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

Cherryfudge

That sounds as though you're making progress too, @oceandreamer . I suspect we both have greengages and greengage products for some years to come!

Further freezer progress today: now that the cabinet is properly defrosted and cleaned, I'm turning my attention to the drawers. I've just done the top one: it was a real mess of ice and oddments. For some reason this one seems to attract more 'snow' than the others. In fact I'm wondering if the seal may not be as good as it was. I pulled all the contents out, cleaned and disinfected the drawer itself then put a lot back. A big bag of bread oddments has become a spiced bread pudding (thus using short-dated eggs too). While I was doing the drawer, I fetched the veg bags in from the shed and inspected them. Two of the four were fine and the others had disintegrated and are now in the compost. I used various oddments of veg and some mixed beans from the freezer to make a vegetable soup for today and tomorrow.

Some time after I'd put things away, I found I'd left some mackerel, some hearts and some oddments of cooked lamb out, and I'm afraid the mackerel and lamb, both of unknown vintage, have been thrown away. I need to know they are safe, and I also need to have a certain amount of appetite for them. They just looked too old. I think the hearts will go the same way: neither of us really likes them and I'm a bit wary of offering them next door for the dog, because I don't even know what sort of heart they are, and couldn't swear they had definitely always been kept at a low enough temperature.

I know there are more odd slices of bread in there, along with some ginger and some chillies, some citrus peel and other bits. I found an old recipe for candied peel, so that might be a project to come.

The coffee cupboard has also benefitted today, as I finished a tin of 'Festive Coffee'. It was well out of date but tasted okay, possibly because it wasn't opened till recently. It's not created any more space as I like the tin and am keeping it 'just in case'. Tomorrow I start a 'new' (out of date) coffee, and the plan is to finish the vegetable soup for lunch and the spiced bread pudding is to be dessert.

oceandreamer

Used up the last tub of turkey broth for lunch yesterdayand then took the meat off two cooked chicken legs and made coronation chicken with baked potatoes and salad for tea. All the bones etc have made a small pan of stock which for soup-making tomorrow. Have made a menu plan for next week to use up some more things I have discovered.

Cherryfudge I've got a craving for bread and butter pudding now!

Cherryfudge

Another coffee started this morning - I did a double-take when I realised it was BB March 2018! Genuine pre-pandemic coffee. However, it was a ring-pull seal and when I opened it, there was a smell of coffee. The first cup has been okay.

The pudding is actually a spiced version. I found the recipe inside the lid of a box of eggs when I lived in London nearly forty years ago. My Mum said it was similar to one she used, so I don't know how far it goes back. I'm not wondering if I could invent a greengage jam version of bread and butter pudding, and whether it would work? I've seem a marmalade version, but neither will happen till yesterday's one is used up.

Here's the recipe, in case anyone wants a good comfort-food way to use bread, eggs, milk or Christmassy spices:

Spiced Bread Pudding

4oz bread, broken up (traditionally white, but I now use wholemeal or seeded)

Quarter pint milk

3 medium eggs

2 level tsp mixed spice

good pinch nutmeg

6 oz mixed dried fruit

Mix the bread cubes with milk and leave to soak for half an hour (or while you run round doing other stuff: just make sure all the bread is soaked). Whisk the eggs lightly and stir in. Add sugar, spices and fruit. Put into a buttered pie or casserole dish and push down any fruit that sticks above the surface (or it may burn). You can dot the top with butter if you like. Bake at 180C, Gas 4, for an hour, or a little less if it's spread out in a shallower dish.

Serve hot with custard or cold in slices.

It's a forgiving recipe so you can change things around a bit depending what's in the larder.

greent

I had a freebie lunch at work twice this week and we succumbed to a midweek takeaway (v good quality burger place does large cheeseburger and small fries for £10 midweek - fab deal) so not a huge amount of progress has been made. However, this week is half term, so some 'proper' cooking will get done and things used up (hopefully!)

