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

westlothianlass

Afternoon all,
Well its been a funny day weather wise. I have been dashing out inbetween rain blasts (showers is just too demure for what we have had). I've lifted more potatoes and planted some kale (another couple of varieties) carrots and beetroot, thanks Kittie and GQ for reminder.
I was about to make some rhubarb and ginger jam but have run out of sugar with pectin and didn't have any apples in to help with the setting so that will have to wait for another day, but at least jars and lids are all primmed and ready:).

Our apple trees are looking a bit sorry for themselves at the moment, very apple-less. Think they had a rough time with the spring storms so this year will not be a bumper harvest. Never mind, this seems to happen every few years. Just means i will be wandering round looking for apple trees i have not yet discovered.

I have a cheese and walnut loaf in the oven in the hope it will cheer me up tomorrow lunchtime, as back to work after 2 weeks hol's. Not looking forward to the chaos that will no doubt be waiting on me:(.

Hope you all have a very pleasant and stress free Sunday evening,
Hugs x

parsonswife8

It's been raining on and off here and the wind is whipping the trees around.

I've made some Lidl's (84p for 12 this weekend) beef meatballs, with a carton of passata added, some herbs and garlic and 4 chopped up mushrooms, to have with spaghetti and grated parmesan.

A lovely glass of red wine from Puglia in Italy, is going down quite nicely.

It's going to rain all week here, so I will be sewing some loose fleece curtain linings for the two bedrooms and the box room window.

We checked our store cupboard and have loads of tinned fish, fruit in juice, passata, tinned tomatoes, mayonaise, tinned spaghetti, beans of all descriptions, rice, cous cous etc, so no more shopping for any of those until the New Year. Just going to buy fresh veg and fruit that we haven't managed to grow ourselves and eat meat, fish and poultry from the freezer.

I always look for bargains and deals and BOGOF and shop around within a 5 mile radius. It seems to have paid off, as we are well prepared for winter and it hasn't cost the earth.

Hugs to everyone and hope you all have a good week ahead.

Winchelsea

Oh, kittie, I was fascinated to read about your dutch oven. Have just been posting on the Frugal Living Challenge about my sourdough breadmaking, then come here and find there's another way!

Where do you get a dutch oven from? Are they expensive?

I have been lurking a bit lately, but love coming back here - you are all so energetic - and INSPIRATIONAL! Hope you are all OK by the way!

(Note to self - must get off the laptop and get my lazy self into gear - so much to be done!!)

Winchelsea

Duh......have just spotted the link to the dutch ovens - thank you kittie !

[Deleted User]

winchelsea I think I got mine from headcook. What I do with sourdough is stretch and fold on a floured tray. I don`t spend any effort, I just fold it all in, every hour or so, It is very accomodating with time. When I think it is ready then I stretch and fold for the last time and pop it on bakewell paper which has been pressed into a large bowl, so that I can grab the ends. At the end of that raise, I slash and drop the dough plus paper into the very hot dutch oven. Plop the lid on and leave it on 250 for about 15 mins, then lower to 200 ish for about 40 min, taking the lid off after about 30 mins for it all to get crispy. The proving takes all day but it is so easy. It is trial and error but sourdough is very easy to get on with. I am sure that I have the 7 qt dutch oven and I only wash in water, no soap at all and wipe with oil. You can even do a stage overnight by the way

German red cabbage was completely gorgeous and we had some with our evening meal. Dh said `ooh this is nice` it is not sickly sweet or over spiced and tastes very mildly and pleasantly acidic. It is very much nicer than Delia`s and I`m not going to fret about freezing it now as a fair bit will be eaten this week. I used the whole 4.5 lb cabbage so I would alter the other ingredients to do say a 2lb cabbage

I have also sat and sorted my brain out re preserving and am ready for the tomatoes and marrow. I have chosen and written out recipes for: red tomato chutney, green tomato chutney, seasonal chutney (marrow and green tomato), marrow and apple chutney, bottled tomatoes, roasted tomato passata and passata without the extra bits. That`ll get me through what I hope will be a glut

waitrose order came but no pickling vinegar. Ahh I am glad really because I going to spice ordinary malt vinegar. I ordered 2 large pieces of root ginger and they are gigantic so are portioned, vacuumed and now frozen. Also 12 lemons for £3 and they are vacuumed in 2 canisters. Muslin came yesterday and I saw a youtube video about how to tie a muslin spice bag, you live and learn (jamtastic)

Terrible weather for july, horrible non stop winds and I have all the outdoot tomatoes in the big plastic bags, which are going ballistic even though weighed down with bricks

autumn king carrots are up, even those planted only last week and so are turnips. I am hoping the beetroots will be up when I look tomorrow.

the_cake

Wow, really impressed at all the activity round here! This is just a quick heads up to anyone looking to add to their store cupboard: KTC brand chickpeas (two sorts - little brown ones, or the more usual bigger, paler ones) are on offer at 20p a tin in Morrisons, they are either in the World Foods or Indian Foods section. I bought a couple of trays of them today, as I add them to my BM mix now (they make a nutty flavoured and very moist loaf - recipe recently posted in the BM section, but happy to copy here if anyone would like it) as well as using them in the usual way. Good cheap source of protein ...
HTH, best wishes from the cake

THIRZAH

It's been pouring with rain here all day-feels more like winter than July.

DD and SIL came up for a couple of days and brought veg from their allotment. There were two big cucumbers in one bag so I decided to make pickled cucumber-from Delia's recipe-I actually had all the ingredients. I made three jars full. This evening when unpacking a bag containing beetroot and carrots I discovered another cucumber lurking at the bottom!

7_week_wonder

the_cake wrote: »

I add them to my BM mix now (they make a nutty flavoured and very moist loaf - recipe recently posted in the BM section, but happy to copy here if anyone would like it)

Oh yes please!

mardatha

Horrible here too, I feel sorry for the tourists.
I wish I knew how to cook, whenever I try things they turn out awful. LOL. Picked some tatties from garden as they seem to have blight. They're ok but as bit bland, I forget what variety they are. I should've put mint or chives or something on them, I can never remember what you add to what.

culpepper

Pouring here too.
I finally managed to harvest some rocket and spinach from my cold frame. Slugs have eaten the lettuces but don't seem to have touched these others.
Asda's this morning was quite disappointing whoopsie wise, everything was ridiculously priced. Some of the packets were actually damp or damaged and they still price them way above what anyone would pay. There has been the same bottle of head and shoulders there for about 5 weeks because the whoopsied sticker is all scuffed so it shows how much attention they are paying to things.
I shopped around again this week buying cheese and tomato puree in Lidl and beef mince and frozen chicken in Sainsburys.
We have been using our combi microwave as our main oven for about 8 months. The plan was to wait for one to come on freecycle but they very rarely do and we haven't been lucky. We manage quite well with the micro and our hob,slow cooker and toaster. I wonder if I could do baked potatoes in the breadmaker. We have a spare bread pan which is dented so the bread won't come out in one piece(I use it for pizza dough )and there is a 'bake' setting that lasts an hour with no kneading. I might give that a try during the week.