Living on next to nought - is that the key?

Upsidedown_Bear

mothernerd wrote: »

Am I the only one who waits until Upsidedownbear's avatar changes and I still chuckle when it does.

Feeling a little better so tidying - walking round with grabber stick and trying to sort/condense tools and fixings today. Determined to spend more time sitting.

I chuckle and it's my avatar

Glad you're feeling a bit better :kisses3:

liltdiddylilt

I use the alpha version of the new forum and it is always a blue circle to me I miss it every time UpsidedownBear

Upsidedown_Bear

liltdiddylilt wrote: »

I use the alpha version of the new forum and it is always a blue circle to me I miss it every time UpsidedownBear

Can you see this one?

liltdiddylilt

Yayyyyyyyyyy!! I can indeed. *happy glow*

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Hey, I'm a-liking the *happy-glow* and *chuckles* on this thread - thanks everyone

Doesn't time whizz when you're having fun?

I snagged a NSD yesterday :j, but not today But I found 10p *roadkill* today :j Beanie - I hate to report it, but the TV guide has gone up 5p again - it's 50p now!

I did snag some YS'd goodies in mrM, including 1.3kg of satsumas for 75p :j All of them are good - no mushy, rotten ones, like they normally shove in the bag, so I'm well happy, as is my immune system I am also a woman in possession of sprouts, a big *neep* and a bag of carrots, courtesy of the 3-4-£1.50 promo. C'mon mrAl - how's ya S6 gonna match that this week eh? (And it's gonna have to be good for me to venture anywhere near our store........ )

Last night's dinner ended up being mushroom orzotto, using the 2nd punnet of YS'd chestnut mushrooms i'd bagged in mrW. I also had the heart of a savoy cabbage left over, so chopped that up finely and incorporated it into the orzotto - which I made with cheap and cheerful pearl barley. Pic here;



As today is Tuesday, we look to our *thrift Tuesday* selection on the meal planner and 'eastern European style beetroot soup' was the winner I don't claim that this is authentically Polish/Russian/Lithuanian nor Ukrainian, it is just beetroot soup I made mine with vac-packed beetroot, based on this recipe, but didn't follow it verbatim - there was no carrot, leek or beef stock in my version, and I used red cabbage, because I had some. I attempted to *drape* some yoghurt over the top (that didn't work did it..... :rotfl:) and then sprinkled crushed fennel seed over the top, as I had no dill. For once, I wish this forum had *smelly-vision*, as the smell when the fennel hit the hot soup was delish Picture here;



To accompany the soup, I made some rye and caraway flatbreads. I used about 100g of rye flour, with 150g of plain flour and a sprinkling of caraway seeds which I lightly crushed. I also used yoghurt and water to bind the flours, which activated the baking powder, so they fluffed up nicely There was a nice *tang* to the flatbreads too, from the yoghurt and the rye flour. Thrifty and tasty :j

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

that it wasn't as frosty overnight as forecast :eek:

that three-quarters of my Chrimbo cards got deposited in the post box today

for the simplicity of soup

Right, I'm away to watch the footy with himself. Thank you so much for popping in, reading and joining in. Know that it is appreciated. Greatly. By moi

See y'all later.

Greying

Upsidedown_Bear

Smilie of the day.

little_sweetie

mothernerd wrote: »

Am I the only one who waits until Upsidedownbear's avatar changes and I still chuckle when it does.
QUOTE]

Nope, I wait too, it always makes me smile. And today's smilie is lovely too

Talking of smiles, Greying, you have made smiley beetroot soup!

I can't remember whether I said on this thread or not (senior moment...) but when Sainsbob's had a 'double up' on Nectar points I exchanged 1000 points for a £10 voucher and bought a slow cooker for £6.99 I used it yesterday for a veg stew. It was so easy to lob whatever I had into it and wait for a lovely smell to emerge but I feel the taste lacked *something* I was wondering what I could have added to it. I used carrots, onions, celery, half a sweet potato, veg stock from cubes, 2 cloves of garlic, ground pepper and mixed herbs. Oh, and served a few peas with it for a bit of protein. DH doesn't like soft tomato like passata and during the evening commented that he could have done without the garlic :shocked: so I thought I would ask the Oracle of Greying and chums! Any tips much appreciated please x

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

I hope you are all well, and more importantly, safe.

