Last weekend, Sainsburys were doing whole Gressingham ducks for £7 each – a bargain, I’m sure you’ll agree.  I hate supermarkets, and only visit one every few weeks, so I felt this offer was most timely and bore a brace of ducks home in my fair trade bags.

One went in the freezer, and one in the fridge, and we decided to do a proper Roast Duck Dinner with it yesterday.  I took it out of the fridge at lunchtime, and put it in the microwave to let it come up to room temperature (we use the microwave as a meat safe in such circumstances, as we live with five cats who love duck).

Imagine my horror when I opened the microwave later to start prepping dinner, and a vile smell emerged – the duck had gone off.  It was, admittedly, two days past its sell-by date, but that’s never bothered a duck before in my experience; I suspect it was due to the fact that it was en-gibletted.

So there went plans for four or five meals – roast, stir-fried, risotto, stock for soup, etc.  Not pleased, but my own fault, I guess.

The day continued on a food fail, when Pete went to get some apples from the big box of bramleys in the study cupboard, and we found that they’d all gone too withery to use.

Bah.