Lazy Hazy Day of Summer.

We have had glorious sunshine again today, 3 loads of laundry done, dried and folded, ironing later., Ben has enjoyed some ambles around and playing in the garden. I have made some blackberry and apple fridge jam, after reading my blog list yesterday and seeing some yummy jam made by someone else, I got nearly 3 jars full but had to dig into one jar to pile onto a little bit of bread at lunchtime, delish.

 I will be making more after I have shopped as I will not have enough sugar before. It is very cheap in Lidl so will not break the bank.

On that note my spend is nice and low so far, 4 no spend days on the trot, I will need milk soon but do not want to go out just for 2 things, equally I do not want to use the shop in the village as it is 50% dearer than Lidl. I will manage until I need to buy some veg and salad.

Still on the frugal low/no spend September this will be dinner tonight.

The diced veg in the dish was dressed with oil, salt, pepper and a good slug of Balsamic vinegar then roasted in the bottom of the oven with my chicken and roast potatoes yesterday. 

I went to sleep on the sofa Sunday afternoon and woke too late to cook so had wholemeal toast with cheesey baked beans and egg, lovely.

I will make the Bulgar Wheat up as per packet directions and add my roasted veg halfway through the cook time, the mix came from AF and I am looking forward to it. I may shred some lettuce, cucumber and celery to have with it, I will see how I feel later.

I have done a bit more sewing and 2 more dogs are completed.

One each for Kaitlyn and Faith, I am going to Cardigan on Saturday and will take them, along with the blue one for Junior, then.

To prevent arguments I have made them similar but used different colour combinations and used different prints for the gussets.

I found this on my bookshelf earlier, shamefully it was the first time that I had opened it since it was given to me ages ago.

The fabric pack is still there, I remember looking at it and knowing that I would not be using it as directed, and there it stayed, neglected and unloved. Shame on me.

I flicked through it and found the Stanley toy pattern, as I have a stack of 2 1/2" squares cut I may well make one up. Once we get to October I will make a dog in "that seasonal fabric" as part of Francesca,s gift, I will make the Scotty Dog up but use 3 or 3 1/2" squares to get a more substantial cushion.

I quite fancy making one in 5" charms as well, just because.

I have been given these, I am sure that I can sink them into the garden and plant them to add height somewhere.

The steps are really beginning to look good, I have also been given some more slabs of slate, I will be skipping up and down them soon. I will plant some ground cover on the left, I may try cranberries if I can find some at a reasonable price. The lovely neighbour who gave me these also had some wood from a pine bed going spare, it will make me a potting bench with storage shelves under for the greenhouse.

I have found a supplier for my fruit trees and bushes and they sell the Flowering Quince that I want for the front garden. Things is looking up.

Reasons to be grateful.

1.  Lots and lots of sunshine.

2.  Tasty preserves for next to nothing.

3.  A gift from my neighbour that will enhance my garden.  

4.  The hedgerows are dripping with free food, just waiting to be gathered.

5.  Ben has been off his meds for a while now and his skin is fine.

I have to welcome some new(ish) followers, I have been so busy rushing to get my posts written that I have neglected them badly.

Angie, Serenata from the balancing Kiwi who also blogs about the life of her dolls, Myshabbychicfrugallife who fills me with jealousy at her wonderful finds, hippymamax6, marlene Jones from Poppy Patchwork whose stitchery turns me green with envy and Michelle from remembering the old ways who lives in Hampshire. I had a SIL who lived in Havant and used to visit twice yearly, lovely place, so clean with hardly any litter and wonderful plants everywhere. Welcome one and all, I will enjoy reading your blogs and any comments that you care to leave.

It is almost time to get my frugal dinner on the go. I will knock another 4 off my challenge, the cushion and the 3 dogs, I need to get a wiggle on but I do have 6 place mats to make tomorrow so they will help.

I hope that you are all enjoying the weather, Indian Summer, bring it on.

                       TTFN                                               Pam

Frugal dinners

I have made a good start to a minimal spend period, dinner yesterday was a bowl of veg soup made from the remains of last weeks veg shop, a box of passatta from Lidl and a bunch of fresh herbs from the garden. As I have several heads of garlic I added 4 roughly chopped cloves. I estimate that the total cost was £1.50 and got enough for 5 very hungry portions.

Tonight I made a packet of chilli mix from AF for 25p and I added a scoop of the veg soup to it, I want to eat plenty of veg. I also heated a sachet of a spicy Dal Makhani from AF, 20p, as there were 2 of us. I had a slice of home cooked ham left from Saturday so chopped that up and added. Dinner for 2 for less than a pound.

Pudding was an apple from Maggie, so free.

My dinner did not look pretty but the scent and taste was wonderful.

It was very filling, luckily I was hungry after working in the garden all afternoon.

This is short and sweet, written while my guest walks Ben for me.

Until tomorrow when I will have more photos.

          TTFN                                                      Pam

Sewing up a storm on Sunday

I have exciting news, well it is exciting for me. I am going to try having a small indoor market stall, in Ammanford.
New friends Dave and Nessa, who live a few doors away, have 3 stalls and there is a vacancy next to them. I was saying how much stuff that I need to dispose of and that I was thinking of doing a few Car Boot Sales. Dave said that it is at least £10 for a Boot Sale and that I could have a stall for £7 a week and be indoors. He and Nessa have been doing this for some time and love it.
I am going to gather all my unwanted things together and run up a few more bags, cushions and aprons and see how it goes. I will not have to be there every day and the opening hours are 10:00 till 4:00.
To gild the lily Nessa went on to say that she had a bag of fabric that I could have as she no longer enjoyed sewing. I almost swooned.

A selection of yardage cuts.

Fat quarters and half yard cuts.

More fat quarters.

There were also 2 packs of Charm Squares in a wide range of colours. I had a box full of Charms so decided to begin by using these first.

Sorted out into 12 Nine Patch layouts.

Two half sewn Nine Patch blocks, I have made charm bags before and now have 6 bag outers finished and the linings ready to sew. I am going to make all the handles from the same fabric and will make these next. The 6 bags will be finished tomorrow. I have a stack of half sewn blocks that will become cushions and have made a prototype frilled apron. The apron is very pretty, I have not taken a photo yet, but it took too long to make so I will have to simplify the pattern. I will keep the frilly apron myself, I do like an apron when I am in the kitchen, I am a messy cook and always get flour down my front.

Reasons to be grateful

1.  More sunshine today.

2.  Ben is happy to curl up under my new cabinet while I sew.

3.  I took my new friend, Maggie, and her cat, squid, to the Vet last week. Thankfully Squid is much better and responding well to treatment.

4.  Maggie has managed to dispense pills and apply salve without a scratch or a bite.

5.  My neighbour has cut down a massive shrub from the very edge of his garden and the increase in the  afternoon light it has let in to my house is amazing.

The extra light is wonderful now but I will really reap the benefit in the winter, the shrub was directly in line with my dining room window and when the sun is low in the sky hardly any light would get through. He is also intending to take a tree down from further back, 3 large branches came down this morning,. I hope that he knows what he is doing. The tree is tall enough that if he brings it down wrong it will go through his roof and mine. I do not want to move again that soon.

My sewing for the market will, hopefully, reduce my stash of fabric so that I can buy some more, the charity shops have curtains and duvet covers at amazingly low prices. There are also some wonderful fabric collections that will soon be on sale for up to 50% off.

I am reading Brendan O'Carroll's Biography and enjoying it and also have Dust by Patricia Cornwell on the go. To add to the pile I have a Milly Johnson, a Dean Koontz and The Johnny Cash Biography. How about that for an eclectic mix.

I still have to visit the library, if the market stall works I will not have time to read.

