Chilly

The frosts of the last few days have meant two trips a day to see the Allotment chooks.

We arranged bricks under two of the waterers (one in each pen) so that we can put an 8 hour night light under the metal waterer.  The bricks surround the nightlight completely.  The 8 hour nightlight is in a glass jar, inside a cut-off Illy coffee tin.

In the morning, the waterer is still frozen, but the ice is much thinner.  A quick blast on the camping stove and then the ice can be broken.

Top it up with water, and then put another nightlight ti try and keep it defrosted for much of the day.

Some days, it's not possible to get water.  The butts are frozen, sometimes it's only the tap bit, sometimes it's more frozen inside.  The allotment water pipes need priming, and for that I need water Even then, if there is water frozen in the pipes, it's impossible to draw water.  

I've taken to carrying a couple of bottles down with me.

The first night we went down, it was interesting to see how the hens were arranging themselves.  I imagined them snuggling up for warmth, but I know from mucking out that the main flock uses three coops.

In Mrs' rickety old coop we had 2 welsh blacks, one on each end of the roosting bars. In one of the nestboxes we had Siouxise or NotNorman,  I couldn't tell which,.

In the new coop we had Nora on theroosting bars,  Batty in one of the nestboxes on one side, Norman in the other side, and Siouxsie or NotNorman at the front.

Henry and his 4 other wives were spaced out on the roosting bars in the shed.

Not at all what I imagined.

After

Leftovers were frozen where appiopriate, or fridged where we thought we might eat them soon.

The roasted vegetables are waiting to be turned into soup.

Yesterday was my turn to see to the Allotment chooks, and I took some of the unused vegetables to them (squash, cauliflower, cabbage, swede).

After discussion this morning, I think we're having Gooseherds spiced pie for dinner tonight, to use up the last of the goose.   It'll either be with a mashed potato topping (a la Shepherd's pie),   or it'll be in a hot water pastry pie ( a la pork pie).


We had a lie in today.  No visitors due, didn't need to get up to go and do the chooks,  didn'thave deliveries coming.....    DH still not sleeping through the night,  and so my sleep is disturbed.  Truth told, I could probably spend the whole day in bed dozing!

Tomorrow's visit to the chooks will be quite a long one as they need sorting out,  plus we need to prepare for cold weather freezing the water.  DH might try coming to help. It's been 3 weeks since he's seen the chooks and he's missing it.

During

The goose was lovely.  I worked from my timings last year.  However, there was one problem with this - nNormally when I write my timings, it helps set everything in my mind.   No matter howmany times I read through the detaied instructions, I just couldn't get it set in my head.    Thank goodness that the instructions were  detailed.

Next year, if we have goose, I'll use the same instructions but I will rewrite them in advance so I get myself sorted.

OB1 came for the day,  which was great as he always likes what I cook.  Sadly he didn't stay for Boxing Day, he decided to visit out parents instead.

We were all stuffed, but it's funny how the mention of cheeeeeese and nibbly bits clears tummy space at about teatime.

Before.

At short notice, my lovely brother, OB2,  drove me to Kent to collect the new worktop.  We stopped on the way back for something to eat.  We went to a McDonalds.   I haven't had a McDonalds for 20? years. Maybe longer.

It tasted much as I remembered.  I would have been happy without the burger, as the overriding taste I remember was the cheese and the gherkin.

Half an hour later, I started to have indigestion.  I mentioned it to OB2 who started to laugh as he admitted having trouble too.

I guess it'll be another 20 years before I try it again.

The worktop looked great, and was - as expected - a smidgeon too long really.  We decided to fit it the following day, and we'd deal with the extra length etc after Christmas.

OB2 arrived on Christmas Eve to help DH fit the worktop.  (DH has a broken rib and a fractured vertebra and is wearing a back brace, so has limited movement).  We measured for leg positioning.  We considered. We discussed whether to do the cutting now, or to wait. In the end,  we got the worktop outside so it could be cut to the better length AND have the corners rounded.  Poor OB2 was with us for several hours - but the result was fantastic.

