Using up the cupboard day 4

Rogan Josh with red rice. Didn't have any plain white rice.

I used the last of the organic beef I bought in Spring, probably six months ago. I organised a coop and made a day trip down to Ross (150km round trip), had a great day out with friends who live there, collected the meat from the organic farmer when she came up to Ross to collect her children off the school bus and came back with lots of meat for five families. Disappointingly, the butcher had not done his job correctly and the meat has been bloody and not up to it's usual high standard. Put that together with my learning about grain to meat conversions for different animals, and I may not order more beef for a long time. For the amount of grain which is required to make a kilo of meat, chickens and pigs are much much better than cattle. There hasn't been mention of sheep in any of my reading on this topic, so I assume they are not the worst and not the best.

The Rogan Josh mix was a pile of spices in a sticky paste which some clever marketer sells in a glossy packet for goodness knows what and which probably languishes on cupboard shelves all over the country. Our good friend Brian probably had them on his shelf for a fair while before he passed them to us when he moved out of town. I have two more to use up yet.

I also used a bit of canola oil to cook the meal, meaning I actually started the bottle which is already just past it's use-by date. Not sure why I bought canola oil, but I won't be again for some time. Now we have moved from gluten free to a low gluten diet, I am hoping I will be much less tempted to buy all sorts of items just because I saw them in the NZ allergy society recipe book. Just egg free is much more straightforward given that we aren't huge fans of pre-prepared foods. I keep a jar of Hellmanns' mayonnaise in the back of the fridge just for me. That never goes past it's use-by date.

The Rogan Josh packet didn't include any vegetables in it's serving suggestion. Blasphemy. I fitted in plenty of cauliflower, butternut squash and swiss chard. Not really a meal without Sandra squeezing in some swiss chard somewhere.

Well tomorrow is the much awaited pay day, much awaited partly because now we refuse to use credit cards, the significance of pay day has increased hugely. I have managed to feed the four of us over the last eight days and only spent NZ$145, which is easily $50 less than usual. That is for every meal, including bought fish and chips one night. Most interestingly to me (yes this is my new or at least current obsession), now I've got into the swing of using up the cupboard and realised quite how full the larder is, I don't feel like we have no food and desperately need to go to the supermarket. I usually would by now.

The garden is supplying all the greens at the moment, plus herbs and celery. Everything else is bought. Given that lentils and beans are cheaper than meat, my treat is that I get organic lentils and beans whenever I can get hold of them (the dried, uncooked versions). I am feeling deserving of an order of Puy lentils and black beans from the organic supplier over the hill, but I need to use up more of my cupboard yet. I also need to find out whether the organic food coop 40 kms south of here might have these items. I haven't supported them as much as I'd planned, though the fact they didn't put me on their mailing list as they had offered to hasn't helped.

Also today, I sewed a nappy. All by myself. I usually think of myself as fairly crunchy. A sandal wearing paid up hippy on a number of fronts. But today at the nappy sewing class, I was just a softy. Not much crunch at all by comparison with my sewing buddies. It was a good project to promote Real Nappy Week. Cos disposables are fake nappies it would seem. I've spent very little money on disposable nappies in my parenting time thanks to some good advice and purchasing when Fionn was a tiny baby. So although we have plenty of washable nappies at our house, thanks to today's class we now have one more. Megan the tutor also showed me things my sewing machine could do that I had no idea about. Three stitch zig zag, nice to meet you.

Out in the garage, our new letterbox is looking increasingly funky. Bright yellow and black, it now has a picture of a racing car painted onto it. Fionn chose the picture and then Favourite Handyman made the stencil and Fionn painted it on. I will have to get the camera out and share that one soon. I bought some cement this afternoon for anchoring the letterbox into the ground. I buy and FH digs. Marriage made in heaven, played out here in earth. Just as well I'm cooking so well of late, especially as the budget has largely precluded beer. Good cooking seems to help diying along nicely.