Make Do, Mend & Minimise in 2025 (and 2024)

cornishchick

Apple butter. 
lovely with rice pudding, porridge nicer than apple sauce and uses up lots of apples. 
https://www.mybakingaddiction.com/crock-pot-slow-cooker-apple-butter-recipe/

Green_hopeful

@cornishchick Apple butter sounds delicious. I found a recipe for apple chocolate mousse cake. I am going to make a small amount first because it came up on Facebook and sometimes they turn out horrible. https://themodernnonna.com/two-ingredient-cake/  I think I will serve it in individual cups. I either use espresso cups or tea cups. They are all about 100 ml so not too much. 

Cherryfudge

@London_1, the move sounds like a drama, and so strenuous. It seems you’re getting there now though. And I’m so sorry to hear what Val s going through. I hope your visit bucks her up and you both get the most of your time together.

@YorksLass, good to hear your DH is home. Your sideboard brought to mind the bit in ‘What Katy did’ where her ‘sick room’ is being taken over by medicine bottles and cousin Helen encourages her to tidy them up. 🙂 However clever cousin Helen was, I think she glossed over how to make them actually look nice, perhaps she just put them all in a box with a vase of flowers in front.

I hope he’s comfortable in his new room, it must be nice to be back home.

Nothing to report here: a few charity shop finds have in fact counteracted some minimising, but the weather has been lovely.

London_1

Thanks chums I spoke to her this evening and its good to hear her ,although she does struggle with her breathing so a phone call is usually me nattering and her listening as she loses her breath so quickly bless her.
 
Made Do

Today I was still finishing off my giant Saturday crossword from my Saturday paper so Made Do with that, rather than buying another paper ( I usually only get the paper for the cross word anyway) Nice to sit on the beach in the sun though watching the boats on the Solent, drinking from my flask and doing basically zilch

No Mending today, but had a thought while relaxing in the sunshine about my DDs veg drawer in the fridge which has a big crack across the middle. Tomorrow I am going to see if some Gorilla glue will help fix it, and failing that I have some left over duct tape from the moving day boxes which I may be able to put across the crack before it gets any worse.

 its my grandsons they tend to ,when visiting, bung their beer bottles in the veg box, to get cold and of course Budweiser bottle clacking around in there don't do a great deal good to plastic veg boxes.
its a thought it may work and cheaper than buying a replacement veg box.

Minimised

 the left over sliced cooked new potato from last night into a  Spanish type omelette with a couple of sliced tomatoes and a diced up bit of onion for lunch. Son-in-law would have binned them

Tonight we had a Chicken ,Bacon and Leek pie with mashed potatoes, mushrooms and steamed broccoli for dinner and as usual my son-in-law made too much potato, so there was enough to make five ice cream scoops of herby potato mash which, when cold I froze and bagged up and its in the freezer, so no waste and it will be used at some point this week

Thinking of various ways to streetch the food out, rather than binning it as my DD and Son-in-Law tend to do. 'm slowly showing Simon how we can live well without chucking stuff away. He's at home at the moment and when the builder starts the renovations he will be project managing it

DD is working full time so we are settling in to a routine. He's a lovely chap and an excellent cook, but I don't think he's ever thought about food waste as such.

I am gently showing him how it can be done and at the same time not interfering if I can help. His parents parted when he was 17, his brother 15, and sister 13, and the children stayed, and were brought up by their dad  ,

So he just cooked as his late father did. I've managed to train him into hanging the washing better as well so it dries quicker, thickest part at the bottom and thinnest part at the top when pegging to
I'm very careful and I know its not his fault as he's only copied the way his dad did things so its slowly, slowly, catchee monkey

Bless he said he'd never tried to make gravy unless he had granules.I told him what a couple of Oxo cubes and a dessert spoon of Bisto powder can achieve. we do get along quite well really
But then I have been cooking for 70 odd years so had a good bit of practice 


Good to hear your OH is home Yorkslass, take care, and be kind to yourself one day at a time honey xx

Right a read of my book is on the cards now
Night night God bless all here

JackieO xx

Katiehound

Green_hopeful said:

@cornishchick Apple butter sounds delicious. I found a recipe for apple chocolate mousse cake. I am going to make a small amount first because it came up on Facebook and sometimes they turn out horrible. https://themodernnonna.com/two-ingredient-cake/  I think I will serve it in individual cups. I either use espresso cups or tea cups. They are all about 100 ml so not too much. 

guess this is the same one- Nancy Birtwhistle- not a cake, a choc mousse pudding
Youtube.com/watch?v=SJ7EaULrkQc

really easy- oh, and delicious. Made in minutes as you cook apples in microwave
essentially weight of cooked apples to 1/3 that weight in dark choc.

YorksLass

@London_1 - So jealous of you sitting on the beach!  It's been nice here too, with beautiful blue skies and sunshine, warm enough to sit out, but it isn't quite the same without a sea view.      

Making do from the freezer today - half a loaf of wholemeal bread, some sausages for tomorrow's tea and will be using some scampi for today's tea.  Have also used half a tin of evaporated milk for custard.  I do something similar with leftover boiled potatoes for egg muffins.  It's basically eggs mixed with a bit of milk, some grated cheese, throw in leftover veg like potatoes, peas etc, top with more cheese and bake in a muffin tin.  Nice hot or cold.

Today I've sorted out all DH's medical paperwork and filed it in date order in a ring binder.  It feels much more organised now I know where everything is.  Tomorrow we're having a home visit from the pharmacist to do a medication review for him.  I think I'll just show him/her the hospital discharge notes - what DH is taking is all listed on there. 

Junk mail recycled, some paper shredding done and general waste out for collection.

On the Mend front, I've dug out some double bed size sheets that don't get used much and will (when I get time!) cut them down to single bed size for the hospital bed he's now using, rather than buy any new ones.  He spends a lot of time sleeping now so it will make it easier for changing and laundering.

YorksLass

I don't know about Minimising, I seem to be Accumulating!  Yet more equipment has arrived for DH - a pressure cushion for using in the armchair (it's not very comfortable so I'm not sure he'll use it) and a baby monitor to use at night when he's sleeping downstairs and I'm upstairs.  We tried it last night and I can see it being useful if/when he needs any help during the night; it's very sensitive to noise and quite loud so should wake me easily enough.

I've arranged a collection by a local charity for the bed; it's not until 1st October but a few more days won't matter.

DS is selling his car (he has a company car as well) and popped in to collect the log book and spare keys, so that's a bit more gone from the sideboard.  

Yesterday's foray to the Co-op produced a couple of ys items (4 soft baps for 23p and two packs of pain au chocolate, 68p per pack).  On the way home I returned a book to the Little Free Library but borrowed 4 more.  That doesn't really fit with my "one in, one out" policy!  

Make Do: Today I've made a couple of fishcakes with leftover mash, a few butter beans (mashed) and cooked cod and am defrosting a tub of cooked minced pork & veg for tomorrow's cottage pie, plus half a white loaf.  Tonight we're having soup and sandwiches; sponge & custard for afters, if wanted.

Mend: Nothing, although there's a fair bit waiting to be done.

I'm off now to grapple with the TV that's got a pixelated picture on quite a few channels, thanks to engineering work on the transmitter at Emley Moor.  I've done an auto re-tune but apparently need to do a manual re-tune.    I could be some time!  

Cherryfudge

Make do: used up some mushrooms for a toast topper instead of having them hanging around drying. I need the space and there are others in the freezer so I'm not in danger of a mushroom shortage.

I was so proud of myself for doing some mending the other day, then I think I forgot to put on here. Two of DH's jumpers (they always split under the arms) and a pair of his winter socks, and the cashmere jumper I got for £2 which had the tiniest hole and which is now mended.

Minimising: the recycling has gone out and I impulse baked some cheese and tomato bread which hasn't finished anything up but is working through a few stocks that need turning over.

YorksLass

Make Do: For lunch I had a toasted wholemeal breakfast muffin, topped with the last slice of sandwich ham, some tinned tomatoes and a bit of grated cheese.  A bit like a pizza, I suppose, but with a muffin instead of pizza base.  DH had a poached egg and tomatoes on his.  Tonight we're having a couple of slices of corned beef with baked beans (both leftovers from the fridge) with h/m chips that will use up a large potato that's going a bit wrinkly.  Have made a loaf of bread.

Minimise: An empty perfume bottle into recycling.  When they're empty I keep them in my underwear drawer for a while (minus the lid) until the fragrance disappears.  An alternative to scented drawer liners!      

I couldn't face doing a manual re-tune of the TV at the weekend so left it until this morning and, lo and behold, the picture's perfect now.  Did the engineering works over-run or was it adverse weather conditions?  I don't know, all I know is it's fine.  

Siebrie

@YorksLass I don't know if your dh is still up to it, but maybe ask him to unsubscribe and cancel anything digital? Or write down log-in details? My father passed away May last year, and I'm still finding sites he was subscribed to, some even taking payment... I try spending about 2 hours every day on his old iPad whenever I visit my Mum, about 6 times per year.