Further financial faux pas and even more disasterous decisions

firesidemaid

mmmmmm apricot and cinnamon sounds lovely.

i'm currently on blackcurrant jam round 3 - this time with th addition of the juice and rind of an orange.

thanks for the jar link earlier - far cheaper than anywhere else, but as you say, OUCH! to the delivery charge.

then i had a brainwave in asda and rushed round to the jam aisle to find value lemon curd @ 22p= jar+lid. just what to do with shed-loads of value lemon curd - other than wash it down the sink, which seems a waste.

i have never paid for jars before, but i have used my stock up of 60 or so and we have a bumper crop of soft fruit from the new allotment. and then they'll be all the chutmeys and pickles.

i only make for us, friends and family, but you can't guarantee that you'll get all the jars back.

i think i will have to put out a request at work.

lucielle

Make tarts with the lemon curd. Yummy
L

pennywisepoundstupid

Jam sounds yummy, i've spent this afternoon making Pink grapefruit marmalade and its delish don't think its going to last very long, had to freeze some of it though as i had run out of jars.

moo2moo

Try Lemon Curd Muffins.. a variation on Nigellas yoghurt cake

1 carton of yoghurt (almost any flavour)
1 carton measure of corn oil
2 carton measures of granulated or caster sugar
3 carton measures of self raising flour
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

180-200 degrees Celsius

Empty the yoghurt into a large mixing bowl,add the oil and sugar. Mix. Add eggs and mix. Add the vanilla extract at this stage if using. Sift flour into bowl in three goes and fold in gently (if cooking with children omit this stage and lob flour in as fast a humanly possible).

Pour cake batter into loaf tin and bake for 30 to 40 minutes.

Alternatively half fill 12 muffin cases. Add a teaspoon of lemon curd and top up with cake mix. Bung in oven for as long as it takes (wasn't paying any attention at all at this point) as a general guide its as long as it takes to poopa scoop a lawn, martial an argument about something irrelevant, hang out a load of washing, bung another in the machine and get part way into thinking about cleaning the bathroom before remembering the oven is on.

Now for the health and saftey bit *premature sampling is hazardous to health* the lemon curd is like molten lava.


Meanwhile had an evening of peace after sending the DDs to bed at 6:30 for behaving abysmally. OH followed shortly after in anticipation of a ridiculously early start. Used the time wisely watching mindless drivel on the telly box whilst sorting out several folders full of long forgotten stuff which has been deposited in the recyling bin.

Managed to persuade the chap who came to collect a grimy bit of Landrover to take several more things with him which meant getting shut of another huge box which was destined for the tip at some point this week.

firesidemaid

thanks for the muffin recipe - everyone at work will be condierably fatter and fed up of lemon-curd based recipes after this jamming season lol;)

moo2moo

Was rudely awakened at 3:30 by the geriatric hound wanting to go out. Arrived downstairs to find OH eating breakfast. Meh. Declined his ever so kind offer of a nocturnal cafeine fix and went back to bed. Did have vague ideas about knocking up a batch of mango jam but fell asleep instead. Will give me something to do after this mornings stint at work.

Was most organised and filed all my jammy recipes in the same folder eradicating lots of bits of paper and recycled envelopes from the desk. Record keeping is clearly not my forte. Need to go through at some point and figure out costings as at the mo. I'm costing per batch and labelling the jars as required but theres a way of saving this info as a file for the posh label printer software, only I've yet to figure out how to import it all. Am also in danger of underpricing myself compared to the other laydees which is most excellent for sales but is more than likely to cheese people off. Mind you some of the ladies existing prices are ridiculous to the point of being greedy.

Listed one single solitary item on e-bay. Its better than nowt. Went on to spend £140 on paint for the money pit that is project Landie. Rather fortuitously this co-incided with the awarding of OHs annual bonus and payrise. Hoping that will cover a fair few of the things he needs to get the next stage of work completed. DD1 spent yesterday afternoon removing the rust from the dashboard mounting brackets and primig that ready for top coating today in the hopes of getting the wiring loom fitted later on in the week. Whilst she was keeping OH occupied DD2 and I did the iroing and cleared the laundry mountain from the chair which makes downstairs seem rather tidy. Obviously it won't last. The hound from hell chased the cat up and over the furniture and onto the windowsill resulting in the destruction of the hideous table lamp which has since been consigned to the bin. Have been willing that to happen for months!

