The all new using what you have from your Freezer, Cupboard or Shed (Barn)

Cherryfudge

If the two days is due to soaking the fruit, I expect it will be very moist and delish. I hope it all works out well.

JIL

Teabags. My aunt visited for a few days. We went out and stopped for refreshments. She asked for strong tea. It came in a teapot, one teabag. She asked for another, no water just a teabag. She was charged an additional 80p. 

Cherryfudge

Eek, @JIL, that's steep (sorry about the pun) - a solitary tea bag in already-cooling water isn't going to improve things much, is it?

Cairnpapple

Made the gluten free teabread which used up some more dried fruit, some gluten free flour (good because I don't get through it terribly quickly) and another teabag

It looks identical to the normal one but might be a bit more crumbly, we'll find out tomorrow. 

Cherryfudge

Last night's tea was those store cupboard favourites, lentil and chorizo soup followed by rice pudding. In fact there's enough of each to feed us both another day. I've also taken chicken out of the freezer and DH will make 'Chicken and...' pie for lunch, so we might use up some freezer veg too.

While I was cooking last night, I had a lazy look at one of the larder shelves and realised it's become a repository for things that need to be used up. There are various things in jars looking nice but getting ignored, so here's the list:

cous cous (out of date and I have a feeling it didn't taste right which is why I bought more - so it needs a decision) 
onion powder
butter beans
marzipan
oatmeal
custard powder
stout
mixed dried fruit
prunes
desiccated coconut
spaghetti

I've made a start - porridge for breakfast and enough left for tomorrow too.

The mixed dried fruit keeps well and gets used, as does the custard, so I'm not worried about them.

Prunes - maybe have as snacks?

Stout - there's just the one bottle left and it's not inspiring. It was bought to go in Christmas puddings but I bought those in the sale in January so any ideas what else I could cook with it?

Onion powder was bought because I'd seen a recipe that called for it and now I've no idea what that was. Might put a bit in the pie today and see if it works, but we have lots of fresh onions to eat too.

Spaghetti - there must be something other than Bolognese, surely? I'm really not a traditional Bolognese fan.

I have cooked pulses in the freezer so (thinking aloud) if I use some frozen lentils to make a veggie Bolognese, I could replace them with butter beans, batch cooked and ready for a butterbean and chorizo stew.

Desiccated coconut - time to get baking I suppose. I bought eggs and jam yesterday, so baking may happen.

Meanwhile DH has decided he didn't really like the soya milk so he bought orange juice to wash down his cereal and there are part-cartons of goats' milk and soya milk in the fridge as well as my cows' milk, which I will get through in the normal course of things. Any ideas for the others, please?

Cairnpapple

Stout makes a stunning pulled pork, I'll have a look for my recipe. Or beef and ale casserole/pie.

We use butter beans instead of chicken in Jack Monroe's chicken mandarin tagine, freezes very well.  https://oursouthend.wordpress.com/2013/08/19/spiced-chicken-and-mandarin-tagine-64p/

I'd do spaghetti with a fresh pesto and some nice mushrooms. 

Cherryfudge

You're a star, @Cairnpapple. I really want spaghetti with pesto now! Oh, and mushrooms - oh yes please!

DH will thank you for the beef and ale idea. His favourite.  

And I love Moroccan-inspired things, but I've never tried Jack's version so I'll have a look at that.

DH is on with the 'Chicken and... pie' now, but I generally prefer vegetable-based dishes so I've sneaked in as much freezer road-kill as possible: odds and ends of peppers, peas and cherry tomatoes. Then I found a bag of seeds that I remember saving and putting in to vernalise. Wish I'd labelled them! I think they may be strawberries, but I won't find out unless they get planted and manage to germinate.

Anyone else have non-food items in their freezer? My mum probably had some sort of record as her friend found a dead gannet and asked Mum to put it in our big freezer till she could have it stuffed! This was way back, not everyone had a huge freezer or a friend who would see the potential in a deceased bird, but eventually the friend retrieved it and had it prepared properly, and it was beautiful (and it gave us as children the opportunity to handle a creature we might never come into contact with otherwise. I still remember how very soft the feathers were).

Pollie

This would also use up stout: Vegetarian Irish Stew | Kara Lydon

stymied

Onion powder is good in potato bake 😋

Cherryfudge

I will be gaining weight at this rate! Thank you for your ideas, @Pollie and @stymied: I would never have imagined Irish Stew without meat, but then, why not? The stout would give it some welly. It would also help use up some carrots and onions. And now I want sausages with onion-powder mash... well, it's been a chilly day for May.

The last couple of days we've been eating our way through the leftovers of soup and pie, and now have fridge space again. The level of the oatmeal went down after two bowls of porridge so I will remember that and have some more soon. I now have yogurt to use up, so it will be back to overnight oats with some of the fruit I got from the market.

We also have most of a litre of goats milk and most of a litre of soya milk to be used in the next few days: DH will probably tolerate the goats' milk better if it's cooked but I'm wondering about getting some lactase drops to add to it. Also there's the small issue of what on earth to make? Yet another rice pudding - cheap, cheerful and uses up the pudding rice - and something else, but I have no idea what.

Thanks to @Cairnpapple, I've been having lunches of spaghetti with some truffle pesto that hadn't been getting eaten, topped with grated cheese. My oh my - so delicious, such comfort food. I went into the shop for some mushrooms to have with it, but absent-mindedly came out with cinnamon buns instead.

Memo to self: sausages on the menu next week.