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Living richly; simply and debt-freely

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  • mrsinvisible
    mrsinvisible Posts: 1,310 Forumite
    That risotto looks lush, Greying, (what is spelt?) l don't like barley, so it sounds like a good alternative.
    Sad that your NT membership has ended, l enjoyed my virtual trips out, and have benefitted fitness wise from the hiking and biking.
  • Greying_Pilgrim
    Greying_Pilgrim Posts: 6,613 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    edited 10 May 2015 at 9:49AM
    Good Morning :hello:

    supersaver - Homity pie is something that I have never made - well done you! Was it 'Cranks' restaurant that popularised it as a dish in the 1970's? I realise that it is in fact a regional dish with a heritage that precedes the 1970's by some stretch though. mmm - want to make it now :D

    mrsinvisible - :wave: hello :D The NT membership goes until the end of the month, but to be honest, I'm not sure if we can get anymore trips shoe-horned in :( I do have my mind fixed on one more destination though...... we'll see.........

    Spelt is an ancient form of barley (edit: actually, it may well be an ancient form of wheat - I forget which). I'd say that it is much slimmer than pearl barley (and a light brown colour, rather than beigey grey), and it does have a slightly different nuttiness. The only UK grower is an organic farm in Somerset/Dorset (right next to Glasto ;)). So it is quite a dear product - £3+ for 500g. I bought my last box on hols as a treat food (better for us than a stick of rock :D), but it's not something that we regularly have :( I think that some folk who have cereal allergies have been able to tolerate spelt. You can have it as the whole grain/berry, or as ground flour. Spelt bread is quite tasty, but again, quite expensive to buy.......

    Dinner yesterday was a try out of the curry dish that I read about on MMM - Baingan Bharta (aubergine curry). It was actually very simple to make - although I didn't roast my aubergines, just cubed them very small. I'd certainly make it again, and with an mrL 39p aubergine, a tin of HB tommies for 25p (4for£1) and m&$ YS'd fresh coriander, it was quite a cheap dish to make.... I accompanied it with Leon's Pineapple curry, lentil dhal and rice. Even DP was stuffed. Pic (not of a stuffed DP :doh:) here;

    284_zpstsphigoz.jpg

    Chores and housework today. No adventurising :( Although I may have another flick through the pics from yesterday...... ;)

    Thanks for popping in, reading and commenting. Mucho appreciated, as ever.

    See y'all later.

    Greying x
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  • Greying_Pilgrim
    Greying_Pilgrim Posts: 6,613 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    edited 10 May 2015 at 11:47AM
    Leaving a post on Fortune's thread made me think a bit more about this little chap that we spotted yesterday;

    188_zpsjwowa7x3.jpg

    I thought first of all, that it might be a 'bl00dy-nosed' beetle but now I'm not so sure, as he isn't as smooth 'shelled' as the beetle in the pic Edit: I've just noticed that the antennae are all wrong on this specimen too - bl00dy-nosed beetle it is not :( . What's the betting that it's the much more prosaic dung munching Geotropes.......... Ho hum. Still, it's shiney blue trim sure was fancy, and I suppose it fits in with our 'recycling' dispositions.......... :rotfl:

    However, if we have any insect-identifiers in the midst, please feel free to offer alternative identifications :D We were only about 200/300 yards away from where cattle were present, walking through a forest edge/clearing, so.....

    Greying x

    ps - just to clarify, that is compacted earth that he's walking on, nothing else........
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  • Seaotter
    Seaotter Posts: 214 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 100 Posts Combo Breaker
    Spelt is an ancient form of barley (edit: actually, it may well be an ancient form of wheat - I forget which). I'd say that it is much slimmer than pearl barley (and a light brown colour, rather than beigey grey), and it does have a slightly different nuttiness. The only UK grower is an organic farm in Somerset/Dorset (right next to Glasto ;)). So it is quite a dear product - £3+ for 500g. I bought my last box on hols as a treat food (better for us than a stick of rock :D), but it's not something that we regularly have :( I think that some folk who have cereal allergies have been able to tolerate spelt. You can have it as the whole grain/berry, or as ground flour. Spelt bread is quite tasty, but again, quite expensive to buy.......

    Greying - I'm really enjoying your diary. So good to read of your quest to live simply, which is a message for us all.

    My eldest DD became wheat intolerant a couple of years ago, and DD2 seems to be going the same way! Interestingly they can both tolerate spelt, which is an ancient form of wheat dating back to Roman times. The flour is in our local MrS - expensive but nicer and far cheaper than the GF bread options. I'd love to try it as a whole grain. I have a really nice recipe for a (veggie) pearl barley risotto. I wonder if it would work in that?

    Clearly need to go to Glasto to get it though!
    Declutter our home in 2024
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  • Greying_Pilgrim
    Greying_Pilgrim Posts: 6,613 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Seaotter wrote: »
    Greying - I'm really enjoying your diary. So good to read of your quest to live simply, which is a message for us all.

    My eldest DD became wheat intolerant a couple of years ago, and DD2 seems to be going the same way! Interestingly they can both tolerate spelt, which is an ancient form of wheat dating back to Roman times. The flour is in our local MrS - expensive but nicer and far cheaper than the GF bread options. I'd love to try it as a whole grain. I have a really nice recipe for a (veggie) pearl barley risotto. I wonder if it would work in that?

    Clearly need to go to Glasto to get it though!

    Hun - thanks for dropping by :D

    If it is of any use to know, I interchange spelt and pearl barley in recipes - especially for risottos, or what I suppose we should be calling 'orzottos'. It's just that spelt is a luxury item in our household, so I don't interchange it wully-nully IYSWIM :D But a spelt orzotto is lush (try toasting the grain first - adds an extra dimension to the dish :D).

    Don't worry about having to get 'darn wif d'kids' and travelling to Glastonbury :D 'ShArpham Park' brand is available in supermercados - especially mrS and mrW (possibly not universally, but certainly in a lot of the medium and upwards size stores). But if you need the excuse, go visit K1lver C0urt which is part of the same estate owned by Roger Saul (as is the farm that grows the spelt - which I don't think is open to the public)

    HTH

    Greying
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  • supersaver1000
    supersaver1000 Posts: 2,465 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Debt-free and Proud!
    Thanks GP. I will give the Crank's one a go - I found it here Cranks Homity Pie. They don't load it with cream which is better for the waistline and the pocket :rotfl: and I could do with both :D

    My second Hairy Biker's one is in the oven, will be ready for tomorrow night's supper. :)
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  • supersaver1000
    supersaver1000 Posts: 2,465 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Debt-free and Proud!
    edited 10 May 2015 at 9:00PM
    First photo I have ever posted on MSE - and its a pic of my homily pie :D

    IMG_0170_zpsiq8hlt8m.jpg

    Hairy Bikers Recipe Find it here * looking a lot neater - tastes just as yummy though :)
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  • Greying_Pilgrim
    Greying_Pilgrim Posts: 6,613 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Ooooooof! superDave - we're taking up subscriptions for a Charabanc (bringing a crowd) - we'll be with ya just now Pet, fer us tea :D Hope you've some HP to serve wi' it ;):D:D:D:D

    SMASHING! :D Really - super excited on your behalf - your pie looks soooo scrummy :T:T :D I hope your efforts were generously appreciated - and they were all back for second-helpings :D

    Greying x
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  • Carbs with carbs. Love it.
    Mortgage at 01.01.14 £119,481.83:eek: today £0 Emergency fund £5.5/5.5k & £200/200 cash.:jWeight 24/02/19 14st 7lb now 12st determined to stop defining myself by my mistakes. Progress not perfection.:T100%through my 1% mortgage challenge. 100% through my pb challenge.
  • mcculloch29
    mcculloch29 Posts: 4,972 Forumite
    Rampant Recycler
    Thank you so much Greying, for the reminder of Leopard's Bane. Twenty four years ago the very last thing I did with my Mum was to dig up some Leopard's Bane from her garden in Cardiff for my garden up North. That was in March/April and she died on September 2nd.

    The Leopard's Bane thrived for years and was treasured, but knowing its story and that it might not last for ever, a dear friend who is an artist painted the plant for me and gave me the painting as a birthday card. I framed the card so as to keep it pristine.

    I can't remember what did for the Leopard's Bane eventually, but despite splitting and replanting regularly one year it didn't reappear in my flowerbed.
    How glad I was that I had the painting.

    A little story to go with that, a few years later I was at a charity auction and bid a decent sum for a painting of hydrangeas from her garden by my friend, it would have gone for far less than it was worth otherwise.
    My friend then told me that those hydrangeas were special to her as many years earlier the last thing she did with her Lancashire grandmother was to take hydrangea cuttings for her own garden - almost the same story again.

    I'm looking at the paintings as I type this; thank you for reminding me of the name of my Mum's plant, Leopard's Bane, it had slipped from memory in recent years.
    Erma Bombeck, American writer: "If I had my life to live over again... I would have burned the pink candle, sculptured like a rose, that melted in storage." Don't keep things 'for best' - that day never comes. Use them and enjoy them now.
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