Free lunch?

Apologies for the brevity of the last post - Zeke deserves a far longer stomp about on my blog and he'll get it - as soon as he sits still long enough to have a decent photo taken! I was also rushing out for the works chrimble do so any typos that remained over the weekend were a direct result of that but should now be cleared up.

I mentioned that I had intended that post initially to mention some of the freebie sites around on the internet. Here you can (sometimes) get something for nothing - or for your sign up details generally. I don't see a problem with this myself. Create a 'dump' email address with a free provider like Hotmail or Yahoo and use that for freebie signing up purposes. The pic on the last post showed a few recent items I've received - a Rimmel Max Volume Mascara £6-7 in the shops. [Verdict - pants; clumps like a git. I'd rather stick with my £2 boots number.] A Barbara Daly (who?) mascara £5+ [not used yet], a 50ml sample size of Dove intense repair conditioner and a full size pack of Whiskas Temptations treats (91p in S'burys) plus a 50p off voucher - this being what Zeke was mauling in the photo. Previously I've had sample size cat foods of James Wellbeloved, Purina, Felix, Oil of Olay moisturisers, Cheerios, tea bags various, a nice heavy 1/2 pint Grolsch glass and a personalised notepad [definitely my fave] amongst other things. So long as you set up an email addy specifically for use signing up for these and keep a close eye on any tick boxes to opt in / out of communication I think there's no harm with these. The main site I check regularly-ish is Magic Freebies UK. From experience Oil of Olay and all the pet food sites are good responders. Others vary and also bear in mind that there's often a limited amount of freebies available. Oh and the free lunch? Here will give you a voucher for a sarnie/wrap at Walkabout; valid until the 19th. Here will currently give you a voucher for a glass of coke at Yates. Go forth and garner my friends. :-D

Ode to a furry pawed Zekester

On Sunday Zeke will be 6 months. I can barely believe the transformation. Here he is; back when he was a tiny thing that skittered about in that constantly-startled-by-the-world kitten way. Doesn't look like any trouble right? Well, at very nearly 6 months he's now bigger than my mother's last little cat, bless her, when she was full size. I reckon there's some growing to do yet as well! These days he thunders about the place on less than dainty furry great plates. But he's still great fun. :-D Happy half a year Zekester. xxx

This was going to be a post mentioning the freebie sites out there but Zeke didn't want to wait for his Whiskas Temptations!

The beauty of ingredients

Look at these chestnut mushrooms. Do they not speak to you of promises of deep earthy flavours hidden within, of succulent juices released with a bite, of woodland and calm places and still shadows under trees? Well they do me.

I was struck by them last night as the Chap chopped some for the lovely veg curry he made me. Can't give you a recipe as I was 'encouraged' away from the cooking area (:-D) but it included onion, garlic, spuds, carrot, butternut squash, chestnut mushrooms, broccoli and green beans and served on top of nutty brown rice squeezed with lemon was a warming winter winner. Well done Chap. *claps*

Quick update on the found £'s - 80p today already! Woop!!

A distinctly nippy start...

Driving in from Feniton with the Chap this morning. Temps down to -9 in Devon last night. Looked like it had snowed but was just lots and lots of frost; think it had fallen with a clang overnight! Pretty to admire; once the van started and I spent 20 minutes scraping the ice off the windows. :-D

Found Pounds

Well I achieved very little this weekend - but in a good way. We had a thoroughly relaxed time, a potter round the stores on the Quay - a mix of eclectic, antique style stuff and a glass artist, metalwork and a couple of gorgeous wood furniture places making lovely (expensive) pieces from reclaimed timber. I got a few ideas for chrimble things and had many intentions to get stuff done. Which kind of came to naught. Oops!! In defence though both myself and Chap have got new stinking colds so didn't feel like doing an awful lot. We made it to 2 different birthday celebrations, did some shopping and I cooked a big pot of red bean / quorn mince 'stuff' yesterday for us to feed on before gently drifting into a stupor in front of the fire and whatever film was on the box. Nice. It's been pretty cold here [I nearly put 'extremely' then but I could imagine the cries of 'you southern softy' from more northern readers] so wrapping up well and staying in with the cat and the fire has been the order of things. That said I did suddenly realise yesterday afternoon that there's only 2 weekends left until xmas. Eek!!! I need to get stuff done methinks so that'll be the last lazy weekend this year I reckon.

I've decided to follow the challenge/example set by Atomic Shrimp and from the 1st Dec this year collect all the lost money I find into a jar to be spent on xmas 2011. Started today with a grand total of 11p. 10p of this was in the vending machine - must keep an eye on this as I think people often forget their change and leave it in there. Be interesting to see how this pans out - he made over £100 - not bad going!! Wish me luck...

Free (ish) seeds

Well ok - they cost me the price of the postage but not bad for under £3.00. Looking forwards to trying out the Squash 'Potimarron'; a French heirloom variety that apparently has a chestnut like taste. Sounds like a winner for roasting to me! These arrived in the post yesterday - I ordered them Friday evening so just under a week delivery. T&M send me emails all the time since ordering something off them way back in the mists of time. Sometimes though it's not a bad offer - this was £10 off - you had to spend a minimum of £10 and pay the postage which is what I did. These 5 packs on the site plus the P+P would normally cost you £12.54, I paid £2.54 so just over 50p a packet. That's more like it! I love Pak Choi and the coloured mix sounded interesting. I'm always buying more packets of Celeriac seeds as each year mine seems to be a dismal failure and I'm determined not to be beaten. The Roma tomato sounds tasty and I'm liking the sound of 'nearly seedless' having a strange kind of phobia-but-not-exactly of tomato seeds. I've long had a love affair with flowers like Scabious, Cornflowers, Love-in-a-mist &c. If it's good for the bees too that's an added bonus! Win-win I reckon.

Brighter here today though damn parky. No more snow since yesterday; in the city at least. I don't mind the cold so much when it's bright - cheers me up no end. Sparkling lights like fairy lights on a tree glinting off the ice and snow and tumbling away down the river.

Mid week (ish) round up

Couple of last bits from the weekend - once again Chiefs trashed the opposition; this time Sale Sharks succumbed 24-19. A far more exciting game than the previous weeks 15-9 against Leeds Carnegie - sadly my pic of that score was on the phone that vanished. That was an all penalties game whereas the Sale game was 3-1 try crowd pleaser. That puts us 6th in the table and was worth the extra layers and being out in the first few flakes of snow we've seen this year. Mental note though - next time tights under the jeans as well I reckon!

Sunday I made the roast to feed the 5 thousand - for 2 of us. Got a bit carried away and we had the nut roast I'd got from the veggie deli at Brixham chrimble fair, roast spuds, roast butternut squash, roast carrots, roast swede, roast garlic, sweetcorn, broccoli (calabrese) and boiled carrots, oven braised greens [celery, cabbage and half a tired iceberg] and yorkshire puddings. Oh - and gravy with a splash of red wine in. Phew!! I think we could have fed 6 of us really but it made a nice lunch for me the next day, and then dinner for us in the evening on Monday too! Wasn't totally convinced on the nut roast front - was a very 'bitty' texture that says 'chickpeas' to me. Not bad but I don't think I'd bother again. My oven braised veg went down well with the chap though.

Brief synopsis - butter, celery generally but I used white cabbage too and this worked, veg stock. Preheat oven gas 6. Melt butter in pan. Chop veg into size bits you want. I left the celery 3-4 inches long and shredded the cabbage and lettuce. Saute off in the butter gently for about 10 mins. Put in ovenproof dish - ceramic not metal. Pour stock over and bang in oven for 20-30 mins dep' how crunchy / not you want the veg. Somehow I find something very comforting about this. Mind you I'm one of those few people who actively like celery, even celery soup. You can vary this how you want dep' on veg in the house, what temp' other stuff's in the oven etc. Add cheese too for a more 'full meal with protein' style of dish.

Lastly we have today finally got the snow that's been promised us for the last week. It was distinctly grey this morning though rather than being bright and blue and pretty which was a shame but I suppose you can't have everything. I'm glad to have my DM's and at least I work inside unlike the chap - brrr!