5 OS Pleasures in your Day Today part 2

villagelife

My five for yesterday are

1. Picking lots of blackberries and apples in the sun.

2. Making apple and blackberry crumble.

3. Cooking roast chicken and having loads leftover.

4. No work.

5. Seeing a slow worm while picking the blackberries.

My five for today.

1. Making chicken stock.

2. Enough LO chicken for at least two more meals.

3. Chatting with a friend while walking my dog.

4. Cleaning out a cupboard in the hall - can now open the door without fear of the contents falling out.

5. Tidying up downstairs well - only a small pile of stuff that DS'S need to put away.

CCP

Evening all. (Well, afternoon all, really!)

villagelife - roast chicken followed by crumble? That sounds delish. I've got roast chicken for dinner tomorrow, and might make crumble for afters now.

Frith - it sounds like you had a lovely day yesterday. Good for you!

jex - this is me waving back -

Broomstick - marrow and ginger jam - :drool:. I tried it for the first time last year and it's gorgeous. :drool::drool: Can I have some, please? ;)

Patchwork Quilt - courgette and plum sounds interesting. I didn't fancy it at first, but I suppose it's not really much different to marrow jam which (see above) I love.

My pleasures for today:

1) Got a HUGE bag of locally grown potatoes for £1 in the market. I really only wanted half a dozen but the stallholder said the price was the same whether I had the few I wanted or the whole bag full. My next port of call after posting this is to see if there's a thread on uses for potatoes...

2) The deputy manager agreed that I could have next Wednesday off to visit my grandmother. It's a bit naughty of me really - my manager would probably have said 'no' as we're quite short-staffed at the moment, so I deliberately sorted it out today before she gets back from holiday.

3) Found 50p on the floor. (Every little will help this month.)

4) Found a gorgeous-sounding recipe for banana and carrot cake in the recipe thread - that will help use up two gluts at once.

5) It was pouring when we finished work today, so a kindly colleague gave me a lift round the corner to the car park where I'd left my car.

6) It's Friday! :j:j:j

Have a very pleasant evening, peeps - I'm off to look for 101 things to do with potatoes.

PetuliaGristle

mollythewestie hope you get to the Fiesta this week, dd got a photo with Mickey. We picked up some more freebies, Milka chocolate bars, loads of stuff from the White Stuff stand incl. colouring book, crayons, badges, yoyo etc. The Mario tent is great too, loads of games to play though do get there in the morning to avoid the queues

Mine for today:
1) breakfast in bed
2) cuddles from dd
3) my birthday Elemis shower gel
4) Balloon Fiesta Day 2
5) Carluccio's picnic lunch, we have half left over for tomorrow
6) only a sprinkling of rain today, though the weathergirl says it'll be chucking it down tomorrow
7) getting Wii Active Extra Workouts for £10 at the EA Sports tent
8) not being at work

KarleyMarie

Sorry haven't posted in a while been away with the fairies.

1) Whoopsie pasta for tea

2) Decluttering going well.. only hinderence noted in number 3 :P

3) 2 free pairs of shoes from different people at work!

4) Sold some bits on ebay tonight woo

5) Nice lie in today

* On the subject of decluttering, if anyone does cardmaking/crafts and would appreciate some stickers/needlecraft/pop up bits do pm me:rotfl:My mum passed the stuff on after she gave it up, and I jsut cant get the hang of it lol!*

Broomstick

Evening all

1. Decided to work at home so took DS2 into town and came back here which is a treat in itself as I never have the house to myself for a long period of time.

2. The quiet. No interruptions, no traffic, no telly, no radio and I didn't even switch the computer until late afternoon. Must do this more often.

3. I discovered that our council is about to start kitchen waste collection which is brilliant since we don't really generate enough peelings etc to make a household compost bin worthwhile.

4. Toasted bagel and cream cheese and cherry tomatoes for lunch.

5. DS2 has just appeared for a cuddle before he goes to bed.

Sweet dreams

B x

Ladyhawk

Morning Peeps,

I completely forgot to do my pleasures last night..

