Living on next to nought - is that the key?

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Brr, is it me or is it still as cold as when it was icy? I thought rain was supposed to *warm* things up..... brrrrr!

Upsidedown Bear - I am now going round muttering, 'I cudda been a contender, I cudda been a contender........' :rotfl:

INOD - I'll look out for them in H0me bargins, they seem to have a wider range of TAyto stuff these days, and I don't suppose there is enough wusta sauce in a packet to have even worried a scale off of a anchovy, so I'll give 'em a bash if I see them. I expect *umaminess* to the highest level from them mind....... :rotfl:

NoOneAround - don't worry, we've all busy lives - I'm not tallying your visits It's lovely to *see* you. Glad that you dropped by

On the OS board, Caterina has shared a good site that is looking to make people aware of Buy Nothing Saturday 29th Nov. 2014 there is a video on the website - called 'Live Rich'. It's about 4 minutes long. If you have the time, take a peek - it really is excellently done, and should appeal to a wide audience. The last scene speaks.... volumes.........

So, today I didn't manage a NSD, as I was near to a mrA and they actually had some pak choi in stock, which was one of the ingredients for dinner, so I bought a bag. I don't think weekly shopping is as good for NSD's as my shopping is 'bitty'. However, I am able to snag a bit more YS'd stuff, and I'm on course to have a small surplus of my budget at the end of the month, so a close review will be in order of how we may manage the budget going forward.......

Dinner this evening....... mmmmm....... Put it this way, DP always tries to be positive about my food, and when I asked him should the dish be put on the menu plan again, he was non-committal. So when I asked should I put it on again next week, he said, no, he would go and get chips....... :rotfl: I made Vegetarian Pho (apparently pronounced 'fuh') It wasn't the recipe. What really hijacked it was a too hot chilli. But I don't think Vietnamese food works for us. I'm sure there is a knack to it, but I've yet to discover that knack :rotfl: The broth was lovely, and I hadn't eaten pak choi before, but I would eat it again, we both liked it. I wasn't overly keen on the thai basil, again, a new to me taste, but not one I'm keen on. I used soba noodles because that was what I had left over, but the dish uses rice noodles normally. The noodles were fine (I cooked them much better than I did last time - see, I do learn by my mistakes ), didn't detract from the dish at all, although DP isn't a fan of eating them, even though he has begun to master the fork and spoon method of 'twirling and scoffing' :rotfl: Anyway, a pic of me creation, not to be repeated anytime soon.......



I didn't buy beansprouts, they looked a bit past it in the supermercado, so those are slivers of parsnip you can see, and I also chopped up some cauliflower stalk very finely. I should add that the kitchen now smells like Christmas, as the star anise and ginger make it smell like we've had a gallon of mulled wine on the go (I wish )

satchmo - I forgot to ask you this morning - how you going on with that inept pharmaceutical company?

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

for the opportunity to try new things - and that DP wouldn't waste the food, even though he didn't like it; he ate it

when things actually work out how you envisage - not me dinner though, clearly........ :rotfl:

for the sight of a female sparrow hawk hunting - swift, silent and...... successful........

Thanks so much for popping by, reading and joining in. Always appreciated. Very much. By me.

See y'all later.

Greying

liltdiddylilt

Ah GP - there is a restaurant in a nearby town called simply Eat. They serve up homemade soups, and every day there is a fresh brand new one on the go, from whatever looked the nicest in the farmers market. It is £7ish for soup, a homemade bread roll baked in store and butter, with a drink of some form. BUT I had the most A_MAZ_ING Pho in there. The broth itself was so very light and clear, lemongrass zinged through it, and the flavours were just fabulous. The veggies shredded into it, pak choi, beansprouts etc, were just so delicious and al dente. I haven't eaten there in a year as I don't justify eating out very often, and it is £10 on a bus to said town... but just wow. You reminded me. I must have a bash at making one myself, though likely I will be disappointed with my efforts after tasting theirs...

I love bird watching. A foreign concept to these southern types I live with now, to just sit and watch a Kestrel hovering effortlessly in the wind. Yesterday I stopped my painting just to stare in wonder at a fat green woodpecker hopping around in a tree just outside the window. I tried to ring my dad to tell him! I have very fond memories of being given a bird book when I was 6 by my dad.

xx

Upsidedown_Bear

Smilie of the day.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Lilty - For lunch, I had the left over broth, with the last of the barley/buckwheat combo from earlier in the week and the veg that went into making the broth, sliced up into it. It was fab! So full of flavour. I think in future, I shall not get so swayed by blog post presentation, and make it how I would make it to taste nice and or be simple to eat.

And oh so jealous of the green-woodpecker spot!

Upsidedown Bear - I regret to inform you, that I think my skateboarding days may well and truly be over...... :rotfl:

So, today. Well, I snagged a NSD :j Needed to eh? There was nothing that we needed ingredient-wise, and although I did pop into mrL for a looksee, they still haven't restocked with the mini-stollen, so, quite frankly, they can stuff it - I ain't buying none*. Surely if it's a popular product, you replenish? Mind, with more people using the store these days, stock does vamoose at a much faster pace. Erm, if anyone likes 'ambrosial' tinned rice pudding, mrL currently have it for 50p a 400g tin - which is 1p dearer than mrl own brand for the equivalent sized tin. I didn't spot anything else that was ridiculously cheap. But I did feel very sorry for a store assistant, who had to bend at a very awkward angle, to try to hold a cardboard box, whilst she re-stocked a freezer, because a customer parked his trolley right in the way...... and watched her! :doh:

Dinner this evening was a pleasant surprise. I had printed the recipe off the internet, as it was on a list of '10 best curries' or something. I didn't have high hopes, as it was 'curried lentils'. I mean not an especially complex recipe, right? Anyway, as it's Thursday, I gave it the 'Buddha Bowl' treatment. Pic here;



So we have rice as the 'grain', savoy cabbage (shredded) as the vegetable and then the curried lentils on top - bit of a cheat, as the sauce and the lentils (so the 'sauce' and the 'protein') are already incorporated, but we're aiming for yumminess, not letter. of. the. law. following The lentils were really nice. I mean really nice. I was delighted, as it's quite a simple recipe. I didn't have any green peas, so omitted them. But I had some flaked coconut, so toasted that and put it on top, as per the recipe. I used my new 'mini-chopper' to puree the ginger, garlic and onion. Very good, very sharp, but oh my goodness, Kenw00d need to supply you with ear defenders to use it! You know when a little girl squeals - I mean really squeals (and yep, boys make a noise too - and smells - but I need you to think 'squeal'), well that is the noise my mini-chopper makes. I bet st DeliA's didn't...... *pout* Anyway, despite that, the recipe is definitely another *keeper* :T

Have you seen this week's edition of the mrW mag? Our favourite sculptural green cauliflower is pride of place on the front page in an article about its superfood status

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

for a nice chat with an 'outdoorsy' type - #commonground

for finding another new recipe to add to my index - helping variety of dishes, diversity of ingredients and economy of budgets

for chocolate - broke into the mrL stash

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

See y'all later.

Greying

* y'all know that this is reverse psychology right? Now that I am no longer interested in the mini stollen, the store will be stocked to the rafters with it........;)

Greying_Pilgrim

*ahem* and of course if YOU would like to make Curried Coconut Lentils, you could find the recipe HERE......

Sorry for the omission

Greying

supersaver1000

Looks lovely, thanks GP. My creativeness has left me this week. Mind you, as you know, I've had things and family on my mind. Hoping my creativity in the kitchen returns this weekend. A root through your recipes is required.

Boo to inconsiderate people. Now that DD works in a shop, she is making sure I put things back in the right place if I don't want them. But, near the tills I realised a better cheese offer was available so I did a swap - it was such a long way to go and I may not gave found its proper home again. Am in DDs bad books as she says they have a hard enough job anyway. I kind of understand what she means, so will try to be more considerate.

Upsidedown_Bear

Smilie of the day.

Upsidedown_Bear

Smilie of the day.

beanielou

Hope all well in your world GP.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

How are you?

supersaver - your DD is right, customers can be the pits. And nice shop staff are a positive boost to the day. However, I do wonder why some people work in retail...... when they're clearly not great admirers of their fellow humans........

Upsidedown Bear - yesterday's smilie is a version of what I'll be doing this weekend, addressing Christmas cards. I'll have to dig out my biggest and beststest pencil...... And I'll have a vodka martini please, y'all can shake it or stir it - I ain't fussy

Beanie - i'm brill ta. How 'bout you?


Well, I have fiddled and faddled about this morning and the time is a-whizzing

Dinner last night was pizza and wedges - surprise, surprise I was going to do a Leanne Brown recipe, but in the end, I just did a normal cheese and tomato/red pepper one. I would have had to buy leeks to do the Leanne one, and there was no way I was going to venture anywhere near A$da yesterday. We haven't got a very big store, but it sees all kinds of stoopid normally, so folk frantically trying to bag a bargain would just have ended up getting my giddy goat. As it was, I snagged some YS'd butternut squashes in m+$. They were 65p and one weighed 884g and the other 995g (they were in the 'simply' range, so guaranteed to be over 600g for the price they retail at normally). Anyway, they were as big - if not bigger - than the ones that are currently in mrM for 89p, and although mrAl is 10p cheaper, that is currently off my 'go to' list at the moment. Maybe when they stop it looking like a building site, I'll return, but why they don't just move into a bigger premises, I don't know Anyway, the m+$ butternut squashes will keep a while longer and will help my grocery budget in December :j

I loused up with the pizza dough - and used plain flour instead of bread flour. I wondered why the dough was very sticky when I put the water in. However, I added a bit more flour and it came together OK. And I have to say, the resultant pizza was OK (Cooks will know that you can, in fact, make pizza dough from plain flour, it's just I usually use bread dough). Picture here;



I used Leanne's Fast Pizza Dough Recipe (which does, in fact tell you to use 'all-purpose' - aka plain, flour for dough ) the recipe is on pg 45. It and the 'Great' pizza dough (pg 44) are now my 2 'goto' dough recipes for pizza

Today won't be a NSD, but it is budgeted for.

We watched that children in poverty documentary last night. Mmmm. They probably could have done 1hr on each of the children. There wasn't much detail about the household issues that prevailed. Although I reckon the grandma in Blackpool was an MSE'r - her HM version of YNAB was brill! I wonder if there was a reason why all the key participants were girls. Would boys receive too much 'ribbing' for appearing in such a documentary? And I have to say, trying to find £180 for a school uniform would tax a lot of people's budgets. I suppose the saving grace was that the gal could see that it made everyone 'equal' - compared to the problems the other girl faced at the prospect of a 'charity fundraising non-uniform day'. Sigh. No easy answers. We'd also taped the documentary that preceded it (which is a series, not a one-off like the Child poverty one), but we won't be watching that again, that was a waste of time and got very silly, very quickly.

Right, well, I'd better go and do something constructive, before half the day is gone!

Curry for dinner tonight - hopefully with 'neep' naans

Thanks for popping in, reading and commenting. You know how much I appreciate you taking the time

See y'all later.

Greying