Preparing for winter II

oldtractor

Talking of winter, its like September here in the Midlands today,not at all like early August.

pinkmami

Popped in this morning for a nosey & saw some winter boots. They looked like snow/hiking boots & totally warm as they were fully lined with fleece. For £25 they'd do brilliantly for a winter...maybe you'd get more use out of them as they were very sturdy.

pinkmami

Oh & I tried some Asda SmartPrice tomato soup today. DD1 is a fussy eater & only Heinz will do...hid the tin, & she ate it all. So for 17p it was a bargain....must add a few to the store cupboard!!!

slm6002

I am afraid i cant stomach the smartprice one but the kids eat it all the time. I go for the next asda one up

Confuzzled

pinkmami wrote: »

Oh & I tried some Asda SmartPrice tomato soup today. DD1 is a fussy eater & only Heinz will do...hid the tin, & she ate it all. So for 17p it was a bargain....must add a few to the store cupboard!!!

i have a little recipe i concocted years ago after having this soup in an indian restaurant that your family may like, it's actually quite nice with the value tomato soup and that's what i normally use in it

warm the soup slowly and add to it a small chunk of coconut creme,
a tablespoon of sugar (or less if you like it tangier but i find the sweetness beautiful with the coconut creme)
some dessicated coconut (nice optional but i rarely do this anymore)
curry powder to taste or garam masala mix

if you have them and like the flavour you can also add dry fried brown mustard seeds (simply toss some in a dry pan, NO OIL) on a low heat until a few start to pop then remove from heat immediately and put in your soup. this is't necessary but is a lovely optional that is true to the original soup i had in the restaurant

even my daughter that doesn't like tomato soup likes THIS tomato soup, all in it costs about 50p to make as i use two tins and only a small portion of coconut creme which i stock up on when i go to edinburgh at 50p a packet from ethnic grocers... it's really lovely, try it!

Kitchenbunny

Confuzzled, thanks for that - it sounds really warming and perfect for winter. I have all of those things in anyway so will be giving that a try. My Dad makes an awesome veggie casserole - I must get the recipe from him - it always looks so thick and stodgy that you could serve it as a side!

I have spoken to DH and he's agreeing about my idea of keeping a stiff bristled brush in the kitchen. I can use it either for inside cleaning or to brush away powder snow so we can actually get to the garage to get the spade. That's a good start. I have to rotate some of my tins this afternoon and sort out the storecupboard to make sure everything is used equally.

KB xx

Rainy-Days

Thre big jobs off my list of things to do today.

The shed, arbour and bird table (the table is big, tall, chunky and very heavy) all got sanded down today and were then promptly stained/varnished. The shed soaked loads of the stain coating up, but that was quite an easy job compared with the bird table and arbour which took so much longer. They look beautiful now and really pleased. It was damn hard work and I am feeling yackered! I will take my rest and smugness whe I can lay in bed on a cold frosty snowy morning with a mug of coffee and look out knowig that they are protected from the worst of the elements and seeing something for todays hard but tiring work

Edited to say that the shed also got cleaned and tidied out as well - what a job that was!

bramble1

Morrisons have heinz on offer 2x4 packs for £3

Rainy-Days

I am trying to get everything done outside right now, because when the weather does change then anything that needs doing inside will dealt with no problem - call it making hay while the sun shines if you like. So glad got those jobs done today; the next major outside thing to do is the gutters and fascias boards then that is pretty much it, everything else on the list is indoorsy stuff.

The list is coming down - slowly! I looked into the sky this evening and it looked almost Autumnal - I am hoping this is not a portent of an early Autumn and Winter beings as we had a good April and May!

Rainy-Days

I forgot to add has anybody else noted how the nights are now drawing in. It was dark here at 9.15pm!