Knitted Socks Mark 2

I live in awe of Bridget's knitting speed; she seems to knock up something new every single day. I though I was quite a fast knitter but in comparison it seems I'm a plodder. Still, I get things completed eventually. 

So, let me show case my latest creation, my second pair of socks knitted on 2 straight needles, made with contrast coloured toes and heels. 

I re-read the instructions and think I was casting off the toe incorrectly, and having knitted this pair the way they should be done they do look a whole lot neater.

This pair is for DH for Valentine's Day. I've wrapped them up in brown parcel paper and made a cord to tie around it with the two colours of wool I used for the socks. 

I put a little gold card inside that said something along the lines of my love was knitted into every stitch. 

These socks do come out very large; I've been knitting the large child's size rather than the women's ones as the first sock I tried out was absolutely huge. I wear mine indoors over other socks to keep my feet warm when I'm sitting about, but even so I think I could probably get away with making the middle-sized child's ones and they'd still fit. I've only made them in cheap acrylic yarn so far, but they are lovely and cosy and the first pair have washed well. I think this ribbed version helps them keep their shape.

We have blue skies here for a few minutes after an absolutely horrible morning with driving rain and wind whistling about the house. I didn't make it to my slimming club. I had every intention of going, but I got just a little way down the road, could hardly walk against the wind so turned around and came back home. I know I've gained this week anyway, since I checked on my own scales, but today I'm back on track and hope to make up for the past couple of weeks when I've had trouble sticking to the plan. Going to DD2's for dinner last night and having fajitas and apple and blueberry pie with cream didn't help. I generally stick to fruit and soup the day before weigh in so all that food wasn't a good idea. It was yummy, though, and lovely to get an invite rather than me catering for everyone. Next Sunday we're going to DD3 and BF's new flat for a roast with all the trimmings; I'll definitely have to make up for that on the Monday before weigh day.

I'm trying to decide what craft project to do next. I mght try another of the sock patterns on the leaflet, although I do have to make a start on DS2's scrapbook now that we have a working printer. After looking at various scrapbooks online and trying to find a good deal I gave in and ordered this one since he's so into his music, and I'm just waiting for it to be delivered.

Of course, I'll be replacing the cute little girl with a suitable pic of DS. It was dearer than I intended, but for a 21st birthday gift for my baby boy it was worth paying out a bit more to get something just right for him.

Dinner tonight is a healthy quorn fillet and seafood stir fry with fragrant Thai rice. I found the small pack of seafood when I cleaned the freezer; the quorn fillets (also from the freezer) will be sliced and used instead of chicken; the fresh stir fry veg was 79p from Aldi; the rice is from my stockpile, as are the soy sauce, ginger and chilli I'll use for flavour.

The only other news I have is DH has an interview on Thursday for a permanent lecturing post at the college where he's been supply teaching for the past 4 months. It would be lovely if he got it for the job security and so I wouldn't have to save money when he is working to cover the holiday periods. He'll also get sick pay if he's ill and can start paying into a pension scheme again. If he doesn't get it he'll still probably stay on there as a supply teacher, and if not he's had a couple of teaching agencies contact him lately about long-term contracts. But...fingers crossed for the permanent job, especially as he'd much rather teach at the college than have to go back to a school.

That's about it today. Hope all is well with you and yours, and you get to see just a tiny bit of blue sky today.

Dinner for Two

Just us two for dinner tonight since DS1 is working another late shift. We've agreed to have one special meal a week now we're getting more alone time.  

DH cooked the main course, a spicy minced pork and rice recipe.

I made his favourite raspberry trifle with whipped cream topping for dessert. 

 
It might be a special meal-for-two but there's no need to go mad on the expense; all the ingredients except the double cream for the trifle came from my stockpile. The cream was a large carton from Aldi for 85p. We were going to go the whole hog and have candles on the table but I don't have any fancy ones, so that will have to wait for next time when I've had a chance to take a look in Poundland. Of course, it would have been more romantic if DH hadn't gone crazy with the chilli powder. I like hot spicy food, but snotty nose and runny eyes is not a sexy look on anyone. It was pretty delicious, though.

We've actually had mostly dry weather today. Although it was drizzling when I popped round Aldi about 9.30 it cleared up and was quite nice. The wind has really picked up this evening and its supposed to rain overnight...no surprise there! Tomorrow's supposed to be showery but with some dry spells. I know, despite the winds and rain, we're lucky down here in Dover, and my heart really goes out to everyone coping with terrible storms and flooding. 

I've done quite a bit of knitting this afternoon and finished another sock. I need to get a move on and complete the pair by next Thursday so I can give them to DH for Valentine's on Friday. He loves the scarf I made for him for Xmas and says he thinks of me every time he wears it (he can be a soppy sod sometimes) so I'm hoping the socks will also be a welcome gift. 

That's about it for today. Nothing much happening, but that's okay with me. 

Nutroast and Devon Apple Cake.

Not much to report today. I had a bleugh day when I didn't want to get out of bed. I obviously did, but have pottered about doing nothing much all day and feeling thoroughly fed up. Anyway, enough of me feeling sorry for myself. 

Just a quick run down of tonight's dinner, which was nutroast with roast potatoes, parsnips and butternut squash. All ingredients from my stores.

 
I use a very old Cranks recipe book for the nutroast; the book's so ancient its almost more sellotape than paper. I used 3 x 100g packs of pre-chopped nuts from Approved Foods, lots of odds and ends of wholemeal bread that I found in the freezer when it was cleared out to make 8 ounces of breadcrumbs, a finely chopped onion, 2 free range eggs from Aldi, a couple of teaspoons of savoury yeast spread (like marmite) and some mixed herbs and black pepper. All was mixed well together with about a 1/4 pint of hot water and then baked for about 45 minutes in a greased loaf tin. The recipe itself doesn't call for eggs but I like to add them to bind it together a bit better; I compensate by adding less water. This made a double amount for 2 loaves to freeze one for another day.

I made Devon Apple Cake for dessert, also from a Cranks recipe. 

It uses 8 ounces wholemeal self raising flour, 4 oz brown sugar, 4 oz butter, tsp cinnamon, tsp mixed spice, a free range egg and 12oz apples, roughly chopped (mine were frozen ones from Farm Foods). Mix the dry ingredients together, rub in the butter, mix in the chopped apple and then the beaten egg and stir until everything is just wet (don't over mix). Tip into a greased 7 inch square tin (or a 6 x 11 inch oblong one, which is what I use), and bake for approx 30 minutes at gas mark 5. It's gorgeous served with custard.

Despite my down mood today I made myself get out for a walk and went the long way round into town. Black clouds dogged my every step and the wind was so fierce I got stopped in my tracks a few times, but it stayed dry for me and I walked there and back without getting rained on. The rain came later in the afternoon, just in time for poor DS1 when he went off for his evening shift. I'm hoping for a dry morning tomorrow when I go off for my volunteering. Hoping I'll have a bit more life in me too.

Do You Boo-Boo?

I thought I'd start by writing about something different today so I don't get bogged down with all this frugal stuff.

If you realise what the title means then you have probably either watched - or studiously avoided watching - the TLC programme 'Here Comes Honey Boo Boo' about the little American girl who enters pageants and her crazy family.

Putting aside the whole rights and wrongs of these pageants (personally I hate seeing kids sexualised like this, wearing make-up and skimpy outfits, but that's just me), and focusing on the family themselves...Well, yes, they are what you'd typically think of as rednecks, and yes, the mother has had 4 kids all by different fathers and some of those fathers are in jail (although she's also had longer-term relationships including one of 5 years and her latest of 9 years with Honey's dad, who she recently committed to in a televised ceremony), and yes, they are loud, in-your-face, overweight and their diet is appalling and I would hate to live next door to them, but I love them in a kind of voyeuristic can't-look-away-from-the-train-wreck sort of way.

I really enjoy this programme when generally I loathe these kinds of shows, especially the American ones. Having watched 2 series now, (series 3 starts tonight,Tuesday 4th Feb, at 9pm on TLC) for all their loud-mouthed bad manners they seem to genuinely care about each other, have lots of fun in the process and they don't seem to give a damn what other people think of them. Mama June is a woman after my own heart with her whole extreme couponing thing (wish we could make those kind of savings over here) and has an impressive stash of toilet paper.

An outing for them might include skip-diving at the local dump, a trip to the redneck games, mud-bogging or playing bingo. They have a lot of fun and laugh a lot. They also do quite a bit for their community, putting on a Christmas Lights display in their backyard in November/December and hosting Christmas in July to collect food and toys for needy families. Mama June sees this as repayment for the help she received when she was in need.

In truth, I would much rather watch this family than the Kardashains. I am definitely not attracted to the lives of the super rich and famous; give me a down to Earth, poor as a church mouse family every day. This is also true of my Second World War Home Front interest; I am much more intrigued by how an ordinary housewife managed her rations than reading about how the lady at the big house was inconvenienced by the arrival of evacuees. That's probably why Downton Abbey has never really appealed to me, and when I used to watch Upstairs Dowstairs years ago it was the servants' lives I was more intersted in.

Having said all that about Honey Boo Boo's over-the-top, irreverant family, at the other end of the spectrum, I also enjoy watching The Duggars on 19 Kids and Counting.

The Duggars are the antithesis of the Honey Boo Boo clan being a massive fundamentalist Christian family with set family values that include a no kissing (let alone no sex) rule before the wedding.  Having 5 children myself I've always been interested in how others manage their large families and have followed the Duggars since they were 14 Kids and Counting. I prefer their earlier programmes, though, as the later ones are more set up for the show with them visiting all kinds of places including trips to the UK and the Holy Land. I would rather watch them in their own home, coping with the everyday problems of of such a large family, like laundry and shopping, than galivanting about all over the place. I have some of their shows on DVD (and also the first series of Honey Boo Boo) and watch them whenever I get fed up with my daily routine. There was also a British series featuring several big families that I wish was available on dvd, although it was on the i-player a while back and I could probably watch it online.

It's strange that I enjoy these kind of reality shows but hate others. I have never watched Big Brother; I turn over the second The Only Way Is Essex or Chelsea or any such-like shows come on; and I don't enjoy talent shows or game shows (except Eggheads), or chat shows like Jerry Springer or Jeremy Kyle. I'm also not a soap fan, although years ago I followed East Enders and Neighbours I haven't watched either in over 20 years and have never seen Corrie or Emmerdale except for an occasional episode when visiting relatives (their choice of viewing not mine). But then I'm a mass of contradictions because I love Judge Judy and could sit and watch all day. 

I do enjoy Doctor Who, Sherlock and Midsomer Murders, but mostly have trouble following the plot in a lot of crime series and dramas, probably because I'm always doing something else like knitting, sewing or surfing the net at the same time. My other guilty pleasure viewing is True Blood; I love me a good-looking vampire and because it's such fantasy the blood and gore doesn't bother me whereas I can't watch anything else too gory these days even though I loved horror films when I was younger.

My real favourites are the antiques and collectors programmes, particularly Bargain Hunt, Antiques Road Trip (not the Roadshow), Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is and, to a lesser degree, Flog It and Dickenson's Real Deal. I'm also partial to some of the home improvement shows like Homes Under the Hammer and, when I'm in a dreaming-of-the-future kind of mood, A Place in the Sun Home and Away. I also love the Great British Bake Off and enjoyed the Sewing Bee.

So, what are your viewing preferences? Are there any shows you love or hate? Any you feel embarrased about enjoying?

Back to frugality and today's Use-It-Up dinner was Practically Pork and Butternut Squash Casserole. 

 
Why Practically Pork? Because the only pork in it was the scraps in the leftover gravy/sauce from last week's pork and spiced rice meal. In fact, this meal used up several odds and ends that I found when cleaning out the fridge and freezer. You could use any leftovers you have; chicken gravy would work well. 

This is what went into mine:-

about 1/2 pint leftover gravy/sauce from the pork casserole
small amount of baked bean sauce leftover from DS1's dinner last night
4 squishy cherry tomatoes
1/2 onion leftover from DH's toasted salad sandwiches
1/2 large butternut squash (Aldi - 69p so 35p for half)
large parsnip (yellow stickered pack at 35p so approx 10p for this one)
Tin of Chick Peas (Approved Foods from ages ago, approx 35p...could use any white beans you have, even tinned baked beans) 
1/5 th catering tin of carrots (AF 99p so about 20p)
tsp of ground cumin and pinch of chilli flakes (approx 5p)

Just chop everything, mix it all together in the slowcooker, add a little extra liquid if desired, and leave on either high or low until the raw veg is soft, not too soft or the butternut squash will just go to mush. 

I just ate the casserole, but the boys had it with some yellow-stickered granary rolls that I found when I cleared out the freezer and which I refreshed for a few seconds in the microwave. They added an extra 15p.

Total cost of the whole meal = Approx £1.20
Per serving (3 servings) = 40p

I know the cost would have been much more if cooking from scratch without using leftovers, but that's the whole point. By not chucking out those little odds and ends and combining them to make another tasty meal I've not only made this dinner for very little cost but also, in a way, reduced the cost of the original meals made with these items since nothing of them was wasted. Does that make sense? It does to me. 

