Winter menu – option 2

                                     Is a home-made soup of your choice – if you like the idea

of making the most of your slow cooked chicken, try

cream of chicken, there's a recipe below - for a veggie

alternative and my favourite, carrot, coriander and chickpea

check out the soup label

This is “chicken soup for the soul” – it makes you feel better when you're in need of comfort. Dice, box and fridge your leftover chicken - ready to add to your soup later.

Using a large saucepan, cover the carcass with water and any stock you've got - chicken or veggie - bring to the boil, turn it down to a simmer and let it do its magic for 30/45 minutes. Strain the stock, cool, cover and set aside until you're ready – you may find more chicken to add to your stash. Another rummage produces a few Charlotte potatoes that need using plus a large onion that's always in the veggie basket.

Here's the recipe :

Cream of Chicken Soup

Serves 4

30g unsalted butter

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 clove of garlic – preferably roasted

500ml chicken stock

250ml whole milk

celery salt and white pepper

diced chicken stash

garnish of grated nutmeg

50-75ml double (heavy) cream

leftover Charlotte potatoes, peel and cut

into small dice

a handful of frozen petit pois

Heat the butter in a large saucepan. Add the onion and garlic and sauté gently for 2-3 minutes – there should be no colour, season with celery salt. Add the stock and diced potatoes and simmer gently for 15 minutes then add the milk and simmer again for 10 minutes Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Blitz 2/3 ladles of the soup until thick and return to the pan. Add the cream, nutmeg, peas, ground white pepper and chicken - heat gently until piping hot.

Don't forget to warm the soup bowls.

If you don't have a huge amount of leftover cooked chicken adding the potatoes supplements and gives a hearty thick soup – a rib sticker as we say!

It's no big deal if you don't have the inclination to make a chicken soup - box and freeze your leftover chicken and likewise bag and freeze the strained stock, for another time, when you are in the mood!

Next up, options 3 and 4!

Here's the first winter menu – option 1

If you haven't already done it, dust off your slow cooker for option 1!

One of my old favourites – slow cook a

whole chicken – an “instant” mid week roast

and leftovers too

If you're serving four as a main then you'll get sufficient

chicken left to use for a soup

If you're serving two as a main then you'll get sufficient

chicken left to make a pie filling or shredded chicken

in pasta and a sauce using the stock

I mentioned checking out bargains and deals – you'll usually find a chicken! Rocket science it ain't but if you want to make the most of your good deal with a chicken then let the slow cooker take the strain and do the cooking for you - that's two massive ticks!

Slow Cook a Whole Chicken

1 chicken – between 1.5kg – 1.75kg

1 chicken stock pot

2 tsps of garlic paste or 1 garlic stock pot

generous sprinkle of oregano or garlic

Italian seasoning

Alternatively use two whole star anise in the cavity

and omit the herbs

Place your chicken in the slow cooker and mix the stock pot with the garlic paste and spread over the chicken. Sprinkle with the herbs or add the whole star anise to the cavity and omit the herbs. Switch your slow cooker to the low setting and leave it for 8 hours.

Strain the stock and freeze the resultant liquid gold, strip the chicken, keeping aside what you need and then bag and freeze the remainder.

One thing is for sure, slow cooking a whole chicken means you get the best value and you'll use every morsel – it's the perfect emergency food!

If you'd like another chicken idea check out the “takeaway” options for the weekend.

Option 2 coming up ...

I've decided …

to carry on where I left off, sort of!

6^th January is the first birthday on my list, the Wednesday as the lockdown is introduced. My

friend Phyl lives locally and I hadn't got much time – hokey pokey I thought! I'd given her Rocky Road for Christmas which was very well received so it made sense to stick to the theme – I had to work fast – fortunately it's not complicated and I reminded myself when I went on a rummage that I had these small, neat trays which would be perfect.

Here's the tray :

Here's the tray full of hokey pokey :

Here's it is, bagged, with a bow too :

I delivered the gift on Tuesday, phew, that was close.

I received a lovely email from Phyl - “Thank you so much for the hokey pokey it is delicious. I had a fab day x”

It might not seem like anything huge in the birthday gift department – it was meant to make my friend smile and to let her know I'd thought about her birthday. Job done I think!

Where possible within the constraints I'll continue to make stuff for gifts if they can be delivered safely.

I've decided too that there will now be a “treat for the week” included in my menu ideas … up next

Making your shopping list!

Not the most exciting of tasks I grant you but you won't be sorry and lets face it you have the time.