ETA 400gm chicken removed from freezer along with some curry sauce - DS1 and gf will have that for dinner with leftover rice in fridge. DH and I are having 2 other chicken breasts covered in spiced breadcrumbs, served with teeny spiced roasties (I may have a lot of a certain general spice....) (potatoes bought in Dec for Xmas day - not 5p ones - but I still have a bag of those) and salad that needs using up. We also had sausages from the freezer for breakfast - DH in a part bake baguette (bbd 15th feb) and me with the remaining mushrooms and a big spoonful of beans from the fridge (DH had beans in the week) DS3 will eat the remaining part bake baguette with dinner :)

I've also cleaned and tidied the top shelf in the fridge and removed a jar with 1 spoonful of ood and dodgy looking apple sauce and another jar of somewhat ood pickled onions where some of the onions had gone soft (have another open jar in there, still in date - we don't eat enough to warrant keeping the ood soft ones!)

Progress - yay!!

Cherryfudge

We had a roast chicken dinner today, with as many vegetables as I could plan to add to to it. We had new potatoes, bought specially as we are going on holiday soon and don't want too much fresh stuff sitting in the house while we are away. With a view to reducing the veg mountain, we had carrots, shallots, broccoli and tomato with our meal and, having used up the cranberry sauce, I added red currant sauce to mine. /yes, I liked it enough to do that again.

There's enough chicken for another meal, but as I'm working four evenings the week and the other evening we are having pancakes with DS and his family, I'm not sure how it will all pull together. I expect it will be chicken and chorizo pasta on Friday if DH can get the day off.

We still have two and a half bags of shallots from Christmas, but they will keep. So will the two pumpkins, a butternut squash, half a swede, garlic, some onions and three cabbages! There's a bag of sprouts I bought the other week which I'll blanch and freeze, a red pepper to find a home for or chop and freeze, a pint or so of milk surplus to requirement that might get turned into rice pudding, 13 eggs (I might offer some to DS for the pancakes), half a bag of salad leaves, three tomatoes, half a broccoli, some sweetcorn and a small punnet of mushrooms all to use up or freeze by the end of the week.

I had these in mind to make so that's what I did this afternoon. DH politely didn't give a verdict till asked, but they weren't for him. I thought they were more 'interesting' than 'wow', but they will be good for snacks over this coming week. I bought the pecans for the recipe, but loved them on my cereal so the rest of the bag will be easy to use. Less so the milled flax, so if anyone has any good ideas for it, please tell me.

I then realised I had some desiccated coconut to use, too much sugar and too many eggs, so macaroons were the logical next step. Then I discovered that for the first time in many years, I don't have a surplus of desiccated coconut. I'd already broken open an egg so instead of 5 oz desiccated coconut, I made the macaroons with 3 oz coconut, 1 oz rice crispies and 1 oz pinhead oats! Rather to my surprise, they are okay. DH really took to them so that's his sweet treats sorted out for a few days. That's the coconut and the rice crispies used up.

The carrots are very uninspiring so I might make carrot cake and lose their lack of flavour in the spices. The tomatoes are watery, too, but I could try slicing and either freezing or baking them if DH doesn't use them up with dinners.

greent

Fair progress yesterday- rice pudding made with 2 small pots of clotted cream from the freezer (brought home from an afternoon tea last year - DH and are aren't fussed on it on scones). 4 chicken breasts taken from freezer and 'marry me chicken' made - which used up a pot of cream from the fridge (bought before xmas) and the remains of a jar of sun dried tomatoes and the remains of a jar of sun dried tomato pesto from the fridge and half a bag of 5p shallots. Served with flatbreads from the freezer (bought in Sept) and leftover crispy potatoes/ boiled rice, depending upon preferences. There is a portion left, so I will shred the chicken, thin the sauce and serve with gnocchi for DS1 and I for dinner today/ tomorrow (with a garlic bread from freezer)

Oh - and breakfast yesterday was the last of the Port Salut with some crackers - we are still working through the cheese🧀 and crackers mountain!! 🤣

Cherryfudge

I will race you to the end of the Christmas cheese, @greent . I've just a sliver of Stilton left.

