Happy New Year from us three at the 'People & Cats Republic'. I hope you all had a lovely festive break & are feeling positive.....or at least stoical about the year ahead.
I got my bargainmongous haul of post-Christmas cranberries, as you can see.......all waiting in the freezer ready for next season's apples & their joint transformation into sparkly-topped chutney gifts. Well, the tree is back out in the garden, the decorations are up in the loft, but I couldn't manage a 100% de-twinkling of 'Hagstones', so pressed a string of lights into service in the kitchen to preserve a bit of festive sparkle all year round. There you are.......much better!
Now, for people like myself who are evangelical about avoiding food waste, the Christmas turkey is THE annual Leftovers Nirvana. I would be utterly bereft if there were ever to be no leftovers. I have known people who have told me they deliberately choose a goose or capon for their festive roast specifically because they "don't want to be eating it for days on end" or to be "stuck with loads of it after Christmas". I admit I practically need picking up from the floor & resuscitating when I hear this! I absolutely insist on leftovers!
It wasn't always quite like this. Enthusiasm for cooking skipped a generation in my family. My Nan (1909 - 1993) was an excellent cook, & having lived through hard & humble times, used every scrap of food. Possibly because of growing up in a household where every scrap of food was used, my Mum never took to cooking. She would do a roast dinner, a lovely Christmas dinner or a few basics, but mostly growing up in the 70s, our specialist culinary subjects would have been boil-in-the-bag, spaghetti hoops & Findus crispy pancakes.......(what WAS that stuff on the outsides? Not like any pancake I've ever encountered since..........) Mum would throw away whatever festive leftovers she could get away with. We once had soggy sprouts sitting on the lawn till February because no local bird or cat would touch them. Nan, of course would pronounce this as a shocking waste & tell us how they ought to have been cooked up with leftover potato & carrots to make bubble & squeak. One thing that Mum did get persuaded to save was the turkey carcass. Nan would strip it of meat, then boil it up in a huge pan for soup. With carrots, celery, potatoes, onions & other oddments added, it made a chunky soup which filled everyone up until they could barely stagger from the table. I wasn't keen on it as a child. I once found something in mine which I convinced myself was one of the turkey's eyes. I can remember trying to get the rest of the soup down without heaving. I suspect it was actually a piece of pearl barley which was in the 'soup mix' which Nan used, & I don't like pearl barley in soups to this day!
As I learned to cook at school, I took over the annual turkey soup-making & have done it ever since. I have been known to foil wrap a stripped carcass & bring it home with me if I knew it was otherwise destined for the bin. I confess I have also asked for unwanted turkey carcasses to be frozen for me until I can collect them, so determined am I not to waste this fantastic soup-making resource! Is that just a little bit tragic? Probably!
So this year's Turkey Dismantling Day resulted in a tray of breast slices in gravy, a turkey & ham pie (plus a spare pie base), 7 cartons of chilli, 5 cartons of soup, 2 cartons of stock & some sandwiches. Oh.....& not forgetting 3 saucers of poached giblets & meat for Albert Whiskers, who was beyond impressed at this upgrade from cat food!
The chilli is a fab recipe from the WI Christmas Cookbook. I make it every year by popular request, although I use ordinary tinned kidney beans & fresh red peppers rather than the more processed options listed. Anyway, I really recommend it. It makes plenty & freezes well.
In addition to his giblet-gobbling frenzy, Albert Whiskers has had rather a nice Christmas. OK, he was at the cattery for the actual festival, but he had his turkey day & cat-loving visitors when he came out. Santa was quite generous & brought him a new blanket, FOUR packets of 'Dreamies' & some Christmas money, which he blew on a 24 pack of 'Whiskas'. He wasn't wild about all the snow, but endured it with fortitude for necessary ablutions.
The remaining time, he spent putting his new blanket through rigorous quality control procedures....
.......but he's pleased to report that it's passed muster.
Off now to do some more swearing at the Latvian mittens I'm currently knitting.......these are likely to warrant a blog-post all of their own, but I have actually to finish one first & they are growing at a rate of 1cm a day as they are on 1.5 mm needles.
Our very best wishes to you all for a Happy & Peaceful 2015.
Love,
C & the 'Hagstones' boys x
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