Living on next to nought - is that the key?

Hopejacob

Hi Greying, and one and all.
I don't know if this is of interest to you but over the past couple of years I have become extremely interested in mindfulness and meditation (of the non religious variety). I started to read about it whilst looking for a way to 'slow my life down!' - which seemed to be whizzing past at a rate of knots with a job, housework, children etc taking up all my headspace, and I was constantly making a list in my head of all the things I had to do next rather than concentrating on what was happening at the time.

Anyway, the point of all this is that mindfulness is just about paying attention to the present moment in a non judgemental way. And since I started this journey any insomnia I ever had has dissolved into nothing. It really works!

I continue to read your blog avidly, although don't often post, feeling that I have little to add to the experience beyond 'heated up some chicken nuggets tonight etc'....!

I do have extreme 'pizza envy' however as I see pictures of your creations each week. I've tried to make homemade pizza on a billion occasions but it always comes out either flat and hard or uncooked. Please share your secrets and your recipes. I have no problems with toppings, it's the base I can't get right!

Many many thanks for your continued writing which inspires me daily. Best wishes to you.

Ellidee

GP I came across this blog and thought of you

http://www.101cookbooks.com/index.html

moneyistooshorttomention

Right now...I'm thinking "That there Greying can juggle more balls in the air at the same time than I can"....whilst cooking up the mushroom dopiaza/dhal/rice dinner you recently had. Errrm....thinks...I will stick to no more than 2 things at once on the cooking front in future...as I think I just dropped "one of the balls I'm juggling". Ahem...in my defence...I picked out the first recipe that came up with Google for mushroom dopiaza and then proceeded to "get lost" when it said about making a paste with ginger and I thought "Ginger....what ginger...there wasn't any mentioned in the ingredients?"

Note to self time....its surprising just how many recipes aren't properly written...as they've missed out something/somewhere along the line (in this case...saying just how much ginger and what type...:().

Onwards and upwards and making mental notes about recipe writers who aren't ...ahem...exactly efficient about proof-reading their recipes before they put them up.....

Anyways...hopefully it will come okay On the Night, ie in about 5 minutes time.

DO keep up the good work though for inspiring me as to just what I might cook up for Dinner Tonight...as I'm still picking up ideas...

Greying_Pilgrim

Money - you are ahead of me - that is what we are having tonight and I've not started cooking the rice yet

ENJOY

Greying

moneyistooshorttomention

Fingers crossed then that you aren't using the same mushroom dopiaza recipe I chose (ie top Google ranking)....and having a "WTH about that ginger?" moment....:cool:

Greying_Pilgrim

Ellidee - Heidi is fab isn't she? Her life looks like an interiors magazine 24/7 :D I dip into her blog and Deb over at SmittenKitchen as often as I can. You can also learn a lot from the comments section on Heidi's blog - she draws a knowledgeable crowd

Hopejacob - lovely of you to pop in But :eek: seriously, you actually expect me to divulge the Greying family recipe for pizza dough? On a public forum??? The one Nonnina Grigio said none of us were to divulge to 'nooneoutsideathe'blood'kapish'????.......................................................................

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

You'll be delighted to know that I am pulling your leg, and neither of the parentals have in fact, to my knowledge ever attempted to make pizza (bread, yes. I remember it well...) Therefore, I had to strike out into the world and find my own way when it came to dough recipes for bread and/or pizza:D:D

Thankfully, after much trial and error myself, I discovered Richard Bertinet and hisDough book. Used the pizza or bread recipe interchangeably and have never looked back. Luckily for us, a very kind blogger has blogged the recipe HERE, so you can have a go too The only thing I would add is that I use sea salt (8g of salt is a lot otherwise), a sachet of easy blend yeast is always 7g and one is sufficient to rise bread or pizza dough, YES, I DO weigh my water and I rarely bother with olive oil in the recipe now, but I do add 1tsp of sugar in to assist the yeast (cold house). As I admitted to Karma the other week, I have no shame and roll my pizza dough out into a rectangle and I use a light dusting of cornmeal to stop it sticking to the tray. Oh, and the only other thing is a tip that I picked up from making farls, and that is to not put all your water in in one go. 'Splash and mix', 'splash and mix'. I don't know why, but it mixes better - but you may have access to a food mixer, so that point may be irrelevant.

Let us know how you get on

Right, I'm away to put some rice on - moneyistooshorttomention will be onto the washing up by now

See y'all later.

Greying

Greying_Pilgrim

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Fingers crossed then that you aren't using the same mushroom dopiaza recipe I chose (ie top Google ranking)....and having a "WTH about that ginger?" moment....:cool:

Nope hun, I got a recipe by Mridulua Baljekar from the book 'Quick Vegetarian Curries' and have made it before, and it works

You make the paste first don't you with the ginger, garlic, chilli and onions

Greying

moneyistooshorttomention

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

Right, I'm away to put some rice on - moneyistooshorttomention will be onto the washing up by now

See y'all later.

Greying

:rotfl::cool::rotfl::cool:

Ummm...you ARE joking about "washing-up" aren't you?;)

What be that when its at home?

Errr...nope....I've plated up and eaten it and thought "Well I guess the mushroom dopiaza didn't turn out too badly for all I did my own thing as from that point onwards where I realised Recipe Writer had 'got it wrong' ". The dahl...I'll draw a discreet veil over...having done yellow split pea dahl, rather than yer Orange Lentil Dahl as per normal...


Lives and learns...lives and learns...

...errrm...what type of ginger did you use (I gave up and used powdered ginger at that "missing item" point) and how much (ditto ..and I think I used about 1 teaspoon worth).

Note to self time = those of us who take things absolutely literally and as quoted wherever (in this case that recipe writers recipe) CAN be Good Cooks....but it is only gonna be by "word perfect" recipe...and not by "guess and by golly" I reckon.....oh well...

Greying_Pilgrim

moneyistooshorttomention - you are absolutely right about recipes should be proofread to the 'n'th degree - preferably by someone who cooks!! I borrowed a smart (and expensive) cookbook from the library a few months ago. The darn book was someone 'riding on coattails', and was actually littered with mistakes - the worst one being a dish that had the (whatever) ingredient it was in the title..... but it appeared nowhere else!

I used a 'lump' of fresh ginger (which is helpful....not, I know) but I think you did well with your improvisation in the circumstances.

As I use ginger a lot, I also have a jar of 'cheats' ginger in the storecupboard or fridge. I realise some folk don't hold with using this product - and it does have stuff in it that 'fresh' ginger doesn't - sugar for one thing but it is a useful standby and does give a good flavour. One thing, if you get a jar of it - consider getting it from h0me b*rgins if you have one local - as it is only 58p a jar.

Anyway - the important thing is that you've cooked it, eaten it and by your own admission said that it was good - that's a *win* I reckon :T

Greying

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Well, today has been a good day - I have got some chores done and I can legitimately claim a NSD :j

The good news is that DP has agreed that we can go adventurising tomorrow to a NT property - it will probably be the last time before our cards run out And the even better news is that for a bit more adventuring a little further afield, we may well be able to visit an Asian supermarket that recently opened. I phoned them today to check where they were and whether they were open on Sundays. Dear Reader, an unexpected visitor turning up on brizzle's doorstep may yet be avoided :rotfl: Can't wait! Got a picnic to rustle up mind...... Hot choc may well be called upon again

DP bagged a pallet today, so we will have morning sticks to start the log-burner - possibly enough for over the festive period - and all for free :j I actually find chopping them quite therapeutic

Oh, that reminds me - Hopejacob - yes, you are right about 'mindfulness'. I know what the problem is at the moment, it is because I feel out of my depth. I'm not a property developer, and don't know if I would be by choice anyway...... But I'm sure that with the application of common-sense, *Team Greying* is actually going to be able to get a lot more of this done than we currently realise. And at least I am making progress as I descend into [STRIKE]old age[/STRIKE] wisdomness ;)Previously I would of been stymied into inactivity by the 'unfairness' of why we are having to do all this. Now I just now it *is* and we need to take action to move on

Dinner this evening..... Well I'm pretty sure we will of lost...dreaming? by this point with all this talk of *shrooms* - apologies

Picture here;



Please forgive the 'ponciness' I was trying my best for Upsidedown Bear

The recipe I used, has thankfully been picked up by a blogger and can be found HERE . I know I have linked to Rocket & Roses blog before on this thread - it's a good 'un the only thing I did differently is I used onion rather than shallot and I used Passata rather than chopped toms and puree.

Talking of all things food - Pippi your fella Guy was on this afternoon and he visited a diner called O'Rourkes in.... Connecticut I think.... Anyway, the chef made a 'hash' with smoked duck, but the first ingredient in 'the pool' (GF joke ) was (Swedish) turnips that had been mashed & seasoned - but I missed what they were - you know how quickly they rattle through ingredients... but an imaginative use of the neep I thought (PS I think they were Swedish as they looked yellow). But one to look out for - it was one of those silver railway car replica places. Edit see post below for link to relevant episode

So, today I am grateful for;

free firewood - keeping warm can no longer be taken for granted.

for y'all - making me think about recipes, information presentation and food presentation. I'm still amateur on all counts But a willing student

for the group of Redwings that have taken to visiting the gardens here - they'll of soon plundered the holly and rowan berries, but it's wonderful to see them for the time being.

Thanks so very much for dropping in, reading, commenting - y'all know how much I appreciate it

See y'all later.

Greying