Living on next to nought - is that the key?

little_sweetie

PS the Buddha bowl looked delish last night. Are you having another house party tonight by any chance?

Pippilongstocking

Waves to GP and waves to lovely peeps.

Piq - you're a scoundrel. I was clearing out my desk at work the other day and thought of you - when I found my 'cow' records from my p/t job in the early day's of mse.

Little-sweetie - BT and I are no chums at the moment either. Fiends.

Ah the vinyl debucle - can you ask DP to have a wee quiet word with TRG as three large boxes of the black gold are currently in my side of the 'soon to be shared' double wardrobe at TRG's current pad.

Allegedly these are potentially non-negotionable as they are mainly cheesey 80's guitar rock from which my Rock Genius was borne.

And, no there is no device with which to play them either at ours Cheery - I'm sure Mr Cheery and TRG are long lost brothers.......

I suggested this idea.......for a record roof

Needless to say I've had my wardrobe privileges removed for the moment.



Have a great day!

PS - Greying will keep you right MrsInvisible but I think........

Corn meal = polenta

Is that right?

kem10

Just nipping in to say hello Greying

I've been away for a couple of weeks so shall catch up on all the goings on over here when I get a chance.

Hope everyone is well

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Visitors! how luverly :D

mrsinvisible - I hope that you didn't get blown away! And yay to rescuing shrubs in pots from it :j Yes, Pippi has given you the correct info. Cornmeal is ground up, dried maize/sweetcorn. It is light yellow in colour and if you are buying it from an Asian store, or Caribbean foods stockists, you would ask for cornmeal. If you went to a high class deli, or supermarket you would have to look for polenta - which is what the Italians call it If you are ever thinking of buying some, get it from an Asian store/worldfoods aisle in the supermarket/Chinese or Caribbean food stockists. It is the same product, but will cost you a whole heap less of money! Of course, our American friends call it cornmeal too - hence why it is in the scrapple It is a versatile product, and can be used for many things. It comes in coarse or fine versions - I use the coarse to stop the pizza sticking to the pan. I make polenta (wet and moulded) with my cornmeal, and I gave some to the non-gardening parental who made a gluten free cake (ground almonds, polenta and lemon) from the mrM magazine.

Whatever you do, do not by the 'ready made' polenta. It looks like a block of marzipan, and I've no idea what it tastes like, but it's not what you need for cooking (and if you have the meal, you can make your own cooked polenta anyway - easy). Speaking of which, cooked polenta doesn't taste of much, but you use it to carry other flavours. I use THIS normally, getting it a couple of bags a time from mrW when I go up to the city on a day pass And whilst you may think that £1.50 is dear, and you've no need for 1.5kg, believe me, go to a deli and they'll have you paying £6 for a bag a fraction of the size HTH

little_sweetie - get you with your successful gu1ness stew :T:T:T I'm loving how you're pitching in and having a go - I reckon you'll be providing the recipes for us all just now Yes, I agree, folk should have a say over what they can do with their hard-earned pension pots. However, it all seems too good to be true, so...... I have an inkling that we'll have the opportunity to do what we want, and in a little while, the 'safety net' of a state pension will be withdrawn. Everyone will have to have their own provision and it'll have to last. Couple that with the dismantling of the nhs and we'll have ourselves the American system before you know it Someone will still be getting rich somewhere, but I don't think it will be working folk with pension provision.....
Bread and circuses, bread and circuses.......

Pippi! Lovely to *see* ya :D Why don't you *shock* TRG into submission and say that you need the wardrobe space for your *dresses* - then whilst he's passed out on the floor in amazement, quickly shove yer wellies in and shut the door :rotfl: And yes, course you were right, Dear Thing :D

Heellllloooo to you too kem10. Lovely to *see* ya. Ta for popping by

So, today has been spendy, swirling (wind) and spitty (rain) But a good 'un none-the-less

I managed to be over the right side of town with access to the car, so I made whoopee in L*dl at lunchtime, partaking of their onion offer (5kg for £1.39). I got 3 bags as we use a lot of onions and I'm hopeful they'll last until the next time onions are on offer, or I get to go up to the big city on a day pass and get to go to the Asian supermarket. I was able to buy the onions from 'storecupboard' money. I put a portion of my grocery money aside each month to pay for items that I buy in bulk, so onions, oats, pasta, rice etc.

Also, if you shop in L*dl, or have access to one - their 4 pints of milk are currently 95p rather than £1, so a small saving. Perhaps they are feeling the pressure from the mrW offer of 4 pints for £1 with a mywaitr*se card.

I popped into mrM as I was passing, just to see if they had any bargains. They must think folk are stoopid. In their 'YS'd' veg section, they had bags of carrots, labelled as 2kg for 59p. I thought, 'that's never 2kg'. And they weren't - they were 1kg. So they were in fact, only 10p cheaper than fresh produce with plenty of date on them, whereas these were starting to go mushy at the tips........*sigh*

Dinner this evening turned out to be tomato soup with black olive and red pepper herb scones. Delish - even if I do say so myself I had no carrot to make the tomato soup sweet, so used a bendy parsnip instead - it did the same thing Picture of dinner here;



And just in case you are interested, picture of the scones here;



Recipe for the basic scones HERE. All I did was omit the cheese, add in 25g more marg instead and then added in chopped olives, red pepper and meditteranean herbs.

