I've no idea what the Mean Bean Challenge is (although it does sound rather interesting), but if it involves being an occasional vegetarian, I'd recommend potato curry - cheap, easy, versatile and rather good.
eta: looking back at that recipe, I used chicken stock because I'm not a vegetarian and I always have chicken stock in the freezer, but obviously it could be made with veggie stock.
This morning I was given a rather wilted stem of kale by someone who knows I make crisps, and they came out very well with no hint of their wiltedness. As the oven I made a batch of scones for the freezer, although there are still some for virtual tasting with jam. I seem to be in a scone phase.
Right now the house alarm of a nearby empty buy-to-let is screaming away. No one knows how to contact the owner. A neighbour has offered to shoot it.
There were three shops in a row in suburban block I used to live in. Leftovers from a way of life where many blocks also had small shops. Two shops became offices but the third was an electronic shop with a very large loud temperamental alarm high up on veranda over the footpath. Noise many times of the day and night. Complaints were disregarded.
One Sunday afternoon it went off again and would not stop. Police could do nothing as owner was not there. Eventually the caretaker of German Catholic church over the road marched out with a large , very solid broom. Alarm box was never the same again after he attacked it with the broom. It sat askew and tried to make noise. It did still work but was so soft we could disregard it. Of course, no one knew what had happened to it! At least not to tell owner.
Spring is sprung, and I've been stung - by a wasp!
I pulled up the last stalk of kalettes this afternoon and had it lying across my lap, pulling off those kalettes that were not rushing into flower, when I got a sharp stabbing pain in my thigh.
I suppose he was doing me a favour by eating the whitefly that so love kale, but I'm afraid I squashed him on the garden path.
Our power has been off since 11am and due to be off until 11pm
I have a heavy duty battery charger which keeps my iPad going. Mr Boogs mocked when I bought it - who’s laughing now?!
I had a similar experience many years ago (when still married). I had gotten a battery-powered camping lantern, also mocked by my ex. The lights went out one evening, and I had plenty of light for reading. Mr. Grumpy was not happy. (He had been, IIRC, watching television.)
g/mother - professional singer, forced to leave the Carl Rosa when they found she was pregnant ( I hasten to add, she was married by this stage...)
Mr RoS's maternal grandmother sang with the Carl Rosa. I can't say exactly when as the year, if mentioned, in her press cuttings, has been deleted, or altered - but it must have been in the 1920s.
I think singing Mimi at The Theatre Royal, Nottingham in April 19?? was the high point of her career, as we have a pastel portrait of her in that rôle hanging in our spare room.
They probably knew each other. I wish I had anything that relates to that time, but if my grandmother didn't destroy them, presumably my mother did. All I have is the bare fact, and no one to ask.
On a more positive note, I made it to Church for the first time since Christmas (thank you virus).
We had a big supper last night to say thanks to Bindy and Kevin for having us. Grandchildrten there as well. Today the weather has turned for the worse, cool and overcast and reainy.
The power came on at 3am (so the website tells me, I was fast asleep by 9:30!)
I thought the puppy may wake early after such an early night but no, he slept ‘till a civilised 7:30am
Today should have been puppy class but my ribs aren’t quite back to normal so I’m going to miss for today.
I haven’t reported the accident as it would be a mark against the pup’s name and his record is unblemished so far. It wasn’t his fault, he was very excited by the other two dogs and I was less vigilant than usual. If it happens again I’ll have to report him, but I don’t think it will.
Talking of health, there I was Saturday perfectly fine, holding dinner party. Small hours of Sunday morning - raging neuralgia, streaming nose, aching throat. I feel I have not so much caught this cold as been mugged by it.
Talking of health, there I was Saturday perfectly fine, holding dinner party. Small hours of Sunday morning - raging neuralgia, streaming nose, aching throat. I feel I have not so much caught this cold as been mugged by it.
They do. We have the family card and could have a free coffee at the end - but we just want to get oooooout by then and never bother with the coffee. 😜
All day long on Saturday, Captain Pyjamas was in an absolutely filthy mood. He did nothing but cry and whine and rail all day, interspersed with fits of trying to touch stuff he’s not allowed.
I knew he had a tooth coming through in the bottom, which I figured was the cause for his ill temper. And lo and behold, yesterday lunchtime I spotted not only the beginnings of a tooth in his bottom gum, but also two more in the top. So three altogether, all at the same time. No wonder he was feeling grumpy.
On the upside, this will make eight teeth in total, which is quite a lot. My Dad (who is coming in a couple of weeks’ time) has decreed that we are going to go to a bistro so he can order chips and feed him one.
Ratatoille has been a regular on our menu as Lady P can't have anything with more than a trace of protein. It's basically courgette, aubergine, peppers, onion, all diced, fried then simmered with a can of chopped tomatoes, tomato puree and garlic puree. It's uick and tasty, and makes a good topping for bled potatoes.
Oh I love my visits to my favourite (only!) Swedish restaurant for a flatpack meal (not meatballs though) on the way to or from ushering at a nearby theatre. And free coffee.
Back from the Blue and Yellow emporium with the things I needed and, yes, managed to have lunch: the IKEA version of Räksmörgås - though I prefer the traditional rye bread and why no dill? - times two (I was hungry!) plus some coffee.
Crikey - no wonder he was feeling grumpy ... oh, I see what you mean ... Poor Captain Pyjamas - hope he's happier now!
I spoke to my sister last night, and she was waxing lyrical about what a contented wee soul Archie seems to be (so far - he's only two days old!). She was almost set on Friday to go down to London for the march, but then got a message to say her daughter-in-law had gone into labour, so that was the end of that.
Baked potatoes with cheese and tomato-and-avocado salad have been consumed. Later D's got the Paper Bag choir, and I think I'll go this time - there were a few people at their first meeting who can carry a tune in a paper bag (one of them sings in the Cathedral choir and another in the Cathedral band), so maybe I won't stick out like a sore thumb, and people did seem to enjoy it.
In other news, we've got a new little visitor on the deck - a v. cute red squirrel - and there have been a few mourning doves fluttering about as well.
Ratatoille has been a regular on our menu as Lady P can't have anything with more than a trace of protein. It's basically courgette, aubergine, peppers, onion, all diced, fried then simmered with a can of chopped tomatoes, tomato puree and garlic puree. It's uick and tasty, and makes a good topping for bled potatoes.
Ooo yes ratatoille is good. I might pick up an aubergine and pepper and make some on Wednesday. Out for tea tomorrow night to an Italian restaurant. Yum yum!
Dropping in after some days, so something of a non-sequitur, but on both sides of my family I am related to none other than infamous grade one arsehole Dick Turpin.
I'll see your highwayman and raise you a pirate and a few sheep-stealers ...
* * * * *
I quite enjoyed the Paper Bag singers - and I think I may have been some use, as the people I was sitting with tried to follow what I was singing (most of the right notes, and usually in the right order).
I like singing for D. anyway (well, I would, wouldn't I?), so why not take a chance to do it a bit more? Also, what we sang made a change from my usual repertoire.
Sinusitis having throttled back into coughs and sniffles, I feel well enough to do something - but just not any of the things that are actually pressing, like going out to the supermarket, or hitting the garden.
My first proper weekday off for a few weeks (I work flexibly part time). I had a lovely sunny walk to the garden centre where I failed to find what I wanted. Now I’m browsing at home and feeling lazy.
Don’t want to hit my garden as there is a man at the end of it building us a new fence.
If anyone needs a garden to hit, we have several trees that need cutting down and the way I'm feeling it won't get done. And I don't care if its the wrong time of year - they're self-seeded, in the wrong place, and cutting off the sun. Must let in more light since the fatherless individual next door built his garage (aka man cave) to the maximum size and height the Borough Council allowed. Grrrr
There's lots in my garden that i can't do at the moment, as my back is pretty painful - so this morning I took Mr RoS away from the odd jobs he does for various elderly and infirm folk around here and stood over him while he edged all round the back lawn, and pulled or dug up all the weeds growing in the cracks in and between the paving stones and at the join between the house walls with the paths. Which have been 'his' jobs since we moved here, anyway.
Why he can't do these things on a regular basis, so it is not such mammoth chore requiring me to schedule a full morning for it, I do not know.
I spent two hours yesterday debuttercupping part of one of my daughter's herbaceous borders. She has a crazily big garden, but it came with the house and she loves gardening - fine, except that she has a full-time job, a three-year-old and another on the way in August*.
Luckily she also has me... when we looked at our 'new' house, I observed that there was more house and less garden that I would have chosen, but she pointed out that I could unleash any spare gardening power on her third of an acre!
* she also has a lovely husband, but he is currently spending every spare minute trying to get the house ready for another family member!
O shame on you! And there's Our Blessed Lord in the Gospels as ever was, a-extolling of the Virtues of such Lilies!
(Seriously, buttercups can be a tad...er....invasive. Good luck with the warfare thinning-out).
ION, the 'Arguing' thread down in Hell is getting to be Fun, and I have managed to find a companion Trollopian clergyman to the Reverend Oleaginous Gloop, introduced to you Good Souls on this board (IIRC) some time ago.
The New Boy is the Reverend Sanctimonious Tosh, (possibly) Perpetual Curate of St Admonition-in-the-Mud, but other suggestions as to a suitable parish would be welcome.
It's a nice, mild, day here. I've done me Pilates session, and so I'm now virtually immobile, apart from hobbling to the Stove now and then to see how me PIE (Kate & Sidney) is getting on.
With you so far, Shamwari, but not quite at the al fresco breakfast stage yet.
As for cutting the lawn, we'll have to find it first ...
I used to know a Reverend Tosh, but he wasn't a bit sanctimonious; he was the producer for religious programmes in Northern Ireland and a Jolly Good Chap.
I still think Sanctimonious Tosh would be a good name for a pompous vicar though!
Lunch (sausages and some left-over chicken cooked in shop-bought tomato and basil sauce with pasta) has been consumed, bread made (and some of it consumed). I was just about to put some crumbs out for our wee friends on the deck, when I noticed Tufty the red squirrel sitting on the snow-bank, so I held off rather than frighten him away. D. said he'd been reading up about their habits, and they tend to venture out in mid-afternoon (a bit like us!).
Our left-over chicken was used for this evening's meal. In a sauce made from defrosted onion/tomato/courgette stew, (known in the family as "Rat" because it is considerably short of a ratatouille) with extra garlic, tomato puree, capers and sliced black olives.
This was the third time this chicken has served the two of us as a main course, and there is plenty left for lunch tomorrow - it has not stretched quite as far as MMM's chicken, but I do like chicken, which we don't have all that often, so I am a bit greedy with it.
I made Thai red sweet potato soup, which came in my veg box. I’ve decided I find sweet potato soup very dull and uninspiring, even when mildly spicy.
Went out this evening to the last week of a ten week bible study of Acts and this week we lit candles on all the places Paul visited on a map (drawn on a bedsheet). It was quite a lovely overview of the gospel spreading over a huge area in just a few years.
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As for cutting the lawn, we'll have to find it first ...
I cut ours today! Would you believe it's the third time this year?
Our back lawn which is buffalo grass was mown by grandson on Sunday afternoon. I sat out there in sun yesterday morning, Tuesday, and saw it had grown three centimetres.
He also put ride on mower over the huge front area which can’t really be glorified by calling it lawn. I t had lots of paspalum sprouting, much of it almost at the ripening of the seeds stage. Yesterday the seed stalks had gone but the leaves had grown a good deal in a couple of days.
The weather is transitioning to autumn but thre have been many storms which have watered the area and add in a bit of sunshine and it is still growing.
https://weeds.brisbane.qld.gov.au/weeds/paspalum, a scourge of down here. The seeds become sticky and stick to legs and clothes, thus ensuring they are spread. Many years ago they were associated with impetigo sores, also known as school sores. Possibly an old wives’ tale.
Just caught up with tonight’s Sewing Bee, and found that I was 30 years ahead of them - back in the 80s I made dhoti pants that I still wear. So now I’m wondering if I can transform a Kenyan robe (not as colourful as theirs though: brown & black). But I won’t be trying origami any time soon.
... This was the third time this chicken has served the two of us ...
Costco rotisserie-roasted chickens are a staple chez Piglet - they cost $7.99 (about £4.50) and in one way or another they'll feed us at least three or four times, then I make stock with the bones, some of which will go to make SOUP, so that's another lunch.
You couldn't buy a raw chicken for that, which is almost a shame, because I quite like the idea of cooking it myself, maybe with orange and lemon or lots of garlic, but the ready-cooked ones are just so cheap and convenient.
I made Thai red sweet potato soup, which came in my veg box. I’ve decided I find sweet potato soup very dull and uninspiring, even when mildly spicy.
Went out this evening to the last week of a ten week bible study of Acts and this week we lit candles on all the places Paul visited on a map (drawn on a bedsheet). It was quite a lovely overview of the gospel spreading over a huge area in just a few years.
I think I remember see you eat low carb. Add lots of fresh herbs to your soup, even just parsley, but basil is also good. Stir through a splosh of cream or add a dollop of sour cream at serving. It lifts the soup.
I also make curried sweet potato which is good in colder weather. If feeling energetic I make pork meatballs, quite small and add about 15 minutes before serving. Colesworths down here sell small chicken meatballs which are convenient for this too. Have not checked these for carb content. Pappadums are easily cooked in microwave and can be used to add feeling of toast at much lower carb content.
Down here one of the big brands of bread makes lower carb bread but most do not like it. We buy bread which is two carbs a slice, is mostly seeds .
Leftover chicken can be diced and added, as can other meats. Dumplings are tasty and filling but perhaps not suitable.
These fixes can of course be used with other soups.
We eat fairly low carb here and one of us is very strict, the others less so to varying degrees. I have lost about thirty kilos that way over a period of time and it has not crept back. I am not the strict one in the house.
Ooh, Za'atar on sweet potato chips sounds good - I chip them too. I have tended to make sweet potato and butternut squash Thai red curry, with or without added chicken, but that will be because I make it from reduced packs of sweet potato and butternut squash chunks when I find them.
@daisydaisy those dhoti pants on the Sewing Bee were amazing. I wondered if they would be worth making (from cheap market fabric), as I'm still looking for trouser patterns. Problem is I am currently wearing pre-teen boy's jeans (152/158cm - age 11 or 12) and am definitely not the shape women's pattern cutters are using. I have just about finished making a pair of cotton trousers for summer, which look OK, but were not a quick make as they have had a lot of alterations to get remotely near fitting (the zip isn't in quite the right place, a result of some of the other alterations). I am hoping that I've successfully transferred the changes to the traced pattern pieces so have a working block.
One of today's tasks is to trial water globes for Guides tonight. I have bought in UV cured epoxy glue that I hope is going to glue plastics in a wet situation and to check which ideas we've had will work (colouring plastic with sharpies and/or acrylic paint to make fish or animals)
Thirty kilos is a lot to lose! Well done.
I do low carb but am very flexible about it (I love dumplings!). I like the sound of mini meatballs to lift the taste of sweet potato curry.
Me too, Firenze, I make spicy sweet potato chips/baked sweet potato all the time and they are great but soup is just not hitting the spot. I’d far rather have parsnip.
Comments
eta: looking back at that recipe, I used chicken stock because I'm not a vegetarian and I always have chicken stock in the freezer, but obviously it could be made with veggie stock.
There were three shops in a row in suburban block I used to live in. Leftovers from a way of life where many blocks also had small shops. Two shops became offices but the third was an electronic shop with a very large loud temperamental alarm high up on veranda over the footpath. Noise many times of the day and night. Complaints were disregarded.
One Sunday afternoon it went off again and would not stop. Police could do nothing as owner was not there. Eventually the caretaker of German Catholic church over the road marched out with a large , very solid broom. Alarm box was never the same again after he attacked it with the broom. It sat askew and tried to make noise. It did still work but was so soft we could disregard it. Of course, no one knew what had happened to it! At least not to tell owner.
I pulled up the last stalk of kalettes this afternoon and had it lying across my lap, pulling off those kalettes that were not rushing into flower, when I got a sharp stabbing pain in my thigh.
I suppose he was doing me a favour by eating the whitefly that so love kale, but I'm afraid I squashed him on the garden path.
My thigh still hurts
I had a similar experience many years ago (when still married). I had gotten a battery-powered camping lantern, also mocked by my ex. The lights went out one evening, and I had plenty of light for reading. Mr. Grumpy was not happy. (He had been, IIRC, watching television.)
They probably knew each other. I wish I had anything that relates to that time, but if my grandmother didn't destroy them, presumably my mother did. All I have is the bare fact, and no one to ask.
On a more positive note, I made it to Church for the first time since Christmas (thank you virus).
[edited to fix coding - Piglet, AS host]
I thought the puppy may wake early after such an early night but no, he slept ‘till a civilised 7:30am
Today should have been puppy class but my ribs aren’t quite back to normal so I’m going to miss for today.
I haven’t reported the accident as it would be a mark against the pup’s name and his record is unblemished so far. It wasn’t his fault, he was very excited by the other two dogs and I was less vigilant than usual. If it happens again I’ll have to report him, but I don’t think it will.
Ouch! Get well soon xx
Now that is the pits!
Hope you are soon back unscathed!
They do. We have the family card and could have a free coffee at the end - but we just want to get oooooout by then and never bother with the coffee. 😜
I knew he had a tooth coming through in the bottom, which I figured was the cause for his ill temper. And lo and behold, yesterday lunchtime I spotted not only the beginnings of a tooth in his bottom gum, but also two more in the top. So three altogether, all at the same time. No wonder he was feeling grumpy.
On the upside, this will make eight teeth in total, which is quite a lot. My Dad (who is coming in a couple of weeks’ time) has decreed that we are going to go to a bistro so he can order chips and feed him one.
Oh I love my visits to my favourite (only!) Swedish restaurant for a flatpack meal (not meatballs though) on the way to or from ushering at a nearby theatre. And free coffee.
And all the screws, etc, were present and correct
I spoke to my sister last night, and she was waxing lyrical about what a contented wee soul Archie seems to be (so far - he's only two days old!). She was almost set on Friday to go down to London for the march, but then got a message to say her daughter-in-law had gone into labour, so that was the end of that.
Baked potatoes with cheese and tomato-and-avocado salad have been consumed. Later D's got the Paper Bag choir, and I think I'll go this time - there were a few people at their first meeting who can carry a tune in a paper bag (one of them sings in the Cathedral choir and another in the Cathedral band), so maybe I won't stick out like a sore thumb, and people did seem to enjoy it.
In other news, we've got a new little visitor on the deck - a v. cute red squirrel - and there have been a few mourning doves fluttering about as well.
Spring might be springing ...
Ooo yes ratatoille is good. I might pick up an aubergine and pepper and make some on Wednesday. Out for tea tomorrow night to an Italian restaurant. Yum yum!
STAND AND DELIVER!
AG
* * * * *
I quite enjoyed the Paper Bag singers - and I think I may have been some use, as the people I was sitting with tried to follow what I was singing (most of the right notes, and usually in the right order).
I like singing for D. anyway (well, I would, wouldn't I?), so why not take a chance to do it a bit more? Also, what we sang made a change from my usual repertoire.
MMM
We get far fewer little birds since next door cut all their bushes down, but you can hear them all singing away in the park.
Don’t want to hit my garden as there is a man at the end of it building us a new fence.
Why he can't do these things on a regular basis, so it is not such mammoth chore requiring me to schedule a full morning for it, I do not know.
Luckily she also has me... when we looked at our 'new' house, I observed that there was more house and less garden that I would have chosen, but she pointed out that I could unleash any spare gardening power on her third of an acre!
* she also has a lovely husband, but he is currently spending every spare minute trying to get the house ready for another family member!
Mrs. S, scourge of the lilies of the field
(Seriously, buttercups can be a tad...er....invasive. Good luck with the warfare thinning-out).
ION, the 'Arguing' thread down in Hell is getting to be Fun, and I have managed to find a companion Trollopian clergyman to the Reverend Oleaginous Gloop, introduced to you Good Souls on this board (IIRC) some time ago.
The New Boy is the Reverend Sanctimonious Tosh, (possibly) Perpetual Curate of St Admonition-in-the-Mud, but other suggestions as to a suitable parish would be welcome.
It's a nice, mild, day here. I've done me Pilates session, and so I'm now virtually immobile, apart from hobbling to the Stove now and then to see how me PIE (Kate & Sidney) is getting on.
As for cutting the lawn, we'll have to find it first ...
I used to know a Reverend Tosh, but he wasn't a bit sanctimonious; he was the producer for religious programmes in Northern Ireland and a Jolly Good Chap.
I still think Sanctimonious Tosh would be a good name for a pompous vicar though!
Lunch (sausages and some left-over chicken cooked in shop-bought tomato and basil sauce with pasta) has been consumed, bread made (and some of it consumed). I was just about to put some crumbs out for our wee friends on the deck, when I noticed Tufty the red squirrel sitting on the snow-bank, so I held off rather than frighten him away. D. said he'd been reading up about their habits, and they tend to venture out in mid-afternoon (a bit like us!).
This was the third time this chicken has served the two of us as a main course, and there is plenty left for lunch tomorrow - it has not stretched quite as far as MMM's chicken, but I do like chicken, which we don't have all that often, so I am a bit greedy with it.
Went out this evening to the last week of a ten week bible study of Acts and this week we lit candles on all the places Paul visited on a map (drawn on a bedsheet). It was quite a lovely overview of the gospel spreading over a huge area in just a few years.
Our back lawn which is buffalo grass was mown by grandson on Sunday afternoon. I sat out there in sun yesterday morning, Tuesday, and saw it had grown three centimetres.
He also put ride on mower over the huge front area which can’t really be glorified by calling it lawn. I t had lots of paspalum sprouting, much of it almost at the ripening of the seeds stage. Yesterday the seed stalks had gone but the leaves had grown a good deal in a couple of days.
The weather is transitioning to autumn but thre have been many storms which have watered the area and add in a bit of sunshine and it is still growing.
https://weeds.brisbane.qld.gov.au/weeds/paspalum, a scourge of down here. The seeds become sticky and stick to legs and clothes, thus ensuring they are spread. Many years ago they were associated with impetigo sores, also known as school sores. Possibly an old wives’ tale.
You couldn't buy a raw chicken for that, which is almost a shame, because I quite like the idea of cooking it myself, maybe with orange and lemon or lots of garlic, but the ready-cooked ones are just so cheap and convenient.
I think I remember see you eat low carb. Add lots of fresh herbs to your soup, even just parsley, but basil is also good. Stir through a splosh of cream or add a dollop of sour cream at serving. It lifts the soup.
I also make curried sweet potato which is good in colder weather. If feeling energetic I make pork meatballs, quite small and add about 15 minutes before serving. Colesworths down here sell small chicken meatballs which are convenient for this too. Have not checked these for carb content. Pappadums are easily cooked in microwave and can be used to add feeling of toast at much lower carb content.
Down here one of the big brands of bread makes lower carb bread but most do not like it. We buy bread which is two carbs a slice, is mostly seeds .
Leftover chicken can be diced and added, as can other meats. Dumplings are tasty and filling but perhaps not suitable.
These fixes can of course be used with other soups.
We eat fairly low carb here and one of us is very strict, the others less so to varying degrees. I have lost about thirty kilos that way over a period of time and it has not crept back. I am not the strict one in the house.
I make sweet potato chips - roasted in the oven with lots of za’atar.
@daisydaisy those dhoti pants on the Sewing Bee were amazing. I wondered if they would be worth making (from cheap market fabric), as I'm still looking for trouser patterns. Problem is I am currently wearing pre-teen boy's jeans (152/158cm - age 11 or 12) and am definitely not the shape women's pattern cutters are using. I have just about finished making a pair of cotton trousers for summer, which look OK, but were not a quick make as they have had a lot of alterations to get remotely near fitting (the zip isn't in quite the right place, a result of some of the other alterations). I am hoping that I've successfully transferred the changes to the traced pattern pieces so have a working block.
One of today's tasks is to trial water globes for Guides tonight. I have bought in UV cured epoxy glue that I hope is going to glue plastics in a wet situation and to check which ideas we've had will work (colouring plastic with sharpies and/or acrylic paint to make fish or animals)
I do low carb but am very flexible about it (I love dumplings!). I like the sound of mini meatballs to lift the taste of sweet potato curry.
Me too, Firenze, I make spicy sweet potato chips/baked sweet potato all the time and they are great but soup is just not hitting the spot. I’d far rather have parsnip.