Spicy sausage and lentil casserole recipe

Posted by louisa on Tuesday 18 January 2011 in cooking, recipes | 8 comments

Could a sausage and lentil casserole be anything other than spicy with us? We heart the spice!

I first made this when we were on holiday in a wonderful cottage in Staithes a few years ago so it always has connotations of relaxed cosiness – we’ve been there a couple of times out of season and had the quietest, most relaxing holidays ever. Recommend ++.

Anyway, back to the casserole, it’s a fab winter warmer – and can be pretty darn cheap if made with sausages on offer, as ours were when I made this on Saturday.

The weekend’s pottering

Posted by louisa on Monday 17 January 2011 in meta | 10 comments

Some of the things we’ve done this weekend:

• Started crocheting a new blanket – I got some “kool kotton” yarn a few months ago and think it’ll make a lovely blanket. I’m doing a granny stripe, about 5ft long — not sure I’ll have the patience to make it 5ft square (it takes nearly half an hour to do each stripe!) but if I get it to about 3ft wide, it’ll be perfect for using on the sofa. (I’ve already doubled the stripe count since I took this picture.)
• Took two boxes of books and misc stuff to the charity shop – they’ve been sat in the dumping ground on the landing for about three months. Would be nice to get that space decluttered and usable!
• Chopped down a sycamore tree – we planned to cut it down about six weeks ago when it lost the last of its leaves but weather & illness stopped us. It’s now cleared the way for an apple tree.
• Bought two blackcurrant bushes – for some reason blackcurrants have been popping up in conversations recently and I felt inspired to buy them. I’ve realised I left a few decorative shrubs in the garden last year – they can come out and be replaced with fruit bushes like these. I’m also tempted by some raspberry canes – it’s definitely going to be the year of fruit this year (or more accurately, fruit year minus one, since things will need time to get bedded in).
• Sorted out my seed box – cor, I’ve apparently got high hopes for this year! Lots o’ seeds! I’m going to try to be realistic about my space/workload – I’ll give away some seeds now and probably some seedlings too, depending on how germination goes. Some stuff needs to be started in January – so I guess I’ll do that next weekend, weather permitting.
• Restocked our spice cupboard after a trip to Pakeezah – been running low on a few things – should be good for a few months now and at a fraction of the cost if we’d bought them at one of the big three supermarkets.
• I was at a drama rehearsal until 10:30pm on Friday and John cooked spare ribs for when I finally got home – they were pretty good and we’ve got some ideas on how to make them perfect. Every now and then I get severe cravings for good ribs and up til now, they’ve been one thing we can’t really cook at home – will be good to crack them!
• Had Kheer for the first time yesterday – sweet, creamy rice pudding with cardamom and pistachios, and John thought some rose water too. Yum! Will have that again – and will see if I can work out a recipe as well.
• Finally caught up on the sleep I’ve missed out on over the last fortnight – woo!
• Got overly proud at finding 5 eggs in the nest box yesterday morning – either Lime is back laying again after her moult (unlikely at the moment) or both of the new batch Black Rocks are laying now. We’ve had 4 eggs a day for the last few days, so going up to 5 was a thrill. Just Buff – who will lay white eggs – to debut now.

Aside from that and some other good eating, it was a lazy one. Was good though :)

Power out

Posted by louisa on Friday 14 January 2011 in meta | 9 comments

3:45pm. I’m writing this using battery power – our electricity blacked out just after I got back from my afternoon dog walk a few minutes ago.

When I lived in my old house in Leeds, we only had one extended blackout in the area – perhaps a couple of momentary power outs but nothing for more than a few seconds, except for a few hours one evening in early 2001 (it was that noteable that I remember it a decade later!). Since we moved here in September 2009 though, we’ve had a few ones of five or ten minute durations and what I would consider a lot (for inside a city) on momentary glitches – almost once a month or more. I suspect due to (not excess but noteable) building expansion in the area over the last few decades, we need more power than the circuits allow and it just can’t cope very well – and who invests in infrastructure these days?

Still, while it’s light outside, it’s not a big problem and it’s a useful reminder to check our own resiliency in these situations.

• Light
  It’ll be light enough to see by for the next half an hour or so – at least in the main rooms of the house which all have big windows. The stairs from the office up into the house are dark though as is the underground storeroom – I had to use the light from my phone to go in there and check it wasn’t an obvious problem with the fuse box.

  We do have torches but I only know where one of them is – on top of a kitchen cupboard near the garden door – and the batteries in that died a couple of months ago.

  If the power out continues through the evening, we have candles – but only tealights – in the storage cupboards in the porch. (And I’m going out anyway.)

• Heating
  Our boiler is gas-powered but needs electricity too. It’s mild today – we’ve not had any heating on all day – but if it gets cold later, John could light one of our two wood-burning stoves to provide heat in either the living room or office.
• Food
  Our oven, grill & microwave all need electricity, but our hob is gas and doesn’t need electricity to spark so we could still cook on that. Our kettle is electric too so water will have to be boiled on the hob. (If needs be, we could also use the top of the woodburner as a hob replacement.)

  We have a fridge & freezer which will only keep food cool for so long. We’re not due to eat any time soon so can leave them closed which will lengthen the coldness window somewhat. If this continues all night, we’ll have make some alternative arrangements – making meal plans to use things up ASAP and possibly driving some over to a friend’s/John’s mum & dad’s for temporary storage.

• Hot waters for baths & showers
  Our shower is electric so that’s out of the question. The bath is fed from the gas-powered boiler – but as I said, that won’t work without electricity. Annoyingly, I’d planned to wash my hair about now ahead of going out tonight but unless the power comes back on soon, that’s not going to happen. I can boil some water to have a body-wash but my hair will have to wait.
• Entertainment
  We spend a lot of time on our laptops or playing computer games – my battery is going and John’s won’t last forever either so they’re out. We also like reading and I like doing crafty stuff but it’s 4:15pm now and the light is starting to go – and I fear for our eyes if we do those by tealight light! If it continues and I was around this evening, we’ve got some board games which we might be able to manage in candlelight (hurrah for contrast on Scrabble tiles ;) ) but I don’t know what John will do on his own – he might end up going out too I guess. Right now, I’m tempted to go for a nap – that doesn’t need any light!

I guess we’re not in too bad of a state – lighting is the main problem as not only will it be difficult to move around the house soon (dogs and cats with better eyesight but less brains constantly under our feet) but it also limits our entertainment options. We should get more torches (and replace the batteries in the ones we have got) and I should find out where they live! (And keeping one next to the fuse box would be very useful too.) I think I’ve also learnt that I shouldn’t leave washing my hair until the last minute when I could have done it this morning ;)

6:00pm
The power came back on at around 5:30pm so was out for about two hours. John called around 5, stuck in traffic, saying the street lights and all the power were out through the whole area – not just our little block but back to the Leeds ring road.

The power came back on *just* as I finally found and lit the tealights. In hindsight, I should have used the dwindling daylight to find the tealights as they weren’t were I thought they were!

I had a very quick shower as soon as the power came back on – in case it went off again – serenaded by the neighbourhood’s burglary alarms. ;)

Cheap treats

Posted by louisa on Thursday 13 January 2011 in frugal | 0 comments

Earlier this afternoon, I got an urgent missive from my dad over Yahoo messenger: according to my mum, my favourite, ridiculous, childish breakfast cereal – which is NEVER on offer – was on offer at the supermarket – half price!

John and I were supposed to be having an “us time” evening tonight as we’ve not seen each other much lately – buying huge amounts of breakfast cereal is a dream date activity for me ;)

We bought 12 boxes! They should keep me going for about six months (the expiry date is in 2012 so plenty of time).

We also bought some other cheap treats:

• John likes Innocent smoothies but they’re pretty expensive usually – they too were half price though.
• And so were Party Rings (not pictured) – another of his twisted little addictions ;)
• A reduced to clear trifle – from £2.70 to £1.15
• A reduced to clear chocolate cake – from £3.00 to £1.45
• A bag of hazelnuts (not pictured), discounted from £2 to 50p – not many but hopefully enough to make a small quantity of my own Nutella – or just to toast and nibble.

We bought some real food too – including a reduced to clear loaf (down to 15p from £1.20), which we’ll have with soup for lunch tomorrow – but that’s not as fun or exciting as cheap treats ;)

Chickens playing out in the garden

Posted by louisa on Thursday 13 January 2011 in chickens | 0 comments

Since it is a nice (if windy) day and Lily-dog was distracted in the top part of the garden barking at the bin men (they’re stealing our rubbish, woof woof woof!), I decided to let some of the chickens play out in the garden this morning. (Because the garden is pretty open at the moment, and there is invariably a dog running around, this doesn’t happen much.)

Mauve, Blue and slowly refeathering Lime – three of the original ISA Browns – were the first batch out – enjoying the good pickings of the raised bed next to the coop, including a rather succulent and long worm! (Photos of Mauve, Blue then Lime & Blue)

Chicken coop to-dos

Posted by louisa on Thursday 13 January 2011 in chickens | 2 comments

(I tried really, really hard to get a “cock-a-doodle-to-do” pun going on in the title but failed.)

I had a day away from my computer yesterday to catch up on outside & animal chores – and one of the things on my list was to give the chicken coop a mega-super clean.

I spotted what I thought was white mould all over the coop yesterday and knowing that’s, you know, not good, I stripped everything out this morning — everything that could be reasonably easily removed/taken apart got taken out so I could scrub *everywhere* down, from every angle.

The coop is about 4ft by 4ft square, with a sloped roof going up to about 4ft high in the middle, and it’s on stilts raising it about 18ins off the ground. I had to climb inside to be able to scrub the roof with (watered-down) disinfectant – perching like a giant chicken until my thighs were jelly! – and it was only when I did so that I realised the vast majority of the suspected white mould spores were actually just damp red mite powder from my last coop dousing. Still, since I was in there, and at least three chickens were in there at all times (keeping an eye on me in their house), I thought I might as well continue with the scrub down.

