OS Daily Thread - Tuesday 29th September

Money_saving_Diva_2

Hi there! This is the Daily Thread for Tuesday 29th September. It is an 'Over the garden fence' type thread where we chat about everything Old Style and maybe a little bit more. It’s a great, inspiring and motivating thread we start each day to discuss what Old Style things we’re going to do today or what we’ve achieved already. Everyone’s welcome, please do come in, put your feet up (although check the fence hasn’t just been painted first!) and join us for an Old Style natter. The more the merrier!
As this is the Old Style Board, it would be appreciated if posts could include some Old Style content. Please be aware that many people may have small screens, or slow internet connections, so please don’t post large pictures, or clip art – links are preferred.
Please do not start a new Daily Thread before you go to bed at night because this often leaves things confusing with two Dailys' live at the same time. The idea is that a member would start each new Daily Thread after they get up in the morning.
Some people who chat here like to try to answer everyone. Don’t feel you have to though, a general “Hi everyone, hope you are all well” type start is just as good.

Morning all :wave:
Marmalize - please do not feel intimidated, apart from the elite few, most of us just muddle through trying to be as OS as we can, but never quite as much as we would like!
Julie - hope you get a better nights sleep tonight hon!
Mioliere - Nice to read you again, we missed you.
Essex-girl - Oh how horrible of little dog and poor cat. And what a bill! No wonder you are stressed.
Bargainbird - I have been keeping your BIL in my prayers since the incident and will continue to.
Mummysaver - this is the recipe copied from the breadmaker instruction book:

Chelsea buns
1 medium egg made up to 150 mls/ 5 fl oz with tepid water (we are going to try 125 next time as the last two times it was too wet to work with)
225 g/8 oz Strong White bread flour
1 tblsp dried milk powder
1/2 tsp salt
25 g/1 oz caster sugar
25 g/1 oz butter
1 tsp Easy blend dried yeast

Filling
25 g/1oz butter
50 g/2oz light soft brown sugar
100 g/4oz mixed dried fruit
50 g/2 oz chopped cherries (I just used more saltanas)
25 g/1 oz chopped nuts (I missed these out)

Glaze
3 tbsp caster sugar
2 tbsp water

• Remove pan from bread maker and place the kneading blade onto the shaft in the pan.
• Place all the dough ingrediants into the bread pan in the order listed in the ingredient list above.
• Insert bread pan into bread maker and select 'dough'. Press start.
• At the end of the cycle remove the dough and place on floured work surface. (Ok this is where my experience of making them started to differ from the book as the dough that came out was REALLY wet. I added a load more flour til I could at least handle it. I wet my hands so I could squish it flat-ish accompanied by much fruity language I might add)
• Back to the instructions:
• Melt the butter from the filling part of the ingrediant list. In the meantime, to knock back the dough and roll out into a rectangle approx 12 inches by 9 inches. (Or in my case, stare down at a wet sloppy mess and try to scrape off most of the dough that is now adhered to your hands whilst looking around for your OH who is sensibly hiding in the other room as he can sense things are not going well)
• Brush the surface of the dough with the melted butter - sprinkle the fruit, sugar and nuts onto the dough (I would also add a tsp cinnamon too personally).
• Roll up the dough into a swiss roll fashion, starting with the longest side. (At this stage I forced my poor OH back into the room by barking at him and asked him to put the sugar, fruit and spice all together into a bowl for me as all I could manage was to pull blobs of the wet dough off the mat and my hands, and to kind of squidge some of that mixture into the dough and then drop said blob onto baking tray)
• Cut into 9 equal pieces and place together on a greased tin. Then cover and leave in a warm place to rise for 40 mins to an hour.
• Bake in a pre-heated oven at 220c/425f/Gas mark 7 for 10 - 15 mins.
• Make glaze by heating water and sugar until the sugar has dissoved and then brush over the buns.

I have to say that despite the mess and the fact they looked like they had been dropped from a great height, they did actually taste very nice.

This post is already way too long so I will say that I have a hospital appt with my consultant this afternoon and friends coming down for dinner this evening so not much OS-iness happening chez Diva. I am making sandwiches to take with us to the hospital and we will go to the farm shop on the way home but that is about it. I promise to do better tomorrow!!


Hope you all have a good day today. Warm gentle for anyone who wants one!

Diva.x

donny-gal

Morning SD and MSD all who cross-follow.

Looks like we had 2 threads, see you had deleted SD so moved mine to here.

