Living richly; simply and debt-freely

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Running late, but just had to pop in to say Thank you to mcculloch

What a lovely post - and I do hope that the gardener/volunteer who set up that little display; that got us thinking, talking and remembering, realises the *reach* of their actions

Thanks for popping in, reading and posting. I remain mucho, mucho grateful. As always

See y'all later.

Greying

Fortune_Smiles

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

Leaving a post on Fortune's thread made me think a bit more about this little chap that we spotted yesterday;



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 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........

He's a Dor (or Dung) Beetle Greying.


Fortune x

Greying_Pilgrim

Fortune_Smiles wrote: »

He's a Dor (or Dung) Beetle Greying.


Fortune x

Mmmmmm. So we could be down-hearted that it wasn't something more exotic..... or........ we could begin to wonder what is in cow p00p that makes diners on it glow blue :eek: :rotfl::rotfl:

Thanks Fortune :D

Greying x

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Lordy! What a fandango to get here tonight! Is t'net playing silly b's, or is it just my 'puter? Pbucket took like forever to save 2 photos - it was playing up the other day too :mad: Then I tried to get onto JO's site to link to a recipe that influenced me - no joy there, it won't even connect to the server, don't know what has gone wrong

Ho hum.

Apart from that, it has been a pretty splendiferous day

Better than yesterday, over which we shall draw a veil

I don't think that I nattered on about the 'tea' that we had on Sunday night. We have been talking about pearl barley, and although I swapped PB for spelt for Jack's risotto, I had about 125g left of PB for Heidi's Californian Barley Bowl - which you may recall should have been made earlier in the week, but was scuppered by an uncooperative avocado Anyhoo, the avocado ripened and I decided to make a warm version of the dish, using leeks (frozen) and spinach rather than salad greens and I used halloumi to top the dish that was half price in mrL's last week. In addition, I wanted to try out a tahini and miso dressing that Laura had featured over on her blog. I have heard so much about tahini and miso dressing - and Laura's picture caught my attention as our local, mostly overpriced grocer has had blood oranges for sale of late. So, I put all the constituents together (although I had better fess up and say that I only used lemon juice in the dressing, as I felt it complemented the other ingredients better, plus I had no siracha and so left out the 'heat' element) and this is what I came up with;



Totally yum and I love squeaky cheese! The dressing is addictive! Miso paste is not cheap I bought mine from a specialty food store and it cost £4.99 - so I was more than a little annoyed to find that m&$ stocked the exact same product for £3.99 :mad: However, the owner of the food store gave me some valuable advice regarding the storage of miso (ignore the advice on the packet - decant it into a jar and store it in the fridge for 6 months or the freezer for 12), so I figure I bought advice and will get my next packet from m&$. As it is, miso is so yummy, I don't necessarily think that miso storage is going to be much of an issue at Greying Towers But I admit to being dubious about investing 20% of my weekly grocery budget on one single ingredient - which I didn't know whether I liked the taste of or not A dilemma routinely facing folk on a tight budget.

Last night I was grateful that my aubergine/sweet potato *bounty* last week had led me to pre-prepare and freeze recipes, as I was in no real mood to cook. We had the *Tagine L'Algerienne* which was very much influenced by a dish that is on the menu of the RAinbow cafe in Cambr1dge that muddywhitechicken mentioned on her thread a couple of weeks ago. I did also check out an Algerian aubergine tagine recipe that featured on JO's website - I can't link to it, as his site appears to be down, but g00gle it, and it should come up as the first link. I roasted the sweet potatoes whilst I was cooking something else (bread I think) and I had dusted them with a spice mix that I found on the web - Algerian 4 spice mix (cumin, coriander, fenel & turmeric) and in the tomato sauce, I added another spice blend that I found on the internet - Algerian spice mix, to which I added a couple of other ingredients that I thought would work - crushed sesame seeds, smoked paprika and caraway. A nice stew, served simply with steamed millet, which is my definite preference to cous cous as it has a better flavour I think. Picture;



This evening we had the ever dependable 'Lemony Spinach hotpot' served with steamed rice. It is a recipe of Anjum Anand's and I still don't think that it has made it to the web in recipe form I've made it before, so no pic. The only difference was that I didn't have any aubergine left, so just subbed in a sweet potato. But love, love, love it as a meal

I should have made yoghurt tonight, but I was fiddling about making some of Hugh F-W's energy bars as DP is shredding through calories way too fast again Still, we've got yoghurt left - I'll make sure that I make it tomorrow.

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

a roof over my head
for a kind word (actually yesterday, but it's effect was still felt today )
for a supportive DP

This post doesn't seem very money-saving. But I suppose it does embrace simplicity. It would appear that there is a lot of surplus energy flying about, in society at large, at the moment - actually some of it is quite negative and destructive. Certainly the energy that flowed my way yesterday was negative, abusive and anything but constructive. Retreat, escape or flight may spring to mind - it has certainly been mentioned in one form or another by many a commentator on social media. However, I've no where else to go, and I'm perhaps [STRIKE]old[/STRIKE] wise enough to know that the grass is rarely greener elsewhere.

I'm thinking that simplicity is the route to follow. However, it's not without it's problems. I am wondering if I am increasingly shocked at the everyday nastiness that I am seeing. If I was living a 'normal' life, would I be immune to it? Think it normal?

I'm not quite sure whether we are just on a natural 'brink of change' or on the slippery slope. I'm sure humankind has been through all these sorts of things before. Despite our increasing 'civilisation' (?) we still seem to be pretty quick to turn on one another. Pretty quick to squash the weak in our attempt to advance. Pretty quick to act with the herd, rather than stopping to think if there is a different way to be.

Simplicity may not hold all the answers. Could it be pretty easy to be 'selfish' under the pretence of simplicity? I think it could be pretty easy to become self absorbed and ignore the situations others find themselves in. I don't want to follow that line. Greying Towers is not a fortress.

I remain uncertain where simplicity fits into this forum. It seems a better fit in MMM's arena. However, I'm still plodding along and trying things out

I remain full of ponderment, and bid you, Good Night.

Greying x

joeyjimbles

Just popping in out of lurkdom to say a thank you for all the inspiring and supporting posts on this thread that have spoken to me a lot as I ponder my way through a rather challenging RL phase (at least I hope its a phase, they usually all are).
Oh and I wanted to add that Paul Merrett's book based on his attempts to feed his family from sustainable sources and his allotment is worth a look for achievable recipes for the lady who found Spice Odyssey a bit overwhelming. It has been around for a while and goes by either Using the Plot, or The Allotment Chef - libraries and remainder books stores seem to have it.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

joeyjimbles - thank you for your kind comment. Yes, let's hope it is only a phase - although they don't seem like it at the time do they? They seem somewhat endless Now, am I imagining things, or was there a TV prog to accompany that PM book? i'm thinking that there was, but that I didn't watch it for some reason:think:

Talking about books, just in case anyone is interested in the Royal Marsden cancer cookery book that was mentioned the other day, I happened to notice in mrM today that they have it for £11 (rrp £19.99). I don't know if that is the cheapest available, I just happened to notice it, is all; As I wandered through mrM looking at all the stuff that I had no intention of buying, looking at their reduced veg which they'd magnanimously knocked 20p off here and there, and looking at how shabby their former 'misting' veg/herb tables looked, being half empty or with stuff just stacked on in any auld fashion. I actually didn't spend a penny in there - I'm sure I'm in a minority, but there was no incentive to *treat* as far as I was concerned MrL got my cash today

I read something today, written a looooonnnnnnnggggg time ago and the general gist of it was that constant disappointment, or dashed hope, was no good for yer health. Firstly, I was thinking, that there really is nothing new under the sun, if someone was able to write/record a sentiment like that umpty-tumpty millennia ago, which is equally applicable in modern society! Then I got to thinking about this in the wider realm of simplicity/consumerism. Thinking about how humans are quite apt to tie themselves in a knot trying to acquire/achieve or advance in some way or another. And what a pickle it can sometimes land us in. Which is a long-winded way of me pondering how I can try to better insure that I don't get fixed on what is perhaps not going right, and perhaps remember to be grateful for what I already have, not what I hoped I'd; have, be, or which would materialise. As I mentioned last night, we are in a period of flux, a period of change and uncertainty. I remember learning quite early on that *change* is the one constant in life - doesn't mean that I always remember that fact in relation to my own circumstance, nor swan through situations in zen-like serenity. But it does help me to 'return to the centre' a little bit more quickly that I perhaps would if I was intent on resisting change. There's no great revelation coming at the end of this paragraph, I think I'm just finding that the 'links' in human history and analysis of the human condition are not a recent phenomena. Instead of thinking that we, the most tech savvy, most civilised, most affluent, most intelligent must come up with all the answers to issues of modern life; perhaps we just need to stop and reflect on the why? rather than the who?, when?, where? and how? :rotfl: I've no answers, I'm just pondering.....

