Living richly; simply and debt-freely

Greying_Pilgrim

starnac wrote: »

I've been meaning to ask for ages. Do you have a yogurt maker? Or do you make it another way? I'd love to have a go. Does it work it cheaper than shop bought? Sorry for all the questions

No, starI don't have a yoghurt maker - I make mine in a couple of wide neck food flasks that I have had for absolutely yonks, and originally purchased to take soup on picnics

Right, is it cheaper than shop bought? Well....... it can be, especially if (funnily enough) you use 'fresh' milk - but I am now a convert to using UHT milk, which cuts down the 'production' time to a few minutes. I buy my UHT from H0me bArgins at 69p a litre (whole milk). I generally use 3 tbsps. of starter from a previous batch of yoghurt (you can freeze your starter) so notionally that is *free*. I chose to put some milk powder in each of my batches, as we like thicker yoghurt - you don't have to, but this adds to the cost, I guess 8p or so a batch??? So, for - let's call it 80p + a teeny bit of fuel for heating up the milk - I have approx. 1 litre of quite thick natural yoghurt. It is thicker than supermercados valoo/basics/smartieprice yoghurt. So........ you save a little bit of money, I think, yes. greenbee would be able to tell you better than me, but I think that the savings are even bigger if you use organic UHT (I know wa1trose stock it) and make organic yoghurt for yourself, but I can't get hold of the organic UHT meself.

Is that any help?

Greying x

Greying_Pilgrim

I totally forgot to mention..... if maddiemay is passing through...... mm - did you see on dear muddywhitechicken's thread, the post about the soup recipes? I was looking through the one blog linked to, and came across a recipe for 'no cook' Energy um... 'spheres' Wondered whether they were significantly different, or perhaps easier to make, for that enthusiastic cyclist fella of yours Recipe HERE and ta everso to mwc for linking to a blog that I'd not come across before.

Greying x

rtandon27

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

...and I ponced about with an Ald1 tomato, rather than dice it up and put it in the rice...... :whistle:...

GP - loving the ponce - reminds me of thai vegetable carving!

Wonder if my OH would turn veggie if the bowls in front of him looked as lovely as yours?!?

As always, photos of your loverly tea are making me not just hungry but also wanting to try your recipes!:D

Upsidedown_Bear

Smilie of the day.

maddiemay

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

I totally forgot to mention..... if maddiemay is passing through...... mm - did you see on dear muddywhitechicken's thread, the post about the soup recipes? I was looking through the one blog linked to, and came across a recipe for 'no cook' Energy um... 'spheres' Wondered whether they were significantly different, or perhaps easier to make, for that enthusiastic cyclist fella of yours Recipe HERE and ta everso to mwc for linking to a blog that I'd not come across before.

Greying x

Dear Greying, thank you for thinking of me and my attempts to keep the OH topped up with cake etc, those spheres look yummy and would suit me too on my low gluten/as little flour as possible regime, note to self to add coconut flakes to shopping list, have everything else in stock. ATM he has a huge fruit cake to wade through, adapted from Frugal Queen's boiled cake recipe, I didn't have enough dried fruit so substituted an equivalent weight of mincemeat (the fruity type:rotfl:), it made a very big cake, so I suspect the volume/weight ratio was off somewhere, but no problem (I really enjoyed scraping out the connie onnie tin too - guilty secret:D)

I absolutely love living in the country and would not change it, but food is so much more expensive here, the cheapest I can buy whole UHT milk is 89 or 95 pence. I make my yogurt in the Easi-yo maker, with some dried milk added and it usually turns out well, without having to pre-heat the milk, but once have had to "put it through the cycle twice", was a bit chiily I think:( In order to put off sorting out clothes and a food list for a few days away down in Zomerset I think I will make a batch now:D

Late I know, but I love your food posts and pics, I am not vegetarian and cannot each very much in the way of beans/lentils etc, but even so get so many great ideas from your recipes, thank you.
MM

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

And a good one it looks set to be here at Greying Towers. Hardly a cloud in the sky and the sun is rising Got woken by a wasp that decided it just had to explore through the open window and then made a hick of a noise exploring every square millimetre of the wall around the window trying to get back out! Got it out with the aid of a glass and a sheet of paper *sigh* But wide awake then :rotfl:

We're sticking to the planner well Satisfying to see 7 red ticks of meals 'as per'. Last night was pizza night I made a black olive pizza and as I had bought a bag of sweet potatoes (ald1 - 89p a kg) for tonight's curry I decided to make sweet potato fries. I used a spice rub on them that came originally from a Dean & DeLuca cookbook, as the spice rub for crawfish, but any Cajun spice mix would do - THIS one is very similar to the ingredients I use. I also chopped up a gherkin and a piece of red pepper and mixed it into some mayo with a little seasoning, as the spice rub doesn't really render the chips to be doused in salt and vinegar!



Really nommy, and I suspect a tadge cheaper to make at home, rather than pizza parlour prices...........

Tonight's curries will be sweet potato jalfrezi and masoor dhal with cabbage and rice.

rtandon - I've seen thai vegetable carving on TV - magnificent! But I don't think my tommy compares.....really...... :rotfl: But you are always so kind and supportive of my efforts - thank you I was thinking about your comment in relation to my own upbringing - we ate meat at home. I can't remember 'specific' vegetarian plates of food that we ever ate - although things like 'egg, chips and green peas' could be classed as such. But I think that our meals definitely lacked 'appeal', whatever was on the plate. Overboiled veg, overcooked meat...... I'm not sure the non-gardening parental really likes cooking...... I think I have gone too much the other way. From being able to tell what day it was, because of what was 'for tea', I now try to incorporate a wide variety of foods and try not to have the same dish on the planner in the month It has, however, always been my experience that at social 'dos' the vegetarian option is always popular amongst meat-eaters. We went hungry at a house warming and a wedding reception, because the meat eaters got to the pizza and the veggie lasagne first........

Upsidedown Bear - I love that smilie has got into the adult colouring book craze - such an antidote to technology! However, I was reading about it the other day, and it has now got competitive as to how expensive your colouring pens and crayons are......... gosh, we humans are a sad bunch......

maddiemay - steady on the cider! Hope the weather shines for you We've been to 2 natty trust properties in Somerset. Tintinhull Gardens and Barrington Court. Lovely, but I'm afraid both visits (separate years) were very rainy But lovely places to see Edit: Actually 3, we went to Tyntesfield too. Now that is a property to see, and the guides as super enthusiastic and know a great deal about the family/the house and the history.

Right, best shake a tail-feather and get going. Might even make meself a coffee

Ta for popping in, reading and joining in. I do appreciate it.

See y'all later.

Greying x

joeyjimbles

Pizza and wedges look gorgeous. Will steal the wedge idea as I have just been given a huge bag of sweet potatoes by allotment owning neighbour who was apparently gifted them herself and doesn't know what to do with them! I do. Barter system means that she is now recipient of large slab of gingerbread which she confirms she does know how to handle.
If anyone is in the capital and going past the London Graphic Centre they have two huge slightly bonkers colouring in posters at the front door and a selection of really good felt pens in truly beautiful colours. DS1 and I spent a good 15 minutes colouring in whenever we were passing on our last trip down there. Very therapeutic.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Well, doesn't time fly?

We caught up with some bits of telly that were on tape last night. We watched the last 2 parts of that 'Pennine Way' prog. It was OK, but such a wasted opportunity, they could have 'walked' much more and taken less opportunity to do things 'off' the walkway. Still, you can imagine, the pitch to BBC commissioners -

'we want to do a programme, about the Pennine Way, Britain's longest open access path. It's 50 years since it was opened'.

'Great, we see a 12 part - 1 hour slots - celebrity competitive walking show here - we'll bill it as 'Bake Off - with Blisters!' it'll rake in the ratings at Christmas!'

'Um there are no celebrities. We just thought we'd have Paul Rose amble along a bit and do pieces to camera, meeting people along the way, pointing out large rocks.'

'Great, Chris Evans will present, we can do some spin off shows - who's got Davina's number? - shall we do 'barefoot Pennine Walking? mmmm, maybe a bit tough on the celebrities on week one. Maybe build into it. Do you think we could get Bear Grill-it to do motivational 'stuff' with the celebrities? So, what celebrities have given you the nod for this?'

'Um, we've not approached celebrities, it's not a competition. It's about showing the Pennine way in all it's glory. Paul's an experienced adventurer, and very down to earth.'

'Cancel Chris. This is not the vehicle. You can have 2 hrs, cut into 4 slots - a budget of £20, not to be spent in the bar, and we'll shove it on BBc2 on weeknights in the summer, when ratings plummet'

'ummm, ta.'

*sigh* :rotfl:

We also watched R1ck Ste1n's new prog. I enjoyed that - well, apart from that really odd segment where he had a 5 course lunch with that 'author' ???? at that really posh hotel. Was it a freebie, or was my licence fee paying for that? The 'author' was frankly, quite, quite odd and added nothing to the programme - get him off! And why has Rick been given a 'prop' bag to have in every shot? What is that about? Still, it should be a good prog. Although I'm a bit disappointed he's given up 'locational' cooking and is cooking everything in that apartment in Greece. Surely the point of locational cooking is the ingredients from the place that you're visiting? He did that on his barge series didn't he - cooked everything in France, even though they went much further afield on their travels.

Well, our curry turned out ok. I can't find either of the recipes that I actually used on the web, so I've linked to approximations - which always has problems, as there are always things that folk do that you disagree with! :rotfl: However, we had; Sweet potato jalfrezi, masoor dhal with cabbage and basmati rice. The sweet potato recipe I use is out of the 'Meat Free Monday' book. It uses jarred jalfrezi paste iirc, so I use the version JO did in one of his books - 'cook wif jaymee'????? - also, this version includes cauliflower and mango. I infrequently have spare cauli and never have spare mango :rotfl: So normally, I leave them out and the dish is fine. However, last night, I sorted out my bag of cauli (yes, really ) and put all the itty bitty bits into the curry, leaving the nice florets for another dish. In the recipe I link to, she leaves out the mango and cauli and puts in courgette instead. I have linked to this recipe before, as it has a recipe to make your own jalfrezi spice, and also, I've just noticed that she links to some other sweet potato recipes, which I thought may be of use to joeyjimbles. Sweet Potato Jalfrezi. The lentil dish is very quick to make and uses cheap ingredients. Again, I couldn't find the version I made, and I made it as an 'all in one' dish, and I most certainly didn't cook the lentils for 1 1/4 hrs! I also shredded up the cabbage finely and put it in at the end of cooking, letting the residual heat cook it through. The closest version is HERE All served with basmati rice;



I'm liking that Saturday night is curry night. It's a simple meal, very often that benefits from being made in advance and you can take it in so many directions with so many different ingredients. And, let's not beat about the bush, it is cheaper than the vast amount of takeaway joints, irrespective of whether you're cooking meat or veggies. Although if you're down the road from an award-winning takeaway - and I know there are some good ones - it must be hard. Luckily, we never have that temptation here :rotfl:

Well, we've things to do today. Horrible chores that we both dread. But if we work together, they'll get done quicker.

Have a great Sunday, what ever you are up to.

Thanks for popping by, reading, and joining in. Very mucho, mucho appreciated. By me.

See y'all later.

Greying x

Greying_Pilgrim

Well, I'm giving myself a slight pat on the back. 'Orrible chore completed - team Greying won through :T Absolutely jiggered now though, don't really want to do anything else :rotfl: Even though I've lists, longer than me arms, of tasks that I could choose from

Still, I best get thinking about a spot of lunch. DP has gone to the recycling. If I get a shift on, we can have lunch and then think of something to occupy us for the afternoon.

*sigh*

We just had an interesting conversation about 'at what point' do you realise - (or perhaps you don't, and it goes beyond that point) that 'life' is too much for you. Perhaps you've a big garden, and you've always looked after it, but it's becoming too much to mow/prune or plant out. Perhaps your house is in need of maintenance and you used to 'run' up the ladder to affix a roof tile or adjust the TV aerial. Now you put one foot on the bottom rung and you feel dizzy....... I realise that it all depends on your particular personality too. If you've 'always done what you've always done' then you're less likely to think 'things need to change'. If you've no close family/friends to call on - how do you start the process of downsizing?

Unfortunately we didn't come up with 'the' answer, but it is certainly something worth pondering. Our lives are currently made miserable because someone else has let their lives get way beyond their capabilities and they have let things slide too far. Way too far. I don't want to ever be the person that does that to other people.

Team Greying works well together. We always have done. Sure, we squabble a bit - we did this morning, getting niggly with each other rather than with what was actually eating at us both. But we both shut up and got on with it, and ended up with the job done I think teams are important. If you're all pulling in the same direction, their constitution is immaterial. Sure, could be your spouse/partner, or family, or a gaggle of friends or community minded neighbours who help each other out.

Isolation is a big problem, especially in a fast-paced modern world, but I've ordered DP to 'find someone else' quick smart if I shuffle orf first.

But in the meantime, we still need to give more consideration to the future and what it may look like for us. Greying Towers is small, but it could quickly become a maintenance nightmare if we lost our health (it is already a money pit , such is the lot of older houses). I actually think that a garden flat, but in a modern property, with room for parking and a shed/garage would just about suit me down to the ground There ain't many of them such rarities in the vicinity of Greying Towers though

Ah well, summat to codgitate on.

See y'all later.

Greying x

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Well, we did have lunch - beetroot & grated cheese sangers on HM wholemeal if you're interested - but I have to say, we've not achieved an awful lot since. DP seems to have read for a long while and inspected the inside of his eyelids for a whole lot longer *cough*.... I've fiddled faddled and fiddled a bit more. All bitsa jobs that need doing, but yield no satisfaction

Anyhoo, we had a very simple meal for dinner. Just right actually, although we were both hungry - don't know why But we stuck to the planner and had Leanne Brown's courgette and tomato pasta from her 'From Scratch' cookbook, pg 58. By her own admission, it is a pasta 'idea' rather than a recipe - and I remember using it last year. Basically it is grated courgette and tomato with pasta. I gussie it up a bit by putting onion, garlic and celery in it, and I added in some crushed coriander seeds tonight. But Leanne is right, the courgettes release water as they cook and provide a 'sauce' for the pasta. Yet you don't get 'watery' pasta - it is really quite flavourful. As I had some grano padano, I grated a bit to go over the top, and chopped up a bit of basil (from my YS'd plants) to run through the sauce. Really nice.



Inadvertently, we have had a NSD today! This is only because we haven't been anywhere to spend any money! However, as I used the last onion up for tea, this 'run' will come to an end tomorrow

Today I am grateful for one thing, as it is so encompassing.

I am grateful that I am part of a team. The whole is so much greater than the make-up of its parts........

Thanks for popping in and reading. I greatly appreciate it.

See y'all later.

Greying x