EH - Essex > Hebrides...the next step of the adventure?

12021232526311

Comments

  • rtandon27
    rtandon27 Posts: 4,528 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Post Photogenic First Anniversary
    mmmm EH - thai fish stew sounds yummy! - any chance of a linky to a recipe?:D
    4 YEARS 10 MONTHS DEBT FREE!!! (24 OCT 2016)
    (With heartfelt thanks to those who have gone before us & their indubitable generosity.)
    ...and now I have a mortgage! (23 AUG 2021)
    17 YEARS 4 MONTHS LEFT OF 20 YEARS
  • rtandon27 wrote: »
    mmmm EH - thai fish stew sounds yummy! - any chance of a linky to a recipe?:D
    Errrmm....well.....it's not a recipe as such...! :D One of those nice adaptable meals that can use up what you have, tonights took the following form:
    1 medium onion, finally chopped, and sweated off with a couple of cloves of finely chopped garlic. I then threw in a chopped green pepper and some sliced mushrooms, and continued cooking until they were soft. Add a can of chopped tomatoes, and rinse the can out with water to about a third of the way up and add that, too. You can start the whole thing off with a dollop of thai curry paste - in which case that will be your chilli heat sorted, but otherwise use dried chilli, or chilli flakes, but just to add a warmth - too hot and you'll not taste the fish properly. In any case it wants a tablespoonful of lime juice, and a tablespoonful of fish sauce, plus half a teaspoon of sugar to counteract the tomato bitterness a little. If you have kaffir lime leaves then two or three of those crumbled in are ace. You can use a lump of creamed coconut or a handful of shredded or dessicated - but reduce the sugar you add if it's sweetened. As far as fish goes, almost anything goes - I use a nice mix. The fillets get cut into squares, and you just have to remember to add things so they won't overcook - squid for example only needs about 30 seconds or so, where the chunks of whitefish will need longer. I cook it in a pan with a lid as that helps with cooking the fish through - it almost steams. I serve it with either rice or breads of some sort - essentially it's a cross between a stew and a curry, but the flavours works so nicely together hence it's turned into a real favourite! :D
    🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
    Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00
    Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00
    SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculator
    she/her
  • EssexHebridean
    EssexHebridean Posts: 21,267 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Anniversary Photogenic First Post
    edited 20 December 2016 at 11:34PM
    Update:

    Freezer:
    Top drawer:
    [STRIKE]Mutton Stew (double portion)[/STRIKE]
    Smoked mackerel
    Salmon portions ([STRIKE]5[/STRIKE]4)
    [STRIKE]Goat Ragu x 1[/STRIKE] Taken out for MrEH's dinner
    [STRIKE]Veg Soup x 1[/STRIKE]
    Red cabbage & apple (Double portion)
    Coffee (MrEH's)
    Square sausage (3 x 2 slices)
    White pudding slices
    Fruit pudding slices
    Pesto - frozen in dollops
    Lentils with indian spices
    Half a Tiger bread baton
    Second drawer:
    Flatbreads x [STRIKE]3[/STRIKE]1
    white fish portions x [STRIKE]4[/STRIKE]3
    Smoked Chicken Breast x 2
    Smoked duck breast x 1
    Polish sausage x 2
    Bread (Sliced for toast)
    [STRIKE]Scallops - 1 pack[/STRIKE]
    [STRIKE]Black pudding slices[/STRIKE]
    Squid rings - [STRIKE]1[/STRIKE] part bag
    Tiger prawns - part bag
    [STRIKE]Cooked sausages x 2[/STRIKE]
    Anchovy fillets - 2 small bags
    Lambs liver - 1 pack
    Lamb Mince
    Beef mince - 1 pack
    Bottom Drawer:
    Frozen Veg (Assorted)
    HM Rolls for lunches x 5
    sausages x 2 packs
    Lambs liver - 1 pack
    🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
    Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00
    Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00
    SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculator
    she/her
  • I've been allergic to fish for 20 years but it sounds amazing. I love fish :(
  • Cheeseface wrote: »
    I've been allergic to fish for 20 years but it sounds amazing. I love fish :(

    Aww that must be horrible being allergic to something you really like. Thankfully aside a mild disagreement with chilli (I don't dislike it, but it's none too keen on me) my only actual allergy is utterly ludicrous - and not too life limiting - Salt & vinegar crisps. :o I know - mad huh? It's the walkers type - I can eat the posh ones that are made with actual salt and real vinegar. the flavouring they use in the cheapy ones though has a similar effect on me as bee stings have on some people. Absolutely ridiculous!

