Delicious Things That Can Poison or Sting!**

Hello everybody! I'm feeling pretty cheery today as I've managed to get a lot of creative bits and bobs done this weekend: some writing, rehearsals for a show I'm in this month... and these foodie lovelies.

We've been feeling the pinch a bit  as we've launched OH's new career and had to pay out a fair whack for that, just as we've also had to do a lot of travelling to see a family member in hospital. So hey ho, it's June, the sun is shining (oh heck, that's a lie, it's been stormy all day) and we've not got much spare.

Never mind... we've been making the most of what we've got.

In the picture, you see rhubarb liqueur. Made from homegrown rhubarb, stewed and syruped in a slow cooker. We used the stewed fruit used for desserts, and bottled the liquor with about half vodka. This means it's sweeter and a bit less potent than regular rhubarb vodka, so you could have it neat over ice or with a tonic. I think with all the booze and sugar it should keep well, but I've got it in the fridge. Yummy!

And the green stuff is my ever awesome nettle pesto. I gather my nettles from a patch at the nature reserve fringed by triffid-tall thistles and nettles that I think most dog walkers would be scared of. My peasant's pesto is made of  about three fists of mixed blanched nettles, one garlic clove, one slice of wholemeal bread, French-toasted, a lump of leftover French cheese, and whizzed together with rapeseed oil - or regular vegetable oil as it tends to be these days. I stirred it into some veggie spaghetti the other night - the spaghetti was cooked in the nettle stock from blanching the leaves for extra flavour. If you've never eaten nettles, they are more spinach than spinach. Awesome free things!

Talking of free, I'm not really one for dumpster diving, but I procured some overripe bananas by someone who couldn't contemplate using them, as I said it was such a waste to throw good food away. Some went into smoothies, some went into a cake*, but my favourite thing to do with overripe bananas is to make super-healthy ice cream.

How do you do that? Well, chop up the banana into pieces and freeze it. Just before you want to eat the ice cream, take it out of the freezer so it thaws a bit. For 3 medium bananas, I added a dessert spoon of smooth peanut butter for a nice texture and flavour (you can do without if you don't have/don't like/can't eat peanuts). Then whizz it  in the food processor until it looks like soft ice cream! Simple, lovely.

Anyway, thought I'd share those with you.

*the cake was a Hairy Dieters recipe. Got the book from the library. We're still eating said cake, but the recipe calls for waaaay too many bananas, I think. Took ages to cook. Probably the worst cake I've ever made. Will just make the one from my Good Housekeeping book in future.

**Yes, nettles are the stingers. Rhubarb is lovely, but you know never to eat the leaves, right?

Reward!

 Today I feel pretty awesome. I worked hard and this is my reward.

Photo!

I mean, I've been working hard in the garden and this is what I've managed to achieve from the wild woodland I had a few weeks ago.

Seedlings in an improvised cold frame, made from a broken brick barbecue

The barbecue grill protects newly planted seedlings in this old Belfast sink from the cats. The slate round the lavender is also an anti-cat device. Bloody cats.

Hazel sticks up-cycled from an old house decoration make a wigwam for beans and a frame for netting from Poundland to protect strawberry plants. A free CD from a newspaper with some Toni Braxton and other mushy stuff on it makes a bird-startler. Hopefully netting over the newly planted courgettes will deter the cats.

Rhubarb.

Yes, the lawn is mostly dirt and weeds, but at least it's tidy. Just got to keep on top of attack from cats, slugs and the neighbour's rather bouncy German Shepherd.

This weekend, we went to London for the British leg of the ITU World Triathlon Championships. We budgeted for this, so we could relax. That budget was tested a bit in some rather nice bars a friend introduced us to, but hey, an excellent time was had by all.

And here's for the treats money could but didn't buy...

Okay, we had grandstand seats this time, but anyone can go to Hyde park to see the triathlon. It's free!

See the swimming...

the cycling...

the running!

And here's the girls on their bikes - awesome stuff!

My new hero is the USA's Gwen Jorgensen, who powered ahead of her nearest rivals with a very convincing win. Here she is completing the run, with absolutely no one else in sight. British contender Jodie Stimpson was in the lead for the whole series until this point, but that honour is Jorgensen's now too.

 Both races were great to watch, but the women's race had that awesome win by Gwen Jorgensen... no one else could touch her! Of course we were rooting for Lucy Hall, Jodie Stimpson, Vicky Holland and Helen Jenkins. It was such an exciting race.

For the men's race, it was fantastic to see both the Brownlee brothers racing, and Alistair was in the lead until the final kilometre. Unfortunately, he couldn't keep up the pace and the Brownlees finished with Alistair 4th and Jonathan 5th. Winner was Spanish triathlete, Mario Mola. After the race we were lucky to meet him and he signed free t-shirts for us. AWESOME!!!!!

He's lovely!

 We also liked these giant triathlete sculpture in Hyde Park. We didn't spot a cycling one, but there probably was one...

 

Mind, I am a bit annoyed that some newspapers have only written about the men's race. What's that about, The Guardian? Triathlon fans don't make that distinction between genders - I mean, for longer distances, both men and women set out together, and though the men usually finish first, when Chrissie Wellington was competing, she only got beaten by one bloke at Alpe D'huez. One!

Watch how awesome Jorgensen's win was here.

 Other fabulous stuff this week that was/is free:

• Doughnuts. We've twice been given doughnuts at work as a bit of a morale boost. Oh my the raspberry-iced Krispy Kreme one was lush!
• The Betrayal: I listened to the abridged version of Helen Dunmore's novel set in Stalinist Russia. It's available for over a year on demand. Follow the link to listen yourself.
• Romance and Adventure: Comedian Josie Long has put her show online for free, and it's really good. Follow the link to watch for yourself. OH and I watched and enjoyed this in the week with a cheeky glass of wine.
• Heavy Entertainment: OH and I are off to see Nick Helm's Heavy Entertainment series being recorded next week and we're really looking forward to it. The pilot show is still available on BBC iplayer on demand, so you can see what we're in for. We think he's awesome. You're welcome!
• Free e-book: OH bought a bar of chocolate last week which had a code for a free e-book I've chosen Sharp Objects, the debut novel by Gillian Flynn. Looking forward to reading it.  I've not missed out on the chocolate, as I've ended up with a free Mars voucher from a winning wrapper, too.

Live Below the Line Day 1

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I had thought I could wing my way through this week Masterchef invention test- style,  but as Sunday was awesomely hot and as I noticed the use by dates of some of the food I had bought were a bit close,  I rethought what I had planned to do when,  and how I was going to store stuff.

The liver went in the freezer for defrosting Wednesday night for Thursday's tea. Half the milk went in the freezer too. Taking a tip from Kath Kelly,  I also froze the bread. There's only just enough for 2 slices each per day,  and I knew I would be heartbroken if I came to use it and found it was mouldy. Separate slices can be prised off the loaf, and sandwiches made by spreading the frozen bread (if you're using any, mine have to be dry this week). In weather like this they are defrosted by the time you've finished making the sandwich. By lunchtime, that's a certainty.

Day 1 menu was:

Breakfast: 40g porridge cooked in water and whole milk. I took this to work a) so I could use my work benefit sugar  allocation,  and so that there would be less of the day to feel hungry.  This involved military tactics of careful transportation and judiciously careful microwaving. I'm well-renowned for explodey porridge at work...


Lunch: ham sandwich. 2 slices of bread,  1 of ham. Plus lettuce and cucumber sticks.  I also took a pear but managed not to need to eat it so that's a treat for today.  The air conditioning was broken at work,  so a very hot office probably helped to kill my appetite.

Dinner: spicy salmon fishcakes with salad, potato crisps and mixed veg.

I cooked the potatoes (175g per portion) in their skins so as not to waste any through peeling.  I'd not done that before,  and when I was peeling off the skins it occurred to me that I could use those too. I put them on a tray and popped in a 175 degree oven for half an hour or thereabouts while I got on with the rest of the dish.

1 and a half onions were fried and mixed with the potatoes, salmon (a pack of trimmings), 2 teaspoons of cumin and these shaped into patties and returned to the pan. I used a nonstick pan, no oil, so ended up with something akin to fishy bubble and squeak.

Some lettuce leaves and the rest of the second onion sliced made up the salad.

This was served with 80g frozen mixed veg per portion cooked in a little boiling water.

 I must admit, it doesn't look much, but it was tasty, and very filling. OH declared me a genius for using the potato skins as I did. It added a nice bit of crunch and flavour to the salad. I'll do that again!

Let's see how that stacked up as nutrition for the day. I built these charts using Weight Watchers and My Fitness Pal, before I decided not to eat the pear. My Fitness Pal tends to be a bit anti-sugar, so I don't let the red alarm me too much (important to watch if you need a low sugar diet). I can see it's broadly nutritional, but lacking in healthy oils - and, crucially, calories. There's not enough of anything there. Not even for a diet! I'm sure that will be rectified on day 2. Bigger helping of porridge for a start...

And yes, OH had his cakes yesterday too.