Meanwhile,  I got on with makig mince pies and palmiers to eat; and then I made the light goose gravy, Red Cabbage, and the gingerbread stuffing ready for the next day.

We delivered some of our neighbours cards, but I didn't get as far as my friend's house. Bit of a shame as I'd actually embroidered a card for them.  Never mind!

Profiteroles

Yesterday I made profiteroles for the first time!

I made the choux pastry in Thermy, and it was really really easy.

I was very slapdash with my spooning out, so the resulting profiteroles were mishapen lumps, but they tasted OK.   At the time of making the pastry, I hdn't decided wheter I was going to make savoury or sweet, so I omitted sugar.   Of course when it came to it, I made sweet, and they would have been upgraded from "OK" to "good" if I'd put sugar in.

I just whipped up double cream for the filling, and melted some chocolate for the top - very unoriginal. 

Yjese will definitely be on my "easy to whip up" list. In fact, I've bought extra cream cheese, just in case I get the need to make savoury ones over the next few days.

I also made marscapone for the first time since the cheese course.   Double cream, tartaric acid, a bain marie and some patience.   I now have that as an option for making savoury dips (or fillings).

And I went to Costco to buy some cider, chestnuts, mixed nuts and double cream.... and came out with a few extra bits.  It wasn't too bad in there. Busy, but manageable.  At least it was when I went in, but by the time I got to the tills it was getting less so.

Today has been erratic.  I cleaned the fridge, then took the goose and giblets out of the freezer and put them  in the fridge to defrost.  I packed stuff around them.

Tomorrow will be a busy day as that's when I'm going to be making the red cabbage and the stuffings for Christmas Day.   That and the fact that DH may be fitting a new worktop.

Getting in gear

I looked at the Ocado delivery.  The purpose of today's delivery was to get all the non perishable stuff.  Some of it was stuff that I had meant to add to next week's delivery, not today's. (2x600ml of double cream.  Pomegranate seeds. Cheese.)  And some was stuff that I'd obviously added to my trolley with the intention of  making a decision and removing later - who needs three types of blue cheese?  

I looked at my list and looked at the stuff that  had arrived. This time I worked out when was the earliest I could make things if I wasn't going to freeze them. I debated whether to make some stuff now and freeze it.

I considered a trip to Costco.

Instead, I cleared the worktop, cleaned it, and marzippaned a cake.

Then I decided that I really needed to clear up before I attempted the other christmassy chores on my list.  Instead I opened one of the bags of crisps and started to eat them.   I checked Facebook.  I bought some bits online. Things I'd meant to get for this year, had decided last year to wait for the sales, and then  had forgotten.

I put the steamer on to steam last year's Christmas pudding to make Christmas Puddini bonbons. The pudding didn't look great, so I threw it out.

I started to make cranberry mincemeat a la Nigella.  While it was cooling, I tried to make myself clear up.    I ignored myself.

Eventually I decided I'd have to use rewards.

I gave myself 1 point for everything properly put away. When I got to 100, I could make a cup of tea.   At 79, I stopped and embroidered a card for my next door neighbour.

I decided to unload the dishwasher, as that would put me at nearly 200 by theh time I'd unloaded and reloaded it.   When I opened it, it hadn't drained.  I shut the door and finished the crisps.

I opened the door again and unloaded the clean items.  I took the baskets out and partially loaded them with the dirty dishes, but left them on the draining board. 

Eventually the kitchen looked more respectable. 

I need to put the sewing machine away for Christmas. Maybe Monday. Maybe I'll get on and make the Christmas bunting.

Or maybe I'll try Nigella's (Lychee Martin)  Lychini instead

photo from foodnetwork.com

Going through the motions

I need a kick up the backside.

I'm sooo tired. I haven't had a full nights sleep since DH broke his rib and fractured his spine. Neither has he, of course.     I've been going through the Christmas motions, but I'm not really feeling the festive spirit.

The front door wreath has been made and is hanging on the front door. Did that on Wednesday. Tick

The tree arrived, and is a gorgeously compact Fraser fir.  It's about 6 foot high. DH put the lights on, and I decorated it yesterday. Tick.