Oh, and can I pass on a top tip that I got from Heidi Swanson's book, Super Natural Everyday and that is to fold the scone dough - like you might if you were making ruff puff or puff pastry. You only need to do it a couple of times. It makes the scones rise up beautifully - although I cut mine a bit thick too I should have got 10 out of a double mixture and only got 9


Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

MSE'rs who take the time to post about bargains - in this case dlusman who posted about the onions in L*dl

for the simplicity of scones - I don't make them often enough - considering how easy they are!

That budgeting accounted for most of what I purchased today - will just need to try a little harder with the main grocery budget next month

Thank you so much for popping in, reading and commenting and helping each other out with information exchanging. Always appreciated

See y'all later.

Greying

Pippilongstocking

Hey up glad you didn't swirl away.

Thank you for the onions heads up - can I move with bags of onions?

Potentially



TRG has seen my ample frock collection but I *Could* offer to listen to some guitar music that might do it.



Ponders scones with bits in - they do look yummy!

Have a great 'morrow'.

Waves to all the good fellows on here.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Pippilongstocking wrote: »

Thank you for the onions heads up - can I move with bags of onions?

NOPE........

Pippilongstocking wrote: »

Potentially

NO NO NO! We'll get Memorygirl to give you the 'heads up' when L*dl have the offer on next, it is quite a regular offer. Besides which, Karma is gonna have me guts fer garters for even seeding such a thought in your head!

Pippilongstocking wrote: »

Ponders scones with bits in - they do look yummy!

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: Oh Pippi you do so make me laugh. That's me inner Mary Berry-ness deflated then :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:



So here we are again. Friday already.

Today must be a NSD. Partly because I am now in minus figures and partly because there is nowt specific that we need.

Dinner this evening is going to be a new recipe. I'll have to check if the recipe is on the net for you all first. Potentially quite a 'refined' dish - but watch me 'mangle' it good and proper :rotfl: It also 'notionally' needs mascarpone (hence why my eye was drawn to the stuff in marksandspensives t'other day) but I made yoghurt last night, :j so i'll make some labneh and use that instead

Right, time is a-ticking. Best get a wiggle on.

Thanks so much for popping in, reading and joining in. I greatly appreciate it.

See y'all later.

Greying

mrsinvisible

Thanks both for the info re cornmeal, I have added it to the shopping list. Also, gonna make scones today, when DGS gets in from school, he loves cooking.
I am going to school today to walk part of the fancy socks mile, DD and I will do a lap each, as she is disabled and I am decrepit, we can't manage the whole thing, but will do our bit.
Sun is shining today, what a cheek!
Re the pension thing, you have to have an income of £12000 per annum from 'other sources' before you can 'cash in' so that's a lot of us plebbies out of the ring. Also, £12000 seems to be the level at which you cant get any help like tax credits with your pension, so they really are sneaking a fast one, only really helping their rich cronies to avoid buying a poor return annuity and reinvesting in something better, while us masses will be left with no alternative to the annuity which will be an even worse return because the 'pot ' will be smaller. Many annuity providers will not survive. That's my take on it anyway.
Now, off into the greenhouse, to relax.

Karmacat

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:Pippi needs to be with TRG, you're quite right, Greying :beer:

Onions .... mmmmmm ... I cooked a sort of fresh onion chutney a little while ago - sloshed a Sa1nsbo own Nice Vinegar into it, it was v delish :beer: and my Alexanders have started growing properly, as have my chives - I won't use the Alexanders this season, but I will the chives, very yummy.

Have a good'un, Greying and all :kisses3:

beanielou

Happy Friday GP & friends

little_sweetie

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

little_sweetie - get you with your successful gu1ness stew :T:T:T I'm loving how you're pitching in and having a go - I reckon you'll be providing the recipes for us all just now

Oh my goodness, GP, I think you would all either starve or be living on beans on toast! :rotfl::rotfl:


Yes, I agree, folk should have a say over what they can do with their hard-earned pension pots. However, it all seems too good to be true, so...... I have an inkling that we'll have the opportunity to do what we want, and in a little while, the 'safety net' of a state pension will be withdrawn. Everyone will have to have their own provision and it'll have to last. Couple that with the dismantling of the nhs and we'll have ourselves the American system before you know it Someone will still be getting rich somewhere, but I don't think it will be working folk with pension provision.....
Bread and circuses, bread and circuses.......

I do think you have a valid point there, GP. I have a gut feeling that they would like to eliminate state pensions totally but don't know how to do it without causing a riot hence the creeping up of retirement age.... But see mrsinvisible's point about the £12,000 other income. I'd missed that bit....:cool:

Greying

Thank you mrsinvisible for the info. See... two heads are better than one. Hope the school walk went well.

Good news!! I have 2 parsnip shoots in the tub and some of my airing cupboard seeds have little white legs :j Woohoo!
And Pippi....Pippi....my tatties are shooting up in the bag I am so excited :j

Have a lovely evening everyone. I shall be watching Gardener's World x