Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2015

vhalla1478

Morning All,

Dull and grey here today so I'm pleased I tackled the garden yesterday and hope the weather starts improving so that I can do more soon.

Prinzessilein, I'm pleased I've made at least one right bit of casting; I'm now puzzling over Lynn - someone glamorous, I think. I'm not so sure about Glenn Close for me - I'll always think of her as a bunny boiler and pale and although I have my moments of crossness I'm far too kind and able to see the other person's point of view for my own good. I think the phrase is ,as soft as s--t.

My DB's deceased partner was a Czech film director and directed Joan Plowright, Imogen Stubbs and Hugh Laurie in a film once; it was never released over here but has the most haunting music - I think you can find it on the internet, it's called 'a Pin for a Butterfly'. When I did my research the other day on pitching a storyline to interested parties, one piece of advice was ask around and basically find someone who knows someone - perhaps I'll ask DB if he still has contacts in the showbiz world.

I'll just go and tidy round and check the food for this evening and then post a recipe early, and try to get to grips with that opening scene - pan in to Cheerfulness about to sit down at her lap top and compose the first post of this thread...

Lynn - is your birthday boy a reader, would a book go down well?

Viv xx

vhalla1478

Hello again,

As promised here is a slightly 'different' recipe; I think this was originally one of Elizabeth David's, but this is somewhat modified as hers was made with an enormous amount of milk. It sound strange, but honestly it's incredibly good.

Chicken In Milk -serves 4

1.5kg chicken, salt and freshly ground black pepper, 115grams butter, olive oil, half a cinnamon stick, good handful of fresh sage leaves, zest of 2 lemons, 10 cloves garlic, skin left on, 565ml milk

Pre-heat the oven to 190degrees/gas mark 5. season it generously all over and fry it in the butter and a little olive oil, turning it to get an even colour, until golden. Remove from the heat, put the chicken on a plate, remove the oil and butter left in the pot; this will leave you with tasty sticky goodness at the bottom of the pan which will give a lovely caramelly flavour later.

Put the chicken back in the pot with the rest of the ingredients and cook in the pre-heated oven for one and a half hours. Baste occasionally with the cooking juice. The lemon zest will split the milk, making a sauce which is totally fantastic.

To serve, pull the meat off the bones and divide it on your plates. Spoon over plenty of juice and the little curds. Serve with wilted spinach or greens and some mashed potato.

I had a lovely surprise earlier; my daughter-in-law's dad popped round (he's a gardener and I'd texted him about second hand tools yesterday) and has volunteered to come round and give me a hand in the garden on Monday. He also reiterated what you've all been advising me about second hand tools - get them! Although he did express doubts about my being able to handle a mattock!

Have a good afternoon, Everyone.

Viv xx

Rose_Wood

Afternoon Everyone,

Can I be Felicity Kendal please?

I've made my boy doll now. I haven't any boys clothes for him so he is dressed in a pair of DGD's jeans and pyjama jacket as the best I could do. I think I need to take off the girl dolls head and insert a tube of cardboard though as it is a bit floppy.



I'm trying to find a good baby doll pattern now to make and also going to see if I can shrink the current pattern to make a smaller version.

Lyn for your birthday gentleman - how about a talking book?

Rose

kittym

Rose the dolls are brilliant :T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T

They will look fab playing in the shop window waiting for all the children to come along and have a look.

Xx

vhalla1478

Rose, those dolls are magnificent; I hope Felicity Kendall is half as talented!

silvasava

Rose - those dolls will absolutely sell the shop - thay are so gorgeous. Don't be surprised if you get commissions for them - I can see certain little girls having one made to look like them. Start doing your costings now 'cos I can certainly see a sideline at least for you.
Boat has had her bottom antifould - she look extremely spruce with her navy blue knickers on and white hull. Managed to get out in the garden for a couple of hours this afternoon. Planted climbing french beans and runner beans, tidied up in the greenhouse and watered all my Camellia's, Azaleas & Rhododendrons - we've not had much rain for the last month and they are all in tubs as I have 'orrible clay soil - but its so worth it to see them all coming into bloom now. My little 50p primulas from Mr M have been flowering profusely - a good buy so I looked for some more today, all gone
Have a relaxing evening everyone

cheerfulness4

I could see you as Felicity Kendal, Rose. I love the little boy doll. How quick are you, too! You don't let the grass grow under your feet, do you?

I've been viewing the eclipse online as I missed the last bit as I had to go in Morries with M & D. They weren't into that sort of thing.

I was giggling on the way to get them though as I'd completely forgotten about it and noticed this tiny little Miss Marple looking lady standing in her front garden looking up into the sky with a welders helmet on! :rotfl::rotfl:
I thought what the heck and then DH said that she was protecting her eyes. From what I thought. Silly me, she's the clever one.

I've been organising my freezer today. I used some of our hard earned survey money on some Ziploc bags from Amazon and I'm totally in love with them. I'm finding so many uses for them but in the freezer they are brilliant.

I found another two packs of wet fish (!) under the last bag of lamb chops but they were responsible for making the freezer smell iffy.
Now Ziploc-ed and not a bit of smell leaks out. Same treatment for my Aldis wraps (frozen in the bag on a chopping board to keep straight so they sit nicely down the sides of the freezer)

Will go do sums for today. Only bought milk, though.

cheerfulness4

SAT 21 MAR
DAY 21

Money Spent Today - £1.76 Vouchers Spent - £5.00
Money Spent in Total - £60.94 Vouchers Spent in Total - £6.80
Money left in purse - £2.06 Float left- £0/£15
Jan non-foods left- £4.17/£15

Today DH just bought in 2 x milk @ 88p each for me and I stayed well away from the shops as we weren't desperate for anything. I wanted to save some money for tomorrow as Sunday afternoon is often quite good for YS shopping.

DH has given me a £2 Tescos clubcard voucher today. We no longer choose to exchange them for clubcard deals as we rarely shop there these days so the £2 off my shop will be most welcome.

villagelife

Rose - the dolls are great.

Spent time weeding front garden which looks so mch tidier and now shouldn't take too long to keep looking good.

Rose_Wood

Evening All

It's been glorious sunshine here today but I haven't made the most of it as I've been sewing most of the day. I made myself a baby doll to go with the older boy and girl but struggled with the head. I pulled off the first one I made and am still not totally happy with the one I have now but am going to leave it for the time being. I've put it into the dress that my daughter (now 30) came home from hospital in!



I did buy the wool for the hair today as I walked up to our local sewing shop for a new reel of cotton and spotted a ball of brown mohair that seemed just right for baby hair.

Hope everyone has had a lovely Sunday.

Rose