Living on next to nought - is that the key?

muddywhitechicken

:wave:

I've suggested/requested Afghan carrot hotpot to Mr MWC a couple of times this month and he's pooh-poohed it
I might just have to cook for myself :eek: :rotfl:

And I must mention the Vietnam cookery programme to him - thanks for the reminder!

MWCx

mothernerd

Upsidedown_Bear wrote: »

Poor Smilie - he has been windswept today.

I know how smilie feels. And I brought in the washing I'd left out overnight (brought the dry stuff in, left the rest and when I read your warning last night it was too dark and muddy - Ds2 has been digging it and I have sown 'lawn' seed, no guarantee it will work) as I didn't want to go hunting the neighbourhood for it.

Goodnight all.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Well, what a day today I have to say, I suspect that we have got off quite lightly with the weather here. Sure it was very windy - got worse this arvo - and we got caught in 2 sharp showers of rain. However, for the most part the sun has been shining and the wind was *tolerable* in strength for most of the time that we were outside. I hope that you are all safe and well - as clearly the weather has been worse in some areas of the country.

We got most of what we wanted off the high street, and completed some of the 'life admin' stuff too. It is definitely true that men and women approach things in a completely different way - shopping being one of them.......

Mind, I ran out of cash in my purse before we had actually got everything on the list. This is partly due to getting lunch in early which may or may not have also included a cherry scone (for me) and a slice of coffee walnut cake (for him).......However, when did pipe insulation and masking tape get so dear? We're on to our second roll of the tape - just with decorating the one room.... But the pipe insulation...... lawks! Still, I did also bag some barginacious garlic - for 69p for a net of 4 HUGE bulbs I then saw the same brand of garlic/same nets in the greengrocers for £1.29......... :j

Upsidedown Bear - I'm gonna have to become a 'tenner lady' if you keep posting such amusing smilies....... Thank you, you've made me laugh and smile today - priceless :D

So, dinner this evening. Well, I have to say that I am as pleased as punch Of course the soup that I made was split pea Having somewhat of an abundance of them..... But to accompany, I had read somewhere about 'Stottie Cakes' - of which I'd heard of, but not really understood what they were. Well, they are a type of bread roll - normally quite flatish and circular, and something that was made in the bottom of the oven, at the end of the days baking. So I gave them a go Dear residents of the North East of England - would you please take a bow for providing the rest of the world with such a lush food item my goodness, they were so tasty, and yet so simple to make :j They have a beautiful crust, and a lovely crumb inside, and to think that it is flour, yeast, water/milk, sugar and salt (mine had a grind or two of pepper in too) they taste wonderful. You can make them in 2 hrs - (most of that is rising time, although you do have to knead the dough 'robustly' for 10 minutes) and they can be used for savoury or sweet fillings.

I ended up doing a 'play' on words, by following a recipe for split pea soup called, 'The London Particular Yellow Split Pea Soup' - which I know that you know is a reference to London's 'pea-souper' fog/smog of the early part of the 20th century, and accompanying this pea soup with Stottie Cakes from the North-East, 'coz we all know that, 'the fog on the Tyne is all mine, all mine.......' (I know, I'm silly, but it makes meal times fun )

The soup recipe can be found HERE the only things I did differently were to add a bay leaf (remove before blitzing/serving), some dried thyme (a pinch) and a generous shake of smoked paprika. I vaguely followed THIS recipe for the stottie cakes - you'll see in the comments, that the liquid is too much in the recipe. I only made half recipe, so I used 150ml of liquid - half milk and half water (other recipes use all milk/milk powder/potato water), I used 250g Bread flour (mrL) and a grind or two of black pepper - hadn't got white pepper but thought it would be good, as it was to accompany a savoury dish (it was - and the aroma of the pepper came through as it cooked). I love that the recipe author tells us that Stotties were born of thrift and frugality I'm ok to make them and record them here then, aren't I? :D

Picture of my efforts;



I like that the stottie recipe made a 'traditional' robust bread roll - I think if you buy one in a shop, you'll get a much softer roll. But according to plenty of sources on the web, a robust bread is what you're after. I will definitely be adding these to my bread-making repertoire. Thank you the North-East of England Love that our regional food is good, tasty and interesting.

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

A lovely new recipe

That Karma reminded me to look out for the meteor shower tonight - if the clouds clear

For canny predecessors, their frugal ways and for the passing on of the knowledge -

Thank you so very much for popping in, reading and joining in. I greatly appreciate it.

I hope you're somewhere safe, warm and dry this evening.

See y'all later.

Greying

Greying_Pilgrim

muddywhitechicken wrote: »

:wave:

I've suggested/requested Afghan carrot hotpot to Mr MWC a couple of times this month and he's pooh-poohed it
I might just have to cook for myself :eek: :rotfl:

And I must mention the Vietnam cookery programme to him - thanks for the reminder!

MWCx

Love - let him get himself a cheese sandwich, and come round to ours - I'll cook it for you!

I'm sure it will be repeated (you know what FN is like) but the series has moved on to Thailand now. I think there are possibly 7 or 8 programmes in each series. I've definitely watched 5 or 6 of the Vietnam ones, and we've 4 Thailand ones taped, in addition to one or two Vietnam ones left to watch. Reza does get a bit annoying at times, but he's certainly made interesting programmes. He was trying to fish in a boat - of course, he acted up to the camera - but the really interesting thing is that the design was exactly the same as a coracle. However, these were being used out on the ocean (to catch squid) and were made from woven bamboo (I think).

mothernerd - hope the weather has settled with you now. Still, if it keeps 'warm' for the time of year, your grass seed has plenty of chance to get going and grow

Greying

supersaver1000

Nom nom nom

Upsidedown_Bear

Time for bed I think.
Goodnight all.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Off out walking today. I'm just away to make up some snap.

Thankfully the wind seems to have died right down - well, I can't hear it. The sky is clear, but I realised that I hadn't actually looked up where I was supposed to be looking to see the meteor shower :doh:I got one chance in 'darkness' it's got too light with the light's from people's houses now Ah well.

Have a great day, whatever you are up to today.

Thanks for popping in, reading, commenting and joining in. Mucho, mucho appreciated by me.

See y'all later.

Greying

Karmacat

The Halley's Comet dust trail thing! I didn't see it either

Have a lovely day out walking with your snap, Greying

Upsidedown_Bear

Smilie of the day.

Pippilongstocking

Upsidedown_Bear wrote: »

Smilie of the day.

hope the walk was good!

Waves to greying and chums.

:A