The inside mantles/wreaths/what-have-yous are all hung - Wednesday. Tick.

I made all my Christmas cards yesterday. They were a bit slap dash... squares I cut last year, hastily machine sewed on to cards.  I printed paper insides and glued them on the opening flap to cover the reverse of the stitches. Not mybest work, but still all home made.   I also managed to get them in 2nd class post, just. Tick.

Ocado delivered today.  My "to do" list has lots of christmassy things on it, but I'm having a serious bout of CBA.   The kitchen is a mess.  I just cannot get myself in to gear.

Cheeky Chooks

The remaining 5 dinner chickens, all girls,  are getting very cheeky.   A couple of days ago Princess crouched for me, so I was anticipating that we might have eggs soon.

When the Big Girls get corn, the Littlees get very impatient and have been known to escape through the tiniest of gaps to try and get in on the treats.  They are rebuffed quickly by shapr pecks from the Big Girls, and end up running back to the sanctuary of their own paddock.

I've double fenced their area now to make accidental escape harder.

Today, I turned round and found that Princess had managed to fly up and over the netting and was perching on the rickety barrier that separates the two pens.

A few moments later, she was hjoined by one of her sisters.

  ignored them for a while, and carried on mucking out the other coops.  They sat on the fence for ages.  Princess is on the left. She's black with a gold neck, a bit like a Black Rock. (She doesn't have any Black Rock in her at all).

In the end, they returned to their own pen, without visiting the Big Girls first.

Fortunately there is plenty of shelter in the Big Girls area, so if they do fly in and are too daft to fly out again, they'll be able to keep out of the Big Girls way.


 

A bit behind

After last week's mini drama, I'm gradually catching myself up.   I haven't caught up on sleep - DH either sleeping on his back (so snoring) or waking up - but I am catching up on some other things. 

I managed to get some of DH's woodworking stuff photographed and up for sale.  I haven't posted it on Ebay yet,  I'll see if I get any interest elsewhere first.

The decorations are down from the loft , all I need now is the tree. Wednesday should see that happening.  That gives me time to try and make space for the tree. I know where it went last year, I just can't quite see how.

While I was in the loft retrieving the boxes of decorations, I managed to bring down a few other bits and pieces to dispose of.  A couple of things might sell, but others bits - like the VHS tapes - can't even be given away.  

This created a few tiny pockets of space, and  I moved stuff around a bit to create a single space big enough for the sewing machine's enormous box.

I've resorted to a "to-do" list.

I'm aiming to make mincemeat and puddini bonbons on Friday,   and I might make the Christmas red cabbage then too.  And possibly the gingerbread stuffing. Maybe.

I haven't done anything about cards yet.  I fear I may run out of time.  I don't really want to buy cards, but I've given up on the idea of making them with embroidery designs on this year.  I started to stitch out one of each of the designs I bought, all on one sheet of fabric.  The idea was I'd be able to see exactly what they come out like, and I could then choose the right ones for the right people.  I haven't even managed to stitch out one of each yet....I've spent ages doing them, they just take time.

I haven't even had time to try out the new magic stabiliser. Never mind,  maybe I'll just get ahead on next year's cards.

For the first time, I am regretting selling my lovely MC4900 sewing machine.  The new one is much MUCH more advanced,  but if I'd kept the 4900, I could have been sewing cards on that while the new one did the embroidery.  Mind you, if I'd kept it, I'd be tearing my hair out with the lack of space.

A&E

DH always carries a glass of water for each of us up to bed.

Last night he managed to miss his footing at the top step and he fell backwards, whump, landing on the log basket at the bottom of the stairs.

He was very badly winded and it took a long time before he could try and get up.  I checked that his toes wiggled and his fingers wiggled and that he still had feeling down his back and leg.

As soon as we were able, we drove to A&E, our local one being about 7 miles away. We got there at 1.30am.

It's changed a lot since I was last there. Now they have a vending machine,  a bottled drinks vending machine,  and a Costa Express machine.  It was also much brighter and cleaner than I remembered.

