Le weekend (or is it La weekend)

Le or La ? I failed French O level way back in 1971 and have since forgotten most of what I did learn.

On Friday we popped over to see our perfect granddaughter - 3 and a half weeks old now. She's always perfect when we see her but daughter A says she's being a right pain at night!
We went via the house that sells apples, we've been detouring that way because they've got bags of Cox's for 50p and they are just delicious, got a bag for A too. Did a small shop at Co-op in Leiston while we were there as I had a £2 off £10 voucher. Our local Co-op near Aldi has been turned into a McColls convenience store and a Subway and they have sent Co-op members in the area 2 x £2 off £10 vouchers to make up for the inconvenience. There are 3 other Co-ops on the edges of this estate so I'm not surprised that the one in competition with Aldi has been forced to close.
Friday afternoon was wet and nasty so I sorted out another box of books for Ziffit. Whoop whoop now raised just over £100 and cleared about 50 books!

Saturday morning by request of Col we went to the Needham Market carboot  (though I didn't take any persuading!) It was blinkin' freezing then it started to drizzle so we weren't there long. Me being on Low spend November I just bought some pears for £1 and this new bag, £1, plus a half started tapestry kit, 50p, for making a glasses case. I love rescuing half done craft kits and will finish this for a Christmas present. The bag will also be a present for a friend as they have a Sherlock Holmes game which they often play at Christmas. I'll put her other present inside it.

I was able to resist all books as I didn't see a single one I wanted! And Col just bought some washers.

Next job was Cranberry Chutney for the hampers............... should be simple but after searching  Morrisons and Aldi  for frozen cranberries with no luck I looked on My Supermarket and found Asda didn't have them either. Only Tesco, so called at Tesco in Saxmundham on the way to daughters but no, none there  which only left going to the big Tesco on the edge of Ipswich where you have to walk half a mile to find what you want and at last found them.
So, how to mix and match two recipes from different books.

On the left is a recipe from The Good Housekeeping Book of Preserves, on the right it's the WI book I used the other day. I had 400g of cranberries and decided the GH book didn't have a big enough proportion of  vinegar or sugar to fruit (and I didn't want to use sultanas or raisins) but I didn't like the idea of cooking the onions and apples in butter or using brown sugar as per the WI recipe.
So my recipe was (and apologies for mixing metric and imperial but that's how my mind works!)
 400g cranberries
Approx 12 oz prepared cooking apples ( peeled,cored,chopped)
Approx 10oz red onions peeled and chopped ( red was what I had but ordinary would do)
¾ lb white sugar
15fl oz distilled white vinegar
2 tsp mixed spice.

I put the apples and onions in the preserving pan covered with a bare minimum of water and cooked them for about 10 minutes until they were starting to soften. Then strained and put  them back in the pan.
Then I added the vinegar and sugar on a gentle heat stirring until the sugar had dissolved, added the frozen cranberries and left on gentle heat until they defrosted (Should have defrosted first I guess). Then I mashed up the cranberries, brought the pan to the boil stirring then reduced heat to a simmer for about half an hour stirring frequently. After that time the mix had thickened up nicely and was looking good. I gave it another 10 minutes just to be sure all excess liquid had been boiled away and then the wooden spoon dragged across the bottom of the pan allowed me to see the bottom for a second  and I potted up into hot sterilised jars and screwed up tight.

 This made 4 and a bit medium jars, I've taken the photo with one lid off so you can see the consistency. It tasted like a fruity sweet and sour mix of jam and chutney. Should be good with turkey or chicken.

Our son came over Saturday afternoon so his Dad could give him a hand with a car repair. Nice to see  Col back in overalls again. He just has to be very careful not to cut himself because the low platelets would mean blood might not clot.



I'd temporarily run out of library books so read this from my shelves. I'd previously read a book by her called "And then there were nuns; adventures in a cloistered life". Both were good.

Saturday evening, our first ever November 5th on a housing estate. Blimey it was like living in a war zone! (but without the fear). How many pounds worth of fireworks went up in smoke I wonder? I love fireworks, would happily stand and watch all of them anywhere but wouldn't dream of buying any! I noticed the £49.99 one from Aldi lasted  all of 115 seconds.........

Sunday
We walked to the library again and they had 4 British library Crime Classics in for me. I'd suggested them on the website and they bought them all. LOVE Suffolk Libraries. Also the new Ann Cleeves - "Cold Earth".
I've started the rescue of the tapestry glasses case. It's half cross stitch but someone had done bits one way and other bits the other diagonal.Then they had done some cross stitch which was all lumpy! I took out the cross stitch bit but there was too much to undo all the wrong tent stitch so I carried on the best I could. It looks OK as long as you don't look too closely. Not sure if it will be good enough to make a Christmas present.



Apples, milk, veg, eggs, frozen cranberries, Dreamies for the cat and a couple of other bits £11.63p.
Car boot sale pears £1 and Xmas gift bits £1.50

Total in the Low/No Spend November challenge £299ish

Back Soon
Sue

That recipe

My mention of mixing a tin of grapefruit with a tin of cheats ready prepared marmalade mix had lots of people asking for more details.
Here is the recipe from the book  W.I Jams,Pickles and Chutneys

I'm making this later so will update this post to let you know what it's like and if it tastes good I'll add the recipe to my separate page.

UPDATE
It works and tastes delicious.
As Pat says in comments - people on statins shouldn't eat grapefruit and it does have a HUGE amount of sugar in it. I've put the recipe on my recipe page with more details.


Welcome to some more followers, hope you enjoy reading.



Back Soon
Sue

New Favourite Pasta sauce

When we decided to move into town we knew we wouldn't be able to grow much food this year but I thought I could take advantage of the cheap veg offers in Aldi and Asda. The first week I shopped at Asda they had a selection of things for 39p(I think) but next time that offer had disappeared.There's been no sign of their wonky veg boxes either. Aldi's weekly offer is 6 different things for 59p each but if you look at their other veg some is less than 59p anyway. No help at all. But across the road from Aldi is a old fashioned greengrocers and they have a board out the front with special offers at 29p each!
Which brings me onto my title, because with the board announcing Aubergines for 29p I had to make this


Aubergine and Tomato Pasta Sauce.( 3 Large portions or 4 normal)
1 Aubergine chunked
1 Onion - chopped
1 tin of plum tomatoes
Good squirt of Tomato Puree
2 teaspoons brown sugar
A little hot water
Black Pepper

Soften the onion in a little sunflower/rapeseed/olive oil in a large frying pan. Add the aubergine and cook and stir for a few minutes. Add the tinned tomatoes, squirt the tomato puree into the empty can add third/half a tin of hot water, swish around and add to the pan. Sprinkle the brown sugar and mix in, cover and turn down the heat and leave to cook for about 15 - 20 minutes stirring regularly. Add the ground black pepper and serve with pasta (preferably tagliatelle).You could grate a little strong cheese over the top for extra calories and have some crusty bread or my Tomato and Herb rolls to mop up the juices.

