What's in your fridge? 12th May

What does your fridge look like? Is it overflowing with stuff, much of it very possibly beginning to show signs of intelligent life?

I seem to swing from that scenario over to the one where the fridge is almost as bare as Old Mother Hubbard's cupboard.

Today, my fridge looks like this:

It's sort of medium stuffed today.

If we start with the door I have cheese and butter at the top. I bought two types of goat's cheese Friday and have been munching my way through them. The next shelf is the chutney shelf. Yes. Those are six different chutnies in there. Then there's the shelf with yeast, tomato concentrate and open sachets of kitty food. Then there's the mayo, bbq-type sauces and maple syrup and truffle balsamic cream. It is much less crowded than it used to be, and the mayo is a newcomer, because my collection of bbq-type sauces has all but vanished. I think I used to have four or five. The bottom is milk - and to be honest, I'm not quite sure what the others are. I guess this is a cue for me to check them out and possibly get rid of them.

Then there's the fridge proper. I strive to keep all my veg and possible fruit in the drawers down at the bottom. It's not quite working at the moment, because several of the drawers are awaiting washing, because there were things in them which, well, new lifeforms were being created in there. But those are the things from last week's veggie box which still haven't been eaten yet.

The top shelf is my "ingredients" shelf. This is where I keep my bottles of ready-made stock, various jars and bottles of Asian ingredients, olives, sun-dried toms in oil, creams and spreads currently open, and similar goodies of a long-life nature. They are the items I use when making stews or more fancy food.

And in between those I have bacon, chicken meat from making chicken stock this weekend, more milk, feta cheese for a couple of things I hope to make this week, cherry syrup - store-bought and some I made myself, a jar of home-made cherry jam, an open bottle of weird beer which has been there since I don't know when, pasteurized egg yolks and egg whites, ready-made pie dough and filo pastry.

I have plans of using the filo with part of the feta and some spinach from my freezer to make small parcels, possibly including some minced lamb. The rest I want to try to use as a filling in regular home-made white bread. Using part or all of the chicken and some of the veg to make a curry would give me cause to use some of the chutney. The pie dough is destined for a quiche Lorraine, along with the bacon chunks. The bacon rashers will be breakfast one day with an egg or two from my pantry.

This more or less sums up the state of my fridge today. Tune in after a fortnight to see if I have managed to toss the old beer and wash the veg drawers. And possibly discovered what the bottles in the door contain.