'supporting each other through really tough times'

VJsmum

GreyQueen wrote: »

Oooh, VJsMum, without a spoiler, did you rate that film? I've tentatively got it on my possibles list, after I've seen The Hobbit, of course. That's my January treat.

Right, without spoilers. I quite liked it (damning with faint praise?) the effects are amazing. obviously there was an amount of underwater stuff which I don't like cos I forget to breathe so I had to turn away for that. I think there may have been a little artistic licence in the last third, but all in all a good watch. If there has to be a choice, though, I preferred the Hobbit. Oh, there was one bit where everyone in the cinema went "aaahhh".

Tidying the bedroom today. Decs now gone in loft so I can get the room back to normal. I love my bedroom as it is a bit of a bolthole and we designed it ourselves when we had the house extended giving it a walk in wardrobe, an ensuite and TWO windows, meaning it is very light with very little furniture. It has 2 bedside tables, a bed (obvs!) a chest of drawers and a little table that OH's dad made when he was a boy. All the clutter goes in the wardrobe so it is out of sight. So, something on radio 4 extra is going on and I am going to set to.

Uniscots97

Hello All, having a day in the house. Logged into tarot but its quiet and nothing so far (only been on for about 30 minutes).

Veggies in the slow cooker with some stock to make soup. Had spoonful of split peas left (not sure why I didn't use them up in whatever I was making before) so chucked them in. So that'll be tea sorted.

I'm not a great lover of lots of 'dust gathers' either or lots of photos. To me photos should be in an album. We have a few out that OH insists on and I added 2 to it that mean something to me. OH collects figurines and they are everywhere. He says he can't wait till my fish dies so he can put another display cabinet in the other corner of the livingroom :eek::mad:. No I don't think so. We have a display cabinet in the dining room its full of SS's trophies from years ago. He doesn't want them and wants to bin them but OH hangs onto them. SS doesn't do that anymore (what he got the trophies for) and it all ended quite badly. SS let down quite a lot of people (promised to turn up for training/comps and didn't) if he'd kept going he could have made the commonwealth games.

Anyone else having a lazy day?

katieowl_2

I had friends over for dinner last night, and they stayed over. They've just gone. I showed them the incredible reduced double cream into butter trick! (more to follow!) They were well impressed We had drop scones for brekkie with some of the butter and some HM jam and HM clementine marmalade

I cooked them the whole meal from the Ottolenghi book (Jerusalem) that I keep raving about. Lamb meatballs with cranberries (his suggested alternative to barberries, which are hard to get here!) A basmati, wild rice and spiced chickpea rice dish, a tray of roasted butternut and red onions with a tahini/lemon sauce, and a spiced carrot salad... Even if I say so myself it was pretty tasty. Everything I've cooked out of this book has been fantastic so far!

When they left I finished off the butter making, I got 2 kilos 200g of butter out of six pots of double cream, which cost me a grand total of £1.50!!! :j I've divided it into 200g portions, left it unsalted and bunged it all in the freezer! It's SUCH a massive saving, for so little effort...It HAS to be worth doing!

Got to take the decs down today - not my favourite job, seems to take forever! Then better take the mutts out. Mattie is obsessively chewing her nails and licking her feet at the moment, it's a really bad habit she's got into. She needs to stop!!! I bought her some dogs socks in Peacocks, which I put on to deter her when she's really going for it. I asked the vet about it last time we went and she said she's seen a lot more of it this year, and is putting it down to the weather and their paws being damp all the time. Anyone else's pooch doing it?

Kate

grandma247

2tonsils wrote: »

Grandma 247 thanks for all those comments on my original posting about gluten free. When I cook biscuits or cakes I use Dove's farm flour, I find it the most reliable and it does make lovely baked goods. It also makes the best Yorkshire puddings I have ever made...light as a feather and tasty! People love eating the home made gluten free stuff and most would never know it is gluten free unless they were told. My home made gluten free pizza was to die for but now I am getting all my carbs from veggies and fruit to lose some body fat so I won't be making any for a while.

