Living richly; simply and debt-freely

Igamogam

Thanks for the heads up on the chocolate cake - its yum and Sarah's blog is great too:)

Greying_Pilgrim

Hey rtandon - thank you for your kind wishes for us both I love that you have a BBQ book from the library - at least there is one optimist amongst us regarding the weather in the UK at Easter Unfortunately, our library hasn't got Paul's book. I'll have to see if I can see it in a book shop, and have a peruse. Mind, he's a good chef, his recipes *should* work - not something you can say about *all* celeb chef cookbooks, eh?

Igamogam :wave: - I love that you tried out the choccy cake recipe It's ok for £1 isn't it? Perfect Easter treat material I used my usual ganache recipe (butter or marge, couple of squares of choc & some golden syrup melted together) for the topping, as I don't have icing sugar, but you only need a speck to top the cake, so I still think I was in budget territory Plus I love that folk are out abroad in the world of the internet, determining how to get X, Y or Z for the best price possible - I mean Sarah, Ms Monroe etc etc

Well, we've had a slow start to the day. We met up with friends for drinks yesterday afternoon, so we're recovering today Still, not too bad - we had a good old catch up, returned home to HM curry and an early night and then we've had a massive cooked brekkie of HM bread toast, mushrooms and scrambled egg (with red sauce, all out of brown ) this morning. And there is still at least 1 portion each of choccy cake left in the tin Does life get any richer????

Happy Easter Sunday to everyone, have a great time, however you are spending it

Greying x

beanielou

Sounds like a fab day yesterday

liltdiddylilt

Add ground almonds to that ganache GP and you have a complete winner fudge! xxx

in_need_of_direction

Hope life is treating the residents of Greying towers well.

Greying_Pilgrim

in_need_of_direction wrote: »

Hope life is treating the residents of Greying towers well.

Aw, INOD - you are so sweet to think of [STRIKE]me[/STRIKE] us

Life is brill, primarily as we've spent the last few days away from Greying Towers , livin' the high life in a cabin in t'woods, communing with nature, cycling our socks off and walking our legs into jellification. We stayed more or less in budget (boy, it's hard when the only shops around are c0-op's and sPArs.........). We had exactly what was on the meal planner each evening - all requests of the 'special one' and by taking a picnic along each day, we were about to afford a humungous slab of cheesecake each, a mocha and a coffee at a 'renowned' local teashop, and a couple o'pints of local ale at local establishments Mind, we worked all the cake calories off quick smart, by deciding to take the 'mountain' road back to base :eek: Felt like we were participating in the tour o'yorkshire........ :eek::rotfl:

Anyhoo, back to normal now Back down to reality with a bump But so very nice to be able to drop into MSE and *see* the gang Hope you are all doing fantastic

Greying xxx

Debt_Free_Desires

Aww greying, it's so lovely to read that you have both enjoyed some quality time away in the countryside ..... It sounded idyllic.

Hope the bump back in to reality hasn't been too hard, hope to see you back here soon

DFD

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Aw, Debt Free Desires, what a very kind comment

Well, we've *survived* coming back to reality Not too shabby that it was a shortened working week this week, and we'll snag another next week Actually, not planned, but certainly not to be sniffed at

We have eaten the very last eggy-peggies that we bought I mean, how can you not smile when you open up the box to see these beauties?



I bet dearest MWC would be able to tell us which chuck laid which egg too

April, as a budget month dragged on for aeons Still, the *holiday* (as that's us for this year ) was paid for and we certainly got bang for us buck, we just had wall to wall enjoyment and got so *much* for actually so little...... Mind, it's probably good that we are satisfied with spotting wildlife and enjoying each other's company. DP was on top form and we had a lot of laughs Most especially when I fell in a stream whilst trying to take a pic of DP....... (Greying offers thanks to the God of *Balance under duress*, and for her second-hand, gifted for free, pair of waterproof leather walking boots...... :A)

I did manage to spot my second (to my knowledge) Yellowhammer. It was a male, and was about 10 yards away from us - we were lucky in that we were high up on a cliff and it was sat in the top of a tree that had grown up out of the rock and so we were *about* eye level with it. I took a pic of it - to assist identification, and in checking on the rspb website, I find that it is on their red list of birds in decline, so doubly lucky to have spotted it And given that I only last year, saw my first (again, to my knowledge - and identified for me by dearest Essex Hebriddean) Black Cap (male), we were *falling* over them last week - both male and female, with a female being particularly active in the hedge just alongside the kitchen window There were also two very active woodpeckers, but suffice to say, the sap was rising and they were um........ very active..... :rotfl:

My May menu planner is distinctly (for the first part) wedded to the ald* S6, and will feature a lot of sweet potatoes and butternut squash I've taken a leaf out of MrMWC's culinary endeavours book and I am trying 3 recipes that were offered by a veggie cafe that MWC linked too. I am also going to make G1ll1an McKe1th's shepherdess pie, which again, features sweet potatoes. I'd actually forgotten that we had (loooooong time ago) been to that cafe. I don't remember much about it - except that it is at basement level and I remember the steps down, and I do recall that DP and I were poor as church mice and didn't have anything flash - probably a drink and a bun or something. It's probably well over 20 yrs ago - the lack of cash ain't changed much :rotfl:

I was also grateful that L1dl had decided to put aubergines in their weekly offer, as the menu planner featured them quite heavily too. Lovely, bright glossy big aubergines for 39p - winner winner, Cambodian aubergine curry dinner

Right, well, I'm supposed to be getting on. I've yoghurt to decant and I've cake to make. With a bit of luck and the weather in the right direction, we are going on an adventure tomorrow - on a bluebell hunt We saw plenty last week (is it me or are they early this year??) But we had been told about a specific place that apparently is a *must see* for bluebells in springtime. So happy to oblige and pack a picnic to see what we can see

Thank you for continuing to pop by and leave kind comments. Know that I appreciate it as much as I ever did

See y'all later,

Your intermittent correspondent, Greying x

maddiemay

Reading and running, have to leave house soon, Mr MM will be pacing impatiently else:(

Have thought of you often, so pleased that you have had a good break and that all is well with you both.

May pop back later to bore you about our impending trip, Monday - yikes:eek::eek::eek::eek:

Greying_Pilgrim

maddiemay wrote: »

May pop back later to bore you about our impending trip, Monday - yikes:eek::eek::eek::eek:

You're off to Pippiland - that's anything but boring.

Hope you and Mrmaddiemay have safe travels and you'd better update us on your adventures

Greying x