A Big Birthday
This weekend, Mike and I drove up to Northampton where my Mum lives with my sister and her husband.
The journey up was slow traffic all the way and took 5 hours. My husband is Mr Early and insisted we left to go home a couple of days later at 7am, but the traffic was so much less it was worth it - took half the time!
It was Mums 95th birthday! She is amazing, not even on statins, and no glasses either since the NHS replaced her cataracts with prescription lenses.
We went out to a favourite pub of theirs, the Chaucer Arms was it? My sister is vegan, and my brother, who often stays there, is coeliac, and this pub deals really well with both, having both vegan and gluten free menus as well as the more usual ones.
I had BBQ ribs which were ENORMOUS! So much so that I only had half, taking the remaining half home. I had half of that half, so a quarter of the original portion, for lunch yesterday with some veg. So still got another quarter left. The picture is what I took home.
Mum gave me a rather wonderful thing - her Mum’s cookbook! It is Modern Practical Cookbook, rather battered and well used. It doesn’t have a publication date, which I think means a 1st edition? I looked it up and it was first published in January 1930!
I am enjoying looking through it, and seeing what the recipes are that Mum had got bookmarks for. Perhaps I will find lovely things for us to make!
One thing I won't be doing is the recommendation to boil cabbage, carrots etc for 45 minutes!
Amazingly, on looking it up, Amazon advertised that they sell it.
The Community Larder
I got a great haul at the community larder today. Haven't visited for a while and thought I'd have a look today as I was passing.
My daughter was visiting, so I got extra for her too.
- Two fancy white loaves - now sliced and stashed in the freezer
- Three pan au chocolat - one each
- Three little custard tarts - one each
- Half a dozen limes
- Some huge leeks
- About a kilo of small sweet potatoes
- And a bunch of speckly bananas
I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the leeks, so asked for ideas on the Facebook group and got loads of lovely ideas
Need to make a decision now!
New Recipes
Fresh Ginger Tea
I’ve recently been experimenting with making tea using fresh ginger. It’s really refreshing, and can even be made with the peelings if you peel your ginger, so loving your leftovers.
Fresh Lime Simple Syrup
This really tasty syrup is quick and easy to make and delicious over pancakes, ice cream and fruit salad.
I'm going to try it with lemons too.
What I've been making in previous Aprils
BBQ Pizza
This was an experiment where I used BBQ sauce in place of the more usual tomato sauce. I really liked it.
You could use Hoisin Sauce instead
Weekend Baquette
A gorgeous recipe for crispy outside, tender inside baquette. It’s called weekend baquette as it takes a while to prove. There is very little actual effort involved, no kneading. The time is elapsed time to allow flavour to develop.
Bacon, Olive and Cheese Loaf Cake
I made this when I had lots of ham to use up. It makes a fabulous brunch loaf, picnic item or a dinner, with salad.
Finally, with Easter fast approaching, did you know there is an Easter Meal Plan on Thrifty Lesley? I last repriced it in February 2022.
An e-book
I published an ebook for meal plan 1 in August and am delighted that many people have thought it was worth getting.
I've managed to get my head around WooCommerce so I can feature it on the blog and you can find it here.
I'm busy recooking, photographing and updating the recipes for Meal Plan 2 and putting them into an ebook. It was written in 2013 and still prices up, which is fabulous. But the posts are embarrassingly bad and need a lot of updating! I'm getting on well with them again, having taken a break to do other things. It's taking me ages to do this one!
Do come and say hello on the Fantastically Frugal Food Facebook group, or the Sensational Slimming Sustenance group. I'd love to see you. Lots of useful tips, recipes and ideas. The over 17,000 membership are brilliant, brimming with talent.
And don't forget Thrifty Lesley, where there are 800+ recipes of fantastically frugal food and many weekly meal plans. And Cheap Family Recipes where you can find all kinds of delicious things that don't cost much, with two family monthly meal plans.
I've also got a few YouTube videos up, not many yet, but I'm planning to do more. I've done a couple more, need to edit them now. So much to do, so little time!
With all best wishes, until next time
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