Living on next to nought - is that the key?

Hopefuljoy

Good morning all! Well I'm ready for Christmas day now.... have a raging head cold with sinuses blocked and sore throat plus to the delight and merriment of all I have lost my voice!! The joys of being a teacher, we only get ill in the holidays. I'm not that bothered as I'm at home with a gorgeous daughter, three cats, one puppy and my son is coming with his fiance for dinner tomorrow eve. Things have really moved on for us this year with DS and DD now loving each other again after two years of not talking. So I am very blessed and grateful.

DD IS training Pirin every day. He's had a couple.of accidents but we put that down to being in a new home. And he slept through the night last night! I bought DD a highlight yesterday which made a huge difference to his and her sleep. I should have done it years ago as DD has alwAys had the light on and never seemed to go to bed as a result. What a carp mother that it never occurred to me!

DD has a question, any tips on what to do if your dog runs to the door of the bedroom every time you are leaving. Also he owed by the bedroom door. Any ideas folks?? We've cleaned it up immediately and she put him onto the nappy pad without a comment. Answers on a postcard please!!

Love to you all, I'm off to gargle some more aspirin and take a decongestant. Then I plan to conquer the world!!(manic but very quiet cackle)

Upsidedown_Bear

Smilie of the day.

liltdiddylilt

Lovely GP your dinner as always is making me hungry!

I have become one of those carton shoppers throwing everything into the trolley in a panic as if the shops are shut for a month. I steered clear of chocolate and biscuits however and have stuck to my list if not my budget. My overspend is a lot less than it would have been, had there been no list. I am feeling very festive, which given my feelings this time last year feels great. I intend to enjoy everything! I finished the shopping with two joints of meat this morning and some cough sweets as we too are afflicted. Get well soon Hopefuljoy!

If I don't get the chance to pop in, I hope that everyone visiting this delightful thread has a fabulous Christmas and New Year. I am blessed to have my dear Jellytot fast asleep next to me in my bed, as we listen to the soothing tones of Ludovico Einaudi's classics. She looks fit to pop on top of the tree, especially now I have dispatched the dummy once she was asleep.

To the lovely GreyingPilgrim & DP, Merry Christmas, and a happy, fruitful and calm New Year. Thank you for all that you have brought to my life with your amazing food encouraging me to try more, and your grateful and selfless nature pushing me to be a better human being

xx

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Well, I didn't snag a NSD today, but whisper it...... I'VE GOT THE DITALI PASTA - whoop!!!! :j:j:j:j:rotfl: I was walking past the deli, and I plucked up the courage to go in - I figured I could have a quick peek to see if they had it, even if it was heaving. Well, there were quite a few people in there (all chaps!) but I found what I was looking for and decided to get it whilst I saw it. I joined the end of the queue and snaked around the shop with all the chaps. When a gal shouted, 'who isn't being served?', a woman, who'd just come into the shop - tried to get served - she wasn't even in the queue! So I put me foot down and insisted that I was next to be served. Anyway, this woman was clearly unused to being in a shop (does she ordinarily have *staff*? shop entirely on line? or only come into deli's at Christmas for the cheeseboard??.......) - and clearly had no idea of queuing and the layout of this shop. I did, however, have to snigger to meself though, as I was leaving, she was getting served, and she started out with, 'I'm having to put together a cheeseboard......' :rotfl: I hope the deli rakes in their money over the Christmas period, but I'm afraid I always find the staff in there rude and abrupt (unless you're spending a shed-load of money), so I won't be rushing back to spend me hard-earned in there.

I wandered through m&$ foodall. Was surprised how *small* the ordered foodstuffs section was. Granted they had put it at the back of the shop, well away from shoppers, so better for customers and collectors I should think, but there were only a couple of people in the queue. Either it was a quiet period, or they've got really efficient at serving folk, or folk ain't buying.......

Dinner this evening was soup. I have had the recipe for ages, just never got around to trying it. As it was, I didn't make it quite 'as per' because it is a 'Moro' recipe, and it called for bread to thicken the soup at the end of cooking. Well, of course, they mean nice country bread or sourdough - which I don't have So I omitted it, used the stick blender to slightly thicken the soup and served it with caraway flatbreads instead. The recipe was Turkish village soup with bread and caraway from the recipe book 'Casa Moro'. A pic here;



It reminded me very much of the greek soup - Fasolada and the Spanish soup - Cocido (vegetarian version), and Italian ribollita. The caraway is a very distinctive taste in it though, enough to differentiate it. If I had the ingredients, I would certainly make it again - it was cheap to make (even with tinned cannellini beans from mrA, 48p). The flatbreads were just JO's piadina recipe again, with crushed caraway added.

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

that we have sufficient - for today, tomorrow and the days to come......

that I was able to run a little errand for DP - he does so much for me

that no-one will be judging me on whether the cheeses on my cheeseboard are *correct* - I bought cheese that DP and I like to.......EAT *sigh* #buggakeepingupwifthejones'...........


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

See y'all later.

Greying

Greying_Pilgrim

supersaver1000 wrote: »

with potatoes or maybe I will treat us to a leek or two......


Have a lovely Christmas GP and friends and thank you for your support this year, I couldn't have made it here without you. Xx

I see the leek and potatoes won out supersaver! And thank you for your lovely Christmas wishes. I see a very strong individual in your posts supersaver. You have made it - and you are going to continue to craft a super life for yourself and your family. You go gal!

Hopefuljoy wrote: »

DD has a question, any tips on what to do if your dog runs to the door of the bedroom every time you are leaving. Also he owed by the bedroom door. Any ideas folks?? We've cleaned it up immediately and she put him onto the nappy pad without a comment. Answers on a postcard please!!

I'm loving all the positivity in this post Hopefuljoy - again, you have worked really hard this year to craft a new life for yourself and your DD, and I am so glad that you are now seeing the benefits of your hard work, not only on a professional level, but on a personal, financial and family level. I hope you have a Christmas Eve full of fun, feasting and family

I'm no dog expert, but I think your DD is doing exactly the right thing with Pirin. I think you do have to do the 'putting them back where they are supposed to be, without comment' thing. If you say anything/make a fuss, you're immediately putting confusion in their minds. I'm sure we did that at dog-training 407 years ago, when I went. I'm not sure about the toilet incidents, as we never kept our dogs inside. But he is very small, and still learning, so they may have been genuine *accidents* or just puppy misunderstandings I think 'Keep On Keeping On' DD! Sounds like you're doing splendiferously :DOf course, Mizmir is the one to ask really........

liltdiddylilt wrote: »

If I don't get the chance to pop in, I hope that everyone visiting this delightful thread has a fabulous Christmas and New Year......

To the lovely GreyingPilgrim & DP, Merry Christmas, and a happy, fruitful and calm New Year. Thank you for all that you have brought to my life with your amazing food encouraging me to try more, and your grateful and selfless nature pushing me to be a better human being

xx

Lilty - thank you for your Christmas wishes and for your very kind comment. I'm sure that I've done nothing much at all to encourage you . You're one heck of a gal, who has her head on right, and knows how to forge a brill life for yourself and that darlin' DD of yours

Thank you for all your comments - and to UpsidedownBear for the ace smilies. You know you're all brill, don'tcha?

Greying x

beanielou

Have a happy time GP & friends.

satchmo1

You'd have been proud of me yesterday when I conjured up lunch for nine people from a home made veg soup, crusty bread, cheese, grapes and olives. They did bring chocolate cake (they'd promised to bring the lunch when they invited themselves. They also forgot to tell me there would be seven guests and I was embarrassed that I had set two places short at the table).

Nevertheless it was delightful to entertain our first Christmas guests in our lovely new apartment.

mothernerd

Wishing everyone a joyous and peaceful time, however you choose to spend it.
And thanks for all the smilies.

muddywhitechicken

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

that no-one will be judging me on whether the cheeses on my cheeseboard are *correct* - I bought cheese that DP and I like to.......EAT *sigh* #buggakeepingupwifthejones'...........

Dairylea cheese triangles, Primula squeezy cheese, cheese strings and Kraft cheese slices a la The Royle family???!!!

MWCx

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Beanielou - all good Christmas wishes despatched to you and yours too. Hope you have a great one

satchmo1 wrote: »

You'd have been proud of me yesterday when I conjured up lunch for nine people from a home made veg soup, crusty bread, cheese, grapes and olives.........

Nevertheless it was delightful to entertain our first Christmas guests in our lovely new apartment.

satchmo - I'm more than proud - that is brilliant :T And I also love your last sentence - that is great, and something that I aspire to Maybe in 2015 for me? Thanks for popping in, and for contributing to the thread throughout the year satchmo - very much appreciated

mothernerd - Thank you for sending us Christmas wishes too. I hope that you have a great time and treat yourself kindly - you have done amazing things this year Thank you for posting. I greatly appreciate it

muddywhitechicken wrote: »

Dairylea cheese triangles, Primula squeezy cheese, cheese strings and Kraft cheese slices a la The Royle family???!!!

MWCx

Dearest MWC [STRIKE]you know us so well[/STRIKE] WHERE have you located the *fridge-cam*??????? :rotfl: Actually, we do have cheese triangles (not D-lea, couldn't stretch to them) because DP loves them as a nostalgia food! However, we also have; cheddar, red Leicester, Caerphilly, Wensleydale with cranberries, a cheddar with caramelised onions truckle and a piece of smoked Bavarian cheese (NOT in an orange plastic tube! :rotfl:)

Off out and about dropping off Christmas cards first thing and then I'm in the kitchen for the rest of the morning, hopefully making bread, no-sausage rolls and then the lasagne for our dinner this evening. I'm doing lasagne, baked potato, broccoli and garlic bread for dinner. Hopefully things that can more or less cook unattended, so that I can enjoy watching the carols and lessons programme on TV.

Right, best shift-a-tail feather, I've got things to do and brekkie to sort.

See y'all later.

Greying