Preparing for winter II

tugrin

Hi Fairyprincess
This aubergine/eggplant parmesan you say your OH loves sounds deliciously intriguing -- any chance of the recipe, 'specially if it freezes because it ould be nice to have something new in the freeer for special days when I am too exhausted to cook but also get depressed by the stock of usual stuff in there. If anyone has any veggie recipes that are special (DD will not eat meat in any from EVER) that wouls be fab too. I get quite energized by trying new recipes and could sure do with that today!!

FairyPrincessk

Absolutely. The eggplant/aubergine parmesan is easy, although time consuming and not necessarily healthy so I don't do it often.

Today I tried a new variation which I will explain. I'm happy with the results, but I'll put both variations.

ingredients (I'm an amount guesser-sorry!):

1-2 aubergines, sliced
Large quantity of pasta sauce-sometimes I use jars and for this amount of aubergines I'd probably use around 1200-1800 grams or an equivalent of homemade. If I'm making it from scratch I'll add in any veg I need to use up very finely chopped (courgettes broccoli carrots etc).
Lots of fresh basil, one supermarket plant or so.
Dried herbs if you're using bought sauce-esp. oregano
Grated Parmesan or similar hard italian cheese (I use whatever I get cheap, probably one large container of the pre-grated stuff, one smallish wedge of the non-grated
1-2 balls of mozerella (2 if your not on a diet or budget, 1 otherwise)
black pepper
2-3 eggs

Varies by method:

For Frying:
Olive oil
Flour

For baking:
panko (or other breadcrumbs)

Instructions:

Dip slices of aubergine into egg and dredge in flour/breadcrumbs. Either fry in olive oil until brown, or place in oven at 180 for 5-10 min. (recipe said 5, I did 10). Layer aubergines, cheese, fresh basil and sauce in baking dish. Top with leftover cheese/basil. Either freeze at this point or bake at 180 for 35 min. or until hot and bubbly.
Serve with pasta.

Go for a run:rotfl:

I tried the baked today and I think its lovely and fine and a good way to cut down on some of the time/calories. I used to do all of that mess with the salting the aubergines and rinsing the bitter juices off but don't bother now. Sometimes I cook pasta and layer it in, but I don't tend to do this when freezing as it means I can get an adequate portion in the contianers I have and do the pasta later.

I feel a little embarrassed by how unhealthy it is, but it is super delish and a small serving with salad isn't so bad:o

If I were making it for children I would probably quarter the aubergine slices as it can get a little difficult to cut even for my grown up oh:rotfl:

Hope someone enjoys it!

kmiller4

Lovely weather here today 28, sunny and breezy, but tonight they predict rain and the temps will fall to around 17 tomorrow daytime and 5 overnight tomorrow. I left a note for OH to order fire wood today from the wood man. I try not to turn heat on until October if at all possible! I will snuggle with a throw on the sofa and put on a sweat (jogging) suit while I drink diet hot chocolate:p

Everyone's recipes sound so good. Fairy PrincessK I make my eggplant parm exactly the same way you do. It's not so bad nutritionally if you bake the eggplant instead of frying it. It has all the basic food groups-- right? Sometimes I do the eggplant up before hand (including the breading and baking or frying) and let it cool and then pop into the freezer between sheets of waxed paper and then seal it in a zipper lock type bag. Assembling the casserole is easy then-- just thaw the eggplant and layer with your sauces and cheese and pop into the oven. Yum!

Can anyone tell me how to make an easy basic chicken curry sauce to serve over rice? I shall be using curry powder (not making my own). My husband does not like a lot of fancy ingredients, but chicken, carrots, potatoes, onions, broth, etc are fine. I love mild curries. My husband has had limited experience with curry but liked what he has tried. He is not very adventerous with food, so I have to bring him along slowly:D

Thanks in advance!

Kathy

angelaloveschocolate

I've read every single post on this thread, its my evening pleasure. And although I've posted a couple of times, mostly I'm just a secret lurker, taking inspiration from you all.;)

Well, i thought that i'd share with you what I've managed to achieve so that you can be proud that you have contributed to my success.

Have started basic prep, as in, foil behind radiators, door curtain up, started a toilet roll bargain hunt, fleeces & dishwasher salt bought and car kit sorted. Outdoors, gutters cleaned, shed and fence painted and generally ready for whatever is thrown at us.

But, wait for it, my two biggest achievements are......:j

loft insulation completed last week including water tanks and pipes all lagged, And done for FREE, thanks to Northern Ireland Electricty and the good people on the Northern ireland board who reccommended it.:T

And I just had to share this with you. We were just about to rip out an old out of use solid fuel fireplace when we had a lightbulb moment, could it be reopened? Well the short answer is, after getting the chimney swept and the fire serviced we've been informed that the system is in excellent condition, and now for the price of just over £100 we have an alternative central heating system. Yay. Have tried it out with great success and both DH and I are delighted. Will really help us save money as the cost of home heating oil here has rocketed.:D

Thanks to everyone on here, I'm loving taking advantage of your expertise, and wanted to let you all know that you're making a real difference.
Cheers. Angela:beer:

CH27

angelaloveschocolate wrote: »

I've read every single post on this thread, its my evening pleasure. And although I've posted a couple of times, mostly I'm just a secret lurker, taking inspiration from you all.;)

Well, i thought that i'd share with you what I've managed to achieve so that you can be proud that you have contributed to my success.

Have started basic prep, as in, foil behind radiators, door curtain up, started a toilet roll bargain hunt, fleeces & dishwasher salt bought and car kit sorted. Outdoors, gutters cleaned, shed and fence painted and generally ready for whatever is thrown at us.

But, wait for it, my two biggest achievements are......:j

loft insulation completed last week including water tanks and pipes all lagged, And done for FREE, thanks to Northern Ireland Electricty and the good people on the Northern ireland board who reccommended it.:T

And I just had to share this with you. We were just about to rip out an old out of use solid fuel fireplace when we had a lightbulb moment, could it be reopened? Well the short answer is, after getting the chimney swept and the fire serviced we've been informed that the system is in excellent condition, and now for the price of just over £100 we have an alternative central heating system. Yay. Have tried it out with great success and both DH and I are delighted. Will really help us save money as the cost of home heating oil here has rocketed.:D

Thanks to everyone on here, I'm loving taking advantage of your expertise, and wanted to let you all know that you're making a real difference.
Cheers. Angela:beer:

That's fantastic:T

tugrin

Thanks a zillion FairyP for that sounds deee-licious! Also Karen for the aubergine tip too - I love them and would rather do a wole bunch in one go than have all the faff in the evenings - Im like you Fairy I dont do all that saltingetc anymore - what was it that Shirley Conran said in Superwoman ....'Life's too short to stuff a mushroom...' I agree.
Weather here has been windy again but not as bad as yesterday and there have been several showers but temperatutre was up to 25.
In the survival ("doomed, doomed, we're all doomed....") part of my head - I was wondering if and its a big if - it might be worth getting a modern paraffin heater? Is this ridiculous - would calor gas be better? Is there a radical difference in the cost of running that anyone knows about ? IF iIm being daft could someone pleaase just give me a quick slap to get me out doomed mode!

LadyDee

tugrin wrote: »

Thanks a zillion FairyP for that sounds deee-licious! Also Karen for the aubergine tip too - I love them and would rather do a wole bunch in one go than have all the faff in the evenings - Im like you Fairy I dont do all that saltingetc anymore - what was it that Shirley Conran said in Superwoman ....'Life's too short to stuff a mushroom...' I agree.
Weather here has been windy again but not as bad as yesterday and there have been several showers but temperatutre was up to 25.
In the survival ("doomed, doomed, we're all doomed....") part of my head - I was wondering if and its a big if - it might be worth getting a modern paraffin heater? Is this ridiculous - would calor gas be better? Is there a radical difference in the cost of running that anyone knows about ? IF iIm being daft could someone pleaase just give me a quick slap to get me out doomed mode!

I use a calor gas fire as a standby and the cost of gas is really high. The 13kg bottles are over £26. With one bar a bottle would last approx 100 hours but one bar would only be sufficient for a very small room. I think with two-thirds on, it lasts for about 60 hours and even with two-thirds on you'd still need extra layers of clothing. You'd need two gas bottles - one in use and one on stand-by. The fire itself is about £100.

As regards paraffin - my memories of heating with paraffin are hazy as it is many years since I used it, but I do remember the horrible cloying smell, so if you have to choose I would go with the gas. Can't help with the cost of paraffin but I suspect there'd be little to choose between them nowadays.

You can have the bottles delivered, but in a cold snap you might have to wait for a few days due to demand (hence the two bottles). Paraffin you'd probably have to collect yourself from a supplier, then have the business of filling the fire, cleaning the wick etc.

Hope this helps a little.

Ziggy8083

Good evening everyone:wave:

I have finally finished skimming through all the pages on this thread with great interest. I too have been prepping and really enjoyed reading about how others are getting on. I agree it can be daunting but a little bit each day/week will help make things easier in the long run.

After last winter, and the fact I LOVE TO COOK, I decided that we should get another freezer. We have a FF but if I want to batch cook I really struggle for space. So this Friday OH should take delivery of a chest freezer for our garage. Feeling chuffed as got it at discount and through Quidco. Happy days.

Was given a load of cooking apples today so have made a large batch of stewed apples. The rest i am going to blanch then freeze in slices for pies etc.

We are lucky to be in a fairly new house so it's wind an water tight with good insulation, DG, GCH ect. However this doesn't stop me from prepping. I loathe to contribute to evil gas/elec companies. So I am trying to keep heating off untill end of month if not into Oct...:eek:

Picked up a double pack of fleece pj bottoms in Costc* for £14 the other night and a Reg*tta fleece jacket for £9. Prob not as cheap as I would have liked but went for it anyway. They had balaclavas, yaktrax, hand warmers and loads of ski gloves in too.

Currently in process of washing all fleece blankets, coats etc.

LOVING this thread. I feel really good when I come on here. I am just sad there is not more help for people that really need. It just does not seem right.

Keep up the good fight people:A

sunnyone

angelaloveschocolate wrote: »

I've read every single post on this thread, its my evening pleasure. And although I've posted a couple of times, mostly I'm just a secret lurker, taking inspiration from you all.;)

Well, i thought that i'd share with you what I've managed to achieve so that you can be proud that you have contributed to my success.

Have started basic prep, as in, foil behind radiators, door curtain up, started a toilet roll bargain hunt, fleeces & dishwasher salt bought and car kit sorted. Outdoors, gutters cleaned, shed and fence painted and generally ready for whatever is thrown at us.

But, wait for it, my two biggest achievements are......:j

loft insulation completed last week including water tanks and pipes all lagged, And done for FREE, thanks to Northern Ireland Electricty and the good people on the Northern ireland board who reccommended it.:T

And I just had to share this with you. We were just about to rip out an old out of use solid fuel fireplace when we had a lightbulb moment, could it be reopened? Well the short answer is, after getting the chimney swept and the fire serviced we've been informed that the system is in excellent condition, and now for the price of just over £100 we have an alternative central heating system. Yay. Have tried it out with great success and both DH and I are delighted. Will really help us save money as the cost of home heating oil here has rocketed.:D

Thanks to everyone on here, I'm loving taking advantage of your expertise, and wanted to let you all know that you're making a real difference.
Cheers. Angela:beer:

Is your old solid fuel fire still on an old central heating system or is it just a heat source?

You cant beat a real fire, they are hard on labour and fuel but worth it and like every other heat source they are better than others for some situations.

angelaloveschocolate

sunnyone wrote: »

Is your old solid fuel fire still on an old central heating system or is it just a heat source?

You cant beat a real fire, they are hard on labour and fuel but worth it and like every other heat source they are better than others for some situations.

We're just so thrilled because it has a working back boiler. We put on a small fire and the radiators started to heat up. We can use it on its own as a central heating system in its own right.

This house was my family home since I was 4 years old and after my mother died 8 years ago we had let it out. My DH and I moved back 2 years ago and have started a major refit. The parkray had scrap written all over it, LOL. How happy are we that we were so slow at getting rid of it, what a mistake that would've been.

When Mum was alive the house was tropical using this heating:rotfl:
The alternative oil heating is now just so expensive to run so this is bound to save us some cash. Very MSE.

Ohhhhh, I'm so delighted.:)