The Simple Bare Necessities feat. Gratitude & Recipes

UncannyScot

Och what a shame you didn't get the Scottish Strawbs, hope you manage to get some before they're all gone

It's awfy hot up here north o the wall.... about 28 degrees :eek:

Hoping it lasts into weekend as we have some adventuring planned

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

starnac wrote: »

She loves being the one to pick the fruit. I'm sure BG does too. It's good for them to know where food comes from and like you say, it's much tastier.

I think that is fab that DD likes to 'pick her own'. I was thinking today about that clip in the Jaymee O film where UK kids don't know various vegetables, and yet when he is in Italy - I think in the Le Marche region (or La Marche??) the kids know all the veggies - including artichokes and aubergines and trombone courgettes. Mind, the lady on the till in mrM had to ask me what my avocados were t'other day, so..........

UncannyScot wrote: »

Och what a shame you didn't get the Scottish Strawbs, hope you manage to get some before they're all gone

It's awfy hot up here north o the wall.... about 28 degrees :eek:

Hoping it lasts into weekend as we have some adventuring planned

Ha ha! Enjoy the summer sun UCS! I was going to ask Pippi how much extra daylight y'all are enjoying at the mo, but R2 came to my rescue yesterday, and sunset in Edinburgh was a whole half hour later than in Londinium town. And as for 'north of 'up north'' well, I bet they are on almost constant daylight. Enjoy your adventurising!



Well, I'm too hot and too sticky, but I've 2 arms, 2 legs and my family, so complaining I am not


Tea worked out well, considering it had to be put on hold whilst DH [STRIKE]bodged and fettled[/STRIKE] attended to some prep for an impending tradesperson visit - bet they don't come now :rotfl:


We had a salad bowl, which did use up what I had. I had the FIRST avocado failure from mrM No outward signs of over-ripeness, but brown as a bear paw inside the second one that I used - which was one of the peruvian 3 for £1 ones from the other day, was 'ok' but not brilliant Have to say I'm a little disappointed, BUT , given how many avos I have bought from mrM - the failure ratio is actually very small, so credit where credit is due


So, what made it to the salad bowl? well, I boiled up some rice - was thinking about Quinoa, but went for the easy option. Then I made a kidney bean and coriander salad, which used up my tin of red kidney beans, a bit of cucumber and a couple of tommies. The coriander - mine is frozen - was key to the dish, lifting it from 's'ok' to 'YUM'. A keeper of a recipe for me. I dug through my veggie student cookbook and did the age old 'Waldorf Salad'. I only had some scrapings of mayonnaise at the bottom of the jar. I have to say, less is more There was the remainder of the beetroot coleslaw and then half an avocado chopped over the lot. A nice, filling tea. The RKB recipe is a keeper for me - plus the Waldorf, especially as we are now more likely to have ingredients for it 'in store'.



Today i am grateful for these 3 things;


fresh garden produce

our guardian angel on the roads...... :eek::A

Invites to burthday parties, just because.......


Ta for popping in. Appreciated.



Greying X

starnac

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

Good Evening :hello:

I think that is fab that DD likes to 'pick her own'. I was thinking today about that clip in the Jaymee O film where UK kids don't know various vegetables, and yet when he is in Italy - I think in the Le Marche region (or La Marche??) the kids know all the veggies - including artichokes and aubergines and trombone courgettes. Mind, the lady on the till in mrM had to ask me what my avocados were t'other day, so..........

Greying X

Hmm well, maybe my parenting isn't as good as I thought. DH bought avocados yesterday while shopping. DD saw them this morning and asked what was wrong with the kiwi fruits! :rotfl:

rtandon27

Well GP you have been having some fine meals there - just love having a look at the linkies you sprinkle through your posts! The pear and walnut salad looks very nice - you wouldn't mind if I crumbled just a little blue cheese on it though would you?;)

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

...rtandon - was the 'spicy' hot spicy, or flavoursome spicy?...

