Tag Archives: freezer

A Post with No Soup

 

Guinea Fowl on guard

There has been a lot of food in my last few posts, and a lot of soup pictures. Soup is a good subject for photography as it is not given to sudden movements and there are no problems of perspective. Buildings are good subjects for their lack of movement, but they do tend to look strange from certain angles. However, easy as it may be as a subject there are still challenges, even with soup. This is mainly the way lenses mist up as the steam rises. professionals will, of course do it all differently.

A Cricket on the cabbage

If I wanted a perfect shot I would let the soup cool down, decant it into a gleaming new pan (if you notice, all my shots tend to be a bit messy as a result of the blending) and I would add an artistic swirl of cream and a scatter of croutons.

I remember reading an article of food photography once. To get a good picture of cheese the photographer hollowed out a block of cheese and then illuminated it from inside. It seemed a lot of hassle just to photograph a block of cheese. I suppose the pursuit of excellence is its own reward. I merely pursue adequacy, and often struggle to achieve it.

Pizza with egg and nettles

As this is a blog post with no soup, I won’t tell you want we’re about to have for lunch – let’s just say that it’s a lot easier to make soup than it is to eat it. a pan of soup takes minutes to make, but can last for three meals. I really must develop the habit of storing some for later, but whenever I think of it, the freezer always seems full.

Californian Poppies

We keep saying we are going to eat out of the freezer instead of ordering more groceries. We have several part bags of seafood and frozen veg, with several store cupboard items such as veggie burgers and others that were thrown in there in a panic as their final day approached (sausages and fish pie mix to be specific). Ween we move I think we must clear the freezer and then developĀ  system before we start ramming the new one with rubbish.

Dog rose

Photos are from June 2016. My life was so much more interesting then.

 

Sunday Slipping Past

ItĀ  was Saturday again, and then it was Sunday. Sunday took the form of porridge followed up with bacon sandwiches, a few replies to comments, and a few blogs read. Then it slipped away from me.

Saturday was quite good in the shop. Several customers, several people selling, some eBay parcels and a general feeling of balance. We even saw another pre-Covid customer, as they gradually return to visiting shops. The customer who returned works in a supermarket and avoided Covid until 6 months ago. Then he had it again. This is bad luck, and a sign of what happens when you let your guard down.

Sunday has been OK too. You can’t have a bad day when you have porridge followed by bacon sandwiches. I’ve just had to do a small edit there. I had been writing “porridge and bacon sandwiches”, which is not at all the same thing as “porridge followed by bacon sandwiches”.

That was six hours ago and I’m feeling peckish again, but Julia is defrosting the freezer so we can start the Christmas stockpiling in earnest. This involves kettles, hairdryers, swearing, much poking with wooden implements, soggy newspaper and a multitude of loose peas (in former times I would have done the “escapee” joke, after thirty years it has worn a bit thin). It also involves me being told to stay out of the kitchen.

We have both been surprised by then number of part bags of prawns she found, and have had a conversation about stock control. I believe she hides things. She believes that I never look. There is some justice in this conclusion, though I still say she hides stuff too.

The menu for the next week is going to feature salmon, tuna, prawns and peas. Prawns and pasta tonight, tuna tomorrow, salmon on Tuesday and fish pie on Wednesday at a guess. My brains are going to be well-nourished this week.

Fish Pie