In the meantime, I also fitted in some cloud-watching......

Do you know how when you are looking at something and something comes close to you, you instinctively move or 'duck'. Well I was looking out of the bedroom window this evening, musing on the shape of the clouds - totally engrossed as to how a spitting image of a dragon's head (complete with a *puff* of smoke) was looming over my neighbour's roof tops, when all of a sudden, a bird came into my eyeline, looking as thought it was coming straight at the window, making me instinctively duck :rotfl:I'm sure it was the manner of the flight - as the bird was....... believe it or not..... a female pheasant! a) I'm not sure that they could fly that high (it was an optical illusion, and it must have just skimmed over the roof top) and b) they are such ungainly flyers, you can imagine them thinking, 'Oh sh............' everytime they get airborne :rotfl:I have no idea where the pheasant came from - we have had one or two around in previous years, but I've only ever seem males at the allotment site, I'm not sure where the habitat is for them around here, but a pheasant it sure was :rotfl:Made me laugh (in hindsight, not at the time ) anyway

Dinner this evening was very inexpensive, but really quite nice. I must admit, the nice weather had me craving a Maria Elias dish that I remember making in July last year, when we went on an impromptu picnic fer us tea (on a weekday night too! ), but whilst I had the avocado and halloumi, I didn't have sufficient cherry toms nor any type of rice/interesting noodles So I went in a different sunshiney direction and had (from the freezer) the dish that I made last week with S6 sweet potatoes - again influenced by the menu at the Rainbow Cafe, Cambridge that muddywhitechicken told us about. I made Jamaican Roti - well, my version of it Normally, the stew (probably chicken for true authenticity) would be encased in a roti and eaten like a taco or enchilada. But I didn't really want to make roti from scratch - I think that they are quite simple, but I wasn't in the mood to experiment, so I made chappatis instead. The stew was really simple. I used black turtle beans and black-eyed peas. The Rainbow cafe list rose coco (also known as borlotti beans) and black beans in their version, but I'm sure any beans would be fine, including red kidney. I had a recipe for a Jamaican spice mix - I got it from the internet I think. The important bit is that the mix won't have chilli powder in it, as Jamaican cuisine uses fresh chillies in most dishes (that chilli appears in) instead, apparently Anyway, we had the stew/curry, steamed broccoli and chappatis to help mop it all up. Picture here;



It was delightful, and I would have no problem making this dish again Thanks to MWC and the Rainbow cafe for the continued inspiration - and to mrAl for the inspirational S6 choice

Today I am grateful for;

nice weather and clouds

a feeling of human continuity - despite every 'current' generation feeling that they 'know best'

Recipes and menu ideas that inspire me to 'get in the kitchen and cook'

Thanks for dropping by, reading and commenting. I greatly appreciate it.

See y'all later.

Greying x

Cheery_Daff

Loving all your philosophical musings Greying :j I'd love to add intelligently to the conversation but I confess I'm ever so tired and the most intelligent thing I can manage is to be jealous of your dinner! :rotfl: My own dinner was very nice but I knew there wouldn't be enough for work tomorrow (and it was rice, on its second reheating - I'll risk two but have ade myself ill from three!) Anyway, I made some pasta and a lentil/tomato/spinach sauce then turned it all off to eat my tea. Just got in (several hours later) to realise I'd not drained the pasta... :eek:

Thinking about it I should have just slung it and started again but my 'waste not, want not' head kicked in and I stirred it in the sauce and packed it ready for lunch tomorrow. Can't say I'm looking forward to it...

joeyjimbles

I'm not sure there was a tv prog for PM's allotment book, I would have watched it if there had been as we used to live nearby.

Grateful for your ponderings. They match what I hope is transition phase in my life right now.

joeyjimbles

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

Thinking about it I should have just slung it and started again but my 'waste not, want not' head kicked in and I stirred it in the sauce and packed it ready for lunch tomorrow. Can't say I'm looking forward to it...

Whilst it may be a little soft, do you think it could be revived with a bit of breadcrumb topping under a grill - or would work facilities not run to that? Also chillies help most things in my experience.

Greying_Pilgrim

joeyjimbles wrote: »

Also chillies help most things in my experience.

Or cheese!

Greying x