Money Fritters 'Enough Now' DFW Diary - Chapter 2

Money_Fritter

17th January 2013

Well I did not get any gardening done today; there was no more snow, but it was far too cold. Instead we went to the cinema to see Les Miserables. It was absolutely amazing; at times I actually wanted to stand up and applaud. It actually felt as though you were watching the theatre production. Hugh Jackman was fantastic and it was such an emotional film.
Obviously I did not have a NSD as we had lunch out as well.

18th January 2013

Today my parents came to stay for the weekend; and you guessed it more snow arrived. So today was a case of tidying the house and getting things prepared for when they arrived. We also had to go food shopping and we went out for lunch; we went to Bella Italia, which was nice.
The snow did not start to come down heavily until around 8-9pm; just as my parents arrived. Anyway when they arrived I cooked some tea; we had prawns with stir-fry vegetables and noodles. I also made another soda bread, for mopping up the sauce at the end of the meal. We had a few glasses of wine; and yes I did have a few. I had not had a drink for 17 days up to this point, but my Birthday was coming up so it was a treat.
So no NSD again today; and I don’t think I will manage any over the next couple of days.

19th January 2013

Well nothing exciting happened today; overnight the snow came down hard and we got snowed in and could not really do anything. So we just relaxed and watched a couple of DVD’s. We also built a snowman in the garden. No matter how old you are, you are never too old to build a snowman. Then later in the night I made the roasted vegetables I mentioned in a previous post for tea. However, this time I did cook some meat to go with the vegetables as my parents would be aghast at just eating vegetables. lol

So I made a lovely beef and beer stew to go with the roast vegetables. It is very simple and easy to do, and it tastes fab.

You take a lidded casserole dish and you melt some butter (40g). Then we take some braising beef or stewing beef (400g) and you chop it into 4 pieces and season with salt and pepper and brown on both sides in the casserole dish, then take out of the dish and let it rest.

Take some onions (2) and half them and thinly slice them. Add the onions to the now empty casserole dish and cook slowly over a low heat. Also add some thyme (a few sprigs, I actually used a couple of teaspoons of ground thyme as I did not have any fresh). After around 5-10 minutes add the plain flour (2 heaped tablespoons) and stir in to the onions and thyme. Then add the beer (Chimay, Trappist dark beer). Once the mixture starts to boil, add the beef back into the dish. Add bay leaves (2) and mustard (1 tablespoon, I used French mustard, but you can use any), season with salt and pepper and place in the oven at 170-180C and leave for 1-1.5hrs.
You can also make some apple sauce to go with it if you like it. You take 4 granny smith apples and peel them, core them and cut them into chunks. Place in a pan with a small amount of water and a small amount of butter. Bring to the boil and cover with a lid and leave to cook until a sloppy mess is formed. Then add a little bit of sugar and some ground cinnamon and mash with a wooden spoon or fork.

For dessert I made a lovely carrot cake; my parents were definitely spoiled!!!!

So a terrible day with no NSD, eating and drinking lots of nice food and no exercise!!!!

20th January 2013

The snow was still pretty bad today, we had a late cooked breakfast, and then we braved the weather and did a bit of shopping. It was indoors, so that was good. We had a late lunch at wagamama’s; I really like it there. Then we took my parents to see Les Miserables. So we watched it twice in four days. It was still as good the second time around. Then we went back to the house and just had a pizza for tea and chilled with a few glasses of wine.
No NSD again, and I stuffed myself with sweets at the cinema!!!!

21st January 2013

Well back to work today; the snow had come down hard overnight; so it took me an age to get out of my village and get to work. My parents were meant to be travelling home that morning, but the weather was that bad they decided to stay another day.
Fortunately my gf was off work so she looked after them, whilst I went to work. Work went fairy quickly, this was most probably down to the fact that I was not there very long, as it took me several hours to travel back and forth from work!!!
In the evening time we just watched a film and my gf made a lovely lasagne.
So no NSD again, more calories and no running due to the snow!!! Let’s hope that during the week I can get back into healthy mode; although it is my birthday tomorrow.

MrsPorridge

I too saw Les Miserables and thought it was fantastic - I cried buckets at the end

Money_Fritter

[FONT=&quot]22nd January to 1st February 2013
]
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[FONT=&quot]Well folks, sorry for the late reply, but better late than never as they say. Well I had a nice birthday on the 22nd, apart from working!!!![/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]The week has gone by in the blink of an eye, and if the truth be told not much has happened in my life. I do wonder; I find it hard to find meaning sometimes, but we must continue, we must strive to do good, we must strive to carry on. Everywhere I look there is always bad news; I try to avoid it but I cannot. At the moment I always seem to fall back to the famous dialogue in Terminator 2 were john says to Terminator [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]John O’Conner ‘”Were not going to make it are we, people I mean?”[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Terminator “It’s in your nature to destroy yourselves”[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Well hopefully we don’t destroy ourselves.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot] I just wonder; people are isolated, nobody works together anymore, there are no communities and that will ultimately be our downfall. We don’t work to better ourselves, we work to make money, we work to better our own lives, we work for our 5 minutes of fame not the group or community. Now what the results of our selfish acts will have on the world, god only knows, but I don’t think it will be good.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]We need to stick to what I believe in and most importantly, passion!!![/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]And remember “Who am I?”[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Until the next time[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Money Fritter[/FONT]

Money_Fritter

2nd and 3rd of February 2013

Well the weather this weekend was dry and there was no snow, so I should be grateful. However, it was freezing cold and very windy. Nevertheless I managed to get in the garden and ‘do’ a little bit more. I managed to put my willow screening up along the back fence, next to my raised veg borders. I did not managed to get it all finished as I ran out of screening; I need to do one final small section next weekend and then it will be finished.

My seed potatoes also arrived, so they are sitting on my windowsill in a cool dry place for ‘Chitting’. I remove them from the window sill in the night time to avoid any frost. I have to do this for about 5-6 weeks until I have some nice shoots on the potatoes and then the fun begins and I can plant them in my grow sacks.

I still have a lot to do in the garden before I start growing my vegetables; it is annoying that when I get home from work it is still dark; this means I only have the weekend to run around like a headless chicken and get things done. Oh Well!!!

I have nothing else to report really; I have not managed any NSD recently, I must try harder!!!!

Money Fritter

Money_Fritter

4th – 6th February 2013

As there has not been much to report recently, I have been merging several days into one post.

Monday was quite a busy day in work as I am working on a new project with some tight deadlines, so time has been passing by quickly. I must admit I do prefer to be busy in work, otherwise the day just drags. When I got home from work on Monday I cooked a dahl curry. It was a Delia recipe and was fantastic. The only downside was the fact that I had no Madras curry powder; so I had to use mild curry powder. The recipe was fairly straight forward.

Firstly you put 850ml of boiling water into a pan and add one teaspoon of ginger, cumin, turmeric and salt. Then you add your red lentils (225g) and bring back to the boil. Gently simmer for 5 minutes. Subsequently add diced potato (2 potatoes) and continue cooking until the lentils have turned mushy; this normally takes a further 15-20 minutes. Whilst that is cooking heat up some butter (2 tbsp) in another pan and fry the sliced onion (1 large onion). Then lower the heat and stir in the Madras Curry powder (1 tsp, you can add more if you like it hotter). Add the rest of the ginger (1tsp) and the garlic (1 clove, crushed) and chopped tomatoes (4 tomatoes, peeled and chopped; I used a 400g tin of chopped tomatoes but removed the juice by sieving first). Cook for a minute before adding the red lentil mixture; taste and then season with salt and pepper. Then cook gently for a further 5-10 minutes. This can be served with rice and yoghurt. I had it with just rice the first time and then took a second portion into work without rice. You could also serve with a Naan bread if you liked.
After tea on Monday night I did a bit more of my planning for my gardening and checked my seed potatoes to see how they were getting on. They are starting to form some small shoots!!!

Tuesday, was another busy day in work, but it was a productive one. I managed to get to the gym after work today and did 6 miles on the treadmill. I really need to up my fitness now, as in a few months’ time I have a 10k run to complete. Tuesday night I had a simple tea, but it was a lovely one. I forced myself to make a proper jacket potato with cheese and leeks. I cooked the potato in the oven for 45 minutes with a covering of sea salt. I then cut the potato in half and scooped out the potato and mashed with cheese and butter. I then put the creamy potato mixture back inside the potato skins and topped with some grated cheese and popped it back into the oven for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, I cut a leek into finger size slices and gently cooked in a pan with some butter. Finally I served the jacket potato on a bed of leek. Lovely!!!!

