Live on £4000 for a year - Part 2

nykmedia wrote: »

Morning all! I'm desperate to get into the garden today as it's another scorcher, but I have so much to be done - work and in the kitchen as it's DS birthday and he'll be home at 4.

The giant jaffa cake - WHAT A FIASCO!
I took the flan out freezer last night and had the orange jelly setting overnight - a second jelly, as the first one I had made up to a pint and had added the fresh lime juice, forgetting it had to be lifted once set! Well, even the 3/4 pint mix was a near disaster! Has anyone tried to lift a set jelly out of a plate to turn it over and place it gently on top of a flan??? :eek: I ended up sitting the flan on top of the jelly and turning the whole lot upside down! Of course, the jelly was stuck to the plate, so wouldn't budge. I then righted it, sat the plate on an inch of very hot water to melt it from the plate and repeated above exercise. The jelly did come off the plate, but BEFORE I had fully turned the flan and top plate, so it landed with a squelch half on and half off the sponge! Yes! You got it! The giggles arrived! If anyone has tried to lift a jelly onto a sponge then you'll know what I mean when I say wrestling a jellyfish! I did, EVENTUALLY, get the thing to sit in place and it DID look OK, like the inside of a giant jaffa cake. That was until the chocolate arrived. I took great time and effort melting this slowly in a bowl sat on top rack of the steamer. The chocolate melted beautifully, it was like silk... UNTIL I tried to spread HOT CHOCOLATE over COLD JELLY! :eek: :eek: :rotfl: I never read that far - how does one spread hot chocolate on a cold jelly? It melted through the jelly and resulted in everything running off the side of the sponge! The more I tried to spread it out evenly, the more the hot chocolate melted the jelly and the cold jelly fast set the chocolate. I'm thinking my jelly wasn't thick enough and my chocolate wasn't setting quick enough. I now have a partially / patchy lumpy chocolate covered jelly mass atop a flan base and will need to let the whole thing set again before [strike]applying[/strike] attempting a second layer of chocolate, which means I'll use the whole bar! It would have been so much easier to stick the whole thing in the freezer for a bit to get it really cold, but who bought 8 loaves of reduced bread yesterday???!!!

OK, I'm off to melt another lot of chocolate. NOBODY is getting to see this mess unless I can disguise it a bit more. :rotfl:

Mumzy - Good luck with the not smoking Mumzy

Bails - Hope you feel energized soon

Andromache - What a brilliant seminar and how useful the information will be! Any idea about the rules on fallen branches and logs in the forests?

Sophiesmum - I know we can't dig up plants to take away but I THINK seed collecting and cuttings are permissible - Andromache, you may be called upon for your professional opinion quite often this summer.

Redglass, I have used the top of my slow cooker for several things needing heat, but never even thought to turn the lid over! :rotfl: Thanks for that! My bread dough need never perch precariously again!

Marru - I hope the car problems get resolved without any major budget-busting. Can just imagine you boy-racing!

Well done Taka on the debt free - hope you will celebrate that without incurring any debt and as for Freeganing, I'm now getting the daily updates from freecycle and, after rehoming DD's microwave, will be watching the ads carefully. If only I could have had that cage and birds, I like that sort of thing but can't have any more pets in my rental.