Extortionate Garage Costs and Some Thrifty Food.

Last week, I noticed that my hand brake had become very floppy and that it needed to be pulled up very high in order to for it to stop the car rolling away so today, I took it to the garage to get them to have a look at it and tell me when they could fit it in. I was absolutely HORRIFIED when I was quoted over £700 to have it fixed! I cannot believe it is so expensive to get a hand brake fixed. I was told that this is the worst case scenario, where the callipers, cables and pads all need replacing and that it might not be that bad but, by the gloomy mutterings of the mechanic coupled with the ominous rubbing of his chin, it's not looking hopeful that there will be a happy outcome to all this! I didn't even know hand brakes had callipers and pads! The best case scenario is still £200 and as I said, I'm not holding out much hope that this will be the case.

I realise that cars need to be maintained and that things break and wear out but £700? Is it me or is that just ridiculous? Just to make sure I wasn't being ripped off because I am a woman and believe me, this has happened to me in the past, I rang another garage and described the problem over the phone and they confirmed that if the callipers have seized and it needs new cables and pads, the £700 is about right. I am totally devastated because once again, my greenhouse money is going to have to be spent on something else. 

Just when you think things are starting to get better ..... whammo .... something else comes along to mess things up!

Sooooooo, frugal and thrifty to the rescue ....... yet again! At the end of February, I rather rashly bought a bag of spuds from my local Morrisons because they were half price and were a bargain. I don't usually eat a lot of potatoes but at £2 for 12kgs I was sure there was something I could do with them. I love shepherds pie and sausage and mash and lovely warming, rib-sticking meals so I grabbed my spuds and off I went. Because they were half price, they went out of date fairly quickly but by storing them in the dark in my hall-way, which is cold, they are still almost perfect with no sprouting triffid bits and just one or two that had gone a bit soft, which I threw out.

They have been sat in the hallway, waiting patiently for me to do something with them and today, after my shock garage visit, I decided I had better do something with them because after I pay for the car there isn't going to be very much left for anything else! Luckily, in my weekly shop I had included some leeks, double cream and low fat creme fraiche because the plan had always been to make some cheesy leek and potato gratin to put in the freezer. So, after pulling myself together and having a good strong cup of tea to get over the shock, I got cracking with the cooking.

After peeling what seemed like a galactic quantity of spuds but which still left me with at least a third of a sack, I par-boiled them and left them to cool. While they were cooling, I fried some leeks in a little butter until they were tender but not too soft and again left them to cool. Then I assembled my gratin. Firstly I did potatoes, leek and cheese with a dollop of creme fraiche and a glug of cream. When I ran out of leeks, I did potato and cheese with creme fraiche and cream and when I ran out of cheddar, I used leftover bits of brie and garlic and herb roule that I had left over in the fridge and they were looking a bit past their best. The last of the potatoes I just popped into the foil trays added some salt pepper and butter so that I can just simply put them in the over and use them as roast potatoes. 

In total, I made three single potions and three double portions of gratin to freeze, a big pie dish full of gratin for my lunch ..... quality control is essential ..... and three portions of roasting potatoes, all for a grand total of £3.86. 

SPUDTASTIC! :-)

Yummy Beef Pie

On Sunday, for lunch, I slow cooked a piece of brisket that was on special offer at the local supermarket. It was in the oven for ages in a red wine gravy with some carrots and a couple of parsnips and it emerged from the oven beautifully tender and was absolutely delicious with roast spuds, parsnips and loads of fresh veg, but, as usual I cooked for an army and there was loads and loads left. Yesterday, rather than divide the leftovers between the dogs, and in the  recently revived spirit of thrifty living, I scooped it into my trusty earthenware pie dish ........ 20p from a car boot sale a couple of years ago ....... along with the leftover stuffing, roast potatoes and parsnips and made a shortcrust pastry top to turn it into a pie. It was extremely yummy. I know that I should try to be health conscious and curb my enthusiasm for hearty pies and warming stews but quite frankly, the weather is so depressing at the moment that I just don't seem to be able to help it. Add to that some apple crumble with a big dollop of thick Jersey cream for desert and I'm a very happy bunny.

In the afternoon, I set about making some cards for the market. I realised last week that I'm very low on stock and of course, I can't make any money if I have nothing to sell. So I switched on the TV ...... I like to have something in the background that I can listen to ...... and I set to work. I love making cards. It's actually my favourite crafty thing to to do because I find it very relaxing. Kind of like when you were a child and made collages out of pasta and seashells. In fact I actually used to use seashells and sea glass, that I had collected from the beach, on some of the cards I used to make many, many years ago. Come to think of it, I can't believe I have been making cards and doing crafty stuff for such a long time. I used to have a stall at Tavistock pannier market about 17ish years ago! I even had a website! Back then though, the market stall was only once a month and it was really more of a hobby. Now I do three days a week at the market at Trerulefoot here in Cornwall and I am trying to build up my hobby into more of a little cottage industry. I'm thinking though that when, and if, spring ever arrives, I might have to take a trip to the beach and find some little shells and some lovely sea glass and once again incorporate them into my cards. 

Thrifty Living ...... Getting Back On Track

As most of you know, I don't like to waste things. Not food or fabric or bits of paper or ribbon, not a thing do I chuck away if I think I might have a use for it. Lately however, complacency has been creeping in and I am ashamed to say that I have, on more than one occasion thrown food away that I have let go too out of date for me to eat. Now I'm generally of the mind that if it looks ok and smells ok and has no obviously mouldy or icky bits then it's probably ok to eat. When I did my food hygiene course a few months ago, the man teaching the course almost had a fit when I happened to mention this and almost failed me on the spot. I hastened to add that anything I prepare for the market is made from completely fresh ingredients and following the hygiene course standards to the letter but, in my everyday cooking and eating, I am a little more relaxed about things like best before dates and such like. 

Yesterday, the weather was once again very grim. Grey and drizzly and not fit for anything other than snuggling up on the sofa so, as the previous week had been hectic I decided it was high time that I caught up on my blog reading. I follow loads of blogs and I love reading about how creative people are when making things last or cooking deliciously mouthwatering meals from hardly anything at all for a few pennies and so, with a new sense of purpose, I leaped off the sofa, grabbed the three bags of tomatoes that had been given to me by a market friend at the end of trading last week because they were too squishy to sell and it set about making some tomato sauce. A little olive oil, a knob of butter, four garlic cloves, some sea salt and an hour in a low oven while I was slow-roasting some beef and I was left with some delicious tomato sauce to pour over pasta or even blitz into some warming soup to eat with some homemade bread.

Yesterday, I also emptied out my penny jar. I have gotten into the habit of putting almost all the 1p and 2p coins that I take at the market into the jar at the end of the week so it stops my cash box from filling up with coppers because I don't tend to use them. The jar wasn't full but it was getting heavy and even though I haven't been collecting them for very long, I was quite curious to see how much was in it. So, I nipped along to my local Morrisons store, which has one of those coin counting machines and after I had removed the screws, curtain hooks and the odd dog biscuit that had gotten mixed in with the coins ........ who knows how on earth that got in there ....... I dumped the whole lot into the machine and waited for it to count them. There was a grand total of £13.87 before the counting fee was taken off which considering there was hardly any high value coins in the jar, was pretty good. I now have a massive total of 6p in my penny jar and the Terramundi pot that I got as a Christmas present has the £1 and £2 coins in it that I'm saving and any bank notes I can spare to put towards my greenhouse fund. 

And finally for today, my next project ..... find some more egg recipes! My two hens, Pepper Potts and Amelia Pond are still happily laying me two eggs a day and consequently I have a fridge full of fabulous eggs but to be honest, I'm getting a bit swamped. I have never known such prolific chickens my friends and neighbours who keep chickens are all bemoaning the fact that they are hardly getting any eggs at all and yet my two are still laying like crazy. I'm thinking that I might actually have a go at making some meringues. Does anyone know if you can freeze meringues? That might solve the problem temporarily, along with a few quiches to freeze. Also, I have heard that it's actually possible to freeze eggs. Apparently, if you crack the eggs into a bag or a tub and write on how many are in there you can pop them into the freezer and use them for making scrambled eggs or cakes, things where the eggs are mixed or whisked. Has anyone else heard of this and has anyone actually tried freezing eggs? I would be very interested to hear from anyone who has and would love to know how they turned out.