Food

My school friend moved to Canada a while back and is now living a disgustingly healthy life in somewhere idyllic with monumentally breathtakingly beautiful scenery and bears and moose and things like that. I struggle with jealousy issues, especially when it is grey and drizzly here in W13, and even in the beautiful weather we've been having here.

Like, it seems, all Canadians, she is very outdoors-y and is constantly ski-ing, going for long walks with her son in a backpack, and eats only fresh fruit and vegetables. She is participating in a "challenge", and what is it with North Americans and their self imposed challenges? Seriously, the knitters I "know" via Ravelry are always "challenging themselves" not to buy wool, to only knit continental, to make 12 things in 12 minutes, and other crazy things. Can't we just enjoy life and living? Who outside of you and your immediate family cares if you've spent the mortgage money on wool? Have some self control! I have never, ever, committed an emotional purchase and you can tell that from the minimalist lifestyle I advocate and the tidy and disciplined state of my home and yarn stash.

Anyway, she is participating in this challenge here, which actually looks like a GOOD THING, and not really that far removed from what I will grandly call my eating and food philosophy.

Local, fresh, organic where not stupidly expensive, home made and ready meals once in a blue moon.

I will be actively avoiding buying bread for a month, as I make a better loaf than I can buy, and we can slice it thin enough for the Fusspot's sandwiches. I can make butter, but you know, life is just too short. I already make my own jam and it won't kill me to stop buying chocolate for me and the children for a month. I will still be eating sausages, ham and cheese, and buying Petit Filous, as both girls love them, but everything else will be home-made, or at least sourced locally.

To this end, I have spent today making chocolate and hazelnut spread, crab apple jelly and chicken stock, from a boiler hen, £2 from our local butcher. Amazing. I've pureed some pears for Hattie's breakfast tomorrow, and I'm going to make a loaf of bread in a bit.

Last night, we started as we mean to go on by having homemade burgers and chips with a tomato salad. Wonderful, and the fusspot ate a huge amount too. I think I rather spoilt it by eating a hangover busting Scotch egg with two pints of Diet Coke for lunch though...