(Speaking of red mites, they’re back again – we had a few weeks with no sign of them (I presume they don’t like the really cold weather?) but now a small colony has return. I scrubbed it away yesterday but will dust the coop and the chickens this afternoon – I ran out of time yesterday – so I guess that’s To Do #1: dust chickens & coop for red mites.)

The bits of mould that were actually mould were inside the roof – and the roof itself looked damp. I scrapped all the accumulated wet leaves off the top of it in case that was adding the problem but suspect it’s just a bit leaky too – leaks between the wooden slats – so that’s To Do #2: explore a better roofing option.

The wood used for building the coop was treated before it was put together but after a wet nearly-year, I think it’ll need treating again so that’s To Do #3: reseal/treat all the wood. I’ll have to wait for a couple of warm, dry days for that – and will probably have to work out a way to keep it off-limits to the chickens for as long as possible.

Another thing I need to consider is improving the ventilation – poor ventilation is a key cause of mould. Funnily enough, I had thought that the ventilation “window” might have been too big for these cold winter nights – seems like the opposite was the case. Not sure how I’ll improve that without making it draughty or causing more damp spots so that’s To Do #4: figure out how to improve the ventilation without making more problems for myself.

Finally, an idea I had earlier in the winter but haven’t yet implemented has to go on my list: To Do #5: install a suspended floor that is easy to clean and insulated underneath. The current floor is made up of slats so there are little grooves inbetween each piece which accumulated grime – a floor made up from a single piece of wood (or two pieces to make it easier to move) and possibly covered with a scrap of lino would be a lot easier to keep clean. It could easily be “suspended” as there is a wooden baton, about 3cm high, all around the rim of the coop (where the sides are screwed onto) so could rest on that, with some cross bars so it doesn’t sag in the middle. The loss of height wouldn’t be a big deal at all.

Outside of the coop, in the run, there are a couple more things that will need attention this year:

• Reattach their play perches – some of them are a bit wobbly now
• Rat-proof it – the run was built to prevent foxes getting in but we didn’t consider rats. There are a few places where some wire and concrete will easily solve the problem.
• More wood chips – we put about half a tonne of wood chips in the run when we first set it up, then another tonne a month or so later – and I think we need another top up now. (Given the run is four flights of stairs down from the road, it’s a workout!). We use a deep litter principle in the run – the wood chips absorb the poop and rot down to compost. At some point, we’ll dig it out but for the moment, while the reclaimed ground underneath is still settling, we can just keep piling it on.

I guess having that not-strictly-needed cleaning time to think about these things will ultimately be for the best but now I have another eight jobs on my to-do list, I’m not feeling the joy right now!

If you’ve got chickens, anything special on your chores list for the coming months?

Will we regret our frugalness?

Posted by louisa on Tuesday 11 January 2011 in frugal, meta | 7 comments

At the weekend, I was catching up (online) with the Saturday papers from during my no spend period. We only buy the paper on Saturdays and not ever week – but I very much enjoy it when we do get it. I know I can read it all on the internet for free but every now and then it’s worth £1.90 to force me to get off my laptop for a few hours and it encourages me to read articles I wouldn’t seek out online.

So anyway, I was catching up with what I’d missed when I came across an article trying to be the opposite of every new year’s article: “How to be a better person in 2011: Abandon resolutions. Stop looking for a soulmate. Reject positive thinking“. The paragraph that caught my attention was, unsurprisingly, the one on frugality (about half way down the page):

I’m not sure I’d agree with the idea that “the most efficient way to save money, obviously, is to cut out big expenditures, not small ones” (because “an overpriced latte [and] breakfast croissant” each day is, say, £4, which is £20 a week, £80 a month, nearly £1000 a year — I don’t make any easily avoidable £1000 purchases a year) but I think the rest of the section is interesting. I think it’s especially interesting that the reason I came to it a week late was because I’d forfeited a small pleasure with a decent cost-to-happiness ratio for the sake of frugality ;)

What do you think? If your frugality requires present-time denial (and whose doesn’t?), do you think you might regret it in the long run?

A story: ten years ago, when we were students/young graduates, a then-friend of mine’s dad told her to never say no to a night out – not wild expensive nights out, just a trip to the pub or the cinema – with friends because she didn’t think she could afford it. Sure, he was encouraging her to get into debt but he knew that she’d regret it more in the long run if she didn’t enjoy her youth. I thought it was some of the best dad advice ever and that summer – my only six months of singledom as an adult – I was out doing something or other six nights a week, lots of “daily hedonistic expenditure”, and even though I lived extremely frugally at home, my bank account was in the red the whole time. I don’t regret that in the slightest: it was lots of fun.

I don’t think I’m denying myself too much now – we’re not extremely frugal and still have plenty of treats/fun – but there are ways, big and little, where we hold ourselves back. In ten years time, who knows how I’ll feel about that…?