Lastly my weight loss result today was...1 lb off. I was pleased with that since I haven't been all that good this week.

Ducks and Daughters

Hello and welcome to my new follower Thrift Deluxe.

I'm on a roll at the moment. Freezer and cutlery drawer cleaned and sorted yesterday, my big fridge done this morning. I only meant to have a quick clear out of items DD3 and BF had left behind in the fridge, but when I checked the salad drawer there was a carrier bag with some well-rotted lettuce inside. It had actually gone liquid and was leaking out and creating a smell so I cleaned the drawer out and the decided I might as well do the rest of it. I gave it a really good clean, all the shelves and compartments dismantled and washed, everything scrubbed, anything mouldy chucked out, and everything rearranged tidily. It looks great now and is practically empty since I got rid of so much stuff. I'm afraid I was a  bad girl and didn't bother emptying the contents of any jars to wash out and recycle them. There were so many and some were so disgusting I just chucked them in the rubbish. I'm ashamed I let it get so bad, but in my defence most of the discarded stuff was DD3's and I don't like to dispose of other people's things.

I've also spent money today despite my Super-Duper-No-Spend-Fabulous-Frugal-February promise. Unfortunately, we ran out of cat litter and since our moggies have always had wood pellet litter since birth and don't like cheaper stuff I spent £16 on 2 x 30 litre sacks from Jollye's pet shop. I also went to Aldi and spent another £2.75 on fruit and salad veg, and £1 in Savers on throat sweets as I have a tickly cough now my cold is almost gone. 

The weather today has been cold but fine so on my way to Aldi I walked the path that runs by our section of the River Dour. It's usually only a trickle (more a stream than a river) and parts of it tend to dry up in the summer, but with the extremely wet weather we've had it was very full and fast flowing. 

The ducks were loving it, but it's a bit of a worry with the water rising closer to the level of the path. The river is only a couple of hundred yards up the road from us and, although we've never had it overflow yet, with more rain forecast there's always a first time.

I was in the midst of the blitz on the fridge when DD1 called to say she wasn't required to give evidence in court today and did I fancy going for a coffee. I was just finishing up the cleaning when she arrived and we went into town. We were in Weatherspoons when DD2 called; she'd just finished at her interview in Faversham and was on her way back to Dover and did we want to pop round her place for coffee. So, that's what we did. The three of us had a good old chinwag and then DH arrived home early and he joined us. I had a lovely time with my girls but didn't get around to putting together the meal I was intending to make for dinner, so I just had an omelette with salad and DH had toasted ham and salad sandwiches. I'll do DS1 fried eggs and beans on toast when he gets home from work around 10pm.

Tomorrow is weigh-in day and I'm expecting another small gain. I put on 1 1/2 lb last week, and I've been pretty bad this week too with the stress of DD3 moving, and the moving out dinner and eating cupcakes, and with going out to dinner last night. Never mind, I'll try and eat more healthily this week.

Super-Duper-No-Spend-Fabulous-Frugal-February

Firstly, hello and welcome to Janice, Blondie, Lesleydee, Penny and A Frugal Mrs.

I'm still feeling pretty rough today, but since DS2 was so looking forward to dinner out with his mum and dad we still went. It was only to the local Weatherspoons but I had a lovely roast chicken dinner and we had a good old natter. Since DS1 is now an only child (in that he's the only one still living at home) it was nice for us to all go out together.

I spent this morning defrosting and sorting out the freezer, and also cleaning out the cutlery drawer. It's funny how I now have an overflowing drawer full of knives, forks, spoons, utensils etc. Before DD3 and BF cleared out their room in preparation for the move my drawer was practically empty and they repeatedly denied all knowledge of where all my cutlery had disappeared to. Now they've gone its all magically reappeared. Strange, eh?!

Cleaning the freezer was well worth the effort. Apart from it badly needing to be defrosted, I found a bag at the bottom with 7 x 250g packets of grated cheddar in it, so I won't need to buy cheese for ages. I keep my frozen foods in big, strong reusable shopping bags because the handles make them easy to lift in and out of my huge chest freezer. I rearranged my stock into different categories and now have all the part-used packs of veg in one bag to be used up first, packs of meat and fish in another bag, bread, cheese and pastry in another, vegetarian foods and fruits in another, and finally unopened bags of veg in the last one. In a small seperate section of the freezer I have stacked tubs of magarine and also plastic containers of pre-prepared meals. 

Now there are only 3 of us I easily have enough food (meat, veg, frozen fruit, bread etc) in there to last for the whole of February. I am really, really going to try and not buy anything except yogurts, fresh fruit and salad veg for the remainder of this month. I have all the pasta, rice, couscous etc that I need upstairs. I'm also okay for non-food items like washing liquid, loo rolls, anti-perspirant, soap and toothpaste. I was going to dub this month Fabulous Frugal February, but I think I'll call it Super-Duper-No-Spend-Fabulous-Frugal-February. That's my intention, to be super-duper frugal and to spend next to nothing for the rest of the month. There are a few things like DH's fares to work and my slimming club subscription that I will have to pay out for, and we'll have to put petrol in the car and also buy DH's ticket to visit his mum in Wales over half term, but for everyday foods and household expenses I should be able to get by with virtually no expenditure.

So, one of my daughter's moved out yesterday and today my eldest came to visit from Winchester. DD1 is staying in Canterbury for a few days courtesy of the Kent Police Force...and no, she's not being held in custody. It's to do with a case she was involved with when she was still a police officer in Kent. She's being put up in a hotel and might be staying a week or two depending on how the case goes so we'll get to see her quite often I should think. So, I get rid of one daughter and another one shows up. It's lovely to see her as its been over a month since she popped down for the day just before Xmas.

That's me done for another day. Off to bed again soon with two hot water bottles and a couple of paracetamol. I'm hoping to start feeling a bit better tomorrow.

Saving Dough

I'm not talking about the money kind of dough, although I suppose money was saved as well by not wasting it. Anyway, all will be explained later.

First I have to say my instincts were right and the headache I had earlier in the week was a precursor to something else. I have a rotten cold complete with sore throat, runny nose, sneezing, aching joints, etc. etc. Seems this was DD3's parting gift to me as she's also suffering and has mostly lost her voice too.

The move went pretty smoothly. They had a lot of help from friends and relatives. DH and I did one run over to the flat with a few bits and pieces, but there's not much space in our little VW Polo. They've moved most of the big stuff and will pop in tomorrow for some odds and ends, but I bet we'll be finding stuff they've left behind for weeks to come. They also had to move tons of stuff from BF's grandmother's house as they often stayed with her and had quite a few belongings in their room there. When it came to it, I think I was just relieved that everything went so well, so there were no more tears. Or maybe I was just feeling too ill to get upset.

Dinner tonight was a cheat, an extra-large salad box from Morrison's salad bar and we chose 5 different rice, pasta and bean salads. I also got a couple of yellow-stickered little gem lettuces and I had cherry tomatoes in the fridge. We had it with homemade cheese and onion rolls. And, no, I wasn't really up to making bread except for putting the ingredients in the breadmaker and turning it on, but I hadn't reckoned with DH thinking it was a good idea to unplug the machine during its first rise. This is where the dough-saving comes into it. When I plugged the machine back in it just reset itself back to the start of the cycle so I took the dough out, kneaded it by hand, formed it into rolls, sprinkled more cheese on top, rose it on top of a low oven and then baked it. I wasn't going to waste the dough since it had about 4 ounces of cheese in it. As it turns out the rolls were a great success so I'll probably be making them again. The bread flour was from AF, and the onion was dried onion I got ages ago in big bags also from AF. I have loads of that onion and use it in bread, cornbread, savoury muffins etc. It saves having to slice and fry onion for a recipe.

Apart from the run to Folkestone and the bread making, this morning we dodged the hail showers to nip into town and do some bank stuff for DH's mum and I've also done 2 loads of laundry that have had to be dried over the radiators. Funny how us women manage to carry on even when we feel awful, isn't it?  This afternoon, though, I've mostly sat on the sofa feeling sorry for myself and either knitting or reading. I'm well on the way to completing another sock. I'm making it two-tone with the main sock royal blue and the heel and toe areas a sort of electric blue. I was going to do the whole of the sole in the contrast colour but I didn't  think I'd quite have enough wool. Pictures to follow when the pair is complete.

I think that's all for now. Even my cheeks are aching at the moment, my throat is killing me and I keep sneezing all over the keyboard...great way to spread germs! Good job its my own laptop and I'm the only one to use it. I'm thinking an early night and lots of paracetamol might be a good idea. We're supposed to be going out for dinner tomorrow evening but I'm not sure it will be worth it; not sure I'll be able to taste anything. We'll have to wait and see.