I love serendipity cooking! Some call it bottom-of-the-fridge, some iffits (if it's there bung it in) but I like serendipity!
I suppose that there are many fridges in which things lurk. There's a slightly wilting pepper, the last four mushrooms, a couple of sticks of celery or whatever. Well, apart from the moral aspect of food waste, "whatever" cost money and I chose to buy it so it's going to get used.
A check on my fridge revealed that I had carrots, onions, celery, and peppers which wouldn't last much longer. There was a box of chestnut mushrooms, an aubergine and some roast peppers trying to look as if they weren't there. There were fours eggs in a box and some garlic eager to be used.
I hadn't any bread or breadcrumbs in either the fridge or the freezer but I had a box of sage and onion stuffing mix in the food cupboard and there were lots of nuts left from Christmas.
So I chopped the celery and onion and sweated them in a little oil with the garlic. I used the food processor and whizzed the mushroom, aubergine, nuts, peppers, carrots and stuffing mix and then added that to the softened celery and onions. I added stock and the eggs, mixed the whole lot and put it into a couple of lined loaf tins. Don't ask for quantities: this is serendipity cooking!
Then an hour at 180C, Gas mark 4, 360F. Basically it's a nut and mushroom roast. Even more basically, it tastes jolly good, even if I do say so myself wot shouldn't!
I have a special habit which I indulge in at this time of the year. It's unsubscribing! No, I'm not planning on stopping following anyone's blog, but I have taken my name off all sorts of mailing lists.
Whenever I buy something on-line the various companies take that as permission to send me invitations to buy more and more stuff. Special offers. Money off. Great value for money. All very tempting but what it all boils down to is they want to part me from my money! Well, as far as I am concerned I prefer money to be in my bank account rather than theirs.
When I want something I look around and find it and then leave it in the basket for a day or two while I think about it. As often as not the company will then offer me an incentive to buy - money off, free delivery, whatever. I also give myself thinking time to see if that is what I really want. Mailing lists are a way of getting us to shop without thinking.
One word of warning: if you come across a scam e mailer it is better to consign the email to junk or spam - if you "unsubscribe" you will simply confirming that you are really there when they have been phishing.
