Friday 19 July 2013

No faff food

Good evening. Another hot day today. I delivered my artworks to the Arts Centre, but didn't hang around for long in town, straight back, just too darn hot. In a previous post Veronica says she is interested in how I use the ingredients I bought at Tesco. I hope you aren't looking for some amazing recipes, sorry to disappoint, but my meals are mostly quite simple. I don't faff around in the kitchen. On the odd occasion when I play a little it's because I am bored, otherwise lunches and dinners are knocked up in about five to ten minutes. Like this one for example. Last night I had steamed vegetables, with mushrooms in a garlic sauce made with garlic flavoured soft cheese and yogurt.
Just out of curiosity I counted the fruits in these two containers. To compare value for money. There were 23 blackberries.
And the normal price is £2, and they come from Herefordshire in the UK. What a flippin rip off. Paying all that money for so little when they have maybe had a couple of journeys in the back of a lorry. I bet the grower doesn't get very much money at all for this, probably what I paid for them.
And how many blueberries? 88 to be exact.
These also cost £2 and were flown over from the USA, so a big transport cost there. So which are the best value? Both of them are unaffordable to most people, but if I could afford one of them I would pick the blueberries. But flying food those distances is not good for the planet. Best to eat local if you can, so maybe I should choose the blackberries. No on second thoughts I will pick them from the hedgerows for nothing.
On to my dinner for tonight. As you can see, much the same as last night, except, no mushrooms, couldn't be bothered to cook them, besides I had raw mushrooms for lunch..
Instead I had some of the dips with it. The Value dips cost 98p, and lasts me for about a week. Saves making sauce, and messing up a pan. I'm not a big fan of sauce anyway, I'd rather have my food naked so I can taste it.
Sue suggests freezing some of the food I bought, she mentions the soft fruit and the broccoli. I think some foods turn to mush when you freeze them, and become tasteless. I much prefer to eat them fresh. I will freeze my own excess of runner beans, but not the courgettes because they go mushy. I don't like frozen broccoli, cabbage, or cauliflower. Tasteless mush. I suppose you could say I am a bit finnicky about food. I never boil veg, it ruins it. I never fry food, except onions and mushrooms in a pan to make something to go with pasta or rice. I hate tinned veg but will tolerate mushypeas and sweetcorn, everything else is tasteless. I bought a tin of carrots and a tin of potatoes to take on holiday so it wouldn't go off in my car, and quick to warm up in the self catering kitchen. They were horrible, overcooked tasteless mush, yuk :o(

Anyway, that's all for tonight folks, 9.30pm and I've got to get the washing in off the line, and do a bit of watering up. The cats are in for the night so all is well. Have a good weekend. I think it's going to be a hot one, so I won't be going anywhere.
Toodle pip.

16 comments:

  1. Ilona, how about a post about food for travel? What do you take with you, and what do you do with it? TIA.

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  2. Oh my word, do people really pay £2 for blackberries? Don't they know you can pick them for free? I pick pounds of them down the lanes and hedgerows...even have enough to make wine...yum :-)

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  3. Your meals look healthy and nutritious! I agree about the distance they are trucking produce. Here, in Canada, I have seen ontario peaches in a can that were picked here and processed in China and sent back. I'm sure thy have zero nutritional value t the end of the day.

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  4. No way would I pay all that for blackberries or blueberries. We go foraging for free fruit every year and freeze what we don't use immediately. I still have a few of last year's blackberries that I've been mixing with apples. And I got a load of reduced blueberries a while back for 29p a tub and froze those also. I rinse them leave them to dry and then spread them out on baking sheets and freeze them that way before putting them in bags and back in the freezer. They stay nice and seperate like that.

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  5. Hi Ilona. I always freeze my glut of courgettes (chop them into cubes first) and use them to make soup. They're fine for soup as you need them to go mushy so the whizz up easily in a blender. Also freeze tomatoes and just roast them for salads or pasta when the oven is on anyway.

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  6. Ilona, Sorry nothing to do with food.....how are you keeping your cats comfortable in this heat wave?

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    1. Hello Butterfly. My cats are free to come and go as they please. Sometimes I don't see them all day, but sometimes they come and go, popping in to see me. If it is very hot they sometimes stay indoors, but mostly they lounge about in the garden. If they are hot they go under a bush, or find some shade somewhere.

      I have various water bowls dotted about, inside and out, and they drink out of all of them. They come and find me at mealtimes and I put some wet food out for them, but after they have eaten I cover it up because it attracts flies. Dry food is always available for grazing.

      That's about it really, they see to themselves.

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    2. Thanks Ilona. Just wanted to check I'm doing the right thing for my little black cat. Doing similar to you . She's staying under the big leafy plants too . Luckily it's a lot cooler here today.

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  7. Hi Ilona, Your food looks very appetizing. I too steam veggies. I don't like canned veggies either. Wish I could find some free blueberries or blackberries where I live but I never come across any. I wind up buying them at awful prices. Do you have air conditioning in your house? I mean a window unit? Just curious because it's been so hot here where I live. It was 98 degrees (farenheit) yesterday and most of the week. Today is the last of the heatwave they said. I hope so! It's been awful here. Just wondering how you do it if you don't have air conditioning? Do you use fans? I guess the UK usually doesn't get as hot as here in the US, right?

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  8. Hi Ilona,
    We too are shocked at the price of blackberries and blueberries. We are no longer fit enough to scramble about in hedgerows but we have a bush of each in the garden which keep us going well enough. The blackberry is thornless, which is another plus. I like the sound of your yoghurt and garlic cream cheese sauce.

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  9. Me too! I hate "faffing about" with food. I have an ex-colleague who retired to a place in France, now he's a "gastronome" and is always bragging about his food, all served Nouvelle Cuisine style, and his huge wine cellar, all posh names and so on.... drives me nuts. I can't stand all that faffing about and told him so, I much prefer your style, no massing about, just real food as it's meant to be. Cheers, dear! Good health and long life!

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  10. Hi Ilona. I can't beleive you actually counted the berries to compare the price - you could have done it by the weight! Perhaps the sun has affected your intelligence!

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    1. Sue, I don't know how much each pack weighed, the stickers covered it up. And I don't have a scale to weigh them myself.

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  11. I think counting the blueberries or anything to work out a per unit/item is a good way to focus the mind. A loaf of bread for example costing say £1 for 22 slices is just over 4p per slice.
    Dave.

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  12. I loved hearing how you used your produce! It doesn't have to be a fancy recipe. Cheers.

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  13. You drove past Angus' place on your way to us! We never seem to see their stuff in our local markets, though :-(

    I grow blueberies - a few bushes provide all we need.

    Our cats do much as yours do in this hot weather - they make nests in the shrubbery and only re appear when it is food time ...!





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