Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2015

oldtractor

lovely day here too, today I've repurposed a bowl it now is an egg container. looks so much nicer than egg boxes on the work top . I was going to buy a pottery chicken but this looks just great and has saved me money. i have also chucked out a lot of rubbish.

nursemaggie

Gosh is it that time already will have to get the vacuum out and get cleaned up.

I have to confess my eldest son is like the spoiled middle age people though he has never had any help from either his dad or I. He pleads poverty but can afford to take his kids to lots of theme parks, eat out several nights a week and buys his kids very expensive presents. He is jealous of his younger brother because he thinks he is getting away with not working rather than having little chance of ever having a job.

They do need to learn to stand on their own two feet.

Sorry you had all that bother with posting Viv. I expect they fixed it because you posted so many times.

Well better get some cleaning done.

vhalla1478

Good Afternoon, All,

My friend might now be coming tomorrow evening, so, as I'm out most of tomorrow, I've had to have a grand cooking session. So... the bread is in the bread maker, the ice cream is freezing, the soup is made, the chilli con carne is made and the ratatouille is made (we'll have that with sea bass with parmesan and mayonnaise), so that should give me a head start.

When I was last in Swaziland in 2009, my first ex-husband (who lived there) took me to all of our old haunts of 30 odd years previously. At one of those places we stopped for a drink and something to eat and I had a marvellous chocolate chilli cake. When I came back I scoured the internet for a recipe and this is what I have made ever since.

The Best Chocolate Chilli Cake

250grams butter, 300grams light muscovado sugar, 100grams plain flour, 100grams self raising flour, 3-4 eggs,300grams dark chocolate, 1-3 red chillies, depending on your preference (I like three).

Icing
200grams dark chocolate, 200ml double cream.

Heat an oven to 160 degrees/140 degrees fan/gas 3. Grease a 20cm cake tin with butter. Whisk butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, taking care not to let the eggs separate; if they do, add a bit of flour. Melt the chocolate over a pan of hot water; allow to cool. Once cool, add the chocolate to the mixture and mix in. Add the remaining flour to the mixture and stir until smooth. Crush/blend the chillies to a paste, slowly add it to the mixture, stir until smooth.

Pour the cake mixture into the greased bake tin and bake for just under one and a half hours or until fully cooked. It should be risen and have a slight crust. Take the cake out, let it cool for 10 minutes before taking it out of the tin, then leave to cool for another 10 minutes on a wire rack.

To make the chocolate cream melt the chocolate as before and mix together with the cream and then cool until thickened. cut the cake in half, ice, then put back together and ice all over.

Yes, sorry about that, nursemaggie; what was so frustrating was that I wrote the recipes out 3 or 4 times and kept getting blocked, but I could post short messages; perhaps they were telling me to shut up - I can take a hint!

On with finishing the ice cream and then I just need to get out the vacuum cleaner and check the spare room.

Viv xx

silvasava

Oh Caloo Calay, Frabjous day - the bl££dy sanding has finished - now just needs priming and 2 coats of Antifoul. My boat has a nice clean bottom & will be wearing navy blue knickers I have no fingernails left to speak of but she's worth it!
My house looks like Motley Hall as I've been doing bare minimum (not even that most days) Next twyo days forecast rain so I'll set to & also have a baking session to restock. Off for a cuppa 'cos I'm gasping xx

Hard_Up_Hester

I have a friend in her late 70's she is constantly bailing out her son who is in his 40's, she is scrimping by to provide for him when he is just f e c k less!

silvasava

Love that word - f e c k less! I wonder if there's a f e c k full ( just being silly)

GreyQueen

silvasava wrote: »

Love that word - f e c k less! I wonder if there's a f e c k full ( just being silly)

I'd love to know why this site thinks that f e c k l e s s is a swear word. The first time I used it and it was replaced with !!!!!!!!! I couldn't work out what was happening.

I love the idiosyncracies of MSE. F'rinstance, m a f i a has to be spread out to avoid the sweary filter but you can type mafiosi with abandon and it doesn't bat a byte.:rotfl:

Today, I have been at work, busily minimising my scrap paper and pencil stash. Have also poured part of a remade candle, from scrap wax. I use Prungle tubes as molds. Plus am eating some of a can of pineapple which has been loitering within the cupboard. Most nice with a few HG blackcurrants from the freezer to cut the sweetness.

Probably not tonight, as I like to sew under natural light, but in the next few days, I shall be putting new anti-slip bits on a pair of fabric ballet-style slippers which have lost their original plastic dimples. I am planning to cut up a scrap of the rubber anti-slip stuff you get at £land and stitch that on. Haven't tried it before but it should do the job.

I've also worn a blouse which hasn't had an outing for a long time and realised that although it's better than being nekkid, it really isn't cut right for me and would be better off rehomed via the chazzer. Once it's been laundered and ironed that can go.

Supper was leftovers and veg from the fridge and the freezer. Am aiming to make a clean sweep of the fresh foods before shopping for more, plus I need to work out how it's possible to keep taking stuff out of a small freezer and still have no space left inside. I swear it's a doorway into Narnia, it's so bizarre.

nursemaggie

GreyQueen wrote: »

Supper was leftovers and veg from the fridge and the freezer. Am aiming to make a clean sweep of the fresh foods before shopping for more, plus I need to work out how it's possible to keep taking stuff out of a small freezer and still have no space left inside. I swear it's a doorway into Narnia, it's so bizarre.

My freezer does that too why is it that I take frozen veg for two out of three bags and I can't get any of the bags back in again. It is nearly two weeks since I had the big shop in the market. I know I still had some frozen chips when I did that shop. We have eaten them since but I can't buy any more chips there is no room.

What ever we have eaten since I went to market came out of the freezer so why can I not get anything else in yet?

Runcorn_Bridge

HuH. 'children' like that would drive me mad.


For years I've always thrown away the juices from a roast chicken because I didn't know what to do with them though I did try making chicken soup but the result was always disgusting, anyway, I was watching 'Supersizers'. I think it might have been - the French Revolution- and they were having Soup du Barry, Giles Coren or Sue Perkins said it was a good way to use the juices.
The proper recipe isn't simple enough for me so here's my take on it.


Soup du Barry RB style


Half a cauliflower chopped up, cover with half a pint of water and a stock cube or two, add the chicken juices and the fat off the top, bring to the boil and simmer 'till the cauli is soft. It doesn't look very nice at this stage but blitz it with a hand blender 'till smooth and suddenly it does look like proper chicken soup. Drizzle some cream on top and a bit of pepper.


I've just had two bowls full for my tea, simple and delish.

Hard_Up_Hester

I think we have the TV program Father Ted to thank for the f e c k work catching the swear filter.
Hubby has just booked our 4 year old DGD into a local dance class, it starts next Friday so for a few weeks I shall be ferrying the DGC to assorted classes on Monday, Wednesday & Friday, he's managed to negotiate a discount as he helps out with various jobs for the class organiser.