In the Kitchen

Can freeze food for any amount of time. These days i only freeze home grown fruit.Roast beef, Turkey, toad in the hole, Yorkshire pudding, the batter is the same for Yorkshire pudding and pancakes. I don't grow much veg these days only parsnips. Buy frozen peas and sprouts. In those days the only way to cook veg was to boil or roast veg.I remember my mom boil them and her potatoes were alright. Used to like her mashed or roast potatoes.
My dad used to grow cabbage and potatoes. We had a long garden that had the railway at the back.Had the tall railings at the end of the garden. There were wild blackberries growing through them that we used to pick.

 

Yep, just putting it out there for the novice cooks, who look at those "recommended" tables.

 

We batch cook meat dishes that take hours to cook as it's just two of us. What a joy to come home after work on a cold Wednesday evening and have a proper beef stew for dinner

Freezer is also brilliant to reduce food waste, in a small household a packet of halloumi is too much but half can be frozen cut in cubes. Half a tin of beans freezes well and gives the delight of choosing different varieties when cooking. Double cream stays good for months, and is handy when frozen in small containers as often you just need a spoonful. Shop bought frozen, chopped onion is probably the best invention since Flora, we are never left with smelly halves of onions any more. Oh, and cheese. Grated, it stays perfect in the freezer forever, and is so handy and easy to use. Thank you freezer!

In my native Finland in the days before freezer or year around of supply of fresh veg everyone made jams and juiced the currant crops. There's even a kind of a pressure cooker juicer that everyone used to have, even when living in the city. And some adventurous people, like my granddad, experimented with crops to produce home made alcohol, which in Finland is an offence punishable by flogging, death, more flogging, and deporting to Sweden.

If I may, here's a story of my grandfather's blackcurrant wine. Shortly after the war my grandparents were living in a tiny basement flat in Helsinki, shunned by everyone because they were of Russian emigrant heritage, and just after the war it wasn't really the best background to have. Anyways, they worked hard, harvested blackcurrants from my great-grandmother's garden and grandma made a lot of blackcurrant juice.

Then my granddad had this brilliant idea. Water plus sugar plus berries... plus yeast- that's Wine! So off he went to buy yeast, put some in the bottles, put the corks firmly back and sat back waiting for the bountiful harvest of precious blackcurrant wine.

One evening they returned from work to find the flat surrounded by police and the military police, and a flock of terrified neighbours. Shots had been heard, and peering through the narrow windows near street level, large, red stains were seen splattered on the walls. Clearly the inhabitants of a dubious heritage had been plotting a revolution and a carnage had taken place under the very eyes of the peaceful, innocent public.

My grandmother pushed the policemen aside, went in, cleaned up the mess and told my grandfather never to try that again. Or, at least, not to cork bottles with anything fermenting and developing gases too tight.

He did learn his lesson, but years after he passed away I found a set of curious glass piping and tubes in an old cupboard in the garage. My grandmother firmly said it's greenhouse equipment and next time I looked, it had disappeared.

 

I still make jam from the wild plums up the road, always have too much fruit from the garden to freeze so i make jam out of that and do a lot of fruit puddings.
I used to do a big batch of stews that I've made with the pressure cooker but stopped eating so much red meat, but we wouldn't go vegetarian.

 

I have often wondered which country you came from ... now I know!

A bit harsh...

 

Did the roast potatoes and the breadcrumbs with sage and put them in the freezer for Christmas.

 

Can you freeze clotted cream?

 

You try buying pink fir apple.
Only spuds I bother growing.

 

Love it, looked up a recipe for pizza dough, grabbed the flour bag, said yep, just enough flour left (without measuring it) total--hand feeling. Got the yeast in the water, oil, salt, measured out the 2 cups floor, and I am good to go with 1/4 cup left of flour. Dam I am good.

 

Speaking of that, just had some Clotted cream Ice Cream, was that awesome.

 

Yes you can but freeze it as soon as you have bought it.

Can freeze double cream as long as it's been whipped.

 

Oh dear @Selleri ....you've got to laugh though!

A similar thing happened to my hubs and his flatmate back in their student days. Being from the middle east they were looked upon with suspicion back almost 50 yrs ago. They decided to lay out golden onions that they had received from Iran to dry out properly.
Well.. a neighbour walked passed ,well known for being nosey , and looked in and thought that they were drug dealers and called the police. Hubs had the last laugh when he gave some to the police officer to sample!!!

 

did I answer this already. I put my eggs in a pan of cold water, bring to a boil, take off the heat, cover with lid for 20 mins. that is it.

 

at the B&B I just stayed at, for breakfast part of the foods offered was hard boiled eggs. The hard boiled eggs were in a bowl, next to the bowl was a bowl of those egg holders. Folks were using the egg holders for the hard boiled eggs. Me, as I believe the holders should be used if the egg is soft boiled, or runny type. Me, I just peeled my egg on the plate, sliced it and laid it on toast. I saw others cracking it in the holder and eating from there. Thoughts?