Its tough, it will get better and guess what its freezing brrrrr!

Hippeechiq

Thank you for all your fab suggestions Frugal, mambury and charlies-aunt :T

Any ideas where I can get an old metal skewer from at all? I lost mine when I moved house 4 years ago, and they're the best thing - IMO - for testing whether or not cakes a properly baked, but I can't find one anywhere


kittie Thank you for the lovely recipe

stiltwalker wrote: »

For low meat but tasty meals how about trying a great big beef stew, Get the cheapest cut you can and stew in yourr biggest trat in the oven for ages with as many root veg and onions as you can pack in, cover with stock and a tin of toms, a good glug of wine if the budget allows and some herbs and seasoning. This will take 2 or 3 hours at least but when done you should be able to feed everyone (including any strays that turn up!) with lots of left overs. With the left overs you can make pie and or pasties, add more stock and stretch to make soupy stew for those who are soup fans, add exta tinned toms and cook down a bit more for a pasta sauce, etc etc.

Love the sound of this, thank-you - especially making pasties with the left-overs (something else I haven't ever made) I don't mind using 2-3 hours of electric if I can get more than one meal out of it

Mrs_Veg_Plot wrote: »

Hi Hippeechiq
Can I suggest that you try weezels no need to knead bread. I made it for the first time last weekend and I can not believe how easy and cheap it was to make. I have made bread the traditonal way (lots of kneading) but it was always quite heavy/dense. This bread was nice and light. The only adjustment I will make next time will be to make it into 3 not 4 loaves. I do not know how to find weezels thread but if you need me to I will post the recipe on here for you.

Hi Mrs Veg Plot - funnily enough, it's Weezls recipe for bread that I bought the bread flour for, but I only want to make one loaf at a time, which means quartering all the amounts in the recipe, except for the yeast, that Weezl has told me needs to be at least 10g - I think it was - for a single loaf, and that's what's put me off really. I kind of feel like it's already doomed because I've got to mess about with the quantites.......I'm such a ruddy woos, I really am

ceridwen

Hippeechiq wrote: »

Hi Mrs Veg Plot - funnily enough, it's Weezls recipe for bread that I bought the bread flour for, but I only want to make one loaf at a time, which means quartering all the amounts in the recipe, except for the yeast, that Weezl has told me needs to be at least 10g - I think it was - for a single loaf, and that's what's put me off really. I kind of feel like it's already doomed because I've got to mess about with the quantites.......I'm such a ruddy woos, I really am

Well..cooking up again as we speak is my standard bread recipe - which I've given the recipe for before on MSE - but here it is again:

700 gr wholemeal bread flour
600 gr warm water
2 teaspoons oil (I use olive oil)
1 teaspoon sugar or honey or molasses (I use honey)
1 teaspoon salt
1.5 teaspoons quick type dried yeast

- Put flour and yeast in a bowl and mix.
- Add the water with honey/oil/salt/oil mixed into it (I use 300 ml water straight out of a boiled kettle and 300 ml water from the cold tap for the temperature I want and mix the honey into the 300ml boiled water before adding the rest of the water and other ingredients).
- Just knead enough to combine all ingredients
- Put in large bread tin (2lb) covered with damp teatowel to rise for about 40 mins
- Bake at 200C for 40 mins

Mine is an electric fan oven - so maybe others might need a bit warmer oven. Mine is a pretty warm house - so maybe others might need more rising time.

Anyway - thats the recipe as I do it. Never fails...:D

Souk08

Ceridwen, fab to 'see' you.

Sammy Kaye and Lovelife big hugs. How old is our Sammy Kaye?

Cold up north tonight!

ceridwen

Souk08 wrote: »

Ceridwen, fab to 'see' you.

Sammy Kaye and Lovelife big hugs. How old is our Sammy Kaye?

I dont know - as to Sammys age - my guess is round about 22/23????? - but I may be well wrong on that...

kezlou

Lovely to to see you back Ceridwen! And thanks for the bread recipe!
Lovelife ((hugs)) chick, sending you lots of wellbeing thoughts xx
mardatha :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:brilliant!

Sammy me and my OH are like you and Owen, both trying to work things and then massive arguments happen etc.
i can't offer any more advice other what everyone has already said.
After 11 years me and OH are finally coming together, i hope. I can only give a view, i don't know you or Owen, nor would i ever claim to.
Its seems to me that both of you are going through the wars, what with suspension from work, debt repayments, car breaking down, the council being a nightmare etc Its seems like Owen is crying out for your attention, especially now with a a new baby, lovely as Holly is, maybe he feels pushed out. after all for the past 6 years its only been the three of you. I would not make any rash decisions, instead i would sit down, if you can, and talk about how your both feeling.

You never know it might work, you seem like the kind of person who can make anything happen. ((hugs))


Well not been a very MSE day at all, instead me and OH went off out for the day. Its his last holiday so we had a lovely lunch in the garden centre, walked around a village and then came home to spend a couple of hours with the boys.
I also got another pair of jeans and a long sleeved top perfect for the winter. So thats me done and dusted.
I decided to spend money on the credit card today, not good, but if i have enough money i'll off exactly what i spent. So it should even out.
It was a massive stock up on flour, yeast etc as have none at all.
Always having massive gut cramps, diarrhoea and eggy burps. Its horrible.

Oh god the cramps are happening again

I think Sammy is 25, i'm 27 and i think she's only a couple of years younger than me. But i'm not sure.

greent

Hippeechiq wrote: »

:T

Any ideas where I can get an old metal skewer from at all? I lost mine when I moved house 4 years ago, and they're the best thing - IMO - for testing whether or not cakes a properly baked, but I can't find one anywhere

I use metal BBQ skewers for cake testing - bought for 50p for 4 at the end of the summer a couple of years ago.

(And I'm not saying anything when it comes to hanging washing out - I used to colour co-ordinate my pegs to the items of clothing..... I had to work hard to stop (that and now having 4 kids so there's always a moubntain of washing!!) (I also used to have to hang ironing on certain hangers - eg: if the item was from Tesco and sized 2-3 years, it had to be n a hanger labelled Tesco - 2-3 years... etc... etc... Sorting out teh hangers used to take as long as the ironing...:o)

Churchmouse

Hippeechiq wrote: »

Any ideas where I can get an old metal skewer from at all? I lost mine when I moved house 4 years ago, and they're the best thing - IMO - for testing whether or not cakes a properly baked, but I can't find one anywhere

Don't know where you've already looked, but I got my last lot from a department store kitchen section. The sort where they have blister packed stuff on the racks. I think they were Tala, and they're nice fine ones, perfect for cake testing Do you have a John Lewis or Debenhams nearby?

ceridwen

ceridwen wrote: »

I dont know - as to Sammys age - my guess is round about 22/23????? - but I may be well wrong on that...

EDIT: Just checked - profile page says 26.

dreaming

Hippeechiq wrote: »

Sorry to be dense, but why do you line the containers/boxes/buckets with a bag/liner with holes in?

Not being dense at all. I found when I first did it (using the plastic crates) the holes on the side were a bit too big (they were the ones with the mesh sort of sides) and the compost got washed away a bit, and the water drained away a bit too quickly. And the same if the bottom of the container is split too badly. In that case you need the plastic bag to contain the water, but the holes for drainage so that the plants don't get too waterlogged. If the crates/boxes have more solid sides then just make drainage holes in the bottom.
Although I started gardening with my old dad some 50 years ago, I am still learning - especially with growing stuff in containers which for me, living on my own, is much better as I can control how much I grow, and stagger the planting so I don't have too much of one thing all at once. And working full time, I also find it easier to manage containers/small raised beds as I don't have to dig huge bits of garden etc., and can move the containers round the garden if they aren't doing too well in one spot. I got my rain water barrel sorted in the summer, and find it quite therapeutic going out there with my watering can and giving them all a drink and a word or two of encouragement. Going to try fruit trees next year.

Pitlanepiglet

Big hugs Sammy, others have been way more eloquent than I can manage xxx