The wwaiting time was estimated at 3.5 hours.  We were triaged fairly quickly, with he triage nurse assessing that DH should be given the once over by a doctor, just in case there was internal damage.

3 and a quarter hours after arrivin, we were called. DH was assessed,  and we were sent  for many, many xrays.   This was an ideal time to visit the xray department,  DH was in the xray roon a couple of minutes after arriving.

Next, straight back to the A&E to find out what the Xrays said. Fractured rib, and possible damage to one vertebrae. 

This part of the process had been super-efficient, and 45 miutes after seeing the Doctor we were waiting to see one of the orthapaedic team to find out more about the vertebrae.

After another hour and a half one of the orthapaeds came and poked DH a lot, and then said he was going to look at the xrays and discuss with his colleagues.  Personally I would have preferred that he looked at the xrays then  poked and prodded.

A couple of hours later, one of the lovely A&E peopl echased up for us and spoke to another orthapaed. She appeared a little later and said it looked like DH needed a CT scan and possibly a stay in hospital.   Later still, we saw the orthapaeds again. This time the decision was a back brace, another xray (with back brace),  and a follow up appointment tomorrow.  Painkillers were prescribed.  

Much later, the porter arrived, and disappeared again when what we had been told didn't match what he had been told.   We waited for him to come back, but he didn't,  and in the end we decided to take ourselves off to the Plaster department.  The kind nurses in A&E found a wheelchair for me to use.

By now, the hospital was heaving.  The people who were fitting the brace were lovely and really helpful.

The Xray department was jam-packed, and the wait was showing as an hour and a half.    A&E referrals must have been in the fast lane, as DH was seen in about half an hour.

We stopped on the way out to sort out the next day's appointment,  and we left the hospital some 11 and a half hours after we had arrived. 

Lucky for us the parking charge is capped at £10 for 5 or more hours. 

Home, cup of tea, lots of biscuits.  We want to try and stay up, otherwise we won't sleep tonight. 

And we have to go back to the hospital tomorrow.

A load of old Codlo

After 18 months since pledging a Kickstarter investment, our Codlo finally arrived.

It was originally due to ship in March 2014 but, as is always the way with these brand new tech things, it took longer than the designer estimated to finally get everything working, then manufactured, boxed and shipped. 

Codlo is a way of cooking sous vide without a sous vide cooker.   you leave it plugged into a socket, and then put the probe into your existing rice or slow cooker - assuming you have one.   We didn't, so we also bought a Codlo rice cooker to go with it.

I've never had a problem cooking rice and so I've never understood the point of rice cookers.   I can see that if  one is cooking vast quantities of rice, perhaps it's easier in a rice cooker?  This one can cook up to 15 cups of uncooked rice.    There are only 2 of us, so that's not likely to be something we need to do.

I was going to write about how it works, but it's probably easier to just post thei Kickstarter video

We tried it with ribeye steak yesterday, and it was a great success.   The steak was evenly cooked  throughout, which was the main reason for using it. When I have really good beef, I like it medium rare (or rarer).  This ended up being medium, or  a bit over that,  but it didn't matter. The steak was cooked evenly and was very moist. 

We will definitely be cooking it this way in future, and I might even try a leaner cut of steak. Maybe.



Kickstarter has had many sous vide alternative devices, and I was envious that my online friend John received his sous-vide-alternative (not Codlo) back in March.   Thank you John for your post on steak, we used your learning when trying out Codlo yesterday! Here is John's entry for anyone interested http://johnnorman.wordpress.com/2014/03/27/sansaire-sous-vide-steak-est-est-est/

 
 

Lion tears

I was playing Orla this morning.  I haven't played for a few days,  and it's been a loooong time since I've played anything except the pieces I am trying to master.  On impulse, I pulled out one o fte song books and started playing.

I played a few songs, each one with errors... not a surprise really.

The final song I played was "Born Free".   Part way through playing, I suddenly had part of the film playing in my mind,  one of the bits with (the actress playing) Joy Adamson narrating about how the time had come...

