From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

LotsOfTea

Thank you for the link to the orange cake @Cheery_Daff . It looks great. My mum used to make a great lemon meringue pie that used whole lemons in the same way and it was properly tart and lemony. 

KajiKita

Sounds like a good day and that museum is a real find

I'm working my way through your diary a few pages at a time (up to March this year now) but please can I ask what is 'dirty rice'? Sounds intriguing ....  

KK

Greying_Pilgrim

KajiKita said:

Sounds like a good day and that museum is a real find

I'm working my way through your diary a few pages at a time (up to March this year now) but please can I ask what is 'dirty rice'? Sounds intriguing ....  

KK

Oh goodness, well - it's a term that I've picked up from cookery shows, and can easily apply to fries too.  It's usually the covering of said rice/fries in either a sauce or spice mix/rub.  I'm not sure if I'm right, but I "think" it usually refers to some 'heat' ie chilli in the sauce/spice mix.  So i usually use my HM tomato sauce (which I use for anything and everything ie bolognese  or pizza topping) and add in smoked paprika, gochujang, henders0ns relish - something of that order to give it some warmth - maybe chipotle chilli flakes if I'm being daring.  

I try to use more rice than sauce, so it's not soupy, but coated in the sauce if you see (you can also make the rice in a flavoured broth - tomato stock cubes are helpful for this).  The rice is reddish, rather than pristine white steamed rice. 

Um, I'm not sure how valid a culinary contribution my version of 'dirty rice' is, but that's what I call rice in spicey tomato sauce.

Greying X

KajiKita

Ah thank you 🤩 
I’d never have thought of doing this so I appreciate the insight 😊

KK

KajiKita

Morning

I tried making 'dirty rice' last night (as I'm getting a bit tired of the shallot and french dressing vinaigrette I've been using, plus it's pretty calorie heavy). I used tomato puree, a drop of liquid smoke (had it hanging about), paprika and Henderson's Relish and 'fried' the single (no way Mr KK would eat wild rice! ) portion of cooked rice in a teaspoon of oil and mixed the 'sauce' into it. It wasn't perfect (I think I'd skip the paprika next time), but I 'get' the principle and the absolute win as far as I am concerned, is that there is no weird after-taste as there is with all packet rice mixes. Thank you!  

I've got to your posts about Slow Cooker Greek Baker’s Pot From ‘Farmer’s Girl’ Kitchen
She mentions putting stock in the SC but not how much ... Do you remember how much you used when you did it (I'm not that confident with a SC that I can riff this)?

KK

Greying_Pilgrim

Morning!  KajiKita - I am awful for 'splodge of this, and splat of that' with recipes, and rarely if ever follow them - using them more as a guideline.  However, the recipe for the greek pot says to use 70ml/ or one-third of a cup of liquid/stock.  Depending on your potatoes, I would be cautious that this wasn't enough liquid, particularly if you're not using cooked/tinned chickpeas.  But, you don't want to flood the dish either.  Do you use the SC when you're out at work?  My SC doesn't have a timer, so I pretty much use it when I am 'around' or out for a set time - and then add more water/stock if necessary.  I can't remember if that was the dish that the potatoes didn't cook to 'yielding', which old tatties would.  Start with 70ml, but be prepared to add more I think is the advice I would give.  

Shopping done.  

I went to MrS and MrL.  Smartie shop in MrS, but LG kept on fiddling with the handset, so it was no surprise we were 'randomly' checked 🙄 I loathe that, as you've packed all your shopping and the staff in our store just come along and grab and paw at stuff and shove it back in your bag 🙄  I did get some YS'd things in MrL, but the 'not terribly happy' operative was on the till and they let the shopper in front take an age packing their bags at the till (they still hadn't finished after paying), and then shoved our shop on the other side of the till, when we couldn't get past the previous customer to load our trolley (to pack at the BACK table 😡).  We actually loaded the trolley, paid and moved away from the till (which was closing) and had packed our stuff, before the previous customer had finished packing their bags.  No wonder I am buying less and less in MrL, it's no longer as good value for money as it was, and it has weird conventions that don't apply to some customers, seemingly.  

Anyhoo, Niggly Nelly spent £44.95 in total across the two shops 😂

We're off out on an adventure today, so I best get snap packing.  But will amend my siggie figgie first.

