Kate’s Kitchen Diary February 3-9th 2020

Welcome to the first of a weekly round up of what we’ve been doing here at Kate’s Kitchen Table.

My week in the kitchen:

This week we mostly ate from the freezer meals I made a few weeks ago, cottage pie, lasagne, beef stew and dumplings. For our Friday night family meal I used my new chef’s blowtorch for the first time to make creme brulee. On Saturday we had guests for dinner. I made The Pioneer Woman’s Comfort Meatballs served with Jacket Potatoes. The meatballs are more like meatloaf than the meatballs you might serve with pasta and have this amazing tangy ‘sweet and sour’ style sauce over them, super tasty! For pudding I made a pavlova topped with cream, strawberries and raspberries – a taste of summer during storm Ciara haha!

Sunday was my husband’s birthday so we spoiled him in the way he likes best … with food haha! For breakfast we had bacon in soft white rolls, and for Sunday Lunch I Roasted 2 enormous chickens and served them with roast potatoes, yorkshires, sage and onion stuffing, pigs-in-blankets, savoy cabbage, sprouts, carrots and gravy and made a strawberry trifle for pudding. His birthday cake was a really simple sponge traybake with white icing and dolly mixtures and jelly beans on top – his favourite sweeties hehe. Unfortunately I’ve been pretty terrible at taking pictures this week so you’ll just have to trust me when I say it all went down well hehe!

As always I baked …. a lot! lol

My week home-educating

This week was candlemas week in our exploring nature with children curriculum. We found snowdrops on our nature walk and drew them in our nature journals, discussed the history and significance of candlemas day and made beeswax candles, read a slightly more lighthearted version of Hans Christian Anderson’s ‘The Snowdrop’ and learned about winter storms and what causes severe weather. We looked at the traditional rhyme: ‘If Candlemas Day be fair and bright, Winter will have another fight. If Candlemas Day brings cloud and rain, Winter will not come again.’ and talked about how people have predicted the weather in the past and how we do so now.

We also enjoyed a piece of art by Marianne Stokes called Candlemas Day which shows a woman in profile reading her bible with a candle in the background. We talked about the artists choice of colour and subject and had a go at drawing each other in profile.

My week in home-making

This week in the oh-so-exciting world of keeping house I managed to pretty much stick to my schedule which on top of the regular house cleaning, laundry and cooking, included cleaning the garage, washing the shower curtain, cleaning the fridge inside and out, washing the windows, and kitchen tiles, mending about 5 small pairs of tights,and washing the downstairs woodwork. Aaah the glamour!

My week in books

This week I’m reading ‘Home Economics Vintage Advice and Practical Science for the 21st Century Household’. Here’s what the cover says: “Housekeeping is becoming more and more a matter of science, and the laurels are bound to fall to the woman who conducts her household in a business-like way.”
 
Let the thrifty sensibility of yesteryear be your guide as you shop for the most economical foods, choose wall colors scientifically, clean with natural products, look your best without breaking the bank, and budget your way to frugal efficiency. In this amazing collection of clever wisdom and practical advice drawn from vintage home-economics textbooks, you’ll find everything you need to get back to basics and run a healthy and happy household. Home Economics covers all the categories of delightful domesticity:
    
     •  Health & Hygiene
     •  Cookery & Recipes
     •  Manners & Etiquette
     •  Design & Decoration
     •  Cleaning & Safety
     •  Gardening & Crafts
 
Rediscover the art and science of keeping house—economically!”

It’s an interesting read and I’m loving the vintage style, surprise surprise, hehe!

Cocktail of the week

Our guests this weekend were tea-totallers so we served Shirley Temples – Grenadine with lemon and lime soda and a lime wedge over ice … and Rob Collin’s – Grenadine and cola over ice.