgloves

Thanks for all your thoughtful words. Am feeling more normal today. In fact, have done quite a few useful tasks & caught up on some letter writing. I'd intended to watch some TV this afternoon while knitting Christmas presents, but after an hour of that, I wasn't in the mood for sofa-sitting, so got on with a bit more kitchen witchery. Oh, the fruit leather by the way was very nice! I cut it into strips this morning, dusted them in cornflour, rolled them up & wrapped them like sweeties in a twist of baking parchment. Very pleasant to eat, just like those expensive dried fruit snacks you can buy, but I think they are probably more suitable for making by households with an AGA. They are very easy to make, but required the very lowest possible temperature for 12 hours, putting the oven out of action for anything else. Pleased I tried them though, as I like experimenting. Anyway, today I started off some pickled cabbage - the fermented kind (sauerkraut-type) which is supposed to be good for helpful gut bacteria. Well that was a novel experience. Slice 1kg cabbage thinly into sterilised bowl. Yep. Add 3 tbsp sea salt flakes. Yep. Massage the cabbage for 5 mins. Eh? Massage the cabbage? It definitely said that, so...... I rolled up my sleeves & massaged it! The cabbage then apparently required a short rest. Then I had to massage it again, before adding peppercorns, caraway seeds & clingfilming & weighting it down. It is now having a 5-day mini-break in my dark old pantry, coming out only 'to have its gases released'........ I love trying things out. I hope it tastes nice too. I think the supermarket stuff is often pasteurised so don't have all the helpful stuff for good gut bacteria.
I think all that strangely weird brassica.massage gave me a burst of energy as after that, I decided to go out & harvest the sweetcorn. A lovely basket full of cobs, now prepped & in the freezer..... except the two I kept out to cook with tonight's dinner - a really tender & sweet variety I hadn't grown before, called 'Summer glow'. I'd definitely grow it again.
And the lovely Mr F has brought me some chocolate...... made of beans, so obviously one of my 5-a-day......so.it really is TV, sofa, knitting time now.
Hope everyone's had a reasonably decent day today.
F x

Blackcats

Sorry I'm a bit late but I wanted to send kind thoughts to you as this is a sad time of year for you. It does get a bit easier as time goes by. A wise person said to me when I was widowed that time is a great soother and I prefer that version to the traditional "time is a great healer" saying.
Sounds like you are doing marvellous things in the kitchen. Maybe massaging cabbages could be the next on trend pastime championed by celebrities. You'll have to use your wonderful writing skills to describe the ceremonial releasing of the cabbage gases!

foxgloves

Thanks, Blackcats. Autumn does have sad anniversaries for me now, but there are also some good ones like our wedding anniversary. I think you are definitely right that time does help..... not that we forget people, simply that it puts gradually increasing distance between now & the sad, stressful loss happening. I find that "This too will pass" is the most helpful thing to tell myself for all difficult situations, whether big or small.
As for daily reports of 'gaseous releases' from that briney brassaca-packed bowl..... Hmmmm. I've already bored the pants off my readers this past couple of week going on & on about freezers, I'm not sure everyone's up to following the exploits of my pampered cabbage shreddings. And what if I get up one morning & find it's climbed out of its bowl, like that bloody awful 'friendship cake' I was given over 30 years ago, from which I still bear the mental scars!
The festive gins are looking good though. I need to test the gingerbread one soon to see if it's sufficiently flavoursome to bottle. I'll wait till I need an uplifting little snifter....... so probably tomorrow then, lol.
F x