The googlygags'll get you fairy

Every years for the past few years we have made 'Googlygag Relish'.
It started out as cucumber relish but the name got changed thanks, as always to something my dad said.
My dad was always telling stories. He was good at it!
DS was going to a friends party one weekend a few years ago and wanted picked up at midnight.
'Oooh' says dad, 'You wanna be careful the googlygags don't get you'.
'The what?' asked DS.
'Googlygags. They come out after dark on the fen and they chase you.'
'And what do they look like grandad?'
'Well'...and you could see his inventive mind at work at this point...'they have two heads so they can see where you are, and three tails and five legs so they can chase you faster, but only after dark, and mainly after 10'
So, for days we discussed googlygags, the great, mythical fenland beast, and it happened to be chutney time of year aka september.
And DS helped me mince up all the veg for the relish and he innocently asked if that was what a googlygags insides might look like..minced courgettes, peppers and onions. And we decided it probably was. Red, green and gunge coloured.
And when it came to labelling my relish, well, how could I resist? And henceforth it became known as Googlygag relish :)
When september comes round again I will find the recipe and post it. I may post it before if we find it...its somewhere safe..and probably covered in dead googlygag!
And just to show we do it every year here's last years....

I used white vinegar instead of malt as that was what was around. And it has monumental keeping properties...and adds a zing to everything! I'll look for the recipe...but its not courgette time yet!
BBS x

Stretchy sreaky

Look at the poor little pack of bacon from the freezer...I think it looks afraid of whats going to happen next!!! 12 slices of bacony joy...

4 little slices..chop chop chop..

into an omelette I did pop!!

Nope, forgot to take a picture of it cos I was hungry! Anyway thats 2 portions!

Then bacon bisquick magic pie for lunch for the next four days...Gloop goes in....

                           Pie comes out!!!

I only used 2 slices, so thats half the pack gone!
But as the chives are coming up in the garden, and theres lovely litt;e perpetual spinach leaves too...chop chop chop...

add some mayo, dollop of 'googlygag relish'...don't ask...I may tell you tomorrow!

warm diced potatoes on top...and a very pretty lunch for a hardworking fairy:)

Yum:) Tomorrow will be leek and bacon gratin, so that may be the rest of it gone...depends how mean I feel. But so far 6 portions of flavour from the little pack of joy!!
BBS x
Maybe with an explanation of googlygags!! And their relish :-O

Cardboard and springs for a fairy

I know you're all jealous of the vast quantities of PSB so i thought I'd tease you with more of it! This time I wanged it whole into the dehydrator! And gave it to OH's customer..and the neighbour!! And actually sold some of it too! As the sun is still shining its now producing a carrier bag of new shoots a day! Argh:) And as the sun was shining I had a walk in the garden to show you the spring flowers :D

OH made it for me years ago!! From old broken car springs, isn't he clever?!
And he also made me this...

My funny little man from complete car based scrap! Look at his little face..

Always thought he looked a little sad!!
On a different note DS decided to find his bedroom floor and so handed me enough recycling to fill the bin. Amongst the tins were some lovely pieces of cardboard..so..out came the scissors and I sat happily doing household origami!

Snip snip snip...and fold....

The joys of homemade FREE firelighters! They go up like a torch and would just have filled the recycling bin even more! I'm easily amused as you may have already guessed!
And this weekends best bonus?
I got to see DD on saturday :D She owned a pair of Converse that I loved..cartoon print that were more than I'd ever spend on shoes. I'd asked her a while ago, if she ever threw them away to throw them in my direction...and guess what????

I got new shoes!!!! I don't own anything branded as it doesn't bother me. (and no, primark is not a brand!) but I just love the daft pattern on these. She threw them out cos they were grubby! Oh to be young, trendy, with disposable income!
Thankyou Gogrey!! These are mommys happy thought for February and probably most of the rest of the year too! (needin a happy thought...its just a year ago dad died on friday :( and I'm a little sad).
Anyway..this weeks meat is streaky bacon...there will be a 'how far will the bacon stretch' post later this week!!
BBS x

Fairies night out

The sign of a good night out, empty chinese cartons!
And tightwad managed to spend a sum total of £12.95!

J2O is £2...half a lager is £1.55. So its cheaper to drink alcohol, go figure! This is me and Looloo :)
And this is me and her later..after ALOT of J2O...

I love Looloo!! She always makes me smile!!
Her DD turned 18 the week before so she came too...Isn't she pretty!! And so young...were we ever that young?

And the honorary girl....after many years of knowing us all....Is....

Jim jimmy jim jim jim :) Any ladies fancy Jim give me a shout please :) He's single!! And late 30's..and we've been trying to find him a woman!!
:D
BBS x with more sensible news!
And it was lovely to see my mates!!

PSB fairy

PSB. Again. Lovely weather, sunshine, making it grow even more. So, picking it every other day now to stop it from 'going over'. Which means theres too much for my little stall to cope with. Which means I replace the stuff on the stall and bring whats not sold in the house. Again. Another batch of dehydrated. And it works well as a flavour/colour in sauces.

This is what I picked this morning, stuffed carrier bag very full! Gah!

So for tea was more PSB cuisine..

Bisquick crust (2 1/2 C bisquick, 1/8 C parmesan, 3/4 C milk) no rolling, just squadge it in with fingers! 

Half pint cheese sauce, two handfuls of PSB and a crumbling of the summers dried tomatoes...bake for 40 mins @180...

Well its green. 

And with some potatoes and found amongst the weeds beetroot, it was most pleasant. A bit green. A bit PSB-y. But there, its another handful eaten. And its good for us. Oh goody.
Wanna see my breakfast? No? Tough :-P
Porridge...but...

Smart price strawberry jam and easiyo strawberry yogurt (on sale last year).

Pretty eh?

And as the last of the OJ has gone that OH bought...I can have grape juice:) Yay, home canned goodness.

I love canning!!

And even more I love eating and drinking the things I have out of season. OOh non seasonal things! Aint I a shocker!

Ok, I've caught up on whats happened!

Girls night out tomorrow night.

I haven't been out since last october!

I shall take pictures to show you :)

I don't drink alcohol so they won't be cheeky!!

BBS x

The fairy remembers home economics

This is the book I had for home economics when I was at school in the (very) early 1980's. No, I didn't pinch it, we all had to buy our books (poor mum) but the school still liked to put its mark on everything (and it definitely left its mark on me!!)
Notice 'home economics', not cookery. Mre Gribbon taught us everything kitchen. From how to wash up properly to laying a table for afternoon tea. Half fat to flour for pastry (lard for flavour girls and butter for colour). And it all stuck. I still wouldn't dream of washing a glass after a plate.
Want to know what school...and this is a good one...it should bring a smile...

Convent girl!!! Yes, beret's in the winter, boaters in the summer and sensible shoes :)
But thats not the point really, my point is we were taught to cook properly. Full meal planning...costing...

cleaning...

and even..mending!

After 30 odd years I still own this book, Still read it from time to time. Still makes sense.
My DD did cookery, so did my DS. Neither of them learnt a thing! Why does cookery at school now not teach children how to cook, budget and mend, in a time when thses things are even more important?
DD didn't pay attention when I tried to teach her to cook. DS does. He can cook three main courses, numerous light lunches, biscuits and cakes. And he helps with pickles. And jammin, and drying.

Guess the soup..well done! Celery!! Aldi super six soup!
BBS x

The Wheelbarrow is back!

The wheelbarrow fairy is back!! A tadge limited but back:)
And look, a male and female wheelbarrow...possibly doing a mating dance!!
So, what have I been up to, lets see...

Ah, the ingredients for 'what can I do with dried PSB'! Add some alphabet pasta (OH made the choice!) cheese sauce, breadcrumbs and parmesan! Gotta say it looks like pure stodge....

And it was, but it tasted good, and was another use for the dreaded PSB!

Then we had the biscuit baking moment. DS decided he wanted to make some biscuits. So out came the Bero book. Here are his hands, doin some mixin..

Now, keep in mind theses should be viennese fingers or rosettes. But we don't have a piping bag or any nozzles. So we used a ziplock bag with the corner cut off....er....

Ok so they are piles rather than specific shapes! But they tasted just biscuity :) Well, we found another recipe in the WI Book of biscuits (my bible of biccyness) and when he went to work I made him some special biscuits (after comments about the shapes of the previous ones)

THOSE WITH A NERVOUS DISPOSITION LOOK AWAY NOW>>>

We have called them 'spaceship biscuits'.

Anyone can see they are definitely rockets.

With shiny chocolate balls!!! Oh dear, I think I may be a dreadful mother!! But he grinned when he saw them and made lewd biscuit comments all night! And gave his boss one the next day!!
I can always find a reason to smile!!!!
BBS x

What would GGG do?

This is my Great grandmother Gladys, my grandmother (who I never met) Lily and my mommy :)
I asked myself what would great grandmother Gladys think of this world...I honestly think she'd find it shocking. The over consumption, the credit cards, the debt, the waste.
And it made me think of her life, the stories she told me and the things mommy has said.
Circa 1937 she moved here and the family lived in a wooden hut the first couple of years, no running water, no electricity.
By 1939 they were starting to build their home, themselves.
I remember noticing how grandmother Gladys would waste nothing, buttons and pieces of thread in matchbxes and tins. Paperclips and elastic bands, old stockings, in fact I think she kept everything ''at might come in handy''.
Clothes were mended till they fell apart, then they were remade into something else, maybe a pinny.
Then the fabric was made into quilts for the bed and finally became rag rugs. They must have been good fabric then, as some have survived till now, albeit with a bit of moth!

Shoes were re-soled, re-heeled, polished, looked after and made to last with Blakeys hammered into the heels. (I use them too :))

Nothing wasted, nothing taken for granted.
Mommy says food was alot of meat and potatoes in stews, mainly potatoes. And beans as grandad liked growing them! And the cooking done on a range and a parrafin heater! And chips! They had deliveries from the butcher, milkman, baker and I can remember the Corona man:) Fizzy pop was a real treat!!
When i was little, and I'm sure I've told you this before, we would go for walks looking for sticks, then have a fire in her bedroom, then she would wrap me up in her homemade quilt and tell me I was as snug as a bug in a rug :)

(this is the quilt, made of circles)
And she was only partially sighted! When I was older and she was completely blind she would ask me to thread a needle so she could mend her pinny herself (always a pinny, keep your clothes clean, wear them another day)

Grandmother, the sisters, and aunty i think :)
So maybe when I go to throw things away, or buy something new, maybe I should ask myself..
What would Great Grandmother Gladys do!
BBS x

Well blow the fairy over

What a vile afternoon, high winds and rain, and pictures of Britain on the news that remind me of New Orleans after hurricane Kattrina. Which in turn makes me think of governments that do little for months! Of countries, so much in debt that instead of fixing the roads they put up signs warning of substandard road surfaces, uneven roads, and speed restrictions.
Well at least the winds are blowing through the greenhouse, which still has washing drying in it, no tumble dryer usage at all since I started doing the washing again! Job #1 that the fairy has re-taken!!!
And guess wha else is drying on the greenhouse washing line??

Yep,used ziplock baggies!! Waste not want not remember!!!  A pack of 30 is 99p so thats 3.3p each! 6 on the line means I've saved about 19p already this week!!
And talking about saving I was most smug this ths week....I wrote my shopping list, £25 in my little money bag, and I had change!!!

And there was nothing that wasn't on the list!! Woohoo!! Maybe I'd just planned what OH was likely to put in! Or maybe he was scared to put anything in as he knew I only had baggy, no purse!! Sneaky eh?
Had a little Herman apple cake bake in the vain hope of not having to buy apple pies...

Didn't work! As the evening after cake was made 4 pieces were missing already!!

This week was also ham week...ooooh I like ham...

So, in the slow cooker over night with alot of veg, taken out to cool for tea at breakfast time, load of green lentils bunged in to make soup, ready to be zizzed by tea break!
So, one lump of ham. Six portions of soup, 4 for the freezer

Although DS did say it wasn't the prettiest of colours...

Tea that night with potato salad and tomatoes!

(really must adjust the colours on my phone, it wasn't neon pink!)
And 2 baggies of shavings towards leek and ham gratin over the next few weeks:D

Plus lunches everyday of hammy rolls:D
S-t-r-e-t-c-h that meat!!

And as an added joy this week, I was left two bags of books at my little stall:) What alot of free reading!!
And I fairied and worked properly!! Look at the lovely trays of celeriac I cut and washed all by myself....

Splendid!!!!

BBS x