The Coronation Weekend

We had a good Coronation weekend.  ♔

We took a trip to Manchester to watch the Coronation on Saturday with Mum and my brother.  The buffet lunch was enjoyed by all and we toasted His Majesty with alcohol-free fizz as Mum doesn't drink and everyone else was driving.  

We waved our flags and decorated the outside of Mum's bungalow for the occasion.

Some people slept through part of the televised proceedings. 😄

On Sunday we had a spur of the minute ride out to Fleetwood to make the most of the unexpected warmth and sunshine.  We just walked the dogs long the promenade, chatted to lots of other dog walkers and had a coffee or two along with a tray of chips and a bacon bun for Alan. 

Yesterday with the rain falling heavily we took the dogs out with us and had breakfast at our favourite local garden centre.  I bought some new plants for the large pot in the centre of the garden which has been looking very sad for some time now, the daffodils that were in there never got flower heads this year and just looked like tall skinny weeds.  It looks so much better now and just doing this has made an enormous difference to our tiny garden.  

I also treated myself to a Buddha head that really caught my fancy ... I love that I can change his 'hairstyle' with every different plant that I put in there.  I started him off with a fern, I love ferns just as much as Alan hates them ... and gradually they are creeping into the garden.  😁

I hope you all had a lovely weekend, and managed to make the best of what good weather we did have.

Sue xx

Coronation Day

We decorated the house for Coronation Day with large bunting in the front windows, on my planters at the front door and flags taped to the top windows.  There is enough to spare for us to be able to take some to Mum's with us along with mugs for her and my brother as souvenirs of this special day.

This is the first time I will be alive for a coronation, my Mum was 13 when the Queen was crowned so this will be her second.  My Nana was alive through six monarchs, although she only obviously saw one live coronation on television and of course as she was born in 1898 she is sadly no longer with us.

So we will be heading off to Mum's armed with the flags, bunting and our Coronation Tea food for a day of celebration and memories.  Here in the UK we do these type of celebrations so well don't we.

https://youtu.be/98EKodxkg0M

I didn't make this Coronation Quiche, but mine is a pretty good replica and the homemade scones, dainty sandwiches and alcohol-free bubbly will make it a feast fit for a King.

I hope you all have a wonderful Coronation Day.

Sue xx

Leftover Mash?

 

I was watching some YouTube videos the other day, as I tend to do in the mornings while I slowly waken up clutching a cup of coffee or two, when I came across a few from Wicked Kitchen, one in particular caught my attention.

Unfortunately it won't let me share the video on here with a picture as it is a 'short'.  But here is the link:

https://youtube.com/shorts/ZMoFshzyY_E?feature=share

I immediately thought of the two tubs of leftover mashed potato that I had in the fridge.

I grated a block of my Applewood cheese, while my 2/3 of a sheet of ready rolled pastry from the fridge came to room temperature and then set about making the Mashed Potato Wellington.

It was really simple, a good pile of mashed potato on top of the pastry, sprinkled with some of the cheese, a drizzle of  baked beans down the centre and a little bit more of the potato on top, just so that the 'bean juice' wasn't in contact with the pastry too much.  I folded the sides over and the ends in, sticking them together with a quick brush of water and then popped it into my fan oven which was now pre-heated to 180 degrees.

Half an hour later and it was ready.  

I just had two slices of it for my lunch along with a small salad, and the rest of it went into the fridge along with ...

... leftover beans, leftover cheese and more leftover mashed potatoes.

And the leftover mashed potato wellington was eaten the next day just as it was, with a dollop of mayonnaise added to the plate, and if anything it was even more delicious.

No wonder my food lasts me so long, I seem to live on leftovers!!  😀

Sue xx

The Big Relaunch of the Food Cupboard Challenge

The big relaunch of The Food Cupboard Challenge .... haha, now that sounded great didn't it, I couldn't resist.  😁

Actually I just mean that from today onwards I will be doing it properly.

I will resist every temptation to move foods from one place to another.  I find that this is one of my biggest failings, I see a gap in the top part of the food cupboard and have an immediate urge to fill it, either with shopping or with something from another place.  It means I quickly lose track of what I have and what is where, I think it's mostly because I would like all my food to be in the one place.  Who knows maybe if I do this challenge properly this time that will actually happen.  