Plans for today involve mango jam making, slow cooker loading and much laundry before the washing line is comandeered for further spray painting. Also need to do mucho housework and cram in an extra half hour at school in the hopes of having a v. short day on Friday to co-incide with the staff training day which ends spectacularly early as theres a staff trip to the races planned. Still have to go back in later on to clean up after holiday club though.

Have installed my frugal head and am not planning to spend anything at all between now and next Monday with the exception of £25.20 to cover the DDs activities and with this in mind I have the grand sum of £25 in my wallet. Will need to raid the dregs of the jam jar of change for the extra 20p. Remind me I said this when Fridays weather is glorious and the DDs and I decide to pootle off to the pick your own fields for a picnic!

chevalier

firesidemaid wrote: »

mmmmmm apricot and cinnamon sounds lovely.

thanks for the jar link earlier - far cheaper than anywhere else, but as you say, OUCH! to the delivery charge.

.

Just in case you missed it don't forget freecycle for jars... chev

firesidemaid

chevalier wrote: »

Just in case you missed it don't forget freecycle for jars... chev

thanks again chev. i have not got to grips with freecycle - when i joined a couple of years ago all it did was fill my inbox with 100s of emails, so i haven't ventured back:o

OH has come back with free cherries tonight, so am obviously going to have to do something!

moo2moo

Theres a setting on Freecycle which prevents them e-mailing anything to you apart from respones to posts you've made and even those seem to end up directly in my junk box or at least they did until Microsofts last update which means I can view my inbox but can't read or delete anything.

Rustled up a batch of Mango jam. Took the gamble it had reached setting point when OH arrived home at a ridiculusly early 10:30. It hadn't. Not quite. Since one mango only just made two small jars its in the fridge and will be long gone before it even thinks about going mouldy. Tis rather nice but far too expensive to make in any quantity. Especially if the mangoes aren't whoopsied.

Spent the majority of yesterday under the Landie attempting to remove rock sliders, seat box and fuel tank. Failed miserably on all three counts. Stuffs far too corroded and is disintegrating as we touch it. Worse still was the discoverey of fuel in the fuel tank which meant we couldn't use a blow torch either. Lost track of time andended up leaping into the shower at much the same time as I should have been arriving at work.

DD2 went to cubs and had a fab time although came back with a split lip and more bruises than she gets from the average martial arts class. Now need to source a cub uniform, although theres no rush until after the summer holidays.

OH has swapped shifts today which means not starting until lunchtime. That didn't stop him waking up at 5:30 with a screech because he'd overslept. He went straight back to sleep. I didn't. Wish he'd think before he does these things though because DD1 invited him to her end of cookery club spectacular this afternoon where he gets fed a 4 course meal prepared by the club. Shes understandably rather upset that hes forgotten.

Hoping today goes a little better than yesterday after the mains feed to the sink I repaired on Thursday leaked again last night with similarly catasrophic effects. Am now waiting for the plumbers who fitted the sink a whole two months ago to come back and do something about it meanwhile will be without the entire toilet block today. Went on to spend an hour weedkilling the ground in spectacular sunshine. Went indoors to put the stuff away and came outside to a tropical thuderstorm. Complete waste of an evening. Got tasked with disposing of a dozen childrens bikes. Am rather hopeful one of the recycling projects will come and collect them although we're an 80 mile round trip from the nearest one. Need to work miracles though because if they're not gone by the end of today I have to leave them out for the bin men.

mooomin

moo2moo wrote: »

Theres a setting on Freecycle which prevents them e-mailing anything to you apart from respones to posts you've made and even those seem to end up directly in my junk box or at least they did until Microsofts last update which means I can view my inbox but can't read or delete anything.

This happened to my Hotmail recently. I now can't use it in Firefox and have to use Internet Explorer. Pain in the @rse that it is :mad: