duck fail

Last weekend, Sainsburys were doing whole Gressingham ducks for 7 each – a bargain, I’m sure you’ll agree. I hate supermarkets, and only visit one every few weeks, so I felt this offer was most timely and bore a brace of ducks home in my fair trade bags.

One went in the freezer, and one in the fridge, and we decided to do a proper Roast Duck Dinner with it yesterday. I took it out of the fridge at lunchtime, and put it in the microwave to let it come up to room temperature (we use the microwave as a meat safe in such circumstances, as we live with five cats who love duck).

Imagine my horror when I opened the microwave later to start prepping dinner, and a vile smell emerged – the duck had gone off. It was, admittedly, two days past its sell-by date, but that’s never bothered a duck before in my experience; I suspect it was due to the fact that it was en-gibletted.

So there went plans for four or five meals – roast, stir-fried, risotto, stock for soup, etc. Not pleased, but my own fault, I guess.

The day continued on a food fail, when Pete went to get some apples from the big box of bramleys in the study cupboard, and we found that they’d all gone too withery to use.

Bah.

Originally published at Reactive Cooking.

huddling up in the cold


huddling up in the cold

Originally uploaded by ramtops

The Tribe are singularly unimpressed with this weather, and would like us to turn it off please.

We find them huddled under radiators, and strange combinations are made to avert frostbite.

Here are Iggy, Lilith and Ron putting up with each other until the thaw sets in.

Originally published at the Tribe.

duck surprise*

duck stir fry

using up: very weary flat mushrooms, cold roast duck

It seems daft to tell you how to make a stir fry – you all know how to make a stir fry, surely?! But they are great ways of Using Things Up, so I do try to write them up.

We bought an organic duck on Sunday at the farm shop at Puxton Park – it could not be described as cheap, and I know that there’s not much eating on a duck, but this one cost thirteen quid, and did us one roast meal, and some scrapeens (Irish word). I’ve boiled up the carcass to make soup, and the cats finished off the very bitty bits, but even so …

more at:

Originally published at Reactive Cooking.

[green] the hoovering

The reason I asked about the frequency of hoovering in this post is because …

Well, we used to be of the “lets invite someone round, then the vacuuming might actually get done” school of thought. I loathe housework, and hoovering is one of the worst things. It does my back in, and 24 hours after you’ve done it, it wants doing again.

But now … now, I LOVE IT. And this is why