22 Foxhole East

kerri_gt

Just managed to catch a break in the rain to hoover out the car. Started bucketing before i could do DH though. 
When I first read ladies fingers i thought of the sponge fingers used in trifle (or eaten straight from the pack in my case). Isn't okra an essential ingredient for proper Gumbo? I'm sure I've seen it deep fried on the menu too in the Southern States (along with fried green tomatoes and fried pickles...yum)

mark55man

I have used Okra a few times, the nicest result was quite spicy and quite dry, going with a liquid just emphasises the yuk factor. Also used to have them in curried form from the takeout, but don't do that any more for MSE reasons.  In Midlington,  its mainly been wet

f0xh0les

It appears today is the spurious random payments day for the Tax Credits that I am no longer entitled to.  Check your bank accounts!

f0xh0les

Ended up with a free  £20 from the Tax Credit muppets, then got a letter to say they might have underpaid me by £1100, then 24 hours later, a letter to tell me they might have underpaid me by £350 - all the other numbers were the same, just the amount they might give me was different. Ho hum, free money and all that. So renewed online, they completely disregarded the numbers I gave them on the phone last year, so I put them back in again - so much easier now you can finally amend things online.   Nearly had a heart attack when I read that tax credits were ending and were transferring into U/C - I have too much in my savings accounts to get U/C!!  (But only until the building work starts). 

  Then got a letter telling me that I was 'entitled' to  £15 a week until August.  ?????? I dunno! Bunch of shysters.

I am on a mission to use stuff up before buying any more food.  I have everything I need for all the lunchboxes this week. I have used up 2 packets of creme carmelle as a pudding for lunch today, 8 leeks - 4 in a (not)chicken and leek pie and 4 in a huge veg stew for supper tonight with part bake rolls I found in the pantry.  

I still have 2 cabbages, 4 aubergines, 2 peppers, a head of celery, 2 punnets of mushrooms,   x 2 lettuce, cukes, tomatoes and radishes in the fridge.    Used up a whole pile of stuff in a really nice miso soup bowl last night as well, but the fridge still looks rammed full of stuff.  So it is Operation Use-It-Up  - I will not go shopping after work tomorrow night - there is no point!

I have everything I need to make a banoffee pie, scones, and a sandwich cake.  Should not need anything more than that.

Child benefit comes in tomorrow, credit card bill will be paid with that,  and all the rest shunted into savings until the mortgage overpayment is due - aiming to pay off another £1k while I can.  

Apart from that, it is the normal 'limbo time' that is the last week of the month.

Oh my giddy aunt - Eur0visi0n did not go well did it? So funny, but did feel bad for the chap - mind you he didn't make much of an effort to dress up did he? There was not much 'stage-show' about him.  Didn't deserve 0 points though.  Mind you Italy should not have been snorting lines with that many cameras around the place - naughty boys! I do hate flares so much -very 1978.

 Loved Finland and Ukraine's entries.  Oh well, it made for a good night of laughing, the kids were suitably outraged, even if they did not like the UK song as much as Lithuania and the banana yellow suits.  Amanda Holden was an embarrassment.  Much laughter and all but one kid watched with us.  

f0xh0les

Oh yeah, and I made 2 Xmas puddings on Friday - 1 is left, there is enough sherry in them to stun a goat.  Lots of dried fruit and peel used up, and a good quantity of dates too, plus the sad looking apples from the fruit bowl, 4 limes and 3 oranges.   So there is a good 2/3 of your 5 a day in one portion, and it is lovely.  It does feel slightly 'rebellious' to be eating it in nearly June, but the rain was smashing against the window. 

Today it is lovely and sunny, 3 loads of laundry line dried, the planters have had their final coat of paint,  menus for the week planned, waiting for the football at 4pm

jennystarpepper

What's going in your planters, veg or flowers...or both?  We have lots of peas planted this year, they are looking a bit sad due to the lack of sun, but the weeds are coming in a treat thanks to the rain.

f0xh0les

I have lots of rose campion which has self seeded all over the place, and made free flower plants for me - so tall and structural.  I do well with love-in-a-mist, and cornflowers, and then I am just going to plant every single seed I own - the beans, peas, radish, chives, sunflowers, lobelia, e.v.e.r.y  s.i.n.g.l.e   s.e.e.d is going in this year.  I have a few chrysanthemum  plants that have over wintered niceley (they were supposed to be houseplants, but hey!) and some dianthus that were going cheap and look very healthy, plus every single ys herb plant that comes my way and anything offered on the local free fakeb00k gifting sites or has a ys on it.

jennystarpepper

I have caused a few grumbles at the allotment with my flowers, lol... the idea is to be able to get by hands on a bunch for a few months of the year. Peonies are amazing, can't get anywhere with Delphiniums (quite disappointed by this) and hopefully will have a good harvest of Sweet peas.  Elderly neighbour was very, very happy with the Dahlias I gave her last year.  

I always buy YS mint and shove it in a glass to re-root when I find it, my fav. potted plant at home is, Isreali mint grown from a YS.  We have apple, plumb, pear, black / red currants and loads of rhubarb which goes to our local homeless shelter, my marrows didn't come to anything this year, it's a bit happy / sad when the people at the shelter see them as someone usually talks about how their gran used to cook them.  

kerri_gt

@jennystarpepper we had mint in the garden at our previous house, inherited from prev owners...i managed to kill it. I swapped some chives for some mint with a friend a couple of years ago for our current house...i managed to kill it. Apparently I am not good at growing mint.
I have lots of tomato plants currently growing from seeds i saved from a supermarket tom but I think I've chosen the worst possible year to grow them. They are still quite small and I'm bringing them in at night to keep the slugs off them but if i see any tomatoes this summer it will be a miracle. 

jennystarpepper

kerri_gt said:

@jennystarpepper we had mint in the garden at our previous house, inherited from prev owners...i managed to kill it. I swapped some chives for some mint with a friend a couple of years ago for our current house...i managed to kill it. Apparently I am not good at growing mint.
I have lots of tomato plants currently growing from seeds i saved from a supermarket tom but I think I've chosen the worst possible year to grow them. They are still quite small and I'm bringing them in at night to keep the slugs off them but if i see any tomatoes this summer it will be a miracle. 

My Tommy and Cucumber plants are looking a bit sad... very sad TBF and small.  I do find they 'pick-up' with fresh rain water.  

LOL, poor mint, I did tell Mr Pepper I  needed to let part of my 'fav' plant go to seed and re-sow.... I'll save you some seed!!