Cherry takes the reins

badmemory

I've used all sorts when they are out of date but for some reason dried yeast always seems to fail & it doesn't seem to need to be much out of date & still in the sealed sachets too.

Honeysucklelou2

Hadn’t thought of lentil and mushroom. I make lots of lentil and bacon soup each winter but must try mushroom!

Cherryfudge

badmemory said:

I've used all sorts when they are out of date but for some reason dried yeast always seems to fail & it doesn't seem to need to be much out of date & still in the sealed sachets too.

I think there was a whisper of activity from the three sachets I used, but it really wasn't at its best! I've bought fresh this evening.

Cherryfudge

Honeysucklelou2 said:

Hadn’t thought of lentil and mushroom. I make lots of lentil and bacon soup each winter but must try mushroom!

The Rose Elliot version is:

4oz/125g continental lentils (I used red ones instead)
1 large onion (I used a small onion and about half a leek)
1 large clove garlic
1oz/25g butter
1.5 pints/850ml water or unsalted stock (I used a veggie stock cube that had salt in)
Sea salt (or leave it out if the stock is salted)
freshly ground black pepper.

Chop up the things that need chopping. Wash the lentils. Fry the onion and garlic together in the butter in a large saucepan for 5 minutes. Add the chopped mushrooms and cook for a further 4 or 5 minutes. Add the lentils and water or stock. Simmer with a lid on till the lentils are soft. Liquidise and season the soup and serve sprinkled with parsley.

As you know, I added lots of thyme and about a tablespoon of light soy sauce, omitted the parsley and put grated cheese on top to serve. It seems to improve the next day too.

There are a few versions on the Net.

Cherryfudge

My list from earlier:

Clean the bathroom ceiling which is getting mould. I will leave that till nearer when DH gets home as a possibly perilous job needing another adult in the house. FORGOT
Go down to the market once the current drizzle stops (this counts as exercise too). ABANDONED
Clear the middle shelf of the coffee cupboard - not sure what lurks at the back. DONE
Make marmalade: I have the stuff in and the empty jars are cluttering up the counter. DONE
Feed the Christmas cake DIDN'T GET ROUND TO IT
Investigate if that job is still open, or if there's anything else suitable. DONE
Text my friend about coffee on Saturday. DONE
Text another friend to see how she's doing post-surgery and if her dogs need walking today or tomorrow. NOT DONE
Plan dinner. DONE
Do other grocery shopping. DONE
Do some more of the A/L appeal. NO 
Find another piece of mending while I'm on a roll. NO

DH was out this evening so I went to the supermarket - a different one from earlier - and bought ingredients, then made a new recipe: Greek semolina cake. It's a bit explosive when anything is added to the hot oil but I've tasted crumbs and I think it's going to be yummy. The recipe talked about cheap ingredients to be found in most Greek homes so I might save money by changing nationality: I spent rather a lot for a cake! It was fun, though.

Expenditure:
Housekeeping £29.40 (that wasn't all cake).

Cherryfudge

After a few very wet days, I don't care if the sky is grey, at least it's not raining!

I've been bleaching mould off the bathroom ceiling and around certain windows. Airing the place hasn't been enough to keep it at bay. I also got impatient to do some laundry, so a load has just finished although it won't dry out of doors.

DH has been hesitant to order a replacement for the favourite shirt that gave up the ghost so I've just ordered a couple for him to try. They aren't cheap but he does get a lot of wear out of them. (£89.95).

I have my first classroom session for the new relief job later, which, while it has that element of 'new people, and am I an imposter?', is still something I'm looking forward to. It's a small setting so I'm not too worried about forgetting names, and anyway, the teacher is in charge, not me.

I'm also trying to get my phone to back up everything so I can reset it, but I think I'm getting closer to needing to replace it. Plenty of storage but it won't always back up, and between times the screen goes jittery. This isn't the 'jittery' where the app icons shake in case you want to delete any, its the whole thing going mad so I can only calm it by turning it off and on again.  

Honeysucklelou2

Thank you for the recipe…one for this weekend.

Hope the classroom position works out well.

Cherryfudge

Thank you @Honeysucklelou2, I enjoyed it a lot. The group gels well and the teacher gives a good lead, and I didn't get lost (the venue is a bit of a rabbit warren). It's a shame it's only two hours a week - I said to Dh that I could do this all the time, quite happily! Still, that leaves room for other things.

Talking of other things, I missed two calls from school where I had the TA interview, so I'm assuming they're now considering the lunchtime supervisory/TA post that I also applied for. I did try ringing back, but no luck: it was when I was struggling to get my phone working properly. I've now reset it and am waiting to see if that is enough, or should I splash out on another? Realistically, if I were offered the job I think they may be considering interviewing me for, it's only a few hours a week for over an hour's walk (about 40 minutes each way), and I didn't really want the 'bigger' job which was more hours, so why would I want this one? But it's a job: money and experience.

I did try to submit the application for the cleaning job, which let me fill the whole form in and press 'submit' before telling me what I knew from the outset: it's closed. Oh well. At least I have the application saved if it comes up again. I didn't spot anything else I'd like to try today.

This evening's tea was the rest of yesterday' soup for DH, and some stuffed mushrooms for me. This is what happens when I go home past the supermarket at the end of the day when things are marked down. I also got salad, coriander and two bags of easy peeler mini oranges, and the whole lot came to less that £2. I also resisted some nice chrysanths that were next to the marked-down veg. The evening class was flower arranging, and I learned various bits that I quite wanted to try out but it's a waste to buy things that weren't in the plan - I liked the flowers but they were just a few flowers, not all the foliage and sundry other bits of shape and colour, so to get a decent result I'd have had to have bought quite a bit. Some of the students were making very impressive displays but they had clearly got lots to work with.

For the first time this week I've exceeded 10,000 steps - yay!

Expenditure:
Housekeeping £1.88 (reduced from £6).

weenancyinAmerica

Cherryfudge - one note - bleach only changes the color of the mold - it doesn't get rid of it. If you look online, you will see most sites on mold (or mould, I'm in the US) recommend a mixture of water and vinegar to spray on to kill the mold first, and then let it dry and get rid of any black with the bleach. We had to use a lot of vinegar and water when my bathroom developed mold. But it worked. Good luck with it. 

Cherryfudge

Many thanks, @weenancyinAmerica, I'd not heard that but I'll certainly try it. The upstairs rooms, bathroom included, have partly sloped ceilings due to being built into roof space (looks nice but was probably a money-saver on behalf of the builders ). The sloped bit is colder than the bit with loft space above, so really attracts condensation, hence mould.

I have a big tub of white vinegar so I'll get on to that this morning while the sun shines so I can air out the room.