Oh what shall we do with the manky carrots?

 

What shall we do with the manky carrots,  

What shall we do with the manky carrots,

Early in the morning.

 

 

 

They look pretty grim don't they? They're trying to root, they've got black patches, and the tip of one is beyond the point of no return! (I left them in the plastic bag for too long without any air - silly girl!)

Never mind, peeled 'em, chopped off the manky bits, and chucked them in a big saucepan with a couple of onions, the last of the bendy celery and the lonesome sweet potato and a slug of oil and gently sauted until they were soft. Then I threw in a spoonful of dried coriander and gave it a little fry. Then I glugged in some water and brought it all up to the boil for a bit. Gave it a good old blend and chucked in a load of leaf coriander that I had in the freezer ( I buy it when it's marked down and shove it straight in the freezer...great for soups & curries). Seasoned with salt and pepper and a slug of Maggi.....

 

TADAH!

Ladies and Gentlemen...I give you "manky" carrot & coriander soup!

( obviously for the marketing campaign we'll rename it..."rescue" maybe..as in rescued from the compost heap)

 

Got to tell you it's absolutely delish!!! Eat ya heart out "Covent Garden"

Must try harder!!!

 

Well how rubbish was I on my January food spend?? Appalling at the beginning of the month...I had already spent £65 before I made a list of what's in the freezer and reined the spending in. I know Josh and Nat were here at the beginning of the month, but they were doing a fair bit of travelling round so didn't eat that much!
All in all I spent £83.29!! That doesn't include any catfood...that's just piggy ole me!! And I don't eat meat!! 
Oh well, no point in crying over spilt milk eh? ( or nommed pies!) I'll just have to pay more attention in February and do better!  On the plus side, I only spent £17 once I'd realised how rammed the freezer was ( didn't stop me buying a couple of fish pies at 79p each for lazy days though and some scampi for a treat)

I think I'll set a target for February of £40...that should easily cover thinks like milk & veg. etc.  Maybe having a target will keep me a bit more focused, and having announced it, the shame of failing might keep me in line too LOL!
It's difficult to pick up reduced sticker stuff very often now that I work from home as it doesn't make sense to make a special 15 mile round trip to the supermarket on the offchance of some bargains.

I'm off to sit on the naughty step to think about what I've done....

6 reasons you should consider being a cat.....

 

Sounds like a plan!!!

 

^..^

If cottage pie is beef,

and shepherds' pie is lamb / mutton, then what to you call a vegetarian version? (such are the enormous questions that plague my life LOL)

This one was made with Quorn, but sometimes I use lentils, and sometimes just vegetables, but I never know what to call it. The "mince" part came from the pot in the freezer that I had thought contained vegetable chilli...no labels..yep, I'm THAT rock and roll, I like to live dangerously! Luckily I left it out to defrost for a while and once I'd realised my error I still had time for a menu change. There was enough for a 2nd pie for later in the week too.
Cooked in my trusty little mini oven...dead chuffed with it.

We had heavy rain here overnight and the snow has all been washed away (hurrah, I was getting bored with it...at first it was "yaay snow" but by Friday it had turned to "not MORE snow" )

The sun even shone for a while yesterday...can't remember when I last put washing out on the line...before Christmas for sure. Queenie supervised, but it still didn't dry properly.

I also went shopping yesterday and splurged on a couple of white towels. I've had navy blue towels for about the last 12 years...they're great and don't show any boy dirt (haha) however they seem to coat the bathroom in dark lint dust. There was nothing actually wrong with them so it's taken me a long time to decide to replace them...I'm sure they'll still get used but while it's just me here, maybe I can save myself a bit of skirting board cleaning. I found these in Dunelm Mill marked as "Portugese Seconds"...really nice and soft and I can't for the life of me see why they're secionds.

Anyway, enough screaming domesticity...you all know that I'm a rubbish housewife so I'm not kidding anyone eh?

Cats are both well..Baldrick suffering no ill effects from his vet visit...here he is playing "trip hazzard" in the dark on the steep and narrow stairs...maybe he's harbouring a grudge after all!

On days where I don't have to be anywhere for meetings, I like to get out for a walk before starting work. It takes about 35 / 40 minutes to do a circuit of the village. I always do the same route and only ever see dog walkers on the way...they probably know  think I'm strange out walking with no canine.

Here are a few photos of the last of the snow...(and of course the creatures I chat to on my way round - the robin was really belting out his tune)

Right - enough snow, I'd like spring now please. I've managed to hold off sowing any seeds yet...I'm usually chomping at the bit by Boxing Day and the poor little blighters have to try to get ahead with minimal daylight...I'm hoping they'll appreciate the "lie in" and reward me for it...must get cracking in a couple of days though. I'm not going to buy any new seed (famous last words!) but try to use up all the seeds I have already..on the understanding that germination might be pretty poor...but hey ho..the slugs pretty much ate everything last year :(

time to sign off now

take care

^..^

Baldrick lost something today....

Well, to be fair, he lost two things! He had a little nap at the vets, and when he woke up they were missing. Good natured soul that he is, he was just pleased to see me and glad to be home...no grudges were borne.
Baldrick may not be the handsomest cat in the world, but he's certainly one of the most loving, easy going, "flop on the floor and rub my belly" felines in the world. Sleep tight Balders, you've had a busy day.......

Snow kitty, cold kitty, little ball of ice....

Heehee...built a snow kitty!  LOL

I hope you are having fun in the snow too :-)

What's in your freezer?

I was really taken with Never To Olds' post about menu planning last week and it made me think that it might not be a bad idea to make a list of what's in my freezer too. Well, you would not believe what can be crammed into a teeny freezer..(I seem to be the complete opposite of those that keep nothing in the house) ..this is what I found:

8 little tubs of black olives (I bought a humungous one from Approved Food and froze in portions)
3 little tubs of home made green curry paste (so much nicer that the shop bought stuff)
1 tub shrimp paste
2 little tubs of blackberrys left over from the summer
1 portion of homemade leek & potato soup
Loads of root ginger (I keep it frozen and just grate as much as I need straight from the freezer)
3 Vegetable Curry & Rice home made ready meals
2 pots of home made Veg Curry
2 bags HM Felafel
1 tub tortellini in a creamy sauce ( left over from a previous meal)
1 Quorn Family Roast
12 Linda McCartney Sausage Rolls (nom nom nom)
1 pack of Quorn Chicken slices
9 Linda McCartney Veggie Sausages
A semi circle of Stilton that was marked down to a silly price after Xmas
2 packs of Quorn Mince
1 tub of Vegetable Chilli
Fresh Coriander (frozen)
2 stalks of lemon grass
Fresh Thyme (frozen)
1 bag of sloes (left over from making sloe gin)
1 whole mackerel
1 Admiral Crumble
1/2 a bag of frozen peas
2 baguettes
2 packs of mackerel fillets
1 pack of fishsticks
1 pack smoked salmon
2 Salmon fillets
2 smoked river cobbler
4 breaded haddock
1 breaded pollock
5 fish fingers
4 plain haddock fillets
3 white fish fillets
2 smoked mackerel fillets
4 lemon pepper sole fillets
1 bag of sweetcorn

I calculate that other than milk, eggs & veg,and cat food of course,  I probably don't need to go shopping until April at least LOL ! (and I haven't even told you what's in the fridge, the cupboards, and my hoarding store cupboard that lives in my wardrobe upstairs!!) 
Anyway , it's been a good exercise as it has highlighted that I perhaps take the being prepared food wise a little too far..I think I'm over compensating for a hungry childhood and I should bring it into line a bit...(on the plus side, if I got snowed in today, I'd be fine for 3 months haha!)
It's also good to have a list as a visual reminder for what needs using..as it's only me , I'm not putting together weekly meal plans, but I can look through my list and it's almost like choosing from a long menu (do you think I have enough choices of fish ? Joke!) Having said that, dinner this evening is a jacket potato and roasted veg so I didn't go near the freezer.
Oh, I've just though of another plus...if I don't go near any shops then think of the money I'll save on impulse buys - bonus!

Anyway, thankyou NTO, you spurred me into action :-) and sometimes I need that swift kick up the arse!!  Let "Operation Use Up What I've Got" commence....

Snow...for Josh & Natalia

Nat SO wanted snow during the month that they were over in England....wouldn't you just know that it would arrive a week after they flew back!! Just so that you don't miss out, here are some snowy pictures of the village to cool you as you swelter in 45 degrees in Sydney (gotta be honest guys..the thought of that sort of temperature makes me feel sick..what on earth do you do??) Ethan has snow down in Bournemouth too:-)
I took these pictures at 8 o'clock this morning when it hadn't been snowing for long. By the look of all of the cars still parked most people had seen the weather report forcasting more snow and if they had any option, decided not to venture out.  It has now been snowing all day so we have 5 or 6 inches. Chickens decided to stay in, and so did Baldrick...Queenie couldn't care less about the weather and went out murdering hunting as usual ( no chance of rescueing todays victim - Queenie spotted me and shot back out of the catflap with her prize...perhaps she still remember last weeks episode) Anyhoo...here are the pix from this mornings' walk...maybe I'll make a snowman tomorrow:-)

 

Made me chuckle...

New Toy.....

Oh I so wanted to show you...but I can't upload a picture so you'll just have to use your imagination :-) I've been reading about "mini-ovens" on lots of blogs and have been impressed with the amount of meals you can cook without putting the big oven on. The Rayburn is lovely, but it eats gas like a monster and take quite a while to get up to temperature and hardly seems worth it just for me. It also heats the house up...bonus you may think when the thermometer is registering minus 4 outside already, but at my age, I have my own personal internal heating that drives me to the back garden for a breath of cool with alarming regularity, so a toasty house would be a nightmare at the mo...anyway I digress..today my very own mini oven arrived...and I must say I'm chuffed with it already.
I know some things can be "dinged" in the microwave but it's just not the same...I like the potato on top of my fish pie to go a bit toasty and crunchy:-)  It worked a treat and dinner was delish...now I've popped an apple that was going a bit wrinkly in to bake (yes if I had thought of it before I could have cooked them at the same time...but I didn't know I wanted pudding until I'd finished dinner)
I'm hoping it'll save be a bit on the gas bill too...can't be bad :-)

Anyway...baked apple time...nom nom nom...

Oh - I can add pictures again...here it is!!

Should you smell food before throwing it away?

You may have seen this article on the BBC web site today...I was certainly interested to see what the  general opinion was.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20971347

Half of the world's food is wasted, a new report says. Consumers typically use the "best-before" or "use-by" dates to decide when to throw food away. But should the "sniff test" be used instead?

If I'm concerned as to whether some food item is still OK I will always sniff it...if it smells OK then I'll taste a little bit...to me smells OK, tastes OK..probably IS OK!

I grew up in a house where mould was cut off of jam or cheese so that you could use the rest,  so I'm happy to make my own decisions on whether something is safe to eat or not. I'm nearly 50 and have never experienced food poisoning (nor have I poisoned anyone else). Whilst I would agree that one perhaps ought to be more cautious where the very young, old or infirm are concerned I would have thought  that most people would not be adversly affected by a properly cooked (and properly stored) bit of meat 1 day past the date stamped on it.

I thought this was going to be an article that would encourage people to use their common sense a bit and reduce some of the food waste that goes on in their own homes...sadly, I think not. They do clarify that  "best-before" dates are supposed to tell the consumer more about "quality than safety" very early on in the text, but then go into quite scare-mongering detail about how you can't smell if there is a problem so I think that this is ALL that most people will deduce from the whole thing.  When you see health inspectors (and Gordon Ramsey) on the TV running around kitchens doing their nut, it always seems that the major issue is the way the food is stored or prepared that's dangerous rather than the sell by date. I think you're more likely to get food poisoning eating out rather than an out of date yogurt to be honest.