Thank you so much for these extra tips. I made a loaf on the gluten free setting yesterday and it was ok but will try the normal setting when I make it again. Ddil was suited with it anyway. She has made some toad in the hole and that was a success and she makes a nice pizza too.

I don't like adding xanthan gum to gluten free flour when baking, like they advise, as it has a very strange flavour to it in my opinion...it tastes like too much baking soda has been added to the mixture. Other people commented on it so I stopped using it.

Thanks for this info too. I will have to experiment more I think.

One thing I found that works great is adding a scoop of protein powder to the cakes and muffin mixture..it makes them light and fluffy and more moist. Because gluten free baking can go dry or stale quickly I let things cool then freeze them in boxes. I just defrost them for use . If anything gluten free needs refreshing you can give it a few seconds in the microwave...this works great with gf wraps and bread as well.

I will def. have to get some. I still have the link you put up a while ago.

I freeze home made gf bread in slices as I eat very little, maybe a couple of slices a week at the most. My bread maker has a gluten free setting but I find the normal setting gives a better result. I make brown seed bread, fruit loaf and banana bread and now and again olive bread with cheese and onion (the smell of that one baking is just amazing!).

I heard that a very cold spell, possibly with snow is expected to hit Europe and the UK as early as the end of next week so I have restocked with healthy food and lots of fuel to keep us warm and dry.

Aching from the gym, I started back this morning after the holidays. Pleased to say I have already lost 1.5 kg in weight on the healthy eating plan. I also feel much more energetic and my metabolism seems to have been boosted back to life so I am very pleased. Love to all.... have a great weekend.

Thanks again your input is very useful.

shegar

jem132 wrote: »

Hi all sorry this is going to be a bit of a rant. Not only have I got a banging head I broke my tooth right down to the gum with a sharp point poking out yesterday. Arhhhhhh so I made an appointment with emergency dentist went out to the bloody car and the street was all cordended off by police someone had ran down our street naked and tried to get in to someone's house and been attacked. I was skered to bloody death I can't imagine how my poor nabior must of felt. I really do worry what this country is coming to, to top it all off my car was blocked by police tape and could not be moved I missed my dentist appointment. Arhhh I have to pay £25 to be allowed another appointment. So I rang the emergency dentist for my area and got an appointment for 4.15 tomorrow I am in so much bloody pain. Sorry I will go back and read now it's like living on the set of shameless hear arhhhhhhhhhh

My big tooth at the back also broke tea time on new years eve, also very painful indeed, no way was I going to phone emergency dentist ,ive done that before, at a cost...:eek: Next day was new years day so I got myself through to Jan 2 and was on the phone at 8.30 am, glad to say I got it sorted without paying OTT............

Ive had a !!!!! of a job this morning, when I went outside I could smell the dam drains....:eek::eek:, we have a outside loo and also the drain for the bathroom is out back, well to cut a long story short, I had to get the jet wash out and hose pipe and loadsa bamboo canes tied together,:eek: well I did unblock it after near on couple hours:mad:, not the best job on a nice sunny sunday morning , but glad ive gotr it completely clear and smelling fresh now, these dam newish toilets have such small cisterns which dont hold much water and I find about every month I have to clean the dam pipes right through down to the manhole cover 18 odd feet away.....:eek:Bloody jobs I get, but if I dont do it it will cost a lot to get dynorod out, like £135......:eek: so I end up in the !!!!.......so im out of the overalls and just had a shower...........

It was a nice start to the day but its now gone very foggy which cools everywhere down quick , so ive just lit my fire.........Sheila......

Uniscots97

katieowl wrote: »

HM clementine marmalade

Would you share the recipe please? I've got lots of clementines to use up.

katieowl_2

unixgirluk wrote: »

Would you share the recipe please? I've got lots of clementines to use up.

