First it was Meat ... Now it's Fish

Last Friday I posted all about our Musclefood delivery and the meat that we bought to stock the freezer for Alan's meals (see here) ...  this week's bulk purchase for the freezer is fish.

In Tesco one day last week I noticed the end of one of the chiller cabinets was absolutely full of sides of salmon at the reduced price of £7.50, instead of the normal £15.  After checking all the other fresh salmon prices I bought two.  In the cinema half an hour later I thought about this and decided to nip back to get two more thinking that they would last us a long time at this brilliant price.  By the time my film had finished and I had driven the three minutes back to Tesco the fridge had been stripped bare ... as had lots of other shelves, it seems the Christmas buying frenzy is already upon us.

But never mind I had my two safely in the boot of the car  :-)

They have now been sliced into meal sized portions.

Although a couple were slightly over the recommended 100g of meat or fish allowance for a meal.

Each portion was wrapped in Easy-leave, so it would be safe in the freezer and separate from the pieces next to it.

I just weighed every now and then to keep me on track, especially as the fish changed shape towards the tail end.

Once both sides had been portioned out and wrapped I put them into a freezer proof box and added the label off one of the packs.

Then I decided to write on the label how many portions I had started with and the cost per portion, because as much as I think I'm going to remember I never do.

A Tesco single plain salmon fillet is currently on sale at £2.35 for 130g.  So I think my portions at just 83p each are an absolute bargain, and with 18 slices now nestled in the freezer Alan will have a fish dish every now and then at a much lower cost than usual.

Sue xx

A Neat Cook ... and Bashed Biscuits

I've turned into a neat cook.  

I like to measure out all the ingredients and have them ready to throw into the pan as and when I need them, this saves so much time spinning around in the kitchen making myself dizzy while I rummage through cupboards for ingredients while my onions burn or my garlic singes.  It also means that I have time to put on my thinking cap and work out what I can use in place of any ingredients that I might not have.

This time I was following this recipe as I wanted to use up our last homegrown cauliflower.  It was absolutely delicious and these amounts gave us a large portion each for one night served with rice, a smaller portion for the next night again with rice for me, and with rice and a pork chop for Alan, and one also a small tub full for the freezer which will make either a lunch for one or an addition to a Buddha bowl for both of us.

Delicious ... I added peas to ours because I didn't have any fresh coriander to add that very necessary splash of green.   :-)

Pudding was a simple favourite of ours, a layer of fruit in a glass, a layer of chilled Oatly custard and then a packet each of crushed Biscoff biscuits for a crunchy topping.  We ate them before I took a photo, but this is how it all started off.

Sue xx 

Sue's Breakfast Mix and Car Boot Results

Whenever I have bananas and yoghurts in the house this is my breakfast of choice.

A big dollop of yoghurt, usually about a third of this large pot, a sliced up banana, a good handful of frozen homegrown Blueberries straight from the freezer and a teaspoon or two of everything from these jars.  The other morning as I was in and out of cupboards adding my teaspoon of this, teaspoon of that I thought to myself ... well no actually I said it out loud ... why the bloody hell do I do this several times a week and why don't I store all these jars in one cupboard which would have been the first logical step.

Then I thought ... time to put this right now. 

So instead of just putting the teaspoon of seeds on my breakfast I also put six times the amount of each seed into a jar and then gave it a good mix up.

I will obviously have to give it a stir each time before I use it as things like the little Chia seeds will gravitate to the bottom, but it's a million times better than opening and closing cupboards finding what I need so early in the morning.

The only thing I decided not to add to the jar were the flaked almonds, as they would go off much sooner than the other more dried seeds, and there weren't that many left in their jar.  When they run out I will revert to grating a couple of Brazil nuts over my breakfast instead..

I even labelled the jar 'Sue's Breakfast Mix.

One nice thing though, while I was doing my squirrel impression the other morning and gathering in my seeds and nuts, Alan said 'you remind me so much of your Dad when he came to visit us at the farm' ... he used to do something very similar every day with his bowl of cereal and whatever various 'sprinkles'  he could find  :-)

In other completely non-breakfast news, we worked out our final car boot takings after our final car boot sale of the year last week and these are the grand totals for 2017.

Not too shabby at all, over £900 cash that we wouldn't normally have had   :-)

Our plan for next year now that we have got rid of most of the housey clutter, is to move towards selling more of our homegrown and homemade stuff.  So along with one table of 'car boot stuff'  there will be another table with eggs, plants and vegetables and once the workshop is completely up and running which hopefully it will be over this Winter, more handmade small pieces of furniture, bowls and bits and pieces made of wood.

It will be interesting to compare this years total with next years.

Sue xx

Mutton Dressed As ....

Is this the best dressed sheep on a Welsh hillside .... well we think so  :-)

After speaking to the vet yesterday our course of treatment for this sad looking sheep is the best and only one open to her, so we were advised to continue to spray her with the antiseptic spray which is suitable for animals.

We were discussing her after the phone call and both agreed it was a shame she was nibbling at her scabs as soon as they form.  Alan said we should put a cone over her head the way the vets do for dogs after an operation so they don't nibble at their stitches, I said not to be so cruel we don't even do that for the dogs, we always get them a little t shirt to wear instead and it has always done the trick.

We looked at each other with grins on our faces!!

In Llandudno a few hours later, we called into one of the charity shops and stood debating what size our foster sheep could possibly be .... we guessed a medium.  Later it took us only a few minutes to catch her, check and re-spray her sore side and then get her dressed, adding the snazzy band of tape so the t shirt doesn't dangle and risk tripping her up or get wet when she 'spends a penny'.

Suky is amazed at her snazzily dressed friend.

And the sheep appears to quite like her new attire, and is not even slightly bothered by the fact that she is now fully clothed   :-)

  We moved the sheep into the Orchard as the grass there is in brilliant condition, and she needs all the nourishment she can get. 

Instead of watching me working in the polytunnel earlier ... Suky was on sheep watching duty, she just can't get over the now dressed sheep living just through the fence

Sue xx

Making Money from Nothing

At the moment my head is in a space of 'making money from nothing'. 

It's car boot sale season for the next few months and we are both having a good sort out of the house and jettisoning all sorts of things that once we would have felt were necessary and useful, but are now most definitely not what we need or what we want in our lives.

It's interesting sorting through the things you own with fresh eyes and a totally new perspective and sometimes when you are looking at things slightly differently you spot things that have been right in front of you for a while that have merged into the background.

The Aloe Vera plant in the top photograph was a case in point.

Bought from a car boot sale a couple of years ago for 50p with the large green mug it sits in also from the same seller for another 50p ... although she hadn't thought to put the two together until I slipped the plant into the mug to free my hands to put my purse away ... it has sat just as it was purchased on the bookcase next to the sofas ever since.  Moving it over to dust after a sorting out session the other day I noticed how very top heavy it was and had a closer look.

It had a mass of baby plants all around it.  I was pleased ... this is the first Aloe Vera plant I have ever kept alive  :-)

I took it over to the polytunnel with me this morning and spent a pleasant half hour repotting it.

Ten plants from one pot.

Yes, I feel totally guilty that this lovely family of plants once resided in the tiny black plant pot to the left of this photograph. 

Seven small plants that I hope to sell for 50p each ...

... and two larger ones that I'm hoping will fetch a pound each.

So a possible £5.50 in takings.

And the lovely thing is that I still have my original 'mummy' plant along with the one baby that did not have a root system of it's own so was not ready to detach.  So the green mug is back in it's original position on the bookcase and nothing has changed in the house.

Except that hopefully once we have done a couple of car boot sales, or popped them out at the farm gate on a sunny day, we will have made some money from nothing to pop into the Food and Plants Fund.

Sue xx

Polished and Ready to Go

Well here it is all polished and ready to go back.

This is the cup I won last year for getting the most points in the Horticulture Section of the Llanrwst Show.  It's lived on the shelves in the conservatory since then with the occasional flick of a duster and wipe with a damp cloth.  So it was time to get it off the shelf and give it a bit of tender loving care.

I polished it up using the easy, peasy cheaty method of hot water, Bicarbonate of Soda (Baking Soda), tin foil and a deep bowl, and as you can see it's come up a treat.  Some parts of it are very brassy coloured, where the silver plating has rubbed off mostly the top where it has had years and years of polishing, hence my not wanting to rub it with anything at all.  Although what looks like a huge brass patch on the front is merely the reflection in the now highly shiny silver of our wooden worktop!!

Here's a little Link to show you simply how to do it.  I used a washing up bowl half full of water straight off the boil from the electric kettle.  The part of your silver that is touching the foil cleans up really quickly so make sure you turn your pieces over until they are shiny on all sides and then dry with a soft cloth.  I've cleaned silver and silver plate this way for years, it saves the excessive rubbing, and subsequent loss of silver though regular cleaning with polish and elbow grease and it works every time.

I doubt this will be coming home with me this year as I am entering a lot less classes this time, but I have my fingers firmly crossed for a First and maybe a couple of Seconds :-)

Sue xx

Using The Back Catalogue

The very first photo that appeared on this blog.

When I find a blog that really appeals to me, and I mean really appeals to me, I have been known to go right back to the beginning and read the whole back catalogue.  I find it helps you to learn more about the writer and the reason behind the blog.  Sometimes it's much more interesting than a book, of course like a book there is also the bonus of being able to dip into it when you have time to spare and read forward a few posts (chapters) at a time.

There have been a few people reading their way through from when we originally began our change of lifestyle over the past few weeks, and I have been able to follow their progress on my Statistics page.  Congratulations to the two of you who have just arrived in the present day  :-)

I myself have just spent the last few days starting from scratch with one of the blogs on my sidebar .... and very good reading it was too.  The blog I am talking about is Remembering the Old Ways.  Michelle has a lovely way of living and I simply fell in love with her beautiful cottage.

I've been asked recently how do you get back to the beginning of someone's blog .... well it's really simple.  I'll use my blog as an example, some blogs differ slightly but most will have archives and be similar to use. 

Look for BLOG ARCHIVES on the sidebar.  

First you will see a list of years, go to the oldest (in my case it was 2009)  click on the dark arrow to the left of that year and a drop down list will appear showing the months.

Click on the arrow pointing to the oldest month and another drop down list will appear with the names of all the posts in that particular month.  

You start by going to the very oldest and click on that particular post.  Once you have read this  post at the very bottom, below the comments in my case,  it will say 'Newer Post'  clicking on this will take you to the next post in the sequence and so on and so on.

When I am reading my way through a blog from start to present day I keep a post-it  note in my diary and make a note of where I finish each reading session, so I can click back the next time I want to read on a bit further.  Be warned however ... this is very addictive .... as I have just found out with Michelle's lovely blog  ;-)

Sue xx

Conkers, Sticks and Blackberries

Something I posted about HERE this time last year was conkers, on 8th October so just one week later to be exact ... where did September go to!!    It was all about how having a conker on each of your windowsills will keep away spiders.

For the sceptics amongst you it really does work, and this last two weeks have been a testament to that.  As the weather turned cooler and the nights drew in spiders had been making their way into the warmth of the house at an alarming rate, well alarming to me ... fun for the dogs who love to chase the big, hairy long legged beasties when they run across the floor.

There was nothing for it but to go out conker hunting ... so we did!!

We walked along the river bank in Llanrwst with the dogs then Lovely Hubby had a fun filled half hour chucking sticks up trees and diving out of the way before they came back down on him,  the dogs thought he had gone mad and would have nothing to do with this vertical stick throwing and kept well out of his way, as did I only rushing in to help pick up the bright green prickly balls as they landed.

So for the last week the conkers have been back on all windowsills except one, the one Mavis and Rosy can get onto .... and they love eating conkers ... and for the last week there has not been a single spider sighting .... PHEW!!

In other news ....

We went out picking blackberries again and managed to get just over 1.3 kgs of luscious large berries.

Last time I made Apple and Blackberry Jelly so this time I decided.to make Apple and Blackberry Crumbles.  Seven for the freezer and one we ate the same night as a treat for all the painful picking we had endured .... boy do those scratches tingle when you get in the bath later that night and have just about forgotten about your battle wounds.

I say crumbles, but in fact I have frozen these as just apple and blackberries that have been cooked together, so they can be used as crumbles, pies, cobblers or even thawed and added to a sponge mix  to make a delicious cake or pudding, very adaptable.  I keep my basic crumble mix in a big tub in the freezer and use it as it is or add extras to it such as oats, nuts or dried fruit depending on the mood we are in and what the kitchen cupboards demand we use up.

I'm busy reading my way through one of my favourite books again at the moment for more processing and preserving inspiration.  Alys Fowler is one of my gardening heroes and she writes extremely well.  I love the pictures in this book of the things she is doing, her home and Isabel, her lovely Jack Russell dog.  We chatted about our Jack Russells amongst other things over lunch at Yeo Valley Organic Gardens a couple of years ago when we met HERE it was a brilliant day.

I'm off for a bit more inspiration now, it's a hard job but somebody has to do it  :-)

Sue xx

Cuttings, Days Out and Forgotten Tips

I've been away from the old homestead for a couple of days and this mornings round of checking and watering in the house,  the polytunnel and the pots around the outside of the house,  has had me amazed at the growth that so many things have put on in just those two days.

I pulled the Basil cuttings out of their jam jar of water on the kitchen windowsill to pour some fresh water in and was astonished at this mass of roots.  A bit of potting is called for later today I think.

Out on the hillside I have Courgettes, well one courgette that's recognisably a courgette .... it's not quite as big as you might think at first from this picture, you will realise the size if you spot my finger holding down a leaf at the bottom of the photo .... but it is at least a fully fledged courgette.

 I was worried I might not get any at all in the polytunnel as ALL the flowers up until now have been male, and then this morning I spotted this on one of the polytunnel courgettes, a developing female flower  ... PHEW!!

Whilst I was 'down South' we went to The Vyne for a good look around.  We're trying to get the best possible use out of our National Trust membership and make an effort to visit any house and garden in whichever area we happen to be in.  Although we found this house a bit disappointing compared to some we've been to recently, I loved the recently re-invigorated vegetable gardens, and whilst there noticed something that I used to do but seemed to have forgotten all about.

I quickly rectified my error this morning.  Putting terracotta pots next to most of my Pumpkins and Courgette plants.  It just helps with the watering, rather than wetting the leaves which this sort of plant hates you can water into the plant pot which takes the water down into the soil where the roots are the above ground the leaves are sat on nice dry warm soil.  Why had I forgotten to do something so simple and yet so helpful to the plants .... as Homer would say DUH!!

And look .... while I was planting my flower pots I spotted our first Pumpkin.

I also spotted that I had forgotten to label this bed, so I stuck a new plant label in the plant pot after sinking it into the earth.  The reason for using terracotta pots is because they are porous and on a hot day you can fill them up with water and it will leach slowly into the soil, but you can also do this with plastic pots and even with the top half of empty pop bottles with their lids taken off.  Anything to get the water to the roots of a plant where it is needed is a good idea and stops evaporation of water on the surface, so it means you can use less water, an important consideration if you're on a water meter.

Next to go into my little bashed pewter pot once I've potted up this Basil will be some more Rosemary, I just love the smell of it in the kitchen while it roots.

Did you ever do something easy but useful and then forget all about it until you got a reminder whilst out and about ..... or am I the only forgetful one!!

Sue xx

Bagels and Vegetables

Our favourite bagels were on special offer in T*sco the other day so I got us a couple of packs.  They were sliced in half and then re-bagged and frozen as is my way,  I was going to save them for Christmas week breakfasts, but this morning we succumbed to temptation and had a couple each.

I'm being naughty at the moment and not eating enough veggies, I have phases like that, with me it tends to be either all or nothing.  I really must do better, but sometimes it's just so easy to have fish and chips and miss off the peas, or have pie and mash and miss off the cabbage or the carrots.  How lazy is that!!