Greying X

KajiKita

Thanks for the FB about the stock Will amend the copy of the recipe I have downloaded. I think I will try that this weekend - I've had 'Try something pulse-y in slow cooker?' on my weekend tasks list for a while now!    And Mr KK is away so he won't see if it's a disaster ...  

The Mr L 'till bullying' posts are very consistent on your diary. Would it be worth making a comment to the manager of the store? Especially if it's putting you off being a customer ...?

KK

ladybird1106

Gosh I’ve not heard the term niggly Nellie for years made me smile.
love 🐞

rtandon27

@Greying_Pilgrim - The OH has similar experiences at MrAl - he now refuses to pay until he's packed the groceries into his bag & sod everyone who is waiting - in particular, when one of the rude members of staff tried to hurry him along, he stopped what he was doing, responded something about age & respect & the fact that he can only do one thing at a time!  When he was good and ready he paid for the groceries (which to be fair was mainly wine).  If he doesn't do it in that order, then he usually gets someone else's groceries mixed in with his, or gets shoved by whomever is next in line.

Greying_Pilgrim

KajiKita - that's a valid point, but the current manager is a slob, who doesn't give a damn about anything and is part of the reason why all the pleasant staff left, soon after they came ☹️  The one before was extremely arrogant, but if he saw your point, or knew you were in the right, he was OK, but this one..... they can't even wear their uniform in a tidy fashion. 

rt - The till operative is not sociable at the best of times, but the shifting of my shopping to the other side of the loading space was arsey, even by their standards.  They could see the other customer was blocking the way, but didn't say anything to them, just started whanging my shopping through.  The only saving grace - and I had no intention of paying until I had put my shopping into my trolley - was that when they said the total, they did add 'when you're ready'......  which was a) quite verbose for them, and b) was (perhaps) a tacit acknowledgement that they'd made things difficult for us.  

ladybird - I know I'm a miserable auld cuss, so recognise I was being a bit of a 'niggly nelly' about the whole thing. Glad I gave ya a smile tho 😁

So we're back from our little adventure.  We had a lovely time at a EH venue in the sun, it was breezy, but really pleasant.  We saw (nearly) all the things, and even had a phone call with DH at lunchtime - in which he reported it was hammering down with rain in Greying Town.  Luckily, once we'd done everything, got through the gift shop relatively unscathed (LG used their own money) we started to head home.  I remembered the previous visit (which was our first), we had returned a different way - as the location is down a long and winding road.  Thankfully, I took the 'correct'  right turn (no sign post), and we got back onto the main carriage way.  We'd just joined the trunk road passing the nearby metropolitan town..... and the heavens absolutely opened, and the carriageway immediately became  a pond 😬  Naturally people were flying past us at horrendous speeds 😬 But thankfully we were able to get through the cloudburst by the time we were the other side of the town.  

The volunteers were all pleasant at the site, although the first one we encountered was a bit - "I am going to tell you my spiel, whether you listen or not", unfortunately a visitor who'd got there before us was intent on showing how much they knew and they kept interrupting or asking pivotal questions , but the volunteer soldiered on.... 🤣  

Thinking about tmv's plum harvest, has it been a good year for plums?  There was an espaliered plum tree (I couldn't find a variety) that was absolutely heaving with fruit, and I don't know if it was a varietal quirk, but most of the fruit was massive.  I also spotted in the garden that in addition to growing the gooseberries (now over) as 'trees' (I've seen that somewhere else....... an NT garden???), there were red currants grown as 'trees' too.  I'm not sure if it has to be a particular variety to do that, or whether it's all in the pruning, but again, theses 'trees' were absolutely laden with currants, possible the most I've ever seen.  

I don't know if any of the produce is used in the cafe, or whether it is sold on-site - I didn't see anything today, but I thought last time there was stuff by the shop, but there were signs imploring you not to pick.  Hopefully it was because they need it to raise money, I'd hate to think of it going to waste.  Although there were alot of wasps on-site, so maybe it was also to stop people being stung.  

We ate our picnic in the garden, although there were plenty of options.  A nice day out, somewhere that LG had requested to go and you'll all be glad to hear that we even got to do a word search, as there was an activities table set up for children 😁

Off to have a ponder what to make for tea.  

Greying X