Five OS Pleasures in your day today

Steel_2

Mine for the day:

1) Making pear juice out of windfall pears
2) Realising my nylon jelly making bag had a hole in it and folding it over and sewing it. A few years ago it would have been in the bin and a new one bought.
3) Hubby snatching our old Sky card from me before I binned it to use during the winter as a ice scraper for the car windscreen
4) Out-smarting our dominant hen and getting to the eggs first before she started eating them
5) Our heating still being off
6) Tried a cold wash today and couldn't tell the difference in the cleanliness of the clothes.
7) Making our chicken at the weekend stretch to 3 main meals, three soups and some treats for the kitties.

sparrer

mine for today

1. Still 'coldy' and not venturing out so still having NSD's :T

2. Grateful I stocked up at the beginning of the recession and have 2 under-bed drawers and the bottom drawer of a chest full of tins and packets for times just such as this

3. Thankful for the rain so I don't have to go outside and water the winter troughs/baskets I planted last week

4. Watching morning television, not OS but compared to the elec and cleaning materials I'd normally be using it's got to be cheaper. It's also decadent and I don't care

5. Again not OS but taking baby steps to make my peace with DS's OH,after a very painful time he went through last winter. It's not my business who he wants to be with but being angry with her is likely going to alienate DS from me so I have to bite my tongue and bury the hatchet (even if the place I want to bury it isn't very nice :eek:!)

S x

Big_Alf

1. No more wednesday tutorials so a very nice relaxing lie in (priceless ).

2. Boiled eggs with soldiers outside for breakfast whilst admiring Table Mountain for what seems the first time in months (why are we always so obliviously ungrateful to our surroundings when we are used to them!).

2. Having a complete spring clean of my room and decluttering my desk.

3. Getting a call offering me a job I didnt apply for. :j

4. Phoning home to speak to some very pleased parents

5. Home made lasagne and garlic bread for tea.

bellaquidsin

Wednesday has been designated 'Happy Day' since DH retired but we used up all our 'Happy Money' for the month on our trip to Yorkshire last week.
However the petrol fund was still robust so:-

1. We had a lovely day out visiting a National Trust property - subscription paid and at OAP rates, so we were getting our money's worth.

2. A picnic lunch in the car.

3. A nice warm coffee in the car when our visit was ended.

4. No cash parted with today.

5. The plastic cups the coffee came in (form H Bargains) will be recycled into plant pots.


as requested by mineallmine here's the chicken pie recipe, I always dread it when someone asks me for a recipe as I play about with them and adapt so much, and basically they just come out of my own head. I was hopeless at teaching DD to cook as I measure in 'glugs' rather than fluid ounces or mils.
Here we go:-

Bella's chicken pie

About 10 oz cooked chicken diced.
1 onion diced and softened for two or three minutes in a little water in the microwave
To the onion I add 3 teaspoons of Marigold Boullion stock powder and enough cornflour and milk to make about 3/4pint of savoury white sauce, cooked in microwave until thickened.

For the pastry I use:-

8oz or so or SR flour - a little over actually as I use a yogurt pot to measure
3 oz fat - I use a mixture of lard and home rendered dripping
rub in the two together and add cold water to bind.

Roll out the pastry and line a suitable container, I use an eight inch sponge cake tin as I then cook it in the Remoska.

Place chopped chicken and savoury sauce into the pie case and use the remainder of the pastry to make a lid. Decorate pastry leaves or as I did this week, chickens.

This takes about 40 minutes in the Remoska and I think the Remoska makes it extra yummy but I'm sure it would be good done in the oven.

Hope this makes sense, now you see why I dread being asked for recipes.

Bella.

Mrs_Optimist

1. Defrosted one freezer

2. Made a large Angel Sponge cake after Dinner

3. Made a huge tray of flapjacks alongside sponge cake for packups. (Making the most of the oven being on!)

4. Using up misc leftovers that had been frozen for dinner last night and tonight - free meals in effect!!

5. Meal planning for the next 2 weeks and realising that I will only have to buy fruit, and milk. Plenty of frozen veg in and breadmaker is out on the kitchen side waiting to be used !

Patchwork_Quilt

1) Finally remembered to put our spare bookcase in the car to give to a friend at work.
2) Landing lampshade now in place - naturally, I bought it in the DIY store lighting sale.
3) Made soup, plum crumble and roasted some chicken wings for pie or more soup all together in the oven.
4) Found a voucher on MSE for my meal out with the girls tomorrow evening.