I'm not sure I used a recipe as such I'd been eying up one on the internet that was clementine and vanilla...and I'd been told by someone to make it set, I needed to add the juice of a lemon to it to increase the pectin. I think I followed a hybrid of the WI recipe and the one online, but I forgot the vanilla!

WI tangerine marmelade is 1kg of fruit, with a grapefruit and a lemon (I just used a couple of lemons) and 1.5kg sugar. I just sliced the clems very thinly as I wanted lots of peel, simmered it with some water (they said 2.7l for a kilo of fruit) until the peel was a bit tender (not two hours as suggested) and then tipped in the sugar, and lemon juices and boiled to setting point on a Jam therm. It's quite a solid set as it happens, but heavy on the peel as that's the bit I like best! My benchmark for marmalade is the one i used to get on day trips to France which is whole slices of orange set in orange jelly

Kate

2tonsils

Pops gave us a list of what he paid at Aldi for the following items..I thought you might be interested to see what they would cost me....he paid 13 pounds for his


My prices are in euros and are the cheapest prices here:

Tomatoes(six)but quite small 1.50
Cucumber 79 cents
Celery 2 euros
Lettuce 70 cents
Milk 79 cents (UHT one litre)
Cheap loaf of bread 1 euro
Bread Buns(6) 80 cents
Cup a soup(4 sachets) 1.90
Cheap packet of Jaffa Cakes 1.50
Mixed veg to dice for soups/stews 1.99 (frozen only mixed veg available)
Mushrooms 1.15 small punnet
A spread to butter bread. 1.30
I found a small ham joint. 7.50 (imported frozen)

Here, that 13 pounds worth of shopping would have come to 22.92 euros! I don't buy anything that is imported as I find it too expensive to afford out of my housekeeping money, I use Lidl's butter as its cheaper than margarine at 1.19 a block (and healthier). I make my own bread as I can't have gluten and you can't buy gluten free here.

It would be quite interesting to compare the prices of various things. At the current rate here 13 pounds equals roughly 15.60 euros so it costs a fair bit more here..where the average wage is now only 3 euros an hour (if you have a job that is) and the average pension is around 400 euros a month.

7_week_wonder

katieowl wrote: »

I cooked them the whole meal from the Ottolenghi book (Jerusalem) that I keep raving about. Lamb meatballs with cranberries (his suggested alternative to barberries, which are hard to get here!) A basmati, wild rice and spiced chickpea rice dish, a tray of roasted butternut and red onions with a tahini/lemon sauce, and a spiced carrot salad... Even if I say so myself it was pretty tasty. Everything I've cooked out of this book has been fantastic so far!

I got the book for Christmas too, but so far have just been drooling at the pictures, so it's good to hear that the recipes are as good as they sound! Is wild rice quite easy to get hold of? I had a look at that recipe and thought it sounded worth a go. I got some feta cheese at the supermarket this morning and intend to give the pearl barley risotto with marinated feta a go later in the week.

We've just had a fun couple of hours going through a box OH found in the loft when we emptied it for the insulation. We've found more family documents than we knew existed including a couple of things from the first world war!

Have a good evening everyone.

2tonsils

If you save all your lemon/orange/clementine peel in a large jam jar and top it up with white vinegar/cider apple vinegar and keep shaking it, in a couple of weeks you will have a nice spray cleaner (dilute it one to one first and put it in a spray). It cuts through grease and it smells amazing. It also keeps insects away from the kitchen in the summer months.

Another tip is to dilute a cap full of clothes softener in a spray bottle full of water...you can use it to freshen fabric and the air. It lasts for ages.

Feta can be used in omelettes, or baked in the oven with prawns and tomatoes chopped up with onions or baked on its own with a sprinkling of Paprika...the dish in the oven is called Saganaki (which my late father in law insisted on ordering as a dish of Nagasaki lol):rotfl: