Living on next to nought - is that the key?

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

little_sweetie wrote: »

OH says thank you for the fiver too! :rotfl::rotfl:He thinks you're doing marvellously in getting me to experiment more and all my cake seems to vanish almost as soon as I've baked it.

Ah ha! So in fact, your DH owes me a fiver! :rotfl:

little_sweetie wrote: »

Have a super day, dear Greying, and curry sounds just the job for tonight...any going spare?

Unfortunately not All eaten/accounted for I'm afraid - but I'll give you the link to the recipes.............

satchmo and maddiemay - a sad loss indeed. But at least she got to live the length of her life, as well as the breadth. Many for whom she took up the struggle did not have that opportunity. The woman talked a lot of sense.

little_sweetie - thank you for the veggie update. Think we'll need to sort out some parsnip/carrot and tattie recipes, so that we can *help* you sample the booty :D

So, Wednesday evening - dank, damp and overcast with us - how bist it with you?

The highlight of this post is that I can legitimately claim a NSD :j Not a penny spent - even if I had any to spend

Dinner worked really well. It was tasty; it was cheap, it was simple to make and I had all the ingredients in :j even though I've had to delve *off planner*

We had Rose Elliot's Sweet potato and coconut dhal and Punjabi Ramja Masala curry (red kidney bean curry) with basmati rice. Photo here;



I have made the red kidney bean curry before, HERE is the recipe I use, although our own dear Memorygirl has a version too - find it HERE. But I had not made Rose's dhal - and I have to say, it was lovely, and it is definitely a keeper. I didn't have as much (weight) sweet potatoes as the recipe called for, but I put in what I had and used the same amount of red lentils. I've found a version on the net of the recipe, and the blogger has *halved* the recipe, but as she says, feel free to double, triple, quadruple the quantities, as it is good You can find that recipe HERE Well worth making - if you like curry - the dhal would be good on its own or with rice. I use coconut powder, which makes the dish even more economical. And although I'm fed up of the rain, I am grateful that the weather isn't screaming SALAD - or else I would be sunk

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

for wise women

for lovely fellas - especially those in charge of the tea urn

for the act of pausing and reflecting - it does help :D

Thank you so very much for popping in, reading, commenting, conversing and generally joining in on this thread. I do appreciate it. Greatly.

See y'all later.

Greying

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Gosh, morning already - last evening disappeared in a blur. The good thing is that I made yoghurt :j Not only is it *about time too*, but it also enhances the options for dinner - which will have to be *salad* based, whatever the blooming weather ends up doing - it seems *drizzling* is the option du jour at present......

You can tell the weather is milder though - the yoghurt took ages to cool down last night. I was really contemplating changing to using UHT milk! I think this is about the 6th or 7th incarnation of my *starter* and I'm beginning to wonder if it is time to start again. It is making perfectly nice, quite thick yoghurt, but it is no longer like the Liberte brand that I started out with - that said, that brand is no longer around in the discount freezer store for 45p a tub, and I ain't paying mrS prices :eek:

Oh, and I forgot to mention that the rice in last night's dinner was lemon rice by the virtue of the fact that I tossed the *used* lemon carcass into the pot as it boiled/steamed. It made it lovely and fragrant - it works really well if your lemon is good to start with, but can't be relied upon to always furnish you with lemon scented rice. But last night I was lucky

I'm going to go for a NSD today. There should be nothing that we need, and I'm definitely all about the pride of hitting 15 days now! :D

Dinner will be a selection of salads. Operation *scrape together and use up* will be in order, so the exact composition is currently as much of a mystery to me, as it is in fact, for you

Have a good day one and all.

Thanks for popping by - I really appreciate it.

See y'all later.

Greying

Shortie

Morning Greying x

The red bean dhal looks lovely, might give that a go one day!

Hmm... I need to retry yoghurt making as my first attemp wasn't great. But then, I used long life milk instead of fresh so not sure if that was part of the problem? Or maybe my starter wasn't great (can't remember what I bought now...!). And I used a large thermos flask - maybe too much spare space and it cooled too quickly?

But I love bircher breakfasts so I should really try to crack it

Have a fab day

in_need_of_direction

Just popping in to say hello and thank you Greying and friends for such a consistently upbeat chat. Love the idea of scrape together and use. When my two were smallish, we used to have left over / store cupboard dinner once a week. It was always their favourite as it was totally random.

Igamogam

in_need_of_direction wrote: »

Just popping in to say hello and thank you Greying and friends for such a consistently upbeat chat. Love the idea of scrape together and use. When my two were smallish, we used to have left over / store cupboard dinner once a week. It was always their favourite as it was totally random.

"Bottom of the Fridge Soup" favourite in our house:)

mouche

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

We had Rose Elliot's Sweet potato and coconut dhal and Punjabi Ramja Masala curry (red kidney bean curry) with basmati rice. Photo here;

Hello Greying...popping in with my unwanted comments on Indian food again! Indians would not eat dal and rajma at the same meal as they are considered the same 'type' of food i.e. lentil/ bean. Perhaps similar to eating rice and mash at the same meal. Having said which, I firmly believe in the liberating power of not knowing what is the 'right' thing to do in each cuisine - frees you up to experiment and discover things you otherwise wouldn't have.

I am reminded of being told a few years after I moved to the UK that cider was a 'low class' drink. I'm not sure what my informant meant by low class but I am perfectly happy to be it now that I know the joy of a cold bottle of pear cider in the summer heat. Lack of preconceptions is a joyous thing!

supersaver1000

Thanks Greying for the lemon rice tip, what a good idea. I bought a tray of veetee coconut rice the other day. It was okay but I'd like to make my own. I also love peshwari naan.

Shortie I noted the red bean dhal too, one for the recipe pile definitely.

INOD you are right this thread is so upbeat, so uplifting. .

Igamogram. Bottom of the fridge soup? We call it that too - it's always delicious.

Mouche that is so interesting. And yes cider was laws a cheap drink. I thinks it's been through a change now though. Wet end to eat what feels good together.

Have a great evening all and please send me fairy dust while I wait for the job confirmation. :T:):A:rotfl:

ps choc orange cup cakes delicious although slightly bitter. Will add some orange zest next time and maybe find a less bitter marmalade/sweeter chocolate. Does anyone have any MSE tips please?

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Oooh, visitors, how luverly...............

shortie - you don't say what was actually *wrong* with the yoghurt...... There was plenty of space in the flask I used last night, as I only used 500ml of milk in a 750ml food flask. I did put hot water in the flask to warm it though, whilst I heated up/cooled down the milk, and I always tip that out just before the milk/culture goes into the flask. Actually, once it cooled down in the fridge and firmed up, this batch of yoghurt is OK. It did a satisfying *sqwelch* as I pulled a spoonful out at tea-time - just like mousse!

Thanks for popping in - lovely to see you as ever

INOD - what happened when you spent a heap of pennies on fancy grub, spent hours cooking and preparing at the stove and presented the plates in the manner of a 5* mitchlin cafe???? Did they notice???? :rotfl:

Igamogam - I tell ya, 'tis soup weather - not bottom of the fridge 'salad' :rotfl: Lovely of you to pop in

mouche - aagghhh! Ya got me But I've learnt something new today, so thank you And always, always, always come and discuss food with me here on this thread - I love to learn as much as I can. Although as a disclaimer, I am drawn to foods of the East because they hold more interest for vegetarians than foods of the West. I'm a super keen amateur cook, but don't really know anything about any conventions, of any cuisines

And yes, there is truth in what you say about cider. In Britain, it was traditionally a drink offered to farm workers, and indeed, formed *part payment* for work carried out on the farms, so a beverage with *working class* origins, most certainly. It has however, undergone a marketing makeover, of which things like pear cider have been brought forth. And it has become a more populist drink, but I think cider producers would argue that the commercialisation has changed what is perceived to be *cider* I agree, the pear cider is nice and refreshing, but if you ever get the chance, try proper Perry (alcohol made from pears, but a world apart from pear cider as is popularly marketed) Lovely to see you, hope life is settling back down for you, given the recent upheaval