I tried out a "no knead" white bread recipe that I found on Attic24. It is sublime, so good that I dare not make it again until Fran is home next weekend. There has to be someone to share it with.

Fresh out of the oven.

The second that it was cool enough to handle I took the edge off and loaded it with salty Welsh Butter. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

To justify eating it for dinner I made a fridge bottom veggy stir fry and spiced it up with some of my plum and chilli jam and a shake of pomegranate balsamic vinegar, delicious. 

I topped it with fresh tomato and lots of roughly torn Basil leaves.

The bread soaked up all the juices and the whole meal was bursting with flavour. 

I am now feeling peckish so it must be time to take Ben out before I ransack the kitchen. I have had dinner am not hungry at all, it is just thinking about that bread.

       TTFN                                                          Pam

Frugal Dinner with "Jack" Pudding

I have had a busy day doing lots of little jobs, Michael has been painting away and ( I am ashamed to say) keeping the tea flowing. I did manage to sit down for 5 minutes and get a pile of the flower granny blocks crocheted. Well it felt like 5 minutes but really was nearly an hour.

I follow Frugal Queen and although I do not get the email detailing her " feed a family for £40" I wholeheartedly applaud what she is doing. Her  post yesterday talked about the media insistence that we should buy local, organic artisan produce and the fact that most of us can not afford to do so. I have to say that if I could afford it I wouldn't. I can buy a cabbage grown in a field minutes walk away for 40p on the market, 90p in a supermarket or I can buy an organic cabbage that has traveled a minimum of 50 miles for £1.20. no brainer.
I do buy RTC items but have a good look at them first, sometimes with veg it is false economy if the quality has deteriorated. I would rather buy frozen veg from Farm Foods.
I do grow veg, the ones that I love and are "how much" to buy. Sprouting Broccoli is as dear as fillet steak in some shops, I can stuff myself with 3 plants worth of growth for weeks. Leeks are a terrible price, I grow more each year, I am buying them now when on promotion. Salad leaves are very pricey, I sow seeds every 2 weeks into deep seed trays and cut them when 4" - 6" high, they regrow 3/4 times.

Anyway, today I cooked a very frugal dinner.

A small chicken breast sliced into strips and frozen, from a RTC chicken £2.00 cost 50p.

1/8th pack of frozen sliced peppers £1.00 cost 13p.

1/2 onion sliced cost 5p.

1 tbsp fajita spice, from large pack £1.00 cost minimal so I will call it 5p.

Pasta from AF rough cost 15p

Pasta sauce homemade estimated cost 10p.

I did not count oil for initial cooking as I used chicken fat saved from a roast and frozen in cubes.

Total cost 98p for 2 servings.

I had a very small cube of half price cheese that had dried out so grated that onto Michael,s dish.

Jack had a Rhubarb and Custard rice pudding recipe on her blog, I have Rhubarb in the garden, I have long grain rice 40p per Kilo, I have instant custard from AF, 50g of sugar I have no idea what the pudding cost, the milk was 50p RTC and there is enough for scones tomorrow, The custard came out of a tin 12p. I got enough for 4 generous servings so even ifthe cost was as high as £1 it is still 25p per serving.

I ought to have used a coloured dish, the rice was a very creamy  colour with a hint of pink from the rhubarb cooking liquid.

It was so good, I am serving the rest of the rice tomorrow with some mango from the freezer, from the 10p mangoes that I got from work last year.

Reasons to be grateful.

1. Another lovely warm day.

2. Lots of jobs knocked off the "to do" list.

3. Lots of painting done.

4. I cooked so Michael is washing up.

5. A stack of flower granny squares done.

Tomorrows dinner is a cheapy also, I have a pack of 4 100% beef burgers from the Co-op that were RTC 50p ages ago, I emptied the shelf and got them into the freezer. I am on a mission to eat the contents before I move so decided to have a meat fest. I will pan fry them and serve with fried onions, sauted mushrooms, out of the deep freeze from work last year and potatoes, either mashed or pan fried.

