The Simple Bare Necessities feat. Gratitude & Recipes

Greying_Pilgrim

Good afternoon :hello:

Another slow start here at the Towers, but the weather wasn't playing ball this morning, so it kinda dampened any great rush to go anywhere We have though been pootling around, doing chores - mostly tidying and I'm in the midst of making sangers, that we may have indoors or may take for a wander :cool:

I am heartily sick of buying British eggs that are cracked in the carton, crack on being boiled and generally illustrate themselves to be 'old' or prove themselves unuseable. I cannot recall a time now where I have not had to dispose of at least 1 egg per 6 because of being cracked or not used the egg as it 'exploded' on being cooked. Has anyone else had these problems? I was beginning to think that it was me that was carrying them roughly, but this latest 6 were carried by hand at all times, and one has just exploded on cooking and I have now noticed that a remaining egg in the box has hairline cracks, so there is no way I am going to risk using it. So 15p immediately wasted. These eggs were again from mrL - where I had the problem with the carton of 12 the other week, but to be fair to mrL, in the interim I bought half a dozen from HB and encountered the same problem. Has the ban on birds being outdoors not been lifted yet?

Humpf!

Tea this evening is going to be cottage pie out of the freezer, with veg accompaniment. I need to get some veg - frozen and fresh this afternoon. Tomorrow's tea will be soup to use the last of the parsnips that I got from mrL.

Right, I'm going to press on with making egg mayo sangers. I hope DH will think that a walk is a good idea - we've been a little cooped up due to the weather and need to stretch our pins and take in some fresh air.

Forgot to add: tea last night was pizza and wedges, I did make the dough straight away whilst I thought about it, although in the end we ddin't go out anywhere. The pizza was black olive, using mrL olives and the wedges were m&$ YS'd tatties from some time ago. The wedges were overcooked (again!), but got eaten. We now have so many pieces of pizza in the freezer that I will not make pizza for tea this week, we'll have a pizza/pasta buffet. Go us :rotfl:

Greying X

rtandon27

Eggs from Mr L - yes in the past we had the same problem with hairline cracks in the eggs...
TBH, those were the ones I boiled up immediately & the uncracked ones got put in the egg bowl for later use...
For 1 dozen, it was usually 2 per carton - but once cooked, they got put into my pack-up for lunch...

Most of our groceries come from Mr S now - their mixed weight eggs are normally in perfect condition (irrespective of whether the hens are indoor or out)...though we prefer the outdoor ones for ethics & taste, sometimes the meager budget does not stretch that far...

I vaguely remember (many moons ago) my Granma poking a hole in one end of the egg before hard boiling to that they would not explode - for the life of me I can't remember which end - the one with the little air pocket would seem right as this would allow for the egg to expand and the air to come out without the whole egg exploding!

Chez nous, the weekend has been about eating from the freezer and the stores as well as turning various frozen bits into stock for risotto making, which OH seems to be quite good at, but I'd not have the patience for!

Meal plan for the week done & have managed to base 3 dinners on the stores, 2 on this week's groceries & also made sure we have (cheap) greens with each meal which means broccoli & cabbage feature heavily!

As to the rainy gloominess of the day - PAH PAH PAH - :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::D

Cheery_Daff

Love the idea of a pizza buffet :j :j

I've not noticed a problem with eggs - we usually buy free range from @ldi. I think the outside ban has been lifted now but maybe they're still catching up?

(I must confess I brought two eggs back from holiday in a plastic tub and managed to crack one of them - gosh, the SMELL! :eek: :eek: :eek: I hate to throw things away but.... :eek: )

I know what you mean about mediocre/rubbish eating out experiences Mr Cheery won't go anywhere that charges more than £1.50 for a cuppa. We often speculate how much our home made dinner would have cost if we'd have paid for it in a cafe :rotfl:

mcculloch29

I always buy Aldi's free range, which are packaged in such a way that you can give each egg a visual check before you buy. Never a problem with breakages for some time.
My shopping has to come home on the back of the trike which has no suspension, and on Saturday I booted the heavy bag with the eggs in along the hallway floor to the fridge before I realised what I was doing. Eggs - medium free range, 75p, packaged in standard eggbox - were fine.

I also love the idea of a pizza / pasta buffet. Enjoy!

Cheery_Daff

I just remembered that I did actually have two broken eggs the other day - but as it was because I'd put my bags down on a wall and the box of eggs fell out of the top and onto the floor, i can't really blame the shop... :rotfl: I always open the box and check too, they're not sealed in @ldi.

Perhaps you need some chickens Greying that's my plan for when we (eventually) move! :j

Greying_Pilgrim

Ha ha! yes, yes yes, me too - I always visually inspect the eggs, but I'm missing these hairline cracks, which seem to be either end of the egg - so whether it is weight from other boxes on the shelf, or what, I don't know. I always open the carton and look for obvious cracks/breakages, shut the box and then lift the box up to see if there is any staining on the bottom - which might indicate breakages at the bottom of the egg. I didn't do this with the carton of 12 the other week in mrL though, as I was carrying Baby Greying at the time! So will count that as my fault.

rtandon - I think the air sack is at the 'blunt' or rounded end of the egg. The air sack goes larger as the egg ages - hence why 'old' eggs increasingly float - to the point that if it floats without touching the bottom of the bowl of water - consider chucking it straight out.

