The Simple Bare Necessities feat. Gratitude & Recipes

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Hasn't today whizzed?

Well, I 'listened' to Pippi's suggestion for 'us tea' and wondered how I could make it a little bit more 'robust' to satisfy DH's appetite. I took all the components, rattled them around in my hand and threw them up in the air, and they came down summat like this;



The 'blue' beans (which always default back to green on cooking ) were just steamed. i made a broccoli and feta crustless quiche, incorporating cranberries, eggs, milk and a bit of cornmeal, I made muhammara - well, kinda - mine was intentionally more sauce than dip, and I used sunflower seeds rather than bread crumbs, but did use walnuts (toasted) and didn't have any pomegranate molasses - but other than that..... :rotfl:I steamed some carrots and made a mustard vinagrette to coat some tinned nu tatties. I think it embodies the spirit of HFW's dish, somewhat - do you?

We'll have apple crumble with ice-cream, using half of the windfall apples. I'm pretty sure they've cooked up lovely - they were a very 'floury' apple, with nice taste uncooked, so I've high hopes DH thinks it's Christmas :rotfl:

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

interesting garden produce (even if I did have to buy some of it )

inspiration from clever culinary chums

being able to plot future adventures

Ta for popping in, reading and joining in. The allure of crumble is too much - mustache! :rotfl:

Greying X

UncannyScot

That looks very YUM

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Up with the larks this morning

Mucho to do today. All good though, so no complaining from me.

Tea this evening will be soup - as 'tis Tuesday - it'll use up some bits and bobs I've in the freezer and around, and should be relatively quick and easy to prepare. There were 2 pieces of broc. & feta quiche leftover last night, so they got stuck in the freezer for another Monday night tea on another week

The apple crumble was as lush as I hoped. Really tasted of apple I try not to put sugar in with the actual apples, and try to keep the sugar in the topping to a minimum. Partly because I don't have an overly sweet tooth (DH does ), but partly because I wanted to 'taste' the fruit As I suspected, the apples cooked down lovely, and even had a lovely pinkish hue - depsite the fact that the apples themselves were a yellowy-light green. They did appear to have the very slighest pink hue on the skin, but it was difficult to distinguish as the bruising was coming through. Definitely didn't matter that they were windfalls, and we enjoyed the fact that whilst we're unlikely to ever eat those apples again (unless we're very lucky), they tasted delish. Bravo to the protectors of 'old' varieties, and 'Boo' to uniform, tasteless fruits!

Better sort out library books to be returned, make sure I've cash in me purse and put a brush through me hair. You know, greet the day and all :rotfl:

Ta for popping in. Appreciated.

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

I woke up cold. How does that happen in Summer?

Today's focus will be thinking through what items can still be 'let go', in certain corners, cubby holes and cupboards. And then check in with DH to see if they can really be set free to spark joy elsewhere.

Tea tonight will be 'something with rice' - I'm pretty sure I have resurrected the chickpea street pilaf (recipe by Silvena Rowe) on the planner. Last night's soup didn't happen. Cheese on toast with beans for those that like 'em had to suffice

I had the opportunity to call into the mrAl in Greying Town and it would appear that bananas in mrAl can either be purchased in bags of 5 or for 12p each. The irony being that there was (seemingly) plenty of room for a weighscales - even one that could tell you the weight and or price, depending on how you shop for bananas. I won't be buying my bananas from mrAl in future, as I think this is a retrograde step for budget concious shoppers, encourages the proliferation of plastic and limits choice.

Yesterday I was very grateful for;

supportive friends

my own little family

access to a range of shops.

Right, best shift a tail-feather.

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Funny auld day today, didn't achieve as much as I hoped, but did achieve some things, so huzzah for that.......

I've finally got [STRIKE]permission[/STRIKE] agreement from DH to put out some things to go to the chazza that we've not used in years - are unlikely to use in the future - and which are taking up space :j I have yet to move them out of where they are though....... In my defence, they are dashed heavy, and I need to know that BG is nowhere near when they are being hefted about. Safety first. So I'll possibly wait tomorrow night or Friday night now, until BG is safely ensconced in bo-bo's

The freed up space will - i suppose - be filled up with other stuff..... but at least it is useable stuff and the overall volume is going down......

