Living richly; simply and debt-freely

beanielou

WE are very grateful grateful grateful to you

in_need_of_direction

Well said beanie. Greying, have you ever read the way of f*ck it by John Parkin. It's basically suggesting that you do as you have decided. Btw, have you had Greying towers valued recently? Friend of mine with two batches of negative equity have just realised that they are at break even on one. A major major relief for them and maybe a possibility worth exploring for you.

Greying_Pilgrim

beanz my love, certain folk :money: can say what they like about the 15 million *users* of this website, without folk like you, there would be nowt, nowt worth looking in to these forums for each day

INOD - mon dieu! you may well have hit upon something! DP and I clearly need to sell up for whatever we can and hasten to the land of the 15 pence beer and open up a veggie B&B - using market bought produce - pronto! Sorted! mmmmmmm.......... *thinks*


Greying x

Cheery_Daff

Greying, have a hug my lass (((((((((()))))))))))))))))))) not sure there's anything sensible I can say, but if you dislike living at home that must weigh heavy on your mind and your soul xx

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Well, what a fab-u-lo-so couple of days I have had And given that I'm more inclined to accentuate the positive, I figured I'd come on here and waffle on about it a bit

Firstly, I think that the 5th May needs to be renamed, 'Thank a Canadian Day' Someone that I know, who happens to come from that fair country, but is currently residing in the UK, knew that I was looking for a certain item, at a certain price. They, through *bush telegraph* (did I tell you we live on the out reaches of civilisation???) made sure that I got a message that the item that I wanted was now in stock in their place of work (a shop) at a significant discount :T They have nothing to gain by telling me this, but they went above and beyond to make sure that I got a bargain The said 'item' will continue to enrich DP & my life for some years to come :T

I have been able to get a large proportion of the foodstuffs on my list for good prices lately. I seem to have inadvertently tapped in to the thought processes of some of the supermercados and they are putting good produce my way for affordable prices :T

I happened to read Ms Monroe's blog and had a bit of a catch up. I came across this post and was intrigued about the book. I also liked the look of the recipe that Jack contributed. Lo and behold, the book was in stock in our library system :T It's a very good read - and if you are interested in tasty food, I think that there will be recipes to interest you. It isn't only for cancer patients, their family or carers, everyone can take something from this book - I think that it is a top-notch production. You feel like folk who know how to devise appealing dishes have been married up with someone who knows a shed-load about nutrition and they've all partied with a person who can shoot food to make it look like the funkiest of hippest cook books currently out on the market :T Plus 50% of royalties are going to the Royal Marsden :T

Anyhoo, I was going to make Heidi's Californian Barley Bowl tonight, but a recalcitrant avocado, refusing to ripen *at home*, like what it ought, put paid to that plan I got it back though, it is currently residing under a bowl with a couple of bananas! :rotfl: I therefore thought that I would have a bash at Jack's recipe, as I thought I had most of the ingredients, except I KNEW that I didn't have any peas I know, no frozen peas! I can see that Tilly will be drawing up the court martial papers to have me drummed out of the culinary corps tout de suite!

So, I don't know where I got the idea in my head that the recipe included pears....... I really don't. However, as it happened, I had bought a bag of pears in last week's S6. I was chuffed with them, as although they weren't ripe, they were 'rocha' pears from Portugal - something that you don't see all that often on the supermercado shelves, and when they did begin to ripen, they rewarded me with being super-tasty little pears However, I must reiterate, Jack did not include pears in her risotto recipe...........

So, I had a bash at making a version of Jack's beetroot risotto, as featured in the Royal Marsden Cancer Cookbook. And all I can say is, I'm glad I did, and thanks Jack for the inspiration My version was made with spelt, not pearl barley, simply because I had some left in the cupboard which needed using for something and this dish was ideal I also decided to up the protein content a little, by cooking some cannellini beans and adding them to the risotto. I used vac-pac beetroot - Jack said you could from h0me bargins, 29p a pack - I used 1.5 as we lurves beetroot....... I added onion, garlic and celery into the risotto base. So the risotto was cooked in the manner Jack outlined. Then to serve, I decided on some mixed salad leaves (mrL - 89p a bag, used about a third of a bag bet. 2), and half a red onion (small) chopped up and marinated in some wine vinegar, and then some chopped cherry tomatoes were added (mrL 39p a 250g punnet, about a dozen tommies used), along with salt, pepper and dried basil. I then sliced a couple of the rocha pears fairly thickly, discarded the core and lightly oiled them before putting them on the griddle pan, to char and lightly cook. They are quite a firm pear, so ideal for cooking This was all then plated up - with no green peas in sight - and a *quenelle* of cottage cheese added, along with some toasted walnut pieces Super yum.



Sorry about the carp pic. The risotto was hot and immediately steamed up the lens on the camera, but due to really bad light, that ended up being the most *informative* pic of the whole lot The leaves were far more perky and crunchy than they look, and there was also a mix - it wasn't just rocket! I would definitely make this again - if I had peas or pears I don't actually think that it was that expensive to make - in comparison to what a restaurant would charge..... Although spelt is much more expensive than pearl barley, I had some to use up - next time I would use barley, and anticipate that it would be as good

It's rounded off a good day

So, in a nutshell, I am incredibly grateful today for *other people*. Whether they know it or not, they can have a profound influence on making your day, life or tea that bit better than it may otherwise have been

Greying x

Ellidee

Your posts are always fab GP but today's is extra super fab and your cheery tone has brightened my election-drone weary brain . Thank you xx

rtandon27

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

YAY! Here we are at Friday - with the promise of a weekend just around the corner

Ellidee - what a very kind post to write Jack is very good at inspiring folk

rtandon - *snort* love, love, LOVE it!

Well the menu-planner is going to undergo something of a volte-face here at Greying Towers, the swing-o-meter has headed off to the 23rd so that later I can make Yotam's baked orzo with mozzarella and oregano to make best use of the 39p aubergines that I snagged from mrL t'other day. I shall make baingan bharta tomorrow, to use up the remaining aubergine, trying out a new to me recipe (thanks to MMM for mentioning it - never heard of it before! ).

Despite ticking off the days before we've reached them, it will all even out in the wash, and I'm still using ingredients that we've to hand, so hopefully the budget can remain intactica!

Edit: Oh, and I forgot to mention yesterday, when I was grateful for *other people* to mention that I was super impressed with the prompt response from a local authority team that is not in the area where I live. I had composed an e-mail to them on Wednesday night and sent it off. Accordingly to the timeline on my e-mail inbox (if it is accurate) within 25 minutes of them being *open for business* on Thursday, I was sent a 'we're looking into this' message and within 37 minutes of them being at work, I was sent the definitive answer to my query! How cool is that? I recently had need to contact m0rrisons and m1llets customer services - they both took over 36 hours to even deign to respond to my query (other than the automatically generated e-mail that is a waste of time) and didn't really address the issue that I was enquiring about anyway! So HOORAH! for public sector employees!!!!

Have a wonderful day - whatever you are up to

See y'all later.

Greying x

supersaver1000

Just calling in to say I made Homity pie today and it went down a treat. I used the hairy bikers recipe and can recommend it.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Today has been pretty spiffing

We enjoyed possibly the last hurrah with our NT membership, which runs out just now , by visiting a property we'd not been to before

Because of a gardener(s) or volunteer(s), who thought to make a display of interesting 'stuff', I learnt that a plant, which I have photographed loads - usually in an attempt to capture a bee or hoverfly in it's vague vicinity, is, in fact, Leopard's Bane. I love to learn new things

After passing the packed tea room, we sat and ate our lunch in a virtually deserted garden Cheese and cucumber sandwiches on HM bread and HM sultana, orange and walnut cake were in the mix.

We again got to see and smell native British bluebells. Glorious.

I am taller than I thought :j:rotfl: DP is taller than I thought :cool:

For being able to afford a couple of gallons of diesel and to run a vehicle, and for the relative freedom to choose how we spend our time. I remain grateful.........



Greying x