+++ Whoops! Here comes the cheese! +++

greenbee

I'm about to do a fridge-bottom veg roast tonight, which will hopefully be enough for tomorrow too. The fridge and freezers need a sort out. I'm expecting a big tax bill, as I earned a lot of interest on the proceeds of my house sale before I bought - and foolishly didn't shove it all into my pension. 

redofromstart

Money:
I requested the statements of interest but they have to be posted, so once they arrive I will be able to do my return.  Marcus produce them automatically, but to name and shame HSBC - you have to ask for them, and they take up to ten working days to post them out.  Must get Mr Redo to check his as well.

We are now out of the no thinking about work or working pre agreed period.  I need to think about sorting my CV to cover the last few years, and start returning some calls about potential work. 

Food:
I came back today via MrM, dont usually look in the reductions (as 10/15% off for use today is not that attractive) but spotted lamb bones at £2.50/KG.  No idea what was going on but one pack was fat chops, and the other two lamb shanks, so I have 3 kg marinading ready for a Tom Kerridge lamb on the bone madras curry.  Right place, right time, lucky me.  They also had pig trotters for pence which I remain fascinated by.  I think you use them for gelatin for pork pies, (and was reminded of a early stages pregnancy Weezl cooking the pigs head!) but no idea of what else.  I accept and generally agree that if you are going to make the decision to eat meat then you should embrace nose to tail but I must see what else you can use them for if knuckle sandwiches do not appeal (Nobby Nobbs mum never made knuckle sandwiches although she did do amazing things with cheese for my fellow Pratchett fans), although I do make an excellent pork pie.  

Garden: I have not had the chance to play outside for days so I am hoping the weather plays nicely tomorrow.  Flowers: The Daphnes are smelling glorious and I have pretty things to transplant. Veg: I need to pot various things on and have lost a few more things to slugs and temperature.  

PennysIntoPounds

That's so rubbish of HSBC, fancy not letting customers see their own information when they like in this day and age!
It would be interesting to know if the people who get the most late tax return penalties are the people with the most unsupportive/inefficient banks

EssexHebridean

Very frustrating about HSBC - although I believe their app is not dissimilar to the FD one and I find that quite frustrating, it's the one thing that stops me making more use of them as a bank to be honest. 

The chinese use pigs trotters - very long, low/slow cooked. IIRC we tried them years and years ago but weren't that impressed. It's not been an experiment we repeated anyway. 

redofromstart

Yes, I'm not tempted by the pig products. 

Much gardening done in between rain. Potting on, weed removal, and some turning over of soil. 

MrL clearly missing me after three weeks,  and a free bakery item to tempt me back (DS has 4 weeks off so not been that way) and £56spent which triggered another free bakery item so 2  x rye bread fr 'free'. The rye bread is excellent, especially as I picked up some reduced smoked salmon and some watercress salad to serve it with tomorrow. Finally bought their frozen pollack to try, dipped in flavoured flour, egg and panko and then baked.  It needed turning over to crisp for a few minutes longer but worked well for a mid week dinner.

vehicle spends stacking up. I hate taking money out of the savings but tyres are necessary as are MoTs, tax and insurance. Especially if you insist on having more vehicles than legs etc.

redofromstart

Money: I did my tax return as the interest things finally showed up. Hurray for a big refund (the joys of stopping work in December). Spending too much at the moment but mostly vehicle or building materials related rather than personal fritter.

Frittering: two linen dresses at £15 each from W00lovers clearance. Really pleased with these as the ones I got last year wash and wear well and are a life saver if we ever get any sunshine. If it rains all year then it will be my fault. I also bought a new jacket for interviews/work when we were out and about and a tiny purse that fits in my walking/motorcycling jackets.  Diffusers for the house too - good ones that actually smell unlike the supermarket ones. A willow weaving starter set. Actually that's quite a lot of fritter once you write it down. Must keep an eye on that. 

Food: made the carrot, lentil and fennel seed soup recommended by Greying Pilgrim a few weeks back which went down well, otherwise nothing new and interesting made 

garden: lots more seed planted and a raft of weeding done. Still lots to do though and the weather is looking promising for progress.

Greying_Pilgrim

redofromstart said:

.....Food: made the carrot, lentil and fennel seed soup recommended by Greying Pilgrim a few weeks back which went down well, otherwise nothing new and interesting made ......

So pleased - I always worry that folk will think my tastebuds are out of whack, if I rave about something and they're like, 'meh'...... 😕

I did a 'made-up' soup for lunch - which involved c.h.e.e.s.e 😁  It was a kind of play on macaroni cheese.  I made a stock using; onion, celery, garlic, a scant bit of swede, a cauliflower stalk and a stock cube.  Cooked until everything was soft and then blitzed.  Added in small-diced; swede and carrot and some frozen sweetcorn and a handful of fusilli pasta.  Cooked until the veg and pasta was done.  Stirred in some dijon mustard, the last scraping of the cream cheese punnet and 4 thin slices of cheddar.  Stirred until the cream cheese blended in and the cheddar had melted.  Adjusted the seasoning and served.  LG declared it yum - I think it was the cheese and pasta wot dun it 😁But I was just pleased to have shoe-horned a load of veg in, and used up the cauliflowers stalks which didn't make it into the curry that I made this morning.  

Greying X

redofromstart

I know exactly what you mean GP and I always fret slightly when someone cooks something we have tried and liked in case they hate it, but I know that mr redo likes fennel seed so it was always a high chance it was going to work for him if not anyone else but even the one who doesn't like lentils approved. MrT delivered a bag of a couple of huge woody carrots so anything edible with them was a bonus. Certainly not edible raw, even with the core cut out. 

Huge amounts done in the garden, both green waste bins filled,squashed and filled again. Reminds me I need to pay the renewal, £42.50 per year for 22 collections - cheaper than one puncture at the tip and certainly easier.  

Along the way I rescued a good 14 square foot of lost garden (mostly covered by ivy from next door) and found 14 raspberry canes hiding under the holly so fingers crossed for a good crop. Polytunnel weeded, 2 celeriac picked (and eaten) and a top up of compost on the strawberries.  Also realised that this is one of the sunniest most sheltered spots in the garden and sat in the sunshine just existing for a bit until my fellow residents found me.  Most enjoyable. 

Cheese and onion quiche made as the oven was on. Sweated the onions on low for a good hour before I added them and it has made a lovely sweet base flavour so I would do that again.  The fridge smells rather tasty as a result

redofromstart

Radio silence = lots of walking and gardening.

all of the greeny growing things are galloping away with themselves but obviously this includes the weeds and the grass too and it is fatal to take your eye off the weeds at this stage. Lots of seed successes and starting to harden things off, but the chillis and the second batch just haven't germinated. Probably need to some new seed. 

Highlights of recent walks are many bluebells, some rather splendid baby coots and an informative trip to see some Ospreys. Fascinated by the size of the camera lenses some of the photographers we see. I imagine a major investment and am instead delighted with our spend on some very good binoculars as a present to each other. For the first time ever I can see properly with them set up exactly for my bad eyesight - which makes things like the baby coots even more of a joy.

we are slowly working our way through most of the Leon salads book I bought a while back. Not keen on the red onions in sugar and balsamic, and must watch exactly how Mr Redo makes his soused onions (with hot water I think) as they are much nicer. 

bargain of the day was 300g of long red chillies for £1 and some soft tomatoes for pennies so five jars of tomato and chilli jam have been made. Added fennel seed this time which is rather nice.

free delivery codes about for Suttons and Parker's this weekend.

greenbee

My peppers are only just starting to come up after the last few hot days (in an unheated propagator in the unheated greenhouse) so unless the chilli seeds have rotted, give them a chance.

I'm tidying the greenhouse today, so have finally potted on courgettes and squash and they're outside for the first time in an attempt to harden them off before I shove them in the ground. Climbing beans are almost ready to go out too, so I need to build the bean frame for them (and the 'Bijou' peas which are not at all Bijou). Dwarf beans don't appear to be doing much, and the tomatoes are way behind (but there are billions of them, so I'm ignoring them as once I start it'll be a massive job).

How lovely that the binoculars have been set up properly. It makes such a difference! (I have ancient wartime ones that weigh a ton!).