Living on next to nought - is that the key?

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Today will be fairly 'ordinary'. Can't think of anything that needs buying - huzzah, so may be able to claim a NSD later (fingers crossed).

Dinner this evening will be soup and flatbread or soda farls. It's a recipe I've not tried before - Nigel Slater I think.

Have a great day all. Thank you for popping by, reading and contributing.

See y'all later

Greying

Karmacat

Have a Jolly Pleasant Ordinary Day I'm trekking north today, and trying to decide whether I have an allergy attack or a head cold - I vote allergy, myself, there you go see you next week xxx

mouche

Hi Greying....I stumbled across your diary and have spent the best part of my past five lunch breaks reading from beginning to end. Now that I have caught up, I just wanted to say hello. I am neither veggie, nor any good at gardening or cooking but I find your diary so uplifting and cheerful that I am hooked. Look forward to further adventuring!

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Mouche - what an incredibly kind comment to leave. Thank you. I'm sure that devoting any lunch time to my witterings is probably above and beyond the call of duty.....:D Anyway, welcome and I hope you enjoy the thread.

Well, I've been whizzing like a whirly-gig today - not too sure how effective I have been mind....... I'll start at the top, as I made dinner this morning, would you believe. It was a Nige Slater recipe and I was looking it out and then read he suggests that it improves if made 1 day in advance :eek: So it was a quick chop, chop, sizzle and slosh and it has had all day to 'meld'. The recipe is HERE I had some (cooked) haricot beans (yep, the good old ubiquitous baked bean) in the freezer so I used them rather than the cannellini beans that were in the original recipe. The cannellini would of been 'creamier' because they were bigger, but the haricot were adequate. I also used butternut squash rather than pumpkin, as I was using up the half left over from last night's dinner. I also used some stock paste (Elaine at MFi3's recipe) because I think that it needed it - I'm glad I did. It was OK, I'm not sure it was the best soup that I have ever tasted. I didn't bother making flatbread, as to be fair, it was substantial enough without - plus we will also be having a pudding just now I copied the recipe down, as I figured those were the sort of ingredients that I would have in store/the fridge from time to time. It was a frugal meal, as the pumpkin was leftover, the tomatoes a tin from H0me B*rgins and the beans were cheap from appr*ved fo0ds. So it ticked the thrift box, but it was a little underwhelming in the taste department. As I said, I'm glad I used stock - it needed it plus more seasoning. I did however use some HG parsley, if you look very carefully, you can see a green speck or two;



'Pudding' will be crumble from the donated apples and last year's blackberries. If I can be bothered, DP will get custard

Because the oven was on, I have also made some buns as a thank you to the apple donator. Of course, one batch turned out better than the other (different flavours) and I'm unsure whether to just give all the 'good' ones, or stick with a mix of flavours......ho hum

I did make some small purchases today - forgot we needed several things for the hols - means they can be packed and forgotten, rather than waiting til the last minute and packing the ones that we use everyday. I also returned a library book so no chance of a fine on that whilst away.

Right, I better vamoose, because I'm behind with my list of jobs and DP finished the washing up ages ago. I've 2 lots of bread to make to prove o/night in the fridge yet :eek:

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

handwritten letters - I got another letter from a friend today. I am already 2 letters down to them, now it is 3. I am not going to see the great outdoors at all during this holiday :rotfl:Still, keeps the postman* employed (* we have a postman, we've only once had a postwoman)

for a holiday - it's not escaped my notice that we are lucky to be considering going on holiday at all - however frugal-minded we are - some people simply don't get the choice.

that I can 'experiment' with recipes and have likes and dislikes - although I rarely if ever waste food at Greying Towers, I am aware that increasingly statistics and indicators are showing that food poverty is growing problem in the UK. Hunger doesn't care if you're young or old.

Thank you for dropping by today, reading and commenting. I really do appreciate it. A lot.

I'm going on a period of 'radio silence' now. I've quite a bit of stuff still left to organise. Then we disappear off for our adventurising, and funnily enough, I am not technically equipped to relay reports to you from near and far in the style of 'from our own correspondent'

I shall miss (I think) taking pictures of our dinner and relaying the day's events to you. But I will try to stay motivated, as when I return, we will still have bills to pay, I still have no emergency fund and the gardening parental is going in for an op. This should be straightforward, may or may not find something and is done many times, up and down the land on a daily basis. That doesn't wash with the gardening parental who tries to disguise their fear - of the unknown and the NHS - by getting grumpy, with everything and everyone .........wish us luck :D

See y'all in a bit..............

Greying

miss_empty_piggy

Hey Greying - hope both you and DP have a brilliant time on your hollies
We'll all miss you x x x

carolbee

Have a great break, will miss your marvellous meanderings.

Will look forward to tales of your holibobs in due course.

beanielou

Happy holidays

Greying_Pilgrim

Aw shucks, you guys.....:o

At the risk of giving everyone raging heartburn, I couldn't leave the pudding pics out......

Without custard :j:T:T



With custard......*sigh* (why oh, why??)



Sorry about the steamy lens from the custard

But most importantly, the blackberries were free from the hedgerow (last year and frozen), the apples were donated, the marg was YS'd to 1/2 price and the custard was from an MSE recipe found HERE - it works like a charm and is cheap, although I admit to using milk, rather than milk powder tonight, as I was using up some of the milk set aside to make yoghurt - that I won't now make

I really AM going now.....

See y'all soon.

Greying

Fortune_Smiles

(Fortune pops in but leaves quickly due to tummy rumbling) :rotfl:

Upsidedown_Bear

Have a great holiday

My tummy is rumbling too :rotfl: