Crazy Cat Lady Chapter 3 - A New Beginning

bizzie

A simple fudge recipe my family uses is
395g tin sweetened condensed milk poured into a saucepan add 400g milk chocolate - broken into chunks
stir over low heat until combined
pour mixture into a 20cm square cake tin that's well lined with paper - I use a silicon case but sit it on a baking tray for stability as it's easier to remove the fudge once set
place in fridge for a minimum 6 hours to set
remove and allow to reach near room temperature before cutting into squares

It can be customised with crushed malt balls, glace cherries, nuts or raisins.

I buy the ingredients from L1dl and it works out at under £3. I buy the f1n carre chocolate which my DC all prefer to other makes.

f0xh0les

You are a chemistry teacher aren't you?

How can you forget honeycomb (aka cinder toffee or yellow man)????

I mean it is cooking, science, and gifting all in one, and so much better than some bi-carb volcano experiment.

Glad you are feeling better

ramhainn

HI
I know how hard the decision you made has been. I was in a similar situation and had to leave it all behind (which was where my debt problems started and spiralled).

I think you have enough of your own baggage to care for someone who does not want any help and is just happy with 'his own swamp'. My ex was exactly the same.

Good luck! It is difficult to begin with but when you make space for something else than your partner's problems, good things start to happen too.

crazy_cat_lady

Hello!
You're right Foxholes. I completely forgot about cinder toffee - probably because I detest it. But you're right, that would make a fantastic gift. As I say, think I'm trying to channel my inner domestic goddess as well as being a money saving ninja.
I'm just on my way home from work now - I'll check in properly once I'm home.

crazy_cat_lady

Sorry - I disappeared all of a sudden. I was going to post a long reply but then got nagged from a colleague about how tired I look so I decided to leave before I started an argument. As it is, I am quite tired and I am feeling quite rough but I don't need to be reminded about it thanks very much. I am also a bit grumpy so might also be hormonal. Advice for everyone is just to steer well clear of me for the moment.
I need an early night - I didn't sleep well last night, then Monday is an incredibly busy day for me work wise so I'm ready to relax now. Really pleased to get home to smell my lovely mince and tatties all done in the slow cooker. I'm starving (another hormonal sign) so will probably destroy my diet as well.
There isn't much else to report at all actually. No word from ex, no word from the solicitor and too busy for me at work to get anything else done. My friend who is the head of technology and a brilliant teacher has said she will supervise me making some jam so I'm excited about that I want to do posh jam with alcohol but she says I need to start simple... Look at me, all chutney, jam, fudge (thanks bizzie) and cinder toffee. I am all Nigella :rotfl::rotfl:
Thanks for your kind words ramhainn - I just need things to get finished and get better...
Hope everyone is ok - this is a really boring little update.

apple_muncher

Good to hear that you got away from work early. Well done you x

f0xh0les

Oops, never met anyone who didn't like cinder toffee. Sorry.
Is a very cheap gift though and much more of an 'experiment' than a recipe.

You could try telling your collegue (if she starts again) that you really need to lay off the nights of passion on a school night. :rotfl:Might shut her up.

crazy_cat_lady

Evening all :hello:
Another poor night of sleep. Shared a bed with ds and he was determined he was having the entire space of the king sized bed by 4am. So I got ready to watch some telly to help my brain switch off and doze back over, and my blimming tellybox is broken!!!! I've only had it for 5 months So I managed to doze over without tv by about quarter to six (I get up at 6.30) and got up to see if the good people at Sky could help me. She talked me through a full reset before I went to work and it worked when I left the house. When I got home it was off again. so I rang them back again. The man I spoke to says it's the hard drive and I need a new box and they can't just send me one and I have to have an engineer visit, but because I work all week I have to pay £15 for a weekend appointment However, he is going to compensate me £17.50 for the loss of tv service until I get the visit. Good job my main telly has digital tv, but alas my bedroom telly is completely useless without the box (I am actually considering sleeping on the sofa because I can't bear the thought of no telly to get to sleep). Engineer is coming Sunday morning. While I was on I mentioned about the Sky Sports issue again, and because I was lovely and my advisor was competent they have managed to sort that out for me as well. So rather than paying for a service I don't want, they have allowed me to downgrade my service without charge, and that will save me another £17 a month:j So in spite of the fact that I have a broken box and the minor inconvenience of no upstairs telly until Sunday - I have the Sky Sports issue sorted out and have made a saving on my monthly subscription. That Sky man is actually my hero. :T
In less pleasant news - got the email reply from my solicitor's secretary. I do need another appointment (stick another £150 on the bill ) but obviously with work I can't get it. So I have a phone appointment on Tuesday next week - and hopefully that will progress things on further again. I know it hasn't been a long time as far as the process of a divorce is concerned, but to me it feels as though it's been going on for ever. I just want to get legally finished and move on. There are going to have to be some awkward conversations with ex about coming to the house (and the removal of Sky Sports - I know he's been using my login details on an app on his iPad :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:) and formalising access to the kids a bit more rather than just turning up as and when he fancies. Ugh - I am too nice for all of this business, and I only ever wanted a quiet life. I hate confrontation, it's too stressful.
Work has been manic today and I've had to bring marking home - although I haven't managed to get any of it done yet after an hour on the phone with Sky and dinner sorting etc. More than likely it won't get done tonight even though I need to. I also need some down time and I haven't had any of that at all yet and I need a shower and an early night. Just means I need to plan my time more carefully tomorrow... GAH - how can I be this busy?
No time for nights of passion unfortunately... :rotfl: I think that I need to do a bit of computing work for tomorrow though. I won't sleep if I'm fretting about that.

Rebecca01

Hi Cat

Can you not watch TV on your laptop or phone in bed? Got to be better than sleeping on the settee.

f0xh0les

ha ha ha! to be a fly on the wall when he wants to watch football next!!
Cheeky man.