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
