lazylol

Roll on Friday!

Friday can not come around soon enough for me.  I have been mega busy lately. Work has been and still is crazy.  No time to blog, read or comment - I apologise!  (plus we are no longer allowed online at work during lunch - what a cheek!) Of course it will all change on Friday when I have 6 glorious weeks off - yippee!  So after I have spent the first 10 days at the caravan, I will then be back home for 4 days and then 4 days back at the caravan, right up until the end of the holidays.  I am so excited because I really need the break! I haven't even had time to write my 'to do' list, let alone tick anything off it! But it will include lots of cliff top walking, BBQs and picnics (cross your fingers for some sunny days!) plus watching Big Brother and also catching up with hours and hours of TV i've recorded yet haven't had a minute to watch. One programme I'm looking forward to is BBC2's Chinese Food Made Easy.  I love Chinese Food and want to learn to make it myself so it will be cheaper and healthier.

Silly Saturday

I saw these this morning and had to share......

 

 

(I won't bother taking my dog on that camping trip!)

Have a great weekend.  I am heading out to the caravan for a much needed rest.  It's been a hectic week!

Feet.

I've been up & about early this morning.  I went for a lovely long walk with the dog, posting my ebay parcels on the way and then getting soaked with rain! So much for being organized and getting the washing pegged out early.

On my to do list today

• make a curry for tonight.  (I am trying to cut down on getting a takeaway every Saturday! So I am going to make a Special Chinese Style Curry with boiled rice.  Much healthier.
• plan menu for the week, make a shopping list & go do the weekly shop.
• Dig out some pretty papers from my stash to make some of Cherry's gorgeous soaps.
• Give my poor neglected feet (I'm ashamed) a soothing footsoak, pedicure & polish.
• List some items on ebay.

Here is my pedicure kit....do you think I have enough? LOL.  I even have a magazine to read while my nail polish dries.

As I've mentioned before, we are really lucky to have both my Father-in-law and my parents who are keen veg growers and allotments owners.  They keep us supplied with a delightful selection of fresh produce all summer long.  Lettuce, cucumbers, peppers, sweetcorn, beetroot, rhubharb, green beens, runner beans, broad beans, potatoes, cabbages, cauliflowers, onions, carrots, courgettes, bucket loads of tomatoes and lots of other goodies. We also get a dozen free range eggs from one of the other allotment owners every week for a £1! 

Last week we visited the allotment to collect the first veg of the season and I took some pictures to share with you all.

This chair made me smile...so grand in the middle of all the mud and tomato plants.

I'm really looking forward to all the lovely salads and tasty soups to come!

Saturday morning and I have the whole weekend off!  I am planning on getting my housework done this morning and then finishing the book I'm reading at the moment....

The Mistresses Daughter by A. M. Homes.

Tomorrow I am going to tackle my huge ironing pile and then do some baking for the week.  I have been thinking a lot lately about the rising cost of my grocery bill.  With four adults to feed I spend quite a bit. Although I do cook most of our meals from scratch which is cheaper and more healthy than buying ready made food, I am interested to see how much more I can do.  Last week I made pizzas for the first time and my family have been begging me to make more.  It was so much cheaper than buying them.  I am going to experiment with freezing some to see how they are when cooked from frozen.  I am also thinking about making my own yogurt and flavouring it with fruit.  This should cost a lot less than buying  yogurts and they will be better for us, shop bought yogurts are full of sugar & additives. I have a recipe to try for banana cookies which uses up over ripe bananas.  I already make a banana cake every week so this will be a nice change. Good for the four lunch boxes I pack up every day.  I have lots of other ideas. I have recently dicovered these blogs which have given my lots of ideas on how to save money at the supermarket checkout, along with the inspiration to try out some new ideas.  There also seems to be loads of programmes and magazine articles around at the moment on this subject so it seems many people are feeling the pinch.

It's back......

you either love or hate it .....I LOVE it! 

The Game

Yes ALI - I agree - why not, it's Friday and time for a bit of fun (and it helped me learn how to do a mosaic! I am useless with flickr!)

1. Kung fu doggy Style part 3, 2. SWEETIE PIE, 3. High Park, 4. Max!, 5. Mark Darcy in B.J. Diary, 6. tea, 7. the bb, 8. Custard, 9. Young At Heart, 10. dVan, 11. bianca7A, 12. fabric2

Go on have a go too!

The concept:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

Here are my answers

And Ali - thanks - that was fun!

Edited to add - I've just joined the flickr group for this!

Tagliatelle Carbonara

One of the things on my 'to do list' is to cook some different meals for the family and try some new recipes. 

 

Last night I made this, a recipe I have made before but not for a long time. It is a very simple, fast and economical meal. 

 

 

Quick Tagliatelle Carbonara - Serves 4 - 5

 

Ingredients

Tagliatelle - I used one packet of fresh tag but you can use dried or even make your own.

100g grated white cheddar

250g pack rindless streaky bacon, cut into  chuncks

4 eggs

4 tblsps low fat double cream

garlic, 1 glove, chopped very finely

salt and black pepper

 

Instructions

 

Cook pasta in salted boiling water

meanwhile,

fry the bacon for five minutes until browned and then add garlic, fry for another few minutes and set aside.

In a small bowl combine the cheese, cream and eggs and mix together. Season with salt and black pepper to taste

Drain pasta and return to pan, add the bacon, mix and then add the cheese mixture, mix well over a very low heat for a couple of minutes.

Serve (optional - sprinkle on a little parmesan or black pepper)

 

It's very tasty - we had salad and a bit of garlic bread with it. Goes very well with a nice glass of wine! I must make it more often.  My son also ate the leftover portion for his lunch today.

 

 

Half Term

Oh my poor neglected little blog - I really must find time to post more often.  Good job I'm having a week off work for 1/2 term and have some spare time.

We spent the first four days at the caravan and had a trip into Hull,with my parents who were visiting. We hadn't realized it was the day Hull City Football Club were celebrating their victory.  It was crowded, 200,000 people lined the streets and many gathered outside the City Hall.

 

ermm.....I wonder what Queen Victoria would think of it all.

We decided to avoid the crowds and had a delicious lunch here instead.

 

Better get back on the diet!

The weather was lovely over the weekend but changed on Tuesday when it became dull and miserable and rained heavily all day.  Luckily for us it was our last day but I can't help feeling bad for the families who are having their week's holiday in awful weather.

Summer Breeze Makes Me Feel Fine

Isn't life so much better when the sun is shining.....I long for these lovely sunny summer days that we are having here in the UK.  I hate going to work when it's sunny but luckily I finish at 3 so we've been having BBQ for our tea in the garden...lovely.  I am making the most of it because I know it won't last but can we just have another weekend like the last one before it rains?? I spent this weekend at the caravan, we did lots of walking on the beach, BBQing, and I spent a whole day painting the two shed boxes we have at the back of the caravan.  They were looking very tatty so I sanded, primed, undercoated and then painted them in 'Buckingham Green' and now they look splendid! Although I am now aching in parts I had forgotten I had and I stupidly stayed on in the sun a bit too long so I am a bit sore too.  Ouch.  You'd think I would know better at my age would'nt you?

So back at work today and then I've been in the loft getting out my bag of summer clothes, it was suddenly sunny and I had nothing to wear and no flip flops..gasp! Another lovely thing about the summer is wearing less clothing after the winter and flip flops. So out came all the summer clothes and back up went all the dull winter garments, hopefully they will not come back down until September...late September.

I have the place to myself tonight, all the men folk have taken themselves off to the pub to watch the football so I am spending time this evening sitting in the garden, steadily working my way through a bit more of my book pile.

I love this book, New From Old: How To Transform And Customize Your Clothes by Jayne Emerson

There are a lot of great projects in this book, including a chapter on dying clothing which I found interesting.  I have some summer things that I am tempted to try it out on if I have the courage.