A new 'tougher' thread... and so it continues

mardatha

Morning toughies. I have never watched even one second of BB, or the soaps. I dont watch much tv, I get bored and fidget.
Not staying long - I'm going to have my hair done today!! whoohooo!!
Will go and lookat the long range winter forecast now and maybe get in some extra sweeties just in case there's a shortage....

Pooky

Fuddle - not everything on AF is OOD, there is a box to tick for "in date only" so have a browse and see wht takes your fancy. I was looking last night but there's not enough of what I'd use to make an order worthwhile at the mo. around 6 weeks ago I managed to order loads of stuff I'd normally buy so it bulked my cupboards out a lot. I won't be using it as a stocker for my long term stocks but will carry on using it for those items that are just bargainous and worth the rejig of the meal plans to use them up.

We hardly watch any TV in this house, even Teenage DDs struggle to find things to watch now. Most evenings I'll pop a music channel on (normally the "vintage" or 80s one) and have it on as background music whilst I sew or crochet.

I really used to enjoy the early BBs but just can't et my head around the waste and plasticness of it all now.

Mrs_Chip

Morning Everyone!

Rain here again, and last evening was cold so the heating went on which was then replaced by lighting the wood burner, outrageous in June! More rain on the forecast, so no sign of summer yet

Grandma - that cake is very similar to they type of thing I used to make when Low Carbing. Ground almonds make a very good substitute for flour. I also used to make lemon flavoured ones with blueberries .

I treated myself to a new trolley for the kitchen this week - our kitchen is galley style, only 7 cupboard widths long and 1 wide with space to stand. For months all my overspill has been in carrier bags on the floor and I finally cracked and replaced the little tile topped trolley I left in the London house. These are quite shallow, with shelves, baskets and a couple of little drawers and are small enough to fit along the back wall. It has made so much difference, my big pots now have a home on the shelves and a bit of much needed extra worktop space for my halogen oven and fryer. Despite narrowing the end of the kitchen by the boiler there appears to be more space :T

Hope you all have a good day!

VJsmum

GreyQueen wrote: »

ETA Mrs Chip, those daft shoes are apparently called "car-to-bar shoes" for those of us who toddle across the pavement from our taxi or limo into a fashionable bar where we sit on a fashionable barstool, preening and posing with our impossible shoes. Walking in them? No way, Jose.

Are they like Germaine Greer's famous, <ahem> "Eff me" shoes?:rotfl:

Happy birthday to GQ's gran. My MiL is a pensioner with no social life I wish it were not so. My mum, before she got ill, had a wonderful life - she joined a disability group and went swimming, learned a language and a half (she had started spanish when she got ill), co-authored 4 books on local history and appeared on the radio to promote them, went to "wine and wisdom evenings (rather more wine than wisdom, I think), and had various days out and holidays. That group was a life saver for her as she had been quite shy. My fairly wealthy and pretty healthy 80 year old MiL has few friends and is so shy she just won't join any groups. All she has is what her children organise for her.

My dad isn't much better - but at least has more children to entertain him. He is finally, hopefully leaving hospital today after being in since the end of January. It is going to be hard for him to readjust to being at home with a carer but at least the hospital bit should be over. Just praying nothing goes wrong today.

Any road up - I have just discovered that all my marking must be finished by the end of the day :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: I have 100 papers with three questions each. Each question takes around 5 minutes to mark and so far I've done 60 questions :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: - you do the maths, cos I haven't got time :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Cue, endless maniacal laughter verging on panic - someone give me a slap! :rotfl::rotfl:

S'pose I'd better crack on with it then.

ETA

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

:eek:

GreyQueen

:j Great news about your Dad coming out of hospital today, VJsMum. Hope everything goes according to plan.

I just bunged your sums into my calculator and went :eek::eek::eek: ! I just hope you get a blimming good salary, girl, beacuse you're earning it. Various of my pals are lecturing/ private tutoring at the mo and they're working like loonies to get their charges launched into their exams.

My Nan has lived in her village, or the adjacent one where she was born, her whole life. They're big villages with very lively social scenes, lots of clubs etc. Plus she's a church lady, former churchwarden, and a lot of the social activities are by of fundraisers for the church. They seem to be always gadding about, doing stuff, British Legion, Church, etc etc. SuperGran also has a very lively social scene as well, but she's lived in Provincial City all her life and knows shedloads of people. If you go to visit her, and she doesn't turn her phone onto mute, there's a constant string of interruptions from pals. I always joke that you almost need an appointment to see SG most days.

OK, time for more tea before my late shift today. OMG - was that a sunbeam outside?!

ETA, yeah, I'd forgotten that's what GG called them - f-me shoes. I'm a respectable woman who shops at Ecco and Hotter so I wouldn't know anything about that kind of thing in the Real World (wherever that may be).

greenbee

Fuddle - I don't worry about the dates on AF stuff for most things. Stuff like grains and pulses don't really matter (they just need longer cooking/soaking as they get older and tougher). Beans and lentils are seeds and will sprout tens or hundreds of years later if given the opportunity. Tins i will use up within a few months if dented, but otherwise as long as they are stored properly I'm happy to let them hang around for a while. Fresh fruit juice I freeze (not that it comes up often), as well !!! bakery stuff (e.g. Wraps or ryebbread). Pasta and couscous is almost everlasting too (I remember seeing pasta in Italy that said 'For UK and US only BBE ).