    Today has mostly been about food. :T:D Farmers market this morning - got the chipolatas for pigs in blankets, streaky bacon (likewise) and ordinary sausages for the sausage rolls (SOOOOOO much easier than sausage meat!) from the pig farmer, 2 packs of liver and some lamb mince from the sheep farmer, and a pack of mince and some haslet from the beef farmer (who we note are now branching out - hence the haslet!) Home via the posh bakers to grab a new loaf for the freezer - it's not made it in there yet as we may have toast tomorrow morning.

    Home to drop stuff off and then back out to the sorting office to collect a mysterious parcel - which turned out to be a rather lovely (and much sought after by those who know about such things) limited edition calendar from the Red Arrows team! :T Very chuffed indeed -m they do a limited number which are given out to the team themselves (groundcrew and pilots) and then sent to assorted "supporters of the team" - so sponsors, and those like myself that have interaction with them on other levels. I had NO idea I was getting one this year so that came as a fabulous surprise!

    This afternoon I have been for a walk - very foggy out there although it does finally appear to be clearing a bit now - and sorted out pigs in blankets, mince pies and sausage rolls for tomorrow. All looking lovely and the place smells rather wonderful!

    Scallops and black pudding (both Hebridean) and mash tonight - I'll do a whisky/cream sauce with it and probably cauliflower as veg as I have my impulse-buy from yesterday that needs used! (And I LOVE cauliflower!) Yum!
    🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
    Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00
    Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00
    SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculator
    she/her
  • rtandon27
    rtandon27 Posts: 4,528 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Post Photogenic First Anniversary
    mmm - sounds like you had a lovely foodie day EH!

    thank-you so much for the recipe fish recipe - read it out to the OH (now chief cook) and he's game! - now I just have to get some fish he can eat as a look in the freezer reveals that only shellfish in the stores! - think a bag of frozen fish (for pie) pieces needs to be in the groceries this week!
    4 YEARS 10 MONTHS DEBT FREE!!! (24 OCT 2016)
    (With heartfelt thanks to those who have gone before us & their indubitable generosity.)
    ...and now I have a mortgage! (23 AUG 2021)
    17 YEARS 4 MONTHS LEFT OF 20 YEARS
  • Cheery_Daff
    Cheery_Daff Posts: 15,668 Forumite
    First Post Name Dropper First Anniversary Photogenic
    :o:o:o:o

    Hello

    :o:o:o:o

    I am SUCH a plonker - must have missed the post where you said you were moving diaries, and just thought you'd been quiet for, er, a couple of months :o :rotfl: :rotfl:

    So sorry I'm weeks and weeks late to the party! :o

    Anyway, because I've just read the whole diary in one sitting :rotfl: I'm going to join in with a conversation you were having weeks ago about prefabs :D Largely because I grew up in one, and my mum still lives there :D But the entire estate isn't on the prefab museum map someone linked to - most mysterious... but I think things are just added as and when they find them - maybe I should let them know!

    Ours were built as overspill to house people bombed out of Liverpool in the war (We were about 12 miles away). They're mostly terraced houses, built of a kind of concrete I think, mostly yellow but another estate up the road is green :rotfl: They've got lovely big gardens, 50 ish foot long I think.

    In about 1990 (ish) they decided they clearly weren't going anywhere, and decided to 'brick them up' - put insulation on the outside and then a layer of bricks, so they all look somewhat like 'normal' houses now. They rewired and gave us central heating (hooray!!) and double glazing at the same time (ish) :j :j With the giant thick new walls (the window sills are now over a foot wide :rotfl: ) they're proper toasty now :D

    Nothing particularly exciting on the inside though, just a house. Ours has a living room that ran front to back, and a little kitchen that opened out onto the back, and three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs. Really nothing exciting inside!

    You're right about the mortgage situation though. People do buy and sell them but I believe there's only one company that will do a mortgage. My mum was offered the right to buy hers a few years ago, but even with the hefty discount she didn't have long enough left to pay a mortgage before she has to retire, and the only mortgage company that does those houses wouldn't give her one, so she still rents it off the council.

    Anyway, sorry, that was a conversation from weeks ago :o :rotfl: :D Will subscribe now and stop being an idiot :D:o :rotfl:
  • Aaargh - typed a great long reply and lost it - pah!

    Cheery! That made me laugh - but how on EARTH did I never know that we grew up in a prefab?! That'll serve me right for not mentioning the subject "elsewhere" I guess! I definitely think you should let the prefab museum people know about your Mum's estate - they do say they're always keen to hear from people who can offer up any information. I wonder whether the fact that as you say they look not unlike "regular" houses now is anything to do with why they have been missed? That "bricking over" isn't uncommon from what I can gather - I guess once the decision is made that they are staying, it's just common sense to make them as user-friendly as possible. Also not uncommon is the huge garden thing - a lot of those we saw down in South London were on massive plots, and the chap we got talking to down thee was saying that was just one of the reasons he didn't want to be forced to move - getting a garden even a fraction of the size elsewhere was going to be unlikely. :(

    Interesting you mentioned about the bathroom too - my dad said that when one of his schoolfriends got moved into a prefab with his family, half the school piled round to look at the bathroom as they were a real novelty - hardly anyone else had one at that time!

    RT Check out the supermarkets cheapie ranges for fish - I know both T's & S's do packs of well priced white fish fillets in those ranges for around the £2 mark - pretty sure it's Pollack. Do beware of anything meant to be cooked from frozen though - in my experience when you defrost it to cut it up it falls apart a bit.

    LOVELY day yesterday at my parents for our early christmas dinner - did feel slightly odd eating a full turkey dinner a week ahead of the big day though, but it was absolutely glorious so no complaints! Anyway we opened presents, ate, drank and teased the dog. :rotfl: managed to resist the temptation to bring too much uneaten food back home with me too - just a couple of mince pies each - left everything else to Mum and Dad to eat. :D

    Meal plan all now in place for the week - there may still be a bit of adjustment needed as the week goes on but we'll see. Tonight starts oiff as per plan though with sausage and mushroom pasta, and as so far as I can think I have no other call for the 'shrooms, it will be very 'shroomy indeed! :D
    🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
    Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00
    Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00
    SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculator
    she/her
  • Smolly
    Smolly Posts: 216 Forumite
    First Anniversary
    This is making my mouth water EH! Even your meal tonight of sausage and mushroom pasta sounds delicious. I'm guessing you don't use a bought sauce for it?

    A whole meal plan for the week - wish I could be that organised! I've only just written my Christmas cards - doubt they'll get there on time as I still haven't ventured to the post box although I did manage to buy stamps. Oh well it beats last year when I didn't send any at all!:rotfl:

    xx
    LBM Jul 16 £26,823.83, Nov 16 £27,961.98, Dec 16 £26,977.66, Jan 17 £26,884.76
    EF #205 £0/£1000
  • I'd no idea about the prefab mortgage thing. I'm glad to have found out though, because I have been looking at houses that are described as having 'non-standard construction'. It's good to know that if I fell in love with one, I might have problems with the finance.

    Your early Xmas sounded lovely! So will you not see them again until after Christmas?
Meet your Ambassadors

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 342.8K Banking & Borrowing
  • 250K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 449.5K Spending & Discounts
  • 234.9K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 607.5K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 172.9K Life & Family
  • 247.6K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 15.9K Discuss & Feedback
  • 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards