Homemade Vanilla Sugar

Photo courtesy of Simon Goldenberg at Flickr

This is an easy way to get most out of vanilla pods. Depending on where they are bought they can be quite expensive. I've found that the cheapest place to buy these is at the Asian Supermarket, they're normally around £1.50 for three compared to over £1 for one in any normal supermarket.

I love vanilla, can't get enough of the stuff and when given the option always prefer to use pods instead of essence or extract, although I will use these for day to day things.

I use vanilla to flavour pavlova, whipped cream, custards and ice cream.

The first time I use a vanilla pod I will split it open lengthwise and remove the seeds, using these to flavour a liquid, particularly ice cream, I like the little flecks of black studded through the creamy white of the cream. Some people prefer they're vanilla ice cream to be pristine white, I am not one of those people.

I will then store the pod in an airtight container until the next time I need it which will again be to flavour a liquid. I most often use the pod this time to flavour a cooked custard, adding the pod to the milk or cream in the pan and allowing it to infuse while the custard cooks and thickens. Once the pod has done it's work I quickly rinse it under the tap and leave it somewhere warm to dry out a little.

Once the pod has dried out, measure out enough caster (superfine) sugar for around four recipes, normally about 500g in my house. Whatever your favourite recipes are, the things you make most often and preferably a recipe which contains vanilla.

Add vanilla pod to a blender and pulse until finely chopped, once it doesn't seem to be getting any smaller, add the sugar and pulse again for another 30 seconds or so to distribute the vanilla. Store in an airtight container and use in your favourite cake and cookie recipes in place of regular sugar and vanilla. Feel free to use half and half, vanilla sugar and regular sugar for a just a warm hint of flavour. This can also be used to sweeten coffee, fruit and homemade hot chocolate.

Six or more uses from one vanilla pod at the price I pay brings it down to roughly 8p per recipe. I can live with that, especially when I get a beautifully flavoured dessert.

Times are a bit lean at the minute and the first thing sacrificed is usually desserts. Sometimes a little of what you fancy is good for the heart and can make you feel so much less "hard done by" in times of a tightening budget. A great way to use this sugar and one of my favourite recipes, is rice pudding. I'll be posting a recipe for this very soon.

L.

My Garden - She Provides for Me

One of only three lonely little flowers remain in my garden. The vast majority of space has now been taken over by fruit and vegetables. A few on-edible plants remain, not the flowering variety but still lovely to look at.

It's a tiny little garden really, but perfect nonetheless, in my humble opinion. Is it a little bit mad and overgrown? Well yes it is. But I love it that way to be quite honest.

Tucked away behind the tiny little hedge row, that I'm assured one day will grow to about two feet tall, is my deck. I started it just before a bad car accident. I wasn't too badly injured just some minor whiplash but Himself was put out of commission for months. However I was determined to finish the project which involved digging around five ton of soil out of the first level of the garden and replacing it with roughly the same amount of hardcore then bedding in twelve railway sleepers. This was no easy job mind you but I'm very pleased with the outcome. That was six years ago and I've spent many a happy morning hiding relaxing up there with my coffee and a book. Also it isn't obvious from the picture but the first level is four feet off ground level with a flight of steps running up to it, you can just see the handrail from the steps on the far side of the picture...see over there. Yep those are the ones.

I love lavender and use it all over the house, in baths and showers, drawers and in the bottom of the bin, so you'll hopefully understand and excuse the monster of a lavender smack bang in the middle of the picture.

Anyway, with all the rising costs at the minute, I decided to turn over much of my little garden to plants of the edible variety. I already had the two pear and apple trees planted around four years ago and I've been happily reaping the rewards ever since. Unfortunately, due to some particularly bad weather, in particular some very strong winds, a month or so ago, my little pear tree has been left barren for this year. All of the flowers had already been blown to lord only knows where by the time the brown bees arrived in the garden. She's still beautiful though, fruit or no fruit. That's her in the picture above, all big and green and lush.

It would have been a bit difficult to start removing some of the larger plants already in place to make more room for veggies, so I've given containers a go. I have to say it's working very well so far.

Cute aren't they? The top row are one pot of spinach and two pots of red fire lettuce, the middle row are two pots of rocket and one pot of curly cabbage and the bottom row are another two pots of rocket (Himself got a bit carried away) and another pot of curly cabbage. They've gotten a little bigger since this shot was taken three weeks ago.

Spinach, lovely jubbly.

Red Fire Lettuce

Curly Cabbage...Not so curly I know, but we can't be picky.

So I've gotten a bit carried away and Himself has built a trough type affair for me to add more plants to.

I probably could have done a better job and separating the plants because it does look a bit mad, granted.

I managed to squeeze in, peas, carrots, more cabbage (a different variety, the name escapes me at the minute though) and some dwarf beans, which aren't doing great to be honest

I've plans to head to the market this weekend and pick up some onion sets and potatoes. I'll be emptying the two window boxes in the top picture to use for the onion sets and I'll be planting the potatoes straight into a bag of compost. I'm assured by Gardener's World that this works well. I can poke a few small holes in the bottom of the bag for drainage and prop it up on a couple of broken bricks so that water doesn't collect around the bottom of the bag. I'll let you know if this works or not.

I'm quite proud of myself to be honest, I'm usually a bit ignorant when it comes to gardening and tend to have a brown thumb rather than green. The first thing I check for in the garden centre is whether a plant is hardy (translation = Leanne proof). If it isn't it doesn't make it home with me. But these plants are almost idiot proof, I opened a pack of seeds, shook them into a pot of soil, added water and voila.

I'd love to hear of things you've done in an effort to reduce your food bills at home.

Free Yarn

I recently received some free yarn from a friend at work. It came from a sample spool which her poor unfortunate husband had been asked to wind into balls. I received three of these balls. The yarn is a kind of biscuit colour, beige but a bit warmer.

The yarn is roughly DK in weight and of completely unknown length. It's a loosely would cotton and I plan to knit some grocery bags as it feels quite strong, plus I have some handles picked up on sale which will work perfectly. However, I couldn't wait to drop all my other projects wanted to knit a sample using the yarn to get a feel for it and came up with this

I don't like to knit sample squares. I used to and always put them away planning to use them for something but never did, so now I always knit a patterned square just to get a feel for the yarn, rather than to check the tension. I'm a bit of a cowboy knitter, I never check tension.

As you've probably already guessed all of these little patterned squares tend to wind up being used for the same thing. Yep, that's right

Coasters...very original, I know.

The pattern itself is very simple. Basically cast on an odd number of stitches twice the length of one side of the square. For this you may be lucky and have yarn with a ball band stating the number of stitches in an inch. I didn't so I guessed and cast on 51 stitches.

You can selvage the edges for a neater appearance and to do this you just slip the first stitch in each row and purl the last stitch.

The patterns is as follows;

Row 1 sl 1, k23, sl 1, k2tog, psso, k23, p 1. (You have reduced by 2 stitches).

Row 2 (and all even rows) sl 1, knit to last stitch, p 1.

Carry on in pattern decreasing the number of stitches knitted on each side of the decrease by 1.

Continue until 3 stitches remain on needle.

Final Row sl 1, k2tog, psso. Cut off yarn and draw through last stitch and fasten off securely. Weave in all ends.

I added a tassel to each side of this square but in hindsight wouldn't do it again with this yarn, it's quite a stiff yarn and as such the tassels kept working their way loose and had to be sewn in place.

This little square has taken up residence on my desk at work, although I have many more strewn across the house.

I plan to use the rest for grocery bags and will post a pattern for those soon, although if anyone has any better ideas for using this yarn (of unknown length), please let me know.

Vacuum Seal - The Easy Way - WFMW

I don't own a vacuum sealer. I figured I'd never use it enough to justify spending that kind of money on one (the run about £100 here for a basic model with no attachments and the bare minimum of bags).

To begin with I managed to get by, sucking the air out of the bags myself. Lovely, I know, but in a pinch everyone's done it.

Anyway, I decided to have a go at OAMC about five or six months ago to see if it would work for me and my family. It didn't, I am no where near organised enough to remember to take the things out of the freezer to defrost.

Have you ever tried blowing up balloons for a child's birthday party all by your lonesome and after the first few you start to feel a little, well, lets just say, a little drunk, tipsy, rightly, three sheets to the wind. Same goes for sucking the air out of something.

Then the unthinkable happens, there I am bagging up dump chicken and sucking the air out, when I get a mouthful of the stuff, raw chicken juice an all. I know this has happened to other people and even when it is something that has been cooked, if your not expecting it, it is not a pleasant thing to happen.

So, the easy way to vacuum seal (I know, I waffle on sometimes, I'm getting there I promise). When your planning on bagging things for the freezer, fill your sink right up with water. Once the goodies are in the bag, dunk it in the water until the water is just below the zip lock. The pressure of the water forces all of the air up and out of the bags and all you have to do is close the zip. Easy as that, give it a go.

I don't OAMC anymore, but I do once a month prep and this still works for me.

For more great tips, check out WFMW over at Rocks in my Dryer.

Frugal Food Series - Cottage Pie

I like to make cottage pie and serve freshly made. It could be frozen but I would recommend just making and freezing the base. You could then defrost this at a later date to use with some leftover mashed potatoes. I don't freeze it with the potatoes already on top, I never managed to do a good job of freezing potatoes, but if you've managed to figure out a trick to it, by all means feel free (and let me in on the secret while you're at it).

Now so I'm told cottage pie contains minced beef, if it's shepherd's pie you're after then you need minced lamb. You won't find it here though, that stuff costs a fortune at the minute and really who would waste lovely lamb by mincing it.

For old recipes like this I usually consult one of two books, either Mrs Beeton's Everyday Cookery or Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management. You can get some fantastic cheap and tasty recipes from these books although you may need to play with them a little, sometimes substituting ingredients as well. Food didn't globe trot back then as it invariably does today so everything was locally produced and in season. This always makes for the best tasting and cheapest food.

If you ever come across one of these books second hand or on ebay I would recommend picking it up, it's a great read and a real eye-opener, although I haven't yet had any need for her advice on hiring a full household staff.

Cottage Pie

1lb Minced Beef cooked

1 small Onion

1 tbls Oil

1/2 pint gravy

2lb mashed potatoes cooked

milk 2 tbls

Salt and Pepper

Saute onions in oil until soft and lightly browned, add to cooked minced beef in a large bowl, along with gravy and mix well. Season to taste.

Place in a pie dish and cover with mashed potatoes.

Brush the surface of the mash potatoes with a little milk and bake in the oven at 180C (350F) for 30-40 minutes, taste with a meat thermometer or a skewer inserted into the pie for the count of ten and then carefully touched to the lip, carefully.

Serve with a side of vegetable of your choice for a complete meal. This amount will feed six comfortably, you may find it will make enough for two meals.

To use up any leftovers I usually remove the mash (don't be too picky about it, just spoon off some of the potatoes and re-heat separately with a little butter and milk), reheat the minced beef and gravy in a pan, adding finely diced carrot and frozen peas and you have stewed bugs and onions and mashed potatoes.

The name alone pretty much guarantees that kids will eat almost exactly the same meal as last night, without any complaint whatsoever.

For more recipes using ground meat visit Jenn at Frugal Upstate and take some time to look through her Frugal Food Series.

Champ Potatoes - WFMW

This week over at Rocks in my Dryer, WFMW is themed - Recipes using five items or less.

I love champ, it's easy, cheap and absolutely gorgeous, all by itself.

Champ

Floury potatoes, enough for your family. I usually use five good sized potatoes, the ones that fill the palm of your hand.

Scallions (spring onions) - one onion for each potato, finely sliced into little rings, green and white. You can get fancy with this if you like by cutting them at an angle.

Butter - don't try to skip this, it ain't champ if it doesn't have butter.

Milk - about half a cup for the amount of potatoes above.

Peel, cube and cook potatoes until tender.

Strain the water away from the potatoes and leave in the pot or in a colander uncovered to allow any remaining water to steam off.

In the meantime, put milk and scallions into a pan and bring to the boil, turn off heat and leave to rest.

Mash the potatoes until smooth and add milk and scallions and beat into the potatoes, add butter and beat again and season to taste.

Serve all by itself, as a side or use leftover cold champ to make fishcakes. This is great with good pork sausages.

The kitchen bar in Belfast used to serve champ in a pile, with a well made in the centre and a raw egg yolk cracked in and covered over with the potatoes. It would be left to sit for a few minutes to allow the heat from the potatoes to just barely cook the egg yolk and then eaten. It was beautiful. They don't do it anymore, it's up to you if you want to try it. You need to be pretty confident about your eggs for this one, although a soft poached egg on top is just as good.

There you go five items or less *ahem ... not counting the seasoning*

Give it a try and let my know how you get on. This recipe works for me and for more recipes which work for other people, take a look at WFMW over with Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer.

Also for more great recipes using potatoes, rice, pasta and bread check out the Frugal Food Series at Frugal Upstate.

frugal Food Series - Ham Chowder

This is an adapted recipe from one taken from recipezaar, published by Ann Arber on 26 March 2001. The only thing I really changed was to sub half green onions instead of all white for colour and a milder taste, but the original was lovely as well.

Recipe #8673
Cook time: 15 minutes.
Prep time: 15 minutes.

1/2 cup scallions (spring onions) finely sliced
1/2 cup white onions finely sliced
2tbls butter.
1 - 1 1/2 cups diced cooked potato (any variety waxy or floury work)
1 1/2 - 2 cups corn, drained.
1 cup cooked crumbled ham
1 can cream of mushroom soup
2 1/2 cups milk (dried and reconstituted is fine)
season to taste

Saute onions in butter until soft, but not colouring.
Add all other ingredients and heat through.
Serve with good bread.

Easy peasy. I know that ham isn't in itself a ground meat, technically, but I also know that you can sometimes get really great bargains on ham and completely fill your freezer with the stuff.

I managed to pick up a huge 3kg ham last month for £8.00 which is very cheap here. I figured it would shrink away to nothing in the oven, but it surprised me and came out almost the same size it went in. I chopped about 1kg roughly and flash froze it to use in things like this and casseroles, it's seen a few pizzas as well. I then shredded, savaged, mauled, finely sliced the rest of the ham, to use in sandwiches. Deli meat is very expensive at the minute and costs around £3.00 for two servings for the same quality of meat (not processed). Himself ate it all month with different dressings and veggies and in pasta salads. I haven't done all the math but it I can safely say it saved me a small fortune. Plus there is still some left.

From more recipes using ground meat, visit Jenn at Frugal Upstate for her Frugal Food Series.

Beef and Bean Burritos

Week four of the Frugal Food Series over with Jenn at Frugal Upstate already.

This is a great recipe, it's about the only that survived my OAMC days. Plus you get to use up any leftovers you have handy from last week, now isn't that handy.

Beef and Bean Burritos.

1lb dried beans, soaked overnight and cooked to packed instructions. I like white beans but whatever you have handy.
1 cup chopped onion
3 tbls oil
About 8-10 cloves of garlic or 4-5 tbls of the ready minced. More or less depending on taste.
Salt and Pepper to taste.
1lb minced beef.
2 tbls Tomato Puree (Concentrate).
Chillies to taste. I use about four fresh green chillies, use tinned or pickled if you have them handy.
Grated Cheese. About 2 or so cups. Cheddar is good but whatever you have to hand.
About 12-15 flour or corn tortillas (depending on how much you fill them).

You will need a deep pan or skillet for this.
Brown the beef with half the garlic, salt and pepper.
Remove from pan and cook onions with the remaining garlic and oil.
Add the beans to onion and garlic mix, heat through for a few minuted and then mash with the back of a spoon until reasonably smooth.
Add beef, tomato and chillies and cook for a further few minutes

To assemble.
Warm Tortillas and place about four or five tbls of beef/bean mix in centre along with two tbls cheese and roll up tucking in the ends of the tortilla.
Place over a medium heat in a dry skillet to toast each side and serve with salad or dips.

These can be made in advance and when at the stage of rolling up, allow them to cool once rolled, wrap in cling film, freeze individually on a baking sheet and them put them all in a zip lock bag. They can be defrosted and heated in the microwave and then just toast in the skillet as usual.

The easiest Tarka Dhal in the World....ever.

This is another simple, quick and more importantly, cheap recipe for the Frugal Food Series over with Jenn at Frugal Upstate.

I've been making this for a while and usually use it as a side along with Aloo Gobi and some marinaded grilled chicken. I normally make it in summer and freeze in zip lock bags to nuke when we're barbecuing the chicken, but we haven't had much "summer" here yet.

Tarka Dhal

About 6oz/200g of your favourite lentils (I've also used spilt yellow peas in a pinch, bit chunkier but still lovely)
400ml water
Chillies (now this is a personal one, it shouldn't bee too hot, but everyone has their own idea of too hot. I use about three fresh green chillies, four or five if I'm using pickled)
1 tsp turmeric
1 large onion
1 crushed clove or garlic, or to taste.
4oz/400g tinned tomatoes chopped (or whole and chopped in the tin)
Vegetable oil, enough to coat the bottom of a pan or skillet with about 1-2mm oil.
1/2 mustard seeds
1/2 cumin seeds
5 curry leaves
1/2 tsp crushed dried chilli

Add first six ingredients to a heavy bottomed pot and cook until lentils are tender (about 15-20 minutes for lentils and a bit longer for split peas)

Once lentils are tender mash until almost smooth, leave a few chunky bits for texture.

Add tin of tomatoes to lentils stir and cover while you deal with spices.

Cover the bottom of a pan or skillet with oil and add all remaining ingredients, fry until garlic turns brown and add entire contents of pan, oil and all to the lentils.

Salt to taste if necessary.

Stir and serve.

Seriously how easy is that. I make double and freeze it, if you do this bear in mind that the onion, garlic and chillies all intensify after being frozen for some reason, so you may want to leave these ingredients as originally listed above, if your plan is to freeze it. It can then be defrosted and heating in the microwave for about two minutes, or from frozen for an extra minute or two. If doing it from frozen, I give it to minutes in the microwave and then smush it around in the bag a bit and give it another two minutes.

Enjoy.

For more great bean, pulse and lentil recipes head over to the Frugal Food Series.

L.

Everywhere, it's everywhere.

I'm sitting on the floor surrounded by balls of yarn of every variety you can imagine.

The "Plan" seemed like a perfect idea two years ago. It was such a good idea. Think about it, keep all the patterns the "have got to knit" in a little pile through the year, buy all your yarn in the Christmas sale and put it together, along with the pattern into a bag and you're sorted for for your hobby all year long, for very little money. Brilliant, it was absolutely brilliant. Genious in it's simplicity.

Why oh why didn't I stick to the "Plan". You see I screwed up. Now I have a pile of patterns four inches deep and I'm sitting on my living room floor surrounded by three, yep count em, three huge bags full of yarn, trying to remember which patterns I bought them for. Not a pleasant task. I've been really busy for the last six months. I have four wips on needles at the minute with no idea of when I'll finish them. I have a baby blanket which started as a way to use up all the wee leftover bits. I started knitting four inch squares and grafting them together when I have a few. It's about two thirds done. There is a sock, half finished. I didn't even get a chance for second sock syndrome to kick in. A scarf destined to become a Christmas present. It's almost finished and its only garter stitch. I really have no excuse whatsoever for that one. And a cashmere jumper for me. It's missing one sleeve, the wool was a birthday present two and a half years ago. I have finished things in the last two years, mostly for toots. She loves knitted things and she's a joy to knit for.

The "Plan" was obviously not fool proof, there was a design flaw. The flaw being yours truly. You seen yarn is my downfall. There is definitely stuff here that doesn't belong to any pattern whatsoever. Now I have to think of something to do with otherwise there is something completely useless sitting on my home, taking up space I really don't have. Plus the house is on the market, if it sells, oh lord help I'm going to have to pack and move this stuff.

So I was sitting there on the living room floor, now I'm here telling you about my dilemma (procrastinating) and i have got to find patterns for the yarn I have for no reason, other than it was cheap and very very pretty.

So this year the "Plan" is out the window. NO MORE YARN until I've used at least two thirds of what I have... but then I have just been given three lovely balls by my friend which will be used for grocery bags...

Oh and I might have just printed off a lovely pattern for a lace work scarf. When do you imagine that one will get started, let alone finished.

The cost of living.

It's been a difficult year or so here in Northern Ireland. The housing market has all but died after the biggest growth period we've seen in a long time, on the up side this means that houses at the lower end of the market are dropping in price and finally, first time buyers can afford these houses again. Every housing market needs first time buyers like nothing else, the house prices here were increasing so fast and to such an extent it had to be inevitable that these buyers, the ones we need most would eventually be priced right out of the market.

Unfortunately, lenders are no longer offering 100% mortgages and most have stopped offering low rate introductory offers, this means that although the houses are now coming back down to a level which is more affordable first time buyers, who in theory can afford the houses and are eligible for the mortgages don't have the deposit they now require to add to the mortgage. Some lenders are now only offering 80% mortgage which means that a buyer will have to stump up £20,000 out of every £100,000 they want to spend on property. Now I don't know about you but that is a LOT of money to try to come up with, especially when six months ago most of these people were eligible for the 100% mortgages that banks and building societies were readily offering, they didn't know they would need a deposit and they simply don't have it.

I am in the unfortunate position of trying to sell my house at the minute and have resigned myself to a long sit in.

I'm having to be a lot more creative in trying to save money.

I'm in the process of altering all of tootsies winter clothes to double as summer clothes. I'll try to post some pictures eventually and everyone can let me know if the outfits are something they would let their own children out of the house wearing. She's had a bit of a growth spurt tallwise this year so although all her clothes fit her around the middle, they're now much too short. I had the forethought to remove all the girl trimmings from her baby clothes as she outgrew them so I now have a huge bag of lacy frilly edgings along with more buttons and bows than I can count. I've taken the scissors to a few pairs of her denim jeans and added a frilly hem around the bottom, they end just below the knee and have a small split at the outside edge which comes up to just above the knee. i fastened off the top of the split securely and added a bow to cover up my less than immaculate sewing skills. I have to say (even for my general ineptitude when it comes to sewing), those short are pretty cute. She loves them, she loves everything mummy makes for her, especially some of the things I have knitted for her over the years. But that's for another post.

My next task are two pink skirts, which still fit in the waist but are a little too short for my liking, although the had been wearing them on slightly cooler days with a pair of leggings underneath, she looks very on trend on them. These particular skirts are the kind of three tier boho(ish) skirts. This should hopefully make it easier to add a fourth tier to each skirt to lengthen them slightly. I have a white shirt of my own which was destined for the bin, I work in an office and it plays havoc with cuffs. Instead I'll use this white shirt as fabric to add the fourth tier to one skirt and in my bag of frillys I have a small gauzy butterfly which is also white with a barely there pink trim which I will sew to one side just above the join between the two fabrics and this should tie it together. I have some lilac fabric which I could use on the second skirt, but I'm not entirely sure I could pull this off as the colours may contrast too much. I might have to get a bit crafty and perhaps dip dye the skirt first, or die the whole skirt lilac. I have a lot of dylon cold water dies I picked up for 50p each a while ago and they could do with being used.

I have to sift through the rest of her clothes and try to come up with ideas for them. If anyone has any ideas or things you've done to stretch your children's clothing a bit further, I love to hear about it.

L.

Tighteniing the Belt

I went grocery shopping at the weekend, I didn't want to but I really needed to get a few basics. My mum was just back from two weeks abroad and had to stock up as well, so we went together to take advantage of any offers. Boy did she get a surprise. My mum is a very habitual shopper and she's quite brand loyal, so there we were in middle of the shop with my mum dropping her usual brands in the trolley and me price checking, fishing her selection back out again and replacing it with something cheaper. Even with me doing this her bill was £30 more than it was three weeks ago and she'd bought less this time around.

We were convinced it was wrong, yes prices are increasing but surely not by that much, we must have been overcharged, something rung in twice. Right. Wrong.

