How to Get Through The Tough Times The Old Style Way.

jumblejack

Hi all. Looking forward to a sunny, industrious day again!

Yesterday I used up a pack of lidls pork loin chops in the most tastiest of ways:
Orange braised pork!

It went something like this:

Coat the meat in seasoned flour and seal off in hot oil in a pan.
Add thinly sliced onions and fry for a minute.
Add garlic, a GOOD slug of balsamic vinegar and a cup of orange juice (I used fresh as I have whoopsied oranges to use up!)
Finally add a couple of dessertspoons of sugar (brown if you have it, but I used white!)

Bring to a simmer and cover til tender.

It is outstanding!! Tasted soooooooo nice. Both kids wanted more!

We had ours over noodles but you could also have it over rice.

This is now gonna be a regular treat!!!!!


My experiment also worked.
I tried to start off a batch of thermos yoghurt using the contents of one multi-pro bacteria capsule that are not being used in my cupboard. It worked too!! Each capsule works out at under 18p so it is a very cheap way to start off a culture when the batch gets contaminated or goes wrong!!!!

I planted my peach and second apple tree from lidls yesterday too and tried to fix my water butt which has cracked with sealant. I hope it works! They are soooooo expensive!

silvermaid

Oh GQ how awful for you. I just hope ceridwen is right and he's on his way out.

I've got a couple of over-ripe banans so I'm going to look out a cake recipe to use them up. I know I had a good one when DD1 & DS were tiddlers. Here's hoping I can find it, then DGSs can indulge after school:)

mrswive

I'm off to a flying start today - changed the beds, put the w/m on and done the ironing, all before 7:30!

I also love the butternut squash seeds; I slowly toast them in a dry frying pan and add salt.

We're having an expensive month - DS birthday last week, he and a friend came down for the weekend: DGS2 birthday this coming weekend, DD, SIL, DGD, DGS1, DGS2 and DS all coming to stay: just bought flights to Germany for neice's wedding in April, so it looks like we'll have to be cutting down on everything else. No more beans on toast, just bean on crumb!

The plight of people in Japan is heartbreaking isn't it? It certainly makes you count your blessings.

GreyQueen

By 9.05 am I'd been in and out of the GP and pharmacy and been told I was mis-diagnosed in respect of the horribly itchy rashes on my hands; not ringworm (tinea) at all but stress-induced excema so now have a different type of cream.

Have emailed the H.O. at 8 am to advise about the stamping and hope that they get a court date and an eviction soon as he's a spiteful and immature little man and it is likely to get worse before it gets better. Just hoping he doesn't get creative in respect of letting the bath overflow or something similar........

:mad: Rant over. Am at work and shift starts in 2 mins. Phones are going nutso with a wait for up to 18 mins on one of the skillsets I answer. To all of us who earn our crusts in callcentres...((Hugs))

SD-253

bulkaholic.com Buying in bulk supposed to be good. Non perishable goods. IE Kenco filter coffee £13.99 for kg £11 less than supermarkets. £6.60 upto 30 kgs delivery, free if you purchase more than £349.00
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 30% off supermarket prices.
westinggourmet.co.uk for meat.
I assume a lot will have heard of this one mysupermarket.co.uk which will give you the best supermarket or supermarkets to got to based on your shopping list. The latter of course assume you have a choice.

jediteacher

GreyQueen wrote: »

By 9.05 am I'd been in and out of the GP and pharmacy and been told I was mis-diagnosed in respect of the horribly itchy rashes on my hands; not ringworm (tinea) at all but stress-induced excema so now have a different type of cream.

Have emailed the H.O. at 8 am to advise and hope that they get a court date and an eviction soon as he's a spiteful and immature little man and it is likely to get worse before it gets better. Just hoping he doesn't get creative in respect of letting the bath overflow or something similar........

:mad: Rang over. Am at work and shift starts in 2 mins. Phones are going nutso with a wait for up to 18 mins on one of the skillsets I answer. To all of us who earn our crusts in callcentres...((Hugs))

I do really feel for you as we are in the same sort of situation. Although we do not live in a flat but a house we have some neighbours that we have been waiting to evict for over a year now. They are awful - they have spat at my daughter, tried to break into my house, been into my garden and ruined parts of it, smashed car windows, played loud music until the next morning, tip their rubbish into anyones garden, park their three cars all over the place including peope's drive ways - I could go on and on. We live in a really nice place but with the arrival of these so called 'people' the street it deserted. No other children come out to play, people have put up security cameras around their houses, fences have been erected and gates to keep the louts out of the gardens. The police keep arresting the eldest son who is 13 but nothing is done about the 8 and 5 year old. Now to add salt into the wound the mother is expecting another baby!!!! They do not work so are on the streets all day every day and I hate coming home and being at home. Not good when I'm pregnant myself and I will not let my daughter play in the garden when the louts are out as they swear and yell at her. Disgusting that people like this are allowed to make other people's lives a misery.

Anyway on a more OS note I had a complete no spend weekend which is the first one for a very long time. :j

Am now working my way through the freezer as I have quite a lot of meat in there to use so will only need to get veg.

SD-253

flowertotmum wrote: »

£499.38..shocking really..but £50 dearer than my mums..so i'll be ringing water board later to find out why and i want a proper explanantion this time not fobbing off...
Got my washing on the line

Mine is £5 a month (no sewage bill) and only me in the house although when my daughters stay they deliberate leave water running to annoy me (very successfully).

Assuming you haven't got one, have you thought about a meter? If I have it right you can change back in the first six months if you don't think you will gain. The meter stays in place.
The more water you use the higher your sewage bill is as it is assumed you are creating more sewage.

SD-253

silvermaid wrote: »

Wow brandeberryj I've never heard of this cider trick.
We make sloe gin every year and just compost the sloes after decanting. What a mistake. Shan't be doing that this autumn
Thanks for the tip, Silver

You could try seconds as I am about to try. ie take the sloes from demijohns and put them into one then add cider again. Doubling the used sloes and the decrease in cider may produce a second lot of Sloe cider I am not sure how good it will be though. I cannot give you any idea how well it would have come out as mine exploded. I put in the cider into the first demijohn (of used sloes) put cider upto the top of the sloes. About a week later I added the second lot of used Sloes (I wanted to see if both lots of Sloe cider would be the same) when I took out the cork there was a loud bang so obviously the cider was still fermenting. Topped up with new sloes and cider put in my bedroom for a day....opps forgot to put in garage.....load bang during night woke up to a hissing sound. Bung blew out and even though i had a towel on top (luckily) it still made a bit of a mess. without the towel on top would have had a purple ceiling. So had to top up again with cider so not sure I can tell if it would have made good second lot of Sloe cider, pity.
On the good side my cider was highly rated at the Rugby club tried to get the opposition to drink it before the game but they wouldn't fall for that.

SD-253

PS SLOE CIDER
If you do not make your own cider most supermarkets sell a very good and cheap cider called Kingston Press (I think that's the name) 660 ml bottle for a £1 I have even seen it in off licenses for the same price. Definitely at Morrisons. It is dry but that seems go with the sweetness of the Gin soaked Sloes

grandma247

Jediteacher. Find out if your council has an antisocial behaviour officer. They are usually police officers attatched to the council. I wrote to ours and sent copies of my diary. It is very important to keep a diary so that the police and council have evidence to evict them. They need as much as possible.
I also used to ring our local station when I considered their behaviour serious enough and got an incident number each time. Things such as banging on doors and windows,egg throwing etc. Otherwise I rang the local community officer and left a message on his answerphone. He or his pcso always got in touch. It still took four years because the child protection people kept blocking them but eventually the two worst families were evicted and at least one of the kids is still regularly arrested now he is an adult. He has not bothered us for a year now and there was only one incident the year before.
You just need to keep at it. It is very stressful but if all the neighbours complain like this on a regular basis something will be done. No one used to complain here until i started and when I asked them why they said they were afraid of their windows being smashed. I needed new windows so i didn't care. They never went that far though.