General Chat

Being snowed/iced in has certainly made me dig to the back of the store cupboard and freezer to use things up!!!! And OH made a lovely loaf yesterday with the last of the brown flour that has been in the cupboard a couple of months and using white instead of brown sugar.

I think there are a lot doing the same.For once I never bought too much for xmas/New year.....it's all been used.

Just waiting on the repairs that will need done next. I can see at least one down pipe has cracked and a lot of my slabs have risen due to frost. either that or its an old buiriel ground .... I watch too many horrors lol

Snap! Ann.
I have always had the wartime spirit of a big stock cupboard and these days freezer,so have been having a use up as still haven't got the car back anyway....long story.......We are warm and having lots of comfort foods and soups,so think we'll survive.Hope the weather's not too bad with you.Not too bad here but still on pavements a bit.Had trouble with internet keep going off though...must be the weather!!

Brenda x

Been looking through the cookery books and found a use for the plums i the freezer that were destined to stay there forever.
Pickled plums.You just boil up some sugar and vinegar withsome spices and put the plums in to steep,supposed to be whole fresh ones but these are halved frozen.Then you simmer a bit again and botle them.The syrup is delicious,can't wait to try the plums.

Well it is something to do innit.

I seem to have the same ethos as Brenda from Wales. I am always well stocked up both in cupboards and freezers, but even more so at Christmas, as I do not like to shop between Christmas and New Year. So for a few weeks before Christmas extra rations of things were put in the supermarket trolly, much to the consternation of OH. How glad he is now that I did it and he hasn't had to go out food shopping whilst we are suffering from the white stuff.
Freezers were fit to busting, but we are getting down them nicely, and have started to see spaces, which I am filling up with homemade soups in plastic boxes. Another couple of months and I will be able to defrost one freezer completely, a job I have wanted to do for ages. Then I can start and stock it up with some homemade bread, another hobby that we want to get seriously into.
We have not, as yet, had to resort to the weird and wonderful combinations. Not like me Dad, who during the war in the Navy was given Kippers and Jam. Yuk,yuk
All keep warm and well fed.
Julia in Derbyshire

I reckon it brings out the wartime mentality in us. Knowing that people are stockpiling at supermarkets so when we eventually do get there the shelves will be bare I am using my imagination to 'make do and mend'!!! Hence eeking out the potatoes tonight and filling up with baked suet pudding. (Can't do yorkshire as we have actually run out of eggs.)

Apparently on tuesday, there was no milk to be found in our local Sainsbury's and only 2 cartons of goats milk in M&S!
I went to the shops yeaterday on my way home from work. Sainsbury's had milk - but very few vegetables!

I have milk in the freezer... just threatened to thump son if he drinks it like he usually does, but I have hidden a container full as an emergency if he does, lol... would not like to drink tea without milk!

We have plenty of bread substitutes.. loads of rice and pasta, but hubby doesn't like those... there are some potatoes left, and some carrots and peppers... but the store cupboards are full of tinned pulses and tomatoes, baked beans, sweetcorn etc... I have loads of dried pulses... loads of stock cubes, and one freezer is brimming full of meat and frozen veg... the other is full of home made stocks, soups, stews and lasagne, spagh bol etc.... the cats have plenty, too...

It is not having bread and potatoes that gets to me... no need really, as there is so much else, but we are brought up with bread, milk and potatoes being the staple of our food store, and if we run out we have failed, lol

I have found two mini naan breads, and 2 pitta breads in the freezer... plus we have a box of tortilla... well, I didn't find them, R did.... so now we know for a fact it is the ciggies he is going out for!! ;¬))

Love

Daff xxxxx

I have very little in my stock cupboard (Daff, you put me to shame!!)and usually only buy fresh on the day. I cannot imagine being without anything here in the middle of London...but you never know! We have so many takeaways nearby that I don't think I would starve:-) `Anyways, I am a rotten housewife and I know that some kind soul on here would send me supplies if I cried for help.....lol....BC XX

Somebody recently thought it very odd that I bought flour.

Bet your Bayleys is/was well stocked BC pmsl.
Might be worth getting in a few cartons of long life milk, the cows udders will be frozen lol
Laughing aside the animals are suffering too :((. There will be a lot of sheep buried :(( and animals going hungry as the farmers cant get to them.

Sharron why would it be strange to buy flour???

I have always had a good store cupboard but am out of tinned tomatoes now (have not been shopping since last Thursday and didn't really stock up then. I think there are some frozen tomatoes in the freezer somewhere I will have a sort out tomorrow, there is probably a lot of useless stuff in there too but we will eat it!!! tomorrow will be fish pieces and oven chips and beans if we don't go out, Saturday chicken and Sunday roast duck.

I've always got a supply of homemade soup in the freezer - made some recently with Xmas parsnips and some carrots which were past their best. Mince is a good freezer standby too, for cottage pie/chilli etc. I made a chicken korma the other night, using a jar at the back of the cupboard - usually keep very few 'tinned' sauces as I'm not keen and would rather make my own, but this one was very nice!

It's pure habit BC.... we have always lived on the edges of civilisation, lol.... for the first 25 years of marriage we always lived miles away from the nearest shop, so got into the habit of keeping a good *dry food* stock.... even bread and milk had to be bought and frozen for a week or so at a time, as there were no doorstep deliveries. When I was poorly, the store cupboard became badly depleted... or stuff ran out of date.... so I have only recently started again... I stocked up for the winter, lol..... pleased I did, too.

The pork isn't fully defrosted, so we shall have that tomorrow.... son is making fresh pizza dough as I type, and the marinade for the pork will keep.... R is now the proud possessor of an extra two packs of ciggies (back of one of the stock cupboards, we have no idea how they got there, but it was probably me, as I can reach... where they are normally kept are out of my reach....) so we are having home made pizza, with thick chunky bombay potatoes, the mix has to be used this month, lol!! I'll add some cucumber and garlic to some of the Greek yoghurt as a dip for them..... and we have the rhubarb/raspberry/white peach and clotted cream yoghurts as well...... Plenty of cheese biscuits, and still have the Stilton... the red leicester is being used with mozzarella and feta, so this should be interesting on the pizza, lolol

And, most importantly, we have a carton and four bottles of wine left, plus bacardi, a full bottle of Baileys, lol, full bottle of vodka and brandy, plus full less 2 tots bottle of gin... and then there is hubby's special... his Bushmills, which is for special occasions only, lolol Oh, and loads of ginger, cola, lemonade, fruit juices and tonic ....... we are set up for a seige!

Love

Daff xxxx

edit.... siege, even, lol

Woman after me own heart Daff, but please tell me, and I know it sounds silly, but how do you go about freezing milk, without it coming over the top of the container. It's about the only thing I have never frozen.
Julia in Derbyshire

Many people find it odd to cook anything from scratch now. We are like some quaint old people from the past to them.

That was why they couldn't understand what I wanted flour for.

It does mean I can get things done for a batch of scones.

There is a gap at the top, Julia... just enough for the milk to swell as it freezes... I have three litres in the freezer as I type... individual litres, not the big ones... just remember to give it a shake before opening it, and it tastes absolutely fine... bottles don't freeze. Yep, son tried it ;¬))

Love

Daff xxxx

Thanks Daff. I must try this, to satisfy myself. I'm so nosey
Julia in Derbyshire

I have a litre of skimmed UHT in the fridge kept for emergencies. We only drink skimmed and the UHT skimmed is fine. In Tenerife it is all we drink. Well put in tea coffee, don't drink milk 'neat'. And I have just opened the last 4pints of ordinary skimmed. But I can drink peppermint tea (no milk), fruit tea (no Milk), even weak ordinary tea with no milk and we can both if necessary drink coffee black.

We are "eating the freezer" as well. Today we have had turkey soup made with stock from our Christmas turkey. Tonight we are each eating different things , again from the freezer. It's surprising what you find, when you're not really looking!! Sometimes if the label has fallen off it's a surprise supper,lol.