1) Jelly for lunch!

2) NSD

3) Pasta bake for supper reheated from the evening before

4) Sitting quietly this evening and doing some knitting - finished off another square

5) Chatting to my friend L on the phone

Have a great day everyone - hope you don't get too damp!

L

Patchwork_Quilt

Friday
1) Bottled some fruit purees.
2) Invented a soup, using the water left over from cooking beetroot.
3) Brought some nice veggies home from the allotment. The big surprise is that the French beans I planted very late on (because nothing else seemed to be growing this year) already had beans on them.
4) Lovely family meal with soup and veggies. DS's gf has really come out of her shell now she has got used to us and entertained us all with stories about what she has been doing this week.
5) OH and I 'went to the pub' after they had gone by opening a bottle of wine. Much cheaper and we didn't have to move, which is good, because we don't drink that much and after half a bottle we didn't want to.

Saturday - so far

1) Read my favourite magazine on the sofa with no interruptions.
2) Made myself a fire from garden trimmings and a little bit of smokeless fuel. It's a bit chilly here and I was determined not to use the heating as, unusually for the weekend, I am the only one in.
3) My cast iron teapot works! I bought it for a third of the price in a local sale in the hope that it would stand on top of the stove and get the water hot enough to make a drink. I am using an offcut of decking to stand it on the hearth when not needed.
4) Just about to go to the Gardeners' Show in the next village with Dd's bf's Mum. Never been before but I'm looking forward to the odd-shaped vegetables.
5) Tea is a curry I made weeks ago when all the girlfriends and boyfriends might have been coming to tea but only some of them turned up.

Have a lovely weekend, everyone.

marmiterulesok

Hope you're all having a good weekend!

Here are my five for the last few days:

1-I'm a bit lacking in energy today.Having said that,I've been to the market,and walked home.Bought onions and tomatoes to make red tomato chutney,though it might wait til tomorrow.I made a small amount the other day,and was very pleased with the result-my first ever chutney!

2-I made the courgette cake yesterday,it's yummy.I'll certainly make this again.

3-They say the hot spell is over now,yippee!I'm not a fan of the heat or humidity.Would you believe that I long for Scottish summers?

4-I plan to have an early night,but am just about to start a new book so might end up burning the midnight oil.

5-Tomorrow is also a day off.I do shifts so often work the weekend.

Broomstick - you mentioned making courgette/marrow and ginger preserve.

Patchwork Quilt -you mentioned making courgette and plum preserve.

Could you please give me the recipe?They sound very nice.

Have a nice day folks.There's coffee and cake beckoning....:)

Ladyhawk

Hi Marmite - could you share your chutney recipe?

Thanks!

marmiterulesok

Hi Ladyhawk.

Here is the recipe,it's from the book 'Home Preservation of Fruit and Vegetables' by HMSO,first published in 1929.

Red Tomato Chutney

If you prefer,you can omit the onions.

5.5kg tomatoes
450g onions
600ml spiced distilled white vinegar
7g paprika
pinch of cayenne pepper
40g salt
675g sugar

First peel the tomatoes:do this in batches.Place the tomatoes in a bowl and pour on freshly boiling water.Leave them for 30-60 seconds,then drain and peel.

Cut them up and place them in a saucepan.Chop or mince the onions,and add them to the tomatoes.Cook the mixture until it is reduced to a thick pulp.(I used a potato masher to break them up).

Add half the vinegar,the salt and spices,and continue to cook the chutney until the pulp has thickened again.Dissolve the sugar in the remaining vinegar,add it to the chutney and simmer until thickened to the desired consistency.Bottle while hot.

Makes about 3.5kgs.

It also says that the chutney should be allowed to mature for 2-3 months.

I found the red tomato chutney to be pleasantly spicy,but not too spicy.

I hope you like it.Let me know how it goes.