I remembered about making carrot cake: it used the insipid carrots nicely and I made it as a dozen muffins, which cooks quicker and provides an element of portion control. Do you remember last winter we were all trying not to use our ovens, due to the price of fuel? There doesn't seem to be mention of it anymore. Am I the last person without an Airfryer?

Now here's an off-topic but related 'thing'. Our kitchen scales are getting through batteries at a ridiculous rate. They are cheap scales, bought last summer from L1dl for about a fiver, but I think the first battery lasted at least six months. Then DH put a new one in and the scales started to play up. Eventually I found there was something gooey stuck to the battery so I cleaned it up and it worked - for two or three weeks. Yesterday I had to replace that battery. Today I replaced it again! Are the scales the problem, or have I bought dodgy batteries? There's no expiry date on the batteries and they are one of those mixed packs with about six different sizes. At least, at this rate, I will soon be through that lot of batteries.

Anyway, the carrot cake recipe is one I've used a lot and it only takes 5oz of flour. While I was gathering the ingredients I caught sight of the end of a bag of rye flour - it's never something that gets used up exactly and this has been hanging around. I risked using most of it in the muffins and they were amazing. So light! So much for running down stocks: I will want to buy rye again for that recipe.

Most of the lactose-free milk got made into a rice pudding with some home made vanilla sugar, but DH didn't like the change of taste so I will be finishing it tomorrow.

I've finished the big box of eggs and thought to offer the other box to DS for the pancakes. No thanks, he said, we've got about 24 in the fridge! Now I have to see that.

I've lived mostly off home made baking today, so I'm glad that at least some of it was 'healthy'.

greent

Ahh - I think you might get there before me, @Cherryfudge - we've still got Manchego, Comte, Boursin, 2 sorts of smoked and wensleydale with cranberries left- plus a couple of others I can't remember. We are doen to the last box and a bit of crackers, though- so they all fit in the on tub now. DS1 had cheese on crackers for lunch and I snacked on some plain crackers. We also had some of the rice pudding (DS1 using some of the jam store on it) and the remaining marry me chicken with chopped mushrooms added, the chicken shredded and the sauce thinned with some stock and then I added last of the tub of garlic philly and a lump of boursin with a pack of gnocchi and a flatbread. Very nice, and there is a lunch sized portion left.

Today is pancake day so they might end up being lunch. No other food plans as yet - but I might bake a brown seeded loaf .

greent

We (DS1 and I) had pancakes for lunch yesterday - I made a stonking amount of batter (5 eggs, 250gm flour, 600ml ish of milk - and approx a tbsp of oil in the batter) and used the largest pan I have for them - he had 6, I had 4. There is some batter left, covered in the fridge and that may do for a pudding tonight - and DH may have one (he's not a pancake fan, whereas DS1 and I very much are) I had lemon juice (used up a very shrivelled lemon from the fridge) and golden syrup and DS had various toppings and also finished up the squirty cream. Using 5 eggs was acceptable, as I had a glut.

For dinner last night I had the leftover gnocchi in marry me chicken sauce I'd forgotten that gnocchi does not reheat well and becomes very gluey. Still, the sauce was tasty and it filled a hole and meant no waste 😊 DS1 made another inroad to the cheese and crackers (I had eaten plain (but fancy) crackers for breakfast.

I am meeting DD for lunch today, as it's half term and I am therefore not at work. She is in the office in town (often wfh) and i thought I had a hair appointment opposite her office at 11.30... turns out that was yesterday! 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️ Thankfully, they had a cancellation for the afternoon, so i still got my half term haircut 😁 I fancy kyivs with mushrooms and broccoli for dinner (with added mash and gravy 🤢 for DH) There's some lo pasta sauce in the fridge that DS1 can have with added chunks of the Xmas gammon still in the freezer...

DigForVictory

marry me chicken sauce

I had to Google that! Could you share a recipe? In the interests of avoiding waste & all..