As The Workhouse Approaches....How To Do Everything To Avoid It, the Old Style Way

r.a.i.n.b.o.w

CHilly tonight!!! I'm in London, and don't usually feel the cold at all (t-shirts in winter etc), but got caught in the rain earlier and STILL haven't managed to warm up...on the hot water bottles at the mo, the worst affected is my boobies, they feel frozen to the core!!

r.a.i.n.b.o.w

de1amo wrote: »

well i saw the weather forcast and i missed my flight this morning!-i do hate wasting money but i figured it is cheaper to stay in turkey(in the sun) against rushing home and paying restaurant prices to feed myself because my wife wouldnt accompany me!

My wife thinks i am a great husband because i stayed and eventually we will travel as a family.--she has even allowed me to start drinking beer from noon today!

I don't understand. Why can't you cook for yourself from supermarket food in Britain? What's a bit of rain against saving money on a booked flight?

.

EstherH

Mrs Veg Plot, I'm the same. I just throw in my slow cooker whatever I have and then the family will say that was really nice, but I don't really know how to make it the same next time.

I used to make bolognaise and chilli with jars in my Pre old style days though and can't manage to make the dishes to suit the families taste for this. I use masses of tomatoes, puree and passatta but they always seem to taste weak somehow. They do taste nice, just not like bolognaise or chilli.

r.a.i.n.b.o.w

mardatha wrote: »

_pale__pale__pale_ Not looking at all the mad people eating green leaves :eek::eek::eek:
Leaves are ok for wabbits !! not people !!

I used to be like this, but SERIOUSLY - not all green leaves are the same! I PROMISE!!

And there's SO many different ways to have them (raw, steamed, boiled, roasted, etc etc) plus you can add salt, butter, cream, herbs, other veg, potatoes, pasta, rice, spices....

SERIOUSLY - try them all, and experiment with them! :T

Molly41

scottishminnie wrote: »

Just back from Costco (where we dined out for a change - all for less then £6)

I noted some of the prices in case anyone was interested (mostly baking ingredients)

400g Douwe Egberts coffee £6.99 no vat (had a voucher off) - this came to mind as so many people had mentioned the jars for storage

Dried Cherries - £5.39 for 567g
Dried Plums - £4.99 for 1.42kg
Dreied Blueberries - £6.79 for 567g
Sunmade Raisins - £6.29 for 2 x 1kg
Sultanas - £3.99 2kg

Manitoba Flour £10.99 16kg (was VERY tempted)
Plain Flour (Marriage I think was the brand) 5 x 1.5kg - £4.75

Caster Sugar £5.29 for 5kg
Granulated Sugar £4.79 for 5kg however a much better buy was
15 x 1kg bags of granukated sugar for £9.98
Icing Sugar £3.59 for 3kg
Demerara Sugar £4.29 for 3kg

Glace Cherries £3.65 - 1kg
Belgian Choc Chips £4.69 - 750g

5litre malt vinegar £2.35

John West Tuna Chinks in Brine 10x185g tins £6.39

none of the above had vat.

I didn't write anything else down but if anyone has any questions I will try to remember and I'll be back there in 2 weeks as OH needed reading glasses so will have to go back and pick them up.

I have just completed a yearly comparison of C0stc0 prices with 2010 and there is actually very little difference. Some things such as biscuits and bread have actually gone down from last year. Their famous lamb burgers have stayed the same as have their mince. I always buy the SR and plain flour as it is of the very highest quality almost 00 grade in its consistency. Ive never seen a weevil either and it lasts me year. Likewise sugar - caster and icing.

modern_millie_2

Just caught up again (!), some lovely inspirational posts from yesterday. Broomstick's made me think about our home - objectively looking quite dated and a little faded now. However - as I look round I see things with a history - desk rescued from the council - old wooden one we stripped and refinished - kitchen units made by OH and finished by me - not terribly professional - but functional- kitchen chairs second hand, which replaced the ones we rescued from the tip - dining table and chairs given (secondhand) by parents in law 30 years ago, we have recovered the seats twice - nearly everything in our house has a story behind it, it will never be Homes and Gardens but I'm happy with it. I would much rather have what we have than a load of new 'stuff' as it is full of memories. There, now I've wittered I'll go.

Thanks again for keeping me focussed, all you lovely people.

[Deleted User]

re costco: I get their dried plums and chocolate chips and I melt some of the chocolate in a basin and then using 2 cocktail sticks, I coat the plums in chocolate and let dry on non stick paper. For christmas, I wrap some in cellophane and tie with a ribbon

I can`t wait to go shopping there again and this time I have a list to help

The holding company never rang me back re measurements of the shelving units but that was good because I have just realised that dh can make 2 units and I can get them under stairs one at a time. What I will have then is some good shelves 31 cm deep running from left to right, opposite the door. Tidying in there is on hold now but he is quick to do jobs and I`ll have it finished by next weekend

I didn`t sleep well last night as I kept waking myself by snoring, ahhh. I`ll have to do something about that, I can feel that it is my soft palate and I guess that it is due to a bit of catarrh so I`ll start with my neti pot this morning and my mind was too busy as well

Have a good day all of you, I am getting ready to go on the bus later

GreyQueen

modern_millie wrote: »

Just caught up again (!), some lovely inspirational posts from yesterday. Broomstick's made me think about our home - objectively looking quite dated and a little faded now. However - as I look round I see things with a history - desk rescued from the council - old wooden one we stripped and refinished - kitchen units made by OH and finished by me - not terribly professional - but functional- kitchen chairs second hand, which replaced the ones we rescued from the tip - dining table and chairs given (secondhand) by parents in law 30 years ago, we have recovered the seats twice - nearly everything in our house has a story behind it, it will never be Homes and Gardens but I'm happy with it. I would much rather have what we have than a load of new 'stuff' as it is full of memories. There, now I've wittered I'll go.

Thanks again for keeping me focussed, all you lovely people.

Good morning campers, I've been awake most of the night which wasn't good but the rain I was listening to was a pleasure. Still raining lightly now but due to lift, according the the weather forecast. I shall head up to the lottie later in the morning to sort it out and I'm sure the weed seeds which have been lying dormant in the dust for months are swelling and germinating even as I type. Little boogers!

modern millie, your home sounds lovely, warm and inviting. When I look at these "decor" magazines at the doc or the dentist, it seems to me that I'm looking at stage-sets not at real homes, where real people live their lives. I'm sitting on a hand-turned country stick chair, probably from the cusp of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, beside an old pine table of the same era. My Nan bought the table for seven-and-six secondhand when she was a young wife during WW2. It went to Mum's and is now with me. They're standing on my handmade hooked rugs and everything I own has a "history" and none of the back-stories are about buying it new from the high street........:rotfl:Homes are meant to be homely, IMO.

I'm feeling more optimistic about the lottie now the drought has broken, if not necessarily ended. Will have to get some beetroot and carrots in asap to take advantage. Or develop a taste for fat hen, creeping thistle and curled docks.......:rotfl:

Chard recipes & tips, wow, thank you, suzid, greent, RAS, Reverbe and Froogs. You've done me proud. I have snatched all your recipes into Word and saved to my recipe folder so now I have some options as what to do with it. I'm thinking that with the prices of fresh greens going ever higher, I shall have to look at having stuff which can overwinter on the lottie. The brassica family are problematic as the site is frequented by large flocks of the biggest and fattest wood pigeons you ever saw; and don't think for a moment that I haven't eyed them up thinking "Pigeon pie!". Not to mention the cabbage whites so to grow the brassicas you need a pigeon-proof structure like a fruit cage covered with mesh small enough to keep out the butterlies.

It's a war of attrition which I've currently retired from, bruised and not a little out of pocket but I have long-term plans which may enable me to grow things as and when I can get the salvaged materials to build structures.

Having sufficient money to purchase what you want, whenever you want it, would be a novel experience for me but it would certainly damp the sense of achivement I feel when I cannily fix something up, or get something for nothing, or make something lovely in the crafty line from some very humble materials. This ingenuity is how our species evolved and I think we should feel pride when we solve our problems from the resources at hand, rather than buy in somebody else's solutions.

Re breadmaking by hand versus using a b.m. I've never owned the latter although friends do have them. I have to say that, whilst a b.m loaf is nicer than most shop-bought, I can always tell it's b.m. and hand-kneaded and oven-baked taste better to me.

I hav 6 x 2lb loaf tins which fill my gas oven (3 per shelf) and only breadmake when I intend to do all 6 to be energy efficient.

What I do is chuck most of a bag of bread flour into a bowl, add a sachet of dried yeast, a bit of salt and any dry ingredients I intend to incorporate (mixed herbs or seeds/ nuts/ fruit) and give a quick stir. Then I get my Pyrex jug and fill with hot water that I can just about get my hand in but not comfortably. I make a well in the flour, add a glug of vegetable oil, wind it in with one hand, then slowly add water, winding as I go, until it clumps. Pull it together and out onto a floured kitchen counter, knead for 5 mins then divvy into 3 tins, repeat with a second batch for the other 3.