Should you smell food before throwing it away? - only if you are an adult and have common sense!

Anyway  - rant over...I'm clearly past my sell-by date LOL

Take Care! ^..^

You say 'erb, we say herb

http://youtu.be/dz4Ps55Rx40
I  was listening to Josh and it reminded me of this Eddie Izzard sketch -
Two years in Oz has subtly changed the way Josh now pronouces things...quite a lot of the "t" sounds have softened to "d"s...most noticable when he says words like "butter" or "buddar" as it is now (I'm taking the mickey a little bit as it's not quite that noticable ;)    )  
There is also a touch of upward inflection at the end of sentences creeping in :-) so statements sometimes sound a bit like questions ? (heehee..did you do it in your head?)
We have such rich variations in accents and pronuciations here in the UK..where I live you will find the terribly plummy well to do Marlborough accents next to the delightfully soft Wiltshire burr. My father-in-law has the most amazing Scottish/Bengali accent that's out there on it's own XD
Natalia, having grown up many years in Australia tells me that there really isn't a huge amount of differentiation in Australian accents even though the country is so vast....here the accents can change 20 miles down the road....
Wouldn't it be boring if we were all the same?

Anyway...I'm off to practise my elecution lessons...hahahaha

Greetings from Soggy valley

The river running through the valley is usually a rather pretty chalk stream, with water so crystal clear that you can see the trout swimming....

 

It threads through the village like a lazy ribbon...you can just make it out in the centre of this picture..

..but the 2nd wettest year on record (and more to the point, the last couple of weeks worth of rain) has really made a difference to the landscape...the scene below isn't the river...it's the little lane that the 4 houses at the end use (thankfully the water hasn't reached their houses yet)

 

and this is the usually placid river..

and that lil ribbon of water has definately gotten fat!

 

Hope you're keeping your feet dry :-)

The firstborn returns...

 At last! After 2 years and 4 months in Australia...my precious firstborn came over for Christmas :-) and I thought I'd post about it before it dissappeared all to quickly in my rear view mirror!
I made Christmas stockings with our initials on out of some old curtains to honour the occaision :-)
(I didn't leave out the mince pie, whiskey and carrot for Father Christmas...the boys sussed that I was scoffing them a while back now LOL)

The teeny weeny Xmas tree was, as in bygone years, "cat friendly  deterent" - nothing electrical , draped with chilli and popcorn chains, and decorated with dried orange slices, little bundles of cinnamon sticks and pine cones...a few orange slices were stolen but it was pretty much left alone by Baldrick & Queenie

 

Yaay...my baby home:-)

 

...and he brought his lovely girlfriend Natalia :-)

 

In honour of Mum...we had prawn cocktails to start on Xmas Day...it's been a bit of a family tradition since the 70's I guess...back then it was served in a glass and accompanied by a glass of Leibfraumilch

 

Bon Appetit! (actually, it wasn't as good as I remembered and I found it a bit bland...maybe it needed Mum's magic touch)

 

and followed by cow & roasties & 'snips & sprouts & carrots & creamed leeks & yorkies (that didn't rise loads, but tasted perfect) I don't usually eat meat, but I made the exception for this one day..I would rather that we all sat down and ate the same, and I don't think the boys are ready for a meat free Xmas day yet (and Nat is from Chile where they are PROPER carnivores LOL) Doesn't bother me as I'm not a "principled vegetarian" I just think we don't need it and it's expensive so why bother?

 

 

I made Cola de Mono to make Nat feel at home a bit....was delish...think I'll do this every year now.

I loosely based it on this recipe and used brandy..

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/isas-cola-de-mono/

 

 

YUM!

 

Anyway...enough from me for the mo...hope you had a lovely Xmas and got to see your special loved ones too