Archive for the Frugal category
Review of Pizza Hut, Boldon, Sunderland
Posted on Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 16:51 by Michelle
Just before the children went back to school, we had a night out at the
cinema, (Wednesday of course). As there are so many restaurant voucher
codes around we decided to make a night of it and go to Pizza Hut after
the movie. As there are 5 of us I made a reservation. We got to the
restaurant on time to be greeted by a very friendly manager who informed
us that they had been unusually busy, but had kept our table (nice of
them). But, he went on to say they had run out of every pizza base
except Italian. The kids said that would be OK, and I was having pasta.
So we sat, we waited quite a while to place our drinks order and then ordered the food. Two of the pasta dishes were off, they had ran out of prawns, mushrooms and chicken toppings. Some of this was relayed back to us after our order was placed. Anyhoo as we eat out so rarely we remained upbeat about it and enjoyed eating out together. When the starters arrived I was quite shocked at the size of the portions, they were tiny, their sharing plates were the size of side plates. I normally would not have thought too much about it, but Chris and I had just recently eaten in Pizza Hut in Leicester Square, if I was going to be ripped off anywhere I'd expect it more likely to be there. I commented to our server and was told they were the standard size but as I was unhappy she would take them from the bill.
The food when it came was no better than OK, Dave had meatballs, and as this is something we cook quite regularly at home, he was very disappointed in the quality.
The kids love to eat out, to them it feels like a real treat. For me, apart from not having to do the dishes, I'd much rather eat in and eat good quality, well prepared food, at a fraction of the cost.
Italian stalions would not drag me back into this Pizza Hut, and as they have a fair bit of competition up there, with a Frankie and Bennies, McD's and a pub serving food all in the same complex, I'm very surprised they can get away with such shoddy service.
| Edited on: Mon, Feb 02, 2009 16:52Posted in Eating Out (RSS), Family (RSS), Food (RSS), Frugal (RSS)
The butcher, the baker and the ...fruiter
Posted on Sun, Oct 12, 2008 at 17:36 by Michelle
Oh, you might know the fruiter (pronounced froo'ta, or even froo'ta'rer) as the green grocer, if you're not from the north east of England. I try to buy most of the fruit and veg from the fruiter, it lasts longer, but more importantly it costs less than the supermarket, and we are lucky that there are still a few independent shops left locally.
The baker, well, I do most of my own baking, but since I lost the paddle for the bread maker, and it makes better bread than my hand made efforts I've been buying bread. I hate buying bread, it costs such a lot, over £1 for a loaf is way too high for my conscience. I try to get it when it's marked down and fill up the freezer, but I've been avoiding the supermarket as I'm particularly skint this month and have just picked up bread and milk as needed. I needed a few things and had a trip to Lidl planned, I asked my neighbour if she fancied a look over with me, she suggested we went in her car and headed to the newly opened Lidl's in South Shields. When we parked up she told me of a Gregg's seconds shop that her mam had been to which was near enough for us to take a look. Oh my, 3 small seeded loaves for 75p and 12 bread buns for 50p. I got a few of them and a pack of the ends of caramel slices, yummy. So we're OK for bread this week, and Gregg's seconds is firmly on my shopping trip agenda. (There's another of these Day Old shops on Westgate Road).
The butcher, this feels like a real indulgence I remember when I was small accompanying my nanna to the huge butcher on the corner of the high street in Gateshead. There was an aisle up the middle of the shop and butchers working both sides. There was sawdust on the floor and you could smell blood when you walked in. In the 25 years I've been buying meat it has mostly been from the supermarket. To be honest, I wasn't even sure what to ask for in the butcher's and in the supermarket it's so easy to pick up from the sterile, prepackaged, uniformly cut and extremely limited supply of meat. Last September I sold my car and decided to use public transport, (this exercise lasted for 6 months) but as the buses had convoluted routes, I found there was a butcher practically on my doorstep. What a find this turned out to be, a friendly, family butcher in Concord. I go there now about once a week. If I want thick pork chops they cut them that way. If I'm cooking burgers or making my own sausages they mince up the best pork or mince for the purpose. It's not organic, I can't afford that, but I'm assured that it's outdoor reared, it doesn't have water added and it tastes great. The butchers that work there are so friendly and helpful that it's a pleasure to shop there. The last few weeks, my purchases haven't been much more than mince and ham shanks. Thank goodness for winter when it's so easy to make nutritious, warming and cheap soups.
Luckily my daughter is not a fussy eater
Me, after the 4th night of soup: "Are you fed up with soup for tea?"
Her, "not when they are different types".
This week we've had;
- Leek and potato
- Roasted pepper and tomato
- Roasted butternut
- Chicken and veg,
I bought 2 free range chooks from Lidl's which made
- 6 portions of soup
- 2 days sandwiches for 3 people
- jerk chicken for (4 legs)
- fajitas for 3
- chicken korma for 4.
I know Jamie Oliver did the feed your family for a fiver advertising for Sainsburys, but I'd really expect to feed my family for a fiver a day, not a meal. And, while I'm on the subject of Jamie Oliver, the new show he's doing, 'The Ministry of Food' fantastic idea, people do need to be shown how to cook again, but really, families on benefits and he's showing them meals made from salmon and tuna steak, get real, it's possible to eat very well without spending that sort of money on ingredients.
|Posted in Frugal (RSS), Money Saving (RSS)
Blackberry Picking
Posted on Thu, Sep 25, 2008 at 17:37 by Michelle
There are some disused rail lines near our house with an ambundance of
blackberry bushes, as it is blackberry season here in the fozen north
and I love very little more than free food, we went out 'blackberrying'.
In 2 sessions of just over and hour each we picked about 15lbs of lovely
juicy berries.
Then comes the choice of what to do with so many blackberries, and, it is to be noted blackberries need to be used quickly after picking. Within a few hours they develop a white mould growth unless they are washed and washing removes a lot of the flavour.
I made;
- 2 apple and blackberry crumbles (delicious)
- 2 pots of apple and blackbery jam (very nice, if slightly runny)
- 2 pots of blackberry chutney (a keeper and I will use more blackberries for this next year)
- 4 pots of blackberry jam (more about this to follow)
I've made jam with blackberries for the last 3 years and it always sets very hard, too hard to even get the knife into. This year for the blackberry and apple I used my breadmakers jam setting, and the jam turned out very nicely. When I got it out of the cupboard to make the blackberry jam, the paddle was missing. I have searched the kitchen, turned out my drawers and even moved the yucky thing in the bottom of the dishwasher, but the paddle did not turn up. Racking my brains for what could have happened to it I thought back to the last time I used it, when I made the blackberry and apple. I have to conclude that the paddle fell into one of the pots of jam. I didn't think it could have without me realising it, but there is nowhere else for it to be. Chris took two pots back to school with him, so I will have to wait until he's eaten it to find out.
Handy hints for blackberry picking.
- You will get prickled. Wild blackberries have thorns and nettles grow with them. Wearing long sleeves will help but your hands will still tingle when you get home.
- Wear close toed shoes, beach crocs just don't protect your feet from the undergrowth, as I discovered.
- Taking a hooked stick helps to pull the higher branches down, (I never remember to take this.)
- If you want to use two hands to pick at the berries, put your container on the floor, don't be tempted to push it in among the brambles, where it could be dislodged when you reach for more berries, leaving you with 2lbs of berries in the undergrowth which mush when you try to pick them back up. (As our researcher found out).
- lunch box size containers are great anything much bigger and the berries at the bottom will squash under the weight
Anyhoo, as I couldn't find the paddle, I had to make the jam in my jam pan. This has the benefit of being able to boil 4 lbs of jam at once, but the blackberry jam comes out really hard, and no amount of research gives me the reason for this. In fact blackberries have so little pectin it should be really difficult to set. My solution is to mix the hard jam with some of the first lot which was slightly runny, thereby achieving a (sort of) spreadable consistency.
|Daily Bread
Posted on Fri, Aug 29, 2008 at 7:55 by Michelle
This is the recipe for our everyday bread. With the cost of bread rocketing, I throw this in the breadmaker most days. It is a straightforward easy sandwich loaf, which also makes great toast.
1lb Loaf
- 1 cup water
- 3¼ cups strong white bread flour
- 1tsp salt
- 1 tblsp sugar
- 2 tsp butter
- 1 tsp dried yeast
2lb Loaf
- 1¾ cups water
- 6 cups flour
- 1tsp salt
- 1 tblsp sugar
- 3 tblsp butter
- 2 tsp yeast