Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2015

Good evening, Everyone, I've had a lazy evening, leafing through recipes for my self-imposed February challenge; I didn't even do my rug quota, although I did double the other night, but I'm shattered as I spent the majority of the afternoon, with my youngest granddaughter baking biscuits. She's all of three, going on thirty and insisted on cleaning up as we went along.

Anyway, it's not the right season but when it is I do hope you'll try this recipe; It's from the 1950s and is delicious - highly recommended.

Rhubarb spice cake with lemon sauce.

30grams butter, 200grams caster sugar, 1 egg, 175ml milk, 250grams sifted plain flour, 3 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, half teaspoon nutmeg, half teaspoon ground cloves, 250grams rhubarb cut into 1 cm pieces.

Pre-heat oven to 180 centigrade. Sift dry ingredients, add the rest, stir in rhubarb last. Pour into loaf/cake tin and bake in the oven for 45 minutes.

Lemon sauce

400grams caster sugar, 2 tablespoons cornflour, 600ml water, 60grams butter, 2 and a half teaspoons lemon zest, 2 tablespoons lemon juice. Put sugar, cornflour and water into a saucepan and stir over medium heat until thickened. Remove from heat and stir in the lemon zest, juice and butter. Serve poured over the cake. It's heavenly!

Viv xx

cheerfulness4 wrote: »

That was a clever idea, Dolly. Cereal gets so expensive particularly if they load their bowls up as DH and DS do.
DH's favourites are Morrisons own standard ones but he's always open to try others.

We have tried to downshift our cereal habbit well the kids and DH, as I like porridge :-) They flatly refuse to eat the shops own basic so i don't buy it any more. we tend to use the shops own brands which is generally accepted although not wolfed down like Mr K. I have recently been shopping At Mr T's as i had £6 off £30 shop and i like to shop where the offers are. We bought their own brand cornflakes and well they are simply disgusting. I have complained to the shop and they will compensate us for the wasted product. They are fine dry but when you add milk to it they change and become very smelly and taste revolting.
Sometimes though the offers can be very good Mr T currently has shreddies on offer which work out 0.?p per g more expensive than the shops value brand. Times like this we buy more but i have to hide them or it will vanish too quickly.

Gald silvasaver has found some good zips in the CS. Sometimes shops can be very picky but we have a great litle CS nearby 'The Sailer Boy' it is always accepting of any donation and one of those shops you can go in and find for example, belt buckles, hooks and eyes, buttons etc ... Plue they are always happy to help you out.

Vhalla - pumpkin or butter nut squash soup is one of my staples. Mainly due to the allotment! There is no need to peel as they skin on the butter nut squash becomes edible when cooked.
When the oven is on we regularly bake a whole squash to be used later the next day for soup or veggie lasagne. Just wash and pop in oven for 45 mins depending on size of squash, poke a knife in to check its cooked.
Then cut open and scoop out the seeds which can be washed and toasted and also eaten with a little salt and spices.
You can use the squash boats to be filled and reheated the next day or add to a basic tom sauce with spinach and chick peas to make a great veggie lasagne or pop the flesh in a pan with a teaspoon or 2 of left over curry paste, some carrot, onion and celery blitzed in a food chopper, fry gently for a few minutes then add some stock and cook gently till all cooked. Then add a some coconut milk powder (2 tbsp in a little hot water) and blitz.

Planning all done so a day of blitzing the house, mending the washing machine and hopefully some crochet:rotfl:.

Good Morning, everyone, I'm late today! Like many of you, I suspect, my surroundings are covered with a blanket of pure, white snow. The only trouble is it makes the sheep (in a field across from my garden) look positively yellow.

Thank you for the tip about butternut squash, loopy12 - that is going to save a lot of muttered curses in the future.

Janb the recipe was from the American museum at Claverton Manor in Bath, (I used to live in the Circus during one of my prosperous lives) from 'Mrs Small's Kitchen and Conkey's Tavern'. They gave you a piece of gingerbread whilst you were looking round and I found a little booklet with the gingerbread recipe in, in the museum shop. I'm pleased it seems to have gone down so well, so will post another couple of recipes later. I have to do one more lot of lucrative accounts today - deadline tonight - so really am under pressure at the moment - although you wouldn't think so as I'm sitting enjoying a coffee out of my new cafetiere.

Have a pleasant day, Everyone,

Viv xx

Sorry, I nearly forgot, I know from reading this thread that there are a lot of experienced gardeners amongst you. My cottage has a smallish front garden (planted and more or less sorted, though there's always room for improvement), a side garden, the same, but I need advice as to what climbers will thrive there in large tubs if that's possible - that's west facing and then I've a south facing grassed area which is basically a field. So after that long preamble, can any of you please tell me when and what I can plant there in the vegetable and flower line? I can get some muscle in to dig it over; I threw in thousands of wild flower seeds there that I'd bought online last year and not one came up, so I expect the myriad of bird species we have round here, as well as rabbits, squirrels, stoats, moles etc had a field day - no pun intended. Any advice would be gratefully received. The soil is chalky as I live in the Lincolnshire Wolds, Many thanks.

Viv x

Just stopped for lunch and in my email inbox was a notification from my daughter-in-law. A very thought-provoking article called The upsetting Reality of Modern Day poverty by KATHLEENKERRIDGE.Com. I got it via Facebook, but I'm a relatively newbie to computers and don't know how to link it for you. If you can get hold of it, it's worth reading.

Here's a quick tip for those of us who don't have a tumble dryer for when the washing can't go outside. When your towels are eventually dry; if they've gone a bit stiff, give them a good shake and they will soon fluff up again. Another tip, I don't know whether you've tried Vanish Gold (the stain remover) - it was half price at Wilko's last week at £5 for an enormous tub and yesterday I noticed it was £6.50 for the same size tub at Tesco. I have tried own brands but I do find Vanish is the most effective for removing stains individually, but I really think you are wasting the product by putting some in the washer.

Right, I'm having a break from boring accounts and am going to sort out lunch for myself and a friend tomorrow; the first day of my non-spending month. I'm preparing soup, juicy orange chicken and pear and ginger crumbles - that should cover our five a day in one fell swoop!


And before I go back to the paperwork I'll do my rug quota in the daylight for a change . Do you suspect I'm putting those accounts off? You're absolutely right - but I will get them done.

Viv xx