Monday, 10 February 2025

A Job for Me for This Week, a Taste Test and a Snooze

 


This week, after weeks and weeks of sorting, shifting and stripping out at Mum's, we have finally reached a stage where the jobs left in her little bungalow are virtually all jobs for the professionals.  The kitchen fitters, the decorators etc etc, after they have done their things we will have to snap back into action again with choosing carpets and blinds etc, but for now this week I am going to concentrate on doing a job for myself.  We will still be visiting Mum of course, but the only thing we have to do or supervise this week is the taking away of the huge old fashioned storage heaters and luckily my grandson is able to do this in his removals van.

So what is my job for the week?

Well the photo at the top of the post is to inspire me to actually crack on and get it done!!

I need to go through my food cupboard, put like with like and in date order of using things up and finally get a proper look at what I have in my food stock.  I sort of started a couple of weeks ago and as you can see in the photo got all the pestos together, in date order of needing to be used ... and then something came up and nothing more was done.

Today is the day I start again ... and finish!!


I've started now, even though it is just after six in the morning ... I have just taken out the last jar of homemade marmalade to have on my morning toast.  Oh well that's one less thing to get out onto the worktop.  😁


I had these in the freezer, so I decided to taste test one of them on Saturday.  Alan was busy watching the Six Nations rugby, I was reading when I realised that I felt hungry so I just went for some something simple that I could put in the Remoska and leave for twenty minutes.  At just £1.19 for two I thought I would give them a go as I had heard some good reviews from others.

I'll be honest I really wasn't keen.


They came out exactly the same as the photo on the box, which is pleasing and quite unusual.  The overwhelming taste was the baked beans, I should have expected no less really.  They were edible and passable as a quick snack, but for me there was no substance to them and to satisfy me I would have had to eat both of them as the same time.

I had a baked potato later on, I should perhaps have made a meal of my 'snack' and had them together as a meal.  I am quite into baked potatoes at the moment, which thinking about it actually make a quicker and no doubt more nutritious snack instead of a manufactured pasty.

I might even have a go at making a couple of these for myself with the puff pastry that I have in the freezer, only to make it more satisfying I think I would actually add some mashed potato to the beans and sausage.


Alan and Mavis having a snooze on Mum's floor the other day after our final day of lifting and shifting.  All the carpets have been taken up as you can see, the curtains remain hanging until the kitchen is stripped out, to give the illusion of occupation.  But we had cushions and underlay so for a man that can sleep on a clothes-line this was ultimate comfort.

He had just finished running his final ever three-day international conference the day before, so I let him sleep for an hour before we went on to visit Mum.  I'm good like that!!  😄


Sue xx



Friday, 7 February 2025

Let Them by Donna Ashworth

 


LET THEM
Let them argue
let them fight
let them think
they are right
let them gossip
let them rage
let them build
themselves a cage
let them judge
let them talk
let them walk
the way they walk
let them laugh
behind your back
they cannot push you
from your track
let them steal
each other’s joy
let them silence
virtue’s voice
let them wrestle
for the throne
let them pick flesh
from their bones
but of all
you let them do
do not let them
alter you
keep your focus
on the sky
and all the beauty
you pass by
stay within
your well-built walls
and answer only
worthy calls
let them lie
if they must
it’s yourself
you need to trust.

Donna Ashworth
From Sunday Times Bestseller ‘Wild Hope’



Sue xx

Thursday, 6 February 2025

So, Can You Still Shop for £3.50?


We were talking about rising food prices yesterday and I remembered that back in April 2023 I did a Challenge to see if I could live for a whole week on just £3.50, so I decided to see what the prices of those same items would be if I were to go shopping for the same products today.  

Could it still be done?


These were the prices I paid back then.



So I went onto the Sainsbury's website and filled my basket with the same things, and found out that it would now cost me £4.61.

I had to buy two loose potatoes to make up the potato weight because sneaky Sainsbury's have reduced the bag of potatoes from 2.5kg to just 2kg ... and I hadn't even noticed!!

The only thing that has gone down in price are the peach slices, the onions seem to be cheaper but they are dependent on weight when you get there. 

So the shopping basket has gone up in price by £1.14, which doesn't seem that much, until you go to the shops with your £3.50 for your weeks food and realise you can no longer afford to buy it.

I wonder if there's anyway of changing the shopping to make it manageable again, or is it now just totally impossible?



Sue xx

 

Wednesday, 5 February 2025

Obeying the Meme


This popped up on my Facebook Memories the other day so I saved it to use on here.

Although it was from a poster published in America during the first world war it would seem I really am 'obeying the meme'.  America entered World War 1 on 6th April 1917.


1.  I am thinking more and more about what I am buying both food and non-food wise these days.

2.  I am cooking with more care, especially now that the air fryer has gone.  My frying pan is out more for simple stir fry type meals and the Remoska does really well with most things that would normally require the oven to be turned on.  I am careful with my timings as without a sense of smell I cannot tell if things are burning ... thank goodness for timers!!

3.  I am really trying to use less wheat, it doesn't agree with me in large quantities anyway.  So if I have toast for breakfast I rarely have bread again during the day, although I do like bread-crumbed things and can get away with a portion of something crumbed later in the day.  I don't eat any meat at all, although I am still eating fish and eggs at the moment, but this is about to be reviewed as it's not sitting well.

4.  Shopping at Booths means that I can get hold of quite a bit of local produce, and luckily we have a farm shop across the main road from us ... I really should try to use that more often.  I try my best not to buy things that have flown around the world, one banana a week being the usual exception. 

5.  I have always done this.  The only time I make more than I need is when I want to have leftovers to use on another day, or when I make a big pot of something with the intention of freezing portions for future use.  I find Miguel Barclays books brilliant for when I want to make single portion meals.

6.  Using what is left is possibly my favourite thing to do.  I used to purposefully save a tiny bit of a meal to see what it could be turned into or added into the next day on a regular basis.  I was definitely  inspired by old blogging buddy Suzy Bowler, whose blog Sudden Lunch was both useful and fascinating ... and is still on my sidebar.

And finally ... I never waste food, I wouldn't dream of it.



Sue xx



 

Monday, 3 February 2025

Getting Down to the Minutiae

After yet another day sorting through things at Mum's bungalow while we were waiting for some painters and decorators to come and give us a quote, I realised that while Mum was never a hoarder of  things in the same way that my Dad was, she still nevertheless has lots of stuff.

In Mum's case it's lots of little stuff. 

She has saved every leaflet that came with every bill, every shopping list that she wrote out to phone through to my brother, every paper clip that came on a letter, every photograph whether good or bad.  It's been as slow a job sorting through Mum's things, slower even than Dad's garage that was packed to the rafters.  

I can't rush any of it as I have found important documents hidden in old birthday cards.  For example, we searched high and low for Mum's DNR when the carers needed it and nothing, then last week there it was in a Mother's Day card from many years ago.  A treasured photo of my great-grandmother tucked in with old receipts for electrical items that Mum bought many, many years ago.  There's no rhyme or reason for where things have found themselves being deposited, well maybe Mum had one, but she never told us.

So while we wait for various deliveries and things to be quoted for I have been sitting and sifting through the minutiae of my Mum's life.  It makes me come home and do my own.  In little corners of my home tins are being tipped out and small things that might have been saved 'just in case', if they haven't been used since I moved here over three years ago, they will most likely not be needed anytime soon.

One thing for sure they will not be there when my son's have to rifle through my possessions in the future.  Even living simply and small as I do now, there are still little things hidden behind cupboard doors, in boxes and in tins that are just not necessary.  Yesterday I sorted through my ribbon stash and got rid of virtually everything, this morning it was my handy little box of screws, nails, hooks and the like.  It's not that handy if it contains nothing that I need to use.



I thought I had finished my decluttering ... well I have for the bigger things ... now it's the turn of the little ones.


Sue xx