From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

Oh, an oven up at arm level, and with a door that slides in underneath 🥰  That would be my dream.  Maybe one day 😁  At the moment I have to scrabble down on the floor and hope for the best 🤣  And yet when you watch any of the innumerable cooking shows on TV, they have the best fitted out kitchens, don't they?  Although thinking about it, actually 'bake orf' has floor-standing ovens doesn't it? 🤔

I'm going to take a punt on the weather not being good enough to do clothes washing today 😬 It's forecast to be dry, but with a very gentle breeze.  We've then rain forecast for 2 days 😬 but then better again on Friday - with a decent breeze.  I may regret it, but at least after this week, there is less impetus to get school uniform laundered, so I can cut myself a bit of slack.  

The CHB is in, but all clubs and trips are paid for this month now, and I don't think there is anything else "extra" pressing that LG needs, so I need to set aside this month's money, preparing for calls on it as we go into January, and set up a saving plan for next year's expenses.  

The wraps for tea went down well last night, and LG loaded up theirs with the salad options too, so that was good.  The wraps were OK, they were MrM, and half wheat-half white flour.  We normally have the wholewheat wraps from MrL - I think I prefer those, adds a slightly nuttier taste, but the MrM ones were YS'd and slightly cheaper - only slightly as there were only 6 in the packet.  

I think it will be a curry plate for tea tonight.  Depending on how the day goes, I will see if I make curry from scratch, or whether I use the one out of the freezer.  I would prefer to make from scratch, as I have the freezer curry in hand then, for an emergency ready-meal over the festive period.  I will try and make enough rice 'just' for tea, as the freezers are starting to groan with food.  

Right, best go and shift-a-tail-feather

Greying X

EssexHebridean

One of my favourite things about the kitchen in the house we're in now is that it has a mid-level built in double oven with the grill just above eye level (but manageable) and LOTS of worktop space. We still choose to keep the more occasionally used items tucked away, but it's still a joy to have the space for the toaster (which gets used a lot!) to live out on the side all the time! 

Greying_Pilgrim

Right Curry on the go 😁  I decided to opt for tikka masala - not a flavour profile I go for often, but I thought about it, and as I'm not using chicken and wouldn't be marinading anything, I figured popping it in the SC would go someway towards imbuing flavour.  So I'm doing sweet potato and chickpea tikka masala in the SC.  I made the paste from a JO recipe - can't remember which book, but pretty sure it's either 'learn to cook' or 'Best of British'.  I hadn't got any ground almonds, and initially found a recipe that used cashew milk - and I thought I would follow that as I had a bag of cashews, however, during the last cupboard clear-out, I must have ditched them (finally - they were well, well out of date), but pivoted to use roast sunflower seeds instead.  It still adds nutrients to the spice paste, and still forms a paste with the other ingredients, so not having ground almonds isn't a biggie.  

I'll do lentil dhal and rice to accompany.  Looking forward to it - it can only not work, right?  If it does work, I will try ever so hard to be more proactive with SC curries.  I have 2 portions of the curry paste left over, that I've put in the freezer (and I have a portion of Massaman curry paste in there too), and instead of a Turkey Curry Buffet, I could curry the brussels sprouts!  If any of my family are reading, I am just joking 🤣  Although I do have a couple of very nice recipes for sprouts in curry, although I think the key thing is flash cooking, I'm not so sure SCing is the way to get the best out of 'em 🤣

I'm just finishing up my coffee and then I'll set out to deliver a christmas card to a chum across the way.  Haven't seen them this year, but I know they've had their share of troubled health and familial worries, so wanted to get the card to them, as we do think of them often.

Ta for popping by.  Greying X

EssexHebridean

Dearest Greying you know we all luv yoo lotz, right? That said, if you're going to talk about slow cooking sprouts, we might just need to break out the vomitey emojis!   

Greying_Pilgrim

Ha ha EH, I suspect SCing Brussels sprouts is an experimental step too far - even for me 😁

I have delivered the card.  Our chum lives not overly far from where we used to rent.  Seemingly much has changed in the landscape in that 2 years, lots of building, much of it overshadowing exisitng housing.  Still that's progress.  I did see one of the near neighbours from where we used to live, and we shouted 'hello' across the road.  Down from where we used to live is a little wooded area, and it always was alive with birdlife.  I heard a bird that I didn't recognise the call, but by the time I'd got m3rl1n started, the bird had stopped 🤣  ain't that the way.  I'm going to hazard a guess it was one of the jay family.  Not super squawky, but a single call, not a refrain.  I got watched by a buzzard 'hiding' in plain sight in an oak tree as I crossed the new estate.  Really glad I got out and about, I need the exercise and the weather was lovely - just right for walking.

The SC curry is blipping away, and I ought to think of something to have for lunch.  Something in a sandwich with a lettuce leaf is high on the options list 😁

Greying X

rtandon27

EssexHebridean said:

Dearest Greying you know we all luv yoo lotz, right? That said, if you're going to talk about slow cooking sprouts, we might just need to break out the vomitey emojis!   

Seconded...

...with the greatest of fondness...

xxx

peb

rtandon27 said:

EssexHebridean said:

Dearest Greying you know we all luv yoo lotz, right? That said, if you're going to talk about slow cooking sprouts, we might just need to break out the vomitey emojis!   

Seconded...

...with the greatest of fondness...

xxx

Thirded. XX 

Blackcats

My Nan used to slow cook sprouts - well in reality she simmered them on the hob whilst she walked to church, attended Mass and walked home again 🤢.  So I'd say a couple of hours gently stewing in heavily salted water.  She dished up the sprouts and drank the green water which presumably contained any residual nutrients 🙃

KajiKita

Blackcats said:

My Nan used to slow cook sprouts - well in reality she simmered them on the hob whilst she walked to church, attended Mass and walked home again 🤢.  So I'd say a couple of hours gently stewing in heavily salted water.  She dished up the sprouts and drank the green water which presumably contained any residual nutrients 🙃

Dished up to who? Her worst enemy??! 😂😂😉

KK

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening MFW'rs

Thanks for all the Brussels sprouts love on the thread 🥰🤣  Naturally, with all the discussion, I did goggle to see if it was actually possibly to cook them in the SC......

Tea has been munched.  It was OK, I would make tikka masala like that again.  Of course the ingredients could change, but I used what I had.  We had big bowlfuls, and yet there was one and a half pots of masala left and one small pot of lentil dhal left over.  I did rice by the absorption method, but eyeballed it, and made just enough for 3 portions - so that left the bulk cooked rice untouched in the freezer 👍

I don't normally watch TV in the day, but I happened to notice (slightly too late) that the 2 'Allmark 'Oliday movies on CH5 today might have been a reasonable 'cheese' watch.  So I was setting the recorder to +1, and happened to notice that JO was on CH4 - it was a repeat I think - shortcuts for chrimbo?  There were 20 mins or so of the prog left, so I watched it.  He was roasting parsnips and carrots, and left the skin on both.  I've seen carrots roasted like that, but the parsnips were a new one on me.  Might be worth a try - I think it would appeal to my 'savouriness' tooth.  Then he was cooking the veg, and extolling the virtues of steaming sets/towers.  I thought of you all, as the Brussels went at the bottom, as according to JO they can take 'boiling rapidly for 5 minutes', and the more delicate veg was stacked in the pans above. 

The Cheesecake recipe looked OK, although I'm pretty sure I don't have a springform pan anymore, and if I did, there is no way mine wouldn't stick, even with oiling.  Nevermind, not overly sure I could afford the amount of vanilla paste JO added to the cheese mix.  He was in a lovely stage set kitchen though, and the oven was at a perfect height..... sigh.......

I don't think i have anything else MSE to add.  I have been thinking about what will be on my shopping list today, and how much cash I have left in the budget.  We've plenty of food, so no problems.  Ain't gonna starve.

Ta for popping in.  Greying X