And now we go again...

PennysIntoPounds

Glad you had a fab time, and hoorah for super fast internet and not having to shell out on a PC

EssexHebridean

Not having to buy things is definitely always a win PiP isn't it! I'm actually glad MrEH has faffed about around the computer buying as long as he has! 

Reading what @Blackcats had to say about full freezers, cupboards etc has made me decide that I have to revive the "Use it up" grocery challenge this month - not least as I am fed up with never being able to find anything in the freezer! This means that from now I need to actually properly meal plan again - no excuses, as that is the simplest way of getting to use things up of course. As a starting point:
Today - the remaining broccoli, chicken & orzo bake from the other day
Tomorrow - Curry - hopefully both curry and dhal in the freezer, plus roti breads, and I will cook the rice as usual.
saturday - meals being eaten elsewhere apart from breakfast (toast)
Sunday - Might use the remaining tub of last year's roasted home grown toms and do pasta for lunch - tea will be cheese and crackers as that makes inroads into both the cheese stash and the cracker stash! 

The orzo bake recipe was scored as a definite "make it again" so that will now go into a more regular rotation I think. The protein element can easily change as well - it was delicious with the chicken (which was a pack of higher welfare thighs - I've been unable to find free range in anything other than whole birds of late - presumably still a supply issue after flockdown - which were well priced but extremely tasty - I boned them out before cooking then chopped them up once cooked, and even the cooking was done on super-cheap electric!) but would also work with chorizo or ham chunks equally well. 

Used up the last block of halloumi and the remainder of a box of couscous (well, that was transferred through to the storage tub rather than being "used up" as such - but the effect is still the same in that I need to buy more) last night (I know, couscous on a Wednesday, that's got to confuse, right?) so those have made it to the shopping list. Also need to nip to F's over the weekend to restock on tinned tuna. 

Spendiness - 
- needed to spend in Al's yesterday as used their car park near work...Y/S'd grapes were the obvious buy, but then a bag of jelly beans jumped off the shelf at me as well. Balanced diet...
- Popped to the big T's near work as well while waiting for MrEH after work - 4 x good sized terracotta plant saucers acquired for £2 each which is a great price. 
- debating about booking a ticket for the BBC 2 in the park gig later in the year - Bryan Adams and the Stereophonics being the prime drivers for that. Not cheap but travel would be straightforward (and essentially free) as it's only a few miles from us. 
- Also considering booking another of the LT Museum's Heritage train trips - this time on the Piccadilly line. Cheaper than the gig and would come from joint fun account as well. 

In the garden, we have a decent number of peapods filling out, and the strawberry plants have started giving us a steady supply of berries too, although those are mostly being eaten straight from the plants! (And why not!) The sown seeds are mostly making an appearance - no joy with Cucamelons at all which is annoying - I'll re-sow those tomorrow I think and see if I have more joy, The winter squash also aren't doing too well, and  we only seem to have 4 sweetcorn plants, so I will re-sow a few more of each and see if we can make up the numbers a bit. Ideally we want half a dozen corn and a couple of squashes. Tomatoes are coming on well though which is great news - I may need to consider some more suitably sizes pots though...! Flower wise there will be sweetpeas to be dealt with, and I think some marigolds/calendula etc as well. My basil has been dug up by something (Mr Squirrel I am looking at you) again - I'll sow another pot and this time it IS getting covered over! 

foxgloves

It's been an odd year for veg sowing here at Foxgloves Manor, @EssexHebridean. I'd intended to put a post up on my diary about it but didn't get around to it with Soot being poorly. Your squirrel sounds worse than ours! I have re-sited all the narcissus bulbs moved by our naughty little herberts, but still have a couple of alliums in silly places thanks to them being dug up & cached elsewhere.
Hopefully your veg will catch up. 
F 

EssexHebridean

Fingers crossed Foxgloves - everything just feels, well, slow, at the moment! The temperatures have dropped again though haven’t they and of course that won’t be helping.

happy Friday all - it’s a right mixed one weather wise here, we cut our walk short this morning because of rain, but I’ve just been enjoying glorious sunshine in the garden surrounded by very forbidding looking clouds so I think we’re going to get another cloudburst soon. However, seem to have achieved a reasonable amount so far…

MSE Stuff:
- free exercise with that walk, albeit a shorter than usual one
- Walk took us round last our old flat where my pal had kindly tipped us off that there was a pallet to be had - so either “square logs” as Mrs Stripes would have said, or kindling, or some useful wood to do stuff with…
- also picked up three jars from her - two nice sized attractively shaped ones perfect for jam or marmalade, and one teeny one we will use at the beer festival. 