Tea this evening was Nohutlu - or rice and chickpea pilav. I use Silvena Rowe's recipe out of her 'Orient Express' book. I'm afraid I can never find her recipe online, and her's differs significantly (in flavourings) from most of the plainer versions that I've looked at. To think it is principally rice and chickpeas with lemon, it always delivers on taste and is filling too Silvena says to use baldo rice, but I've only ever seen that in mrW, and it's a premium product. I always use whatever risotto rice i have in stock, and it's always done good I didn't take a pic - beige rice and chickpeas is difficult to make photogenic.... :rotfl: But i did use up the last of the gifted runner beans to accompany, so there was a nice green offset to all the beige :rotfl:Tasted good. Clean plates all round

Today i am grateful for these 3 things;

a good friend using capitals in her email...........

getting stuck into a good book

making myself stick to the planner and cooking a cheap and cheerful tea

Ta for popping in & reading. Appreciated.

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good morning :hello:

We'll need bananas today, so some spends will occur - which reminds me, I've not paid DH for the bits he got from mrL last night

Tea this evening will be some sort of 'use up' bowl. Yet to be determined.

As BG is currently wrecking the join. I had best vamoose.

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Well, I spent the grand total of £3.56 today! I purchased bananas and our fish/chip (frozen) supper for Sunday Am I cheap or what? :rotfl:

I also got my arriss into gear and shifted stuff to exit the premises It's ready and waiting

I also 'notionally' spent money ordering something we need for BG online, but given that I used my card, that has yet to leave the bank account. We'll wait, and wait, and wait to see if it gets delivered this side of christmas, now........

Oh, I finally got my cashback payout from getting new NT membership. I don't know why they bother with the cashback sites, they clearly don't like giving the cash 'back'. If we ever join again - finding new things to do at the moment that cost even less that the NT - I'll go for the voucher to spend in their shop, rather than wait months for the cold hard cash to reach my pocket.

Tea this evening was a 'use up' salad bowl. It doesn't look very exciting, because I didn't give it too much thought, but it did taste nice - I'm just never going to win any prizes for my food styling...... as you'll concur.......



I had some frozen lentils and some leftover chickpeas from last night's tea, so I goggled and came up with this Lemony chickpea and lentil salad. I didn't use radishes, as a) I ain't a fan and b) I hadn't gort none! :rotfl:so substituted with grated carrot instead. I had used some jarred morello cherries for a cake t'other week, and saved a few and stuck them in the freezer, as I'd been wanting to try a riff on an m&$ salad that I saw some time ago. So there is no recipe - I think m&$ have tomato in theirs too....... maybe?... anyway, I boiled up some bulghar with a snippet of a stockcube, drained and cooled. Mixed in the chopped up cherries and then added in some cubes of feta from what was leftover from Monday's (?) quiche. I added in a little bit of mint sauce (jarred) too. The juice from the cherries made the bulghar pink! Worked ok, probably better if sat for a bit longer, and I think I'd re-think a better dressing if I attempted it again. The bowl was completed with the remainder of the blue beans we got from the natty trusty place and a sprinkle of roasted walnuts.

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

BG deciding to nap, so that I could make a start on sorting and moving stuff, safely

a free swing up the rec. ground

DH coming home on time for once :j

Ta for popping in. Appreciated.

Greying X

apple_muncher

I love the swings up the rec! It's the roundabout that is so hard to push that you have to run round with it that I like slightly less...

Greying_Pilgrim

apple_muncher wrote: »

I love the swings up the rec! It's the roundabout that is so hard to push that you have to run round with it that I like slightly less...

:eek: apple - I didn't know you lived next to me and went up our rec. and used the roundabout with the rusty bearings............ :rotfl:

Greying X

in_need_of_direction

Last April dd and I played on the swings in a park. She was 29 at the time. We decided it was such good fun, we'd see if we could get a suitably sized swing for the back garden. Never ever google adult swing!