50p a day til Christmas - healthily?! Weezl's next challenge...

redsquirrel80

Didn't think the brain looked any worse than liver etc. Noticed there's also a video of Gordon Ramsay (with Hugh FW ) doing lamb's brain, and one of him doing snails too! Anyway, good luck with it!

Not a lot to report here. My workmates were raving about Sainsburys Basics curry sauce (9p a jar) so I got some of that yesterday, must admit it is quite nice - had about a third of a jar with some homemade chips (from homegrown potatoes) last night for a lazy tea - 3p for a meal isn't bad!!

cw18

trying to figure out whether I'm brave enough to watch that U-Tube clip or not

Think I'm gonna go for it though, so if you don't see me around at some point in the next hour will someone please bob over to make sure I'm still feeling OK !?!?!?!?

cw18

Actually, that wasn't too bad to watch -- but I'm not convinced I'd eat it if I knew what it was in front of me!!

hmkn

shaz_mum_of__2 wrote: »

Might pop and look at woodburning stoves we are considering replacing lounge fire(leccy) with one and sourcing free wood but am worried about the mess we have cream carpets throughout!

Shaz

We put a woodburning stove in a couple of years ago, and it's fab. It replaced a very small open fire, and stoves are way more efficient. We get (mostly) free wood- ask around. Timber merchants and importers may have off cuts they're glad to get rid of and occasionally there's some on freecycle.
I also go 'wooding' on dog walks, collect fir cones, make fire lighters out of loo rolls and paper, save 'cork' corks for firelighters and dry sweetcorn cobs! (I discovered they sell them as BBQ fuel on the continent, so now we eat them, the hens peck the rest off and then I dry them and put them in the log basket. )

Stoves are not cheap to install, cost depends on whether you already have a suitable flue as well as size etc, but we use it a lot and don't put the heating on now until about November. We have oil heating and we use about 1 tank a year. Most of our friends use at least 2 pa. :money:

HMK

PS Sorry for confusion over sausages. I didn't want you to waste money if you were buying posh sausages that were still made with meat from intensively farmed animals. But your not, so that's ok! :cool:

hmkn

phizzimum wrote: »

shaz - thank you so much for that info on yoghurt making. I've looked at the easiyo in Lakeland before but thought you had to use the sachets. As my main reason for making yoghurt is to avoid cow's milk (for DD and DH anyway) it defeated the object.

I've got a wide mouthed thermos that I use for soup. dumb question mabybe but if I make yoghurt in it will I still be able to use it for other things or will flavours taint the flask and spoil the yoghurt? (does that make sense?)

I make goats milk yogurt for my DD's and it works as well as cows milk. I try to use goats milk starter, but somethimes I use cows milk (only a couple of tbsp per pint, and that gets diluted as you make more batches) which is fine for them. Depends on level of sensitivity, I suppose.

I either use a flask or do it in a covered dish on the central heating boiler

HMK

PS thanks to Yategirl for the tip about freezing starter sized batches. Why didn't I think of that!:rolleyes:

phizzimum

brilliant - I used to get the total greek yoghurt that was made with sheeps milk. but I can't seem to find that anymore, and now I've been buying the St Helen's goats milk yoghurt. It's fine but has a stronger taste and comes in such a big pot that often ends up going off before we use it all.

If I'd realised how simple it was to make yog I would have started years ago! I suppose a lot of Old Style stuff is like that. Everyone thinks it's complicated until you try.

phizzimum

newlywed wrote: »

And this recipe suggests mashing the pig brain to disguise it from children
http://www.pinoycook.net/pigs-brain-and-eggplant-frittata/

my kids have gradually mashed my brain so I suppose there's a certain poetic justice there!

cw18

phizzimum wrote: »

my kids have gradually mashed my brain so I suppose there's a certain poet justice there!

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I think a lot of us probably feel the same way !!!

mary43

Yuk !! I just couldn't contemplate eating something like 'brain'.............!!
Bad enough that tonights dinner is sitting in the fridge - fish (trout I think but not sure, they all look the same with the heads on !!!!:eek: ) Shan't want to know about until OH has beheaded it and made it look a bit less like a fish !
We had it given us so least that part of dinner tonight is free.........the rest is new potatos (from the bag we got for £1 at boot fair-loads left) and salad......can't quite work out the cost for that but won't be much and it'll feed 4..............whats the betting one of the kids will turn their nose up and want frozen pizza!

meanmarie

Have never eaten brains but would try it...except that it would be me only Im afraid and I dont do separate dinners unless they are single portions out of the freezer!

Made the 5 minute dough yesterday and have been experimenting with using cast iron frying pan and lid to cook...will report later, have turned it a couple of times and it smells wonderful....think that it has to be cheaper than turning on big oven just to cook a small loaf. Have cooked soda bread like this before and it is fine so should work for this.

Saving hard to redo my kitchen and am toying with the idea of a woodburning stove where the old range was years ago...then thought that maybe if I use one with boiler I would a) get a grant, b) be able to turn current boiler house into utility room- guest loo, not sure if funds will run to that, must talk to one of my engineer children...

Weezl, I love this thread

Marie