Back in (yellowsticker) business

We found another fridge freezer on Freecycle. It is a bit elderly and battered but at least it works. So I can still keep my eyes open for good yellow stickered bargains : )   I just have to remember not keep them for treats. I still get upset thinking about all those pork chops we lost and the whole duck and all the other things too.

Invigilating is finished for another few months. It will be nice when I get paid, though. There probably won't be any more of that kind of work until May now. It is a nice little extra and I am helping our school too.

I was down at church baking on Monday, same as usual. Except that just as I was about to leave, the house, my friend rang up and said she had a pumpkin that she had grown that was on the verge of going past its best and did I want to make soup for the coffee shop. Well I could not pass up a free pumpkin so I only got a little bit of baking done. I spent the rest of the time chopping veg. I made 56 portions of spicy pumpkin and tomato soup and they are now in the freezers at church. I need to find a bit more time to get a bit further ahead with the baking now. My husband is down with a heavy cold which is settling on his chest - not good when you have asthma! If I go down with it, I need to know that there is a good stock of baked goods in the freezer to tide them over until I am well again. The coffee shop had a bit of a run on cake in December with all the Christmas shoppers wanting a break and a hot drink with a piece of cake so I have been starting with a totally empty freezer. It is definitely looking fuller now but there is still lots of space so I can't afford to get my husband's cold! I have been taking lots of vitamin C and echinacea recently......

Feeding folk in February.

It is February now. I've made lots of soup and baked six cakes for our church coffee shop and iced two cakes. Our coffee shop manager usually does most of the baking but she was ill and you can't have a coffee shop without cake. So I got summoned. Last week I made five gallons of soup and made and iced two cakes and I was quite tired at the end of that day. This week my husband was free so I got him to come along and help with the chopping of the veg and washing up. I wasn't nearly so tired at the end of that session but my husband was : )

We've been having a really good go at clearing out things since Christmas. I've lost track of the exact numbers but several hundred things have gone - either to the charity shop, in the bin, been recycled, given to family or on Freecycle. It is a very good start but there is a long way to go yet.

For the last few years, our church has been helping Operation Christmas Child. One of our members used to work for them and we have been a collecting point for our area for people to bring their filled shoeboxes to. This year, however, the charity has put up the money that you have to include to help pay for shipping. Last year it went up from £2 to £3 and this year it has gone up to £5 per box. A lot of people at our church feel it is a worthwhile cause but that the charity is pricing itself out of the market. It can cost quite a lot to fill the shoebox and then another £5 on top now. I've always kept an eye out for bargains through the year, the same as I do for family and friends' birthday and Christmas presents so that the cost of filling the shoebox(es) was kept down. And I knitted the hat, scarf and mittens usually with wool bought in a charity shop. We also found out that the head of the charity is earning a six figure salary. Yes, he has a big job because the charity is international, but people who live on just a pension felt that perhaps some of their money might be going to help pay his big, fat salary......  So now we are looking round for another worthwhile charity that will use our collective talents.

I've been knitting hats since Christmas because we have a local charity that uses them. Lots of them are stripey because I have a really big bag of oddments. I like having some knitting in my hands when I am watching a film on the tv. And these colder evenings are great for sitting in front of the woodburner and watching a film with my knitting in my hands. I recorded a stack of films over the Christmas period and am working my way steadily through them.

I've had one of my cats at the vet this last week. One of the cats in the neighbourhood has been terrorising my two. One of my two is of a particularly nervous disposition and he is obsessively cleaning himself and pulling out fur. He has quite a few bald patches and the skin is practically licked off in those areas. So the vet has given him an injection and we have bought another cat flap which is activated by the chip in the cats' necks. So Nasty Cat can no longer come into our house when he wants to, as he was prone to do. I've even found him in my bedroom on the top floor! But what I really objected to was his habit of spraying in my house, particularly in the kitchen. I didn't like starting to do some cooking and finding that he had sprayed up my saucepan rack...... I'm sure you quite understand that! So we just have to convince my two that they are quite safe in our house because Nasty Cat can no longer come in.

I've been to babysit my two youngest grandchildren this evening. Their big brother was playing the cornet in his first concert this evening and mum and dad wanted to go and see/hear him. I am very pleased that some of my grandchildren are turning out musical. I do so enjoy singing and playing and I'm glad the tradition is being carried on : )

April has been a busy month

Yes, April has been a busy month but my life seems fairly busy this year. I can feel the pace picking up and I'm not sure whether or not I am happy about that.

We went to Cambridge for three days and I pottered around while my husband had business meetings. I enjoyed that! We had a big family get-together for our eldest's special birthday celebration. We went to the Think Tank in Birmingham (the children really enjoyed that) and then back to my son's house and we all had a Chinese meal. The people who ran our local Chinese takeaway are friends of ours and they did us a fantastic meal. My daughter was really pleased with it and delighted when our friends sent her a bottle of champagne with the meal. How nice was that! They were retiring the following week and they knew it would be the last meal that they cooked for us so they wanted to make it extra special for her.

Easter week was filled with church things and I think I must have sung every Easter hymn and song in our music books... It was a good Easter.

We are in the countdown to our daughter's wedding as it is just three weeks away now. Exciting times! I've been out today and bought some shoes to wear with my outfit. However, coming home with them and seeing them next to the outfit, I am not so sure about the colour as I was in the shop. A rethink is needed there, methinks. And then there is the question of a bag. Hmm.

I'm am still souping every week for our church coffee shop. I did have a week off for Easter, though. I do find it funny that I am making soup for a coffee shop. It just doesn't seem right, somehow. I made pea and mint before Easter which people seem to have either loved or hated. It is good to have feedback but now I'm not sure whether to make it again.

I've had a mini clearout of a corner that has not been tidied for a very long time. So that means eight things have gone in the bin, two things are being dithered over, three bags of stuff have gone to a new home and a bag is sitting in the hall, waiting to go to a charity shop. I've got my eye on another corner to tidy and sort through so I'm hoping that the bag in the hall might well become two or even three.

110 items gone

February already and soup time

Here we are into February already.  I don't understand it but I am utterly convinced that time speeds up as you get older.  Remember when days seemed to stretch into forever when you were under ten?

I've been making soup for our lunches for several weeks now. Along with a 10p yellow stickered loaf from Tesco when they happen : ) it makes a cheap, filling and nourishing lunch. And it is easy too.  Cook once and zap portions in the microwave until it is finished.  However, it has taken a while to convince my husband.  I'm hoping that I have succeeded now!  I think that last week's pea and ham (made with the leftovers from the meal we served at church and eaten with an 8p! loaf) did help convince him because he really enjoyed it. He requested a cheese sandwich for today but we'll have soup again tomorrow.

One of my favourite soups is lentil, carrot and tomato.  A tin of tomatoes, a handful of lentils, 2 or 3 large carrots and the obligatory onion, potato and good shake of mixed herbs.  Maybe a bit of garlic if I have any in and cooked in stock made with a couple of stock cubes.  Lovely!  Thick and warming.

If one of my soups (usually the random leftover vegetable ones) turns out to be a bit bland, then we eat them with a good sprinkle of dried Italian cheese.  We usually bought that from Aldi but they seem to have stopped stocking it.  I spoke to the deputy manager at Aldi last week who does the ordering and she said that they don't have it any more.  Sainsburys do but they've changed the packaging and they now sell it in 80g small tubs for £1.  That is quite expensive per kilo but a tub really does last a long time - in fact it probably lasts several months.

If the soup turns out thinner, then I make Jamaican dumplings. I got the recipe out of a borrowed Friends of the Earth mini cookbook about 20 years or so ago. I'm not so keen on dumplings with suet in and these don't use any. Instead, these use 1 tablespoon of flour with one teaspoon of baking powder. Mix together with a pinch of herbs of your choice and enough cold water to make a dough - about the same consistency as scone dough. Drop teaspoonfuls into the soup and allow to simmer for about 15 minutes. This produces wonderfully light and fluffy dumplings which my husband loves. When I first read the recipe, I didn't think it would work because I thought I would be able to taste the baking powder but decided to give it a go. I am glad I did! That quantity of flour is plenty for dumplings for two people.

