Living on next to nought - is that the key?

satchmo1

In the interest of cuisine of all nations, I had a fab birthday family lunch at an Italian restaurant (Volare, Lord Street, Southport) where they truly cared for both my elderly mum (84) and darling granddaughter (10). White beans and tuna salad was my starter, and it was yum. I'll be trying that at home soon. Their lasagne was sublime, but the profiteroles were heavenly.


The starter chosen by DGD was smoked salmon, and the waitress was asked if the chef could be very generous with it - and chef was very generous. Like DGD like DS1 - as I reminisced with DS about him being served the most enormous plate of smoked salmon at a lovely restaurant in France when he was a similar age.


DS2 and his GF only managed to join us for desert, due to an appointment that started late and dragged. However the staff were so accommodating, and only asked at 2:45 whether DS2 and GF would want lunch, or could chef go home.


I make no apology for naming the restaurant, as it's so hard to find authentic restaurants that care about their diners and serve quality food at reasonable prices.


There's a food and drink festival here in Southport this weekend, which DH and I are looking forward to. We've both enjoyed finding where the decent restaurants are, whilst toning up with all the walking we're doing.


During a general chat about ex's parents, I made DS2 promise to get my mum some home grown rhubarb. We all love rhubarb crumble, yum.


Today I am grateful for my lovely family, for extended family, for friends in the box, for loving my new life in this lovely seaside town and for philosophical/mindfulness discussions with DH


Hugs, Satchmo xx

boredofbeingathome

Looks lovely as usual Greying.

I have been a domestic goddess today-that pretender to the throne Nigella had nowt on me.

Found some reduced cream when i went shopping-snaffled it quickly and made HM butter with it and butter milk ( by product i know, but sounds good):money:

With said HM butter and buttermilk- I made some scones...i have to say family fought over these. Beautifully light, rose to great heights and i will make again. My best batch so far. I may have omitted to mention that Rhodda's cream was also reduced-but was spread liberally on said scones, with a dollop of jam.

I also made a rather delicious tea with Hm rissoles, new potatoes and veg.:drool: It did have the side effect of DD2 maybe coming home early from Uni digs...not exactly the result i was looking for. I think i am feeding her too much:cool::eek::rotfl:

Oh yes Nigella eat your heart out.....:rotfl::rotfl:

sunnyskies2

Hi Greying

....yes, dull and rather chilly weather here lately, and now I have salady sprouts ..but I need warm food in cold weather ...bit a a cold mortal me..... DS loves them though:) !! ..and basil seeds popping up after 2 days - that was quick!

And mouche's comments so interesting, cultural foodie mis-understandings can be amusing- on holiday in Greece we were regularly served rice and chips on the same plate!

Best wishes all

Sarah

mcculloch29

Hello again Greying and apologies for absence.
Thank you for such wonderful inspiration with your recipes Greying.
Beanielou, if yours is a motor trike, you were very lucky to escape serious injury.
If it is a pedal trike, it happened to me twice in my early triking days, both sideways tipping over incidents. Embarrassing . Once when forced into a gutter with severe camber by two cars and once when I wasn't concentrating in our cul-de-sac and hit a dropped drain. Luckily I had leather gloves on that saved me.

Today I got the last two copies of the newspaper with £5 voucher in for A!di. I felt slightly guilty at not leaving one, and then thought, 'Pfrt, that's £4.50 saved next week if I take it'. Vouchers for things I use too - cheap risotto, cereal, nuts, bread.

Going to see my horses Sunday (own 5% of each, a yearling and a two year old) and asparagus is promised.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

shortie - well? Did it work??

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

I mostly do dried chick peas and brown lentils - both about £3 for a giant bag from the Asian grocery shop They last forever.

Cheery - thank you for popping in That is good to know, as that is where I get all my beans/chickpeas/lentils from, so I will be using what I would otherwise boil up/make into curry etc. And thank you for the list of 'uses' - I'm going to study that some more :think:

satchmo1 wrote: »

I make no apology for naming the restaurant, as it's so hard to find authentic restaurants that care about their diners and serve quality food at reasonable prices.

satchmo - I now want a profiterole! :rotfl:I agree about embracing good restaurants - they are indeed, rarer than hen's teeth from my experience. I got stopped by some 'out of towners' (actually, they were from the other side of the globe) yesterday and asked directions, and then for a lunch recommendation :eek: Given that you can eat for less at places like the RC canteen than some establishments where I am, I wouldn't recommend anywhere!

sunnyskies2 wrote: »

on holiday in Greece we were regularly served rice and chips on the same plate!

And in the lovely Principality, they call that *half & half* and it's LUSH! :rotfl: Thanks for popping in sunnyskies - good news with the sprouts

Bob - can I come round to live at yours????? Pleeeeaaaasssseee All that sounds wonderful - move over nigella indeed - you rock da joint Lovely to see you by the way :D

mcculloch - I'm not sure what is better - vouchers, horses or asparagus! I think at a push, I'd plump for the asparagus! Good to see you popping in

Right, I'm gonna have to shift a tail-feather.

I might not get a NSD today, depends whether the need for potatoes to make wedges to go with pizza tonight gets overwhelming.........

So the best I can probably promise is a LSD.

Dinner = spinach pizza. And I'll be cooking the bread rolls at the same time as the dough's risen well in the fridge over night.

Right, really gotta dash, running late.

Thanks for popping in, reading, commenting and making conversation - wonderful. I appreciate it greatly

See y'all later.

Greying

Shortie

Thank you Greying for the inspiration to retry the yoghurt

Am feelng like a domestic godess right now after (with the help of Mr Shortie) we made a sucessful, so thick I had to coax it out with a spoon, natural yoghurt. It's now sat in the fridge waiting so I can make a bircher breakfast with it for tomorrow

I also made a batch of tortilla dough and froze it so that there's some ready fot lunches if wanted. I'll see how sucessfully it defrosts, rolls and cooks before I make a whopper batch for dinnera etc too

Oh and we made a garlicy, breadcrumb, spaghetti with the excess spaghetti left over from dinner. No prizes for guessing what I have for lunch today!

Sorry to talk all over your diary, felt the need to share

little_sweetie

Good evening Greying, :hello:

Tea looks lovely as always and thanks so much for the curry recipe links yesterday. I was inspired to make curry for tea tonight but we too have nowt in (and no money until Monday) After a bit of a rummage I found a jar of Rogan Josh sauce at the back of the cupboard (still in date, fortunately) half a sweet potato, a small ordinary potato, 2 tiny onions from a large bag and a tiny bit of frozen Quorn. I threw it all in the sauce with a few frozen peas for extra protein and did plain boiled rice to go with it. I so wish I had half a lemon to pop in with the rice, thank you for the tip... OH christened it Cobbled Curry :rotfl::rotfl:He ate it heartily and agreed that, in fact, he should send you a fiver for inspiring me to greatness! There is also a portion left to freeze for another day :T

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

Thank you so much, Cheery Daff, but it is going to cost almost £2000 so I have to go through the insurance. I have to find £300 on completion of repairs None of my neighbours can understand how it will cost so much but I have to go with the flow now, I'm afraid. At least repairs have been authorised. I was a bit concerned that they might have written my car off. It's probably only worth £3000.....Such is life.....

Thanks for the tips re sprouting, I might give it a go too.

Greying, I wonder if Pippi got the keys today? I do hope all went well, bless her little stripey socks

Have a lovely evening, I'm off to tidy up and settle down to Gardener's World later. BTW did anyone see the poor little rabbit kits on Springwatch? It brought tears to my eyes. I know it's Nature and all that but still ......

starnac

Pops out of lurkdom to say yes Pippi did get her keys today.

Fortune_Smiles

Hello Greying. Haven't been able to catch up on diaries for ages so just popping in to say "Hi".


Fortune x

little_sweetie

starnac wrote: »

Pops out of lurkdom to say yes Pippi did get her keys today.

That's wonderful, it's good to know