weezl and friends Phase 4 - recipe testing christmas treats!

Sami_Bee

katkins78 wrote: »

Do you use plain or SR flour for the puds? I don't know if it true or not but Delia says that SR flour prevents the puds from rising as they should. All my puds used to resemble hockey pucks, whether I used SR OR plain flour, now we use Nigellas 'back to front' method and so far we haven't had a failure. I say 'we', I suppose I should really say 'he' - for some reason pizza making, barbeques and roasts are his domain.

I hope I am not treading on anyones toes by posting this, especially as I know that on the CFR planners you only use SR flour?

I have been using SR, Weezl said she found no difference so i trusted her I can't remember what I used to use - before I got involved here it had been about 4years since I last made yorkies :eek:

I'm not sure if I told you but I did a spatchcocked (I wonder if that will be censored??) chicken the other day, I'm now converted! I can't see me roasting a chicken in the traditional manner again, so much quicker!

Weezl - I am here because I see you as a friend and wanted to support your fabulous venture,
we had a change in circumstance that reduced the food budget dramatically
and because I enjoy cooking / experimenting / eating :cool:

VenusFlytrap_2

Hey folks

Sorry have been a bit MIA of late, life has been getting in the way! Have been off work all this week, not having much fun tho - blitzing the house mostly, ready for my letting agency inspection tomorrow. The place looks great but it's been hard work!

The CFR carrot cake went down very well with the girls in the office last week, it disappeared lightning fast! My dad liked it too and I recommended the recipe and linked to CFR on a "baking help needed" fred on Old Style the other day. It really is lovely cake, one of my workmates even remarked, "You could sell this" - she liked it so much she took a slab home to have with her tea! Gave her the recipe and the link to CFR so you'll hopefully have another convert there.

The other CFR recipe that's become a surprise favourite is the black pepper and garlic spaghetti (it's fancy title escapes me right now ), have had it a few times in the past couple of weeks as a quick and easy lunch or tea, with pizza toast or some cooked chicken and a sprinkle of chilli. Really delicious and makes a nice change from tomato or creamy sauce with pasta.

My other adventures in the kitchen recently have been 'Takeaway Secret'-related - not sure if any of you have seen the thread here on MSE, about the recipe book The Takeaway Secret, which was witten by a guy with social phobia who was unable to go out but wanted to recreate takeaway food at home. It got rave reviews on the thread on here and as it was only £3-odd on Amazon I took the plunge - so glad I did! Got the book yesterday and bought all the ingreds I'll need at Asda last night and today have tried the HM doner kebab, Starbucks-style hot choc and 'Subway' cookies - all gorgeous and all frugalised too with SP/value ingreds where possible!:money:Highly recommend it and will be trying out more recipes over the weekend, can't wait!

Weezl to answer your question, I love CFR for the recipes, all the helpful advice on offer here and for teaching me about frugalising a recipe - it comes as second nature now and has given me more of an idea about what substitutions can be made in a recipe, so has made me more confident about cooking generally. That was another draw of CFR - wanting to learn to cook more and the focus on keeping costs as low as possible is a great bonus. The founding ethos of CFR - wanting to help those in debt to eat as well as possible on a tight budget - is very admirable and as others have said, CFR has a lovely community spirit too, so all of these things are what keeps me coming back and am very much looking forward to the next round of testing.

Apricot

The reason I am here? Being a bit bored one day I was flicking through the new posts and caught sight of the first thread. I had a little read through and realised that CFR could prove to be an amazing resource for people who were struggling.

I had never really cooked a lot and usually stuck to the same old things, spaghetti bolognaise, shepherds pie, sausage and mash and I wanted to cook different things but didn't really want to spend a fortune on recipe books and kitchen equipment. The first thing I ever made was the onion tarte tatin and I really enjoyed it. I sort of lost track of the thread but would every now and then pop my head in, see a new recipe and give it a try. Over the last few months I think I have tried almost all of the recipes on the website - OH is very pleased, my "can't be bothered" meal used to be chicken kiev and chips (frozen) now I find I don't mind whipping up a proper meal each night.

Having recently discovered Im having a baby I am more determined than ever now to get my debts paid off in the next few months and I think following this plan a lot more closely will help me immensely. What I love is that even though we are eating more frugally, I don't feel deprived of anything - in fact we probably eat better meals following the plan than we did when I was spending a LOT more money in the supermarket!

SusanC_2

Apricot wrote: »

Having recently discovered Im having a baby

Congratulations!

shanks77

Hi folks glad to see some posting going on.
Like Arty i posted my reasons for being here ages ago but really everyone has kinda said it already. The tasty meals, different recipes, the fact that food tastes so great but doesnt cost a fortune and the new friends that i have made along with a great sense of community although we live in some cases on the other side of the world.
Got heaps of snow now so i have walked the dog and now having a nice day indoors catching up on housework and will try and do some baking later on.

domesticgoddess789

weezl74 wrote: »

Hi all, lovely to see howlin, poohbear and susan posting again :A

Queen of String and I were chatting yesterday, and realised it would be very interesting (and also helpful with planning the future direction of CFR) if people were able to say what it is about the project that they get something out of. (Good heavens what clunky grammar!)

All thoughts welcomed. The more different reasons you feel able to give (however small they seem) would also really help .

I got involved in CFR because it was something I felt strongly about and I wanted to help spread the word about cooking cheaply and reducing debt.

I had previously read (and loved) the 50p threads and thought the new project sounded interesting and fun.

Living on a teeny tiny student budget at present prompted me to want to learn how to reduce my shopping bills and gather some frugal yet delicious recipes.

I wanted to change my grocery shopping habits and pick up the skills to meal plan which has equipped me for life. We will continue to use CFR even when I am earning a proper wage again because I love how much money it saves which can then be used for other things .

I also thought that I might be able to make some like minded friends along the way .

aless02

Hmmm, my reasons are going to sound a bit repetitive, but here you go:

- as lame as it sounds, I knew of weezl's lovely reputation and fame, so I did leap a bit to join in the beginning of a brand new project
- cooking and tweaking recipes is something I love
- as is meal-planning and shopping frugally
- we were definitely stuck in a bit of a shopping/planning rut, so CFR was a great chance to really frugalise but still eat healthily
- weezl's passion for helping the masses was really infectious

Sparklyfairy

Sorry to interrupt again - but I just wanted to say that the nut cheesecake was a hit in our home! A definite keeper - thank you!

domesticgoddess789

Sparklyfairy wrote: »

Sorry to interrupt again - but I just wanted to say that the nut cheesecake was a hit in our home! A definite keeper - thank you!

Sparklyfairy, please continue to interupt and join in. The more the merrier

It's great to hear you enjoyed the cheesecake :j. We love it in our house too. The lemon and ginger one is equally delicious and probably easier to make than the chocolate nut one too.

Lesley_Gaye

Sparklyfairy wrote: »

Sorry to interrupt again - but I just wanted to say that the nut cheesecake was a hit in our home! A definite keeper - thank you!

keep on joining in Sparkly, I like to hear what you've been up to

I haven't tried either of the cheesecakes yet, I'm a bit scared too because I suspect they will be so nice I will eat too much of them!