It was another fun week shopping at Stackhoull Stores for groceries. I don’t know what I love more, all the fun packaging or trying to adjust to just cooking for one… But I’m having a good time here on Fair Isle.
Stackhoull Stores £20.22
Dried herbs are much less expensive here and so are eggs.
Icing sugar {what we’d call powdered sugar} is £1.24 {$1.53} for 500 grams {17.63 ounces} and regular sugar is £1.24 {$1.53} for 1kg {2.2 pounds}. So about the same as I’d pay for it at home if I wasn’t getting it in bulk.
There hadn’t been another boat or airplane in by this point so only frozen milk was available.
Stackhoull Stores £14.00
The ferry made it to Shetland and back on Friday {the first ferry in over a week} so the store was re-stocked with fresh vegetables and dairy products.
My savoy cabbage was £2.30 {$2.84} which is about what I’d expect to pay at home for a fancy cabbage. Peppers were £1 each {$1.20 USD} and the avocado was £1.80 {$2.23}.
While the avocado was more than I’d normally pay at home, the macaroons were £1.92 {2.27 USD} and those run about $3.99 for the same sized package when I buy them in Maine.
It’s interesting! Some things are higher, some things are lower… yet still, for all the steps it takes to get food here to Fair Isle, I think everything is reasonably priced.
Here are the meals I made last week:
A chicken and rice bowl.
Avocado, crackers and cheese.
I made a German chocolate cake! It’s probably going to take me two weeks to eat it but what do I care? I have cake!!
I also made 10 million scones. I wanted to try a new recipe and they freeze well so I was like … why not? Now I have enough scones for the rest of my stay.
I also made a chicky pot pie. That lasted FOUR DAYS.
And a big pot of chicken soup {which I still have lots of}.
This whole cooking for 1 thing is kind of tricky. Sometimes you feel like cooking and then you make too much, and other days you just open a can of beans and call it good.
So how did YOU do this past week? Did you make anything exciting? Curious minds want to know. 🙂
Have a good one,
~Mavis
Total Spent This Past Week £34.22 {$42.39 USD}
- Total Spent on Groceries in January $167.33
- Total Spent on Groceries in 2023 $167.33
Lynne says
Do you cook on the wood stove, or is there a regular stove and oven? Is the house warm?
You are doing great with your cooking for one! It looks like you’ll be able to leave something behind for the next resident, should they arrive when the store is closed.
Beth says
Your food looks delicious as always and I’m so glad you are blogging about the trip- it’s a highlight of my day to read about.
Last week I made a recipe called French onion beans which was delicious and I froze a container for a future meal. We had it with French bread and Gruyère cheese melted on top (like French onion soup) and it made a perfect meal with an orange and a couple of cookies for dessert. I also bought a couple of Costco rotisserie chickens, cooked up some bell peppers and onions that needed to be used up and cooked a package of black beans and pinto beans so we’ve had nachos, burritos etc. Last night I made chicken corn chowder and since we still have leftovers tonight will be what my grandmother called a dab dinner. It’s really cold here this week (9 degrees in Boise at 8 am) so I think chili and soup will be on the menu this week. I do want cake now after seeing your cake so I might need to make a cake.
Laura says
Beth, your meals sound delicious! Do you have a recipe for the French onion beans?
Beth says
Hi Laura-I used this recipe but added spices to taste because it needed it. I added some dried oregano and herbs de Provence. I also used beef stock because we aren’t vegetarian and had some on hand and I used Rancho Gordo Marcella beans but certainly other white beans would work.
https://www.lukasvolger.com/recipes/french-onion-baked-beans
Laura says
Thanks, Beth!
Tracy says
My Dad talks about how my Great Grandma would pull out small plates of whatever she had in the fridge or counter (dessert) that she called “dabs” and put them on the kitchen table when company would arrive unexpectedly. 🙂
Mary G says
Your meals all look quite good. I’m so impressed that you baked a cake on your trip! I think I’d be too lazy to do that.
laura says
i didn’t cook any meals but i got a pot of potatoes boiled and a sweet potato baked! also salad greens prepped and broccoli cut up and a caulifolwer baked! off to a good start!!
Jennifer G says
Made homemade alfredo sauce, which is a game changer. Also made Little Cheddar Meatloafs, recipe on Taste of Home if you’ve never tried them. Everyone I’ve ever made them for loves them and the portion size is perfect. Used up both fresh produce and canned goods. Waiting for the price of eggs to come down.
Laura says
Jennifer, do you have a recipe you like for the alfredo sauce? I’m off to look up the meatloaf recipe. Thanks!
Mimi says
Cake! Scones! What more do you need? 😀
My efforts to simplify our meals have actually resulted in lots of good eating this week.
I’ve been using my sourdough starter to make bagels (fantastic!), whole wheat pancakes and flat bread pizza. We’re eating more vegetable-based dinners, decreasing expensive meat and that means bumping up flavor with herbs and spices etc. so lots of interesting soups and pastas are happening. And my grocery expenses are shrinking!
A T says
Mimi, wonder if you would mind telling us more about using sourdough starter and making bagels? I would love to try that.
Thanks so much!
Lana says
We canned pork carnitas and stew. Love having MRE’s on our shelves.
Christina says
All your food looks gorgeous! That cake especially made me drool. Man I could gobble up a slice of that about now. Haha
Funny story about dried herbs we bought in the UK. We were staying in a rented flat a few blocks away from the very posh Harrods in London. That night we were planning to make spaghetti in our tiny little studio flat’s kitchen. But I had forgotten to buy any sort of herbs to jazz up the sauce.
We were going to Harrods to get a few little gifts – nothing fancy, just little boxes of tea, etc. And in the Harrod’s food hall what do you think we happened to find? A 79 pence jar of mixed herbs! Spaghetti issue solved, and we proudly told a lot of friends about our super cheap purchase at posh Harrods. Who knew they carried anything less than a pound!?
Molly says
Does Faire Isle have any restaurants? Inquiring minds need to know!
Mavis Butterfield says
Nope.
Leslie says
Have you seen puffins, any other birds? Is there a restaurant on Fair Isle?
Mavis Butterfield says
I think the puffins are there from mid April to about October. There is currently no restaurant on Fair Isle.
Cari says
Can I have this scone recipe?
Mavis Butterfield says
Yes, I’ll post it soon. 🙂
GrannyB says
I bet your 87 year old neighbor would love some soup and a slice of cake. We need to hear more about him. What an amazing man you were able to stay next to. Sure not the “typical” neighbor you usually get when you stay somewhere.
Lynn Y says
I’ve been cooking from the pantry and deep freezer this month and loving staying out of the grocers. Baked up 2 loaves of bread yesterday and had one loaf with fried rice using chopped-up leftover pork sprinkled in. Used the Instant Pot tonight for chicken breasts and leftover sides, and used up the last jar of my home-canned mushrooms. Tomorrow I will be roasting up some of the last of my garden’s sunchokes. I still have a full bag in the crisper that I dug up just before the subzero temperatures (well, 1 degree but the ‘feels-like’ is -10F) froze the ground here in northern Illinois. It was the first time I ever harvested anything from my garden in January.
Terry says
I have a 6 qt crockpot that I filled with Chicken Bacon Ranch soup and took to my class one day last week. By the time the day was over, there was (mbaaybe) half a cup of soup left, my class had gone back for 2nds and 3rds. Breakfast a few days was braunschweiger on bagels to help bring up my iron count. I utilized a food delivery service’s promotion and had gotten the ingredients for 2 plates of flank steak tacos and 2 plates of baked salmon for only $12. I normally can’t even find flank steak at my local grocery store, so it was a treat for me and my brother.