Smaller Portions ... and Mix and Match

 

Up until the start of this week the only book that I had read this January was this new book by Ella Mills, as lots of you know I read recipe and cook books as though they were fiction. 😁

It's a really good book and there are lots of corners of pages folded down now to remind me to make more of the recipes from it ... book purists look away, yes I fold corners.

I had all the ingredients in to make this recipe, Creamy Coconut Lentils, so I did.

I find myself eating much smaller portions these days so the recipe that said feeds four gave me seven me sized portions.

I cooked up a double quantity of rice and had one portion along with a pot of curry for my tea, I put the other half of the rice into the fridge along with another pot of curry for the next night and four went into the freezer for future use.

The one left was claimed by Alan, who diluted it slightly and used it as a gravy to pour over his Christmas turkey and ham pie that he had cooked from the freezer.  He said it was delicious, I cannot really imagine it, but he's always enjoyed mixing his flavours and textures up.

Sue xx  

Going Back to My Old Ways

 

I bought this washing up liquid back in November (see here), and because I quite like the simplicity of the bottle I left it out on the sink, and I used the liquid directly from the bottle instead of my usual decanting into a push top dispenser.

You'd think that by now I would know better wouldn't you.

Even though I thought that I was being careful with my little squirt into the washing up bowl each time I used it, I have already used well over half.  So the rest has now been decanted, where hopefully it will last me a bit longer.

Of course I managed to get all of the washing up liquid out of the bottle, first by pouring, then by turning it upside down and pouring a little bit more, then by balancing the bottle directly on top of the dispenser for an hour so it could drip, drip, drip.

Then finally by rinsing out the bottle and dropping the top into the bowl before I started on the teatime pots.

I will now see how long the second half of the bottle lasts me with dispensing rather than squirting.

Riveting stuff eh!! 😁

Sue xx

On the Porch, Drinking Coffee

 

This came up on my feed the other day and it really got me thinking.

I think it's all about the time of your life that you are in isn't it.  It's also that some people need to be busy all the time, some people need to be seen to be busy all the time, there is a huge difference.

I was the former, then I was the latter, then I felt guilty for doing less, then the guilt stopped.

Now I would rather be on the porch drinking coffee.

Ooh ... should we build a porch on the bungalow? 😀

No, I think decking or a patio at the back would suffice.   

Sue xx

Look After My Sink ... You Have Been Warned!!

 

We went shopping for some of the light fittings and shades that we will be needing for our new home on Saturday.  It was nice looking around B&Q and choosing a few new things.  They were all things that we needed as well as wanted, so I wasn't too unhappy about the splurging of cash.

We were going to try and reuse the old white plastic ceiling fittings for the main room lights, but when we called to the bungalow on the way home from Blackpool we realised that they are all different designs and sadly very yellowed.   So that is something else that we will have to pick up along with the light switches and plug sockets.

We are not doing brilliantly at reusing things that were already in the bungalow, but the whole place was in a very bad condition when we bought it.  Sadly the toilet that I was going to keep is now cracked, Alan was a bit miffed as he discovered this after giving it a really good clean before it was removed from the bathroom.

 

I have told him to warn the builders to really look after my sink.  Once the garage is rebuilt it can go and live in there while the rest of the building work goes on, as I doubt it would survive the removal of the floors once that starts.

But the garage is still a couple of weeks away, so I have my fingers firmly crossed that it survives.  

Sue xx

Did She Stay or Did She Go?

 

I used the last of the Lemon and Lime marmalade yesterday for my 'second breakfast'.  I had forgotten that it was even there, lurking as it was behind the large jar of silverskin pickled onions in the fridge.  I wondered when I had bought this as I really couldn't remember it appearing on any recent blog post, and I have been pretty on the ball with sharing my shopping for a long time now.

So I have just used the Search box and scrolled back, seemingly I opened the jar in August last year, (on this post) but there is no record of when it was bought.

Before I washed the jar out properly I added a bit of water from the kettle to it and gave it a swill, the liquid was then added to the curry that I made last night.  I don't know what difference it actually made to the flavour, but it made me happy that absolutely nothing had gone to waste.

Then I washed the jar properly and the label soaked off like a dream.  

With this fact, and with it being such a lovely jar it seemed a shame to put her into the recycling bin.  I tried to be hard hearted and tell myself that I had more than enough empty jars of assorted sizes.

You've guessed it ... she now lives in the cupboard with her friends, awaiting some random contents of some sort, one day.  😁

Sue xx