..and I started to cry.

How bizarre.

I haven't seen Born Free for more years than I care to admit.

And I've often thought about the film while playing the tune.

No idea what provoked such an emotional response this morning.

It's a hard life for our cats

Wash, relaxing in front of the fire after a hard day's sleeping.

Behaving like a child

The rest of the week - well, it's been a bit of a funny week really.

DH had to go again to his parents. leaving home at 6.30am on Wednesday.  BiL has been building a new mobile home for them,  and DH needed to go and help. He's popping home today for a couple of nights, nominally to see me but mainly because he has other things pencilled in for Monday night and Tuesday night.

On Friday night I wanted to watch TV, but there wasn't really anything on.  I had a look at Amazon Prime Instant Video. We have access to it through the TV, but hardly every bother.  I wouldn't have bought a separate subscription, but it was added to my  Amazon Prime membership.    I started to watch Alpha House. It was gentle, and mildly amusing - not laugh out loud funny, but an OK way to while away half an hour.    I watched the second episode. And the third.  And I carried on.

By midnight, I was far too tired to carry on, but I only had 3 episodes left of season 1.   I watched them. All of them.

On Saturday morning, I had trouble getting out of bed.   I was soooo tired all morning.   I perked up a bit after some lunch, but then I had my cranky pants on.   Just like a child!

My brother stopped by, so he could try out the machine he had just bought from me (more on that in a later post),  and that helped stop me being so grumpy.

I decided to have an early night.

Instead, I watched the whole of season 2 of Alpha House.  Fortunately I started earlier, so I was done by 11.30pm.

It's not really the sort of thing I would go for normally, so I'm not sure why I liked it.  I think it was probably because it was gentle, a little satirical...and unexpected.

Probably a good job there isn't a season 3 yet, otherwise I'd have spent my Sunday watching that!

Birthday Oscars

DH's birthday bash went really well.     Everyone, everyone, enjoyed the archery;  even those I had thought really really  wouldn't.   Some got a bit competitive.   Several talked seriously about wanting to take it up, although I suspect few will.   The children were well behaved,  the sports hall gave the youngsters room to charge round and burn off energy.

Sincere thanks to Angela and Russell of R&A Activities (aka ArcheryFun4u), who were SUPERB.  I would definitely recommend this as a group activity.    Our group ranged from 6 to 78ish, plus 2x3 year olds who were allowed a go, so they didn't feel left out,  under very careful supervision.  http://archeryfun4u.co.uk/index.html

All the taxis arrived on time and got us smoothly to and from various places. Big thank you to Fountain Cars who were great, right from my first enquiry.

Dinner at The George in Wraysbury was EXCELLENT.   The room was a lovely shape, square-ish rather tha long and thin. We'd pre-ordered the food,  and it all worked like a dream. Tania and her team were fantastic, both in the weeks leading up to it (as I popped along to measure this,  try out that,  emails about this and that),  and the service was happy and efficient.  The servers were also really great with the kids.   http://www.thegeorgewraysbury.co.uk/  Sadly I didn't take any pictures during the evening!

 The artwork (graffiti sprayed words saying "60th" and "Happy" and "Birthday" were fab.  The "Happy" and "Birthday" are enormous, each word s about 8 feet long.  It's currently in my hallway while I work out what to do with it next.  It was done by Arron https://www.facebook.com/plaqaza  He also does amazine chalk artwork https://www.facebook.com/pages/Chalkboard-Art-Azucit/110651505680851

The table-covers and bunting looked great,  even the carpiest one didn't look bad.  The nameplates with the chosen menu items worked really well.     I can't thank Louise enough for her time and help getting it all set up.

Very happy with it all.  So glad it went well.

Today's the Day

I got up this morning and I ached.

I don't know if it's stress, or because I'd realised yesterday that I'd done everything I could and that if I hadn't done something (like a cake) it didn't matter.

Or because of the faffing about with the table runner.

Whatever the cause, I was in trouble.

I tried exercises, I ued my massager,  I used my back frame.