Col's taste-buds and appetite haven't been too bad after this last chemo session ( So Far!) and he really enjoyed this. What he is suffering with is a really awful cold and cough and I've had it too but not quite so bad and everywhere you go around about there seems to be people coughing. He was up at hospital today for the regular blood test and review and most of the results were OK but the doctor doubled his antibiotic dose which he has to take for a week starting 5 days after chemo. He is going back for another blood test on Thursday and a blood infusion on Friday.
We both need to get well by the weekend as our eldest and husband are in Suffolk - their first visit since before Christmas. I have a nice bag of pressies for "bump" and after seeing the jumble sale treasures on my post the other day she said she thought "bump" was going to enjoy visiting Nana Sue and Grandad Colin.
I also want it to warm up a bit as our son had the idea that we might all go and visit the family beach hut and it's been so B***** cold yesterday and today that the idea doesn't seem very appealing!


Big Suffolk welcome to 2 new followers - Jennifer and Judy, hope you enjoy reading.
Thanks to everyone for comments last time

Back Soon
Sue

Green Tomato Chutney

One of the tomato plants in the poly-tunnel went rotten at the bottom of the main stem where a side shoot had been removed. It was loaded with green tomatoes, absolutely perfect for making a batch of green tomato chutney. This is a very easy chutney. Nothing to go wrong really and easy to make half the amount.

This is how it was made

Yesterday 4½ lb of tomatoes and 1½lb of onions were sliced and chopped and put in a bowl, then sprinkled with a little salt - about an ounce, covered with a tea towel and left overnight. ( The recipe is really 5lb and 1lb but altering the combination won't matter). This brings a lot of water out of the tomatoes.

Today I  put 2 pints vinegar into a large pan (I didn't have spiced pickling vinegar, which is what the recipe states or pickling spices to make some,  so used ordinary malt vinegar with a couple of teaspoons of mustard seeds and a dried chilli pepper) 1lb sugar, 1lb chopped cooking apples and 1lb of sultanas ( or half and half with raisins) were added and brought  to the boil stirring well to dissolve sugar. Simmer for 10 minutes.
Strain the tomato and onion mix and add to the pan.

Bring it back to boiling and then simmer it for about an hour until there is no loose liquid and it's nice and thick. You need to stir quite often to make sure it doesn't catch and burn on the bottom.

Pour into sterilised jars ( 15 minutes in a hot oven) and cover with clean lids. This made 10 jars of various sizes. It's best left for a few weeks to mature and it keeps for a couple of years. Col likes it with cheese and I also use it in curry.

I have a couple of things that help with jam and chutney making, neither are necessary but just make things easier. A big wooden spoon with a flat edge gets right along the bottom and into the edges of the pan and a wide mouthed funnel for getting the chutney into the jars without making a mess.

I will add this to my separate page of recipes.

We have a bit of warm sunshine here today - in between the cloud, something we've not  really seen for  a week. I'm going to enjoy it while it's here!

Back shortly
Sue

The week flies by

Where do the days go?

Monday was hot and humid. A man with a van came to mend 2 tires on Col's tractor. They were OK on Friday when he was using it but then Saturday morning flat as pancakes.
This is what I picked first thing to go out for sale:- 4 punnets of raspberries, 1 punnet of morello cooking cherries, 4 cucumbers, 2 bunches of beetroot, 4 bags of potatoes, 1 bag of green beans, 1 bunch of onions, 1 Marrow and a small bag of cherry tomatoes - the first toms to go out this year.
On Sunday I moved everything out of the big chest freezer so I could defrost it. We've still got a smaller freezer in the shed so everything was squashed in there with 2 big bricks on the top to keep it shut. Now it's all back in the largest and the small one will go to the scrap yard with the next load of scrap.It was when Col was hauling an old bale sledge out of the nettles to add to the scrap heap that he must have run over something that punctured the tractor tyres .
We've been doing lots more tidying ready to have a barn/yard sale here on 15th August, so as well as the scrap to go, the skip load of rubbish has been taken away.
University Challenge at 8 and Only Connect at 8.30 were the only things we watched on TV. Hardly able to answer any questions - as usual. 

Tuesday, still hot and dry.
 Col went off to get chicken feed and I made 3 loaves of bread and did some weeding. Then I took a bucket of soapy water out to the caravan to give the fridge and oven a good clean. We've checked everything (except the awning and the loo) to make sure it works and the only repair needed is to the worktop cover for the sink and drainer. We spent less than half of my surprise pension payout on this caravan and we are pretty chuffed, because others similar on Ebay are well over £5,000.

Wednesday. Hot and sunny again with a nice breeze. Black skies in the evening produced about 10 spots of rain - no good at all.
 Serves me right for being pleased about the caravan bargain because today the  car went to have an odd rattle checked out and it needs a part that's going to cost us nearly £300. It's something Col can't do himself and its going to take a few days to repair.
 I biked to Saxmundham for  shopping, it was lovely weather for cycling, but hot work walking up the hill out of Saxmundham with a two loaded baskets of shopping - one on the back and one on the front. I've mentioned before that our choice of shops locally is Tesco or Waitrose. - No choice really, and I just don't understand how anyone can afford Waitrose. Take yogurt for instance. Since Col had the bladder operation and the subsequent problems that meant two spells on antibiotics, I've been buying him yogurt to help re-balance everything. Tesco everyday value 45p for 500g versus Waitrose everyday essentials £1.20 for the same amount. Wonder which I buy?
Here is a conversation that happens in our house now and again. Me" I'm trying something for dinner that we've not had before". Him looking and sounding worried "Oh Dear" ! Today it was savoury pancakes stuffed with soft cheese and courgette and chard ( in place of spinach) topped with a home made tomato sauce (the last of my last batch of pizza topping) and cheese. It was OK but needed a bit more ooomph.
Vera on TV in the evening. A new series I think, although I read the book on which this story was based last year, so it seemed very familiar.

Thursday. Really cold overnight, I hope the tent campers on the campsite kept warm. We had some sunshine but quite a lot of cloud too.
 Today I mixed up a big batch of crumble topping to go in the freezer and made 6 boxes of pizza topping too.

This is very simple to make using about a pound of onions, finely chopped and softened in a little sunflower oil. Then half a tube of tomato puree squeezed in and stirred around. Next 2 tins of cheapest plum tomatoes without the juice - I save it to use for cheap tomato soup. Chop up the tomatoes, add pepper and cook everything for a few minutes to thicken.
Another home grown veggie meal for dinner using the first of the aubergines from the poly tunnel.
  Aubergine and pasta bake.

I've added the recipe to the separate recipe page. We only eat this once or twice a year when we have aubergines available as it is quite oily. I then made 6 sausage rolls (using 200g of sausage meat and ¼ of a pack of puff pastry) to shove in the oven at the same time ready for dinner tomorrow and Saturday lunch.
Col was doing some repairs to the lid of the nest box on the chicken shed we are selling and working at our neighbours.
Not a single thing on TV in the evening so it was back to Jo Wiley on radio 2.

