Sunday 25 March 2012

Silent Sunday #7


Silent Sunday






Silent Sunday

Saturday 24 March 2012

Things To Do Before I’m …..

Got invited, well few days back now to have ago at a Meme by my lovely twitter friend Alison from her blog post HERE. I had a look and put it on the back burner. Now here I am going to sort of write my own. As I got quite a short memory span, going to re-read her post and write this post.

Reading Alison's post and the post she got invited to have a go from another blogger 'I May Not Be Your Mom But I'll Be Your Friend', the post is HERE. The idea seems to originate from a post by 'Two point Four Children' and it can be found HERE. The reasons for all the links, is to give you an idea of different ideas people have for the goals they wish to achieve. 

Now re-reading again the posts I have linked to, it seems you now need to reveal your age. This is where I will go a bit different now. As a married couple, Gerry and I. We try to keep everything on the Internet as a joint thing. It is very hard as Facebook, Google+ and a few others do not allow this. Everything has to be individual. This annoys us. Any I digress. But as I at 56 and Gerry at 48, we are going to say things we would like both to do in two years time from today.  This is a joint list.

So here goes.(Get to use bullet points too)

  1. Try to complete 100% Burnout Paradise on the Xbox360, we stuck on 94%, plus the online achievements.
  2. Visit Scotland, the Highlands for a long touring holiday.
  3. Re-visit 'The Langdale' in Cumbria and have Cumberland sausage and red cabbage in the local pub.
  4. Get our passports renewed.
  5. Win, borrow, beg or steal enough money to visit Florida.
  6. Get a 6 burner cooker (that's more Gerry's) but I will benefit in more lovely food.
  7. Least get some of our respected families together for a day, will need a wedding for that (Sarah or Kayleigh)
  8. Put a Christmas tree up.
  9. Finish decorating this place, been two years and counting. If it carries on, will be like the Forth Rail Bridge, once we finish will have to start again.
  10. Sit together and watch Lost season 1 and 2. Still on the shelf and still with shrink wrap around them.
  11. Learn how to grow herbs, like Jamie etc have in their TV kitchens, I am sure they are just put there.
  12. Take Grace to one of the Wednesday night summer firework displays on the beach.
  13. Go to Great Yarmouth races, both lived here for years and never been. its a 15 minute bus ride.
  14. Buy a banana tree. Not a real one, but to hang our bananas on.
  15. Have a proper night sleep when Grace is sleeping over. She three but we both up every hour checking on her. Very silly. We worry to much.
  16. Give cockles and mussels another go and try to like them. We live in a seaside town, they have the seafood stalls on the market with the little pots of them and toothpicks. Just at the moment don't like them.
  17. De-clutter, this will never happen. Have tried it loads of times. Just move a load of cr*p from box to a new box.
  18. Do not buy any more Goldfish, got five left, had eight. Bought for Grace. She really don't care. So when the last one goes to the great fish shop in the sky. That is it.
  19. Be rich enough to put £1 coins in the 'Christmas' pig, just once.
  20. See Kayleigh qualify as a nurse. Think that is about two years time. That one is up to her.
At the moment can't tag no one as I have to look around the blogs I read and blogger friends on twitter to see who has not been invited. Will update when I have some people.

If you feel the need to write a post like this please link it to Two Point Four Children's page

written by Phyllis and Gerry


Saturday 17 March 2012

Fish Fight Vote


  UPDATE, UPDATE
We Won the 1st Fight
on the original post below.


 On Monday the 19/03/2012 after a meeting of of EU ministers in Brussels. It was decided to allow the proposals to be debated in the full European Parliament. So if agreed it WILL become European law. So the first battle is over. Please do not give up, lobby your MEP and MEP's of all the European Countries. Please read the Guardian Article HERE then, go to the original post below and click on the link to sign up if you feel so inclined.




Stop this Please
Quick Post
Your Chance to Influence a EU vote
Monday 19/03/2012 is the Deadline







I am not going to copy the great campaign from the Celebrity Chef  Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall here. I will give you a link below to read.

All I can say is that from our view point, we are not 'greenies', we don't crave organic because its better etc. But over the last five years we have become to choose where are food comes from and this is, as we live by the sea, has become a part of it. Also we concerned over the waste in the food industry and food miles. 
This campaign has really hit the mark here, it is so important to the sustainable existence of wildlife (ie fish etc) in our sea and how we farm them.


Please take time to watch the video clip and visit the website. If you agree please join up and shout your views.



PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

 

Saturday 3 March 2012

cooking tips #4

Cooking Tips
(Cheap and Easy)
Number 4
Leftover Chicken or Turkey Curry
 Cheap with store cupboard stuff.
Makes a change from chicken and chips, chicken sandwiches
or to stop you throwing a half eaten roast bird away. 
Cooking time 40 minutes.

Introduction
This is an occasional blog post to hopefully give you readers, simple, tested cooking ideas. I am not trying to teach you to suck eggs. Most of these posts will not be full recipes but just to show you how to do the basics right. I have tried different techniques by TV and Book Chefs that promised the perfect so and so, sadly most of them do not work. Below I will show the ones that worked. All these tips have been used a minimum of 10 times with constant results. I hope you find these useful. So here goes........
Ingredients
  • Teaspoon olive oil (or vegetable oil) 
  • 1 chopped onion
  • 2 cloves of garlic, crushed and chopped
  • 3 Tablespoons of Mild curry powder. If using Hot curry powder you might want to reduce the number of tablespoons.
  • 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
  • 1 cube chicken stock, you know OXO etc
  • 1 can of water, this means when you use the tomatoes, fill the tin with water
  • 450g of leftover chicken or turkey, if you got less then put in what you have left. Just cut it into smallish pieces. 
Ingredients
 Equipment
  • Large saucepan or deep sided frying pan (as in photos)
 Lets Cook
Heat the oil in the pan to a medium heat and add the chopped onions, let them sweat for a few minutes. Once becoming soft then add the garlic. Cook for a few minutes more. 
Sweating down
 Add the tin of chopped tomatoes, crushed stock cube and curry powder, then mix in well.

Stuff added, now mix with spoon
Now fill the empty tomato tin with cold water and pour in and mix again.

Next add the chopped chicken or turkey and stir in. Bring to the boil and then turn the heat down to simmer, uncovered for 30 minutes. 

boiling, now about to be turned down to a simmer

After 30 minutes the 'sauce' should have thickened up a lot. It is now ready to serve with rice or whatever you fancy.
With rice, trust me its lovely
Notes
If you have leftover chicken or turkey and do not fancy this the next day then just cook this. Let it cool, put in containers and freeze for a later date. That is a great way to save money and waste.

With a half of a chicken left after a roast, this recipe will provide 2 more meals for 2 people at a cost of less than £1 per person. 

Written by Gerry.