I'm buying FR eggs - mrL or HB - I have bought MrAl in the past, it's just we don't shop there much anymore. The eggs from mrL that I bought on Friday still had the 'not currently FR for welfare reasons' sticker on them. HB eggs are a nuisance to get out of the box on the shelf as the packers leave the cartons attached to each other - I'm surprised the shops accept it - they must get more damages that way, as people pick up one carton and the other falls away.

We've had a gorgeous afternoon out - the sun came out for us, we ate sangers at a lovely spot, and hit the motherload of reduced price bananas in mrT :j A week's bananas for £1 :j And 3kg of organic tatties for 90p, don't mind if I do I got some other bits and pieces too, but the bill came to £5.26 - don't think I've got so much from mrT for just over a fiver in years! So apart from the shopping, we just had to use diesel to get up to the wee market town along the way, other than that, we've had a cheap date! And avoided the holiday crowds :j

Oh, and I paid 80p - I think, for 'spirali' pasta from mrS t'other day - notice mrT have the same thing for 59p OK, so we were in mrS, not mrT, but still - planning and preparation, prevent unnecessary penny separations! Glad y'all think our pizza & pasta buffet a good idea - tis just a way of gussying up leftovers!

Greying X

Eager_Elephant

The Avian Flu Prevention Zone is still in place in some parts of the UK - mainly if the farm is near open water although a lot of egg farmers are keeping theirs indoors just in case.

The Prevention Zone will be lifted on 15th May for everyone.

I do think that outdoor reared birds gain extra nutrients etc from the ground which indoor birds don't have and although grit for egg production should be provided and is also in their food it won't be near enough compared to what they can get outside.

We used to give our chickens and geese shell and grit to help with egg production.

Fingers crossed you notice a difference once the ban has been lifted.

Do you have anywhere near you that sells eggs at the gate?
In the next town (on the way to DH's work luckily) we have a free range egg farm and they sell their own eggs at the gate - they have a vending machine for eggs, I believe it is the first in the UK. I love it and always buy loads of eggs!!

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

EE - thanks for that - roll on 15th May! I have to say, I think that the problem has been worse since the ban - and again I have to say I think I agree with you about the grit hypothesis. There will always be broken eggs due to rough handling at any point along the supply/distribution/retail chain. But these cracks have been more insidious somehow - with the majority of boxes I have bought having been affected in someway. Unfortunately we don't have a ready supply of farm-gate eggs nearby. I suspect the duck eggs were a one-off (but gratefully received none-the-less), as I'm not sure where my neighbour got them from - other than they were gifted to them.

Well, we've been up and boinging since....... twirly!!!! But at least I've some chores accomplished and we're both dressed! Oh, and DH is too, but given that he's at work, I should jolly well hope so! :rotfl:

I need to buy some apples today if HB or the marketall has some. They will be Polish - the British ones seem to have finished - which is right and seasonal, but I would buy them in preference. Normally, I would stop buying apples now, and await the new season, but I have to say, the ida red apples from Poland are generally pretty reasonable. I bought some from the HB in the next market town along last week. There were only 6 in the 1.3kg bag. Unfortunately, one was rotten, but the others were utterly delicious - if not a little huge! I'll get the TV guide whilst I am out too.

Well, waddya know, Baby Greying has fallen asleep on my lap...... wish I could drop off too

It still should be soup for us tea tonight, all being well. I must get out some chickpeas on to soak too. I'm trying to get better at preparing things in advance and freezing them, so that will in turn make menu planning easier. Given we're only in hour 4 of day one, I'm not counting my chickens...... :rotfl:

I need to do some banking too today, so must put that on my list. Good job the weather is improved, there is need to walk up to the high street today!

Other than that, I've run out of MS stuff to witter on about, I think. Better vamoose.

Ta for popping in and chatting. Appreciated.

Greying X

Cheery_Daff

Mornig greying :hello:

I made a nice big pan of lentil soup yesterday for work lunhes so looking forward to that :applause: been eating a lot of rubbish lately so a bit of wholesomeness will do me good!

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Well, tas been a strange day, no doubt. Ah well, we're still here and there is all tomorrow unexplored yet.

I didn't get everything from up the high street that I had on my list, but a very strange set of circumstances occurred, and I was just glad to get the heck outta dodge. They can be got tomorrow.

Tea this evening morphed a bit as a result, but I think that I prefer the soup that we ended up with - it was the right soup for the moment. Shamelessly stealing inspiration from Cheery, I used my parsnips, along with some carrots, celery, onion and garlic to make a lentil soup. Although not raining, the weather went back to being gloomy this arvo, and whilst I didn't need a 'stick yer spoon up straight in it' rib-sticking, lentil potage, I did need something substantial. I added in some zanzibar-style spice, the remains of a passata carton and the zest and juice of 3/4 of a large lemon that was hanging about. Served with onion seeded flat breads, it hit the spot for me Picture here;



Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

the love of my family

simple storecupboard soup

our national health service

Ta for popping in, reading and giving me, as ever, inspiration for free :money::D

Greying X