Can't think of five. Again! Perhaps I should post earlier in the evening when I'm awake.

Olliebeak

Morning everybody :hello: - another beautiful (but very chilly) morning here - the northerly winds haven't happened for us yet.

mineallmine - hope you enjoyed your evening out
newlywed - often re-shuffle my freezer too - amazing how much more you can get in it then .
Reverbe - promise to look at the Black Pudding Stall and send you some 'vibes' . Don't like the stuff personally, but my DD loves Black Pudding butties .
Steel - well done to your OH for finding a use for the old Sky viewing card :j.
sparrer - lol at your 'TV daytime-junk diet' - but at least you don't feel as though you've missed anything if you succumb to the bordom and doze off while watching :rolleyes:. Have you not got any videos/dvd's that you've been promising yourself you'll get around to watching?
Big Alf - that is so true about our surroundings - we just don't notice the familiar stuff around us all the time. Well done on the job offer - hope it's what you want to do .
bella - well done on your minimal spend day out - AND the picnic in the car. Thanks for the recipe for chicken pie - I often wondered how people got that cross between gravy/white sauce . I'll have a got next time we have rubber chicken.
Mrs Optimist - freebie meals, baking session AND meal planning - you've been busy .
Patchwork - Enjoy your evening out with your friends :j.


Mine for the last couple of days:

1. Busy day in work - managed to visit quite a few tenants - most of them wanting their Central Heating putting on the timers now that the weather has got colder. On the other hand, some of them haven't even had it switched off at all - AND they wonder why they have large bills !

2. Had scouse going in the SC all day - smelled divine :drool:.

3. Dgd1 arrived after school to stay for the night - and she finished off three bowls of the scouse :eek: WITH dumplings!

4. Dgd1 decided she needed to make an African Mask for homework and spent an hour hogging the comp for ideas. Had to remove Bran Flakes from the box to provide the card to make it, then we raided the sewing box for shirring elastic so she could wear it. Amazed how much 'stuff' we managed to find to improvise.

5. Got a letter throught the post with £15 - my fee for giving an interview to a University Researcher about changes in our neighbourhood (Sheffield Hallam Uni/Joseph Rowntree Foundation) :j. £15 for 30mins chat - not bad rate of pay at all :rotfl:. Did it last week, but had quite forgotten about the payment .

6. Changed the summer duvet for the thicker one - noticed a difference last night - much warmer and didn't want to get out of bed this morning.

that's me done for now.

Hope we all have a great money-saving day with lots of os-ing - love Ollie xxx

RainyWednesday

Reverbe - you probably would recognise me, there are not really many of us 'regulars'

Sparrer - I'm coldy too, sending you olbas oil sented vibes

Mine for yesterday:
1 - counting up £10 in 20p from the change jar to be paid in to savings tomorrow
2 - the return of the veggie box and proper meal planning
3 - getting encouraging words about the career change I want to try and undertake
4 - a tasty meal of chicken wings and roast veg
5 - a documentary about the bombing of coventry on the iplayer making me feel lucky to be the age I am and count my blessings

Kittikins

1. The sun is shining today and I've just put the washing out
2. Working from home whilst watching rubbish on TV, and looking forward to going to one of DD's friend's houses this afternoon
3. PLanning on making some tomato chutney for Christmas presents using the 3lb of toms I got for £1 at the market
4. Will make some banana loaves to use up the 6lb of nana's I got as well - found a new HFW recipe that also uses apricots and raisins, sounds delish, so will do one of those and 2 of my usual favourite recipe.
5. I'm reading some lovely crafty blogs and wishing I had the patience to be creative...I've been planning on knitting DD a v-e-r-y easy jumper since she was a baby, started a couple of times, but.....maybe this year

newlywed

Ummm

1. the sun shining
2. not feeling too tired even though I didn't sleep much at all (OH hardly talking to me and not even sitting next to me on the sofa in the evening - no idea what to do)
3. my eyes not looking as puffy as they ought seeing how I cried most of the night.
4. being able to walk to the supermarket at lunchtime today and not get soaked.
5. First direct may have finally stopped interest on my debt (two and a half years into a DMP) - just waiting for the default papers and contact from the debt collection agency - should mean an extra £30 a month goes off my debt to them instead of on interest.