Sunday 26 January 2014

Thrifty Chicken .. and Workaday Mirrors...


Hello there ....
Well ... it was blowing a gale and lashing down with rain .. as we set out to work this at 4.30 am ... the sky was very dark and in the beam of our torch light the rain swirled and lashed against all in its path .
As we sat outside the big market shed ... waiting for the stewards to let us drive in ... the van rocked in the high wind ... I was thankful of a flask of hot coffee ...

We must be mad....

Anyway .. the rain didn't keep people away ... and we had a good day ...
as we packed up to come home ... the wind died down ...and the sun came out to play!



I find Sunday trading hard at this time of the year ....
standing around in a cold shed ... the cold creeps into your bones.
So I was glad to have a sit in the chair .. in front of a nice warm fire.
The view out of the window was lovely ... the sun was shining.. 



The trees in the field across..well hedge really .. were full of birds ... twittering away...
These pigeons/doves ?.. had lots to say ...



 I think there was a lot of romantic 'goings on'  ...
just look at these two snuggled up together ... they spent ages just sat bobbing about on that branch.

After a nice bowl of warming soup I had to sort out the meat I had bought from the butcher van ... portion it up .. bag and freeze ... 
I got lots ... when its bad weather and he doesn't sell as much .. the deals are great.
I worked out I got about 66 meals worth of meat for £30 ... big chicken legs .. pork steaks and Cumberland sausage ... well stocked up for a while.
Whilst the butcher was pulling chicken legs out of a box (of just chicken legs) .. he pulled out a small chicken ...

 'Oh ! ' .. says he ... 'a chicken .. want a chicken?'

'Throw it in the bag' says I .... 
so we got a chicken in with the price ..

This went in the oven for tea tonight ... love a chicken ... all that stock ... and chicken soup ... yum!




Whilst the oven was on I chopped up some sunshiny veg ... the colour alone makes me smile.... carrots and butternut squash ... and an onion .. mixed in a bit of oil and easy chili ..



Quickly boiled up the veg peelings for the chickens mash ... too good to waste. 



I still have a big jar of stuffing mix from Approved Food ... lovely stuff.



So I mixed a bit and put a few stuffing balls on top of the veg ... banged it in the oven.

Meanwhile .. the ever industrious Hubby P had gone to pick up some stock.
These lovely mirrors came from an area of our local city ... Bangor is a city .. (we have a cathedral) .. an area where the lovely big houses are listed properties ... some of them were having work done and had no further use of 'big' over mantel mirrors..



All good for us .. these are real beauties ...heavy original silver plate mirrors.




He arrived back .. and I had to have a quick look before it went dark.. this is a smaller one .. and a fireplace surround...
not that you can see too well ... but he said he wasn't lifting them out of the van ... just for a photo .... and then back in again!



You can see how big it is next to Hubby P .... huge .. need a big house for this one..
Wants a clean up of course .. but once Hubby P has worked his magic it will be stunning.

So back inside to the chicken..



lots of meat on it ... to say it was more or less a freebie ...
and of course the carcass for stock .. and soup ... did I mention the soup ... soup ... the best bit even!

So that's been our day ... hope you had a good one ....

xx