From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

themadvix

GP your knowledge sharing about Vaisakhi was most timely - we ate at a very nice Indian this evening (we’re away in Birmingham) and they had a Vaisakhi special on - I spotted the little flyer and was able to say straight away to Mr MV, ‘that’s Sikh new year’! Obviously I did give credit where it’s due for my knowledge, but I think that’s the quickest turnaround for me in terms of ‘read it on the forum’ to use in real world! I did opt for it in the end, and it was delicious!

Greying_Pilgrim

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81959326#Comment_81959326

Oh Dearest tmv - that is just a wonderful post! I felt embarrassed to admit it was a festival that I can't recall having heard of. But lucky you, being somewhere with fantastic Indian restaurants 🥰 There were alot of medjool dates on the stand as well in MrT, I should look up what the significance of those is - are they just presented as a gift, or stuffed for a particular dish/sweetmeat? There was also the channa - with their 'jackets' still on (brown chickpeas?), Urid dhal, plenty of red lentils - but in 1 kg bags. It really was a broader range of foodstuffs than were on offer for Ramadan.

So pizza was made for tea - half mushroom, half black olive. There were pieces left over which have gone in the freezer. The food was cooked through - in fact the tatties were a little over-done. I cannot work out why the gas oven at the caravan fails to cook food. I mean, I'm sure it's operator error, but without a manual, how am I supposed to learn. Anything on the internet seems to suggest you light the oven, turn it to the right mark and it all goes off rosy.

I know it was a special offer, so not really comparable, but I was pleased that we'd got 4 L1nda Mc 1/4 burgers for £4 on hols in MrW. We saw an actual 4 pack (we'd bought 2x2 at £2 per pack special offer), in MrL yesterday, for £4.39. It's not often MrW trumps MrL on prices - but I was so pleased it worked in our favour.

Another wash is on. Yesterday's wash wasn't bone dry. I think it got caught in 2 showers, and then (thankfully) I happened to notice that it had gone from bright sunshine (curtains closed) to virtually pitch black, and ran outside and managed to get all the (slightly damp) washing in, just before the next sharp shower. We're supposed to have more of the same today, but there's a possible window of breeze and sunshine this morning, so I'm going to try - I'll have most of the holiday clothes dry if I succeed, and that will just leave the bed linen.

Right, I can't think of anything else MSE relevant to add at the mo, and the troops are stirring, so I'll pop orf. Ta for dropping by. Appreciated.

Greying X

themadvix

Ooh, thanks for mentioning the urid dal in T’s - I’m on the lookout for some of that and if I don’t happen upon it here (at a convenient point to be lugging a kilo around!), then I’ll pop into the big one in town and have a look there. Makes an excellent dal, following this recipe: https://instantpoteats.com/instant-pot-dal-makhani/ (Dishoom was where we ate last night - I know there’ll be plenty of excellent Indian restaurants here, but we’ve never been to Dishoom, despite owning their recipe book). I can confirm that homemade is good, but restaurant version is even better.

I’d never heard of Vaisakhi either (but my RE was definitely worse than at normal schools because of theweird way it was delivered). This was what the flyer said and then my dinner:

Greying_Pilgrim

Ooooohhhh, YUM!

In the MrT I was in, the Vaisakhi celebratory foodstuffs were on an end aisle. It was in the area of World foods, but not on the actual World Food shelves where the bigger bags of lentils/chickpeas/rice/atta are located normally. It was an end display nearby, rather than stock on an aisle shelf if that makes sense.

Greying X

Watty1

Themadvix that dinner looks so good…

themadvix

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81959404#Comment_81959404

Thanks GP - will bear that in mind, especially as I’m not a regular T’s shopper.

@watty1 it was!!

LotsOfTea

Thanks for the heads up about bean and lentil bargains. I'll go and check out our local branch of Mr T.

Regarding the gas oven in the caravan, we had a weekend away in one last month and the gas oven took so long to cook anything. We had it on the highest setting and it still took over an hour to cook a basic supermarket pizza. Maybe it's a common thing with the type of oven you can get in a caravan but it was really annoying! We'd bought the pizza as an easy holiday meal but I would definitely only take things that go on the hob or in the microwave if we go again.

Greying_Pilgrim

Oh, thanks for that LotsOfTea - for us, Burgers and wedges took well over an hour and a half, and they still weren't cooked properly. I had done garlic bread in the gas grill too, and that was half burnt, half "raw" - even with trying to turn the slices around. We had half cooked pizza on the last holiday we took at the same site, so I agree - sooooo annoying.

I've had another look online, and I did everything correctly - including pre-heating the oven, for mucho longer than you have to do an electric oven.

Trouble is, it wasn't a brilliantly kitted out caravan (OK, but not brilliant), and that, in turn limited what you could cook on the hob. Have there been a decent sized frying pan, I would have definitely fried the burgers - rather than getting them luke-warm and floppy in the oven ☹️

Still, I suppose there is the prevailing view that most people on an SC holiday will eat out/only prep brekkie or snacks in the van. We always cook like 'home from home', so I guess it's our problem. Also there are instructions on how to order takeaways to the site, so I guess as we don't do that either, it really is our problem that the cooker doesn't meet our needs.

Greying X

thriftmonster

In my last house I inherited a large gas range with the house. The hobs were great, but after a lifetime of electric ovens, my comments about gas ovens became unprintable. I was so relieved when I moved to this house where I have a gas hob but an electric oven

So I don't think it's solely ones in caravans

Greying_Pilgrim

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81959637#Comment_81959637

Phew! That is good to know. The cooker was a complete unit - but yes, the hob part was gas too. I can cope with a gas hob, as we had one in our previous house - whereas the rental, and now this house we have electric hobs. This is the first holiday accommodation that I've encountered gas ovens, and will be something I will look to avoid in future - as it appears unless you have Dame Mary Berry at your side (didn't she start out as a cookery demonstrator for the gas board???) - cooking with a gas oven is too unreliable.

Thanks LotsOfTea and Thriftmonster for confirming that it wasn't just me being dim……

Greying X