OS Singlies - We Do It Our Way!

moneyistooshorttomention

I too noted the bit about mozzarella may not be mozzarella and thought "Well...I knew to avoid convenience foods as far as possible...but even a basic ingredient mucked-around with:eek:".

I've got cheese-making equipment and recipes that I've had to hand for the last few months. Sounds like a good incentive to get on and have a go at it as soon as I can get on top of the house renovation project a bit.

It's only the softer type cheeses I have in mind (at least at the moment)...but I have an idea mozzarella might be one of the ones its pretty easily possible to make. Must check....

The only type I've done so far is yogurt cheese and that's basically pretty simple. Take suitable sieve...put suitable bit of material (muslin or similar) in....put in a big dollop of yogurt and wait some hours for it to drain. Bingo = yogurt cheese. I used the whey in breadmaking, as part of the liquid for that, in order not to waste it.

Frugalsod

Charis wrote: »

One more reason to make the effort to cook at home even if there is only one. In the comments it says 'the food industry only exists to sell us air and water'.

Like others here I usually cook four portions and freeze three for later. Saves time, effort and washing up. I use L*kel*nd's smallest plastic containers, 400mls. They are easy to label, easy to stack in the freezer (or when empty, nest in neat piles in the cupboard) and have colour coded lids. They look small but, even allowing a gap for expansion when frozen, they still hold adequate for one serving. Long lasting and easy to clean properly, and the lids stay on.

I started making the switch from anything manufactured to cooking all from scratch a couple of years ago. Now very little is processed, and so most of these food scandals pass me by. Though I suspect that many are getting food scandal fatigue. As Which said the fines need to be higher and more testing needs to be done.

I am lucky in that I can eat the same food for days so can avoid having to put everything into the freezer. Though tomorrow I will make a big slow cooker of chilli from beef that I will be mincing myself. Most will be put into 15x 350ml lock and lock food containers.

BookWorm

Need2bthrifty wrote: »

I like Anthony Hopkins as well so have a quite a few, everything from Hannibal to 84 charing cross road which I love and watch repeatedly, it’s based on a true story about two people, a NY writer and a London bookseller, their love of books and how their correspondence and relationship develops over 20 years.

Need2bthrifty - just wanted to come and say thanks for the recommendation for 84 Charing Cross Road. I'd never heard of it but have just watched it and enjoyed it very much. Perfect viewing for a stormy Sat afternoon

spirit

Cripes people have been busy today (or busy doing nuffin).

I walked up to the village this morning since I wanted to get a couple of talking books to help me sleep. (slept really badly last night due mainly to the noise of the storm). What luck, the library were selling loads of them off for 50p - spirit buys 5

Got a bag of long nails (bashing in wood type, not fingers) to mend one of the older fences. I've already replaced about 10 so far this year so if I can extend the life of 2 more i will! thing is, the previous owner put up fencing all around the back garden just inside the boundary. The other day I discovered that the rear neighbour has a wall between me and them. Ok it's ugly breezeblock, but means there is no urgent need to hide it with fence panels. What I thought I might do is put up some reed or brushwood roll that you staple on. That would hide the wall nicely and I can put it all along the back fence to help protect it from the wind.

It's been quite sunny today so went up the garden and dug up some more leeks. Am making it into a chicken and leek soup for supper since it is a fast day today for me.

Actually, has anyone noticed how light it is now at this time of day? It will be another half hour or so I think before I need to put the lights on.

Tomorrow I shall do my ironing (managed to dry stuff outdoors today :T) will do my hair roots at the same time and then pop down to @ldi to get my shopping at 10.

Need2bthrifty

Hi Folks

Sorry I’ve been MIA for a bit, I’ve also been in the bereavement doldrums. Melanzana & LavenderBees sending you my sympathies and hugs. Sometimes you just have to let the feelings and emotions take over and go with it.

I went to a funeral this week, as if that wasn’t emotional enough my uncle, who is sadly losing his memory, was there and he initially didn’t remember me but during the tea afterwards he started remembering and got upset because he saw the resemblance between me and my mother. She was his favourite sister and it will be 36 years, next month, since she died. Losing my mother at such a young age (17) left me with lots of unresolved grief and took a long time to come to terms with, but his emotions hit me like a ton of bricks.

Anyway after a couple of days indulging my emotions I’m getting back into my usual routine – I soooo need to defrost my freezer, today I’ve been doing an inventory and menu planning. Like others I batch cook, I don’t have a huge freezer but at the moment other than the usual fruit/veg/bread I have 10 soup portions and 14 mains, unfortunately they are all based around chicken and mince so the menu plan is looking very repetitive, other than making a pizza or quiche with the stuff in the fridge I’m determined to use up all the freezer stuff before I buy anything else.

Bookworm – so glad you enjoyed the film, it is a lovely story. This week I’ve avoided ‘nice’ and watched Dolores Claiborne, great line in the film = “sometimes being a b!tch is all a woman has to hang onto” but tonight I’ve got Denzel Washington’s Man on Fire lined up – oh er he can be my protector anytime .

RosiePuddingPaws

MITSTM please let us know how you get on with the cheese making. That is something I've always fancied doing - but to make cheddar or similar rather than soft cheese.

Glad it is much quieter tonight. The noise of the wind last night was tremendous and the rain hitting the windows even disturbed the cat draped on the window cill (with head and one paw hanging down over the radiator)!

RPP

greenbee

Spirit - can you paint the breezeblock wall and grow stuff up it rather than spending money on expensive coverings? Some vine eyes and wire would allow you to grow roses, clematis, honeysuckle etc up the wall and none of them would damage it. I did this in my first garden to hide the ugly workshop at the back of it.

calicocat

LavenderBees wrote: »

For the cat lovers...

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/02/14/olympic-curling-cats_n_4786770.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular#slide=2065252

Lol.

I once had a cat that loved being spun round on the floor and shoved from one side of the room to the other......she would have loved that sport.

groatie_queen

BookWorm wrote: »

Need2bthrifty - just wanted to come and say thanks for the recommendation for 84 Charing Cross Road. I'd never heard of it but have just watched it and enjoyed it very much. Perfect viewing for a stormy Sat afternoon

By coincidence, I recently read a brilliant book, "Between Silk and Cyanide" written by Leo Marks, who was the son one of the owners of that very bookshop. During WW2, Leo was a senior cryptographer with the Special Operations Executive (SOE), and wrote code poems for agents being parachuted into Europe. The most famous, "The Life that I Have" was given to Violette Szabo, but had been written on the death of his girlfriend Ruth.

The book "84 Charing Cross Road", is charming and well worth a read too.

Need2bthrifty

groatie_queen wrote: »

By coincidence, I recently read a brilliant book written by Leo Marks, who was the son of the owner of that very bookshop. During WW2, Leo was a senior cryptographer with the Special Operations Executive (SOE), and wrote code poems for agents being parachuted into Europe. The most famous, "The Life that I Have" was given to Violette Szabo, but written on the death of his girlfriend Ruth.

The book "84 Charing Cross Road", is charming and well worth a read too.

Thanks GQ, that sounds like my kind of read, will check it out.