- While grabbing the pallet MrEH noticed that someone had put two perfectly good garden troughs out for taking too, so we also nabbed those. They’ll either take herbs or possibly something like bush tomatoes, if not more strawberries (the current ones are putting out runners like crazy!)
- porridge for breakfast as we don’t have any bread, and didn’t want to make a loaf pf overnight on this occasion. Porridge today and crumpets for tomorrow before we head off to our meeting will be ideal though. 

- remembered to get the curry and dhal out for tonight so they could defrost in the fridge - giving a tiny saving in the cost of running the fridge for the day of course!
- shopping done, although there will be oddments more to get. £21.36 there, and another £8 in !!!!!! for tuna.
- spotted that Lil’s had decent quality yoga mats for £7.99 - mine has getting a bit knackered and not as grippy as I’d like so I nabbed one of those too - personal spends there of course! 

- remembered to get-lined the food waste bin with the paper bag our Indian takeaway came in the other week. No sense in paying for a commercially made liner when that bag will do perfectly well. 

- harvested a few more stalks of rhubarb - although we can’t take masses from it this year we’re taking the leaves that are overshadowing the redcurrant that sits behind it. 

A few other garden jobs dealt with too
- we’ll be harvesting peas before too long which is excellent, there are masses coming as well.
- Checked over the seedlings and found space for some that were being eaten (slugs or snails I reckon) in the mini greenhouse. 
- started constructing a bean frame for the extra runners - we’ll underplant that with the bush beans I think. 

- Re-sowed cucamelons and sweetcorn
- weeded the main bed - that will be getting sweetcorn in it
- sowed a pot with basil - Hopefully that one won’t get dug up by the wretched squirrel. 

There is more to get done out there but that’s a decent starting point anyway. 

PennysIntoPounds

What will you use the teeny jar for at the beer festival? The mind boggles!
Though not as much as when trying to work out what you called £8 for tuna 😁

What a lot of lovely mse eco repurposing work 😊

EssexHebridean

Well how bizarre - it was FF’s where I went for the tuna - but now I think about it I bet I left out the apostrophe which of course makes it look unacceptable to the forum filter! 😂

The teeny jam jars get a little bit of beer in them then get placed in front of the relevant handpump so that the customers can see the colour of the beer. Helps with the sales particularly with things like miles where the beer could be anything from copper coloured through to black! 

More garden bits done - allowing that we are forecast some very heavy rain tomorrow we’ve moved all the seedlings back into either the mini greenhouse or the coldframe. Even if they don’t get battered by the rain once it stops there will be a lot of slugs and snails about and we won’t be around tomorrow evening to deal with them! The extra runner beans we sowed have been planted out with collars round them made from yogurt tubs edged with copper tape - let’s see how the slimy little devils deal with those. I’ve soap sprayed the redcurrant and the rhubarb - which is also now crawling with aphids. Oh and the fennel, just a scattering of greenfly there. 

A few more ripe strawberries today - although MrEH also spotted the squirrel calmly helping itself to one this afternoon, too. 🙄 We also picked the first pea pod - slightly early in fairness but couldn’t resist - SO delicious! 🤤 

Debsnewbudget

Just out of interest, why can’t you pick more rhubarb this year?

rtandon27

I thought is was a swear as well, but could not for the life of me figure out why!

I hope you got 8 tins for the 8 pounds!

PennysIntoPounds

I still don't know what FF's is, please elaborate with apostrophe 😂

Ah, of course the tiny beer colour jam jars. I hope they don't get wasted and you have fun going 'shots shots shots lads lads lads' at the end of the night, on a sip of 3.5% ale 😁

Greying_Pilgrim

PiP - I think EH is referring to fArmf00ds with the FF's.  

Greying X

ps - I'm so glad you asked about the little jar, my mind was boggling too 😉