Sunday 27 April 2014

Hot and Cold

Hello friends

How are you this weekend? The weather here has been ok, A bit of sun, some cloud, a cool wind and a little bit of rain in the evening.

HOT
chilli sauce
Saturday Morning we went into Blackpool for the second annual Chilli Festival. I rally don't like chillies but M does so we went along to see what it was all about.
chilli honey
Radio Wave
There were lots of stalls selling various sauces, chutneys, mustards, even honey, any many other accompaniments of varying degrees of heat. We were told that the lighter the colour the milder the heat and the darker, the hotter. I tried a couple of mild sauces but they were much too hot for me. M tried a super hot one and then had to go and buy a bottle of milk to cool down the burn.
The local radio station was there and later in the afternoon were doing a chilli eating contest (don't know how it went because we had left by then).
A couple of stalls that were cooking some foods using chillies.  The aroma was so good.
Once you'd had your fill you could wash it all down with some chilli cider.  We were going to give this stand a miss but we spotted M's younger brother there with his partner (J and D) so we popped over for a chat. J gave us a taste of his cider. It was quite unpleasant and I like cider.
L and I felt that there was one stall missing, an ice cream stall to cool the burn.  Will we go again next year? probably not.

COLD
This morning I decided that our chest freezer needed defrosting and reorganising. I emptied everything out into cardboard boxes and cool bags and covered them up with blankets. M came along wearing his thick gloves and carrying a scraper (my cool hero). He scraped off all the frost. Look how thick it is. It's been about three years since I did it last and it took hours for the frost to melt then (man with scraper was working) and my arms are just not quite long enough to reach the bottom.

Once it was all nice and clean and dry I sorted the contents and had to throw some items away because they had freezer burn. I then put all the loose bags of individual items into a larger bag. For example all the veg went into one bag, chicken into another, chips, waffles etc. went into another and so on. I don't know how long it will stay like this but one thing for sure we don't need any sausages for a few weeks. I have enough red fruit to make some jam/jelly. I just need a chicken to cut up and some bread for my freezer shop this week. I have enough bones to make some good stock (Tues afternoon Job). I want to use up some of the freezer stock over the next couple of weeks now that I know what is in there.

I've just enough time to watch the end of Jurassic Park before I start making tea. Thank you for dropping by it's lovely to read your comments and I always look forward to them.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend

Carolx




8 comments:

  1. Emptying the freezer is one of those jobs I always put off forever! I buy meat by the ton - always yellow stickered and then stash it in the freezer! I've no room left. I am planning on a low budget month so I'll just get fresh veg n salad and use the meat up! That's my plan....... I'm with you on the chillies. I think they are overrated!

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    Replies
    1. I tries using up the freezer stock but it didn't work I kept buying stuff so in the end I just went for it.
      Carolx

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  2. I am not a chilli fan either, hate the burn!! We did our freezer just after Christmas and also found lots of sausages :) A x

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    1. What is it with sausages? We aren't big sausage fans so why I buy them I don't know. We are hoping to have a BBQ party soon so that will get rid of them.
      Carolx

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  3. I always start with good intentions of knowing where everything is after a freezer defrosting but no matter how hard I try the food seems to jumble itself around and hide so I never quite know what's in there. It's a revelation when we have to defrost again.
    Love from Mum
    xx

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    Replies
    1. That's what usually happens in ours so this time I've used carrier bags and written on them what they are for. How long I keep to this is anyone's guess.
      Carolx

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  4. I don't see the point in a chilli so hot that it has no flavour but just burns. I do like chilli peppers though..and love it in dark chocolate.
    Jane x

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    Replies
    1. I've tried chilli chocolate, I didn't like it much. I've heard that when cooking a chilli (chilli con carne) it's suppose to be the thing to add chocolate. I've not tried it though.
      Carolx

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Farewell

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