Cheery's buttling diary: tea in one hand, plant pot in the other, running shoes on

milasavesmoney

Mushroom stroganoff sounds wonderful and I have mushrooms. I'm going to do an amble around the net to look for a recipe. (If Jack's isn't available)

We have started some remodeling...tile floors to be replaced in three rooms. Two rooms have tile torn out which led to me thinking the walls needed to be painted before new tile was layed. Paint was 30% off and belly up to the bar boys cuz why not paint to laundry room cabinets too. (As long as the paint's on sale why not?) Oh and that area needs a new countertop to go with the sink I bought on sale last year for the kitchen. Sink is being put in laundry room instead because I changed my mind about the type of kitchen sink I want. Well, as long as we're at it why not have that pantry built that I've been dreaming of for years? And two walls need to be textured in the short hall, and, and.... :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

:j OH is on board with it all. :beer:

Cheery_Daff

Sounds like you've started a bit of an epic project there Mila! :eek: :j Do keep us updated Bargain paint you've got there! :j

Work event today,so free lunch :money: and it doesn't start til 9.30 so I'm going to get up in a min and go for a run first.

Karmacat

That sounds like a great Sunday and today, Cheery :j

Am very, very, ultra impressed about the tiling you managed to fit in, good for you though I get the impression you locked yourself out? I worked hard on *not* doing that yesterday, the last time I went to that event thats exactly what I did, and it was *really* expensive.

Mila, that definitely counts as remodelling :j sounds great. I love ceramic tiles on the floor, like in the south of France for us, and your climate is absolutely one where you'll benefit from that. Hope it doesn't create too much dust.

Enjoy your work event, Cheery, and the free lunch

Cheery_Daff

Thanks KC, although don't be too impressed with my tiling - it's literally 5 square tiles in a row :rotfl: (and one slightly unsquare one that I'd cut previously). Still, I'm pleased I got round to it too :j Going to leave it another couple of days before grouting to let the adhesive dry properly.

Event today was cheerful, and lunch was really tasty actually - a good selection of salads, including a feta and olive thing and a nice pasta thing, and then a 'vegetable bake' which didn't sound promising but was actually *really* tasty with a kind of blue cheese and breadcrumb topping, and some rosemary boiled potatoes :j And an extremely tasty pear and apple crumble and custard for pudding (and I *may* have sneaked in a bite of toffee cheesecake too...)

Just deciding what to have for tea. As I said on Greying's thread, it's got to be veg based as there's a big pile that won't fit in the fridge so I need to make a start. Poor Mr Cheery is full of cold, so doesn't really want to eat anything so making a dent in the veg mountain is down to me...

So. Might go for something straightforward - steam some brocolli, and then do a kind of stir fry with courgettes, leeks, other bits of greenery etc. Ooh, or I could try the mushroom stroganoff! And just have it with a kind of green veg side thingy. Mmmm. Yes, that's what I'll do

Cheery_Daff

Reporting back on the stroganoff - it was good! :j :j Really simple too - just onions and mushrooms (I added a red pepper too), bit of paprika and English mustard for flavour, fried up then simmered in stock, with some yogurt (soured with a bit of lemon juice) stirred through at the end. I didn't follow the quantities in the recipe (of course :rotfl: ) and I think used too much stock and not enough mushrooms, as my sauce was rather runny... but that wouldn't have mattered if I'd had it with rice as it would have soaked it up beautifully :j Had mine with steamed brocolli which didn't have the same soaking quantities

I'm liking this business of getting a recipe book out of the library and trying a few things in a short space of time :j Never done it before and it's fun :j Most of my recipe books are packed away, and I've never really been much good at following a recipe, more using them for inspiration

I like this book cos the recipes are straightforward and don't have loads of ingredients Can't be doing with a faffy recipe, and while some of these ones have made a bit of a mess, none of them have required a trip to the shop for a special ingredient

Couple of other things I might try from it... (just sticking this here to remind myself!)

- macaroni peas
- onion, cabbage and cheese pasta
- smokey red lentil burgers
- peach and chickpea curry
- avgolemono (which seems to be some kind of rice soup with egg in)

And I quite fancy the white chocolate tea bread but that would require the purchase of white chocolate, which is a dangerous thing... :rotfl: We'll see

Greying_Pilgrim

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

Couple of other things I might try from it... (just sticking this here to remind myself!)

- macaroni peas
- onion, cabbage and cheese pasta
- smokey red lentil burgers
- peach and chickpea curry
- avgolemono (which seems to be some kind of rice soup with egg in)

Can heartily recommend those two recipes. The peach and chickpea curry is a synch. Don't what ever you do, attempt her 'not' a tagine though. It's vile and insipid. Neither am I a fan of her 'add a tea bag' recipes, but each to their own.......

I don't follow recipes either; substitute ingredients like mad and eat the consequences! Bravo to stroganoff and broccoli. Really healthy and gotta be low-carb, surely?


Greying X

Cheery_Daff

Indeed Greying (not that I go in for that low carb malarkey - I LOVE carbs ). Normally I'd make something with both a carb (eg rice/pasta/bread) element and a bigger protein element (eg lentils, chick peas) but this was wholesome and nicely light after a filling lunch :j

Thanks for the warnings, I shall bear them in mind!

milasavesmoney

I need to have the hot water heater moved so that I can get my pantry built. The plumbers came today, did a lot of head shaking and general humpting and told me they would work up a price but it was going to be expensive. Lots of gas pipes need to be rearranged to get this done. My contractor is in a snit because he thinks it will cost too much and why bother and wouldn't this or that work better. Bottom line is I pay the bills and if I can financially swing it, I'm having it done. Contractor can get happy or get gone.

EssexHebridean

Mila our builder is baffled as to why we're choosing to keep our storage heaters rather than have central heating put in as "You've got that big cupboard in the kitchen that you could put the boiler in" - err, no, that "big cupboard" is my larder, and it's staying! :rotfl:

Smokey red lentil burgers sound ace - is this from the "Girl called Jack" book? I need to have another look. It was that book that inspired the rather nice sardine/tomato/pasta dish I blogged about a while ago, though.:D

Cheery_Daff

Pah to pesky builders with opinions :eek: :rotfl: Quite right to stick with your own plans ladies :j If I had a pantry I certainly would NOT be giving it up, even if I had no heating at all! :eek: :rotfl:

Yes, it's the Girl Called Jack book - many of the recipes are on the website I think (not checked that particular one though). I made the peach and chick pea curry tonight :j I confess it was probably a bit silly given the amount of veg I have lying around to make something that urely used tins I could have lost a bit of veg in there but was tired and going for simplicity

It certainly was simple, and cheery too :j and cost about £1 I think, and probably would have served 3 I reckon if had with rice (I couldn't be bothered with rice so just had with a flatbread). The shop didn't have peaches in juice though so I had to go for light syrup and it was pretty sweet - fine for my sweet tastes but I'm pretty sure Mr Cheery would have found it a bit much.

Fortunately (well, not really, but fortunately for these purposes) he's still full of cold and wanted nowt but mushroom soup.

Shamefully, I've still not finished off the baba ganoush, and there's a bit of last night's mushroom stroganoff left over, and now half a pan full of this curry. Tomorrow's tea is going to be a VERY odd concoction of leftovers! :eek: :rotfl: Keep hoping Mr Cheery will finish one of them off while I'm at work, but no, mushroom soup or nothing this week. Oh dear! :rotfl:

Not much time tomorrow night so will just do leftovers. BUt Thursday night I've got time spare, so might mess about and do burgers and have them with a big load of this veg :j :j

Not much else to report. Annoyingly found a voucher for a free meal at work in my purse but it had expired :eek: Would have only bought a sandwich that I wouldn't have bought anyway (if you see what I mean) so in reality I've only lost the cost of one home made lunch, which isn't much, but still, slightly vexing!

Tiredy tired tonight. Been to Kettlebells class, bringing total for each gym visit down to £4.84 :money: