Thursday 4 May 2017

Rats!

This post is for those of you out there who labour under a misapprehension about me. You may think, from the blog, that I glide effortlessly through life like a swan, enjoying the waterlilies. 


That I am supremely organised, never wasteful and there is always a well thought out meal on the table when required.WRONG!
I may appear that way, but in truth, my little legs are paddling nineteen-to-the dozen under the water, and just occasionally my feet get rather tangled in the pondweed lurking in the murky depths. 
Case in point...
On Tuesday we were planning to go out, and so I thought I should check the freezer in case I needed to thaw something for the evening meal. There was this box...
I looked at it carefully. Clearly not Vegetable Curry, nor beetroot soup. It looked like sweet peppers - one red half, one orange half. I had a vague memory of sorting out fridge contents before we went away at Easter, and putting some stuff in the freezer.
I checked the current contents of fridge vegetable drawer - which included 1½ courgettes and some onions.

"Ratatouille!" I thought, gleefully [or Gleefully I thought "Ratatouille!" - for those of you SATS fiends who prefer fronted adverbials - although I am in Michael Rosen's camp here] "This would be a good side dish to go along with sausages or chops or something. If I get it cooking now it will be lovely by this evening."
I left the box on one side, dug out my small slo-cooker, emptied a can of tomatoes into a jug, put in the microwave to heat, chopped up some of the fridge veg...and only then did I open the box, to discover those two bright triangles were not capsicums, but cheesecake! They were the two slices left after our pre-Easter Alpha supper.
Fortunately there was a large pepper in the fridge too, so that got chopped up and added to the mix. Later in the day, we came home and ate ratatouille, with pork chops, and had cheesecake for dessert.

Morals of this story;

  1. Always label things clearly before you consign them to the freezer drawer. You may think you will recognise them when you retrieve them, but life is very busy and further down the line, you will have no idea what it is!
  2. Cleaning off old labels is a good idea
  3. You can always salvage something from a disaster- this time I managed not only ratatouille**, but also a dessert.
**Pronouced as per the French rat-a-twee, not as in the film Ratatouille rat-at-two-ee








10 comments:

  1. Just think how boring it would be if you were perfect! That's my excuse for so many things and I'm sticking to it!

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  2. I know exactly how that felt! My labels are defaced, washed and somehow never removed. I shall improve.

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  3. Cheesecake sounds better than "rat-stew", which is what it got named here, anyway!

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  4. Lol that's funny! I'd prefer the cheesecake in all honesty. Cheesecake for tea - yum!

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  5. I'm just the same! Cheers from Carole's chatter

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  6. I bet meals in your house are truly exciting, NM!

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  7. I tend to put things unlabeled in the freezer, thinking I will remember what it is. Then when I pull it out months later, I can't remember and it looks like 30 different foods. lol Nice to know I'm not alone!

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  8. So that's what a fronted adverbial is! Don't like it :-(
    Also, we once had what I renamed hacienda pie, in other words cottage pie made with chilli con carne, due to a non-labelling issue... I think we've only been saved from further mishaps because I don't freeze much else, our freezer being mostly full of reduced bread from Waitrose!

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  9. I try to remember to label things, but don't always do so. How lovely that you not only made dinner, but also managed to have something for dessert, as well! Love cheesecake!

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  10. Ha ha!!! You are amazing no matter what!!

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