Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Hi Kantankrus - How are you doing? Bet you're busy on your allotment. My greenhouse is bursting at the seams.... Can't wait till the weather warms up & I can start getting it all outside.
Re rice pudding. Apart from. Not having an aga, I make mine the old fashioned way. I use:
50g pudding rice
1 level tablespoon sugar
1 pint milk
About a teaspoon of butter
Nutmeg
Put the pudding rice, sugar & milk in an ovenproof dish. Dot little bits of butter over the top. Sprinkle with a pinch or two of nutmeg.
Put in oven at Gas 4 (sorry I don't do electric) & bake for between one & a quarter and one & a half hours. After one hour, take it out & give it a good stir, as this helps it absorb the liquid underneath, then pop back to finish cooking. It's ready when it's thick & creamy but still has a bit of spare liquid.
Sprinkle with brown sugar or blob a bit of jam on to serve.
Mr f's favourite. Now..... this amount fits a rectangular dish & serves 2 people well, or 3 if they are not such greedy nackers as us. If this helps, I use the same dish that I also use to make a lasagne for two people. So if you want to serve 4 people, or you want some leftovers, you'd defo need to double these quantities.
I use semi-skimmed as that's our milk preference, but it will work with any. I've also made up some of the milk quantity with a bit of leftover evaporated milk if I've been making fudge. If you do that, just keep an eye on it as it seems to need a bit less time in the oven.
So that's a basic home made rice pudding - then just experiment till you get the consistency how you best like it. Let me know how you get on!
F x

joedenise

I like rice pudding made with almond milk. Makes it really nice and creamy.

Denise

foxgloves

Hi JoeDenise, Yes, nut milks work too. I had a voucher for a free carton of hazelnut milk, but I didn't much like it, especially not in coffee, so I used it up in a rice pudding & it was nice. I don't 'do' food waste, so I couldn't have thrown it away.
F

Kantankrus_Mare

Thank you so much for that detailed recipe. :beer: Will get some pudding rice on my next visit to "spill the beans". Seem to remember my nanna making hers with evaporated milk but on the hob.

Yes I'm busy with the allotment. So pleased with my tomatoes. Despite having an allotment for almost 13 years.......this is the first year I have grown tomatoes from seed saved from the previous years crop. They are all in final growing place and looking healthy!

Put my first batch of sweet peas out a couple of weeks ago and am amazed they are still alive. Have the first flower just arrived Doesnt take much to make me happy.:rotfl:

Spent 5 hours weeding yesterday :eek: and there is still more to do! I do like a tidy plot though. Gives me great satisfaction.

I watch and read all your gardening exploits and wish I had your knowledge. I'm learning all the time. e.g. Ive never known much about flowers and learned today that I should remove the seed heads from my dying daffs as the energy is then put back into the bulb instead of making seeds. Makes sense of course but I never knew that! I love learning new gardening tips.

crazy_cat_lady

I made rice pudding today as well - to use up milk that we had that was getting desperate. It's one of the best comfort foods ever, and something that I can actually make without too much hassle.

foxgloves

Nice to hear you feeling confident about cooking something, CCL, even if it's just a good old rice pudding. You're right though, there's something very cheering about a bowlful on a cold winter's night & they're cheap to make, plus a few nutrients, so why not?!
F

foxgloves

Morning rainy Friday people,
Well, I finally got that big crate of household products sorted out, which I brought back from clearing out Mum's house. It's one of those jobs which has to be done, even though it is sad & you wish you'd called to take her out shopping, rather than to clear her house ready for sale. On a practical level, it'd have been quicker & easier to throw this crate of stuff in the bin, but as anyone who has already had to perform this sad process knows, it somehow feels better that things are being used where possible. Mum chose to buy them, after all & spent her money on them, & binning them unused would have made me feel worse about all the plastic too. So, a thorough sort out, & I've added to stock:
3 bottles anti-mould spray (bit mystified by this as never saw mould at my parents house.... Maybe that shows the spray works...!)
1 bottle each of window cleaner, bath cleaner, drain unblocker, grout cleaner, ant powder.
2 bottles of multi-purpose cleaning spray.
1 box unopened washing powder
1 big roll duct tape, 7 rolls of bin bags, 1 pack anti-bac wipes.
A pile of kitchen towels, sponge scourers, J-cloths...... & a heap of other stuff I can't remember. I only buy minimal cleaning products, as I use diluted Stardrops in a spray bottle for most things, but I will use up this stash as I think it would be so wasteful not to do so.
So next time it comes to 'household cleaning stuff' on my weekly shopping list, I think I'm going to be shopping from home for a long time.
And now I must get cracking with my job list. I wanted a veggie garden day really, but it's very rainy here again. Can't really complain though, as the garden was terribly dry & I can see how lush my borders are looking now after a sustained drink.
Love to all,
F x