Woke up early but had about 6 hours as it is almost 6 here. Journey so far been slower than planned, but not major problems, got to the hotel at Dunkerque at 10.30 pm Sunday nigh (UK time)t and we crashed out not waking up until 8.45am on Monday:eek::rolleyes:, so after shower etc., filling with diesel it was 9.45am before we got going, and the plan was to be up and off around 8 am. I have brought breakfasts and lunch with me together wth travel kettle and flask, so that we only buy the evening meal. Was very pleased with the meal last night Cote a Cote (sorry no accents on MSE) a restaurant change RestauMarche is another one which is good value. 3 course meal for 10.90€ each and a litre of house red wine for 7.70€, very drinkable I may add. I had an endive with wallnuts and sultanas, with a little vinegarette and honey for starter, DH had lardons & croutons salad. The bacon (lardons) pieces were very tasty think they were from a bacon joint then cubed, so both could be used at home. I then had colin with bernaise (sp) sauce, and DH had beef both cooked lovely, and then I could not resist the french cheese and DH had chocolate mousse. We stay at the cheap and cheerful Premiere Classe, small room and shower room, but it is only somewhere to sleep and get cleaned up so at <40€ a night is fine, the bonus is they have free wi-fi in the room.

As we have been delayed, we are going to extend the journey by a day and do some sightseeing on the rest of the journey. Tonight thinking of staying at Pau, and going a differnt way over the Pyrenees, the autumn colours should be lovely they have been great so far coming down, and I have to admit it is warmer already. We can get to our destination the next day, a longish day but not a big problem , though if the mood takes us we may detour again. The sun was really hurting my eyes yesterday, my glasses are reactalite type, but ended up wearing sunglasses over the top to stop the glare, it was a blue sky wth a thin layer of white cloud covering it, maybe the white was reflecting the sun more, don't know really.

It looks like quite a fewof you are in the wars, or certainly not happy bunnies. :grouphug: of the gentle type to you all.

DS & friend/houseshare owner, were very grateful for the goodies we took down to them, epecially filling their freezer with all sorts. His friend has just bought the house a week before DS moved in, and has all that sort of expenses, and DS got paid 3 weeks money and now does not get paid again until the end of October, so both needed a little TLC in the form of food and cleaning materials, washing power, anything we had 2 of to help them start up. Bought them a SC, but didn't see Asda deal until after :mad:. I had also been baking an took them muffins, twinks, and choc chip cookies.

Right may try to have a little nap now.

Hope you all have a better day.
DG

Sunnyday

Morning Diva & all who follow/cross :wave:

I`ve just deleted the post that i started with the wrong date on it :rotfl:
I can tell that it is definitely going to be one of those days.

I looked at the date on the pc and it said 30th then looked at my phone and that said 29th, i was just about to put the telly on to check on there when Diva saved the day

I shall alter the pc later, i blame it all on being so tired but on the plus side as it`s only the 29th its my day off, if i hadn`t realised that something was wrong later i would have gone to w*rk :eek:

I fell asleep on the sofa and woke up around two and went to bed but after much tossing and turning i could not for the life of me sleep, i got up again at ten to four (yes i was clock watching :rolleyes:) and put the breadmaker on and emptied the washing machine and dishwasher.

When i got up i found that the freezer door wasn`t closed properly :eek:
The ice on the inside of the doors had melted but it didn`t seem too bad, it is so full that it would probably take 24 hours to defrost everything :rolleyes: i found the offending shelf and squeezed everything in a bit better and slammed the door, it is now on fast freeze until it gets down to the proper temperature.

It is extremely windy here atm, i went down the garden earlier to put the washing on the line and thought to myself that it would probably be dry by daybreak. i`ve been around the house and gathered up everything that needs charging up and plugged them all in whilst its still cheap electricity time and i`ve also got the hot water heating up for later.

There is an enormous gammon in the sc right now and it smells fab, the joints are on offer at Sainsburys stm in case anyone needs one.

Yesterday i went to Argos and bought the electric slicer that i`ve been saving for, i`ve seem quite a few people recommend it including Pink so that made up my mind for me. When the gammon is cooled i shall be trying it out anything that dosen`t move will probably get sliced

Bargainbird - It`s great to hear some positive news re BIL, hope that there is some more shortly.

Marmalize - Welcome :hello:

Essex girl - Hope that puddy tat is ok x

Enough of my ramblings, i`m off for a browse.

Have a good day peeps - whatever date it is :rotfl:

SD

mioliere

Good morning all. (((Hugs))) to anyone here feeling anxious or unwell, and a warm welcome to newbies.

MSD - I hope everything goes well when you see the consultant.

I've never enjoyed reading a recipe so much! Your comments about what happened at each stage really made me laugh! No matter what you and your OH went through, at least they tasted good.

