Custard Pie.

As regular readers of this blog will know, I hate waste, and will do most things to use up any leftover food, (Just ask my girls) but this doesn’t mean that you have to eat anything that is not nutritious or good quality. In the same way that you must respect the environment and leave a light footprint on it, I think that it shows a lack of respect to waste any of the earth’s bounty. And if that means fried potato peel (Loaded Skins anyone?) or making croutons from stale bread,

well that’s a small price to pay.

I make most of my food from scratch, but I don’t do pastry, I can never get it right so I always use pre-made. It’s my one guilty food secret and I hope it doesn’t get me into too much trouble. And that includes buying pre-made flan cases, the basis of today’s dessert.

Basically, it’s just a pastry case with a thin layer of chocolate spread,

filled with warm home made custard. This is made thicker than usual so that it will solidify in the fridge. Chocolate chunks are then sprinkled over the top, to melt in.

The whole thing is then chilled until set.

When it comes to Roast lunch, I like to wait until I can buy a large joint at reduced price, mainly because the bigger joints always seem to cook better, but also because I can slice or chop and freeze the meat for several meals in one go. So for example from one 1.5kg Beef joint I can get about 12 portions of meat, either sliced for instant roasts, or chopped for casserole or stew. Also sliced and cut into strips for stir fry or fajitas.

Talking about beef, I took a small piece of roasted beef out of the freezer on return from work yesterday. Incidentally, here is one of the ships I piloted whilst at work, into Tilbury lock as it happens.

Back to the beef, here’s the defrosted piece:

This I sliced and put into a casserole dish.

I added some left over gravy,

This will then go into the oven at 180 for about 45 minutes and emerge moist and tasty. All that is required then is to prepare root veg (Potato, Parsnip and Swede) to roast and some boiled carrots to accompany. The result is an easy meal prepared in about 15 minutes.

Talking of Roast lunch, my daughter Georgina, who is veggie, sent me some pictures of her Sunday lunch, looks like she’s got the hang of it.

Yvonne has made a beetroot and chocolate cake, which went down extremely well with clotted cream.

I found a few bread pictures that I don’t think I posted before, my sourdough is still living, and resting in the fridge for a while, I feed it once a week whilst it’s hibernating, which seems to keep her happy, maybe after my next day working I will warm her up and make a loaf.

Pannini

Selection of Breads

White Sandwich Loaf

It’s time to start gardening again, as I said before I planted early potatoes and carrots just before the bad frosts, but now they are on the move. I have the rest of my potato crop on the windowsill sprouting and they will go in next weekend.

There is a lot of work to be done, not least rebuilding the tree house! And I have a car full of cuttings and green waste to take to the tip. And the compost bin needs turning. And…..etc etc etc!

Now it is light enough to take the dogs out at 6am nature will soon start moving, and once she gets going it’s hard to keep up.