Doing this has made me mindful of my garden's potential to feed me and how I should be making the most of it. Unfortunately, the sage and parsley I planted out on Sunday in our very heavy Belfast sink planter looked cat-attacked today. I tried to save them as best I could, but I think only the chives, mint and possibly thyme stand a chance. The sink is now covered with the grill from our old broken barbecue to keep the cats off. I used the rest of the brick barbecue to make a Jenga-style cold frame and planted out some more basil, lambs lettuce and oak leaf salad. Tonight I want to weed and net the strawberry patch, to give some of the very tiny strawberry flowers a chance to grow into fruit. Life's good.

Live Below the Line - Please Sponsor Me!

Hope you've had lovely weather, wherever you are.  

Most of the weekend has been spent trying to sort out the garden. Most people do their tidying in February/March and then sow stuff and about now they're enjoying lovely salads and  things they have grown themselves. Trouble for me is that late winter/early spring is my busiest time (job no.2). So my garden has to look after itself. And it grows brambles and gnarly-rooted weeds and very tall meadow grass.

Well, I'm attacking it, better stuff is growing. Progress picture one shows the garden yesterday. It's a bit better since then.

Whilst tidying the, admittedly invisible here, patio I bumped an old burner and was alarmed when about twenty bumblebees flew out.

Okay, this is just one bee. But there were more, honest!

We moved the burner to another location, which worked for a bit and I was able to get on. However, some of the bees didn't realize their house was not there anymore, and they started coming back and buzzing round me. Good excuse to stop the gardening for a bit and go for a nice walk.

Our excursion took us by the riverside, where the sea cadets were practising.

We then wound our way to beautiful Delapre. People were cooling off in the lake (not sure they're supposed to, but still) and someone was water-skiing. We veered off into the verdant woods, spotting bunnies scrambling away into the brambles. The floor was carpeted with harebells, buttercups and forget-me-nots. Very pretty.

We cut through  to the house. A bawling toddler was being made to stand against one of the handsome trees that skirt the lawns for a photo. He was having none of it! Heading right, we found the ornamental gardens and tea rooms. He, we decided to share a cream tea.

Hooray, just enough change!

On the way home, we foolishly decided to stop for a pint at the pub. It's never one, is it?! And with that, our care was somewhat abandoned. Call it sunstroke... oh well, back on the path to frugaldom now.

Today, OH was taking part in a 100 mile cycle ride as he did the 3 Counties 100 Cyclosportive. A gruelling epic cycle ride that takes in Beautiful Rutland Water. This is one of the awesome sights he will have seen:

the Welland Viaduct

He says it was brilliant. He's very sore now though.

 So, while he was out, I decided to get the shopping in for the Live Below the Line Challenge (link takes you through to my donation  page). OH is supporting me in this challenge, so he will be eating the same meals as me. But he is not taking part himself. So he'll be eating cake at the office tomorrow, and drinking a pint in the pub when I won't be at my next Northampton Science Fiction Writers Group meeting.

 

On OH's advice, I am including some things I already had, but costed them out, so as not to waste food. This included 1kg of potatoes, which cost 66p. Unfortunately, I went bust, so have had to reduce the number of potatoes I was going to have to 700g. 2 meals maybe? Two small meals...The rest of my pears from a multi-pack, which have only just started to ripen came to 37p's worth. OH says we should also include the bananas he won today at the end of his race. Mmm... freebies not allowed! That said, I'm having all the tea and stuff I can at work as that's one of my work benefits. Not birthday cake, though. Boo.

We can include stuff from the garden, so long as production costs are taken into consideration. I'm taking basil as 0p, as that cost me nothing, and if we can work out how to use it, rhubarb. Though, I think that would need sugar! All the nettles and dandelion we want, though. Nom!

So here's the week at £1 per person per day.

 

bread (reduced)	£0.34
cucumber	£0.39
cumin	£0.49
frozen mixed veg	£0.89
gravy	£0.20
ham	£0.61
lamb's liver	£0.74
lettuce (reduced)	£0.20
onions	£0.69
passata	£0.35
pears	£0.37
porridge	£0.75
potatoes	£0.46
rice	£0.40
salmon	£1.49
spaghetti	£0.20
whole milk	£0.85
yellow split peas	£0.55
Total	£9.97

Okay, 3p left over... I think an old chilli and garlic clove from the market can take that up.

Wow, that was hard. And to think, if I hadn't got hold of reduced items it would have been even worse. I think to have been comfortable, another £2 would have been awesome. But of course, what this is about is to raise money for people who really do have £1 - or less -  to live on per day. My charity is Send a Cow.

I'll let you know how I get on each day. Every day an invention test!

Look What's Happened to My Greenhouse!

Wel I've been enjoying every body's snow pictures,  but the weather has proved disastrous for me.  3 joints have snapped on my greenhouse. Hopefully I can source some replacements.