Bless - thank you!
Cherie - knitting in the car park is actually really good for me, if there are lots of trees and nature around. I can only take so much excitement.
I'm still feeling slightly out of sorts. I had far too much rum on Friday night. I mean, rum to an excessive amount, in large quantities, almost a vatful (maybe an eighth of a bottle, which is a lot!) and it burned a lot of the lurgy out of me and so while I had a hangover and I'm not feeling utterly top form, I'm doing okay, though worrying that I'm going to get it later. DH is really struggling, though. It's lodged right in his upper chest and throat and the poor lad is seriously croaky. Bear currently is unaffected.
I'm slowly chipping away at the stash in the freezer. Today I put three chicken breasts, which were the last ones in three separate bags (which cleared a surprising amount of space), in an oven dish and poured over a jar of curry sauce. The men will enjoy it, and it's cheaper than anything I can make, and better tasting. I also added some frozen mushrooms from the stash when I got a load marked down and some frozen onions. I feel low enough cooking a jar sauce, but at least I add to it. It's rumbling away nicely. I'm going to cook some frozen peas in the microwave as an experiment, and I'm going to serve with rice.
I'm nearer sixty than fifty. You would have thought that I would have learned some sense by now. However there was a deal on rice a few months ago and I bought 5kg of basmati rice (which DH very much prefers) at a very good price. I can't currently find it on Tesco website, so they may have been getting rid of it, but it was something like £1 per kilo, which you can't get now. I thought I would bung some in the rice cooker (and it's so long since I used it that I'm hoping that I got it right). I tipped some into a large, airtight storage container. I now have a sack with roughly four and a half kilos of rice being held shut with a bulldog clip. I cannot imagine that this is an acceptable way to store rice. I refuse to allow it to go to waste. So now I'm wondering about the best way to store it and also how much rice we could sensibly eat over the next few weeks. It is less than you would think. DH likes his pasta bake and bear has terms and conditions about food which usually ends up either buying a salad or eating something beige. I couldn't face taking a pic, so here is a stock photo from Unsplash.
Faris Mohammed is obviously a better cook than I am. If I don't use a rice cooker, my offering is always extremely soggy or burnt.
The bag should be okay for now, but I think I should decant into something slightly better soon. I think that I'm going to end up in IKEA. You see, tomorrow I may as well do the big 10% off shop which I had planned to do Friday, then I can call in at IKEA on the way home. IKEA doesn't open until 10am, which is a lot later than I'm normally headed home, but if I have a good walk followed by a big shop then it should be opening as I go past and I want to pick up some frozen veggie meatballs from there. And I could do with calling in at Wilkos which is just along from there as I am out of fat balls for the birds and the magpies are starting to give me meaningful looks.
I may or may not get the storage from IKEA. I don't want to spend the money. I think this evening is going to involve rummaging in the backs of cupboards for decent airtight storage. There may be a haphazard tower of random rice containers by tomorrow.
I also need to use it up within a reasonable time frame. I refuse to let it go to waste, and I quite like rice. If I make a large quantity at the beginning of the week, it could end up stirred up with all sorts of scraps that I can use up. And as bear's preferred liquid with cereal is rice milk, I suppose I can have a go at that, though it wouldn't be fortified like the commercial stuff.
I have also measured up bear's trousers. There is now a surprising amount of sock on show when he wears them, which is not surprising giving that he's thankfully growing like a weed. I bought school trousers for him but, after measuring up, he's really in men's trousers now. What a milestone - men's trousers!
Hugs and good health to all.
You can store uncooked rice in the freezer and it should be good for about 18 month according to Google. I've never tried it myself though, although I have frozen cooked rice from time to time.
ReplyDeleteI am glad you are starting to feel better and hope your husband recovers soon and bear remains unaffected by it!
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, there is nothing wrong with cooking with a jar of sauce! I don't know why you would feel low about it. I use jars (or cans as they are cheaper) of pasta sauce all the time and, just yesterday, I used the last bit of a jar of salsa when I cooked my rice, adding it to the rice to make my version of Mexican rice!
Speaking of rice, don't feel bad about using a rice cooker, either. I cook rice all the time and I use a rice cooker. I can cook a pot of rice on the stove top, too, but, I use the rice cooker as it is easier (don't have to watch over it to make sure it doesn't boil over, etc.)
I did laugh at you buying a 5 kg. bag of rice. That's 11 lb. of rice and that doesn't sound like a lot of rice to me. I usually buy my rice in 10 lb. or 20 lb. bags, depending on what is available. In fact, I just opened a new 10 lb. bag of rice, yesterday. I put about 2 lb. of it into a small tupperware type container for daily use and the rest is in a larger Tupperware container, stored in a different kitchen cupboard. I cooked rice twice, yesterday - in the form of milkrice for brunch and salsa rice for dinner (eaten with sauteed chicken). :) Uncooked rice has a long shelf life, usually, so should be good for at least a year or more.
Can't help with the rice storage. I honestly don't buy a lot of it. One of my October goals is to clear out the freezer. It's been a while since I did it and, honestly, a part of me is putting it off as I'm afraid I will have to throw some things away and I really don't want to. I feel a little guilty throwing food away when it is so expensive, BUT I realise that I need to sort it in order to try again at the organisation thing.
ReplyDeleteYou can use Basmati rice to make rice pudding if your family will eat it. It has to be cooked in a slightly different way to when made with 'pudding' rice, but it's still a lovely and comforting cold weather treat!
ReplyDeleteI also make really large amounts of plain boiled basmati rice, cool it quickly, then freeze as soon as possible to stop bacteria growing.
The frozen rice can then be thawed in the fridge and made into great fried rice dishes, our favourite being Chicken, Spring Onion and Hoi Sin!
Or serve boiled rice with curries, or fu yung. I heat it from frozen in the microwave to use in this way.
I buy my rice in 10kg bags as it always works out much cheaper. We love Basmati rice and are always disappointed if we have a meal somewhere and the rice is plain old long grain. I like to cook a big pan full then freeze it in portions. It's lovely to have some to hand and I don't even defrost it before making stir fries, just scatter it in. Cooked rice makes the most gorgeous rice pudding. Just cook it as normal but without salt. Serve the plain rice in a bowl with a really good splash of double cream and a little honey to sweeten. Sometimes I add sultanas to the rice cooking water before making my rice pudding.
ReplyDeleteI always buy rice in Asian stores as it's cheaper there. I buy a 5kg bag and it lasts me ages. I just leave most of it in the bag and fasten with a clip or rubber band and have never had any problems. Rice stores well so I don't think you need to worry - it would probably still be fine in 10 years' time!
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