May 2008 Grocery Challenge

mrssnowy_2

victory wrote: »

mrsm thank you very much, it really is very much appreciated you taking the time and trouble to explain to me the spoon you use, thank you:D and the best bit of news for me is I have those spoon the only thing my set is plastic but I reckon that will not make a difference so off now to make 42 perfect biscuits:D

Oh MrsM and victory- well having seen this about the plastic spoon for the hobnobs made me wonder what i could use ---a melon baller!!!
Great,all the same size,clean hands but made 63 very neat and tidy yummy hobnobs!Will look for something slightly larger.

Good cooking session yesterday tho,3 large bara brith,BIG HM bread,cheese scones,blackcurrant crumble,boiled ham,pea soup and 12 pots of rhubarb and blackcurrant jam(which wouldn't set till I slung in several pots of elderly crabapple jelly! rhubarb too wet)
Guess what I had a lot of in the freezer?:o
Would of been a NSD,but bought a lemon,think the sky will fall in if there is no lemon available.

Petrol went up 4p whilst I was out this afternoon,its quite frightening the way it keeps going up and you know everything else will follow.
J

angelatgraceland

victory wrote: »

Thanks for the reply;) my MIL said gas mark 4 for 25/35 mins check on the pastry for colour, it was in about 30 mins and I checked by then the stuffing had well and truly come out of them and unfortunately they were superglued to the base of the pan:rolleyes:
yes I made a slit in them, gas mark 4,milk before baking with ones of those paster thingys:D I will try the butter as that is the only thing I did not do but having said either the kids and OH are being very graceful or they actually enjoyed the pasties because they are all gone and little one asked if he could have another one:D

I am going to try again( I ran the water until it was ice cold and only put 1tlbsp in as Delia said to do, add more if nec but it wasn't, the dough was coming clean off the sides, one thing I did not do was knife it which one online site said to do?)
I put it into a bag into the fridge and left it there overnight until I needed it today.
There are so many variations, Deliah says you can use the food processor but only for 1-2 mins and not when you add the water, others say you can do the lot in it, some say ice cold water and others say warm tepid water,some say all butter and others say lard and butter, I used all butter, room temperature,Deliah says no pastry is worth it's salt without 1/2 lard 1/2 butter, trial and error it will have to be:D

Well I tend to agree with Delia because of my own experiences. Definitely icy cold water! That is a must and its far better with half lard rather than all butter-thats my experience anyway. My stepmum also told me the same-before Id heard of delia. I was having similar probs to you and she told me to make sure the water was very cold and to run my hands and wrists under the cold tap before making the pastry. Also, make sure that your lard and margarine or butter is very very cold. Room temp is very difficult to work with too. Think cold! I tend to put my fat and water into the freezer half hour before I start making pastry.

mrssnowy_2

ifonlyitwaseasier wrote: »

morning all,

sadly tho a rellie died tuesday night so i think the funeral is sometime next week. depends on if it's going to be a small affair or all of us can go.

Sorry to hear your news.Thinking of you all.
J

mrssnowy_2

searching_me wrote: »

hello everybody hope your all good and thanks for the hope but ive just got out of hospital as my pregnancy was ectopic... they took it out monday afternoon, they managed to save my tube but its now a 35% chance of it happening again and have to leave it at least 3 months before we try again... been trying for over a year and it and i feel like s**t xxx

searching,so very sorry.
x

moo2moo

Spent £53.38 at Asda plus £6.50 on lunch. Off to my parents for the remainder of the weekend so won't be spending anything until monday although since my OH will be home alone he may well treat himself to a takeout kebab.

Searching_Me - thats awful news. At least they found it early enough to save your tube so you can try again. Thinking of you and sending hugs.

mandy_moo_1

morning all :hello:

am hoping that i only need to get some mushrooms and toilet rolls today, so should be a minimal spend day :rolleyes:

i've just the BM on to make some buns, and the chicken and HM sweet& sour sauce is out of the freezer ready to defrost for tea tonight, 2 wash loads are hung out, and a third is in the washer now......organised or what :rotfl:

only cos i didn't sleep very well and have been up a while!

right gonna be mean now and get the hoover out

hope you all have a great day x

victory

angel thanks again, going to try the freezer bit also as well as the butter you told me about, it will happen, lovely pastry for me:D much appreciated the tips:rolleyes:

I bought Jusroll and Asda HB last night for £1.20/£1 so keeping them in the freezer as well as making my own another time, they are the cheapest ready made I have found so far....

Got lots of whoopsies last night at Asda but no 4p curry sauce as they had none but some 3p strawberry mousse mix which the kids will love and did buy stork:D was going to buy the lard but OH said that is pure fat I am not eating that that will be horrible etc so put it back:rolleyes: so the pastry will be all butter, rub hands under tap etc....

Spent £60.44, so that makes £260.44p so far... it seems to be averaging out at £60 a week, said that to my OH and he said with price rises etc that is unrealistic and should up it:rotfl: so much for mutual support:D I think he is concerned we are going down the levels so much he is goingto end up with rubbish high sugar high fat and salt food and seems reticent to go down to the lower levels of each aisle:rolleyes: He put some of the 29p sauces back from smart price as he said they were full of sugar...

I am learning though because Asda had loads of ham/turkey slices that were £4/£5 to begin with down to £1 and I got the lot because I finally realise you can freeze it and it will do for many a sandwich in the rest of the month:D
Oh shoot, one thing I forgot to do was seperate them and I kept all the cereal packet inners and all the linings they give you at the butchers counters for that reason but put them in as they came, oh well next time will remember:rolleyes:

My freezer is packed, you have to kick it shut and the store cupboard also, I got dessicated coconut from Asda 11p:D I paid 99p at Sainsburys and the 40 freeze pops were sugar free and 49p each box so I bought 3(it said 99p on the label but she put them through as 49p)

shelley1977

angelatgraceland- it was a jar of curry sauce,i do my shopping online and it was the only value one on the page.

skintscotslass

Morning all - I've kinda lost the plot this month. My freezer broke when I was on holiday. I have an empty freezer, its bizarre!! Good news is that Mum and Dad enjoyed my HM bol and chilli I've fixed my freezer (so MSE and so proud of myself!!!) so I can crack on with filling it. Its amazing how much I've missed it.

I've spent about £50 this month so far and thats pretty much going to have to do me. I've stocked up on Mr T's value stuff and I have a HUGE piece of pork belly to cook. I found a recipe for Crisp Chinese Pork on another thread, so I bought a 1.3 kg piece as per the recipe. I had a chat with my butcher and I'm now tempted to stuff it and roast it for a traditional Sunday dinner. It should keep me going all week hee hee.

Sosh

Hubby thinks I've lost the plot. He caught me writing the date on my washing up bottle last night. I realised, with a week to go until Payday, I still have tons of stuff left under my bed because I completely overestimated how much I would need in a month. (Better to over than underestimate I suppose!) So I decided to write the date on things as I start them, to get a better idea of how quickly I use things up and he caught me.

Maybe I'm addicted :whistle: