Living on next to nought - is that the key?

AliBee16

Happy New Year to you, Greying, and your DP, and all the other Greying fans on this thread.
With your positiveness, I know 2014 will be a wonderful year for you. I hope you achieve everything you want - and then a little bit more.

Just a thought, but have you ever thought about starting a blog? You have a lovely narrative voice, and your recipes look wonderful. You could be the next Jack Monroe. :beer:

Karmacat

I second that, AliBee!

Greying, I'll be off out shortly, but just wanted to let you know how much *you* are appreciated by your visitors. Its lovely to come here to listen to someone who's thoughtful, who loves to eat and have the odd bottle of something, who has interests and wants to pursue those interests to the full.

Thank you! Have a wonderful New Year's Eve, and an equally wonderful start to next year too. Long may it continue, as well.

beanielou

Thank you for sharing so much of your journey with us.
I look forward to sharing more of your journey.

Piquant_2

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

Good Afternoon :hello:



So, DP has spent the rest of the day ripping wallpaper off the bathroom walls - how come it peels and looks awful, so when you make the decision to rip it off, it sticks like the stickiest thing!!! :huh: I would of helped DP, but he insisted I had a shower as the paint is now dry, and then said that I couldn't get dusty??? *sigh*

It hasn't occurred to you that DP just wanted to see you in your showering clothes? and then covered in dust? Who ever said that romance was dead?

Wishing you the very best of new year's greying. Thank you for the joy your diary gives me each and every day.

Piq

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Well, here we are - we made it over to the other side

AliBee16 - thank you for your lovely supportive post and kind comments - I'm really touched. Gosh, MsMonroe -she's a gal! A brilliant young lady, really brilliant. It is so good to see someone with the strength to follow their convictions.

Karma - hope you had a wonderful time out last night.

Beanie - thank you hun - I look forward to *seeing* you here too

Piq - our house is far too cold for *that* sort of thing :rotfl: Plus it's be a *treat* for the neighbours too, as the blind has had to be removed :rotfl:

Well, we did have a quiet night in. We caught up with T0y St0ry III - was it on on Christmas Day? And then we watched the 'Spring' episode of the 'Great British Year'. Very good photography - and I like the bit at the end where they tell you how the shots were made.

Dinner was really nice - even though I say so myself - but Rick Stein's Cashew nut curry is a favourite for NY in this house. I think it is light, yet zesty with lime, so it is just the treat for jaded palates It is also quite frugal - if you source your cashews from the 'snack' aisle in the SM rather than the 'wholefoods' section. After all, you soak the nuts for at least 30 mins, so any coatings get washed off :whistle: We had curry, rice, coriander and garlic naan bread (HB's 49p finest ) and a bottle of Riesling wine to go with it. The wine was Australian, rather than German, but is a wine that is good to accompany coconut/citrus curries. It worked very well indeed - my £4.99 purchase was a bargain after all Anyway, photo here;



If you are interested in the recipe - have a look at the cycling (of all things ) forum HERE, the recipe is written out by poster 'hoberinos' 8 posts down (ie not the white pumpkin recipe)

Oh, I have to say, I got given a small box of chocs by the non-gardening parental on Sunday. They stayed unopened until yesterday, but once opened - all the chocs got eaten (see! we're not that virtuous in this house :rotfl:) Luckily DP ate most of them (he was using up the energy), but we had the last couple after our curry - word of warning, Riesling does not go with 'inexpensive' chocolate - bluerk!!! :rotfl:

A few fireworks went off at 12. More than in November actually, but still, thankfully quite modest. Plus there have been considerably less of the 'fireworks masquerading as small munitions' this year. Thank goodness.

I reckon I shall be able to snag a NSD today - :j We're having 'Hoppin John' for dinner and I have everything in (and we won't be needing the ham hock, obviously ).

Better go and see if DP is OK - all the decorating is beginning to catch up with his body...... 'tis not pretty

Thank you for dropping in, reading and commenting. You know that I continue to appreciate it.

See y'all later.

Greying

Karmacat

Morning!

I had a lovely time, Greying, thank you - met up with my business partner's son, who I'd not seen for ages, and he's got some amazing work, that loads of people would kill for - he's a circus performer for private kids' parties! Stilts, fire work, the lot, amazing.

I was thinking of you and other peeps on here who said they'd be staying in, and mentioned I was preferring it - [STRIKE]next year,[/STRIKE] later this year I'm not going to go out and be dependent on a lift - I'll leave early, which I've done once before, even though it means I leave before midnight. That way, I get to be with friends *and* decide when to go to sleep. Falling asleep on someone else's couch is really not to be recommended :rotfl:

Sounds like you're decorating today ... definitely a case of starting as you mean to go on. I shall too - another cuppa tea, then I'm off to clean up the porch.

Bad_Weather

Happy new year!

And thanks for posting the recipes aswell Cashew curry may be my dinner tomorrow night!

Also hoping for a NSD - but already gave out a box of chocolates and a bottle of wine as first footers - does that count? X

Gintotmelinda

Afternoon Greying. Can I join in please? I have been reading your thread and love to hear what you are cooking and doing.

I was very inspired by reading about your lemony chickpea and spinach meal. So I looked for Anjum Anand's book and have ordered it from my local library. I love the way you cook with fragrant not hot spices and want to adventure there myself.

Keep up the good work.

Gintot

Tamara_2

Happy New Year from a vegetarian lurker who loves seeing photos of your meals and very much admires your cooking skills!

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

I just lost a huge post Why, oh why does Windows have to find fault with MSE and keep closing the page down? It doesn't matter if you've copied your post - it loses it :mad:

Gintotmelinda - welcome, I think I recognise your username from OS - maybe the grocery challenge?? Please join in, as a supporter of your local library, you'll fit right in on this thread

Tamara - welcome too, and thank you so much for your kind words, really appreciated.

KC - I dodged the decorating bullet - made lunch and went for a walk instead

Bad Weather - I'm not sure of the 'rules' of a NSD - I tend to be 'if money comes out of my purse, I have spent'. But I know there are different interpretations on different threads.

I achieved a NSD and we stuck to the meal as set out on the planner. A win I think :j

Dinner was 'Hoppin John' - the recipe I used was THIS ONE minus the ham hock. Picture here;



I'm not too sure that the picture does the dish any favours. It is actually a very tasty dish, and in fact, it could of used a little more salt. I also added in some allspice with the cloves and I sprinkled smoked paprika over, as in the original recipe, you use a smoked ham hock, so I figured it would add some authenticity to the veggie version. I didn't put diced tomato as a garnish - I figure at this time of year, raw tomatoes are rarely at their best, so I put some of the L*dl cherry tomatoes into the dish instead. We had this as our main course, it made sufficient for us to have a good portion each and there is a portion left for another day.

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

for a break in the weather - so that we could go out for a walk. Heaven.

for the freedom of annual leave - but also that 'normality' returns tomorrow. We're ready for it. Bring it on

for birdsong - wherever we walked today, we could hear birdsong, either close up or in the distance. A good reminder that the world is more, so much more than the latest antics of the human race.............

Thank you so much for popping in, reading and commenting. I continue to appreciate it.

See y'all later.

Greying