Cold Fingers, Hot food

I had quite a shock on Monday morning. I don't know what made me do it, I had no real reason to, but as we were coming back in from Hubby's latest visit to the doctor I checked our meters. I'd already looked on Friday and was a little concerned about how fast the electric was going down so I'd topped it up with the last few pounds in my purse; the gas meter had been pretty much where I'd expected it to be and we'd continued to be careful since then. I had no reason to think that either one of them was in any danger of running out, and yet I checked. Something made me hesitate as we hurried to get back indoors and out of the bitter January chill. Something made me spend that extra minute fighting with the swollen door of the outside cupboard that houses meters and recycling box and gardening tools. Something made me press the little button that lights up the digital screen on the gas meter instead of following hubby eagerly up the stairs towards kitchen, kettle and coffee.

 

Arrrggggghhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How could it possibly be that low? I'd put the emergency on on Saturday evening, which gives us £5 credit. I'd fully expected that to last through until Wednesday; pension day. Last week I'd used the emergency on the Friday and it'd run out Tuesday evening, so it stood to reason that we could make it from Saturday to Wednesday surely? and yet there we were, Monday morning with only £1.12 on the meter. Oh heck!

 

This cold snap will be the death of me. On a normal week we don't use the emergency at all. At the moment we are putting extra on the meter, using the emergency, and still running out. I'm not sure how though, we aren't exactly being extravagant with the heating :(

 

 So our home is a little chilly at the moment! I never put the central heating on first thing in the morning, no matter how cold it is, if I get dressed fast enough I don't notice the shock ;)  besides, it's invigorating, gets the blood pumping! So the last time our heating was on was Sunday evening. We did give in last night and put the little electric fan heater on in the bedroom for ten minutes before we went to bed, but other than that it's been hot water bottles and piling on the layers. We're saving that little bit of gas left on the meter for cooking. We can put up with a bit of cold for a while but not without a hot meal inside us. I'm using the slow cooker as much as I can and saving the gas cooker for making porridge for breakfast, or heating soup for lunch. It may may be that I'm being a bit over cautious as far as that's concerned, but rather that than find we have nothing hot to eat.

 

Last night was particularly cold, we've had no snow but we did have a hail storm come rolling in about 11pm last night coating everywhere with crunchy white. It looked very pretty. It must be a little milder now though as it rained this afternoon so the white is all gone and we're back to the grey.

 

The aroma from the kitchen is making me hungry. There are a few sausages, the last couple of potatoes and onions in the slow cooker. I'll add the last of a bag of frozen veg to it soon. Have you ever noticed that the less food you have in your cupboards the hungrier you are? I'm starting to really notice the bite now from this weeks bill paying. I know we did the right thing, paying it off in one go, but I hate to see my cupboards so bare. I'm very glad of course that they were well stocked enough to see us through, but I also know it's going to take me a while to build up those stocks again. It's not like I can afford to just go out and do one big shop and replace it all. Hubby's pension comes in tomorrow but there won't be much of that left for food, there are too many other things that need to be paid out of it.

 

I had thought we were in for a difficult week, and it has been, but the reality of it is, we're in for several difficult weeks. Especially if the weather stays this cold.

 

 

Miscellaneous Meat

About a month before Christmas our neighbour popped round and asked if we'd do him a favour. His car was off the road but he needed to get to see his mum, would we take him? Well of course we would. It's the first time in years that we have lived somewhere without problematic neighbours, we absolutely love that we can just knock on each others doors whenever one or the other of us needs something.

 

It turned out that his 'bogof' addict mother was having a big clear out of her freezer to make room for her Christmas shopping and was packing her single son off home with all her surplus stocks. We spent a fun afternoon drinking tea with a lovely old lady before squeezing what seemed like enough to restock the local Iceland into our car. I swear the back end actually dipped from all the extra weight! No one thought to question how big our neighbour's freezer was and if he's actually have room for it all. Which is why quite a bit of it ended up in my freezer, kindly donated by our neighbour who just hadn't got the room for it and knew a lot of it he'd probably never eat anyway.

 

Some of it is the kind of things we'd never normally buy, ready meals and the like, which I'm keeping in reserve, my stand-by, 'emergency' food. However a lot of it is fresh meat that has been bagged up in individual portions. This, very helpfully, has the date it was purchased written on the bag. Less helpful is the fact that there is nothing to identify said meat! I can guess at a lot of it, there are a couple of what are obviously pork chops, and a piece of chicken. From there on in it gets a bit more interesting. There is a bag of what may be bacon, or perhaps gammon, and some breaded things that could be just about anything under those breadcrumbs. Chicken? Fish?

 

Last night I took out a bag of what looked like diced beef to defrost. This morning when I took it out of the fridge I wasn't so sure, it looked a little pale for beef. Although as I browned it prior to setting the slow cooker going I started to think maybe it was beef after all, stewing steak perhaps? Heck, for all I know it could be horse! although I seriously doubt it ;) It's not chicken, I think I can say that with some certainty, and it's not pork. That narrows it down a bit. I think when my husband asks what's for tea I'm just going to say it's a special recipe...Not-Chicken Casserole. lol

 

Whatever it is, I don't mind. Tonight when we sit down to a tasty casserole washed down with a glass or two of homemade wine I'm just going to thank my lucky stars for friendly, generous neighbours (and their mothers) and enjoy.