 I am off out tonight, just for a couple of hours, Neville has got his hands on some old western TV series on DVD and a few of us are congregating to watch a few. I will be the baby there by around 12 years, most of these were on the TV before I was born.
I have managed to ramble on and I am sure that I got side tracked and totally lost the thread, never mind, now you see what happens when I allow my mind to wander as it will.


     TTFN                                                           Pam

Dinner for Four for £2 and a new crochet project.

I have been busy and idle today, I was up and about at stupid o'clock, in the new Tesco at Wisbech and home again before 9 this morning. It is a Tesco Extra, not huge but plenty big enough. I didn't need much but went for a nosey and a tank full of petrol, I used my latest vouchers so it was extra cheap.

I had very little to do in the cottage today so a brew, a walk with Ben and then a whizz round with vacuum, polish and cloth and it was 10.30. 

I decided that as my crochet hooks had just arrived I would give them a whirl. Out came the book that I have been hoarding for months.

I had always intended to make this as soon as I felt able, but the colour is too bland, mine will be green, pink and cream. I will show and tell soon.

I also caught up with emails and blog reading, ooh I must share. I won the give away on Little Family of 3, some yummylicious mushroom couscous from AF. Sarah bought it and the family didn't like it much. I look forward to trying it, as I love couscous and mushrooms it should be a winner.

I have guests for dinner tonight, I am determined to stick to my use it up and keep it cheap campaign, hmmm 2 boys to feed..... I know PIZZA.

I also wanted to make some rolls to have with my soup lunches. Out came another book.

I bought this book for 50p at a car boot sale, someone had paid £5 for it, cover price was £25 duh.

I have made this recipe many times and love it as a loaf so I thought rolls and a Pizza base in one go. Boom. I used half and half wholemeal and white bread flour.

Pizza base part cooked for 5 minutes.

Five rolls, Monday to Friday lunches.

The pizza base was spread with a dilution of tomato paste, water and a squeeze of hot and spicy tomato sauce.

Then I tipped on some sliced smoked sausage, diced roast pork and diced roast chicken all from the freezer. This was drizzled with a sachet of Thai Sweet Chilli sauce. Then a layer of vegetables was added, red and green peppers, red onion and mushrooms.

A special from AF, I think they were 5p each.

I had some Stilton from a well reduced wheel bought after Christmas and portioned and frozen down. A little went a long way.

Looks pretty good to me.

This was mine, the smallest piece, OMW it was so good. I had half a bag of mixed salad, plenty for 4. I have roughly worked this out to cost of £2.00, dinner for 50p nice.

I had planned on a pudding but we were all full, well the boys did manage to squeeze 2 muffins down , 2 each that is. I keep some in the freezer, 1 minute in the ding oven.

Reasons to be grateful.

1. Good food, good friends, very good.

2. A new learned skill coming in to play.

3. Bright sunshine all day.

4. A book by my newest found author is about to be televised.

5. I have a stack of "Crocodile Hunter" recorded to crochet by.

I watched these Steve Irwin programs when they were first shown and it is good to see them again. he was very enthusiastic, some times a bit OTT, but was so genuine that it did not matter.

I have not abandoned my sewing, I have several things on the go but the crochet is new and I am so pleased to be getting on with it.

I have some more Sandringham pictures to share and hope to do that tomorrow.

I had a very busy day yesterday and it was almost 10:00 pm before I realised that I had not written a post, that means that there will be a couple of long ones like today's.

Time to go and make tea I think.

TTFN                                                               Pam

Busy Doing Nothing, Working the whole day long.