If you are building up a store cupboard it is important to try to do stock rotation and use the stuff as part of your meal planning rather than just keeping an emergency stock. Partly to make sure that you like your emergency stuff. I think MG eats mostly from her store cupboard, supplementing with fresh stuff, and topping up supplies when things are available at the right price.

prepareathome

Morning everyone, well we have got lovely sunshine, yes sunshine but fairly chilly but dry, now will it last, sky is blue with fluffy white clouds so fingers crossed as want to wash the dogs bedding and prefer to air it rather than use tumble dryer. Just wondering if I should defleece my plants or leave them - will leave them just now son doesn't go round the back till gone 11am ( faces east and house blocks sun from west) so takes a bit longer to warm up out there.

Fuddle cannot help over AF as I am very lucky in that I have B&M nearby ( in fact a bit further away the old wicks store revamped into a massive B&M) which basically sells all the same types of things AF sells might be odd thing that is cheaper with AF but but whenever I had worked it out including postage its always cheaper for me to go to B&M. Its just luck of the draw what they have in any given week so I toddle along and some weeks will buy lots and others narry a thing ( that is when I do go for shopping which since April has not happened - next week I hope, fingers crossed). We also have now Cool Trader which does things like 3 tins branson beans for £1 and same for spaggitti ( oh to think i used to moan at 4 tins for £1 and think that was expensive).

Supermarket now is only used for items I really like there - mainly their own basic range from Mr S ( sorry never shop at A*ds, Mr T, Mr M or Co-*p as don't like most of their own basics ) but do like Mr S own ( my sister tells me I am a middle class snob using them).


Police have just pulled a driver over and both have stopped outside and they have taken the driver into the back of their car. Only offence I know it cannot be is speeding as thanks to the temp traffic lights just a bit further along the traffic is crawling as usual, but whatever it is driver has been in their car 15 mins so far. He got out of his car and into their with no fuss and they took his passenger in as well. Oh driver has got out with a ticket in his hand, he got into his car and has driver off and police car has also gone but they have kept the passenger. This I am thankfully to say is about as exciting as it usually gets here, although we do have police cars speeding by quite a lot, but only twice have they actually chased anything by us and one of those times the car they were chasing crashed into garden across the road and driver got out and ran - I was in garden at time and police told me to get down on ground as they thought he had a gun, but thankfully no shots fired and then for hours we had helicopter flying over, to this day I do not know if they ever caught the guy

Got a sick hubby today, looks as if the migraine I had yesterday was maybe was a virus as he has it today and is feeling quite rotten, symptoms exact same headache travelling down to neck and feeling sick so he has had to call in to work and say he will not be in, something i have to say he rarely does. With his contract only being for 20hrs now once he has done them any extra hours he might have but cannot do he obviously doesn't get paid for, but is not in any fit state to be out driving especially as its so sunny out there, that will just make migraine worse.

I never did tidy my shelves of food yesterday so will try and do it today, although if it stays nice I want to be outside.

Waiting to see if my wanted post is accepted by our freegle mods - they can be funny on what posts they let through, as asked if anyone has a big fish tank as our goldfish is getting rather large - about 6-8ins long now and tank we have not really big enough, seems happy and healthy enough but just never seems to stop growing. We got him/her 4 years ago along with a friend but the friend died of some horrible fungus thing but he/she been fine and just never stops growing. Just hoping someone does have a tank they are not using as the price :eek: of bigger tanks is just beyond us, then there would have to be a bigger pump bought and one for this tank cost £26 but worth it as before we had to clean the tank fully every 2-3 weeks


I was going to go for my fasting blood test today but at 7am hubby brought me in a cuppa which I drank before remembering about the test, oh well will go Friday I hope ( our surgery has phlebotomists there on M,W, F morning which is much easier to go to than toddling down to nearest hospital).

Right been awake nearly 3hrs and still not got out of this pit, painkillers have kicked in as much as they ever do so think its time to try to get downstairs, even though part of me just wants to curl up and go back to sleep.

Have a good day everyone

Hugs, Love and Healingxxxxxxxxxxx

Memory_Girl

Wot she said fuddle ^^^ Thanks greenbee


Got an academic friend who actually grew grains from a clay jar found in a pyramid in Egypt - grew fine, but I bet they were well OOD :rotfl:

If you look closely most of my stuff is dried goods - which stores a Looooong time , but my kids are happy to eat beany, grainy, pulsey things so its a win win.

If you want a shufty at the other cupboards pop over to my homepage, there you will see the other stuff

Bread flour, UHT milk and open packets I use up in rotation - milk within dates although I do buy a tray of cartons at a time.

Yeast - always better fresh - but as we bake every couple of days a tin never goes out of date before we use it.

Tins - well tomatoes, tuna, crab and some "treats" from AF like olives, artichokes and bean salads ................ well they go on forever don't they.

But we are currently eating at just under a pound a day per person (averaged out over the last three years) - so financially it makes a lot of sense for us.

MG

ETA have you tried the spelt cooked, cooled and then made into lamb koftas with some minced lamb? - it keeps them lovely and moist and is a change from bulghar wheat. And like with the kids, if you hide it inside stuff then hubby might not mind so much.

greenbee

Thanks for the idea for the spelt MG... I'm currently trying to get back to cooking properly as I've been rather lazy about it recently.

The crab souffle worked well, so I'm going to try again for guests using some of the tinned crab sometime!

Raining here, which isn't fair, as I'm on holiday. I have a patisserie class locally tomorrow so can't head off home, so instead and doing laundry so I don't have to deal with it when I get home, and tidying up for my cousins who are here next. I really should get some exercise, but kayaking, sailing and walking aren't very appealing in this weather!

manchestermargo

morning everyone,
Back to work for me today, really didn't want to get up! Only two more years then I can officially retire, not sure I will be able to afford it, but we will see after learning loads of money saving ways from all of you.

My cabbages are growing but really think my seeds have been drowned in all the rain, typically the sun is peeping through the clouds now I am at work.

Hope all have a good day.

MM