<<<out of cheese error>>>

redofromstart

Payday money shuffle completed. Hurrah no council tax, boo my car insurance. Five minutes on confused and a third off the renewal, irritating but worthwhile. Still more than last year and more than a months council tax. £20 of Lidl voucher is useful though.

redofromstart

Suet and dumplings.

The remnants of 'not well, don't want to eat' linger on in the redo household, and when @WinterWarrior posted about casserole I thought of beef stew and dumplings.  Filling, nutritious and mostly looks after itself etc.  The instant pot obliged with the base stew (and a 'bisto boy' DS who came through to see what the lovely smell was) before I thickened it on the hob ready to add some dumplings.

Couldn't find the suet.  Had mentioned dumplings to the boy who has also been ill.  Trailed to the co-op where I was sure I had seen a red/blue box recently.  I had, but they had none on the shelf - and in any case I was outraged at the £2.80/240g price 

Came home, searched the cupboards and found the dregs of an elderly packet.  Read the instructions which say once opened store in the fridge and use within six weeks.  Who knew?  I made a batch anyway and tested a knub end before I ruined my stew, but mental note to self to fridge or investigate freezing in the future.  There are five lots of dumpling mix in one packet of suet, so unless you make the little lumps weekly then freezing may be the solution. I mean, what else do we use suet for?  Steamed puddings of the sweet (jam roly poly) and savoury (steak and kidney!) variety but really, I might as a one off make one of those but never use a full packet.

I have tried non suet dumplings and they didn't like them.

Anyway, enough ranting.  Perhaps it would be cheaper in a real stupidmarket.  Nope.  £3 in MrT.  50% more per KG then butter.  When did this happen?

I've ordered some goldnfry dumpling mix to try instead.  

WinterWarrior

I used MrT’s own. A small packet with just enough for a single go. I thickened my stew in the slow cooker with a handful of pearl barley and chucked the dumplings in for the last half hour. Less washing up is always a win! I’m sure yours was delicious.

Sun_Addict

I make my dumplings from fat free natural yogurt and SR flour, chuck in some herbs and a bit of grated cheese, they are delicious even Mr SA enjoys them. 

EssexHebridean

It's never even occurred to me that suet would be a "keep in the fridge" thing?! I never have, and last time I looked, we're both still here, so I'm calling hoohah on that idea! Mine will prevail in the cupboard! 

I want stew now. Sigh. 

redofromstart

I will look at those options, thanks @WinterWarrior and @Sun_Addict
I like the naan bread made with yoghurt so can see how it would work

Sorry for setting off stew hunger @EssexHebridean, but it was winterwarrior who set me off.  I, funnily enough, didn't actually eat any, or of the red thai curry I made a few days later.  Finally back to wanting to eat though so no doubt I will be eating all of the things shortly.

I have been shifting money about again, ahead of the decision of if we should use the savings to clear the mortgage when the fix ends shortly.  Skipton have a tracker saver, currently at 2.9% and it was simple enough to shift his 2.5% skipton saver to that one.  added more than usual due to savings hurrah - the joys of not eating, using building materials or traveling much only slightly offset by the spend on tissues and ibuprofen. 

I also did some more research on pension pots as we need to plan for tax and his income for when we do find the new house and may need to bridge properties.  You would think it would be relatively simple to empty a few small (trivial in tax terms) pension pots ahead of the end of the financial year, but none of them seem to make it easy.  He (who hates using the phone) has to ring, can't write, etc.  If anyone has dealt with a defined contribution pension fund who lets you fill a paper or online form in to draw all or part of your pot down (yes we know about the tax, no we don't want advice) without insisting on advice and a phone call then please do shout up, and I will transfer them round.  We are very lucky that he has a defined benefit pension which he was able to take early by completing an online form but a few hundred pounds is apparently impossible, never mind the one that is a few thousand.

redofromstart

I made some good flat breads this evening with yoghurt, twice the volume of flour to yoghurt and then rolled and pan fried for a few minutes each side, much lighter than shop bought breads.

i have three large butternut squashes that I should use up, Veg box bounty, luckily they store well, but on current form they will still be taking up space in the fridge at Easter.  Lentil sausage and squash tray bake, or coconut and chilli paste soup probably.

I also have some gammon defrosting for tomorrow, so pea and ham soup will appear next week.  Must check I have some peas or lentils.

Sun_Addict

I love butternut squash.Which veg box do you have as all the ones I’ve tried have been disappointing?

redofromstart

Abel and C, because you can swap out things you don't like. I tried cheaper ones but you get lots of things I don't like (erm, like vegetables) so it was even worse value. 

Seasidegal58

Just caught up with your diary redo!  Wow! Reading about the latch hook rug took me back - I remember my dad making one when I was a kid!  He was very proud when he finished it - it landed up next to the hearth. When we moved into a centrally heated prefab I never knew what happened to it. I think my mum got rid of it. - she wasn't a fan!😆
Yiur food as usual all sounds yum!😋