A blast of heat from Down Under

I recently found simply joolz, a blog from Oz, full of recipes and chat. In one post she mentioned Pineapple and Chilli chutney, there was a picture of the book and of the recipe page. I mulled it over for ooh, let me think ...... it must have been all of 60 seconds and found the book, new and very cheap, on Amazon and it arrived on Friday.
I had all the ingredients and yesterday I made a small batch up. My pineapple was a bit on the small side so I reduced the other ingredients by 25%, except the chilli... I likes it hot you know.

I am not disappointed, although I will use all the chilli seeds next time. I will be making it again, pineapples are fairly cheap in Lidl, I quite fancy stirring some through cooked rice to go with a Thai curry, or even fish.
There are some tasty looking recipes in there that I look forward to making.

I had an extra person to dinner yesterday and although there was plenty of pot roast and veg I had not made enough potato. The fastest thing was to whip up a batch of biscuits, luckily they were on my agenda for this week so I had flour and butter in the freezer.
I used 225 gm SR flour, 110 gm butter grated and a good pinch of salt and used enough buttermilk to make a soft dough. I do not roll out biscuit dough, just pat it out with one of my favourite gadgets

This is very sturdy and versatile, I pat out the dough to a rough rectangle and then use the edge to fold the dough in half and repeat twice more. Then it gets patted out to around 1/2" deep and just cut into squares, on a baking tray and into a hot oven for 15 minutes.

They are light and flaky and slightly crisp, sometimes I add a sprinkle of herbs or some mustard powder. They are very moreish and were snaffled up.

Another favourite in my kitchen is this little pig, it has held my swivel peeler for almost as long as I can remember. I think that it was meant to hold a soap filled scouring pad. I do have a modern peeler with a comfy grip handle! somewhere but prefer this old fashioned style. My Springer Spaniels would hear me use this and be in the kitchen in seconds for the top and tails of the carrots.

Ben will eat them but he isn't so mad about it.

I caught a trailer for a new program coming on the telly, the gist is that a dedicated team of people will travel all over the world teaching us how to save money on shopping. Most of us can do that from the comfort of our homes. it is so easy. 

To save money only buy to replace what is worn out and can not be repaired.

Only buy what you will use or eat, no matter how much of a bargain it is. 

It is stupid O'clock and I am wide awake, I do not want to wake my guests so am about to make a cuppa and find a new ball of yarn to crochet another stack of granny squares. Ben is beside me, sound asleep and snoring gently.

Just as I clicked he opened his eyes but did not move an inch, or miss a snore.

                      TTFN                                                  Pam