November 2017

Before writing this months piece I scanned through my photo’s to remind me what I’ve eaten and where I’ve been, and wow, what a busy month it has been.  November is my birthday month, and I do try to drag it out for at least a week and this year I managed about ten days which I think is a personal record.  It included a couple of days in London for the tennis, we had a great meal at City Social, and a visit to the amazing Borough Market.  On my actual birthday we went to my great friend Jess’ as it coincided with Thanksgiving, she put on a Vegetarian Thanksgiving evening, with some super tasty salads and a pumpkin curry: and I felt really spoiled as she got me the most amazing Tiramisu cake with candles and everything! The culmination of the celebration was a porky lunch at Pickled Piglet in Brum followed by a great evening catching up with some very old friends at Symphony Hall for Miss Moneypenny’s at the Proms.
At the beginning of the month I took delivery of the half pig that I ordered from Woodhouse Farm.  Its’ the first time I’ve done anything like that and I don’t think I really thought about how much pork that would be.  I did managed to get it into the fridge and freezer, and I’ve tried a few new recipes, my favourites are Goan Style Pork Curry and a really simple slow cooker Fennel and Chilli Pork.
For me November really signals the start of winter cooking and my veg box has been filled with lots of great root veggies this month.  I’ve loved the change in gear from fresh and crispy salads to warming mash and roasts, and we particularly love the start of the proper mashing potatoes this month.  We are still coping with the extension and having lots of people in and out of the house each day, not to mention the dust.
I’ve been cooking lots of slow cooker meals this month because half my kitchen has been put into boxes, and I don’t’ really feel like cooking much by the time I’ve cleaned up each day.  Our builder Tom is a bit of a foodie and he’s always really interested to find out what I’m cooking each day.  He even brought me lunch of his Fish Stew, which was really great!  We also had a great banana loaf made for us by for us by Hayley my hubbys accounts assistant.  I think its everyone else’s enthusiasm for food that has kept me cooking this month.
I’ve made two visits to the supermarket, and spend a total of £25.30.  I went to Lidle on a Sunday as I needed veg and the farm shop had shut, I spend £10.17 on some broccoli to add to the veggies I had left from our veg box for Sunday dinner (we were having roast pork and stuffing), I ended up also buying some baby cucumbers and radishes for snacking on, t-bags for the builders and porridge oats as I’d run out.   On Wednesday I chose to go to Waitrose as I’d made the effort to go to The Butcher, Baker Farm Shop on Tuesday but they didn’t have some ingredients for a couple of recipes I wanted to try.  I spend £15.13 on sesame seeds, dried cranberries, plus some non-food essentials: scourers, washing-up liquid, floor cleaner and hand cream.