Winter is a-comin' in

It is just after 4pm and it is starting to get dark already.  Winter is just around the corner but I have lots of goodies stored away on shelves and in the freezer. At the moment, it is the thought of paying for all the house to be heated that is the niggle in my mind.  My trusty halogen heater has been on several times and four evenings this week, we have had the central heating on for an hour.  Every time we turn it on, I have £ signs rolling round before my eyes.

Last week, away in Presteigne, I was spoilt because the lady who owns the house had the central heating set and it was locked in a cupboard so as I had no control over it, I just enjoyed the warmth. That luxury has made me feel even colder in my own home this week, though. I must admit that I would like to keep the place warmer than it is.  I am happy to wear extra layers but right now I have enough layers on to feel like the Michelin man - remember him?

We were out at a bonfire last night.  It was a joint effort between the Boys' Brigade and the church family.  Our job was to provide about 14 litres of soup.  I never did get out to the bonfire because I was stirring soup and heating baked beans and rotating saucepans on the cooker to make sure everything got heated up properly.  We made carrot and tomato soup because that was what I had in sufficient quantities to make it from.  Guess what is for dinner tonight?  Leftover soup! Everybody seemed to enjoy themselves, which was the object of the exercise, and my two youngest grandchildren were there so it was good to see them : )

Last night we went to a bonfire night.  At least I'm told there was a bonfire and fireworks but I didn't see any.  It was the Boys' Brigade bonfire night and our son is one of the leaders.  I had a phone call this week asking if I had any time free this week because they wanted me to make soup.  I made 6 litres of tomato soup and my son made 5 litres of pumpkin soup and there was very little left over. We also served hotdogs and tea, coffee and squash.  Despite the heavy rain in the afternoon, the bonfire lit and a good time was had by all. 

However, we ended up in the kitchen fulltime and never got out to see the bonfire because my son and another leader arrived over three hours late.  There had been an accident on the motorway they were on and everything was closed down until the air ambulance came and took away the injured and the police sorted it all out.  It occurred to me that it was a bit like the ripples on the pond analogy.  Somebody's misjudgement or momentary lack of concentration caused serious injury to some, lots of money spent in terms of people attending to deal with the result - helicopter, ambulances, police etc, thousands (literally - Friday evening rush hour) of people held up so late home, meetings/appointments missed, dinners spoilt, right down to trivia like a BB bonfire night and me missing the actual bonfire because I was in the kitchen all evening.  Such a small thing but it affected so many people in so many ways from the really serious right down to the minor ripples at the edge of the pond where I was.  This is one of those situations when mobile phones actually prove themselves useful and I didn't mind helping out.  I just hope that those injured will recover and quickly too.

(edit - This was not the dreadful M5 catastrophe but another accident)

I've had soup in my slow cooker this week - veg and half a pack of soup mix (lentils, barley etc) that I got in my last order from Approved Food. We had some on Monday but it was a bit hearty so I doctored it with more liquid and some more veg and it was better on Tuesday. We still had lots left so I added yet more veg and half a packet of tomato juice that was yellow stickered and which I had not drunk. With a sprinkle of grated cheese it was tasty last night and should be tonight too with half a pack of noodles and still more veg and the remains of a jar of pesto added.

All the veg was homegrown, the soup mix was a good price from Approved Food, the tomato juice was at its date and yellow stickered, the noodles were cheapo and the pesto was just the jar rinsed out really.  We've had a sprinkle of parmesan lookalike cheese (Aldi) with it and a sprinkle of cheddar (b1g2f + coupons from Tesco) on another day.  That will make four days worth of dinners for the two of us for very little indeed.  Will I manage to make it stretch to five?  And the big bonus was that it has been ready when we come home from school.  Two days this week my husband has been home for just an hour to eat and then gone back to school until 10pm for meetings so this soup has been great.  When you have to work fom 8am to 10pm with just an hour off (he had to work through break and lunch) you don't want anything too heavy for dinner.  He is going to sleep for England this weekend because he will be sooooo tired.

The pesto jar is now filled with homemade mint sauce concentrate made from the last of my mint plant.

Just one more get up until half term.  Yay : )