Getting Chillier by the Day

Temperatures have plummeted again, this time to -9C. It's still nowhere near the -21C they're getting in the north but it's cold enough to ensure everything here remains frozen from one day until the next. Thankfully, we have been getting some sunshine in between, so the hens and ducks are still able to soak up some rays, enough for them to lay us a few eggs. There's still only one of the five ducks laying every day but there are six or seven of the hens laying, plus a few of the quail. Eggs are in plentiful supply in the Frugaldom household and any surplus easily find a home.

The forecast this week is for more snow but we've been very lucky so far. Here's hoping it will miss us for a while longer. Frugaldom is pretty much stocked up with everything needed to survive a few weeks of being blocked in but I'd prefer that not to happen. Apart from that, I'm going to end up having to buy potatoes! I'm still gutted that the mice got at the potato sack in the garage and, over the weeks, almost emptied it before anyone noticed. The remaining potatoes are frozen solid in their barrels on the greenhouse patio, so no hope of retrieving them for a while and not too confident that they'll even be edible by the time I can dig them out. The leeks seem to be surviving, though, even if they are looking a bit sorry for themselves.

LEEK & CHEESE QUICHE

Made up some shortcrust pastry last night and decided to have cheese and leek quiche. I still have about half a dozen leeks in the freezer and these are so easy to chop for using immediately. I chopped one large leek, gave it a couple of minutes in the microwave on high then put it over the base of the uncooked pastry. Next, I grated over a thick layer of cheddar (it's all I keep in stock) then poured over the egg mix. I used half a dozen of my freerange garden hen eggs with some milk, salt and pepper. This was baked in the oven at avout 220C for 20 minutes and came out looking a lovely golden brown on top. I had beaten the eggs, so it had risen a fair bit. Tasted delicious and there was enough left over to have for lunch today.