I'd been double checking prices on my own shopping and catching things in my mum's but I hadn't realised just how much fruit and vegetables were in there, not to mention deli meats for my father and brother's lunches through the week. I couldn't believe the prices. £3.49 for 2.5kg of potatoes. This is Ireland, we should be given those for free. Well maybe not, but they should at least be cheaper than this. They were local potatoes as well so petrol prices has absolutely nothing to do with it.

Does anyone else get the sneaking suspicion some shops are just "sticking the arm in" raising prices across the board because everyone understands the current financial climate, we understand we have to pay more .... for everything. Maybe, maybe not.

You'll have to excuse me, my head is perhaps still reeling from he realisation that plain flour was 800% more expensive than it is in Lidl. It must be organic. Nope. Fairtrade then, someone has to be benefiting from it. Sorry, no again.

So it's time once again, deep breath my friends, and pull that belt in .... one .... more .... loop. *much sweating and gasping for air, ooh and I'm light-headed again*

I'll be posting over the next few weeks about the things I'm doing to save money here. If anyone has any ideas or links to their older posts I'd love to here from you.

L.

Beanolicious

Beans, Beans the musical fruit, the more you eat, the more ..... money you save.

Beans have always been a great way to cut the food costs down to a bare minimum, as long as you have some beans at home you can easily rustle up a good meal for the family. You can also save a lot more money by buying things which go well with beans when you see them on sale, smoked sausage is good as is pork of any variety. A lot of people tend to think beans are a lot of hard work for very little pay off. I disagree. Most of the recipes I use at home involve long cooking periods but generally very little input on my part, the crockpot really comes into its own when using beans.

Some of the best recipes using beans are the simplest and a few of my favourites are:

Boston Baked Beans

These are outstanding. They are at least 100 times better than those tins of baked beans, the ones in the runny "tomato" sauce, you know the ones I'm talking about. I love these when they're maybe a little overdone and some of the smaller ones start to break down in the sauce ans make it really thick. The basic recipe I follow is;

1/2 to 1 cup Bacon - lardons, rashers, even leftover ham works, basically whatever you have or whatever is cheap.

1 1/2 to 2 cups diced Onion - again white or brown skinned onions, whichever's handiest.

1 1//2 cups of dried white beans either soaked over night and cooked according to packet instructions or the quick method of placing dried beans in cold water, bringing to rolling boil for ten minutes covered, turn off heat and leave beans covered in hot liquid until cool plus about an extra two hours. Remember never salt beans until they are fully cooked.

Garlic to taste two or three cloves is usually about right, about a tablespoon of ready minced.

1/3 cup Brown Sugar

1/4 cup black treacle (molasses)

1/3 cup golden syrup

2 tbls Worcestershire sauce

2 tbls English mustard

3 tbls tomato paste (concentrate)

salt and pepper to taste

Basically, in a large ovenproof pot brown the bacon (if using ham you may want to add a little oil), remove bacon from pan and saute onions and garlic in the bacon fat over a low heat for about five minutes until tender, being careful to keep the garlic moving so as not to burn, seriously if it burns, chuck it and start again, add bacon back into pan along with beans and stir gentle to coat beans add all other ingredients and cover with enough water to come about an inch above the surface of the beans, cover and bake in the oven one of two ways. Either pre-heat the over to 180C (350F) and bake for 30 to 40 minutes until the beans are tender or, like I do, put beans in oven and then turn the oven on to it's highest temperature, once the over is heated give the beans about ten minutes and then turn the over back off again. You have to heat the oven anyway, there might as well be something in there cooking.

I normally cook my beans this way because I'll make them first thing in the morning without a specific meal in mind, they can then be reheated on the stovetop or in the microwave. I also make a double batch of these and freeze in zip lock bags for later. This takes away the temptation to buy tins of beans. I've cooked these from frozen in the microwave and I've never had any problems with them but that one's probably going to be a personal choice.

Smoked Sausage and Red Lentil Soup

I am blessed with a daughter who loves lentils. Happy days.

About 2 cups of diced smoked sausage again if you only have a cup, that's fine, chuck in some ham or chicken, whatever's on the go and needs used.

2/3 cup diced onion

1 tbl oil

2 cloves of garlic chopped finely or minced

1 1/2 tsp paprika smoked or regular

A pinch of chili flakes use your judgement heat, if you like food hot, throw a load in there, if it's for the kids, leave it out.

1 cup of split red lentils

a chicken or vegetable stock cube

a can of chopped tomatoes undrained (or whole and chop em in the can with a knife)

About three cups of water

Saute onion and garlic in oil for a few minutes, add smoked sausage, chili and paprika and cook for a further 2 or 3 minutes, crumble in stock cube and add tomatoes and water. Bring to a rolling boil and add lentils, continue boiling for two minutes and then reduce to a simmer for a further 20 minutes until lentils are tender and soup is thickened, use less water if you prefer this to be more of a stew or to make it easier for little ones to eat by themselves.

Pea and Ham Soup

Remember that ham bone, tucked in the back of the freezer you knew you'd use for something. Yep. Well go get it.

One ham bone

2 cups of chopped onions

1 tbl oil

salt and pepper

1 bay leaf

1 stock cube (chicken or vegetable)

1 lb washed spilt peas

about 5 or 6 cups of water

Saute onion and garlic in oil over a low heat for about five minutes, add bay leaf and crumble in stock cube, add ham bone, split peas and water and bring to a boil. reduce temperature and simmer gently for at least an hour until peas are tender, then remove bone. Allow to cool and then process or blend until smooth.

If I can't be bothered to look at a pot sitting on the stove, I'll put this in the over at about 150c for an hour, I've also done the sauteing inside and then brought the whole pot outside and plonked in on top of the barbecue while I'm cooking other things and just leave it there to sit until the coals die. It's worked overtime so far and saves me cooking in the house.

For great recipes using beans, head over to visit Jenn's Frugal Food Series at Frugal Upstate

365 Day Clutter Challenge

Days 4 through 8

Still sticking with SAHMmy's 365 Day Clutter Challenge.

Day 4 - Two old towels and a handful of cleaning cloths which were falling to pieces, one towel was chucked and one was cut into pieces to replace the cleaning cloths.

Day 5 - I cleared out my bookmarks on my laptop.....what.......It still counts :) It makes it a lot easier to find what I'm looking for.

Day 6 - I emptied the last few drops of shower gel and bubble bath out of eight (yep count em eight) bottles into a handwash bottle I keep in the garden tools box to wash my hands outside before I come back in. Eight empty bottles gone and all into the recycling as well.

Day 7 - An old warped baking sheet. It gets in the way of everything else because it just won't lie flat on the shelf and was only keeping it "just in case" so it's gone.

Day 8 - A cracked mug. It's not much but it all adds up in the end.

I'm having a look around at the minute and in all seriousness I could spend a year on one room and not run out of things to get rid off. This has definitely been a good idea for me.

Having your cake.....

In an effort to try and make ends meet I've come to the conclusion that I will have to take on a second job. This idea didn't really appeal to me, I work full time already and see little enough of my daughter as it is without working nights.

A friend suggested I try selling the things I normally bake and give away. I wasn't entirely sure about this but decided I would give it a try, what harm could it do.

After calling around a few different places I've decided to set up a table at the car boot sale which takes place at Movilla Abbey Church the first Saturday of every month.

I'll admit the prospect of baking all that food is a bit daunting, obviously I thought nothing could really be done in advance and would all have to be baked the two nights before the sale. I'll be doing some lemon iced gingerbread cake and a lemon polenta cake which are always better a day or two after baking so I knew I could bake these during the week before the sale.

I had thought about baking some cookies to sell as well, but thought that these would be a little time consuming and maybe not worth the bother. That was until reading Rebekah's WFMW on ready-bake cookies. I made up small batches of about six cookies worth in peanut butter, choc chip and oat/raisin last night and froze them. I'll be baking these at the weekend to check the texture and then hopefully making up huge batches of ready to bake cookies. Brilliant. This really has saved me a lot of hassle and it's also covered one of the "small" things to bake for the sale which I was getting a bit stuck on. I had welsh cheesecakes and that was about it.

So I ready now, it'll be a challenge but I'm looking forward to it and can't wait now. I'll be there Sat 5 July with my wee table all set up and hoping for the best.

Plus this way toots can help me a little, she's getting really good at weighing things out, so this way she can spend even more time with mummy.

Wish me luck

L.

WFMW - Shake it

Well its another humpday.

Its a very quick tip this week on what works for me. If you ever have cans or tins of food (beans, soups etc) that have maybe been on the shelf for a while and you just know everything has settled to the bottom of the can. Rather than opening the can and then trying to scrape all the contents out, because you know in your haste your going to grab a teaspoon for this job. Best case scenario you wind up with a hand covered in sauce and worst case scenario a hand that has been cut to ribbons on the sharp edge of the can.

Instead, and you can have a bit of fun with this, shake the living daylights out of the can before opening it, get out all your aggression on that poor tin, it doesn't have any feelings you go for it.

Post arrive looking like the postman's been practising for tryouts, did it pour 5 minutes after you'd hung out the washing, late for every appointment....all.....day....long.

You go to town on that wee tin, show it who's boss and I can guarantee all but the most die hard, the most determined wee bean will slide right out of that tin when you open it.

If nothing else, it'll save you from taking a bad day out on someone or something that really matters to you.

For more great ideas head over to Rocks in my Dryer for WFMW.

L.

Moving On

We currently have our house on the market. It hasn't sold yet, not even a sniff of interest. The housing market has all but completely died in Northern Ireland. I can live with that. You see in the last year we have slowly come to realise (although not yet come to terms with) the fact that we can no longer afford our home. I'm welling up just at the thought of leaving this place and I keep telling myself and everyone else that I'll be happy if I can have one more summer here. It's stark contrast to the comments I made when we first moved in that I would be carried out of this house in a wooden box, I'm sorry to be so morbid but I went through hell to get this house and that is how I felt at the time (and still do). I'm also hoping that by some miracle, a lottery win perhaps, I don't know but something will happen and my family and I will be able to stay.

The house payment itself isn't the problem, its a stretch don't get me wrong, but we could manage it...just.

Now with the prices of almost everything here increasing, heating gas and electricity were the latest prices hikes by 40%, it's just gotten to be too much and rather than risk debt, we've decided to sell up and rent instead for a few years. It breaks my heart getting off the property ladder when I fought so hard to get on and when I think of my husband who will be 4o this year I wonder if we'll ever get back on again. I also worry that I'll have nothing to pass on to my daughter, but most of all, I'll just miss my house.

I've decided to start putting a few posts on here showing my home and the silly little things I've done to it to make it mine in the hope that at least, when the time comes, I'll have more than memories to take with me.

This house was a complete shell when we bought it, it had been lived in but unloved by its previous owner and had been very badly treated along the way. This is basically the only reason we could buy the house in an area we otherwise couldn't have afforded. It really is beautiful here and a stones throw from a very good school which puts me right in the catchment area. I'd hoped to hang on to the house long enough to get toots into the school before we move but I don't think the pennies will stretch that far. So it looks like I'll be doing the three day camp out with all the other mommies vying for a place at the school.

All of my good memories are tied up in this house, everything so far about my life that I want to remember. I was married in this house, I brought my daughter home to this house and I can see my handy work everywhere. I'm a completely different person here too. I can completely be myself and relax. When I'm here I'm home and there just isn't anywhere else in the world I can think of where I feel this happy.

So this is all just really in explanation to anyone that pops along for a visit and sees a slightly random post of me extolling the virtues of my lovely garden or the plant on my bathroom windowsill that I love so much (I'm useless with indoor plants, the never make it). The plant that stuck by me through some pretty rough times and makes me smile just to look at.

These posts will be as much for me as anyone else and I'd love anyone who visits just to leave a wee comment, just to say you stopped by.

365 Day Clutter Challenge

Three days in and still sticking with SAHMmy's challenge. This is monumental for me, if it involves clearing out anything at all I have the staying power of wet sellotape.

Days 2 and 3

Yesterday I cleared out both utensil drawers and finally threw out a whisk which falls to pieces if you so much as look at it and some metal kabob skewers which are perfectly round and therefore useless for everything. Food just spins like it's having it's own mini disco on them. Must remember to replace them with some flat ones when I see them on sale.

Today I cleared out my beside cabinet while getting ready for work and put two books into the box for charity and threw out some old (read ancient) makeup and an empty moisturiser pot which I was hanging on to to remind me to replace, but as I've had it so long now I'm not even sure they still make it, the pot went in the bin. Besides, I've moved it out of the way so many times now to get at something else in there the label is forever burned on my brain. If I see it again I'll know it.

I also moved all of tootsies hair accessories into a pretty little tin I had and set it on her dresser in her room, she always insists on wearing the same three clips any way so these are really just spares in case anything happens to the ones she likes, although I will probably have to coax her out of the foetal position if anything did happen to them. I guard those clips with my life, anything for peace and quiet eh.

Frugal Food Series

Its week two of the Frugal Food Series over with Jenn at Frugal Upstate and this week concentrates on tuna.

Now tuna in Northern Ireland is a bit middle of the road. Some own brand tuna is very inexpensive but the quality can be awful, mostly a watery shredded mess awaits you inside the can. The name brands like John West and Princes are a lot better quality but you will pay for this, around £1.00 for 200g. This is a fair bit more expensive than say whiting or mackerel which are still dirt cheap.

However tuna will carry you a bit further in flavour, with plain white fish a dish needs to be packed with stuff so that you would even be aware of it's presence. You can get away with a lot less tuna because the flavour carries through everything making it at least seem as though there is more fish in the dish.

I don't often use tuna for anything apart from salads and sandwiches which have already been covered by Jenn. One other recipe I have used and more so to use up leftover potatoes rather than tuna are fishcakes.

These don't follow a recipe as such. I usually take a can of tuna (200 - 400g) and whatever potatoes are left over and mix together with a little egg, spring onion, salt and pepper to taste. I then roll them into balls and flatten slightly into fat disks, dip into a little beaten egg then breadcrumbs and shallow fry on each side for a few minutes until breadcrumbs are browned. They're very quick to make because everything it already cooked and ready to go, and if I'm honest I'm more inclined to make these if I have leftover champ which already has the spring onions, salt pepper, butter and milk in there. If I use champ I usually don't need the egg to bind everything together.

I've also made a mini version of these, making them into one inch balls before flattening and serving with a selection of dips and salsa.

You can add whatever herbs or spices to these that your family happens to like and I'd love to hear about any other variations on this that you try.

For more great tuna recipes head on over to Jenn at Frugal Upstate for the Frugal Food Series.

Clutter begone

Clutter, clutter everywhere, I've got no place to think.

I've decided to join SAHMmy in her 365 day clutter challenge. Seriously it's getting a little out of hand here. Something needs to be done, and apparently it needs to be done by me. Ah well here goes.

Day 1 - I cleared out my cutlery drawer, completely gutted it (start as you mean to go on and all that). I've finally managed to get rid of seven plastic baby spoons, toots refuses to use anymore, one lonely corn on the cob holder, two vegetable peelers and a lemon zester.

Not bad for a days work. I'm pretty pleased with myself.

Geocaching

I had heard of Geocaching before, however I would never have realised it was such a big thing in Northern Ireland had I not been reminded about it by Domestic Spaz's WFMW.

Since doing a bit of reading up on the subject and registering on Geocaching.com we've been having a ball.

This is such an inexpensive way to entertain the family provided, like us, there are at least a few caches quite close to you. There are roughly 10 within about a mile of our home increasing by about ten for each mile further out we travel. Some of the caches are even within walking distance and are in parks which we would visit regularly. This is great when petrol prices are so expensive at the minute, we're trying to cut back on driving as much as possible, but a mile or two each way is fine.

The first cache was great, it's at a pond we would visit every week in the summer to feed ducks and Toots was just bowled over that she found a little box of toys under a tree which she sits beside almost every week for her picnic and had never known it was there. I tried to tell her that fairies had left it there for kids to find and swap toys, but as I've mentioned before she's more intelligent than me. She played along but I think she was a bit dubious, maybe I just didn't "sell it".

We've been to a few more since then and she's enjoyed each one just as much as the first, plus it's been a great way to recycle all those little toys nana keeps bringing by. She'll play with them for a little while but there's no real staying power in a small plastic toy, we've also swapped in some small rolls of boys stickers which came in a huge bumper box as a present at Christmas.

So far I think we couldn't definitely get an entire summer out of this without toots getting bored. I've counted the caches which are easy enough to get to with a 3 year old and there are over 50, within a 4 or 5 mile drive. There are more than this close to us but the terrain is a little more challenging, maybe next year.

I'm still getting used to how everything works and so far Himself is the tech side of everything (when is he not). We've actually found a few parks and walks near us which I wouldn't' have know about otherwise without the coords, so rest assured I will be posting about all our days out and adventures with this.

WFMW - Cream Linen

I've gotten a bit fanatical about this over the years. I think my husband might be a little worried about me. I only buy cream bed linen, varying shades but really nothing but cream.

Let me explain, very shortly after toots was born I received a gift for her. It was a full set of bed sheets (cot sized) with a tiny pillow case, cot bumper and a little quilt.... all in fuscia pink. I don't mind pink and toots is a girl so I think she deserves some pink occasionally (well perhaps purpley/pink). The set was lovely and soft so I decided to use it on her cot and babies being babies it lasted approx 36 whole hours before the sheets needed to be washed.

I decided to strip our bed as well and get everything washed and changed in one go... and you can see the problem straight away, fuscia pink sheets and cream sheets are not the best of friends in the wash. I carried on using the pink sheets every other bed change for a couple of months and then got fed up with the extra load of washing just to accommodate the different colour. From then on in it was cream all the way baby.

Toots is still young enough not to mind the lack of character bed linen and this way I can change all my beds, one load of washing and they're done. I also fold everything up together into one parcel and put away for the next change to save me time hunting through a sea of cream for one more pillow case. It saves me time on the changes themselves and money on the laundry bills. This is what works for me.

For more ideas head on over the Works for me Wednesday at Rocks in my Dryer.

L.

Eggy Grilled Cheese

This recipe is great for a quick lunch or snack, it can get a little messy if your not quick.

You'll find this works best with supermarket bread because you can kind of mash the edges together to hold the filling inside. You can use your own homemade good bread however you may need to work a little harder to get the edges to hold together, I would definitely recommend removing the crusts if you're using good bread

Eggy Grilled Cheese

Two slices of white bread

Cheese, whichever takes your fancy or you happen to have on hand. Mozzarella works as does good cheddar or some good swiss cheese.

One egg beaten and seasoned.

Sliced cheese and arrange on one slice of bread leaving about a centimetre or two of uncovered bread around the edge (you can remove the crusts if you prefer. If I do this I toss them in a bag in the freezer until I have enough for something that needs breadcrumbs.

Place the second slice of bread on top of the first and squeeze and press the edges together until they hold. If it's supermarket (plastic) bread they will.

With the beaten egg poured onto a plate or wide bottomed bowl quickly dip each side of the bread into the egg and then place in a non stick pan or lightly oiled skillet over a medium heat.

Check after about two minutes to see if the egg has set on the bottom, for a deeper colour lift the bread and place a small knob of butter underneath and leave for a further minute to help brown the bread.

Turn the bread and repeat for other side.

WARNING... LEAVE TO COOL FOR AT LEAST FIVE MINUTES BEFORE EATING. IT'S DECEPTIVE, IT'LL FEEL MUCH COOLER ON THE OUTSIDE WHILE THE INSIDE IS STILL MOLTEN LAVA.

This is excellent on it's own or with some good tomato (marinara) sauce to dip into for that "pizza on the fly" taste.

For more great frugal recipes with eggs head over to Jenn at Frugal Upstate for the Frugal Food Series.

L.

Frugal Food Series - Frittata

This month Jenn over at Frugal Upstate is hosting a Frugal Food Series. With all living costs increasing on what seems like a weekly basis it's time to tighten our belts. The most obvious and easiest way to do this is to cut back on food bills. The first week of the series concentrates on eggs. Now I love eggs, can't get enough of them so I have a large collection of eggy recipes. However my favorite is a basic recipe for a Frittata. The reason I like this recipe so much and use it so often is that is great for helping to clear out the fridge. The basic recipe is as follows;

tbls oil
4 eggs - beaten and seasoned to taste
approx 1 cup of cooked cubed potato (about 1cm cubes)
approx 1 cup of sliced onion

Heat oil in a non-stick shallow pan

Gently cook onion in oil for about ten minutes taking care not to allow only the slightest colour on the onions.

Add potatoes and cook for a further five minutes until heated through and just starting to colour at the edges.

Making sure the ingredients are evenly distributed in the pan, add beaten eggs to the pan and allow to cook on a low heat until the eggs set on the bottom and should start to set around the edges of the pan.

Place pan under a medium grill until the top of the frittata sets .

Don't let this recipe limit you. I have added all types of leftovers to this basic recipe with great results. Just always bear in mind that if you have a huge heaping pan of leftovers add enough egg to bind the ingredients together. You should be able to slice the frittata like a cake into wedges.

A frittata can be eaten at any time of the day. I have served fit or breakfast, lunch and dinner. It's also lovely cooked and left to cool and either eaten as a snack or with a salad and some good bread.

For more eggy ideas to feed your family head over to the Frugal Food Series at Frugal Upstate. Don't forget to check out some of Jenn's other invaluable posts while your there.

L.

Intro

I've decided to blog. I'm told I have a fair amount to say for myself so I thought, why not try a wider audience. There must be a lot of people out there in the blogosphere willing to listen to me ramble on......

Ok a few things about me, my family and my life.

I'm 27. I forget this fact constantly and have trouble not thinking of myself as a teenager. I am assured I will grow out of this phase eventually.

I work full time in a law firm as a secretary. I always enjoyed my job but I've slowly come to realise that I am better at home. Everything I do for my family is greatly appreciated. Unfortunately the workplace in Northern Ireland is very much based on running staff down. Keeping the 99 things done well to yourself while telling everyone willing to listen about the one thing done wrong. This wasn't always the case a job used to be for life.

I prefer being at home. Don't get me wrong I'm all for the Women's Movement however I believe this to be the right to a personal choice. Given that choice I would be stay at home mom. Unfortunately this can't be the case for a few years yet.

I promised when I had my beautiful baby girl that it would not change me. It did, almost instantly and I'm not one bit sorry or apologetic about that. Toots recently turned three. She is infinitely more intelligent than me, she can talk circles around me and teaches me small lessons everyday. My daughter has a wonderful outlook on life and I love that she teaches me to look at things a little differently. I get much more enjoyment out of life now. She's perfect and I am whole heartedly convinced that she is very important, not just to me but to the world at large. I am sure that I'm not the only person to think this way about her children but I am truly convinced of it. Therefore I have to do everything to make sure she is happy and content. Lets get one thing straight from the outset. I don't think that she needs to be coming down with toys and designer clothes to be truly happy in fact quite the opposite. She gets very ratty when surrounded by too many things.

My husband, lets call him Himself, is lovely, most of the time, but then everyone has a bad day and I don't think of it as a fault in him. He is extremely supportive of me and everything I do. He also spends almost every spare waking moment with our daughter and I love him for that. I can pretty much guarantee that if toots has a bad dream Himself is the first out of bed to comfort her and he's yet to complain about a lost night's sleep.

As I've mentioned before I still find it hard not to think of myself as a teenager. I don't know everything and I'm only learning now what kind of person I am and what kind of person I want to be. This means that new things get tried and tested in our house almost everyday, as I've said my husband never complains about this he just takes it in his stride. I've tried every method of cooking so that we can sit down as a family within 20 minutes of getting home, OAMC, crockpot, nukey cooking you name it I've had a go.

I think that's possibly enough for one night. Til another time.

L.

Day Out

Off to feed the ducks today and there's a Cache nearby, but that's a post for later.

L.