Wednesday was a bit of a slow day in work; I had a couple of meetings that dragged on and not much else. For tea tonight I had some French mustard that needed using up. So I cooked some salmon fillets with vegetables and then made some Mustard mash. I have never tried Mustard mash before; I think I added a little too much Mustard as it was quite rich, but it was nice and compliment the vegetables and salmon well. I spent a bit more time planning my growing vegetables for this year. I am hoping this weekend I can get some serious work done in the garden building the raised beds and get things into position.

Until next time

Money Fritter

MrsPorridge

MF - that Delia curry recipe sounds lovely.

fredandwilma

Delia has hung up her tv chef coat unfortunately, and retired from broadcasting.


Astonishingly, she's 71 years young.


Apparently due to the advent of "cookery shows" which are watched more for their entertainment value, whereas delia taught you how to cook.


Shame.






It’s kitchen closed for Delia Smith's TV career

STV 6 February 2013 12:08 GMT



Last orders: Delia Smith will not be making anymore television cookery programmes

Richard Gardner/Rex Features


Delia Smith is one of the most famous TV chefs in the world. With legions of fans following her culinary masterclasses, the bestselling author, presenter and Norwich City fan has stated that she has made her last TV programme.


But her exit is more sour grapes than sweet tooth.

In traditional no-nonsense style, Delia has blamed her broadcasting retirement is the result of television producers who want more entertaining shows instead of educational ones.

The 71-year-old, who made her broadcasting debut in 1970 as the resident cook of BBC’s Look East, claimed that the new trends in cooking on TV were the reason she was hanging up her apron.

She said: “If you do a TV programme now, it’s got to entertain.”

“When I started, there was further education in the BBC, now you have to entertain. You have someone telling me I haven’t got time to show this or I haven’t got time to show that.”

And a return to the screens seems out of the question. When asked if she would make a comeback if an offer from a TV company was right she replied: “No. As soon as my Waitrose contract ended, the BBC called me up and said, ‘What can we do?’ I said ‘No, thank you.’”

She added: “I’m afraid to say this is the end when it comes to Delia on the telly.”

Delia’s effect on British culture has been unparalleled by any of her fellow TV chefs. In 1995, she was credited with causing a shortage of cranberries around the country when she featured them in a recipe.

And her influence has led to the term the “Delia Effect” being coined by supermarket bosses. The phrase is used when sales of products featured by her take a massive leap in sales.

Her books have sold more than 21 million copies worldwide, making her the UK’s bestselling cookery author.

While Delia may have decided that now is the time to call it quits, is is not her first retirement from broadcasting. In 2003 she said she was quitting TV to spend more time with her beloved football team, Norwich City, where she is the joint majority shareholder.

She now plans to concentrate her efforts on the internet.

The Delia Online Cookery School will be launching later this month.

MrsPorridge

MF - today I baked your marmalade loaf recipe in my bread maker. It is delicious. I am hoping there will be a some left for packed lunches

Money_Fritter

MrsPorridge wrote: »

MF - today I baked your marmalade loaf recipe in my bread maker. It is delicious. I am hoping there will be a some left for packed lunches

Glad you like it MrsP, it is lush!!!

Money_Fritter

[FONT=&quot]7th and 8th February 2013.
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[FONT=&quot]Well Thursday and Friday were pretty low key days. Work was same ole same ole. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Thursday after work I went to the gym again, I did 5 miles on the treadmill, so pleased with that. Thursday night I tried a new soup; it is another Nigel Slater recipe. I do love soup and Thursday night is traditionally a soup night. This Thursday I made a bacon and celeriac soup.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Firstly you chop a large onion and slowly cook in a deep sauce pan with a little butter (25g). After cooking for 5 minutes you add some chopped bacon (4-6 rashers, chopped) and cook for a further 10 minutes. Whilst cooking, take a peeled celeriac (800g) and grate finely. Once grated, add to the pan; also add some thyme (3 small sprigs) and a little salt. Then add some veg stock (500ml) and water (1 litre). Leave to stir for 30 minutes and then add mustard (4 tsps). Finally add some parsley (a small bunch or 1-2tsps). Season with salt and pepper and then simmer for 5 minutes. Allow to cool slightly and then blend in a processor. Serve with a crusty roll!![/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Well Friday, I received some great news. I have won a place in the great north run for September. I applied not really thinking I would get a place outright as thousands of people go into a draw, but I got a place. So I have no excuse with respect to getting fit now!!![/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]I have not managed any NSD’s for awhile, so must try harder next week.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Nothing else really to report, I am still bashing my debts slowly, and have not used my credit cards, so doing ok, but again must try harder!!![/FONT]