Cleaning Out The Cupboards

I have been really enjoying some time in the kitchen this week. I haven't touched any sewing, crochet or knitting since the New Year (in fact, I've enjoyed a break and am only just starting to feel drawn back to those projects) but I've been feeling creative in the kitchen instead.

Continuing with my house-proud, de-cluttering mood, I deep cleaned the kitchen. I scrubbed the cupboard fronts and handles, cleaned the oven, under the toaster, inside the microwave. Believe me, it's not something I do often, if ever. I emptied and organised cupboards and, while bemoaning my lack of a huge, walk-in larder, realised that I hoard tea. I have boxes and boxes of the stuff; regular "tea" tea, decaf tea, peppermint, chamomile, green tea, apple and ginger, liquorice, chai, and something called "sleep-easy". I've been drinking them up all week to make space for a treat I ordered for myself with some Christmas vouchers - three little boxes of tea from Teapigs; Chocolate Flake, chai and Rooibos Creme Caramel. I can report that the chai is wonderfully strong and peppery, as chai should be, but I've not had time to test the others yet, they only arrived today.

I had quite a lot of food just sitting in those cupboards, half-opened and long forgotten which, with some thought and imagination, could be put to good use. (I have a fairly flexible approach to sell by dates.) I found bags of worthy-looking nuts and seeds, leftover from a failed granola attempt last year. I decided to have another go as I buy and eat a lot of granola - it's a favourite breakfast of mine - but the nice stuff can be expensive. So using Sue's granola recipe I made a batch of my own and it's really very tasty indeed. I find myself looking forward to eating it for breakfast when I get up in the morning, is that strange of me?

Not overly crunchy, just crunchy enough. I didn't follow the recipe that faithfully as I wanted to use up what I had but I kept the ratios of dry and wet ingredients the same, and I will be making more in the future with different combinations of flavours and ingredients. I sprinkled a little of it, warm and fresh from the oven, over some plain yogurt with a drizzle of maple syrup. Delicious.

It also appears that I have about 4000 cupcake cases. I seem to buy them every time I go shopping, like tins of chopped tomatoes, and then forget to use them. I also have more glace cherries than is normal, so I made old fashioned fairy cakes with plain white icing and a cherry on top.

Last of all, I found three half full packets of chocolate chips. I'm not a lover of chocolate chip cookies, preferring oatmeal and raisin every time, but Sue's recipe for chilli chocolate biscuits caught my eye when she posted it last week and they turned out really well. 

The heat left in the mouth by the chilli is pleasantly strong and I thought the children would refuse to eat these, finding them too spicy. But no, they loved them and requested they go in their lunchboxes over the fairy cakes. Thank you for the cooking inspiration and your excellent recipes Sue!

It's probably a very good thing that I don't have a huge, walk in larder. Can you imagine what I'd hoard in it? So, that is mainly what I've been doing this week, cleaning out the cupboards, filling the cake tins and in the evenings, watching TV, in particular The Bridge, Sherlock and Homeland. Dark winter nights were made for tea, cake and good TV.