upcycling the kitchen disaster

One of the pitfalls I faced when I first began decluttering was the little economical eco-freak who sat on my shoulder and whispered little things in my ear like “you could keep that broken jug, break it up a bit more and use it for drainage in the bottom of your pot plants.”  Yes I could, but I knew I wouldn’t, by the time the summer came and I was planting out my seedlings I would have completely forgotten where I had put my collection of broken crockery.  I know my limits.

On the other hand there are somethings that I have no problem reusing or finding new uses for.  Using up leftovers is something most of us do by second nature.  More recently I have discovered I can use up kitchen disasters as well.

At the moment I only have an aga, my electric oven having died some months ago.  Lovely though it is, as every aga owner will know, you cannot smell anything that is cooking.  The opportunity to prepare a burnt offering to the aga god is frequently presented.    That is why on Saturday afternoon I popped some bread in the oven and went out to do some gardening.  It was over an hour later when I finally removed an exceptionally well cooked loaf.  Believing that even the chickens would reject it I left it on the kitchen surface and  went back to the garden to work off my frustration.  The Boss wasn’t going to let an overcooked loaf get the better of him and when I returned he had bashed it up and pronounced it an excellent alternative to Grape Nuts.

The second culinary disaster was the yoghurt, also made on that same Saturday.  I left it too long and too close to the aga and it had curdled.  I poured off the whey (it went into the ill fated loaf) and mushed the residue around a bit.  It tasted like yoghurt, but the texture was all wrong.  Bingo Chocolate Coffee and Maple Brunch Cake (by Charlie Scott-King of the Durham Dales Clandestine Cake Club).

While I don’t aim to have kitchen disasters, it is good to know that I can usually find someway of using them up.  Failing that there are always the animals.  The chickens loved my overdone granola 🙂