Stuffing Stew.

Yesterday morning the house inadvertantly smelled like Christmas as I decided my one mission for the day was to use up some of the store cupboard stuff to make a soupy stew for the quick meals for the next few weeks whilst J went to the Allotment Society AGM.

So pearl barley from the store cupboard has joined leeks and parsnips from the freezer, and lots of sage and thyme to make a soupy stew that I think will work on it's own or with a veggie sausage or similar as a more substantial meal.

Just be aware that my post-chemo taste-buds seem to only be responding to super-herby flavours at the moment that you might need a bit less flavouring than me if you play with this one but trust me it makes the house smell glorious.

Leek, Parsnip and Barley stew

• c. 1 tablespoon oil
• c. 250g leeks
• c. 250g part-boiled parsnips
• c, 100g pearl barley
• 3 tablespoons dried sage
• 2 tablespoons stock powder
• 2 tablespoons onion powder
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• black pepper to taste
• c. 2 litres of boiling water

In large saucepan - makes at least 5 portions

• Put oil parsnips and leeks and lightly fry until the veg softens and takes on a little bit of colour.
• Add herbs, stock and enough water to cover to about 2 cms below the pan rim, bring to the boil.
• Add the barley and simmer for c. 30mins. The barley will absorb the water so you need to keep a bit of an eye on it to make sure it doesn't catch. Top the pan back up with boiling stock to same level as previous and simmer until barley soft.
• The final result is a thick brothy type soup that looks a bit beige but tastes great. I might add some peas or something else with a bit of colour to it when I warm up the portions.

All ready for freezing

Getting things done

Yesterday, despite the soggy start to the day, we had an excursion before our trip to the hospital for chemo. We had been building up a list of bits and pieces we wanted to pick up in town and I needed a non-medical trip out even if it did mean starting at B&Q. The main purpose was to have a peek at the new Hobbycraft that has opened this week .so we got  dropped off at the shopping centre late morning and then J wheeled me round working our way through our list of things until we got to Hobbycraft itself- the shopping centre is a nice level outdoor one and is just on the edges of the town close to the hospital so once we were done we popped into the Marks food place on site and picked up a picnic lunch. Now a picnic in a hospital waiting room isn't everyone's idea of a good time but it made sense for us not to go home and come back out again and the Chemo suite at the hospital is lovely and modern with comfy chairs and free wi-fi and all very relaxed so no-one minded that we turned up an hour or so early (they were momentarily puzzled but they didn't mind!) and it gave me a chance to rest before the treatment began. We picked up some bits for me and bits to put aside for friend's children and family here and overseas ready for the C-word as well as giving me a chance to see what sort of paints and the like the shop stocks before the chaos that today's grand opening would not doubt have produced.
Chemo went ok and whilst tired last night the evening passed smoothly and I even went back to sleep for an extra hour or so after my usual early wake up so a gentler start to today.

When I eventually got up I put a double batch of dough on for lunchtime pizza and a stock of flat-breads for the freezer - reheating them frozen has worked well this week, the breads had a lot of flavour and it's definitely something I will be doing regularly from now on. When J made the lunchtime pizza he also made the flat-breads themselves so a good bit of team-work.

Then on to the next job on the "it's really bugging me and I must sort it list". After several weeks of working our way through the freezer stocks of veggies, sauces and bought in stuff that we'd accumulated earlier in the year I shuffled the remaining pots, packets and boxes around making sure that everything that needs using up in the next month is in the drawers that I can easily get to and revised the lists that tell me what we have and which freezer it's in. The food shop arrived this afternoon so now we're fully stocked for my brother's visit next week and the rest of November and should only need  to pick up the odd bit of fresh fruit and mushroomy type foodstuffs.

Really happy to have got the chores done but starting to flag a bit as the afternoon goes on so methinks more seed crackers and seedling potting on are going to have to wait. My feet are now firmly up watching an interesting Dr. Janina Ramirez documentary on Julian of Norwich on i-player whilst J plants the autumn onion sets into modules in the kitchen and yes, it's still raining...

verbena cuttings need pricking out but will just have to wait...

Back to basics

For various reasons over the last couple of months my trusty breadmaker has been decidedly unloved and the basic ingredients that we always keep in haven't been used as much as normal. Instead I've been buying in pitta bread and tortilla/wrap style breads which means not only spending money that I don't really need to spend but also bringing extra non-recyclable, non-reusable plastic wrappings in to the house that just end up in the bin. Lots of reasons for this, some days I'm just not very hungry or the taste buds are playing tricks but I know I need to eat so a single pitta straight out of the freezer and in the toaster plus some soup is perfect, other days my mouth is a bit sore or swallowing a bit difficult and that lovely loaf of crusty bread becomes a bit of a minefield. Just part and parcel of the cancer treatment and no doubt the same thing for lots of people living with other long term conditions too.

So time for an experiment - can I make a batch of my own flatbreads using what I have in the house without tiring myself out and still have the convenience of being able to just have a single piece if that's all my appetite demands...

well-thumbed but hopefully legible!

My usual meander around blog-land came up with various make your own tortilla type recipes and I soon twigged that our regular weekend pizza dough recipe was very similar - low yeast, oil based and easily adapted to whatever flavourings you have to hand. Time for a play.



So this morning into the bread machine went:
about 100g of mixed grain bread flour (tail end of the bag)
about 200g of white bread flour
1 tbsp sunflower oil
1.5 tablespoon of onion powder
about 1 tablespoon of dried mixed herbs (last of the jar)
1 teaspoon of salt
170ml of water


And out came 550g dough ball which then got divided into eight.








I popped a couple of raw dough balls in individual cases to see how well they freeze and cook later. These are just reusable silicon muffin cases - once frozen I'll take them out and leave them in the tub.

Next I rolled out a couple of the pieces as large tortilla-style breads and popped them in a hot dry pan to cook. 

I divided a couple of the other pieces into 2 to make small pitta type breads - a hot fry pan with a little water - may use a little oil next time as pan started to smell a bit as it got very hot.

So now we have a few cooked for my tea and J's supper then a few smaller ones that are in the freezer to see how they re-heat over the week.



So far the results look promising, just need to see what they are like out of the freezer and then that's another step back from pre-packed foods.