Sunday

Good morning, gentle readers.  As predicted, yesterday turned out to be very gusty with some heavy showers interspersed with sunshine.  The wind didn't blow down the tomatoes although it was a near thing and they'd have gone flat if I hadn't tied them up more.  As it was I added some more stakes and will have to take another look at them today and see if they need more support.  They're very heavy now with all their fruit.

Yesterday also turned out to be a kitchen day.

On Friday I got out of the freezer some shin of beef, about 500g of it.  I looked up a likely recipe which needed chopped toms and, as I am out of tins of chopped toms, I got some of last year's tomatoes from the freezer including some with some chilli which had made it rather hot.  However, I reckoned that by the time it was diluted with all the other ingredients, it would be OK - and it was.  It turned out deliciously, in fact.

However, I had some tomato left over so I went back into the freezer and dug out a very old pack of turkey mince and made a sort of chilli con carne with onion, pepper, mushroom, peas and sweetcorn together with the mince, the chilli tomato and a can of kidney beans, together with various seasonings.

I was well pleased that I didn't have to buy anything, I used up some of my stash of stuff that I really should have used ages ago and I now have a number of meals that are only one step away from being eaten so that's several meals for the next fortnight all sorted out.

You see, I am on a project, a 'mission', if you like, to use up my food stash and to spend as little as possible on food as I do so.  I'm a terrible hoarder anyway, most teachers are, and my whole house is suffering as a result but the food situation is ridiculous at the moment.  So my freezer is my butcher for several months and I need to see gaps in my cupboards.

It's way too early to tell what the weather will be like today.  BBC weather predicts maybe a few showers early and late with fine, warm weather in between.  Let's hope so.

Rain or shine, I'm going early morning swimming and after that I shall set to and make a roast dinner, seeing as it's Sunday.  I found a small silverside joint at the bottom of the freezer which will do nicely.  Beth will have a Jack-burger and we will all have the ubiquitous runner beans with some broad beans and new potatoes.  Not Yorkshire pudding because you have to make such a lot and I don't, right now, want to give over freezer space.

So - today's menu:
B:  Oat bran galette with soft fruit and yogurt
L:  Roast beef, new pots (from the allotment!), runner beans and broad beans, apple
D:  Gala pie with a mixed salad, yogurt and pineapple