Seasonal Specials - February

February.  How?  Where did January go?  What happened? I think I have spent the whole of January going from appointment to appointment, doctor to doctor and meeting to meeting and I want it to stop!
So February is here and we need to think about what food is going on for February.  There are three special things happening this month, Brian's birthday is this coming week, we have Saint Valentines day to suffer through and at the end of the month we are going on a tiny holiday to the hotel we got married in to celebrate our first wedding anniversary - so for the last weekend of the month I don't need to think about food at all as the amazing team at Rufflets will be dealing with it for me, I shall be taking close notes, lots of photos and asking questions for sure!

But on to what to look out for this month.... to be honest not much has changed since January.  This is what I picked out for January, but of course the times, they are a-changin' - pears are out, apples are still safe in store over the winter so long as you stick to the right ones you can till have delicious fruits!

My beloved Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall (via the method of The River Cottage Year, I don't have him living in my garage, sadly) suggests rice pudding for February, this has been a highlight of my January so I'm not letting go of it any time soon!  He also suggests Spaghetti Cheese Soufflé, which just for the madness of it I want to make it!  I will of course share the results... and there there are pies, stews, soups, casseroles and such.

 I dub this month the
month of comfort food and getting fatter to stand the horrid weather.  Fact.

Seasonal Specials - January

January.  Not my favourite month, but one that we must get out of the way in order to crack properly into my favourite season - spring.  Technically January is only the second month of winter, how can this be so?  It feels like winter gets longer every year and the other seasons have to shrink to compensate. But this does mean good things for food on our tables.  Thank goodness for the silver lining!

So here are my January fruit and veg favourites and some ideas I have for them...

Brussels Sprouts - Sprouts for me demand to be steamed, severed with bacon, black pepper and butter.  Don't over cook them, don't boil them, don't be mean to them!  And don't make anyone who really hates the taste eat them , it's not their fault that they are genetically predispose

Brussels Tops - these are a new addition to my list of tasty things, but I have found them so hard to come across.  Once you get them they're lovely simply pan sautéed with onions and a little butter.

Cabbages - I love cabbage.  I can eat it raw and it's exceptionally marvellous with onions, and carrots in a slaw of sorts.  Grate it in the food processor and give it a happy dose of mayonnaise, salad cream, black pepper and lemon juice and I'm yours.

Celery - you might have noticed, but I sneak this into everything.  It goes in stews, in sauces, in soup, in anything you can think of really!  I do not however like it raw, not at all.  No thank you.

Leeks - This is another food that I love and I think I love it most done simply, wither roasted in with my chicken parcels, in risotto or in a good old fashioned leek and potato soup.  Delicious and warming - perfect for this weather!

Onions - I'm not sure what I'd do without onions.  I am very glad that they are abundant all year around!  The uses for an onion are limiltess - there will be a Top Five coming on them in the near future.

Parsnips - Tasty, but slightly odd in texture parsnips make a lovely addition to mask if you take the woody stalk out, and they are delicious roast in the oven with honey and parmesan cheese (par boil them first so the cheese doesn't burn away to nothing in the time they take to roast).

Pears - A fruit!  Finally!  I am not the biggest fan of pears as they can be so inconvenient.  If bought from the supermarket I find that they are rock solid for days then all of a sudden they are perfect for one single day. This is good argument to buy them on a more one by one basis in the green grocers, or to peel and cook them all and eat them with rice pudding.  Immediately.

Potatoes - Tatties are one of those vegetables that keep so well there is no reason not to have good ones all year round, and to that effect I think they also merit their own Top Five.  Keep your (potato) eyes peeled.

Rhubarb -  Here we have one of my favourite things.  I love it.  Stewed with ginger and brown sugar and served in porridge, rice pudding, custard, yoghurt or a spoon and all is well with the world.  It's also an easy way to make a crumble happen, or a cobbler, or a pie..

Turnips - Neeps.  Another thing I love but unlike celery I prefer neeps raw.  Peeled, mashed and added in with other root vegetables to make a 'companion mash' (there's an old phrase for you) it makes a few potatoes go a lot further, and if you're looking to cut down on your calories then reducing the potato to other veg ratio does your waist line a lot of favours.

And there we go, tasty things to do with tasty things!  I will add more as I come across amazing ideas, or things crawl out of by brain  - you never know!  Enjoy your January, if at all possible.

Glossary

I thought I'd take a moment to make a record of my logic so that it makes sense to all of us, so here we are. I have split my content into three sections so I think it all makes sense. 

The Meals, the backbone of eating and how we structure our eats.  In our house the three main meals generally increase in size as the day wears on, but sometimes the larger meal is eaten around mid-day if we are feeling extravagant with time or I am in an odd mood.  Supper is not a normal meal for us, but sometimes it happens to be snack food that is too posh or joy inducing to be called a snack.  

The Extras are the things that we don't all do every day, but if we could we'd do a lot more of!  Celebration food is things that are made for special occasions - Christmas cake, Sentinel cake and good old fashioned birthday cake.  Cuppa covers anything to serve with a cuppa or an afternoon tea that replaces a shop bought biscuit or fancy.  Treats are just those, I was going to call this 'puddings' but I want them to be special, and although we don't have pudding a lot, we love a treat.  

 The features are the things that will pop up on a regular basis.  Manifesto for any essays or new intentions I have in mind, top five for my favourite things we've eaten, cooked. made, or seen and then seasonal specials, the monthly run down of what we're eating this month, what to look out for and any odd seasonal things I've found that I have no idea what to do with... And finally, hosting - what we've sat down to eat with friends, any menu ideas I've had and maybe even an invite to my fictional dinner parties.  

I solemnly swear that everything will be labelled, everything will be searchable and one day there might even be some form of index...

And that's it, I hope!