Mmmmmm, little_sweetie - Slow cookers are definitely not my strong suit I suspect that I don't have one, as I may have made a veg stew or two in the antiquated elfinsafety nightmare that Dear 'Aunt Maud' bequeathed us, and had similar results What did you do with the onions/celery/garlic? Did you fry them off first in a little oil - either in the SC on high, or in a separate pan? Did you use any of the celery leaves? I'm congenitally unable to start any dish without a sofrito of onions, garlic and celery fried together first. And celery leaves hold a lot of flavour, which is a good base note for soups/stews. Did you add the herbs at the start? Or towards the end? I tend to leave it until the end-ish, so they don't boil away their essence (dried or fresh). Um, something that I have found that works with 'water' or stock based soups/stews, which isn't so important when you've used passata, is to some how thicken the dish. So if you want the ingredients to stand out, then thicken with a roux, or cornflour or some cornmeal/polenta. If 'looks' aren't so important, then *blitz* a portion of the dish (I carefully and slowly use a stick blender, blitz, stir, blitz, stir.... until I have the desired consistency), you'll be amazed how just changing the 'texture' of the dish changes your perception of it. Other than that...... we're into the territory of using things like dried mushrooms, Worcestershire sauce, tomato puree or soy sauce to ramp up the 'umami-ness' of the dish....... Had you used tomato in your stew, I would have said that you were probably missing a spoonful of sugar - that transforms tomato based dishes, and I have to say, the spoonful of sugar transformed last night's Beetroot soup...... Other than that, I am stumped - any Slow-cooker users got suggestions? Please?

So today was not a NSD, as I was the side of town to visit the big orange supermercado, aka mrS. Do you know, I am beginning to wonder whether the big 4 are really starting to listen to their customers, there was no, I repeat, no Christmas music blaring out :j To the point where, I had Bjork's, 'It's Oh, so Quiet.......' playing on a loop in me 'ead:rotfl:Actually, there weren't that many customers in the store - which helped too. Perhaps they're interpretting the *peace* theme in advent by axing Noddy H & 'is chums....... :j:j Golly, they are expensive though. I bought some tuc crackers from h0me bargins the other day, for the cheese board - 59p. £1.30 in mrS today...... same packet size. Everything :eek: However, they do stock Caerphilly cheese :j So I will almost forgive them anything I also got some (own brand) coffee that was on special, so saved a few pennies :j And they were also the cheapest for dried porcini mushrooms, so I got a bag of them too

Dinner this evening was 'fit for purpose' given the change in the weather I made 'White and Green Chilli' from Leanne Brown's 'From Scratch' PDF (pg 74) It is so nice! And little_sweetie - I can't remember if it is in the original recipe, but because I don't use cream cheese/cheese to thicken the chilli at the end, what I do do, is to blitz a portion of the chilli, and add in a spoonful of cornmeal (polenta) at the end of cooking to thicken the chilli. This change in consistency definitely adds to the yumminess of this dish - don't ask me why, but it does I served it with boiled basmati rice and steamed green beans, pic here;



The cauliflower is frozen florets, de-frosted and chopped up a little. The local market-all wanted £1.69 for a pretty average size cauli over the weekend, so I gave them a miss. Heavens, even mrS was only charging £1 for them today - and I hardly think that they will be the cheapest, so I don't know what 'cauliflower shortage crisis just afore Chrimbo' our market stall holders are trying to engineer........ But I ain't buying it The green bits are some jarred mild jalapeno peppers that I got from H0me bargins. Gosh, they are good - nice with a little hint of heat Nothing to blast your face off though. Really, really nice Oh, and I used butter beans, because I had some - 3 for £1 from H0me bargins I used 2 tins and it made 3 generous portions

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

the moments of sunshine - made up for the chill in the breeze

for quiet and calm in the supermarket - so nice

Chocolate - :rotfl:

Thank you so much for popping in, reading and joining in. I remain grateful.

I'm away to spend an hour or so writing a letter to a chum to put in her Christmas card, then I think I may have an early night - don't know if it'll all the bracing breezes, but I'm feeling a bit tired.

See y'all later.

Greying

rtandon27

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

...Chocolate ...

Oh Greying - you do make me giggle!:D

supersaver1000

Mr SuperDave tells me that Sainsbobs charges different prices in different areas :eek: I didn't realise that :eek:

Bought a tube of cocoa powder in coop today. £3.29 :eek:

There's been a lot of :eek: just lately :eek::eek: I need to be more organised.

Lovely post again GP. Thank you

Errgh yuk I have a stupid fly buzzing round the bedroom. Shouldn't they all be dead by now? :eek: