Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2015

Evening All,

I hope you enjoyed the Sewing Bee if you watch it: young Ryan is certainly coming along nicely, isn't he?

Here's another recipe from Jane Grigson's book - my comment next to this one is 'yummy with jacket potatoes'. The mediaeval recipe says 'take funges, pare hem clene and dyce hem. Take leke, and shred hym small and do hym to seeth in gode broth. Color it with saffron and do there-inne powder-fort'

Mushroom and Leeks

Eight small leeks, topped and tailed, 3 tbsp. butter, one and three quarter pounds of mushrooms, (no cultivated mushrooms in the 14th century, so funges must have meant field mushrooms) 250ml vegetable or chicken stock, half tsp brown sugar, pinch of saffron, half tsp fresh ginger root, chopped small, 2tbsp butter mashed with 2 tbsp flour, salt and pepper.

Slice the leeks and fry them in the butter until they collapse. Then add stock, sugar, saffron and ginger. Cover and leave a few minutes until the vegetables are cooked. Add the butter and flour in little bits to thicken the juices, keeping the liquid under boiling point. Stir all the time. Season to taste and serve.

Enjoy the rest of the evening, Everyone.

Viv xx

jinny wrote: »

My sons watch the snooker on TV and laugh when I tell them it used to be
In black and white. They had to tell viewers what ball had gone down the pockets!
I

I had to laugh the first time my ex FIL saw a football match in colour rather than black and white and said he thought the green didn't look natural.

Good Morning, all fellow make do and menders; I've just been able to put my washing out for the second time this year - I'm hoping it augurs well for an early Spring.

Have you ever tried to make a steak and kidney pudding? This recipe serves 6-8 but make a half size one if that's too much. I've never met a man yet who didn't enjoy this and think you're wonderful for making it (it's the same with herby dumplings for some reason).

Steak and Kidney Pudding (serves 6-8)

2 pound stewing steak or shin of beef, 3-4 sheep's kidneys or a pound of ox kidney, seasoned flour, 8 ounces plain flour, pinch of salt, 4 ounces suet (use veggie suet if you're worried about your waistline).

Skin and chop the kidneys into small pieces, cut the beef into one inch cubes and roll both in the well-seasoned flour.

Now make the suet crust. Sift together the flour and salt, cut the shredded suet into the flour, add 6-8 tbsp. water, enough to make a stiff dough. Roll this out and line a pudding basin, keeping about a third of the pastry crust to cover the top. Put the meat in and add enough water to come within an inch of the top. Season with salt and pepper. Then put on the pastry lid. Crimp the edges together and press them down over the rim of the basin. Place a piece of foil over the top, tied with string round the rim at the top of the basin. Put 2 inches of water in the bottom of a large saucepan with a tight-fitting lid. Put the pudding in when the water boils. Cover the pan tightly and leave simmering steadily for 3-4 hours. Half an hour before the meal take the pudding out and, having removed the foil cap put it in the oven 190 degrees/ gas 5 to brown the top. check from time to time whilst simmering that the water has not boiled away, top it up with more boiling water.

Great with braised buttered cabbage.

Just off to raid the freezer so I can squeeze a few more meals out1 I was next door last night so have a portion of hot meat loaf left; I've stuffed it into my remaining pepper and will have that for my main meal with the last portion of my broccoli/cauliflower cheese.

Have a good day, Everyone. I suspect Cheerfulness' cold must be worse as she's noticeable by her absence. Get well soon.

Viv xx

alice-mary wrote: »

Ah, GQ I remember those skates too! I can't bring myself to call them "roller-skates" as the blessed things rarely actually rolled.... at least 2 wheels seemed to be stuck on each skate at any one moment and weirdly, it never seemed to be the same 2 the next time! And the noise they used to make!!! Many hours of fun, pushing/dragging myself around on them (even going down the slide and on the swings in them...shhh, don't tell my Mum)! And yes, you could alter them to fit, until the wing-nut underneath (I think that was an "improvement" my dad made, so we didn't keep pestering him) went missing and the 2 pieces separated completely!
Happy memories :-)

Alice
xx

Yeah, everything my generation played on as kids has been banned as unsafe. The wooden adventure fort was dismantled (you mean it isn't safe for unsupervised kids to use an unharnessed zip-wire between towers and maybe fall 8-10 feet onto dirt - who knew?) plus all the play equipment such as the wonderful slide and roundabouts are gone and what's left is as boring as hell.

I have a divot out of one knee (fall onto pavement outside my Nan's as a kiddie) and scars above both knees, one caused by a slo-mo car crash and the other caused by a close encounter with a rusty wheelbarrow. I tend to think if you haven't accrued some minor scarring and broken at least one bone, you haven't really been living childhood at full throttle.

My poor Mum; if I was climbing the beech trees, it was green stuff from the bark on my clothes, if I was in the pines, it was pine sap. She had some interesting laundry conundrums, bless her; I spent a big chunk of my childhood climbing trees.