Mission impossible? Clean out the fridge

"We start to unload and are brought face to face with our own quietly liquefying shame." Jay Rayner/The Guardian

I have not made any New Year's resolutions this year, because we all know that's an exercise that's doomed to failure, isn't it? However, even though January 1 is really just another day - the next day in your life - I can't resist kind of making plans - on the 2nd. I was too busy temporarily farewelling my sister yesterday. And one of those immediate plans is to declutter the fridge. Not clear it out completely, but definitely do something with what's there. I mean look at those jars on the top shelf - there are two more rows behind the ones in the front. It's an accident waiting to happen.

Really they should all be in the door and easily accessible, but some time back - when I did do that, the door started, not exactly collapsing, but moving downwards, and after it was restored I was forbidden to stack it with jars. Now it holds bread and butter, milk and cream.

And it's not just the post Christmas thing either - all that's left of Christmas is ham - which is always a good thing to have anyway - and the leftovers vol-au-vents - which are dinner tonight. The rest is just over buying.

I could complain that the fridge is too small, but I suspect that if I had a larger one it would still look the same. We tend to fill up the space we have don't we? So starting today I am at least going to use up as much of what is in there as I can by the end of the week.

I have already finished off the leftover pasta that I made last week - for my lunch today - and I am still hoping that I shall be able to make some microwave jam from the too many strawberries I bought, some of the too many grapes that David bought, one lonely rhubarb stalk and a few leftover blueberries from a blueberry and red wine jelly that I made for for a welcome dinner for my sister and husband. Maybe the odd nectarine and plum as well, but probably not.

Incidentally that blueberry and red wine jelly - and let's not forget the crème de cassis too - was a NIgel recipe from my Christmas gift of Tender volume 2. Alas the recipe is not online but it was very simple - you heated wine, crème de cassis with some sugar, stirred in soaked gelatine sheets and then poured it over blueberries in a glass. Then you left it out to cool - at which point I was beginning to panic, because the liquid was still - well liquid. Then it had to sit in the fridge for at least four hours - and this was really panic time, because even after two hours there was no sign of setting. Too late to do anything else, I just hoped. I even tried putting two of them in the freezer for a while. But you know what? By the time we came to eat them they were perfectly set - a soft set which was good - and really delicious especially with the recommended crème fraîche.

I suspect it will be too late to make the jam, but dinner will also get rid of some of the other stuff.

As I said the first thing to go will be the three turkey and ham vol-au-vents - and yes I will check that they haven't gone off first. I doubt that they will have. They will be accompanied by yesterday's leftover sausage rolls - lunch for my sister and her Australian family when they came to collect her, from her few days' holiday in Eltham. And a green salad. Alas there was no leftover tomato sauce. There will even be dessert - one leftover lemon posset made by said sister when she cooked us dinner in The Gatehouse, and that one blueberry and red wine jelly that I made for her for a welcome dinner. I would photograph it, but it now just looks like a purple jelly like substance in a plastic tub.

That's today. What then? Well there is a leftover cheese tart - dinner tomorrow perhaps, although I think it might need something additional as we ate most of it with my sister and husband. Maybe I should look at a salad that would accommodate my red cabbage pickle, which is taking up valuable space.

That sort of gets rid of the seasonal and immediate leftovers, but what then?

"So we knuckle down, pull out the shelves, swab the interior and promise ourselves ... it will be a new start. Which it won’t be. Because it never is. But hey, it’s the thought that counts." Jay Rayner

I doubt I shall be pulling out the shelves although I am kind of promising myself to remove everything from that top shelf, throw out if necessary, and/or use in some new and exciting way. There are a couple of things in my fridge - and elsewhere as well - that I have kept because of the 'waste not want not' philosophy - e.g the oil from jars of anchovies - some of which I should have put in that tomato sauce I made yesterday or drizzled over the heritage tomato salad. I have a nasty feeling there may well be two of them, so perhaps they could be merged. I know there are a couple of jars of curry paste, tomato paste - well you have to keep it in the fridge once opened. That does get used, but it takes up space. Crushed ginger - for when I have no fresh ginger; crushed chillies - ditto; sun-dried tomatoes in a jar - occasionally used to spice things up; home grated Parmesan cheese; mustards; cornichons and capers ... I really don't know what else is there.

Ditto for all of the other shelves really although I do know there is a lot of cheese. But most cheese doesn't go off and it gets either eaten or used on a regular basis.

It's a challenge - not just using up what can be used and throwing out what can't but it's also kind of exciting. That packet of miso for example. I really do vow to spend the month of January experimenting with miso. Only today I saw a reference to "Sarah DiGregorio’s very clever miso and mascarpone pasta (kind of macaroni cheese-ish, but more interesting) from the New York Times with added kimchi" from Felicity Cloake who once had a 'no-spend January. A slightly different reason and attempt at cleaning out the fridge. I might not try that one though, as it also includes kimchi, which is another ingredient I intend to spend a month on. I don't really know how to use them to their best effect you see, so I have promised myself a month of experimentation. On dish a week.

If I find something new and exciting to do with my finds, I'll report on it. Otherwise I shall keep very quiet about what I had to throw out. I'll just mention the radishes I found in the bottom of my vegetable drawer yesterday - the leaves had virtually liquified, but after a wash and a soak in cold water only one of the actual radishes had gone off.

I'll end with a few quotes from here and there, which sort of, somewhat obliquely, are relevant:

"And now we welcome the new year, full of things that have never been" Rainer Maria Rilke

In this case I'm hoping it will be exciting new foods to explore, and new dishes to discover or concoct.

"Even if there is nothing planned yet, summer is something we are always excited about, and the coming year starts to slot into place, as plans become experiences and, before we know it, memories. Time rushes forward, and suddenly it’s gone." Itamar Srulovich/The Guardian

I have a new diary - I have returned to the Met which this year is featuring paintings of Paris by the Impressionists. This is this week's picture - obviously wintery because of the Northern Hemisphere thing with diaries. But I do love this particular painting - they've cut off the edge a bit to fit into the diary page - not literally of course - and actually I think it makes it better. How wonderful to be able to paint like that and leave it for prosperity, and to be remembered for. A grey day but a beautiful one.

"To the pursuit of...somethingness." Cecelia Ahern

'Somethingness' is really all I can aim for.

YEARS GONE BY

January 2

2025 - The fish question(s)

2024 - When the egg meets flour - a skill

2023 - First recipe, first book

2022 - Fairly good on the whole

2021 - Missing

2020 - A magic number

2019 - Fatima's fingers - a sort of lucky dip

2018 - Nothing is ever simple - omelette or frittata?

2017 - Nothing