really old style living?

seasalt_2

Grr - just lost my post! I'm another one who doesn't do "proper menu planning". Shop to replace stock items and then a couple of meat/fish items depending on what's reduced/on offer. Look in fridge/freezer/garden to see what's left over, needs using up and then scribble down a list of what we could have for tea over the next few days and stick it to the fridge. Saves trying to think while everyone is demanding to know what's for tea. (My grandma's reply to this always used to be "legs of chairs and pump handles" and that usually shuts them up!). Hate to throw anything away and my goal is not to have any left over left overs!

Glad kitty is better mardatha. Celery or courgettes chopped up small/grated in the mince? But then my family are used to finding vegetables in their mince - have never made it without at least onions, carrots and tin of chopped toms and quite often add turnip (swede), celery, peppers and mushroom stalks as well.

Hippeechiq

mardatha wrote: »

I dont like to be organised at all really - I like to do what I want when I want it. I suppose that makes me a wee spoiled brat
I do a loose plan of about 8 meals too, and pick something. Well sometimes. Sometimes I just make him bacon & egg ..
BJ, cooking and me do not get on. At all. It's taken me 44 years of marriage to be able to make a shepherds pie.
And even them my tatties sink ! :rotfl:

:rotfl: Hallelujah for that! So many on the forum seem to be skilled domestic godesses that can make a banquet out of a hens noseful of ingredients......I'm not one of them I'd like to be, but I'm not

When I worked, I have to admit, we had the same(ish) meals, week in week out. My job consisted of being on my feet all day (and I mean all day) and so we had meals that took the minimum amount of "standing by the cooker" time, and by that, I don't mean ready meals, but our weekday meals consisted of a lot of pasta and rice.

Since being made redundant in January I constantly scour the internet for new recipes that are either economically friendly or really delicious sounding or hopefully both.

About 4 months ago I started to try out a new recipe every week on a Saturday or a Sunday because OH hasn't been to work all day, so it doesn't matter so much if it turns out to be dire - and some of them have been _pale_ although that's probably my lack of skills rather than the recipe itself

Then I started menu planning, which was a bit boring initially, but now I have so many new (for me) recipes, I can do a four week menu planner, without repeating a meal/recipe. As a result, I pretty much always look forward to what's planned for tea because it's new and fresh to my taste buds and I've found I'm enjoying food so much more

Not clever enough to do a spreadsheet (although, to be fair to myself, I've never tried, but Micro$oft Office/Word and I are not best friends, which again, is probably down to my lack of skills rather than the programs.......I'm a bit rubbish all round really! :rotfl:) I just have four pieces of paper with Mon-Sun written on each piece, then I have all the recipes/meals I cook written on another piece of paper, and from that I choose what I'll cook on what days, and then write the planned meal by the relevant day. Then I grocery shop accordingly.

I also do my best not to repeat any meat or vegetables, pasta, rice or potatoes 2 days in a row so that each new days meal is a different "type" of meal to the previous days.

ceridwen

Well - Old Styling in earnest here this afternoon.

I've started up my new posh dehydrator now and all 5 trays are filled with tomatoes from my garden drying - . So - going good here...first grow your own tomatoes and then dry them....yay! Still got loads over - been freezing some, bartering some, giving some away, tried bottling some in brine (not sure how they're going to be - havent had the nerve to try them yet....).

Still got loads of dried carrots from last year in the cupboard - whilst I wonder how to actually use them...:cool:

Will be making my way up to the loft in a minute - hoping I've not decluttered some Pyrex mixing bowls I have - as I want them for a makeshift bain marie. This being for my next project for the day - ie making my own moisturiser - have done it a few times before - but not this particular recipe. Considering how much the moisturiser I will otherwise buy will cost me (think - Neals Yard prices....<cough>) then I must get bum in gear and do that - because it will be about one-twentieth of the price at a guess.....ahem...

Studied my garden earlier and thought "Ah - latest plantings are doing okay"....errr...I don't know if I even am going to like American Land Cress - oh well....I won't know till I try and looks like it won't be much longer before its ready to try...

EDIT: Darn - I HAVE decluttered those mixing bowls...do people think I could use the stainless steel mixing bowls I have these days for bain marie over a saucepan of boiling water purposes?

pink_numbers

Made a thrifty draught excluder this afternoon. I didn't want to make a case and stuff it, as we have two cats prone to flees, so I wanted to make it totally washable and easy to dry.

and of course I didn't want to pay a penny extra!

Got an off cut of a fleece throw that I had left over from making all my curtains, rolled it up and secured with elastic bands. Then rolled a towel around it, secured it at the ends and middle with a nice (saved) ribbon. Only took me a minute to make too!

hurray!

ceridwen - We made lovely land cress soup in the summer (when they just exploded in my garden!), stock, cress, onions, cream or sour cream. It was rather tasty. The following day, I made a land cress 'pesto' with the left over soup boiled down

EstherH

mardatha wrote: »

Bet I'm the only one who wouldn't know a spreadsheet if it turned round and bit her !! :rotfl:

No, I don't either. I looked at that thread and gave up at the spreadsheet stage.

pink_numbers

ceridwen wrote: »

EDIT: Darn - I HAVE decluttered those mixing bowls...do people think I could use the stainless steel mixing bowls I have these days for bain marie over a saucepan of boiling water purposes?

depends on if your ingredients require non-reactive bowls... what's in the moisturiser?

seasalt_2

Sorry for boring you all - now that I have managed to get back onto the forum, my original post has magically reappeared so now two almost identical. Duh! Am scared to click edit again though as that's how I lost the blimmin thing in the first place.

Ceridwen, I love landcress, but if you want to eat in salads, pick it SMALL, it gets hotter and tougher as leaves get older - still good for soup though. My rule of thumb is that any leaves much bigger than a 2p (the round tip of the leaf iyswim) are for soup! Maybe I'm a wuss though!

ceridwen

pink_numbers wrote: »

depends on if your ingredients require non-reactive bowls... what's in the moisturiser?

This particular one = coconut oil, beeswax, cocoa butter

I use a variety of oils, shea butter, lanolin - stuff like that generally...

mardatha

I've got over a kilo of cocoa butter and not a clue what to do with it. It was for bath melts, but I have no bicarb or citric to mix it with.

ceridwen

Well Mardatha

The moisturizer recipe I'm about to use is:

- few tablespoons of oil (almond, coconut or sesame)
- add a little cocoa butter
- add a tablespoon of beeswax

Thats all it says and I find that a bit vague - but I assume its "follow standard practice" of melt them all together, let cool a bit and put in a glass jar.