Tuna tales on a grumpy day

Before I start the tuna tale let me just say thank you to Karen at Chelmarsh Chunterings and Bridget at Malbridge House for comments yesterday. After reading other blogs and finding that some people get nasty comments and other bloggers get weird requests (like Ilona who got a request from someone offering to write a 'guest' blog for her?) I think I'm lucky to get nice comments.

My tuna tale is me remembering when a tin of value tuna chunks was about 35p and big tins of salmon were only £1. Not that long ago either. Now a tin of value tuna is 65p and Salmon is priced out of reach. Anyway, I decided that tuna fishcakes would be OK for dinner tonight so pulled two different coloured tins out of the cupboard and was just about to put my glasses on to see  what they were and why they were different, when the phone rang. It was a call for Him Outside and as I had already forgotten to pass on a message from this caller yesterday (whoops!) I thought I had better go straight out, find Him Outside and get him in to reply to caller straight away. Of course by the time I had put on coat- I'm FED UP with this cold drizzle today- walked right up past the workshop, found Him Outside,  walked back down again, taken off coat and got back into kitchen, I had forgotten about reading tins and just opened the first one. Only to find it wasn't chunks but something called tuna flakes which actually just seemed like liquidized tuna and absolutely NO GOOD for making fish cakes. Which meant I then had to open the other tin,which was chunks and could be drained properly. All of which results in us having tuna sandwich with salad for lunch and we will do tomorrow as well ,plus having the fishcakes for tonight. So we will quite be fed up with tuna I think. The so-called tuna flakes came from Aldi and must have been cheaper than chunks and you can easily see why, as there is almost no tuna in the can amongst all the liquid.
So fishcakes were made, dipped in egg and rolled in home made breadcrumbs. ( I buy the cheapest brown loaf I can find, turn it into crumbs, dry on trays in oven and tip into box to store in freezer. It makes loads and they keep for ages).
And before cooking they look like this:-

 And now I shall say Yah Boo Sucks to the horrible grey weather and finish my book. Hopefully by tomorrow I shall be rid of the grumpyness that has sat on me all day today!

Monday, Monday

Just a quick post today so as to have more reading time for these.

  Recommended by my friend A in Essex, I wasn't too sure at first as I hadn't read family saga type books for years. I ordered from the library and volumes 2 ,3,and 4 arrived last month so I had to wait for this months library van visit to get hold of volume 1. And once I got into it found it a very good read.
 Next a message to my friend G in Co Mayo. :-)

The reason for sitting down, reading and resting my back  is because I spent this morning baking a big batch of cakes, many will be put in the freezer. These are what I call Man Cakes - plain-ish sort of things that men seem to like best!

 Shortcakes, sultana buns, a vanilla sponge and some shortbread biscuits. The sponge could have done with an extra few minutes as the darn thing sank in the middle after coming out of the oven. Mind you, once a homemade blackcurrant/mixed fruit jam and a little vanilla butter cream was added it tasted very good - Well I had to test it didn't I?
Him Outside is doing his 3-days-a-month inspection job until Thursday so there was no-one else here to try the cake! That's my excuse!
Back Tomorrow ( thanks to all for yesterdays comments about our garden- There are some bits that are not so tidy which I don't take photos of!)

CAMPSITE SORTED !

I'm very pleased that today we have finally got the campsite facilities sorted and declared open our "Tourist Information, Library and Group Room" . This sounds extremely grand but really it is just the end of the farm building that we have boarded out, painted the concrete floor and installed some shelves for books, tourist info leaflets and a table and chairs. This is something I've wanted to do for ages but it was only when we definitely decided that to keep goats again would be too costly and complicated that we were able to use the part of the shed that I'd been "saving just in case I keep goats again''. I kept goats for 18 years until 3 years ago we thought about moving and then I was ill for a while and that was when the goats went. I still miss them.
We've had our campsite since the year after moving here so  since 1993. We started a site because we were campers and had been to some good but a lot of really awful places and thought we could do better than some we had been to. We began with just the basics that you have to have to run a Camping and Caravanning 5 van site ( usually known as a C.S or a C.L). That is a tap, Chemical Toilet emptying point and a dustbin. Then we added a toilet and cold water washbasin for tent campers. Then caravans got more complicated and everyone needed electric hook-up points. For a while we couldn't do this without great expense as the power supply to the  house from the nearest transformer wasn't big enough. Then one night we had a bit of luck as lightening struck a telegraph pole zoomed along the wires and burnt out the transformer pole. When it was repaired the guys said that it had to be upgraded to a much more powerful supply and then we were able to run hook ups. We ticked over nicely for a few years and then found we were getting people who wouldn't come because we didn't have a shower.Then last year was our worst year ever with the weather being so horrible we had weeks and weeks with no visitors at all. So we decided that maybe adding a shower would be a good idea and had to figure a way to get electric to the building.
Now we are all done and just hope that we will recoup the expense before too long.
We've got a church group and a lightweight camping group booked in for later in the year so I hope they will find the room in the shed handy for evenings to get out of the weather if  (when) its wet. Hopefully we will have a good year, I'll keep you posted.

Some garden photos next. The Horse Chestnut leaves are just opening.

butterfly on a dandelion

There should have been a picture of the fruit cage with it's net over the top and the nice green gooseberry bushes - but it's vanished - who knows where?

Final picture is part of my baking session this morning. Some extremely delicious Chocolate Cappuccino cakes - recipe taken from the WI book of cakes and biscuits.I bake these quite often! but cut them into 16 small squares instead of 8 bars and they freeze very well. Always handy to keep in the freezer for visitors

and very good in the mornings with a cup of coffee for people who don't eat breakfast!!!

£30 reward - yipee!

Thank you to Ilona at Life after money for the hint about the £30 on Moneysupermarket. Him Outside is well pleased as the £30 has gone into Paypal which is used mainly by him for bits and pieces for the smallholding !
If you read my list of 30 ways to save £1, you will notice several typing errors and spelling mistakes, my excuse is that I did the list in a rush and didn't proof read. Very embarrassing as I did my RSA 1  typing in about 1977 and I ought to remember, then I did proof reading as part of a City and Guild Library Assistants course in about 1979 -what a long time ago, in a different world.
Not a lot of gardening done today as it was too cold and windy, so I had a really good tidy up in my craft room/ office/spare room and made a space to spread out the paperwork for my tax return. Luckily the campsite never earns enough to pay any tax and is quite straight forward to do. I like to get it done quickly in case I forget and there are fines involved if it isn't done by October on paper returns.
I was playing in blog land and came across a couple of frugal type blogs by blokes which I thought would be interesting to have a look at for a different perspective on things. Then I found a blog done by a lady called Shirley Goode who wrote several books about living on less - especially cooking- back in the early 1980's. She also appeared on TV doing cooking. It was a surprise to find that she had her 80th birthday on the same day as my 58th.
My only frugal tip for today is if you need to make 6 sausages feed 4 people without looking mean, then twist them in the middle gently squeezing the meat, cut through to make 12 mini sausages and put into a Yorkshire pudding. Then you can dish up 3 half sausages each and it is plenty for even husbands and hungry 25 year olds.

A good busy Saturday

As usual another busy day. Him Outside was off on his tractor quite early this morning. He was going to plough a part of a field that is to be used for allotments in one of our local villages.It has been delayed for weeks  because someone in an office somewhere has sat on legal documents for the owner of the field to pass it on to a newly formed allotment association.Hopefully all the eager people waiting to get started won't have to wait much longer. This afternoon he changed the plough on the back for the loading shovel on the front and shoveled up some shingle to put on the muddy bits of the campsite driveway. Then he cleaned out a chicken shed! Which is why he was really ready for this good plate of home made curry, home made naan bread and home made onion bhaji.

The total cost of this big yummy meal is not a lot really. The curry ingredients are 2 small leeks (home grown) half an onion ( home grown), 1 apple (reduced at Tesco). Knob of butter, 1 desert spoonful of curry powder, 1 desert spoon of flour, teaspoon sugar, 1 Tablespoon of home made chutney and some cooked turkey that's been in the freezer since Christmas( given to us for helping some new smallholders with some work and advice).
Rice is not as cheap as it was once but still good value bought in a big bag from Asda.
Home made naans are flour, yeast, baking powder,milk, an egg( our eggs are the ones we can't sell because they are too big/small/odd shaped) and lemon juice and pinch salt. ( I make a big batch and freeze and will do the proper recipe to post next time I make them).
Onion bhaji is a new recipe using the ingredients list on the back of a packet of bhaji mix sent to me by my Penny Pinching Friend Sandra. ( she got them from approved foods, and we tried the ready mix last week ) This was interesting to work out and try and I nearly got it right except for making them a bit too wet. The main ingredient is Chickpea or Gram  flour (50g = 12 pence) plus tiny bit of turmeric,cumin,chilli powder, bicarb,baking powder, coriander, garlic powder and salt. I didn't have dried onion, black onion seed and dried jalapeno pepper which are also listed but figured that wouldn't matter. You mix this powder with a little water and then a sliced onion and then deep fry 'til crispy golden.  Result according to Him Outside was that they were better than the original packet mix  as they were not quite so hot - making a different flavour to the hot curry.
This morning I got small courgette seedlings moved into bigger pots, sowed some squash and pumpkin seed and did a big heap of ironing - HATE THAT JOB! - but don't like crumpled clothes and tea towels so has to be done now and then. At least I don't iron undies and socks like my late mum did!

Photos from my old blog

I started blogging on a site that my eldest daughter set up for me when she was here at Christmas, then I couldn't get onto it and then when I found my way in and started a regular diary, no-one could find it as it was on wordpress which didn't come up on some search engines. So I started a this blog on blogger as it seemed to be what other people were using and easier to access.
To catch up on March here are some of the photos posted on my old blog.
 Some of the cards I've been making this winter,

various things cooked  during March