Eating our fill...

Celebrating in our family is always fun! 

We have over the last few years tended to do for experiences, especially those we can share. That was sorely missed during the lockdowns, but now we're up and running again.

My birthday this year meant afternoon tea with my mum and sister at a local hotel, overlooking the sea.

As you can see the plates were groaning and even we can't put away that much...

 Month 4 - Bite 30

Many years ago when we were both based around London, my sister and I used to meet up with a friend of hers and go to a Dance Studio once a week. We quite often followed that up with a trip to an American Pizza Company - just to replace the lost energy you understand.

It was one of those 'here's your plate, help yourself' salad bar places and it was incredible to see how many students could eat from one small plate! One of the best examples of maximising was a group of four who had obviously worked it all out beforehand. The plate's size was massively increased by placing celery sticks out like spokes in a wheel until it was at least twice the diameter of the original. This based they then filled in layers until it resembled a food mountain. They then ordered one giant pizza between them and shared their meal until they could eat no more.

Now comes the best part. The establishment automatically brought a food box for leftovers. We'd always been chuffed with taking home enough leftover pizza for the following day, but the delight of the mountain builders at taking both some pizza and the salad was a joy to behold.....

We were talking about this while enjoying our tea when the ladies at the next table told the waitress that they could eat no more and it was a shame they had to leave it. 

'You don't' she said and produced boxes for them to pack and take away the surplus, bringing us boxes to do the same. We just had to sign a form to acknowledge that we'd done so just in case we kept it too long and gave ourselves food poisoning by not looking after properly!

From now on it's away with the embarassment of asking and in with the request for a doggie bag! Oh and no, we didn't store it incorrectly - the leftovers were eaten far too quickly for that...

Your money may go down as well as up

 Here's a cautionary tale that fits the 'maximising' theme. Fortunately it's one I'm pleased to report worked out well for us! It means today's bite is a bit retrospective as it's what I did yesterday, but still...

As the day approaches when we're due to take our break and go abroad for the first time since lockdowns started I need to order the currency for our trip.

Normally I have an amount stored as the best deals are for larger amounts and, up till 2020, we went away more than once a year it was worth ordering more than one trip required to get a preferential rate. It also helped if we were about to see our Italian 'branch' and there were birthdays or Christmas approaching so that we could give them cash for the occasions to take home and spend if that was what they chose.

Month 4 - Bite 29

I tried to buy my Euros online, but met with a computer glitch so I popped down to town to buy them in person. I was horrified to find out that the difference between online and in person would cost me about 30 Euros so returned home and tried the computer again.

As luck would have it the computer was with me this time and co-operated. All I had to do was go back to the very same Bureau de Change I visited this morning and pick up the cash at the better rate.

Having read that the pound was having a bit of a moment (!) I went online this morning to see what had happened to it and saw that now I would have got another 20 Euros less than I did yesterday...

Just goes to show that timing, research and a bit of luck can make a big difference. So now I'm about to write in the diary about a month from when we're considering going abroad again to make sure I learn from this experience and start checking currency exchange rates early...

Is it worth it?

 During the lockdowns when we were eventually allowed to travel short distances to meet in twos and then sixes it was lovely to join up with my family. Even nicer when there’s so many beautiful open spaces midway between our homes.

The downside was the parking fees!

I bought a season ticket for all the area’s car parks, it meant that we didn’t have to worry about buying individual tickets or second-guessing how long we’d stay anywhere before we bought them.

I've just had the reminder that the ticket is about to expire, inviting me to renew. Well, do I?

Month 4 - Bite 28

As life has changed ( I won't say gone back to normal) I'm not sure how much use I'll make of a season ticket now. I ask myself is it worth it?

There's only one way to find out - for the next few weeks and months I'll keep a tally of the times I use the car parks and how much I pay out starting today when I go down into town. Then after a period of time I'll see how much I've spent and where so I can  make an informed decision about the cost effectiveness of the scheme. It will also tell me if I would be better off buying into a part of the ticket (round here you can buy it to cover specified locations for various different amounts), the whole annual ticket or just pay as I go!

Sharing the Problems

 Do I mean problems? or dilemmas? or issues? Oh I don't know, it's just making the most of sharing what we need and want.

I was over at my sister's examining my shopping list and realised I hadn't put food wrap on it! 

'Oh,' she said 'I think I've got some I won't use, do you want it?'

I gratefully accepted and watched as she opened her under sink store and proceeded to bring out this lot...

I now have enough food wrap for months - we were puzzled though about when she might have got it as she doesn't use it at all...

Then we compared shopping lists - it would seem that many items we buy are the same or similar and we have often both commented on the quantities needed to get the best deal - mostly more than our two small households require.

Month 4 - Bite 26

Neither of us want to buy and then have to store extras, especially when they're part of a BOGOF/Buy One Get One Free offer or in a large pack that we won't use up before its best before/use by date. 

It makes sense then to combine our lists. It won't work if there's too long a gap between meeting up and going shopping, but there are lots of occasions when we can buy from our lists and split both the amounts and the cost. 

That makes the current task writing my list and sending her a copy so she can tell me anything she wants to go halves on.

Month 4 - Bite 27

That led me onto thinking how many other things we might have that it would be more economical to share. There's plenty of large items that we could swap between neighbours, family and friends that would cut down on buying, storing and so on. That's without the contribution it would make to the environment if less of these needed to be produced.

I know in our garage and shed there's a whole host of stuff that can be shared around.

                                               

So for the next on the list it's off to the shed where I'm sure we've got a heap of empty plant pots that we won't use. They can go next door to my neighbour for her seedlings. We then get the benefit as she always has more than she needs and we get free plants for the garden.

I'll also dig out our shaker that we use to spread feed on the lawn as I know the neighbour the other side is about to do hers.

Sharing the Problems, More like Sharing the Solutions...

That Reminds Me

 Going through my last post I started to remember all kinds of things - my grandad growing almost all the veg we ate and my fear of his question 'Do you want a cabbage Marg?' - I still hate cabbage to this day. Or my other nan who was a farmer's daughter with her growing patch, which meant at certain times of the year bags full of apples being lugged home! And we didn't live in the countryside either - South London it was - way before The Good Life!

A walk down our garden path jogged my brain into gear too - just a glance showed me that the herbs are beginning to regrow after all the work on the garden last year.

Month 4 - Bite 25

The mint and oregano are well underway as well as the basil on the windowsill doing well. I should be using these instead of depleting my shop bought stores.

Today I need to pick some as, not only do I want them for tonight's meal, but they'll grow like crazy while we're away and it'll be a waste to let them romp on. Once picked the leaves will need freezing or drying so my job today is to look up what to do and then do it!

My Favourite Things.....

 When my sister and I were little we used to look forward to particular meals and treats. She is left with a life long love of jelly and fish fingers - I just love food!

We were talking a while back about these favourites and the memories associated with them - cheese and potato pie, dad getting the mouli out to mince up left over meat for rissoles, pastry cooked on a plate, sponge cakes with sickly spoon licking. 

We'd never really realised that these events all tended to happen towards the end of each month until mum pointed it out. She went on to explain why she could be so sure about the timing - it was all to do with need.

As we got close to the end of month, apparently, things would get a bit tight and so she would bake and make pastry as fillers to bulk up our diets and the other meals were the cheapest going and used every scrap of leftovers as there wasn't the money to waste.

She was somewhat amazed during our conversation to find that these belt tightening measures had been seen by us as treats and that they still form the major part of our list of favourite foods!

So here's a selection of bites that seem to follow on nicely from that...

Month 4 - Bite 21

A list is needed of all those 'fillers' using the most basic of ingredients so that I can draw on it to add in a nice cheap 'treat' on a regular basis. Many of these will be non-meat based like the cheese and potato pie which keeps the price down and can have some other more recent additions like the pasta bake which I tend to do each week using minimal ingredients.

Month 4 - Bite 22

Back to basics next. I've got a range of store cupboard regulars to hand so the next research/list needs to be the meals I can conjure up with few added ingredients. Pancakes and pasta have got to be in there. In fact stuffed pancakes or tortillas it will be tonight - I've got some odds and ends of vegetables just crying out for roasting with coriander and cumin!

Month 4 - Bite 23

One meal we generally always had on Sundays evenings was salad. Dad would get it all cut up and put in dishes for us to help ourselves and the meal was always accompanied by much banter and singing along to the radio show 'Sing Something Simple'. Once again we'd been unaware of how the menu was chosen and why it was presented in this way.

Leftovers from lunch were served up and we all took whatever we wanted from the array of sliced cucumbers and tomatoes, grated cheese, boiled potatoes and sometimes sliced hard boiled eggs. Now I know that everything looks a lot more when it's served in communal serving dishes and is cut into smaller slices or grated. The salad we had seemed to go further like that - two tomatoes looks much more when thinly sliced and a mountain of grated cheese or thinly batoned carrots certainly fills the plate more that larger pieces.

My task now is to unearth the grater and mouli so that I can start to present our meals to emphasise how much we've got rather than using individual portions that make us think we need much more in the way of ingredients!

And finally I need to bring my nan into the picture.

Month 4 - Bite 24

We often went to nan and grandad's  - especially if mum and dad had to go out to Scouting meetings or it was at a time when both were working and we needed child care after school. Nan was the master of the oven. Meals round there were thick, warming casseroles and creamy rice puddings. 

She used to say that if she was putting the oven on for part of the meal it was wasteful not to use it to the max. Her meals were planned so that as much of the meal was cooked in one go or followed one dish after another to make full use of the oven, even after if was switched off.

My final list for now then has to be the meals where I can combine a number of elements in one place to save on energy use. So things like roast potatoes and parsnips cooked in the same oven as chicken. Or vegetables all cooked in one saucepan just added at different times. 

Or even making sure that I'm using the hob economically. I used to cook spaghetti and rice by bringing it to the boil, cooking it for part of the time and then turning the gas off, putting on the lid and then leaving it to finish cooking in the residual heat.  I wonder why I stopped?

Don't look a gift horse...

 While I was tapping away about food yesterday the doorbell rang.

It was a friend from round the corner brandishing rhubarb! He's got an allotment at the top of our road and often drops some spare pickings from his patch. It's kind of accepted round here that we do each other favours like this. 

It’s easy where we live as all the neighbours have got to know each other over the years and are happy to keep an eye out for each other. The neighbourhood is really friendly and the more we get to know each other the easier it is to find help.

When one of us is away another household will water plants or make sure the post isn’t sticking out of the letterbox for example. If one of us is stuck with a computer glitch or plumbing issue another of us is able to fix the problem.

Month 4 - Bite 20

Accepting help and trading favours comes from the relationships we’ve built together. Because our community is happy to get to know each other we’re relaxed about the giving and receiving that goes on.

Today I’ve a couple of job list to-dos on this one.

First I need to pop across the road to let one neighbour know we’re going away soon and ask her to check now and again that any post is pushed right through the door - she’s got a key too just in case she needs to get in.

Secondly I must sort out the leftover fencing wood and roofing felt from work on our garden to deliver to our rhubarb gifting friend who wants to use it up on the allotment........