Not mentioning the T word at all

greent

JIL wrote: »

If I did not shop again til next March we would not starve. Could this be something to do with my childhood, when my mother made us the same meals week in week out? She would not buy anything different. I could still write the weeks menu out now over 30 years later.

I will do some meal planning over the weekend and start using some of that stuff up. Perhaps I could even save some money and put it towards Christmas.

I have large stocks of food (in freezers and pantry food and I have a wardrobe in the garage full and more on shelving...) I cannot resist a 'bargain' and know full well that I like to have lots in and lots of choice because we lived hand to mouth when I was a child - there was never any choice and by the end of the week (payday) we had ran out of sooo much stuff. We never run out of things here:D My poor DH outs up with it because he knows it's my comfort blanket. His is shoes - he has lots - as a child he had one pair and often had the soles stuffed with cardboard because of holes . However, my food mountains are currently beginning to take over and I have resolved that once we are back from out=r week away I will tackle them (I've donated stuff to food banks a few times to reduce the stockpiles...) (I keep donating toiletries to a local charity, too... and then stockpiling more when on a bargain offer....)

EEK - just remembered I've put n a £70 order with approved foods to come whilst we're away (delivering to MiL) - need to find a place to 'hide' all of that....:o:o

Northern_Lassy

We are house hunting at the moment and viewed a lovely victorian three story terrace yesterday. I was very taken with the wood-burner in the living room, then I spied the slow cooker in the kitchen and started to feel ever more at home We were eventually led down to the cellar which turned out to be the bestest Armageddon Cupboard I have ever come across! Enough soya milk,oats,lentils,tinned stuff and other bits n bobs to last a good few months (if not years!) and a huge stockpile of coal...Oh how I covet that house and those goodies. I have to wonder if the lady is a frequenter of these boards?? She is certainly a kindred spirit :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

rising_from_the_ashes

Well, I've realised how much water I drink ....

I bought several packs of 6 x 1.5 litre bottles to keep me going while I wasn't able to get out and also had 3 packs the same size put away for my winter emergency stash.....

I'm now onto the last of the emergency stash:eek:.

When I can out and about again - a big stock up will be required!

Kaz2904

Have got the pigs feet out and got them defrosting in the sc at the moment. I shall make a soup tomorrow with it. We're off into town shortly to hit the butchers. Got family coming for a few nights so we'll be having stew for tea. I am down to 2 lemon soles and 7 pieces of garlic chicken in our freezer meat wise. Got a packet of scones and some ginger bread. Not gingerbread but a loaf of bread made with chunks of ginger in it. That's going to be yummy!
Also have lots of bread in MiL's freezer at her house.
Just got DD writing out the menu plan!

Draagonfly

Hi all

I too must do a freezer inventory...who knows what is lurking & must make room for the Xmas bits-n-bobs lol

Got a wash load out getting a blow dry on the line as we have a lovely bright breezy day here...just popped all my scarves/hats/gloves in the wm on hand wash cycle for a freshen up as it's a perfect day to get them dry...I didn't realise I had so many scarves counted them into the wm...7 oh well no excuse for not keeping cosy in the cold weather here then :rotfl:

Giving the SC a well earned rest today.

I'm really proud of myself I have learnt an OS skill...I always wanted to learn to crochet but neither of my Grans did it & neither did my Mum so I never got the chance as a kid. My m-i-l can crochet, however she is LH & also has arthritis so couldn't teach me...however she kindly let me "liberate" some hooks from her stash...so armed & ready I took to you tube for instruction & guidance...after a fair few false starts & some being grumpy with hubby I seem to have mastered the granny square :T I currently plan to just keep going round & round (sounds silly saying that about a square but it's rotations just the same) until I have a small blanket/throw for the foot of the spare bed

D&DD

Ooh that house sounds lovely Northernlassy I too would love a pantry my cupboard of doom is not nearly big enough and I've now taken over most of the bedroom with apples,pickles and what have you:rotfl:

I long for racks,tupperwares and neat piles

Draagonfly well done on the crochet I must dust off some of my wool stash and start something for the winter nights.

Greent I'm banned from perusing AFood atm by hubby as we have no more space.

Beautiful day here today so catching up on the washing now I've walked the doglet.

Been a weird year this year weatherwise and wondering what winter has in store for us all..

I must do my freezers out they are in no order at all and I hate them being so disorganised,its weird I'm not naturally a tidy person at all but when it comes to food storage everything is usually maintained with military precision :rotfl:

Called the cooker repair man he's coming Monday (my fan oven has conked out on me) £105 for a new element and fitting but I'm lucky as I have a rangestyle cooker so can use the slow oven for now but boy do you notice the difference!

Kaz2904

Well we went to the butcher. £77 + pence. Oh boy! We've got 3lbs of stewing beef, 2 packs of chopped pork, 2 chickens, 2.4 kg of beef mince, 4 pork chops, a rack of pork ribs (DD insisted!), a little joint of beef, about 1kg (maybe more) of bacon rashers, 3 big lumps of oxtail and a huge piece of cheese (cut into 3 and 2 frozen).
I want to make this last way more than a month but if it lasts for the whole month then I can live with that. We get our fruit and veg box for £18.50 per week. Only on the second week of it and didn't really need another for us but we've got lots of family coming next week so will need it. Think perhaps it'll be blt sandwiches this week for lunches as we've got 1.5 iceberg lettuces and lots of tomatoes. As soon as the kenwood arrives, I can get making some bread, and more importantly, D&DD's apple braid with pears . I also have lots of frozen summer fruits so will be trying it with them.
We had jacket potatoes and prawns yesterday. That was yummy .
Wondering what to do with the oxtail. Think it will be a stew rather than a soup. I like thick chunky soupy stews though so not too concerned what it turns out like .

CCP

Evening all.

Draagonfly - thanks for that lentil recipe - it will appear on my meal plan for next week, I think. If anyone else has got any ideas for my increasing collection of 101 things to do with a lentil, please let me know!

I feel like I've had a properly OS day today for the first time in ages:

• An almost NSD - I had to pop up the shop to buy some cat litter but resisted the temptation to look for anything with a yellow sticker on it while I was there
• I made a pot of proper coffee (rather than the instant stuff I usually drink) and put the rest in a thermos flask to drink later, so I didn't need to use any electricity to re-heat it
• I amused myself this afternoon by planting out the first of my spring bulbs, some left from last year and some I picked up very cheaply in Wilkinsons
• I've got a loaf of cheese and mustard bread in the BM, which smells absolutely divine
• And there's a pot of split pea and ham soup on the go, which uses up a bendy carrot, a soft leek, and some ham stock which has been in the freezer for ages
• It's a fairly warm evening so I've turned the heating back off - I've only needed it for two nights, I'm pleased to say (and probably wouldn't have needed it at all if I hadn't been unwell)
• I'm feeling decidedly less cold-ish today and rather fancy a drink - I've got a bottle of mildly alcoholic ginger beer in the fridge which I won at a pub quiz a couple of nights ago, so I don't need to buy anything or go to the pub :beer:

I hope everyone else has had an equally good OS day today.

Re Approved Food - it's a dreadful website, isn't it? There's always something on there that will be useful, so I've now banned myself from visiting more than once a month!

Kaz - I hope you enjoy your oxtail. I've never cooked it but it's on my list of things to do this winter - but not until I've run down the contents of my freezer a bit, as I really can't justify buying any more meat until I've eaten what I've already got (all bought while on special offer, of course! :money:).

Kaz2904

Well the oxtail looked suitably meaty that I only bought 3 pieces for the 4 of us an think it will easily do at least one meal. Hopefully 2 with loads of vegetables in it .
I have bunged the sc on low with the pigs feet. I don't actually have peas of any description in the house so can't do pea soup with them. I may add some bendy carrots and other veg to them in the morning once I have seen what they look like. I'm thinking a nice thick broth type soup with some lentils and barley perhaps. I'm not sure what the state of play is wrt lentils at the moment. I really need to have a blinking good sort out of my dried food cupboard. I ought to stop throwing away the margerine tubs too so that I can put the rice and other dried goods in there. I love the way my Douwe Egberts jars look with my dried goods in there but I don't have enough of them and it hasn't been on offer for ages seemingly. In fact, we've not seen it on offer this year which is unusual.
DS has a friend sleeping over tonight, he slept at his last night for the first time at a friends house ever! They're only 7 and they're still awake. Apparently they watched a film last night and DS fell asleep during the film at about 10pm. He doesn't like to be up too late .
DD has happily been playing with them all evening and we've had no arguments so that's good.
I feel like I'm coming down with a cold. My eyes are all hot and itchy atm. I keep snezzing too typical when I have a week off work. I now have my niece and nephew on Wednesday which is the one day I said to SiL would be the hardest because I've got both sisters and their children down that day. Oh well, she has to work and must have forgotten about it. Just hope that she's able to help me out over Christmas if DH's not home. I expect he will be though. We're going to have 8 children here on Wednesday :eek: ranging from 14 weeks to 10 :eek:!
SiL said she'd have mine on Monday so if I need her to, I'll get her to watch them while I whip into town and get our wheeled holdalls ready for holiday. We're going to Florida next year paid for by MiL- an early inheritance and none of us has a suitcase. I can't wait until we tell the kids on Christmas day

scottishminnie

CCP wrote: »

Evening all.

I've got a loaf of cheese and mustard bread in the BM, which smells absolutely divine.

That sounds nice - could I have the recipe please?
There is a 3 cheese loaf in my BM book which I mean to try soon. OH is obsessed with cheese bread. We first discovered it in Canada years back and we've now found somewhere we can get it when we are in Sanibel over New Years so it's cheese bread for breakfast every day!
I'm not sure if any of the recipes will be like the cheese bread I'm talking about but as soon as the BM arrived hubby set me a challenge to track down a suitable recipe so I'm willing to try it.

I really had intended to make my Christmas cake this weekend but I've been really lax and I don't even have the fruit soaking yet. I must get my act together.

I did have an unexpected find yesterday though - I was rummaging in a cupboard where I keep bed linens and spare pillows and spotted a Molton Brown bag lurking at the back of some things. Inside were a hand wash and matching hand lotion. Goodness knows how long it's been there but I was delighted. It may just spur me on to tidying out a few more cupboards in the hope of finding more treasures.