Those weird spiral stainless steel things that you fill with sawdust and put in the bottom of a reasonably closed container are not very expensive provided you have a suitable container. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall uses an old metal breadbin 
I donât have any form of enclosed barbecue, let alone gas!
I rather over-cooked the bacon bits for tonightâs carbonara⊠but it turned out to be the tastiest weâve ever had⊠yippee.
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Iâm carefully phrasing this in order to be positive 
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When it starts to get chilly, Iâm a great fan of home-made pea and ham soup. I used to make it with a gammon hock and split peas (with onion and garlic) cooked on a very low heat for a very long time then the meat extracted and chopped, the soup whizzed and there was always loads for the freezer. Since being in France I have struggled to get a suitable equivalent to the gammon hock so, spotting a demi-sale jarret de porc in the local shop I gave it a try overnight. It was huge compared with my usuals so I scaled up appropriately and today portioned it out (13 good portions) and we tried some for lunch. The flavour was great and (positive spin here) we decided that, given the consistency where it nearly required a knife and fork to eat it, I had actually prepared 13 portions of condensed pea and ham soup, to be diluted into 26 portions
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Yes, the demi sel jarret is basically a ham hock. We have them in all the supermarkets here. What I really want is a large gammon joint to roast. We always had one for the new year, but so far havenât found one. I suppose if I could find a suitable unsalted joint, which a decent butcher should do, I could salt it myself.
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Iâve found Hugh Fearnley Whittingstallâs first River Cottage cookbook very useful for information about how to do all that sort of thing. Mind you, he is also raising the pigs himself which is a bit beyond me 
The demi-sel jarret certainly had the right flavour - much better than the ones I found in the local supermarket (and those have disappeared from evey one of the supermarkets here over quite a large area, no idea why) so thatâs why I was trying the butcherâs ones using local pork. Iâve no idea why the consistency worked out so very differently from normal though - canât see why it should have 
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We always used to have a piece of corner gammon to roast at Christmas. Beautifully lean, skin scored into diamonds, rubbed with soft brown sugar and each diamond studded with a clove to give lovely tasty crackling. Iâve not found anywhere to buy this cut and I do manage a pale imitation with the demi sel joints from the supermarket, but theyâre not the same thing.
I did find this (serves 40 people!) âŠ
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Yes, ask for a demi-jambon and cure it yourself? The jaret is the hock so not really juicy enough⊠I eat meat rarely, but have found our local butcher is quite intrigued to give me the cuts of meat I want if I explain what I plan to do with it. How to make pork pies was a fun conversation!
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Our local butcher is also very responsive and my partner and the butcherâs wife swap recipes when he is explaining what he wants things for. Similar sort of discussion at the fish stall too when they talk recipes tooâŠ
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@Fleur , that recipe is wonderful. I probably wouldnât prepare the ham that way, we have our own way as many do. The wonderful thing is the idea of injecting brine deep into the flesh so as to be able to salt the meat from the inside as well as the outside. Trying to do this just using a brine bath would take ages. With this recipe they reckon 2 to 4 days. I think ham may be on the menu again this new year.
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@ChrisK has just posted on the CDS thread the link to the government website showing that they have legislated to move the 1st October possession of a CdS deadline to 1st Jan 2022.
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I must know someone well placed as I have just received my invitation for a Covid Booster, even though it is not due until January.
Me too, due November. 
Went to St. Junien to collect Noubia yesterday afternoon. She is very small but not over skinny, and nervous, she avoided eye contact with me and Jules on meeting. I watched her eyes carefully. If she was facing past him but the eyes turned towards him, from past experience that could precede a snap, but not at all, she stared straight ahead. They shared the same space without any problems on the way home and at home walked cautiously around the garden and house with me on a slack lead. Took some time but she has now found both beds that Jules uses and knows which she can use, that is, the one he isnât using. This is not a dominance thing, he is non-dominant and treats the beds and their use in exactly the same way. Harmony.
They eat, as all mine do, in the same room but I have to be watchful because she is a much slower eater, at the start she chewed one croquette at a time. 
My worry is not that he will steal from her, because one snap if he tried would stop him for always (it did with Harper Grace), but that she might give in and move away giving him encouragement. That is the worst that could happen. So far she is a glue pot, follows me everywhere, and all is, as I said, harmony. 
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Thatâs a very good start, David - itâs looking promising,isnât it?
Have the same issue with Bertie - one croquette at a time and then will look round. Vita shovels hers in and then comes looking for Bertieâs when he then snaps at her. I got her one of the dishes that slows down a dogâs eating - absolutely brilliant. Hers is like a maze, but you can get other versions that do the same thing. Heâs now happy and sheâs too busy hunting the croquettes round the maze to bother him.
Lovely to hear there is harmony. 
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No problem - pile them on top - they get eaten first anyway. Then he can just scrabble around the bowl for the rest. Vita gets her cabbage on top, which she wolfs down and then she chases the croquettes. Bertie, on the other hand is MUCH more particular (and very French). The cabbage MUST be in its own bowl and it is eaten either before or after the croquettes, never with. And if they are in the same bowl, he just sits there and looks at them.
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That made me laugh! Ours likes his meat/fish and veg laid out separately, and then has a second course of his meat stock⊠doesnât like a big bowl of mush.
How soft are we!
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@SuePJ & @JaneJones, on top was what I did yesterday, but today I put them in first. It took her ages to finish and, for the first time I saw a slight lift of a lip because Jules, having finished his own, was still not far away. Something I will have to watch. 
He noticed it too, I think that might be a good thing. 
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I let Bertie eat his in another place from Vita. He feels too threatened by her if they are in the same space. I think he was on the streets and probably felt threatened by other dogs when he was trying to get his share of any food going.
If they are in the same room I make sure he is in a corner facing away from her. Sheâs a boucy Airedale and they are not too good at social distancing which some dogs can be threatened ny.
Photo please 
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