I cover the tins with a clean dry tea towel and park them on top of my (unused) high level grill. Leave for several hours for the flavour to develop as well as the bread to rise.

I then pre-heat my oven to Gas 7, set timer for 25 mins, turn oven off after 25 and leave bread in for another 5 to bake on residual heat, then out with the tins and let them cool for about 10 mins so bread shrinks away from the sides. Whip a blunt knife down the sides and upend the tins over a cooling rack (they sometimes need a smack on the bottom to encourage the loaf out) then let the rest upside down on the rack until thoroughly cool.

I know that excludes a second-stage proving and my kneading time is quite brief, but I have ME and have to cut whatever corners I can. The bread is very good, honestly.:o It's important to allow the bread to contract from the tin before you try to turn it out, or it'll come apart, but not to leave it for too long or it'll stick. The loaves are full of steamy heat and if you don't let them release that on a cooling rack, you get a soggy bottom (well, not you personally!)

Oh, and I wipe the bread tins with cooking oil beforehand. Wash them afterwards, dry and give them a quick blast in the oven to make sure they're thoroughly dry before they get put away. They all came from bootfairs, some unused, and the oldest are getting a lovely silky patina after all their use.

Anyway, that's the way it's done chez GQ, reckon the prep for 6 loaves is about 20 mins and the clean up about 10 mins. I often leave them to prove overnight and it really develops the flavour.

Someone once explained that breadmaking is an art and cake-making is a science; I'm a bit rubbish with cakes as I like to make things up as I go along but breadmaking is very intuitive and easy to improvise. Sometimes, whimsy strikes, and I bake plaited loaves on a baking sheet or funny shaped little rolls ditto.

Well, enough wittering, I need more tea! Hope you all have a great day.

froogs

Good morning to you all on the thread.

I have been reading a fair bit around MSE since yesterday and think I am best suited here if you don't mind.

I am a frugal person and always have been but I feel that right now I have to do something extra, something radical even (Is living the old way radical I wonder) in order to hang on to that tiny bit of spare cash I have in life, to enjoy life.

I am a bit ditsy, a bit out there with my clothes etc but that's because I don't like to conform, don't like marketing and I don't like consumerism rammed down my throat or the belief that advertisers have me by the short and curly's simple by placing a suggestion I need something. I made do, I make, adopt and adapt what ever it is that comes my way.

Life is extremely scary right now but I feel I have the tools to cope, I just need a little help to get even more for my money.

It's a bit daunting saying hello in a busy thread and forgive that rather sketchy introduction. I'm not sure whether it was needed but I didn't really know what to say. I tried to interact last night with a question but think I shouldn't have as I was, rather kindly (thank you), directed to another thread. Ooops-a-daisy.

I'm looking at a site called approved food this morning. I normally pride myself on making our foodstuff from scratch but to make a batch of oaty biscuits has to cost more and use up my valuable resources. It's weighing up whether it's worth buying a pack of biscuits for 39p or worth knowing I'm feeding my family myself, with my own resources.

I'd be interested on what you all do. I'm keeping up making my own bread mind you, that's cheaper and definitely nicer.

littlecal

froogs wrote: »

Good morning to you all on the thread.

I have been reading a fair bit around MSE since yesterday and think I am best suited here if you don't mind.

I am a frugal person and always have been but I feel that right now I have to do something extra, something radical even (Is living the old way radical I wonder) in order to hang on to that tiny bit of spare cash I have in life, to enjoy life.

I am a bit ditsy, a bit out there with my clothes etc but that's because I don't like to conform, don't like marketing and I don't like consumerism rammed down my throat or the belief that advertisers have me by the short and curly's simple by placing a suggestion I need something. I made do, I make, adopt and adapt what ever it is that comes my way.

Life is extremely scary right now but I feel I have the tools to cope, I just need a little help to get even more for my money.

It's a bit daunting saying hello in a busy thread and forgive that rather sketchy introduction. I'm not sure whether it was needed but I didn't really know what to say. I tried to interact last night with a question but think I shouldn't have as I was, rather kindly (thank you), directed to another thread. Ooops-a-daisy.

I'm looking at a site called approved food this morning. I normally pride myself on making our foodstuff from scratch but to make a batch of oaty biscuits has to cost more and use up my valuable resources. It's weighing up whether it's worth buying a pack of biscuits for 39p or worth knowing I'm feeding my family myself, with my own resources.

I'd be interested on what you all do. I'm keeping up making my own bread mind you, that's cheaper and definitely nicer.

:wave: welcome froogs I still don't know what to say:D Don't worry about being shown another thread,the lovely peeps on this thread know where to find all sorts of info,just come back to us when you've had a read:):D