I had an email with a voucher for half price delivery from Approved Foods. I've not ordered anything for a while so I had a look to see what they'd got in stock. They still have the lovely malted wheat flour in big 16kg sacks and have reduced the price even more but I do think some of their prices have gone up since they were featured on the TV programme. I dithered a bit and put things in the basket and took them out again.Had another look, checked prices on My supermarket site and eventually put in an order for some of the branded products we buy like Yorkshire Teabags, Heinz tomato ketchup and Blue Dragon stir fry sauce. We've tried cheap tea bags but with our hard water Yorkshire are the only ones that taste good and we use so little tomato sauce that we decided we might as well have something decent. The Blue Dragon sauces were 4 for a £1 - quite a saving. I also got some tortilla wraps, custard powder, Jacobs biscuits for cheese and de-indentified table salt at 5 x 1kg for £1. Think I might give three of these to the children. Cols treat was Liquorice Allsorts and my treat was De-identified Cappuccino dusting at 500g for 75p. That should last ages on my morning Frothy Coffee.

So here we are round to Friday. The first runner beans are out for sale today. I looked on My Supermarket again to check prices and the cheapest were £4.75Kg - Good Grief, and how weird is this -  you can actually buy them ready sliced. Surely they would dry up and look awful? I guess someone must buy them. We are forecast to get some rain today which would be useful, hope it doesn't miss us again. Col is doing more work on the trailer in the workshop and I don't know what I'm doing yet although I have picked redcurrants, raspberries, cucumbers, onions and beetroot to sell and washed the hall floor.
Our homemade and homegrown food eaten today will be raspberries, tayberries, salad leaves, beetroot, cucumber, tomatoes,potatoes, green beans,  the sausage rolls made yesterday, bread, jam for Col and a apple and blackberry crumble with fruit from the freezer. The bought food eaten today will be porridge, milk, coffee, tea, cheese, yogurt, butter, a couple of biscuits and peanut butter for me.

Before I forget, welcome to more followers - Simple Living and Chris - hope you enjoy my diary.

Back sometime soon
Sue

Hay and other stuff including the C word.... in July! (Sorry)

Col spent several hours over the weekend shifting hay bales from the field up the road. I'm glad to say this didn't involve too much physical work as he was using the front forks on the tractor to lift big round bales onto the trailer and delivering them to a stables 4 miles away, where he just rolled them off. The girl who is having all this hay is going to set up a standing order to pay us each month as she can't afford it all at once. I would really have preferred to have sold it to someone who could pay straight away, so I hope this works out OK. She has also bought some small bales from another farmer and Col will be helping her move those too.We have already been paid for all of our small bales from here, so that cheque has gone into the bank.

After delivering the small bales it was obvious that the wooden part of the sides of the old horse box trailer were falling to bits. Now this is the trailer we want to use to take the garden bits and Col's workshop stuff to wherever, whenever, we move. So mending the trailer is  his job for this week.

It's already had new tires and a new floor so should be good as new(ish) once he's finished.

The other thing he did at the weekend was to help out someone who's writing articles for Smallholder Magazine. This bloke knows us through Suffolk Smallholders Society and needed someone with an old tiller rotovator so he could take some photos of the parts and how they go together. Col also borrowed our neighbours Mantis tiller and that's also been photographed to appear too. As a thank you for his help he was given a bottle of red wine which has gone into the wine cellar ( just a wine crate in the cupboard in the utility room!) I don't drink any alcohol at all and Col only likes an occasional beer and wine at Christmas so most of the bottles we are given end up being passed onto someone else and this one will have a muslin bag of mulled wine spices tied to it and will go into one of the Christmas Hampers I'm putting together. Raspberry Vinegar is another thing I'm making and that  got started on Monday. I've already made the lavender sachets,  whiskey marmalade and two lots of jam. Next will be chutneys and mustard. Then chocolate truffles nearer to Christmas. I've been looking for something to put all the things in but baskets - even second-hand - are silly prices.

Discovered this recipe - on a scrappy bit of paper torn from somewhere - when I was sorting out my recipe folder. It didn't have a name, and I've altered it a bit anyway, so it's been christened.................

Chicken wings in a tasty sauce  
This was the amount I used for 4 chicken wings, served up with noodles and stir fry veg (carrots,onion,courgette and pepper - all home grown of course) it's was enough for us.

Make a few slits  in the fleshy part of the chicken wings
In a bowl mix together 4 tbsp tomato ketchup, 3tbsp clear honey, 2tbsp soy sauce, 1tbsp sweet chilli sauce and 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar. Add the wings to the bowl and mix them round , then pop in fridge for at least an hour, give them another mix round if you remember.
Turn the mix into a roasting tin and cook at 170C Fan oven or Gas 5 for 45 minutes, basting once or twice.
Lift out the wings, add just a little boiling water to the remaining sauce, just to thin and loosen all the sticky bits, stir well and mix with the stir fried veg and noodles.

I've added this recipe to the Recipes From My Suffolk Kitchen page.

Today was weeding day. The long front flower bed was a right ol' mess because lots of  the self seeded annuals had died off. Now it's tidy but with several empty spaces. Do I spend to fill it up when we might not be here to see it? The strawberry bed was another place that got sorted, lots of plants have died  due to the dry weather, we have to do so much watering in the poly tunnels that stuff outside often gets left to fend for itself.
I've potted up 5 of  the Walnut seedlings that popped up this year. I've found 7 so far but one is in the middle of the raspberries so I can't get at it and the other is a bit to close to a buried water pipe.

2 seedlings I found several years ago are now trees 6 foot tall on the edge of the campsite.Now what do I do with these babies? I may have to give them to someone to babysit them until we find a new  home.

( Thanks to Dawn at Doing It For Ourselves for reminding me to dig up the walnut seedlings after reading her post yesterday)

Oh good, new followers to welcome. Hello to Lisanrichard in the Google pictures and Sandy Rebecca, Rita, Jo, Jane,Lizzie and Lee  and maybe some others on Bloglovin'.

Back Soon
Sue

Have you had a leek lately?

That's the vegetable with a double E.- obviously!

If I had a small garden with only space for a few winter veg I would definitely grow leeks. They are one of the most useful things we grow.
 The price varies in the supermarket depending on the weather but they are not as cheap as some of the other winter staples like carrots and parsnips so I would choose space for leeks every time.

We sow in pots and outside. Then they are transplanted into holes dibbled with something like a pointed broom handle. Water them in rather than filling the hole with soil. You can earth them up to make them whiter but in our heavy soil we don't do this in case they rot. Instead we have shorter white bits but the green bit is edible too so it doesn't matter.

We never eat them just plain boiled when they can turn into a limp mess.

Here are some of our favourite ways of using leeks

As the base for a vegetable curry - chop leeks,onion, an apple. Melt butter in a pan and stir the veg in cook 'til soft. Stir in tablespoon flour and dessert-spoon( or more) of curry powder. Cook for a few minutes then mix in half pint hot stock. Then you can add some softer veg, or cooked potato or dried fruit, a spoonful of chutney, some pepper. Add extra stock or hot water as it cooks.

Leek and Potato soup. The are hundreds of recipes for this everywhere, so I won't put one here.

Leek Fritters - slice a couple of leeks length ways and then into thin slices. Soften in a little butter in the microwave. Leave to cool, mix in 3oz plain flour, 1 beaten egg and enough milk to make a thick batter. Then add plenty of black pepper. . Heat some oil in a frying pan and put in large spoonful of mixture and flatten, cook 'til golden and turn over to cook the other side, Drain on kitchen paper -towels. Lovely with bacon or ham.

Leeks Braised with Thyme. - Soften some butter in the microwave, with a tablespoon of chopped thyme and stir in leeks that have been trimmed and cut into thick slices. Tip into a roasting tin so they are in one layer. Pour over ½ pint hot vegetable stock. Dampen a large piece of greaseproof paper and scrunch it up then lay over the top of the leeks. Cook in a fairly hot oven for 30mins. Remove the paper and pop back in oven for 10 minutes until the edges of the leeks are browned a bit.

Leek and Ham Bake - Cut some leeks into thick slices and cook in water until they have just softened a bit. Drain really well and tip into an oven proof dish. Mix in some pieces of ham. Pour over a thick white sauce. Sprinkle plenty of grated cheese and dried breadcrumbs over the top and bake in the oven for about 20 to 30 minutes.

Leek, potato, mushroom and Stilton bake - Much the same as above but cut potatoes into thick slices and boil with leeks sliced to same size until starting to soften. Add the sliced mushrooms for a couple of minutes. Drain really well. Tip into oven proof dish and cover with a thick white sauce that has had a couple of ounces of Stilton crumbled in.  Scatter dried breadcrumbs over the top and bake for 20 to 30 minutes.

And finally the the Pasties I made last month.

Useful veg.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Something quite tasty

The 2 samples of the vegetable nut roast things I concocted for Christmas, came out of the freezer for dinner last night. Yummy yum yum!

Only one problem........they are HUGE!
If R, G and me have one each we might not have room for the sausages,roast potatoes, roast parsnips, carrots, peas, Brussels sprouts, cranberry sauce, bread sauce and gravy! Not to mention the Chocolate Meringue Gateaux or Christmas pud.
But if we only have half each they will look a bit mean. A rethink needed maybe ramekins instead of the mini cake tins, but I'm not sure my ramekins are oven proof as they came from a charity shop (of course!)
I actually remembered to write down what I did so I can give you the recipe.

Individual nut and vegetable  roast thingys ( this made 2)
Sorry I'm still not into metric so

Some dried cranberries soaked in boiling water and cooked in the microwave for a minute or so 'til soft, then drained.

4oz carrots }   Boiled and mashed
4oz parsnip}        together with some black pepper

2oz unsalted cashew nuts whizzed in the nut chopper thing, but not too fine
3oz breadcrumbs
1 small onion                     }    chopped finely and cooked 'til soft in a teeny bit of butter in
2 smallish stalks of celery }                          the microwave

Mix the celery,onion,nuts and breadcrumbs together with a beaten egg.

Line 2 mini cake tins with parchment paper and put a layer of the nut mix in the bottom.
Press down tight.
Then a layer of parsnip/carrot mash and smooth down again
Next some cranberries
Then another layer of the nut mix.
Press down firmly again.
I used medium hot oven and cooked them for about 40 minutes until they were firm and golden.
Because I wanted to check that they froze OK I then left them to cool, popped each one still in the tins into the freezer.
They were taken out of the freezer in the morning and left to defrost in the kitchen and then reheated, with a bit of foil over the top, for about 25 minutes to serve hot for dinner.

I had thought about cheese on top but decided they didn't need it. They will be luscious with warm cranberry sauce over them.

Thank you for comments yesterday
Back Tomorrow
Sue

Stretching one of Frugal Queens recipes

I do hope Jane at Frugal Queen doesn't mind me sharing my idea for one of her recipes.
I noted it down from her blog a few weeks ago because it sounded good. The idea is a pie filling using bacon, potatoes,onion, leeks and a tin of condensed chicken soup. It sounded very tasty and I finally got round to making it today.
I had a thought that making pasties instead of a pie would make it easier for me to put some in the freezer for another day.
And this was how many I made

Because it was being divided up into more meals I used a bit more bacon than Froogs, 250g rather than 150g which was fried gently then 1 diced onion added and stirred around for a while. Two big leeks chopped small and 4 medium sized peeled potatoes diced quite small were then added to the pan with half a cup of water. Lid on and cook gently for a few minutes until soft. Finally stir in one can of condensed chicken soup , mix really well and let it go cold. Spoons full into centre of shortcrust pastry circle, seal up using water brushed round the edge then top shelf of oven 'til brown and lower shelf for another few minutes.
Very delicious but of course more pastry so more fattening than the original recipe.
We decided they are even better than my usual pasties made using minced beef.
The 8 we didn't eat were wrapped in foil and put in the freezer.
I might do a vegetarian version  sometime using mushrooms instead of the bacon and a can of condensed celery soup  or  maybe fresh celery and condensed mushroom soup.


The Christmas cakes made yesterday ( the recipe is on yesterdays post, and BTW I use cold tea for soaking the fruit, sherry or brandy would be extremely extravagant !)

  were wrapped in foil when they were cool and put away in the cupboard in the unheated dining room.
 I will feed them with a few teaspoons of brandy a couple of times over the next few weeks. Then add marzipan and ice much nearer to Christmas. The small one just has a circle of marzipan and icing on top, nothing around the sides that would make it far too sweet.

It's typical that the day I'm in the kitchen all morning - I also made 3 loaves of bread and an apple meringue pie - we have  had the best weather. I want to get biking again but haven't had a chance this week either too busy or too wet.
C went over to our neighbours and swept up leaves with her sweeper thing that goes on the ride on mower and he put some wires up for the Tiree Honeysuckle ( sent all the way here from my penfriend) and trained the blackberry canes around their wires. I thought he was going to be fed up during the months of recovery after the Hardly-a-Heart-Attack but he is pottering around getting everything done but with more stops in between for a cuppa. We said that when we were 20 years younger we did 2 hours work and then sat down for half an hour, now we do half an hours work and sit down for 2 hours!

Welcome to J  George who has put the number of Google followers back to 230 and also to someone on Bloglovin' which today won't let me in to see who you are.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Apple Dapple recipe, Book Review and todays news

This is the recipe I mentioned yesterday, it came from a leaflet picked up in the Co-op.

It is real winter stodge!
I hope you can see it, basically its flour, butter and sugar and milk( the recipe says cream) mixed together, rolled into an oblong. Grate apple allover and sprinkle demerara sugar over that, with the long side of the oblong facing you roll up carefully, cut into slices, put on parchment paper on a tray, sprinkle a bit more sugar over and bake at 220C/450F/Gas7 for 20-25 minutes.
My tips are DON'T make this too far in advance of cooking as the apple juice soaks into the pastry and the whole thing collapses! 100g flour makes a very small amount of pastry, 4 tbsp milk is FAR TOO MUCH. 1 grated apple looks mean so I used 2 .The slice in the middle didn't cook enough.
Otherwise it was quite tasty served up with some nice custard and another way to use windfall apples.

My book review is of the book received from Persephone publishers.

If anyone had told me how much I would enjoy a book written in the USA in 1924 I probably wouldn't have believed them.
This little treasure of a book ( I read it in a few hours over two evenings) looks at role reversal, with Father staying at home to look after the children and Mother going out to work. In 2014 this would perhaps sadly still raise an eyebrow but 90 years ago it was unheard of.
The story starts with Evangeline, the fanatically clean housewife and Lester the dreaming accountant as square pegs forced into round holes,both extremely unhappy but without either of them knowing why. We find the 3 children suffering, the eldest two are sickly children while the youngest shows his unhappiness by rebelling against everyone and everything.
Tragedy strikes and Eva is forced to go to work selling clothes for the department store in which her husband had failed as a hopeless accountant. Lester, now in a wheelchair, stays at home as the new Home Maker.
We see the family blossoming in their new roles while neighbours in small town America look on some kindly but others still unable to see beyond convention.
There are some beautifully written passages- just how do you crack an egg if you've not done it before? and the new relationship between Lester and Stephen is described in loving detail.
The twist at the end is good too - when is honesty NOT a good thing?
I would definitely recommend this ( and I normally read historical crime!)

*      *      *      *      *      *

We had a horrible wet and windy morning here today. C decided to fire up the chainsaw for the first time since the "hardly a heart attack". I went and loaded the bits of wood onto the sawing horse to help. He just did 15 minutes cutting some small stuff and got on fine- no ill effects.

In 2012 I bought some Polyanthus plug plants and potted them up and put them out for sale, hardly any sold and most went into pots and into the garden. Then in 2013 someone told me they were disappointed I didn't have any for sale. So this year I got some more and have been carrying them in and out to the stall everyday for weeks and have sold just 6 plants, so I gave up and this morning they've gone in more pots out the front of the house. Remind me not to try them for selling again!

That's me done for today

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Knock Knock, who's there? Lucy. Lucy who?

Lucy Lastic!
That's what happened to a pair of my leggings, so I spent a while this morning  turning over the top, where the loose elastic had been stitched in, stitching it down and threading in a new bit. I have come to the end of a huge bundle of elastic that I picked up at a car boot sale about 10 years ago. I'd better remember to add elastic to my shopping list as you never know when you will need it.
I also mended a couple of big tears in Cs overalls to keep them useful for a while longer. Mending was the perfect job for a day where the rain started at 1am and carried on for 11 hours virtually non stop. The field was quickly waterlogged.

My other job this morning was making a double batch of Tomato and Herb rolls.

 I'm sure I've posted the recipe already but it's not labelled under recipes so this is it if anyone wants to try them.

 Yesterday I made Naan Bread and we cleaned out the empty chicken shed, so that's 3 things off my November Plan list from last Sundays post.

I said the other day that we never worry about the postman coming and this morning he brought all sorts of interesting things. 2 were items ordered for Christmas gifts, the latest Home Farmer Magazine for me to review ( they must have put me down for a whole years subscription for free - Goodness me!) and finally a box saying Live Plants..... at last the 24 Strawberry Plants had arrived. They were free except for postage from Junes issue of Home Farmer - that was a copy I had bought for myself!
 We got some cheap grow bags from B & Q several months ago because we want to grow the strawberries in the poly-tunnel but up above ground level. C has planted them up today with each grow bag on an old scaffold board. They will sit outside until late winter then we will move them into the poly tunnel. I'm not sure if this will work or maybe they should be under cover straight away? We will see what happens.

Right, The delivery man has just brought the AF order so I'm off to unpack it and put everything away before dinner.
Back Tomorrow
Sue
PS Thanks for all the interesting comments yesterday about Christmas hampers and shopping catalogues.

Money Savers on Wednesday and Thursday

Thank you to everyone who left comments yesterday about the story of the way we ended up on our smallholding. It was lovely to read about others who had done the same sort of thing.

Yesterday the forecast was for showers all day so we decided it was the ideal day for going to the hospital for my follow up X ray to make sure all was OK after the pneumonia.
It wasn't just showers!
It started raining just as we left home about 9.30, it rained  really hard all of the 25 miles to hospital, and for the 20 minutes I was in the hospital ( nice and quick). Then it rained  hard all the while we were at Sainsburys and all the way to Wyevale Garden Centre in Woodbridge and then all the way home and right up to 2 o'clock when it changed to blue skies and sunshine. We rarely get so many hours of continuous heavy rain here in Suffolk.
You should have seen the mess down the road where they are stripping the turf off the fields, mud everywhere.

Before we went out the Rayburn was lit to give us enough hot water for the day and we cooked up a saucepan of beetroot on the top. That's free hot water and free cooked beetroot.

The hospital money saver was C stayed in the car and moved from the drop off place to the car park  and back again when I came out ( it was pouring with rain) that saved the  parking charge. I'm not sure we should admit to this as the NHS are probably in need of every penny!

Our stop at Sainsburys was mainly for their cheap bacon, beef mince and value packs of mackerel fillets. I noticed that the 3 for £10 mince had gone from 600g packs down to 500g since last time we got some which was before the summer. I looked at the value mince but it looked way too fatty. The mackerel fillets are good value too 

The Wyevale visit was to use the £5 off £15 spend October Gardening Club voucher for another Christmas present and looking through the books there I found another present.So far so good. My BIG problems every year are Cs Dad and brother. I could leave it to C I suppose in which case they probably would get nothing!

On the way out of Ipswich we made sure to get diesel at Tescos, because my till receipt after shopping there last time said 8p a litre off. We are very puzzled as we don't spend that much there and I thought you had to spend £50 in the supermarket to get 2p off at the petrol station and there is no way we have spent £200 in the last month.  I don't spend £200 there in 4 months! But we got £3.60 off the total  spend, so we'll accept that.

Yesterday evening C was talking to the man-in-a-van who has been staying on the campsite off and on all summer. He makes strange garden planter things and takes them to shows to sell. His workshop is local yet he originally said he lived in Cambridge so what the true story is of why he is living in a van we don't know. 
Anyway, he had just been to Waitrose and come back with 6 packs of spicy chorizo and tomato sausages, reduced to pennies. When he got back here he realised that he couldn't eat all 6 packs before they went bad and gave C four packs! Handy.


Today the weather was supposed to be the other way round, a fine morning and a wet afternoon  but the rain was only a couple of showers, although it was very windy.
C went off early to work for his customer in Leiston where he has now finished the greenhouse. Then this afternoon he has been breaking up more of the shed and greenhouse concrete bases and taking them off in the tractor bucket around to our rubble heap.
 I've been round picking up windfall apples again and turned some into an apple meringue pie. Makes a change from pies and crumbles.

Recipe for Apple Meringue Pie
A pastry case that's been baked blind
 3 or 4 Cooking apples depending on size
2 eggs seperated
2 tblsp Cornflour
Castor sugar

Peel,core and chop the apples and cook them, with a bit of sugar to sweeten in a tiny bit of water, until they are like a puree.
Mix the egg yolks with the cornflour and then stir quickly into the apple, keep it on a low heat for a few minutes to make sure the cornflour has cooked.
Leave to cool for a while before pouring it into the pastry case
 Whisk the egg whites until stiff and add a couple of Tblsp of castor sugar and whisk again.
Swirl the meringue mix over the apple
Cook in low oven until the meringue is crispy.
I can't give you timings or temps, I usually do it in the Rayburn and being wood fired it's always a bit random!
 Our eggs are the ones we can't sell so I count them as free, apples are free, pastry case is home made and cooking it = free too.

A few of the money savers from the last 2 days

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Gooseberry and date chutney ,haymaking day 4 and apologies

Thank you to everyone for comments yesterday, I specially liked dc and the predictive text which turned Bolthardy beetroot into Bowl Tardy, that's how I shall think of it from now on.

Apologies for misleading everyone as I made a mistake the other day because I said the giant round bales that you see on fields waiting to be picked up are called Hestons but actually it's the massive oblong ones that have that name and the big round ones? no idea what proper name they have. Just Big Round Bales. I think farmers bale different shaped bales depending on whats going to happen to them next. A lot of the straw baled here goes off on big lorries across the country to places where they don't grow as much wheat and round bales are often wrapped in plastic for silage.  I prefer the old fashioned small ones that can be picked up and moved by hand. We will do our 2 acres into small bales and they will go in the barn and be ready to sell to Kate for her goats.

Because they are a rare occurrence  we want to put lots of apricots in the freezer but the freezer is getting rather full so I thought I would get the big bag of gooseberries out and make some chutney.

Gooseberry and Date Chutney

2lb gooseberries, topped and tailed
6oz dates, chopped
12oz chopped onions
1lb soft dark brown sugar
1tsp mustard seed
pinch cayenne
4 tsp salt
1 pint malt vinegar

Put everything into the pan and bring to the boil slowly, stirring to dissolve sugar.

 Boil gently  uncovered for approx 1 and a half hours. The gooseberries should be thoroughly pulped and the mixture should be thick and pulpy but not dry.

 This makes a lovely dark fruity chutney, I did a double batch in separate pans and then tipped them in together just before potting up.
A good way to check on a chutney being ready is to quickly pull a wooden flat edged jam  spoon across the bottom of the pan, if you get a glimpse of the metal base then probably enough liquid has been cooked off so  the chutney is thick enough to pot up.

I had to get C to take this picture as it's impossible to stir and click at the same time!
Chutney usually thickens up a bit as it cools.

Day 4 of haymaking was the same as day 3. C turning the hay on all 4 fields. He got a puncture in the small wheel of the hay turner so had to come home and fix it, but luckily he was only up the road. He says the field at Saxmundham is ready to bale tomorrow. It's on a south facing slope and gets very hot.

It will take a bit longer here at home.

Much warmer here today, not such a strong Easterly wind, in fact you could say the heat was

Intents!


Back Tomorrow
Sue

Not retired...........Self Employed

It's happened again, I was putting things out on the stall this morning, when someone we know slightly, who still works for the County Council, stopped for eggs on his way to work and said how lucky C was to have got out of the council by retiring early. He is NOT retired, we have NO pension. Everyone thinks he was offered early retirement and it was a year after he finished work before one of his family realised that we were not living off a Council pension.

Anyway, now I've got that off my chest I must say thank-you to Dawn, dc, Karen, mamasmercantile, theaspiringfrugalista, hazzy, Jake'sagirl, outmywindow, Julee, Fran, Vicki, Gill, em,Kate, Pam, and knitbakecultivate for comments yesterday. Sorry I didn't get round to replying and I haven't left comments on hardly any other blogs either. More hours needed.

Another busy day today as I made a double sized batch of Stretched Strawberry Jam. It's stretched by adding 1lb of gooseberries to each 2lb of strawberries. Strawberries on their own don't make a jam that sets so the gooseberries help and because of the way it's made you can't see or taste the gooseberries and I also chuck in a sachet of powdered pectin too.

Strawberry and Gooseberry Jam
2lb Strawberries, fresh or frozen
1lb gooseberries , ditto
3lb sugar
Half sachet of pectin

The night before. Put Strawberries in a bowl and cover with sugar. If the strawberries are fresh stand the bowl in the fridge, if they are frozen leave it out but cover with a clean cloth or cling film.
If using frozen gooseberries get them out of the freezer.

Next day put the gooseberries in a saucepan with  a very small amount of water ( just enough to stop them catching on the pan). Bring to boil gently and cook slowly until the are mushy. I usually mash them with a potato masher once they are soft.

Put the strawberries and sugar mix in a jam pan and bring to the boil slowly, stirring well until the sugar has dissolved. Then cook gently until the strawberries are soft. Tip the gooseberries in, mix everything together and bring to the boil. Add the powdered pectin and boil for 4 minutes. Remove from heat and test a spoonful for set on a plate that's been in the freezer. The jam should wrinkle when you push it gently with your finger. If it doesn't, cook for another couple of minutes although the pectin should make it set after 4 minutes.
Leave to stand for a few minutes, skim off scum and stir so the strawberries don't rise.
Pot into jars that have been in a hot oven to sterilise.

My double sized batch made nearly 10 jars of jam.

I had just got to the last stage of making the jam when the phone rang 4 times and 3 were campsite enquiries. Tonight we have 1 caravan, 4  motor-homes and 2 tents on site which is quite unusual for a midweek night.

C has been fixing the new plywood floor onto his big trailer base. The wood was free and rescued from a place where it was about to be chucked out and then this afternoon we had a skip load of old wood emptied out by the wood shed. Also free.That means more free heat for the winter.

Welcome to Maria and Karan who have clicked the bloglovin' button.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Chinesey Recipe For Pork Belly Slices

The other day I posted  a blog with a list of meat and fish in the freezer  and was asked what I do with Pork Belly Slices. ( Often found Yellow Stickered in our Co-op or value pack from Sainsburys)

This is my recipe.

For each person - The sauce recipe here is for 2-3 people
1 large, 2 medium or 3 small belly pork slices. (This depends how much meat you like to eat)

Cut each slice into pieces about 2 to 3 inches long
Cook them in a hot oven about 200 C for15 to 20 minutes,turning once. Drain off fat.

Combine together 5 Tablespoons Hoi Sin Sauce.( DON'T USE a cook -in sauce that already has water in it. I use Sharwoods Marinade. You will only need about a third of the bottle but this keeps OK in the fridge once opened.)
2 Tbsp soft brown sugar,
 2 fl oz Soy Sauce,
3 fl oz water,
2tsp Chinese Five Spice Powder,
1tbsp vinegar.

Pour this over the slices and baste well
Cook for another 30 - 40 minutes. Same temp. Baste frequently
Serve with stir fry vegetables and noodles or rice.

Our stir fry is usually just carrot, onion and peppers ( courgettes in season) I don't go and buy a packet of stir fry veg - too expensive.

This is not a particularly frugal meal,  The Hoi sin sauce is over £1 a bottle, but  is a tasty way to use a cheap cut of meat.

Many Thanks  to Gill at Frugal in Derbs, Sadie in Ipswich, Cro in France, Lynda, Bridget in Dorset, Morgan in the Fens, Lavender Sanctuary, Pam in Tydd, Dartford Warbler, The Weaver of Grass and Em on Dartmoor for comments over the last few days and apologies for not replying individually. I've also not got around to leaving many comments on my regular reads lately - where does the time go?

Dartford Warbler is also a new follower in the pictures - welcome to you, I seem to be attracting new followers every day which is lovely.

Today was Him Outside's last day doing the temporary inspections job for the County Council then he can hang up the bright orange overalls for the time being or forever!

 His manager has no idea if they will have enough money after April to employ him again, but
he has plenty to do here and for other people so we are not worried. The money he has earned over the last couple of months has been a lovely unexpected bonus which will cushion us through to campsite opening and the growing season.

I was in the utility room skinning and gutting a couple of pheasants ( as you do when you live in the country and someone brings them round for you!) when I glanced up to see a Kestrel flapping about by a wire netting fence. I thought it had got caught up somehow and was just going out to see if I could help when it flew off carrying a blackbird! All around the garden were a dozen or more small birds hiding in the hedges shouting in alarm. Then the whole garden went quiet and for nearly an hour, there were no birds on the feeders or in the trees.

Apart from preparing pheasants I also rustled up another batch of soup, I'm getting quite addicted to soup making! Today it was made using 2 leeks and the last bag of plum tomatoes from the freezer. Along with a squidge of tomato puree and a spoonful of flour to thicken, a vegetable stock cube and a teaspoon of sugar it made a very delicious soup to last us for a couple of days lunches.

That's it for Tuesday, Back Tomorrow.

So what shall I do today?

Let out the chickens from their 3 sheds and check they are all still looking OK.

Hang out the washing - not a lot of dry out but at least they get a bit of fresh air.

Some wiping up and putting away.

A bit of cleaning. Wood fires may be cheap but they do leave a trail of sawdust and bits around them.

A bit of cross stitch. I've started one of two pictures I'm doing which will go into "things", destined to be Christmas presents for 2 people who read this blog.

Enjoy a cup of my favourite coffee and 10 minutes of Sudoku.

 Use some odds and ends to make some of my favourite soup.

 
 1 onion, 1 carrot, 3 sticks of celery, softened in a little butter and water, a squidge of tomato puree and a couple of tablespoons of flour to thicken and the juice saved from a tin of plum tomatoes. Add some more water, pepper, a teaspoon of sugar, whizz in liquidizer and it tastes very much like a famous tomato soup. If I can make tomato soup without tomatoes, do they?

Sew a button on a shirt. Are there REALLY people out in the big wide world who throw things away when a button falls off, or is that an Urban Myth?

Lunchtime listening to The Unbelievable Truth and The Food Programme on Radio 4.

Some more wiping up and putting away.

Check the chickens are OK for water. Then collect, clean and box up 8 dozen eggs.

Reduce the size and photocopy some lovely pictures cut from last years RHS Diary, so that I can use them on the corner of writing paper for my penfriends.

Get the washing in again and put it to finish drying over the Rayburn

 A cup of peppermint tea and a bit of reading. I'm trying a "new" crime author - James Oswald

A little blog reading. A Look at all the updated entries over in my blogroll.

Add a book to my wish list. Thanks to Kev at An English Homestead, who has given a good review of a new homesteading book from the States.

 And at last a little blogging!

Welcome to 2 new followers on google, Julie and mumasu making 117, and 80 people have clicked the bloglovin' button too. ( I still don't really "get" bloglovin! The person at the top of the 80 list is a lady called Wendy  and I'm wondering if she is the Wendy who once lived in Cotton? If so Hello and I think you know Him Outside and I once worked at Middle School with your Mum. If you are not That Wendy, Ignore all I've just written!!)

Thank you to everyone for reading the blog and I do love getting your comments.

Back Tomorrow

Mincepies with sweet pastry

Welcome to erbitrude, a new follower who has clicked the button over there on the right and also to Karen and AlisonB43 for comments yesterday.

As usual on a Monday morning I made a couple of loaves of bread and also managed to do 2 dozen mince pies without burning them this time.

I expect everyone has a recipe for mince pies but just in case you need one this is mine

Mincepies with Sweet shortcrust pastry
8oz plain flour
5oz butter
1oz caster sugar
1 egg yolk
few teaspoons very cold water

Keeping everything as cold as possible
Rub butter into flour
Stir in sugar
Mix in the egg yolk and just enough cold water so that it all binds together.
Wrap in cling film and pop in the fridge for an hour.
Roll out half at a time as thin as possible
Cut out with a big cutter should make 12ish
Gather the trimmings and roll out and cut small circles or stars for the tops.
Ease the big circles gently into a bun tin, fill with mincemeat and cover with the small circles pressing down the edges gently
Cut 2 small slits, with the point of a sharp knife in the small circle to let steam escape.
Brush the tops with a little beaten egg and then sprinkle on a pinch of castor sugar. 
Bake at about 180 in fan oven for 10 minutes. Check and turn the tin around then another 5 to 8 minutes until golden brown

This was double the mix and I used my home made mincemeat. I "tested" one and it was delicious so they have gone in the freezer for Christmas day and several days of January desserts for Him Outside.

Chocolate meringue Gateaux -A scrumptious desert for Christmas.

No red sky here this morning, just grey all around with heavy rain by 11am.

Him Outside was away early working for the County Council. I was doing boring housework. Floors washed or hoovered. Ceilings and skirtings dusted.Everywhere tidied.
Then some present wrapping- job finished.
Kindling chopping - enough for another week.
Freezer tidied and sorted.
By which time Him Outside was home again and it was lunch time.

One of the things I did yesterday was to make a delicious frozen desert as an alternative for Christmas. It's not very frugal, but for 8 - 10 people for a once-a-year treat it's not ever so expensive either.

Chocolate Meringue Gateaux
2 boxes of 8 meringue nests ( or equivalent homemade meringue )£1.60
2 value bars plain chocolate, broken into small bits 60p
Large pot double cream about £1.50

Melt the chocolate gently and leave to cool ( I do it on medium heat in the microwave a few seconds at a time.)
Break the meringue into small chunks
Whip the double cream until just forming peaks.
Mix everything together gently
Spoon into a lined, loose based cake tin, ( or individual ramekins) press down gently.

Melt a little white and plain chocolate for the top and sprinkle with any chocolate decorations. (The photo is taken before doing that). Then wrap and freeze for as long as you want.

 Remove from tin and stand at room temperature for about 10 - 15 minutes before serving.
Needless to say,It's extremely  rich and extremely delicious!

30 Ways to Save £1-- Day 20 + Roast Squash and Chard Lasagne

Our sons partner is vegetarian so when they come to stay I like to try out a new vege dish. Although I always try it out on us first! Also, because when they come I'm never sure which meals they are going to be here for as they often go to visit friends, the meal needs to be something that I can make beforehand and take out of the freezer.

So yesterday for dinner we tried this new recipe.
I only thought about writing this after we had eaten it so no photo. But I expect everyone knows what a lasagne looks like anyway!

The recipe is actually Roast Pumpkin and Spinach Lasagne but as usual I altered it!
The introduction says this is a bit of a faff to make but easier if separate parts are done on different days. I roasted extra squash the day before and I had made a big batch of tomato sauce  several days earlier and put in the freezer.

This is the recipe as written.
Roast Pumpkin & Spinach Lasagne Serves 6

750g Crown Prince Pumpkin or butternut squash, de-seeded and peeled and sliced
2tbsp olive oil
500g spinach - washed
1tbsp butter - plus extra for greasing
nutmeg
fresh lasagne sheets
100g Parmesan
Tomato Sauce
I medium onion finely chopped
1tbsp olive oil
1 celery stick finely chopped
400g can cherry tomatoes
2tsp light muscovado sugar
Bechamel Sauce
500ml full fat milk
Black pepper
half onion
1 bay leaf (remove before using sauce)
50g plain flour
50g butter

Roast the pumpkin with the olive oil until tender approx 40minutes
Make the tomato sauce by softening the onion and celery, adding tomatoes and sugar and leaving to simmer for 30 minutes to make a thick puree, season to taste
Put the spinach in the saucepan with the water that still clings to it after washing, cover and cook over medium heat for a few minutes until wilted, turning with tongs frequently. Leave to cool and squeeze out excess water. Chop and put in pan with butter, gently heat until spinach is coated. Season inc nutmeg.
Make the bechamel sauce as usual.
Assemble the lasagne as normal in layers starting with pumpkin,then tomato sauce, lasagne,  bechamel, spinach, cheese, lasagne,pumpkin,tomato sauce,lasagne and bechamel and all the rest of the cheese.
Bake for 40 minutes until bubbling and golden 180C fan/gas6

MY WAY
I used our own butternut squash,
I used a colander full of chard from the garden.
My tomato sauce was made using my big plum tomatoes from the freezer, no celery.
I never use full fat milk.
I forgot about the nutmeg with the spinach.
I always use value packets of dry lasagne.
I made 1 lasagne for 4 and a small one for 2 people
I used Cheddar instead of Parmesan
I'm sure I didn't do the layers exactly as written.
After cooking I wrapped them in foil, popped them in a plastic bag and put them both in the freezer as I wanted to make sure that they froze well.

I defrosted the two portion lasagne in the fridge over night. Reheated starting on a low heat and then increasing it for about  35 - 40 minutes in total.
Result - Very Tasty
So now I know one of the things we will be eating when they come to stay in a couple of weeks time.

 Number 20 of the 30 Ways to Save £1, was
20. Cut the bottom off tubes of toothpaste and other creams etc. when you think they are empty and you will find enough for a few more days.
Everybody reading yesterdays tip said they already do this, so I'm preaching to the converted again.

Seeds arrived in the post today.

 As soon as I get more time I shall be doing a blog about the varieties we grew this year, how they did and what we are growing in 2014. Something exciting for you to look forward to!

Awful weather here on the edge today. Freezing first thing and icy drizzle at 7.30 when I let the chickens out, then really heavy rain later. Him Outside should have been repairing a fence for someone this morning, but decided to cancel until next week after he watched the forecast last night. Good thing he did.
Back Tomorrow.

30 Ways to Save £1 -- Day 18 + Christmas Cake Recipe

I've been forgetting to welcome two new followers who've appeared over there on the right in the last few days. Apologies and Welcome. Thank you also to Janice,Pam, Compostwoman and Kev for comments yesterday.

The weather today is just as nasty as yesterday. Him Outside was around at our neighbours most of the day, this time shifting the muck from the bottom of the heap using her mower and tip up trailer, down to her garden.

I was in the kitchen finishing the Christmas cakes. I had put the fruit to soak on Friday and had been stirring every day. The recipe I use is a Mary Berry one but from way, way back, long before she started doing the Bake Off thing. She was freezer expert for a magazine called Family Circle and one year did loads of traditional Christmas recipes. I cut out the pages and have kept them ever since.

This is the recipe

Victorian Christmas Cake

1lb mixed dried fruit including peel, soaked in quarter pint of cold tea, sherry or brandy for 3 days, stir daily.
Add 4oz chopped raisins, 4oz glace cherries, rinsed of gloop, dried and halved, 6oz butter ( softened by beating well), 6oz muscovado sugar, grated rind of one lemon and one orange, 4oz plain flour, 2oz self raising flour, 2oz blanched chopped almonds,1tsp mixed spice.
Stir everything together.
In a jug beat 3 eggs and 1 tbsp black treacle.
Add this to the mix and stir everything until well mixed.

Turn into a greased and double lined 8 inch cake tin. Level top.
Bake in centre of oven at Gas 1, 275F or 120C Fan oven for about 3 and a quarter hours.
Store up to 3 months in a cake tin. ( The cake can be "fed" while in store by making small holes in it and dripping some teaspoons full of brandy into them). Cover the tops of the large cakes with a bit of foil if the start to look a bit too brown

This year because I'm doing some hampers for family I made triple the recipe and it made this lot.

1 Large, 1 medium and 3 mini cakes. This is before they went into the oven.

Some frugal tips for making lots of cakes.
The cheapest fruit is value sultanas so I used more of these and just a few raisins. Always sort through value sultanas for bits of stalk. I soaked the fruit in cold tea, the juice of the oranges and with just 1 tablespoon of brandy. I used less flaked almonds and an extra couple of ounces of flour instead. I bought the cherries and peel very cheaply off AF a couple of months ago.

To make things easier I use parchment strips and circles when lining the tins available from Lakeland as are the mini tins which I bought many years ago when I used to bake for the Country Markets.
The medium cake took 2 and a half hours and the small ones started on the bottom shelf of the oven and took just over an hour and a quarter. ( It would have been less on the middle shelf).
The small cakes will just fit in the two little tins that I found at a car boot sale earlier this year.

The medium one will fit into a tin I picked up at a charity shop - also Christmas themed. I hope the family members who get these for Christmas will enjoy them! In fact I'm loathe to give the tins away as they are so nice!

It seems never a day goes by without doing something with apples. Today I sorted through a whole lot of windfall cooking apples that had been in buckets and a trug out in the shed. With the temperature forecast to drop tomorrow, I've brought them indoors, some will be taken to a friend when we go to visit next week and the others will be given to another friend on Wednesday when she comes around for eggs. There is a limit to how many windfall cooking apples two people can eat before they go rotten!

Day 18 of the 30 Ways to save £1 was
18. Borrow recipe books from the library before buying them and see how many recipes you will actually use. This is a timely hint at this time of year when cookery books are one of the big sellers. How many will be sold on at a car boot sale next year? In my opinion Celebrity Cookery books must be one of the easiest ways to waste £25! .