And then I drove off to collect my friend Louise (and, as it turned out, her daughter Sasa) to go and get the room ready.

By an incredible stroke of good fortune, the people who had the room booked before us cancelled their booking,  so I was able to go along with Lou to set up,  Thank goodness I did.   There was so much to do!

Despite taking a step ladder, neither of us could reach to hang up the bunting.  We dragged in a taller member of staff to do it, and he was fantastically patient with us.

The venue had done a perfect job of laying out the tables and the cloths and the runner, exactly to my specification.

Of course we had to move things around a bit.

It took an hour and a half to set up.

Sasa, aged 5, set up the childrens activity table for us, and did a brilliant job. She also helped by checking that things were centred and giving us her input on positioning of bunting.

Even the crappiest table cover looked OK, I was very relieved.

We stopped for a much needed drink, and then I came home to change.

Hope it all stays up!

Ironing out

Last night then, I looked online for irons.

I remembered seeing a cordless iron recently, and that seemed like a good idea. 

The cordless ones were less than half the cost of the steam generator irons. It's not as if we are suddenly going to start ironing clothes,  and a cordless iron would be much easier to use for the stuff I was making.

I was too late to order one and get it delivered next day,  but I could see they were available locally  in Lakeland.

I went out first thing, to try and get one.

As I drove to town, I  had a flashback of me seeing a cordless iron.  I couldn't remember where that would have been.   I don't remember looking at irons since...well, since that day at the Ideal Home Show.   What on earth made me even think of a cordless iron?

And then I realised.   I must have seen in when I was in Lakeland last week. But the only area of Lakeland I went to was...... oh my goodness!  There must have been one upstairs, in the "bargains" area!

And do you know what?   It was still there!  Half price!  How lucky was that?

I've used it already, and it was perfect for this.  Not sure it would be that comfortable to do a whole pile of ironing with,  but perfect for using with sewing stuff.

So, a good ending overall.

Iron Fist

Bother!

Where to start? 

DH has a special birthday this year, and we are having a big family activity and dinner to celebrate.   DH knows about the dinner and the activity,  and he knows that I have been making bunting to decorate the room (it's hard to hide the fact that you are sewing metres and metres of bunting, especially when it's being done in the kitchen), but he doesn't know about the other decorations I am undertaking.

Making the other decorations has invoved an inordinate amount of ironing.     We own a humungous steam generator iron,  top of the range, bought for an extortionate sum of money from the Ideal Home exhibition about 10 years ago.      It's first airing was with the bunting making,  during which time I manage to singe and ruin the ironing board cover on the equally unused ironing board.

Anyway.   I'm making 4 tablecloths and a table runner,  each covered in photos. I had printed the photos on to tee-shirt transfer paper, and then ironed them on to the tablecloth.   The first one is easy.  It gets harder as more are added.  Each table cloth has taken 2.5 to 3 hours of ironing time,  not counting the cutting of the cloth, selecting and printing the photos etc. 

The transfer paper requires extrmely high heat, and a lot of pressing.   I had to abandon the ironing board and use the breakfast bar.  To protect the breakfast bar I mada Princess-and-the-Pea type affair with a towel,  a large piece of wood, a towel, a flattened cardboard box, a wooden chopping board (which I also ruined in the process), a towel, and a new tabletop ironing cover thing.

I've spent bloody hours of my life doing this.

And it's all on disposable "Duni" luxury banqueting roll.   If I had realised when I started just how much effort it was all going to take, I would have invested in (or made) proper washable tablecloths.

I've also used a whole tube of hot iron cleaner - not all at once - as I've had to clean the plate a lot. 

Yesterday, I was adding an embroidery patch to the table runner that I had made for the main table.  The runner is 3m x 1.5m (although the photos only cover about 1m of the 1.5 metre width).   I was adding a final flourish,  a piece of fabric I had embroidered.  I could see that trying to sew this on, even with some stabliliser, was asking for trouble so I decided to use some spray fusible stuff. You spray, place the item,  cover it with cotton, and then iron it with a really hot iron.    I used the ironing board for this.   

The damn stuff didn't fuse, but it did leave a mark on my embroidery, it sort of soaked through.

I decided I'd have to sew it.  I moved the sewing machine to the breakfast bar, threaded it up with some suitably colured thread,  and tried to work out how to do it.  In the end I had to roll the table runner up,  and put a stool either side to try and support the length.   It was a pain in the bottom, and I ended up with a very wrinkled middle where it sagged; and the end where I was sewing looked a but worse for wear.

I decided I'd have to try and iron bits of it,  although I know from experience that I have to avoid ironing the photos, even if I cover them with silicon paper first. 

I dropped the iron. Or rather, I didn't put it properly on the base, and it fell off.

Luckily, I didn't burn me, or the cats, and I manged to pick it up before it singed the floor. 

I looked at it, and thought I might be able to put it back together.... but I remembered from somewhere that irons are like crash helmets and riding hats:  if you drop one, you shouldn't use it. 

More haste, less speed.

Time is running out.

Piggin' forgetful

It's only been six months since our last half pig,  and we just couldn't remember what to do. Hopeless!

Fortunately I had printed out my previous notes, so we could try and work it out.  It was a little more complicated because

1. this porker is huge, ideal for bacon and roasting joints.
2. We don't want bacon or large roasting joints this time
3. We wanted to separate out the shoulder meat to use in making luncheon meat, pork pie, and Nuremberg sausages.

Here's what we did. From what I can remember, while I remember.

DH started on the back leg, cutting out a piece for ham.

While he did that, I took the fat off the loin, and I took out the tenderloin.  Then I started taking the fat off the belly. 

I took the rest of the back leg from DH and started breaking it down into lean dice, lean mince,  meat for sausages, and fat for rendering into lard.  I used to hate lard, home made lard is amazing.

DH worked on the belly, taking out the ribs, and cutting  some pork belly joints for roasting.  I then took the rest of the belly for processing.

DH worked on the shoulder,  cutting a hand of pork for roasting, and then the rest of the shoulder.  I used separate bowls to produce lean shoulder dice, and lean shoulder for mincing.

DH worked on the loin, cutting half a dozen enormous loin chops. (I can't stand pork chops personally. Can't stand the smell of them cooking, or the texture of them when cooked.) . I then took the rest of the loin and cut it into the usual lean dice, lean mince, sausage meat.

When all four primary cuts were finished, we started prepping for the freezer. The three belly joints and the and were scored, then bagged, sealed and put in the freezer.   The shoulder was weighed into portions - 1kg for luncheon meat, 1kg for Nuremberg,  whatever was required for pork pie.   Any leftovers were added into the other bowls.

The lean dice was bagged in 250g portions,  I had about 10 of those.

I made 4 large jars of lard.

DH tunnel boned the leg, ready to make a ham.     All the bones and the trotters went to make trotter stock (for the luncheon meat and the pork pie).

All the allocated stuff went into the fridge overnight, for prepping today.

Today we minced the mince, and put it in the freezer.  The meat for sausages was minced, and the seasoning and rusk added, it's in the fridge chilling before we stuff sausages. . The shoulder for the luncheon meat was minced.  The meat for the Nuremberger was minced, and the seasoning added; it's in the fridge chilling.

Freezer space is at a premium, so I need to do some vacuum sealing.....

Cheesed off

On Saturday, before real life interrupted,  DH and I attended a cheese making course, run by Louise Barton of Cutting the Curd.

DH already makes soft cheese, but the results are variable - usually good, rarely repeatable.  I saw this course advertised and decided to sign up for it.  DH was,understandably, less keen. However, the cheeses being made were ones he hadn't made before so he decided to go.

Halloumi,  Mozzarella and Marscapone, (and butter making).   We'll definitely be making them again. Well, we'll definitely be making the Mozzarella and Marscapone again.  The Halloumi,  known as "squeaky cheese", was better than shop bought but was still too squeaky for my liking.

Louise travels the country teaching people how to make cheese.  She might have a class near you?
Here's Louise's website http://cuttingthecurd.co.uk/