I nipped across the road to the shops after church today. I wanted a new chopping board, if I could find one locally. I did - a wooden one for £2.49. My daughter gave me a swanky new kitchen knife for Christmas called a santoku which I had not heard of before. However, I have glass chopping boards and I was seriously worried about the continued safety of my fingers as the knife was slipping around on the glass. So now I need to learn a new chopping technique with my new knife and a wooden chopping board. My husband is forbidden to even think of putting my new chopping board in the dishwasher : )

I also happened on a few reduced items while in the shop - a turkey drumstick 700g for 80p; 400g of pork liver for 33p; 5 "cornish" pasties for 75p. These pasties were not the extra cheapo ones but the medium quality which might actually have a suspicion of meat in them. Anyway, my husband loves them, which is why I bought them. It is hard to deny him a big treat for his lunch at 15p a go. He had one for lunch today and the rest have gone into the freezer. Bought pasties always give me horrid indigestion although homemade ones are fine so these definitely have his name on them. We cooked the turkey drummer in the slowcooker and had some of the meat for dinner tonight with veg. Some more of the meat is going into the freezer to form the basis of a pasta sauce sometime and the rest will get transformed into turkey stew with the stock in which it was cooked. I was amazed how much meat there was on the drummer as I had expected there to be much more bone and tendon.

Spring must be thinking about coming as the number of eggs is creeping up. The newest group of 7 are laying a reliable 5-6 eggs each day and the middleaged group of seven are now laying 2-3 with the occasional 4. The hens are not keen on all this windy weather but at least it a warmer wind and doesn't feel as if it is coming straight from the Arctic.