February already....
Doesn't time fly by? With no visible snow and today seeing the sunshine, it could almost be the start of spring. One more month and it will be. Getting lighter each morning as I wake.
Thanks for comments, what a good idea Margie - my cow-hide rug would make a lovely pouffe, so will have a chat with B's upholstery friend to see if he can make me one from it. The other rugs are older and of no particular value, but must keep the hooked wool one I remember my mum and dad making together, it must be nearly 70 years old and despire being on various floors all that time, still looks as good as new.
Good to hear from you again Marjorie (Canada?), myself have not got around to juicing fresh fruit and veg, preferring to eat the skins when I can (extra fibre?), although do enjoy drinking fruit juice (sold in cartons). Envy you having a good supply of (home-grown?) beef and chickens in your freezer.
My mum used to always buy capons when I was small. Chickens then were roasted only for special occasions, and 'an old boiler' would be bought when chicken casserole/stock was to be made. Haven't heard of capons (castrated cockerels) being sold these days, but believe they do have more flavour than a more tender hen raised for cooking.
Have a feeling Sarina, that if I do rearrange the furniture and move my 'sitting room' into here (presently the dining room), this will help me start my new life. At the moment it feels as though B is still here, not that this is unpleasant, but I should move on without such distractions.
Regarding the brawn/haslet, I'll look up the recipes my mum used (am sure these will be in Harmsworth's Household Encyclopedia c. 1910) and do remember making brawn myself - very easy when you start with a pigs head (25p in the 70's) but found half a head was enough.
Sorry that you haven't yet found work jane, but believe you are the person who often bought from Approved Foods, so expect you still have plenty of food to keep you going.
There have been several comments about the 'Eat well for less' programme (with Greg Wallace, I believe repeated today), everyone finding it worth watching, and as Gillibob says, it's not a bad idea to work out just how much value (cost of food in store) that is on our shelves. Have you tried that Alison? Thinking about having a go myself.
Myself have always believed that it is possible to feed a family on less than we think, certainly if we work out how much it cost us to go OUT to work, we might find most of our pay is taken up with that (transport, clothing, processed foods etc....). The more free time we have at home, the cheaper it becomes to feed ourselves.
Many ladies always like to wear make-up for work, have their hair done, buy decent clothes etc. All these can be expensive. At home we don't need make-up, we can wear old clothes (well I do), and less money then goes on these. We might find one of the new series (mentioned above) deals with a one-person wage earner, or even a person living alone (on a pension?).
A Marmite Easter Egg!! What will they think of next? There was something on the radio last week about this years flavour of Cadbury's Crème Eggs, and apparently these taste awful. Well, what can we expect when the company was sold to the Americans? They make things to suit their own palates, everything far too sweet. That's another of our traditional sweets ruined by those over the pond. Wish they would leave us alone.
Having forced myself to eat more (little and often) over the last couple of days, have to say I do feel a lot better, my taste is coming back, also my strength. Think that having 3 days without eating any food, and taking only sips of water did me no good at all. Pretty sure this was the cause of the painful foot - this is getting better now but still hurts, and I notice (via the Internet re gout that foods I should avoid are liver and oily fish - these being two foods that I thought I was SUPPOSED to eat for good health.
However, also saw that ice-packs should be put on the swollen foot to reduce inflammation, and there was me trying to warm up my bed using the electric blanket (bedroom very cold when the heating is off). No wonder my foot hurt more as the mattress warmed up. Now I put the poorly foot out from under the duvet, resting it on top of the duvet (in the old air) and the pain does subside. Live and learn.
With nearly 10 day without watching TV, in the end had to request the radio (normally in the kitchen) be brought to my bedside, and this has kept me sane. Even though missing all my favourite soaps, plus a couple of other progs, was able to see the 'eat well for less', and glad I didn't miss that, the rest I've discovered are not as important to me as I thought they were. All I want to do is get better as soon as possible. So much to do, and now I feel more like doing it, then strike while the iron's hot as they say.
That's it for today. May blog tomorrow, it all depends. At the moment it is never a certainty as to when I have free time (so many callers from various care organisations etc), but I'll be back. TTFN.
Thanks for comments, what a good idea Margie - my cow-hide rug would make a lovely pouffe, so will have a chat with B's upholstery friend to see if he can make me one from it. The other rugs are older and of no particular value, but must keep the hooked wool one I remember my mum and dad making together, it must be nearly 70 years old and despire being on various floors all that time, still looks as good as new.
Good to hear from you again Marjorie (Canada?), myself have not got around to juicing fresh fruit and veg, preferring to eat the skins when I can (extra fibre?), although do enjoy drinking fruit juice (sold in cartons). Envy you having a good supply of (home-grown?) beef and chickens in your freezer.
My mum used to always buy capons when I was small. Chickens then were roasted only for special occasions, and 'an old boiler' would be bought when chicken casserole/stock was to be made. Haven't heard of capons (castrated cockerels) being sold these days, but believe they do have more flavour than a more tender hen raised for cooking.
Have a feeling Sarina, that if I do rearrange the furniture and move my 'sitting room' into here (presently the dining room), this will help me start my new life. At the moment it feels as though B is still here, not that this is unpleasant, but I should move on without such distractions.
Regarding the brawn/haslet, I'll look up the recipes my mum used (am sure these will be in Harmsworth's Household Encyclopedia c. 1910) and do remember making brawn myself - very easy when you start with a pigs head (25p in the 70's) but found half a head was enough.
Sorry that you haven't yet found work jane, but believe you are the person who often bought from Approved Foods, so expect you still have plenty of food to keep you going.
There have been several comments about the 'Eat well for less' programme (with Greg Wallace, I believe repeated today), everyone finding it worth watching, and as Gillibob says, it's not a bad idea to work out just how much value (cost of food in store) that is on our shelves. Have you tried that Alison? Thinking about having a go myself.
Myself have always believed that it is possible to feed a family on less than we think, certainly if we work out how much it cost us to go OUT to work, we might find most of our pay is taken up with that (transport, clothing, processed foods etc....). The more free time we have at home, the cheaper it becomes to feed ourselves.
Many ladies always like to wear make-up for work, have their hair done, buy decent clothes etc. All these can be expensive. At home we don't need make-up, we can wear old clothes (well I do), and less money then goes on these. We might find one of the new series (mentioned above) deals with a one-person wage earner, or even a person living alone (on a pension?).
A Marmite Easter Egg!! What will they think of next? There was something on the radio last week about this years flavour of Cadbury's Crème Eggs, and apparently these taste awful. Well, what can we expect when the company was sold to the Americans? They make things to suit their own palates, everything far too sweet. That's another of our traditional sweets ruined by those over the pond. Wish they would leave us alone.
Having forced myself to eat more (little and often) over the last couple of days, have to say I do feel a lot better, my taste is coming back, also my strength. Think that having 3 days without eating any food, and taking only sips of water did me no good at all. Pretty sure this was the cause of the painful foot - this is getting better now but still hurts, and I notice (via the Internet re gout that foods I should avoid are liver and oily fish - these being two foods that I thought I was SUPPOSED to eat for good health.
However, also saw that ice-packs should be put on the swollen foot to reduce inflammation, and there was me trying to warm up my bed using the electric blanket (bedroom very cold when the heating is off). No wonder my foot hurt more as the mattress warmed up. Now I put the poorly foot out from under the duvet, resting it on top of the duvet (in the old air) and the pain does subside. Live and learn.
With nearly 10 day without watching TV, in the end had to request the radio (normally in the kitchen) be brought to my bedside, and this has kept me sane. Even though missing all my favourite soaps, plus a couple of other progs, was able to see the 'eat well for less', and glad I didn't miss that, the rest I've discovered are not as important to me as I thought they were. All I want to do is get better as soon as possible. So much to do, and now I feel more like doing it, then strike while the iron's hot as they say.
That's it for today. May blog tomorrow, it all depends. At the moment it is never a certainty as to when I have free time (so many callers from various care organisations etc), but I'll be back. TTFN.
posted by Shirley at 10:43 am
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