In My Shopping Bag Today

Thanks for the heads up on the chocolate. I had some 90% once but it was rather bitter and powdery compared to my favourite 85% which is now mostly back in the Co-Op. So is the Wyke Farms butter, and still cheap so I bought and stashed a couple of bars. No other butters on special offer like they used to be, and only one margarine.

This week I have salmon and smoked haddock, oh and samphire from the fish van, bacon, gammon rasher, ground beef and lamb's liver from the butcher and a whole mass of veggies too numerous to mention including peppers, garlic, chillies, mushrooms and broccoli. I like being old fashioned, wandering round the town chatting to people, and avoiding dogs after visiting the butcher. I know what Eddie means about specialist shops, they started dying out a couple of decades ago.

chris c wrote:Thanks for the heads up on the chocolate. I had some 90% once but it was rather bitter and powdery compared to my favourite 85% which is now mostly back in the Co-Op. So is the Wyke Farms butter, and still cheap so I bought and stashed a couple of bars. No other butters on special offer like they used to be, and only one margarine.

Not exactly endorsing the chocolate Chris it's definitely bitter and not really to my taste don't think I will be buying it again

Brussels sprouts - check!

CHESTNUTS are back - check!

Purple sprouting broccoli - check!

Pheasant - OH NO they sold out.

I bought some pheasant breasts from the farm shop. While eating a pheasant is a whole ritual - boot up the oven, put it in the baking tray covered with bacon, turn it over half way through and add more bacon, stick it on the carving plate - you can chop up the breasts with scissors and stir-fry them with bacon, mushrooms, peppers, chillies, garlic and olives and add a dash of toasted sesame oil to the EVOO. Saves on washing up.

When I get whole unplucked pheasants from a shooting friend I just slit the breast skin open, pop out the breasts and put the rest, feathers and all, in the recycling. Oh damn, I can't do that any more, they cancelled the kitchen waste collection.

Well out of the foods you listed above Chris ... I bought none of them ... although they do all sound and taste good  

I did get some more Broccoli today (among other foods too) a 335g bunch of Broccoli for 40p in Sainsburys - not a bad price although I may have been able to do better in some other supermarkets?

Some of the bunch has already been cooked and enjoyed with a fish dish    

All the best Jan

Bought my first whole pheasant today. Tonight I had the sausages though, with half an armful of sprouts. I'll probably do the pheasant tomorrow. Or the liver. Decisions, decisions . . .

Polished off half the pheasant today. There's more than enough left for a stir-fry. Maybe two. When mother was still alive I used to roast the pheasant wrapped in bacon and eat half the breast. Because she was tiny she'd eat about half the other half. Then she used to casserole the rest with bacon, mushrooms, carrots, celery and whatever else she could think of.

I had a nice surprise this morning. There was a knock on the door before I got up, which I ignored because I thought it was salesmen.

When I surfaced there was a pheasant AND a partridge on the doorstep, nicely plucked and packed. I guess my friend has been out shooting.

I lent him some money a couple of years ago (for his business). He's repaying the capital in instalments and the interest in pheasants. Don't tell the taxman or he will want some too!

chris c wrote:Polished off half the pheasant today. There's more than enough left for a stir-fry. Maybe two. When mother was still alive I used to roast the pheasant wrapped in bacon and eat half the breast. Because she was tiny she'd eat about half the other half. Then she used to casserole the rest with bacon, mushrooms, carrots, celery and whatever else she could think of.

That casserole your mum used to do sounds very tasty.
I haven't eaten pheasant in years ...

All the best Jan

Back to butter ... just thought I'd mention that Waitrose have Kerrygold butter on offer buy two packs for £2-50.
So I did  

Does anyone know if Asda, or any other supermarket, have got it cheaper than this?

All the best Jan

That Wyke Farms butter has been sold out for a while now in the Co-Op and I see today they have taken down the shelf space and filled it with some Stork abortion of margarine *with added butter*

Nothing on offer at all, I bought some President because I hadn't had it for a while.

Polished off the fartridge roasted in bacon with sprouts and chestnuts, and the remainder stir fried with bacon, mushrooms, peppers, chillies, garlic and olives in EVOO with a splash on toasted sesame oil. Just the peasant to go now, interspersed with some ground beef, another herring (three hard roes in succession, I'm not optimistic about this one) and some salmon. No purple sprouting broccoli this week, I'll probably have spinach with the salmon and toasted almonds with the herring. Not a Healthy Whole Grain in sight, except the oatcakes I use to hold up the butter. And the Vacheron d'Or which I'll probably have later. Maybe some Blueberries with cream, ground flaxseed and brandy for pudding.

Gosh it's such a hard life this low carbing . . .

Has anyone else thought that in recent months butter prices have increased?
I wouldn't buy anything else (can't believe how many tubs of margarine / almost like butter I must have bought prior to Eddie's Type 2 diagnosis)

I know you guys seem to prefer President, which we haven't yet tried ... perhaps we should.

Still like the Kerrygold best ...

If anyone sees any good deals - please don't forget to share them.
Thanks

All the best Jan

I can't remember when I last saw a special offer on butter in the Co-Op. The President went the way of the Wyke Farms, so I alternate between Kerrygold and Anchor. You may well be right about the price going up, I bet the farmers don't get any more for their milk though.

YES!!! Anchor £1.25 in the Co-Op today. First special offer I've seen since I can't remember when.

chris c wrote:YES!!! Anchor £1.25 in the Co-Op today. First special offer I've seen since I can't remember when.

Not seen any offers for quality butter of late   could it be to increased demand given that crappy low fat spreads are being shunned by consumers in favour of butter 

Almost certainly. The downside of low carbing - when it gets too popular to price of all the good stuff goes up

Stop Press ... as the saying goes!

President Butter is 2 for £3-00 in Asda - which is slightly cheaper I think ???

All the best Jan

Jan1 wrote:Stop Press ... as the saying goes!

President Butter is 2 for £3-00 in Asda - which is slightly cheaper I think ???

All the best Jan

I think it's normally £1.70 for 250g so saving 40p not a fortune but every penny counts 

Hardly worth the diesel to drive to the nearest ASDA. On the other hand The President is rather good. Do you think it will be renamed Covfefe?

chris c wrote:Hardly worth the diesel to drive to the nearest ASDA. On the other hand The President is rather good. Do you think it will be renamed Covfefe?

You lost me on that one Chris ... until I looked it up!!!
Thank goodness for the internet.

All the best Jan

Something I hadn't realised until the latest redesigned pack - Anchor always used to be New Zealand (and grass fed), since 2012 it has been British, and now claims to be from Westbury although still packed in Leeds. Makes me wonder if it's still grass-fed or comes from grain-fed indoor cows. Still on special offer though so I bought some more.

"Anchor butter, once as much a part of New Zealand as the All Blacks rugby team, is now made in Britain.

Owner of the brand, Arla, has moved production of the dairy product to Westbury in Wiltshire, breaking a tradition which lasted over 120 years and returning the butter to its English roots.

The original recipe was created in 1886 by Harry Reynolds, a Cornish dairyman who had emigrated to the other side of the world.

The inspiration for the famous red anchor logo was supposedly a tattoo on one of his worker’s arms.

Imports to the UK began in 1924, ending in 2012 when Arla – a  co-operative owned by British farmers – began making it in England using British cream.

Anchor butter is still also made in New Zealand by the Fonterra company, who use the same recipe developed in 1886."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2569867/Anchor-New-Zealand-butter-Wiltshire-Brand-owner-breaks-tradition-120-years-moving-production-UK.html

Are the cows still grass fed? On Anchor's main site it does say they are ...
http://anchorbutter.com/

All the best Jan

Looks like the French could do with extra supplies of butter

... and the French do enjoy their croissants

Did you know about the alternative low carb croissant/bagel made with butter !


Stacey says:
"Low carb croissant bagels are  grain free and primal. A marriage of a buttery croissant  and a sturdy bagel. These are an adaptation of the Revolution Roll recipe in Dr. Atkin”s Diet Revolution (1972). I like the recipe in  the book, but wanted to make the rolls more sturdy and less delicate.

I added butter for a croissant like flavor, and coconut flour to make it  more dense. Just not as dense as my coconut flour bagel experiment. That one could have been used as a door stop, lol. I was trying to get somewhere in between delicate and brick. Awe, the joys of grain free baking!

The kids said it does taste like a croissant but without the flakiness. I’m happy with that review. Definitely closer to a croissant than a bagel."

See much more recipe/instructions etc here
http://beautyandthefoodie.com/low-carb-croissant-bagels/

All the best Jan

Hmmm, interesting, the UK site doesn't actually SAY that the cows are grass fed, although most UK cows are largely grazed with at most the addition of some grain during winter.

I don't remember a creamery at Westbury - that's not to say there wasn't one, just that I never delivered there - but I remember one at Huntspill, now it seems closed. I remember my transport manager giving me directions, which included the Puritan Armaments Factory. I wondered why puritans would make arms but it was actually the village of Puriton! Westbury had a huge cement works, and a concrete covered white horse in the hillside, and several trading estates so it might have been there all along or may have been built in the last 30 - 40 years.

Anyway the butter is still on special offer . . .

. . . I wonder what effect Brexit will have on butter prices or supplies . . .

. . . also I remember suggesting a vegan version of Last Tango in Paris, using margarine.