The OH's stance on spice comes from the good old days of boring food, some meat, some potatoes & some half-dead boiled veg on a plate when nothing could touch each other.;)

His dear departed mama was a terrible cook & the ex was a very simple cook. He is much more adventurous now, but not until he's said his piece will he put the food in his mouth and actually taste it!:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

He's ok with heat (I'm not so much) & certain combinations of spices & herbs. Thai red or green curry are often had. Cumin on the other hand is his nemesis - smells and tastes of dirty socks he says, so we often use fennel seeds or powder instead if a recipe.

Pilau does not appeal to him generally as it's all cooked in one pot - but on that occaision is was lovely (not vegtarian) & he had seconds

I'm constantly astonished by him - he's developed a taste for brown rice, quinoa, pumpkin seeds & sunflower cooked together - won't touch them separately but cooked together in one pot he'll happily have it as a side :rotfl::rotfl: - no consistency eh? - I don't call it pilau so he eats it

apple_muncher

Waldorf salad just says 'Fawlty towers' to me...! Will be giggling all the way on the school run...

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:


starnac - at least DD knows about kiwi fruits Avocados will now probably just be 'bald' kiwi fruits........ :rotfl:


rtandon - pop a bit of blue cheese on it I've never been a fan, but wouldn't object to anyone else making it their own


apple muncher - I've never been a python/JC fan - I had to look the reference up But oh, so typical of british catering establishments..... c.60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, 00's........................................


Well, just wasted 90 minutes of my life watching Engerland play footie. It's obvious lads, ya dinna want to be first in the group........ *yawn*


Tea this evening was a salad bowl again. We had the old standby of Pear and walnut salad, which used up the last YS'd pear from M&$, with Mackerel Skies Salad (without the mackerel) and Gigantes Plaki that was heavily influenced by Jack Monroe's recipe, but without the feta and stock, and with red pepper - served at room temperature. It was all accompanied by some brown basmati rice and had some toasted sunflower and pumpkin seeds strewn over. All from stores :j And filled us up


Today i am grateful for these 3 things;


good role models for BG

public conveniences with no queue!

windows that open to let in air!


Ta for popping by. Appreciated.


Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:


Tea last night was garlic mushroom pizza and black olive pizza (one pizza, with one topping on each side), as I didn't have enough mushrooms to make a whole (big) pizza. The mushrooms were the standard white mushrooms from m&$ - but were (natch) YS'd. They market them as 'vitamin D' enriched mushrooms, but I had read somewhere that if you leave mushrooms in sunlight, they make vitamin D. I have no idea how long you have to leave them, but I thought I would give it a try. Interestingly, my mushrooms changed colour slightly........Did they get sunburn? Anyhoo, it was interesting that they also had a different taste. It may have been 'just one of those things' but they did have a 'meaty' taste, which given they were just ordinary mushrooms, I was a bit surprised about. BG munched a big slice of black olive pizza We had boiled jersey royal pots (mrAl S6) with our pizza and the last of the wild rocket (mrL PoTW). I don't think that the potatoes tasted like JR's especially, but they did at least have a 'new potato' taste - enhanced no doubt by serving with mint - so were nice enough. No longer worth paying a 'premium' price for though........



Tea this evening will be a curry plate. I have plenty of (cooked) black-eye beans, so will be making Lobia Masala, along with some colourful spiced cabbage, dhal and rice.



We didn't make it to the end of the month without busting the grocery budget - which given that we're now up to £200 for the 3 of us, is a bit galling I could never 'trial' to see if a 'junk food' diet would be cheaper - I just wouldn't inflict it on my loved ones, but I do wonder if eating 'the right foods' is what has made costs shoot up, or whether I'm just guilty of wanting too much choice.


I have been much better this week at using up what we had, and making the most of things - despite the weather being broiling, which made it preferable to have salad after salad. At least I've been able to call upon my armoury of 'salad' recipes, rather than just relying soley on (bought) lettuce leaves.



Can't think of owt else MSE to witter on about, so I'll toddle orf and do summat else


Ta for popping by.