foxgloves

Well, I've popped back on to say I've just tested the aforementioned weird grout cleaner on the kitchen floor tiles. We have those traditional-looking terracotta floor tiles & they have been grouted with cementy-looking stuff which is also supposed to be cement-COLOURED. The floor was laid way before our time here & my experience of it has been that nothing really makes any difference on the dirty grouting......until NOW!! Bloody hell, my life's a mess if I'm seriously getting excited about grout cleaner, lol, but yes, I'm going to bore you all with the results now. Contents of bottle look like watery pale yellow acidy stuff (ingredient = nitrilotriacetic acid.......expect CCL will be on to tell me this stuff removes fingertips, faces, etc......) Anyway, you dilute it 1 in 4 with tepid water & using a sponge scourer or brush, you apply it to the grouting. It is quite foamy. You leave for 10 mins minimum, then scrub at it with the scourer before lifting it off & rinsing a few times with a cloth & plain water. Was not hopeful as basically, this floor is ready for drilling up & replacing, but that's not an option as our kitchen is otherwise nice. Returned after 10 mins & could see that the foam had gone quite grey, so was hopefully in the process of lifting some or other gunk. Duly scrubbed & rinsed & there is actually a real difference. Repeated the experiment to see it wasn't a fluke & I think it really will be worth doing the rest of the floor, as the grouting I did is much much cleaner & several shades lighter. The bottle hadn't even been open. I expect my Dad bought it for something, then as it was right at the back of a cupboard, Mum (who was tiny) didn't see it & it went unused. So glad it didn't get binned now. I know it's still a plastic bottle, but at least it won't be the total waste of a completely full plastic bottle.
The upside = A bit of restoration on our kitchen floor which it badly needs.
The downside = I think I will need an absolute ton of hand cream by the time I've finished.
Am sitting in the kitchen on my coffee break typing this & have just spotted that our DAMNED SQUIRREL IS BACK ON THE PEANUT FEEDERS!! Yesterday, he managed to remove the entire feeder to the floor, so as better to be able to brace himself against it with his foot to get more nuts out! And a troop of soggy little sparrows are queuing up politely waiting instead of pecking this naughty & persistent nut-nicker off their breakfast. Grrrrrr.
Oh well, coffee break over. Back to job list. I'm caning it today!
F x

foxgloves

Hello Saturday Readers,
Well, we've just managed to achieve a really useful session in the veggie garden before the rain arrived. Mr F has dug over the potato bed, incorporated lots of nice home made compost & planted his main crop spuds. I've sown the sweetcorn & planted out a row of lettuces at the front of my greenhouse tomato border. I'll have basil planted there later on, but the plants are too small atm, so I thought I may as well use the space to bring on some extra lettuces.
Now, veggie gardeners will know that when you buy a packet of seeds, it states on the pack how many seeds on average are contained within. Sometimes this works in the gardener's favour.... for instance getting 15 tomato seeds instead of the 12 stated, means a considerably bigger crop. Sometimes, with bigger expensive seeds, such as cucumbers, it can go either way. "Average 4 seeds" has occasionally meant I've only had 3, but other years I've received 5 - swings & roundabouts & I can't really fit in more than 3 cukes anyway. But today...... My packet of sweetcorn seed at the ready - "Contains average 30 seeds" - modules counted, filled with compost & watered, I snipped open the packet & tipped out....... a grand total of 7 seeds & a teaspoon of dust!! Eh? Was the packet-filling machine having a meltdown? Shrinkflation? Brexit Britain?? Local garden centre were happy to exchange them for me & will take it up with the seed company. Got back to the last of the sunshine, to sow the new pack - 43, in case you're wondering if my inner tightwad drove me to count them! Seven seeds though!! Most likely a genuine mistake but it felt like a p*ss-take at the time!
Other veg doing OK..... greenhouse tomato plants starting to flower, cukes & squashes putting on some good growth & climbing beans germinating well in their recycled coffee cups & big yoghurt pots. Coriander looking lush - must start using it, as it's a variety which you can cut & come again.
Cat stayed in bed through all the lovely sunshine & has now meowed his head off to go out in the rain. Unfathomable!
Enjoy your Saturday nights, all. Mr F's cooking night - a film & a large gin lined up here, hopefully knitting 2nd sleeve too, as I'm wanting to start my next stash busting project.
Cheers m'ducks,
F x

crazy_cat_lady

Nah, you're ok with that one foxgloves - it's no more irritating than soap powders etc. However, it is an acid, whereas many cleaning agents are bases. Think of it more like a limescale remover than a cleaner - better at removing a certain type of grime and muck.