Now that would be good!!

So yesterday, with this post in mind I took these photos.

For posterity, and to see exactly where everything is right now at the start of the Challenge ... and of course because a peek inside someone else's cupboards, especially food cupboards is always a nice thing, so they are for you as well as for me.  😄

Even the little drawers have filled up again with all the lovely foodie gifts I was sent for my birthday.  The thing is, when you tell all the family that you don't want any more 'stuff' you get edibles and toiletries instead.  Which means that I am now fully stocked up in all departments ... and very happy about it too. 💝

The little wire shelves above the drawers have barely changed in appearance since the start of the year. A couple of the packs of biscuits from the glass jar have been eaten and some of the tiny jars of jam from the larger of the two cream coloured enamel tubs have been eaten for breakfasts.  Oh, and the contents of the granola jar have changed as it was refilled from a different box.

These shelves have only changed in that the jars have been topped up and the pepper pot is a different one, the cream coloured one I used to have leapt off the shelf and broke in a cloud of pepper ... atishoo!!  🤧

And that's all the ambient food in the house, of course there's stuff in the fridge and freezer, oh and I've just remembered the spice drawer and the extra spices that I found recently in the enamel teapot, and posted about here.

Thank you for all the comments yesterday that overwhelmingly said you would be interested in continuing to watch my ongoing food expenditure successes and failures, hopefully by relaunching this challenge I will be able to keep myself on the straight and narrow and really limit the spending for the next few months.

I'm going now before I remember any more food stashes and have to continue confessing to my huge stock of food.  Anyway it's time for me to do my online banking now as Alan has just been over with a document for me to sign and reminded me to check to see if my wages are in my account yet ... if they are I could go shopping, or maybe not!!  😁

Sue xx

And with a Final Flourish ... I've Bust Through the Budget

So my non-challenge Challenge of living off the money that I made through selling things last year came to an end yesterday, with a final 75p being spent on top of a £10 Booths voucher.  Adding that to the money spent during April it sent me over the budget.

It was a good job I looked in my bag yesterday as the voucher would have run out last night, so we made a quick pit stop on our way out and bought just enough to make good use of it.  

The half dozen eggs and Vimto were Alan's choices ... it seemed only fair to buy him something with the voucher as he does help me collect the money on the Booths card by having a copy of mine in his wallet and using it every time he shops there ... and the larger pack of eggs and pastry case were my choice.  We are going to Mum's to watch the Coronation next weekend and I thought being able to rustle up a quiche for us all to share, alongside the little sandwiches and scones that I plan to make would be a good idea.

 A final Challenge spend of 75p in cash and a £10 Booths voucher.

I'll not list all the expenditures as to be honest it's all gone a bit to pot and my challenge diary money reckoning page is a scribbly mess.  I realised yesterday that I had included some items for the foodbank in my spending, that had been bought on the same receipt as my shopping in March and I had completely missed off a small spend in January of £5.85.  

I went down a worm hole of trying to make corrections and then thought, 'what the heck ... does it really matter'.  So as far as I can work out by the last day of April I had spent my full challenge pot of £592.20 plus an extra £12.57.  So, basically I have bought everything that I needed and occasionally just fancied in thee first four months of the year for an approximate total of £604.77.

Which averages out to just over £151 a month, or £35.57 per week for the first 17 weeks of this year, and I'm happy with that.  Especially as it also includes non-food items such as haircuts, books and an MOT.

Although the Challenge as such is over, I have enjoyed keeping tabs on myself so much that I will be continuing to log what I spend in the challenge diary and see how I react to the rules being even more relaxed, even if the rules were only shadowy guidelines in my head to start with.  

Maybe I'll spend the next four months just logging the money that I spend on food, now that would be interesting to me while I continue to work through the Food Cupboard food stash.  

In fact I have just re-photographed the food that I have here at home and I am intending to almost re-start the Food Cupboard Challenge ... only this time I will not be moving food from place to place as gaps appear.  Doing that has meant that some places look just as full as when I started back in January.

Do you want me to continue to mention my spending on here or are you all totally fed up with facts figures and photos of my shopping?  I'll leave it up to you.  😀

Sue xx

Shopping ... Again!!

I've been and gone and shopped again ... you knew I would didn't you!!

Just fresh stuff and some nuts that were on offer in the middle aisles, I purposefully avoided looking at any of the gardening supplies that were there ... well I might have browsed slightly but I stood firm and carried on walking past.  I don't know why a pot of Parsley made it's way into my trolley as I have some growing outside the front door in the old tin bath.

But it looks nice sat next to it's new best mate Basil in my new wooden box.  💓

(Don't worry I lined the box with a nice strong polythene bag.)

Alan treated me to a breakfast cup of coffee and a toasted teacake at Booths after my doctors appointment and before we shopped ... always go shopping on a full-ish tummy ... so while I was there I bought a pack of my favourite bread rolls and a birthday card for my soon-to-be fourteen year old grandson, where do the years go!!

That was another £4.05 spent.

I need to sit down and work out how much I've spent this month now that we are about to go over into May.  Gosh this year is going by quickly.

I have a feeling that I have just busted my budget.  😕

Sue xx

Thanks so much for all the good wishes and comments on the last post.  I have posted again to move it down the list as other peoples health issues on blogs can be deathly boring ... or maybe that's just me, I would never have been a very sympathetic or patient doctor!!  😐

After the Break

 

To be totally and transparently honest my break from blogging for the last few days was not just because of our weekend away, but also due to a health scare.  

Once again my blood pressure has gotten totally out of control and lots of changes have to be and are being made.  Signing myself out of hospital last Thursday so that we could go on holiday was the best thing that I could have done, as with Alan doing all the driving and me being able to mostly relax and having new higher dose tablets the readings on my blood pressure monitor started to dip consistently.   As requested by the consultant I returned to the hospital for a check upon Monday as soon as we got back, and this saw me being signed off and handed back into the care of my GP.  

Last night I got a telephone message from the NHS Portal informing me that an telephone consultation appointment with a cardiologist has been made for me for a follow up.  The date of the appointment ... 30th April 2024.  They must have quite the waiting list if they are booking in phone calls over a year in advance!!

Hardcastle Craggs from the viewing point just up the road from our lovely holiday home.  As you can see from the top photo we also had a similar view while we were washing the pots each evening.

We stayed in a National Trust holiday home, Widdop Gate Barn, a converted barn in West Yorkshire.

Oh I saw alright ... drinking in the views and thinking on how lucky we were to be able to be there.

As you stepped into our holiday home the kitchen still has the old stalls for the cattle, with the table and chairs in the largest and a washing machine and a dish washer in the two smaller ones.

The vast window in the dining area, which really let in the cold at night.  The curtains were drawn straight after tea to try and keep things cosy.  Alan loves barns, and this was a good example of one that had been converted very sympathetically with hardly any full interior walls or false ceilings ... which made it very chilly!!

The photos on the National Trust website make it look a lot smaller and cosier than it was in reality.

The main bedroom, even this large king-sized bed seemed dwarfed in the space.

We had a large log burner in our Welsh house, but although this one was twice the size it still seemed dwarfed by the room it was in, and we went through a LOT of logs.  We sat wrapped in fleece blankets watching the television, wishing we had brought binoculars as it seemed so far away,

We went into Hebden Bridge on both the Saturday and Sunday, and the vibe on the two days was totally different.  On Saturday it was full of visitors dashing around taking photos and bustling through the shops and the market.  On the Sunday there was a large contingent of motorbikes parked in the square, with all the owners sat outside the many pavement cafes drinking coffees and chatting happily away.  There was a busker playing his heart out, and everything was just so much more chilled and laid back.

The dogs both loved the break, and once they mastered all the stone steps in the barn were relaxed and happy to be away with us ... but they were even happier when we got home.

This time, unusually for me, I bought my self a few souvenirs, but of course you know me ... they had to be useful things too.  

The wooden 'flour' box is actually lovely old wood and if I turn it around the other way on my shelf it will just look like a beautiful wooden box and the cockerel will be my little secret.  I was in the pottery shop making my rather excessive selection, when the 3pm emergency alarm practice went off on everyone's phones, causing much confusion to some people who had no idea what was going on.  It did get us all talking to each other and we had a good laugh as some phones were slightly late to the party and rang five minutes later.

Back soon.

Sue xx