I can claim a NSD :j:j It didn't even enter my head to spend anything, I have had everything that I needed today

The weather didn't change all day. At least the mizzle wasn't really wetting when you went out in it, but t'was a grey day when all said and done

Dinner this evening was blooming well salad, because we ain't blooming well got nowt else! :rotfl:Anyway, as it turned out, I tried a new salad that I'd not made before - Silvena Rowe's white bean and barley salad with beetroot and yoghurt, coupled with Yotam Ottolenghi's spicy morrocan carrot salad and a Greying original; what was left over of the frozen green beans, tossed with a diced tomato, in an oil/vinegar vinaigrette with sesame seeds

Verdict? YUM CHEAP and USING WHAT I HAD

Picture here;



Sorry the pic ain't brilliant, but the light was a lot poorer than it looks. The colours were much brighter on the plate than they look I didn't blend the beetroot/yoghurt into a dressing as the recipe stated, I though it would look good as two separate items. I also had no spare sultanas, but substituted with chopped up dates - which were lovely and sweet and worked well with the walnuts. Also, I used haricot beans, because I had them - it appears everyone else who has made this dish used butter beans Oh, and in Yotam's dish, he used chopped up preserved lemon, I had none, so used ordinary lemon zest. I also put the carrots through the processor to julienne them, and didn't bother to cook them. They were lightly crunchy, as the vinegar acts on them a little. I obviously didn't add more yoghurt to them, as it was on the bean salad anyway.

Another of my *salads* made and scoffed - right chuffed given the awful weather

If you are interested in having a go at making Silvena's salad, a copy of her recipe is HERE. If you would like to make Yotam's recipe, it can be found HERE. And if you need a 3rd salad, then go empty your freezer and fridge salad drawers like I did :rotfl:

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

a roof over my head that I can call home

progress with a purpose

everyday abundance - and thank you all for contributing a great deal of that into my life

Thank you so very much for popping in, reading, commenting and teaching me things. Always appreciated.

I'm away to make bread dough and update my siggie figgies

See y'all later.

Greying

Shortie

Evening Greying x

(urgh, I seem to have lost the ability to use smilies for some reason..)
From memory it was *almost* as running as the milk that went in...

But not to be put off, I've had another on the go this evening and take two is currently sat on the side in the kitchen and I'll take a peek before I leave for work tomorrow :-D


My only concern this time was that my thermometer stopped reducing in temp suddenl so I have a feeling it wasn't going down properly to the lower tmps - which may mean it cooled down too much and I have no idea. Still, will see what happens this time. I used semi skimmed fresh milk this time instead of semi skimmed UHT


Fingers crossed :-)

Cheery_Daff

Evening :hello:

((((little sweetie)))) just wanted to give you a hug about your prang hope you can sort it more cheaply than it first seems! xx

Sorry for disappearing after first raving about how exciting sprouting is

I didn't manage it for years, because of the hassle of rinsing and because I often didn't bother to rinse enough, leaving my beans slimy and horrid and inedible

Solved that by keeping them actually ON the kitchen sink - no excuse! :j

I have a couple of the green lid things from proper kits (although they're just on ordinary jars) - both mine came from charity shops. All they really do is prop the jar on its side for draining.

I tend to tip the whole lot out into the seive and give a good swirling rinse - bit paranoid after my previous experiences

Still haven't managed to make aduki beans work, perhaps they're too old... I mostly do dried chick peas and brown lentils - both about £3 for a giant bag from the Asian grocery shop They last forever.

As for what to do with them... Chick pea sprouts I take to work as a snack Seriously, I love them just raw, on their own Otherwise I sprinkle them on top of soup, risotto, salad, pasta - anything really, they just add a lovely fresh crunch to anything Lentil sprouts are particularly nice on toast with soft cheese

I never quite figured out how to do it with those trays though - mine never seemed to drain through to the next shelf...