In a jam, pickled, frozen, well preserved and other culinary triumphs

It keeps @Shaz51....

I've got a few jars that are years old, so I try to make something "different" until those get used up.
There's jams and relishes in my Mum's pantry that are even older, and with the exception of some relishes that have had the lids eaten through by the vinegar, they're all still fine.

I've made a habit of occasionally trading preserves for produce or animal minding, which helps keep the stockpile turning over, and is a nice treat for the recipient.

Got the orange "gelati" made up last night. Is yum... 🙂 Only a cupful of pulp left. About right for the fruitcake recipe.
Currently boiling a chunk of meaty ham bone to make pea soup. It's been sitting in the freezer for ages, so today's the day!

I have passed on pickles and relishes given to us as we just don't eat them @Shaz51. If they are offered rather than given, I do not feel obligated to accept them.

Mr Darcy was pleased to tell me that we did spend a bit less on food this month 🙌. I have been trying to buy a few more things on sale as well as freezing things where I can.

We have been given a heap of spuds. Have diced some up, boiled & drained them, added a bit of olive oil and spread them out on trays to freeze (so they don't clump together) before putting them in freezer bags to roast later. Slow going but we will get there.

Needed to duck to supermarket close to closing yesterday. Managed to pick up 2 x 6packs of bread rolls for under $1/pack which I split and put in the freezer. Also got a large chook on mark down, which I split in half before freezing, am thinking we will get 2 x decent roast meals out of it.

@Former-Member, I'm looking at the mad crazy fennel plants in our garden. They've reached the point where the bulbs are stretching out to form flower stems, buy are still tender. I'm wondering if I can get myself organised into fennel pickles... maybe adapting a pickled onion recipe.

Meanwhile. today's task is to get two fruit cakes into the oven. The chooks are very reliably providing us with two eggs a day at the moment, and they've gotten ahead of us. Last night's brownie slice used two... and we got another two today. The fruit cakes between them will use up eight, so that will bring it back to a dozen left... whew. Nice problem to have, as such. 😄

Jackie French years ago, while going through methods of preserving eggs, stated that the best way to do so was in a rich fruit cake. 😛 Have always remembered that.

"Here's one I prepared earlier.."

OK. Eight eggs officially being "preserved" in the oven. Egg count down to twelve. And there will probably be two more tomorrow...

@Bunniekins

Not sure if I have given you the link to this recipe before, I tried it today and it is delicious and freezable if one wants to have a cook up (my sis gave me the link and she freezes it in meal size portions).

In the comments section people have mentioned other ingredients they have added with success such as tofu/ different veg.

https://youtu.be/aP6eXpwIths

@Former-Member Hey Darcy thank you so much will give it a read and try it out. I simply love chickpeas. I have a funny story to tell about our current fridge. When my previous fridge was dying after 25 years (great fridge) I bought a cheap but decent fridge online. When it arrived I was very excited opened the doors and thought 'something is wrong here' ...... yes it has no freezer!!!!! I just thought every fridge these days would have a freezer :o! so no frozen food in this house. Luckily I have two hungy kidults who eat up meals pretty quickly :)xx.

Yikes @Bunniekins my freezer is bigger than my fridge. Have always immediately frozen left overs or meals/ soups in individual serving sizes as we find we don't have so much waste that way.