Maybe Not Overcomplicated

I've worried about doing a gazillion things, and got nothing done. I've been puttering around with some writing stuff, sorting out bits and pieces and getting distracted. I am also missing the radiators. I'm not cold cold. I'm just not warm, and I don't like it. I used to suffer when I was a kid before central heating. I remember my hands going the most gruesome grey when it got cold as my circulation is pathetic and I feel the cold. 

One thing that's been preying on my mind is the continuing supply of potatoes in my kitchen. I maybe have gone through a tenth or less of the large bag that I shouldn't have bought. I've leafed through the cookbook and mentally checked through all sorts of ideas. Then I decided to forget all the fancy ideas and I boiled a pan of potatoes, just plain. 

I'd got a pack of cooking bacon from Morrisons. It's £1 and there's 500g (just over 1lb) of potentially good bacon in there. It's all the odds and ends and trimmings and it can be a bargain, depending on the pack. It's the only thing that I remembered to take a pic

It wasn't too fatty, and it was mainly smoked bacon, which I prefer, but nothing is guaranteed in these packs. I trimmed the fat from enough bacon to make two good portions and I think that I used maybe a quarter of the pack. I plan to trim what's left, cut into small pieces good for stews/stir fries/casseroles/omelettes/pasta etc and freeze in small portions. The stuff I did today made two ample portions fried up with green peppers, onions and mushrooms. I think it may have accidentally made it relatively healthy, as there was a generous veggie to meat ratio, even if the meat was seriously processed, and while I'd trimmed off most of the fat from the bacon, what was left was enough to allow the rest to cook and I didn't add any extra oil. I ate with plain boiled potatoes and I very much enjoyed it. 

I was born in the 1960s, when food was a lot simpler. I'm not saying that it's better, but sometimes it's nice to have food that reminds you of childhood. I always enjoyed plain boiled potatoes much more than mashed, and it was nice to have some on my plate. There are so many ways of cooking potatoes and I felt that I ought to be doing 'fancy' food with them. I was looking at roasting them with rosemary, or slicing them up with garlic and casseroling them, or making one of the versions of rosti, when all the time I'm very happy with eating them plain. 

Of course, I cooked a double batch and I'll be frying up the leftovers tomorrow to have with the leftover bacon, onions, peppers, and mushrooms, with perhaps some peas added as I believe that if you reheat a dish then you should add a little something that's fresh.

There's nothing wrong with dicing potatoes, stirring them in oil and garlic granules with perhaps some herbs, then cooking in an oven/microwave/airfryer. They taste amazing, and I've already had a portion or two like that. But it's like the central heating. When I was a kid, things were much plainer, and we did fine. I sometimes talk about it with bear, and I swear that he doesn't believe me, but I was the first person in my circles to eat a bell pepper when I was a kid. Nobody bothered with garlic or chillies and heaven help you if you looked for cumin and tumeric instead of generic curry powder. Now bell peppers are a staple and grown in gardens up and down the country. 

The pack of cooking bacon, with all the trimmings from whatever bacon was being sliced that day, reminds me of the trimmings that you used to be able to get at the cold meat counter at the butcher, or later, Morrisons used to have a little tub in the cooler next to the fancy sliced meat, and it was the same - trimmings. Bits of various types of ham that had been cut to thick or had been the wrong size or bits of the ends that were so much cheaper and fine for a sauce or to add a little zing to a beef or chicken casserole. There used to be the same sort of thing for cheese as well, and mother used to bring a bag of cheese scraps from Chester market to indulge the cats. These weren't just any cheese scraps, by the way. They were the offcuts from the stalls that sold cheese from the local farms and it was the good stuff - great for sauces or toppings. 

I sort of miss those days as I will be prettying up the potatoes with all sorts until I finish them, but I've decided to remind myself that it's okay to have plain boiled potatoes if I feel like it. 

Hugs and good health to all.