I have been pottering around all day, in and out of the garden, pushing the vacuum cleaner round the whole cottage, picking things up and putting them where they belong, walking Ben in the sunshine and the rain. Sorted out a few things to take to the CS, and filled a recycling bag with very elderly magazines, all glossy so no good for compost.
I am sure that lots of you have days like that, butterfly days when you flit from room to room and job to job. Perpetual motion without doing much of anything. It does not feel as though I have been working but looking round I see more space, empty flat surfaces, nothing glaringly out of place.
By 3.00 I was starting to feel hungry, I had taken a bacon chop out of the freezer (Cooking Bacon from Mr S), I diced it small and poured boiling water over it to take out the salt and put it to drain after 15 minutes or so. I had a dish of homemade chunky veg soup and I strained the veg out and mixed with the bacon. That was the filling sorted, now what to wrap it in? Ding! I have some herby dumpling mix from AF. I put a pan of water on to boil and got busy. I made the mix up and rolled it out to a rough square, spread the filling over and rolled it up like a Swiss Roll, wrap loosely in baking Paper then foil and drop into boiling watere onto the trivet from my pressure cooker. I let it simmer and steam for nearly 3 hours. Now I did think about using the pressure cooker but I like the crust to be brown and a bit crisp and that needs time.

Served with cabbage, 3 hungry servings, it,s a good job that I have 2 neighbours, I turned the stained soup into a tomatoey gravy and it disappeared at an alarming rate.

I put an old fashioned steamer basket on top of the pan and in that I put a basin with around 3/4 pt of water and a chopped up chicken carcass. That gave me some concentrated stock and a dish of meat for Ben.

I had boned the chicken out a while ago and put the bones in the freezer, there was not a huge amount of meat left on the bones, I use a very good, very sharp boning knife.

I think that dinner worked out at around £1.50 including the electricity, not bad for such a good dinner.

Reasons to be grateful.

1. Lots of little jobs added up to a good days work.

2. Good food, great cost, minimal work.

3. Bones is on TV tomorrow.

4. Bright sunshine for most of the day, heavy rain was forecast.

5. Mr T has sent me some very good vouchers, I haven't been to see him for months he must be missing me.

Needless to say I will be shopping there this weekend, I have a £6 off a £40 pound shop voucher and some money off coupons for various items that I often buy, I may not need to buy them this time but I will as the savings will be worth it.

I am going to start cutting the next quilt top tomorrow, there will not be too much to cut as I will be using my scrap stash to make Courthouse Step blocks.
I am off to the wool shop this week to get some yarn ready for when my crochet hooks arrive, they have to come down the Amazon, delivery date is next Monday. I have decided on my first project and will share it however it turns out.

I feel a cup of tea is called for, then I am going to get my fabric boxes out and some fat quarters ready for the morning.

                 TTFN                                    Pam

Quilt in a Day, Very Nearly.

A warm welcome to 2 new followers, Jozzie and Caryl W, I hope you find something to interest you.
An apology to those who commented yesterday, I like to reply to each but Blogger had other ideas, words were transposed and replies put in the wrong place so I threw the towel in.

Another Announcement.

Quilt top number 3 is finished. I was reading my new book from  Camille, of Bonnie and Camille, and I saw her "big block" version of Churn Dash. It has taken an old block and made it thoroughly modern, I fell in love there and then.
I slept on it and remembered that I had some Savanna Bop in my stash, I bought it ages ago at a really good price. So I made a block and used some bright Turquoise for a bold splash, then I made another with a different print, they looked so good together that I made 2 more and a quilt was born.
I have 2 more prints from the collection and a plan is fermenting for number 4. 
There is a great deal of white space in this and I am thinking of using a bold cotton for the quilting or a little applique here and there.
If I had only spent the day sewing I could have made 2 like this with no problem, I normally make quilts with lots of small pieces so this was very new to me. I would not want to make every quilt with big blocks but a fast finish gives you a feel good glow.

Reasons to be grateful.

1. One step nearer to my donated quilt total.

2. A gift of an old Randolph Scott film on DVD.

3. Sunshine this afternoon.

4. The viral video from BBC Radio 2 today is brilliant, I have only watched it 3 times.

5. I thought that I had to have an external door replaced, but the nice man who came out to look at it found that it was any easy fix and charged me £10.

I don't watch the Radio 2 things usually but was listening to Steve Wright and he played the sound track, I logged on to Facebook and watched it and watched it and watched it. Ben was watching as well but was not impressed.

An easy dinner tonight, minced beef cobbler with roast root veg. At less than 90p a serving and very tasty I am happy, and very full.

I may have a day off sewing tomorrow, I have sewed my way through 3 quilt tops and want to do some other bits and bobs before I start the 4th. I also want to vacuum all the threads up, they have trailed all over the cottage, it is also time I washed all the paintwork down. I do not like housework but equally I do not like being in a muddle.

In my quest to learn to crochet I have bought a set of hooks from up the Amazon, I now have to get some yarn, I have a "how to" book and have found some tutorials on You tube. I will not give in, I have seen some truly gorgeous crochet on some of my blog list and I want to do that.

Oh My, it is gone 7 and the sink is full of dishes, I need to shake my tail feathers.
       TTFN                                                                  Pam

Putting my Money Where My Mouth Is.

That is what my Granny used to say if someone was pontificating, telling us all how "it" should be done. "Stop talking about it, put your money where your mouth is and go and do it"
Well yesterday I ran on about food thrift and blogger recipes, today is a dreary and damp day so it is Play Time in the kitchen.

First of all, those fancy sausages that I bought in Beckenham, not worth the price, not really tasty and quite chewy, so what to do with them.
The Italian and French ones were very samey, just a slight difference in size and seasoning, I dry fried them ready for the slow cooker treatment.

Once they had some nice brown markings I put them into the cooker and started on the veg.

2 carrots, 1 small onion, 1/2 a small swede and half a soft red pepper, a little sizzling and into the cooker.

The end of my last butternut squash, a lonely leek and a stick of celery, a finely diced red chili and some garlic were next, duly sizzled and added to the pot.

I pulled some home made passata from the freezer and used a tin each of chickpeas and chopped tomatoes, these were either 4 or 5 for £1 in Sainsbury,s last year, I filled a trolley! I heated these up and added a heaped spoon of smoked paprika and a tsp of dried herb mix. They went into the pot with a good grind of black pepper and enough chicken stock to just about cover everything.

On low for 5 to 6 hours, as the sausages were quite expensive and huge I will cut them into chunks when cooked, that way they stay in nice firm pieces. This lot will make 8 or 9 meals and will be served in Yorkshire Puddings, with rice, cous cous, pasta or mashed potato, depending on how I feel at the time.

When ever I see these sort of prices I pounce, the chili bags go straight into the freezer, I just take what I want out and chop them up frozen. The carrots will be mostly used today and any left will go into veg hash and be frozen 

These are some of the seeds from my squash, I will wash the fibrous flesh off, drain and dry them before sowing them in pots. I pick the best squash and then the fattest seeds and sow many more than I need. Then I once again select the best looking plants to grow, the rest go to neighbours and/or the charity shop.

Reasons to be grateful.

1. Lots of tasty dinners to be squirreled away.

2. The day may be wet but it is warm.

3. I had a parcel from up the Amazon this morning.

4. Marina is still holding firm, she will never get better but is not giving in or up.

5. I picked up a £2 coin in the car park yesterday.

I have a pan of minced beef and veg simmering away, that will make shepherds pie and some double crust pies for the freezer. I used the same mixture of veg as the sausage  casserole just diced finer and browned it off with the mince, added a squeeze of tomato puree and some stock. I will thicken it then chill it down and portion it out. Then decide what to make and how many servings I want. I use 80/20 % mince as it has more flavour than the very lean. If too much fat renders out I drain it off and use to  fry off veg for another meal, why waste all that flavour.

Here it is, browning nicely.

Oh yes, my parcel, I almost forgot.

Inspiration for using my scrap pile and at just £1.20 a steal. Full of good ideas that will use all my little snippets.

TTFN                                                  Pam