Pink Peonies

I popped out yesterday afternoon to do a spot of grocery shopping.. and look what I found… a bunch of peony roses in the reduced bucket, they were £4.00 marked down to 70p!

Needless to say they went straight into my basket 🙂 I’ve not done a frugal flower post on my blog for a long time.. so here we are 🙂

I absolutely adore peony roses, they are one of my most favourite flowers and I love them even more when can buy them for pennies rather than pounds ..

 

Apple, Pear & Passionfruit Crumble

I made a yummy crumble today and thought I would post the recipe here.

It’s also a frugal crumble, because I picked up the apples, pears and passion fruit at my local supermarket reduced:

A bag of 5 Granny Smith Apples for 60p, 4 x passionfruit for 30p, and a bag of 6 pears for 23p

So not including my storecupboard essentials the crumble cost  50p!

Recipe:

• 2 x Passion Fruit
• 5 x Pears
• 1 x Granny Smith Apple

For the Crumble Topping :

• 60g / 2oz Rolled Oats
• 175g / 6oz Plain Flour
• 110g / 4oz Unsalted Butter
• 110g / 4oz Demerara Sugar

Method :

1. Peel & Chop pears and apple into an ovenproof dish
2. Cut the passion fruit in half and scoop the insides over the chopped apple and pears
3. Put all the crumble ingredients into a food processor and blitz
4. Cover the fruit with the crumble mix
5. Cook in the oven at 180 degrees C for about an hour or until the juices bubble up around the edges of the crumble
6. Serve with Custard, Cream or Ice Cream

Have to say it was rather yummy and everyone enjoyed it 🙂 so 10/10 and would make it again

Frugal Foodie ~ Pesto & Blackberries

I picked up a few bargins when I stopped off  at the co-operative on my way home from work yesterday 🙂  I really should try and pop in there more often, after all I have to drive past it nearly every night 🙂

3 Pots of Basil  £1.10 each normally I got them reduced to 30p a pot saving me £2.40

2 Pots of Parsley £1.10 each normally I got them reduced to 30p a pot saving me £1.60

2 packets of Blackberries £2.00 each normally I paid 60p each saving me £2.80

= a total saving of £6.80!!

So tonight I made 2 batches of Pesto…. one for tomorrow night’s tea and one for the freezer,  the blackberries were frozen, they will be a welcome addition to an apple crumble this winter 🙂

Pesto Recipe is a case of throw it in the food mixture until I get the consistency I like

• Basil
• Parsley
• 5 cloves of Garlic
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Put everything in a blender and whizz together adding the olive oil through the funnel

Cheese Scones

Well autumn has arrived and the tree’s are starting to turn beautiful shades of red and yellow, and it’s this time of year I love, It makes me want to bake 🙂

Cheese scones were beckoned by the oven today, and I found this wee recipe in one of my many cook books called “Porridge” by Margaret Briggs ISBN 978-1-86147-069-0.

I have quoted the original recipe below and then my modification to the recipe in bold alongside it, because when I added the milk and egg to the mix it was too runny.    If you wanted a smaller batch of scones, i’d suggest adding half the milk and keep to the original recipe.

You will need :

• 120g (4oz) Oatmeal
• 120g (4oz) Plain Flour (I used double the quantity of flour 240g / 8oz )
• 60g (2oz) grated, mature cheese of choice
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• pinch of salt (I would recommend a big pinch)
• pinch of paprika (I used a pinch of chilli powder as i’d run out of paprika)
• 40g (1.5oz) Margarine
• 1 Egg (2 x small pekin Bantam Eggs courtesy of Brenda)
• 150ml (1/4 pint) Milk

Method :

1. Preheat the oven to 230 Degrees C / 450 degrees F or Gas Mark 8
2. Sift the flour, salt, pepper and baking powder and mix with the oats
3. Rub in the margarine, then mix in the grated cheese
4. Mix the beaten egg with the milk and add to the rest of the ingredients to make a soft dough
5. Knead lightly, turn onto a floured board and roll out to about 2cm (3/4″) and cut into 5cm (2″) rounds with a cutter or small glass.   Knead the offcuts of dough gently
6. Brush with milk and bake for approximately 12 minutes.   Serve warm

The Perfect Carrot Cake

I was looking at Carrot Cake recipes this morning amongst the books in my bookcase, then had a browse around online and finally decided to make this one as I really fancied the recipe, plus I had all the ingredients 🙂

The recipe is from the website http://www.cakebaker.co.uk and the link to the acutal recipe is here   http://www.cakebaker.co.uk/MakingThePerfectCarrotCake.html

The cake is in the oven as I type this and has about 45 mins left to bake, once its all done and dusted I’ll post a picture

The Perfect Carrot Cake

Ingredients for the cake

• 12½ oz carrots
• 2 oz pecans
• 4 oz self-raising wholemeal flour
• 4 oz plain wholemeal flour
• 2 teaspoons of cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 8 fl oz vegetable oil
• 6 oz soft brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 tablespoons golden syrup

Ingredients for the topping

• 7 oz cream cheese
• 2 oz softened unsalted butter
• 2 oz sifted icing sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essenceThese quantities make a 9” round cake / 1 x 2lb Loaf Tin

• Start off by grating 12½ oz carrots and chopping 2 oz pecans. Put to one side.
• Sieve together 4 oz self-raising flour and 4 oz plain flour (both wholemeal) with 2 teaspoons of cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ground ginger, ½ teaspoon nutmeg and 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda. (Tip the bran bits left in the sieve into the mixture.)
• Whisk together 8 fl oz vegetable oil, 6 oz soft brown sugar, 4 eggs and 2 tablespoons’ golden syrup. (Heat the spoon first and the syrup will slide off easily.)
• Add this to the dry ingredients and mix until it’s nice and smooth. Stir in the carrots and pecans.
• Tip the mixture into a greased lined tin and cook at 160oC for an hour, or until cooked.
• For the topping, mix 7 oz cream cheese, 2 oz softened unsalted butter, 2 oz sifted icing sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla essence, until smooth.
• Allow the cake to cool and then add the topping

This cake will keep for a few days in an airtight container. That is, if you can resist it that long!

Frugal Flowers

I love it when I find flowers reduced at the supermarket, this gorgeous find were only 70p for a whole big bunch of multi coloured roses and beautiful addition to my lounge window ledge 🙂

Frugal Flowers

I got a bargin yesterday at the supermarket… these gorgeous flowers for a mere £0.23

A lovely splash of colour to brighten up the lounge with all this awful snowy weather we have been having of late.

Broccoli and Stilton Soup

I was in my local supermarket earlier and I picked up 2 heads of organic broccoli reduced to only £0.03 each!!  …. you know what it’s like, your head starts going through possible yummy recipes… my head was telling me soup! 😉    I nipped round to the cheese counter and picked up a bit of stilton.

|This recipe should serve six.

Ingredients:

• 50g / 2oz butter
• 1 Onion, finely chopped
• 1 Garlic Clove, crushed
• 2 large heads of Broccoli
• 2-3 oz of Stilton Cheese or adjust depending on your preference
• Freshly ground black pepper and sea salt
• 1-1.5 litres boiling water and a stock cube

Method :

• Heat the Butter in a large pan, add the onion and garlic and leave to cook on a low-med heat for 8 mins until they become soft and clear
• Whilst the onion and garlic are softening, chop the broccoli as finely as possible.   Add the chopped broccoli to the onions and pour in 1 litre of boiling water an a stock cube and bring back to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
• When the broccoli is tender, add the stilton cheese.   Whizz the soup well in a liquidiser to give it a really smooth texture.
• Check and adjust the seasoning and reheat if necessary.

Tomatoes and the HUGE Potato

Well… I decided to clear out the greenhouse at the weekend and give it a good old scrub out.

We picked the last of the tomatoes, including the green ones…. they look fab in the dish together, the colours are so vibrant.. I would really like to make some tomato and chilli relish, so if anyone out their has a tried and tested recipe that they would like to share, i’d love toi hear from you

Next I dug some potatoes from the 3rd bed for our dinner… and look what I dug up…. the organic Lady Balfour variety that I got reduced to 50p at the local garden centre turned up trumps…. with this whopper

I took it into my workshop to measure it … it was a whopping 6inches long and weighed in at 1lb 12.1 oz!!!

The Edible Garden..

I have spent a fair bit of time out in the garden today, mowing, strimming harvesting, hanging out numerous loads of washing, taking loads of pictures and generally just keeping busy and the garden tidy.

Here are some of the pictures taken from around the garden today : –

First of all we have the rogue sunflower, this beautiful big flower is the result of a seed falling out of the bird feeder and managing to land in a big flower pot, survive all winter and then germinate to produce this : -)

Next up is the final harvest of Peas for this year, we had these with our tea tonight, nothing went to waste as the chickens and rabbits got the remainder of the plants that I cleared from the garden…. theyre all stuffed full with pea leaves and stalks now 😉

Then I harvested some broad beans, this is the first year I have grown them and I love them, they will be back on the planting agenda for next year!   Still have one more harvest left then I will clear the area.

I found 1 solitary onion that had been left in from last year, I actually thought it was garlic, that was until I lifted it out of the ground, I accidentally pierced it a wee bit, so i’ll use it this week… Once I washed all the muck off it I hung it up to dry on the washing line 🙂

Can you spy the springer spaniels tail in the picture lol…. he managed to get in the act all the time!

Finally we dug up some potatoes… some of them were absolutely HUGE… and a couple of them were stinking and rotten for some reason, so we will be lifting the rest of them this week and having spuds for tea all week 🙂