As I said I must do better, perhaps a veggie curry tonight will get me back on the straight and narrow.

Advent Challenge - Day 8

Just a small red heart shaped bowl.  I love heart shaped bowls but I have a set of three white ones and white is our preferred choice for all crockery now.  So this red one is off to the charity shop in the next carrier bag full of donations.

Sue xx

Keeping Warm

The house is cold, very cold, we couldn't have been without central heating and hot water at a worse time of year really, but we just have to grit our teeth and make do and manage until the jobs are all done.  So I thought for posterity I would do a post about how I am managing. 

The other day the sun came out and stayed out for a few hours, so I quickly got a couple of loads of washing done.  The biggest items, the towels and jeans were draped over the Aga for a while, taking it in turns to be on the rail and on the top lids.  As soon as the worst of the dampness was off them they were relegated to the airer which was set up in the spare bedroom near the window, to catch as many rays as possible.

Things like my jumper which come out just damp were put on hangers and hung from any available handle and knob to bask in the sunshine.

Lovely Hubby's T shirts from the previous day's wash were hung from the curtain rail to catch more heat, and a new knicks and socks that just felt chilled after being on the airer yesterday were laid in sun patches on the bed to warm up.  You can see in this picture a couple of pairs of socks on the radiator airers, these are damp and straight from the washer but as long as I drape them over two rails they dry in about a day and half without making the room feel too damp.  We have these little airers on all the upstairs radiators, and they work a treat when we have the heating on.

It's a real art at the moment getting the washing done and dried.  It's much too damp to hang anything outside, things go out and then come back in a few hours later with no perceptible difference, and with all the sawdust and mess of the building work at the moment I think they would actually come back in dirtier than before they were washed!!

As dusk fell after the day of lovely sunshine, and indeed on all other other days I quickly went into 'heat conservation mode'.  The blinds are all pulled down ....

... and then the curtains are pulled across, in every room of the house.  Doors to all rooms not in use are closed, and then and only then, is the wood burner lit.  I quickly get the living room nice and toasty during the evening, and then towards bedtime the hall door is half opened to allow some of the heat to escape into the bedroom upstairs,  the bathroom door is also half opened to make the bathroom (which is downstairs) tolerable for a shower.  Luckily the shower is run independently of the heating so we still have hot water for this ....phew!!

Hot water for washing pots etc is achieved by boiling the electric kettle, but to help with economies we also have the two Aga kettles sat on the Aga all the time.  Just leaving them their filled to capacity gives us two kettle fulls of water heated for 'free', without allowing any of the Aga's heat to escape by opening the lids.

One kettle full of water fills the two hot water bottles and these are popped into the bed an hour before we are going up, the difference these make is amazing.  No more hopping into bed with sharp intakes of breath :-)

I do a lot of these things all the time, but it seems even more vital at the moment.  Keeping up to date with washing and keeping warm are my main priorities for the next week or so.  The thing I'm most looking forward to having back is hot water, to be able to turn on a tap and have gushing hot water after a couple of seconds and to actually have a bath will be brilliant.

Things are coming on great with the building work and I think almost all the first layer of supporting beams are in place.

The overhang is changing my mind about the appearance of the conservatory, it will deflect bad weather from the building all year round and will also offer us a degree or two of shade in the Summer.

There is one Velux window going in on the side of the conservatory that has no windows to bring in some extra light, and the hole for it is now in place.  I'm a bit concerned that it is smaller than I imagined it was going to be, but as it's been manufactured to order it's too late to have a whinge and a moan about it ..... so for once I'm keeping quiet.

Unusual for me!!

Now I'm off to empty the washer and begin all over again ... but without the sunshine.

Charley is doing well by the way, she's back to the vets this afternoon for her post-op check and another anti-biotic shot, but she's coping well.  And although she overdid it a little bit yesterday, she will be resting with me on the sofa when she gets back from the vets.  I'll be lighting the wood burner a bit earlier and getting us all nice and warm in front of the television with a Christmas movie or two.

Sue xx