Well, things were supposed to have calmed down now that the visitors have gone, but my quest to get the ironing done yesterday went right out of the window because some friends turned up for coffee in the morning, then I was helping DH with work on the bedroom in the attic that we moved into while our visitors were staying. It was only going to be a temporary move, but we like it up there, so he's having to get the rest of the work done! The room has been plastered with a rough finish that will look great when it's painted. I didn't like the room when we first moved up there, but I'm really starting to like it now. It'll be a while before it's finished properly, but will do for now. The downstairs bedroom will now be a convenient spare room for visitors, plus, for now, I can use it as a store for my Christmas present stash (sorry if I've mentioned Christmas too soon!).

Well, I will try and catch up with previous threads today - I must have missed loads of news over the last week. I loved having our visitors, though. They are the sort of friends that just 'fit in' with whatever is going on and we're all looking forward to next year's visit (although they Skyped last night to say that they were coming back next week - think they were joking!) . They even took back a French language course on CD I gave them, so that they can start learning the language for their next visit.

Dinner last night was a quick curry with basmati rice from the freezer; today we're having a Spanish omelette and salad, so nothing too taxing, especially as I know I have at least a full morning's ironing to do!

Our little kitten, Louis, is really settling in. He's a comical little thing - one of those cats that ends up sleeping in really silly positions. DH made the mistake of feeding him from the table while we were having our dinner (which I didn't want to start!), so now he taps me politely on the leg while I'm eating to remind me he's there! We've also made up a toy box for him - he keeps pinching things and running away with them. He's already had my tape measure, a plastic bag clip, and some clothes pegs which he took from the peg basket!

Anyway, I'd better go and make another cuppa before I have a shower so I'll see you all later.

Have a great day.

KathyXX

mioliere

Hi SD - hope your day gets better! You've achieved a lot since you woke up, haven't you?

Donny-Gal - have a great trip - the food so far sounds great! It's a shame you've been delayed but France is a lovely country to be delayed in - all that great scenery, and the weather has been lovely for days now!

KathyXX

Have no 'thanks' button for some reason.

donny-gal

I did stand on the balcony and give you a wave M as we are at Chateauroux atm.
DG

Money_saving_Diva_2

Donny - good to hear from you and hope you have fun!
Sunny - when I clicked 'send', your message wasn't there and then after I had sent it, it was! So I was just about to delete mine and then yours vanished... Could have been funny - BOTH of us deleting...:rotfl:
Mioliere - glad you enjoyed the recipe description!

Diva.x

Sunnyday

Lol Diva - no one would have found mine because of the date, that thread had already had 4 different titles :rotfl:

Mioliere - looking back i think that i`ve done quite a lot so far today, i will definitely need a nap later, i feel tired but can`t sleep at all. Think that it is catching as lots of peeps were like this yesterday.

Donny Gal - Shame that you didn`t see the Asda slow cooker before you bought one, it is an extremely useful gift and i`m sure that your DS will get lots of use out of it.

SD

mioliere

Donny - have pm'd you with my details - call in if you're passing this way!

KathyXX

celyn90

Morning all

Diva - :rotfl: at the buns - I do this sort of thing all the time, I'm sure OH lives in fear of being called into the kitchen! I want to be a TV chef where they have everything all cut up in little bowls at the start (and someone to do the washing up of said bowls afterwards)
Essexgirl - hugs for you, hope you start to feel better you
Donnygal - sounds like you are having a wonderful trip
Moliere - I love kittens, they have so much personality
Sunnyday Well done on saving the freezer
Bargainbird - glad your BIL is fighting through xx
welcome marmalize This is my favorite thread of all time... I have a fair few new things to add to it once I have dusted off what remains of my pride :rotfl: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=290130&highlight=disasters

I had a slightly hairy drive in this morning - the speed limit in my town is 20 now pretty much all the way but even this early people seem to be in too much of a hurry and want to overtake at the most stupid places I don't know, I guess I just don't think it is worth taking risks like that to get to work 10 mins earlier.

Dinner last night was chicken with baked spuds and blackbean salsa, tonight I'm thinking maybe falafels with the rest of the beans. I have to go the market to get veg later on and to primark to see if I can find inspiration for a fancy dress party (I hate fancy dress).

Right - I must go downstairs and feed my cells or else they won't grow and I will have nothing to do tomorrow have agood day all, cel x

Molly41

Goodmorning,
Hope everyone is beginning to feel better?

Bargainbird - I hope your BIL is starting to wake up now.

MSD - hope your appointment goes ok.

Im feeling a little brighter today. Im still worried and anxious about work but trying hard not to let it get to me. Anyway I slept much better last night. A cup of tea is calling - will catch up with you all soon.

Hopefully another quiet day fpr everyone.
Love, Molly