Greying X

rtandon27

Morning GP!

Happy Saturday - hope the sun is as glorious where you are!!!

That cabbage recipe looks lovely - and we happen to have one languishing in the bottom drawer! So may have to get OH to try making that one to go with our very boring sausage in a roll dinner tonight!

Meal plan this week went belly up as the commute back home from the big smoke has been nightmarish all week - trains don't cope in heat go figure - we did in fact resort to 'junk' food dinner twice (from the c0-0p mind you) as at 9pm at night there was no cooking happening! Gotta say we both suffered horribly for it feeling lethargic and moody and just not ourselves! - You are completely spot on with sticking to your cooked fresh & healthy views!!!!!

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:
Ay up rtandon - I'm very much afraid I didn't make anything for tea that I said I was gunna


I was flicking through my notebook this morning, and came across 2 references to black-eye pea dals that I hadn't made before, plus a recipe for Kashmiri Garam Masala. As i had all the ingredients in, I figured I would go off piste a bit and try summat new. I made the spice blend first, and although it turned out well, I can't share the recipe - as GDPR seems to have knocked out access to the genius kitchen website - which is a very great shame


Anyway, I made Black eye bean and mung bean stew. Which whilst it was called a stew, was much like a curry as my mung beans were a bit mushy, and broke down further; and as my beans were already cooked, I added in less water. Definitely a tasty curry, and a keeper of a recipe for me I paired it with lentil dhal and boiled rice. I ran out of time to make the cabbage dish - which would have been better than the lentil dhal, but would have pushed BG's bedtime even later



*Whisper it*, not only did BG eat dhal this evening without fuss (tucked straight in!) they also ate a spoonful of the black-eye bean curry :j Which is definitely a first The only thing they didn't eat - but didn't fuss too much about, was a piece of tomato skin, which was too big to swallow whole, and too tough to easily 'bite' in two.



There was chilli in the main curry. I had been gifted a couple of chillies by a chum, and not knowing exactly how hot they were, I did the technique of stabbing the flesh, but putting the chilli in whole, so that it imparted flavour and some heat, without overwhelming the dish, had it been too hot.


Plus I still have another black-eye bean dal recipe to try out another time :j


I did manage to watch a bit of both football matches today. I thought each team that won were worthy winners. The France/ Argentina match was particularly watchable - 7 goals!!!! :footie::footie::footie::footie::footie::footie:......:footie:



Today I am grateful for these 3 things;


Getting sent a 'virtual' bunch of flowers - the positive power of social media

receiving good news from a chum :beer:

BG falling soundly asleep on my arm, snoring gently and sweating profusely........................... :smileyhea:rotfl:


Ta for popping by. Appreciated.


Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Afternoon :hello:


We have spent money today. 1st day of the month and all that - stocking up on bits and bobs. I took BG up the high street to get us both out from under DH's feet - whilst he did some v. v. important [STRIKE]bodging and fettling[/STRIKE] household chores


We popped into a couple of chazzers as it was so quiet - expect everyone was in their gardens or out adventurising - but didn't find what we were looking for


We bumped into an old friend/former colleague and had a catch-up natter. Thankfully, we were in the shade in a bit of the mall that benefits from a bit of a breeze, so it was a nice place to stand a while.


Lunch has been munched - just egg mayo sangers with tommy slices. We also all had a bit of an apple that I had bought from HB (one of their 'value' packs) and I have to say, it was delicious. The pack said they were Royal Gala, product of Poland, but I'm not always sure that the apples in the bag, are the variety stated. However, whatever these apples are, they are NICE


Tea this evening will be scampi bites, and salad. I have got some oven chips ('tis going to be bliss firing the oven up....... ) as standby, just in case we don't get all we need from mrL this arvo.


I also bought a book of 12 2nd class stamps - I try very hard not to do a sharp intake of breath, each time I buy some. 4p change from £7............ Still, I've some long-overdue thank yous to send out, so I need to get on with my admin.



Right, best pootle on.


Ta for popping in.



Greying X