I confess that since the original lockdown and the infamous “loo roll gate” I've created what I call a war chest – not a huge one and to clarify I mean that if I've emptied a jar or finished any staple from my pantry, fridge, or freezer for that matter, I've added that item or ingredient to my next shopping list – instead of flying by the seat of my pants and too late was the cry - assuming that you are sticking to the rules! I don't mean that I've swept up every loo roll or tin of beans and taken more than I needed, quite the reverse.

I know that you'll think I'm bonkers but as I replaced said item I logged it in a journal along with the use by or BBE date and kept the journal, to hand, in the kitchen – it's quick and easy to refer to and I don't lose track of the contents of my store cupboard. If you decide to try this idea it's smart to keep your “stand-by stash” separate from your normal store cupboard, jars and tins have a habit of getting buried and you can never find what you'd swear was there!

Using this method all I need to do is check my log to make sure I've a back up. As with the previous lockdown we're going to find that random ingredients will vanish from the shelves without rhyme or reason.

It may well be outside your comfort zone but, particularly in light of the above, if you want to save what sanity you have left spend a little while planning your weekly meals. You can include a “takeaway” and treat yourselves to a supper at the weekend that doesn't require any cooking, just the oven and your timer!

You might also want to get into the habit of cooking, as an example, more potatoes than you need, deliberately creating leftovers, to include in another meal. You save time, money and achieve little or no waste – it's a win win!

Don't forget to check out bargains and deals that are out there – resist the urge to get carried away, a bargain or a good deal is only so if you'll use what's on offer – if you have the space to freeze so much the better. It might also be a good idea if you add your freezer purchases, as you shop, to the journal mentioned. It'll save you time and frozen fingers too.

Coming up – a little light relief and then some menu ideas.

Here we go again folks!

I think we've got used to lockdown over the previous months – now though we have the added challenge of being in the depths of winter and miserable weather so no benefit of even queuing in the sunshine. After the disappointment of the strangest Christmas and New Year too we need to give ourselves a kick in the posterior and get on with the next two to three months at the end of which, hopefully, we'll have had a shot in the arm – I've never ever looked forward to an injection – bring it on!

Down to business. During the last lockdown I gave you a weekly menu of suggested meals, the purpose of which was to give you ideas of your own that you could tweak to suit you. It's more difficult in the winter – we've probably over indulged at Christmas and New Year and so added to the misery is an extra pound or two (or kilo if you prefer).

January is a long month and normally challenging for the already stretched budget, so all the more reason to get organised.

Most of you know that I'm a list maker – here's where it comes into its own but first :

Check your freezer – I'll bet that you filled it with all sorts of goodies most of which have sunk to the bottom and you've no idea what's buried in there. I'm no different and have got used to biting the bullet and doing a stock check. What I loathe and detest is that rummage into the depths and finishing up with fingers I cannot feel. Here's my tip – pull out a large portable freezer bag and don a pair of rubber gloves then empty your freezer contents into the portable bag, check as you go. There'll be gremlins that are too late to save so sadly you'll have to commit bits to the freezer burn mountain. Now you've rotated your stock and discovered stuff you'd forgotten you can use your freezer the way it's meant to be used and create meals using the contents!

Do exactly the same with your store cupboard and/or pantry. Check dates and be brave.

Now you're ready to make your shopping list!

My version - photo guide

Here they are :

shallots, finely diced sweated

with the garlic and sweet paprika

add the cheese, potato and parsley

ready to go!

with the lattice top and egg washed

baked and ready to inhale!

Coming up – here we go again folks!

The lattice pastry photo guide

If you're a novice then the best way of mastering the technique is to practice and use leftover puff pastry and follow the guide below – you're not under any pressure and it's not as difficult as you might think :

Flour your surface and roll out the pastry – you want at least 10 x 1cm strips for the practice run – you can continue and make it larger if you wish.

Place a strip of baking parchment on your surface. Glue the parchment in place with small pieces of pastry in each corner – it will stop the parchment sliding.

Lay six strips vertically then fold

back alternate strips – lay another strip horizontally

and replace the folded back strips

fold back the opposite three vertical strips

and repeat – lay another strip horizontally and

replace the folded back strips

keep folding back and alternating the strips

until you've created what looks to me like a portcullis!

It might sound complicated but I assure you it isn't and it's much easier to have a go when you don't need to produce an end result. All you're using is leftover pastry and it doesn't take a lot. I scaled it down in the photographs deliberately – it's easier to control.

When you decide to create it for real use a beaten egg to glue your strips as you are building your lattice – obviously it'll be on top of your filling anyway but it'll help keep the shape. Don't forget to measure the length of your strips – adding 10cms to whatever size pie dish you're using – for example, 23cms + 10cms – 33cms to give you overlap of 5cms each side of the dish to trim and tuck down into the pie. Finally egg wash and bake!

There are photos of my version up next …