New Broom

Well it seems posting in the school hols is a non-starter, so apologies for my absence. We ventured south, to my parents house near London, and into the thronging masses. Soooooo many people! I arranged to meet my friend in a local park and it took us a full hour to spot each other, even though we were standing in the same play area!!! Un. Be. Lievable.

Anyhow. It was nice to be fed for a week and take a break from housekeeping. I felt like I needed a bit of an injection of something to change my fast-becoming routines. You know sometimes you just need a change of scene or to read a really interesting book that sets you thinking. In my case, that book turned out to be "Meat" by Hugh Furnley-Whittingstall.

Firstly, I should explain that I've become a bit of a HF-W devotee recently, after following his excellent new series on Channel 4, Everyday Food. Flaming marvellous ideas in there, some of which I have already adopted, such as making your own yoghurt (took less than 5 minutes to prepare). However, this gigantic tome of a book sets out to tell you everything you need to know about meat - from how important it is for an animal to live a good life, to how it dies, to how it's butchered, to how to identify good meat, to how to cook it. It's a truly fascinating subject which I didn't even know I was interested in. I love the way that Hugh writes - you can actually hear his voice as you read the words, especially as all his (bad) puns are also included :)

This book has set me on a bit of a journey now. For a start, it completely slates supermarket meat and sets out in great detail the arguements for doing so. They are utterly convincing and I vowed there an then never to buy any meat from a supermarket again - which is a pretty big commitment, if you think about it. Luckily, we have an excellent butcher locally and I cannot fathom why on earth I haven't patronised it before. Off I went on Monday morning to find the most amazing array of meats, both raw and cooked and made into pates and all sorts of things. The shop was full - another good sign - and the butcher himself (and his staff) knew exactly what they were talking about.

Of course, once I've made the effort to go to the butcher, I may as well pop into the excellent greengrocer next door. And so it goes. A whole new way of shopping which is extremely welcome because, I don't know about you, but the whole supermarket 'run' has to be one of the most boring and repetetive exercises that we habitually undertake. God, am I bored with it. Same old, same old each week, putting things in the trolley out of habit and not really thinking too much about it either.

The above revellations, coupled with a new-found enthusiasm for making my own bread (with a breadmaker, admittedly) and my now own yoghurt, coupled with the doorstep delivery of milk (which I have had for a while now) has led me to realise that I don't constantly find myself 'popping out' for bread etc (to the supermarket, of course) and then end up spending 10 or 20 quid on stuff. Hurrah! At this rate, I'll never see the inside of a supermarket again!

And just whilst we're on the subject, as for veg, I went to a shop on Sunday and bought 4 enormous carrots (the biggest you've ever seen - about 2 inches thick), 8 leeks, 4lbs potatoes, a giant pumpkin, some celery, 8 onions and 3 large parsnips. All local, all still covered in earth, all freshly harvested. Where was this shop, I hear you cry? Well actually, it's my local prison farm shop!! The prisoners grow the veg and then it is sold on a not-for-profit basis. Talk about a win-win situation, eh? Oh yes, and I forgot to mentioned the price of this bountiful harvest ...

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£4.50 the lot!

I'll just let you soak that up for a moment.

So, all in all, I find myself with a nice new obsession on my hands - food. Not just cooking it, but finding out more about my food, thinking about where I buy it from and also the most economical way of shopping in general. My mantra has become - simplify - which can most easily be achieved by planning meals (which I always do), shopping once a week only (instead of 3 or 4 times) and being creative with leftovers - but that's another subject for another day.

The vegetables I bought have so far been put to good use - a fabulous pumpkin and parmesan soup, a lovely chunky winter vegetable soup - both of which have made enough to eat now and freeze for another day - and I've still got loads left for the rest of the week.

Tomorrow I'll tell you all about the bag of apples we were given yesterday ... bet you can't wait ... you're just going to have to bare with me on this food obsession I'm afraid ... :-)