What small DFW things will you do w/c 10th December?

carrielovesfanta

DawnW wrote: »

I use this one. It keeps for years. https://www.independent.ie/life/food-drink/recipes/ballymaloe-homemade-mincemeat-30739002.html


I do vary the dried fruit a bit, but stick to the quantities. I also vary the alcohol depending on what we have. It needs to be a spirit though. This year I used Scotch whisky but other years I have used Irish (as per the recipe) or brandy. Amaretto sounds nice though, and I have heard of someone using sloe gin. I often chuck a bit more booze in than the recipe states

Thanks Dawn. Looking at the recipes, I'm not sure why mine has gone so odd - maybe the wild apples. I'm wondering if I should blanch them to kill any wild yeasts.

DawnW

Anyway, in other news:
Cheapie porridge breakfast
Washing pegged out on line, just needs airing overnight now, as it is mostly dry. There are a couple of bits that need ir*ning though :eek:

Took new items to sales unit
Went out with OH to find something that he will be happy sitting on, to take the place of our sofa bed thingy which he isn't, and which is going to a new home on Wednesday, hopefully. Bought 2 armchairs upholstered in a nice check fabric at a local charity furniture shop, for £10 less than I have sold the sofa for. Just needed to pay for delivery
Plenty of sandwich fillings etc for lunch, left from the weekend.
Leftover fish pie will do for dinner - and more of the apple and mincemeat crumble for pudding, which I am far more excited about :j
Potted uncooked apple chutney, but was disappointed to find a small piece of glass broken off of one of the Kilner type jars that I used. I found the piece on the worktop, but binned that jar as there was no way I was going to risk anyone getting glass in their mouth though :eek: Most annoying :mad:
Still need to do RM surveys stuff, check banks and update spreadsheet, and really ought to start on those bloomin Christmas cards - hate that job!

DawnW

carrielovesfanta wrote: »

Thanks Dawn. Looking at the recipes, I'm not sure why mine has gone so odd - maybe the wild apples. 'm wondering if I should blanch them to kill any wild yeasts.

In the Ballymaloe recipe the apples are cooked in the oven, so you wouldn't need to blanch them as well. Maybe it is the fact that the apples are cooked that makes it keep - well, that and the alcohol I suppose!

foxgloves

Mincemeat thoughts - I use sloe gin when I make Sarah Raven's mincemeat recipe. It's what changed mr f's views on mince pies, which he'd never liked before. More recently I've used a different recipe which uses almonds, cherries & sherry but this year I haven't made any. With such a difficult few months, I've just been concentrating on the basics & keeping going!

Leftover mincemeat - I like to use any leftovers in Belgian cake - recipe in original Cranks cookbook. It makes a square sort of traybake which cuts up neatly into squares so is useful for lunch boxes, work snacks, etc.
Better get today's post on......

foxgloves

And here are today's money saving efforts:
*Baked Christmas Cake - I never think this is very money saving, as it isn't a cheap recipe by any means, but it lasts a good while, even with us pair of cake-hoovering gannets, & I shall use the leftover ingredients up in other things. I did save on one ingredient - I couldn't get candied lemon peel, only orange, so I grated in the zest of a lemon instead as I'd got a couple of spare ones.
*Beef stew in slow cooker - a veg round-up produced 2 parsnips which were defo on their last legs so those have gone in. Have started adding the potatoes later - i.e if stew goes on at 10am, potatoes go in at 2pm (if I'm around) as they keep their texture much better.
*6 ebay parcels posted.
*Another ebay sale wrapped.
*Budgets updated & a bit of swapping carried out to keep various 'pots' straight.
*Paid CC bill.
*Large pile of shredding started - some of this will be saved for worm composter bedding. I haven't bought the commercial stuff for years as shredded paper seems to work fine.
*Strained & bottled this year's fruit liqueur which is Blackberry & apple gin. Was forced to sample a glass (at 11 in the morning) for quality control. Mmmmm. Bracing. Big bottle for us, smaller fancypants bottle for a gift, tiny bottle put aside for anyone who requires one (& that may be me!)
*Wrote a letter - recycled envelope from my stash.
*Overnight laundry done on Economy 7 tariff, then a quick 30 mins at 30 degrees. All on heated airer. Washer on timer again for another cheaper load overnight,
*No downstairs heating on yet, but I can feel that the temperature is dropping, so it will be put on in the next hour or two - hopefully this will be quick enough for Cat who is a serious heat worshipper & likes to make out he is on the verge of frostbite if the fire isn't lit within 5 mins of him emerging from his bed.
*Mr f has managed to get a free net of the choccy coins courtesy of the O2 app. Hope he's opening them later, as it's not 'my' day for the advent calendar choccy today........I have odd numbers & he has the evens! (Cat gets 3 Dreamies on odd & even days, as he likes to be included).
*Paid back £10 I borrowed from the grocery petty cash using a bit of recent ebay earnings.
I think that's it. Must carry on shredding for a bit longer, then I intend to read my book.
Cheers all,
F x

carrielovesfanta

foxgloves wrote: »

(Cat gets 3 Dreamies on odd & even days, as he likes to be included).

My mum was woken up by the cat trying to open the doors on its advent calendar

merida88

:hello: Hullo again all, thanks for the thread purps

Right I really must post this week! It helps so much. We've been hareing about the country like blue-posteriored insects and moneysaving has gone slightly out the window. However I have reached the conclusion that I'm not really enjoying my job all that much, so I'd really like to nix this debt asap...

To that end, today's list:

- meals and snacks from stores
- meal plan using as much as possible from stores (honestly we may resort to "breakfast for dinner" at some point this week)
- do balance transfer onto shiny new 0% card :money:
- find where I stashed the Christmas cards and stamps from last year :money:
- calculate OH's share of the Crimbo food/booze spend (he's offered bless him, even though he's on tree duty. We've been very effective at decluttering our booze stash lately, so I have spent a bit to re-stock ready for guests)
- TAKE METER READINGS (feel we're being very energy spendy at the moment )
- update my finances spreadsheet

Hope everyone is having a good day

allydowd

foxgloves wrote: »

(Cat gets 3 Dreamies on odd & even days, as he likes to be included).

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

crazy_cat_lady

Evening :hello:
I would love to make some mincemeat but it looks way too complicated to me, so I'll stick with my chutney and I'm going to try fudge at the weekend.
It has been a weird old day. I was randomly woken up before 5am this morning by my neighbour from 2 doors down who was drilling(!) in his garden. I was very disorientated and scared (as I thought it was burglars breaking in somewhere too close for comfort) but I think he told me his shed had been broken into. Needless to say I was tired and emotional by the time I got to work, and managed to spill a whole cup of tea down my front before the day even started.
Thankfully it got much better as the day went on, with my ds nativity and carol service this afternoon making me feel all festive. And I have a lovely looking parcel from my secret santa waiting under the tree for me, which has made me a bit excited as well And to top it all off, my cleaning lady has been here which is not ever mse, but something I consider essential to my mental health. So whilst I am beyond exhausted and desperate for an acceptable bed time to tick round, I am partly relaxed.

DawnW

Hope you get a better start tomorrow CCL :eek:
Mincemeat is much less complicated than chutney btw - it is just a matter of baking a couple of apples in the oven for half an hour, mashing up the resulting pulp and putting it in a big bowl with all the other ingredients, stirring, and sticking it in jars. My 5 year old grand daughter helped make mine. I had to stop her eating handfuls of it once the booze went in though :eek: :rotfl: