Making Good Use

Thank Heavens for Pasta

Pasta has been very big in our house lately.  A lot of meals have been pasta based, and I don't mean the fancy fresh filled pasta - oh no, this is the dried penne pasta which is very cheap in Aldi.  Luckily,  pasta is a good slow-release carbohydrate and with a few tasty additions can be very pleasant both hot and cold.  It's a useful cheap alternative to anything involving expensive ingredients.

Over the weekend I made a tomato sauce to go with hot pasta, and very nice it was too.  It was simply onion, garlic, a tin of tomatoes (fresh tomatoes would be even nicer), tomato puree, a pinch of sugar, a good pinch of dried basil and some chopped up green olives all cooked up together until the sauce had thickened a bit.  I suppose in total the ingredients cost about 50p and it was much much nicer than any jar of pasta sauce, and without any nasty preservatives.  A grating of cheddar or parmesan on top and it's a lovely quick store-cupboard meal. 

Tonight is a tuna pasta salad.  This is another good store-cupboard recipe as it only needs cooked pasta, a tin of tuna, red kidney beans, sweetcorn and some cherry tomatoes.  These are all mixed up with an olive oil, white wine and dijon mustard dressing to make a very good alternative to a green salad.  It's especially useful in hot weather as the only cooking involved is boiling the pasta.

Another favourite recipe, and one I've cooked for years, is cheese, bacon, mushroom and pasta bake.  Simply cook up the pasta, fry some diced bacon and sliced mushrooms with some thyme, combine the pasta with the bacon and mushrooms, make a cheese sauce and mix with the above.  Bake for 20 - 25 minutes at gas mark 5.    This makes a lovely warm and filling meal on colder days.

I'd love to hear anybody elses favourite pasta recipes, as I've a feeling there will be a lot more pasta being eaten over the coming months.

Woolly Thinking

I'm sure like most of the population of the UK at the moment, I'm finding it increasingly difficult to sleep whilst the weather is so hot and humid (thunderstorms and cooler weather predicted over night - yay!).  My disturbed night's sleep has led to some very woolly thinking over the weekend.  In fact I'm really having a job summoning up the energy to do anything of any use whatsoever.  I know there are umpteen things that need sorting out both in the house and in the garden but I just can't be a*sed to do them.  Even the car boot yesterday was more of a chore than a pleasure - and that is probably the first time I've ever felt like that!!

One thing I did get round to doing over the weekend was to unpick a scarf I knitted a couple of years ago from some very nice Colinnette wool I found in a charity shop.  There was only 100g and the resultant scarf - although narrow - still wasn't really long enough.  Having consulted Mum, who knows about these things, I set about unravelling the scarf - took flippin' ages - and then wound it into skeins, tied them tightly, washed them and hung them out to dry.  Even in this heat it took a good 24 hours for the skeins to totally dry out. 

It's a lovely variegated yarn and did knit up beautifully (just a pity there wasn't 150g of it), and this time I think I'm going to knit myself either a beanie or fingerless mitts.  Although it seems impossible to imagine I'll ever be cold again at the moment, I'm sure the colder days will be upon us all too quickly.

Also with the winter weather in mind, the knitting of the patchwork blanket continues apace.  I had come to a bit of a halt, having pretty much run out of suitable yarn in the stash, but I very luckily came across three balls of just the sort of yarn I need - apparently it is double double - in a charity shop on Saturday morning.  That gave me enough knitting for both 'Flightplan' and 'War of the Worlds' over the weekend.  I quite enjoyed both films but was sorry that the Jeff Wayne 'War of the Worlds' soundtrack didn't feature at all in the film - a sad ommission I felt.

I was also very sad to see the total destruction by fire of the Grand Pier at Weston-super-Mare on the news this morning.  I have many happy memories of days out at Weston, both as a child and also more recently - after I'd discovered their charity shops were fantastic.  P and I always took a stroll to the end of the pier and the views from there were beautiful.  P, being from Switzerland where there is no coastline, particularly likes a sea view, although at Weston whether you could actually see any sea was always a bit of a gamble!

Phillums I Like

My Dad's Dad was originally from Edinburgh and although I never knew him as he died a few years before I was born, some of his obviously Scottish pronunications have kept on going down the family line.  My Dad often pronouned films 'phillums' and it's a word that tends to stick in my mind when I've enjoyed a good film - I think to myself 'Ah, that was a great phillum'  (There is also the word 'dobeying' for washing clothes, something I believe came from the Indian word for washing and which seems to be particular to southern Scotland - I still think to myself I'll just do a bit of 'dobeying' whilst the weather is good - somehow, in my mind, it is particularly apt for hand washing clothes.) 

Anyhoo, I digress.  I've been picking up a few videos again lately in charity shops and car boot sales and it got me thinking about the films I can watch time and time again and still enjoy every minute of.

1. Grease.  I picked up a copy of Grease last week in a charity shop and thorougly enjoyed it for the umpteenth time.  I know it is often on telly, but it's nice to have a copy that I can watch whenever I fancy - and which isn't interrupted by advert breaks.  I remember going to see Grease in the cinema (or 'picture house' as Dad called them) when I briefly lived in London in 1978.  It doesn't seem true the film is now 30 years old - where has my life gone?

2. The Commitments.  Another fabulous musical film, although a world away from Grease.  The humour is fantastic and still makes me laugh out loud.  And the soul music is amazing.

3. Reykjavik 101.  A very off-beat Icelandic comedy - half in English, half with subtitles.  We've only got a copy we taped from the TV some years ago and the first 20 minutes are missing.  Not that it really matters as the film is still great, but one day I should love to get my hands on a proper copy of the film - just so I know what happened in the first 20 minutes.

4. Witness.  This is another film that was taped from the TV.  Sadly, I can't find the tape anywhere.  I've even had a good look at Mum's house as she loves this film too but to no avail.  Goodness knows whatever happend to it - I do hope it wasn't taped over with some cr*ppy football match by P!!  I know it's a violent film in parts but it's the depiction of the Amish way of life that I love so much - especially the barn raising scene - and, of course, the always gorgeous Harrison Ford.

5. Working Girl.  Another one starring Harrison Ford, and another one taped from the TV.  I watched it again the other evening and realised the tape must be at least 12 years old as there is the Central TV logo at the beginning and we left Nottingham in 1997.  When my sister and I went to New York a few years ago we especially wanted to ride the Staten Island Ferry because it features so much in this film.  It was a great trip on the ferry with amazing views of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty and it was free!!

6. Amelie.  I've only seen this film once on Channel 4 one Christmas evening a few years ago and I was enchanted by it.  I wish they'd show it again and I'd make sure I had the video running.  Sadly, it's one of those films I never seem to find on video at a car boot sale.

7. This Is Spinal Tap.  Another video I've picked up recently.  I've seen this film loads of times and it never fails to make me laugh.  Although it's somewhat dated now in a way that adds to it's charm.  It must be the original 'mockumentary' - preceeding 'The Office' by some 20 years.  What I did find surprising was that none of the members of the group are in fact English - they're all Americans - but you'd never realise by their very authentic English accents.

8. Dirty Dancing.  What is there not to like about this film, I can watch it time and again and never get bored.  Great music, great dancing, and a very predictable storyline.

9. The Dish.  Another fairly recent video purchase but a really sweet quirky little Australian film set at the time of the American Moon Landing.  A gentle story with wonderful Australian humour.

10. Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  Just the best 'alien' film for me.  Not too frightening and still stunning special effects.

What are the 'phillums' that you can watch time and time again?  Also what's the worst film you remember seeing - mine is 'Electra Glide in Blue', the most boring film every made about a police motorcyclist and his bike - utter drivel!

The Heat is On

For the first time this summer I've got out the garden parasol.  Our back garden faces west and gets the full blast of the afternoon sun.  Until today it has been OK to sit out during the afternoon in the sunlight but today is so warm, and it's predicted to stay that way for the next few days, I thought it time to give the old parasol an airing. 

And after an extremely bad night's sleep due to the heat yesterday I've also cracked open our brand-new-although-bought-at-the-beginning-of-last-summer oscilating tower fan (see it was all down to us that the weather has been so cr*p this summer and last - I knew it was tempting fate to buy it).  I've given it a quick try-out and although I don't imagine it'll need to be on all night - the noise is a bit too loud for that - it should help to cool the bedroom down initially.

After a stay-at-home no-spend day yesterday I went over to Billericay this morning and managed to get rid of another £31.00.  That did include £4.40 for the bus fare (a scandalous price!), £3.90 in the Post Office and £3.00 for a rather nice summer top for myself from one of the charity shops.  As it is only a New Look top I could probably have got something similar new in their sale for not much more, but I like it and it fits well so I'm not complaining.  That is it for food shopping for the week so the only other expenditure for me should be the bus fare tomorrow to get to the car boot, whatever I spend there, and whatever I spend at the Sunday car boot too.  I'll be setting off nice and early tomorrow so that I'm there and back before the temperature gets too hot. And this week I won't be going near Sainsbury's either, 'cause if I 'just nip in there' for something I'll end up spending a lot more than I bargained for.

Half a Pound of Tuppeny Rice ....

The last two weeks I have been spending what seems to me an extraordinary amount of money - with nothing of note to show for it.  I tend to do a large shop every Monday morning so yesterday I thought I would add up all the receipts from my trip to the High Street and see how much I had actually spent. 

The total was a shocking £54.00.  Apart from £2.00 for the Anglepoise lamp and £2.00 for a fringe trim at the hairdressers (well worth the money otherwise if I do it myself it always ends up lopsided somehow), there was nothing unusual or particularly expensive purchased.  Admittedly, almost £10.00 of it was postage costs (not unusual for me and certainly not the end of my Post Office trips for the week), all the rest went on such extravangances as food and cleaning products.  And bearing in mind I had the Anglepoise in my shopping trolley as well, I managed to get it all back from the shops in the trolley and one carrier bag!!  Although the food will last through to the weekend, I still need a few other bits and pieces for meals so the spending is by no means over.  Also, as the weather is set fair for a few days, there will be bus fares to both Billericay and to the car boot on Thursday (and possibly Sunday as well), in addition to what I may spend whilst I'm there.  That sure is 'how the money goes' at the moment.

In order to try and get some income to balance the scary outgoings I've resurrected my etsy shop - so if anyone feels the desperate need for a pillowcase book bag, or a knitted corsage either click on the link in my side bar or go to www.makinggooduse.etsy.com.

Anglepoise

Last week at the 'Coffee and Jumble' I spied a rather nice turquoise-colour Anglepoise lamp for sale.  I picked it up and had a look, and soon realised that it was way too heavy for me to carry home in the shopping trolley along with a week's shopping.   That lamp niggled and worried away at me all last week and I kept thinking what a fool I was to have left it there - especially when I checked out some of the prices they go for on ebay.  And the more I thought about it, the more I decided I wanted that Anglepoise very badly and that I was going to get it home no matter what.  Of course, there was always the little matter of it having already been sold.

This week I was down there nice and early and was most disappointed when I walked in and couldn't spot the lamp anywhere.  Stupidly I had expected it to be in the same place as it was last week!!  Anyway, having got over the initial disappointment I had a quick browse through the boxes of books for sale when, all of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted the Anglepoise tucked neatly away under a trestle table.  As soon as I'd picked it up one of the helpers came over and explained that as it was an electrical item they were unable to sell it to me ('elf and safety strikes again!), but that they were able to accept a 'donation' from me for it.  What sort of 'donation' would I like to make?  Well, I was a bit stuck at this point so I offered to 'donate' £2.50.  'Oh no,' said the helper, 'I couldn't take more than £2.00 for it.'   So that was a nicely done deal.  The helper did explain that the lamp worked fine and that they had tried it out.  He then proceeded to fold it up nice and neatly and it fitted in to my shopping trolley a treat.

Back home I gave it a good wipe over and voila! it looks, and works, great.

Further to my annoyance with W H Smith last week about the cost of bubble wrap - and you would have thought I'd have learnt my lesson with that - I went in there again today to buy some envelopes and some thin plastic file pockets which I use as extra protection for books when I'm posting them.  Last time I bought a pack of 100 in W H Smith they cost £2.99, this time they wanted £4.99!!  No way!  I went straight next door to Woolworths where I managed to get 200 (two packs of 100) plastic file pockets for £3.00.  With such crazy price hikes I wonder how long it will be before W H Smith announce they are in financial difficulties?

Infamy, Infamy, They've All Got It In For Me*

Do you ever have those days when it feels like the gods are conspiring against you? 

After the total waste, of time, energy and money going on a fruitless trip to Rayleigh on Wednesday, I thought I'd have a go at the Thursday Car Boot Sale yesterday.  The weather forecast was fairly good, with no showers forecast in East Anglia until the afternoon.  I hadn't been down there for quite a few weeks as the last time I went ther car boot wasn't on, and I was pretty annoyed.  Anyway, I set off nice and early and was a bit surprised when the bus driver set the windscreen wipers going after only a few minutes.  It hadn't been raining when I'd got on the bus - I hoped he was just cleaning off a grubby windscreen.  Sadly, by the time I got off the rain was pretty steady, and by the time I got to the car boot site I was pleased I'd brought my umbrella along with me as it was quite heavy rain by then.  Naturally all the sellers were hurrying to cover up their tables or to pack their things away in the car.  I did manage to pick up a few books but that was all. 

Never mind, I thought, I'll have a wander around Sainsbury's as I needed to get one or two items.  Yee gads!  I don't suppose I'd been into Sainsbury's for a couple of months and their prices had most certainly gone up.  This was a one-stop example of rocketing food prices - scary, scary, scary!

On a much more positive note, my bubble wrap arrived very promptly from ebay this morning.  I'm mucho impressed.  The pathetically small roll on the left was £2.99 from W H Smiths and the HUGE roll on the right was £6.59 with free postage.

*To be read in your bestest Kenneth Williams 'Ooh Matron' voice!

The Dutch House - and a Bit of Moaning!

This pretty little thatched house - the Dutch House at Rayleigh - has been featured on the news this last week as apparently it is the smallest and oldest council house in the UK, and is now up for rent again.  Seeing it featured on the telly made think about popping over to Rayleigh as I hadn't been there since last autumn.

As I wanted to take a photo of the Dutch House I went by train and had my annual cardio-vascular work-out by walking up Crown Hill to the town centre.  Sadly for the Dutch House, it is situated right on Crown Hill which is an extremely busy main road.  Although the house looks so pretty in the photo, right behind me was a thundering line of traffic - cars, buses and lorries - heading both up and down the hlll.

Anyway, with my photo satisfactorily taken, I headed up to the High Street keenly anticipateing a wander around the only decent charity shop in Rayleigh - the Salvation Army.  My face must have been a study as I got closer and realised the shop had closed down.  A few choice swear words followed but I went over to the other side of the road and checked out some of the other - very expensive - charity shops.  What a total waste of time, I swear I could have bought clothes new in the sales cheaper than some of the prices those charity shops were charging.  If they don't start readjusting their prices I wonder if we'll start seeing charity shops going out of business during the economic downturn.  (I don't think that's what happened with the Salvation Army - I suspect the lease was up on the shop they were using - as their prices were always very competitive.)   Sadly, I can't see me going over to Rayleigh again any time soon as now the Sally Army have gone there is nothing left worth going there for.

It Costs How Much?

More years ago than I care to remember - when I was a mere strip of a girl, I spent the summer on the West Coast of America.  I rarely seemed to encounter other English people whilst I was there, and the most memorable occasion was when I was in Las Vegas waiting in a queue to enquire about the price of flights over the Grand Canyon.  Suddenly, from the front of the queue, a loud Northern voice rang out - 'It Costs How Much?'  I don't remember how much the flights were but I do know they were too expensive for me to take, and presumably too expensive for the chap with the broad Mancunian accent too. 

Yesterday, in W H Smith's, I had the great urge to utter those words 'It Costs How Much?' myself.  I'd bought a daily paper, a large bar of Cadbury's chocolate (on special half-price offer), and a 3 metre roll of bubble wrap.  The bill was almost £5.00.  When I checked the receipt the bubble wrap had cost £2.99.  I went back to the unusually quiet check-out and enquired if the bubble wrap had gone up - apparently it had!!  I'm not sure exactly how much it used to cost but I'm guessing £1.99 or thereabouts.  To add insult to injury, when I went to use some of it this morning I found that not only had the price rocketed, but the quality had plummeted.  Right, I thought, time to find an alternative supply.  I had once purchased an enormous roll of bubble wrap from ebay and it had lasted me months so I had another swift look and have purchased a 50 metre roll for £6.95 and free postage - bargain!  It's not quite as wide as the W H Smith's bubble wrap (30cm as opposed to 50cm) but the Smith's stuff is usually a bit too wide for what I want anyway and I end up with lots of fiddly little bits of bubble wrap which aren't a lot of use.  And, anyway, the fact that it is only 13p a metre as opposed to the £1.00 per metre from Smith's more than makes up for that.  I'll let you know what the quality is like when it arrives.

Finally, apropros to nothing, here's a couple of little embroidered cards I've just finished making, using one of the transfers from the book Mum found for me in a charity shop.

PS In case you're wondering, they're supposed to be little mushrooms

Stockpiling

I seem to be making small piles of all sorts of things today.

I started off by noticing the frighteningly OCD style of piling up parcels for posting with the largest at the bottom and the smallest at the top.  I don't think I was really aware I was doing this over the weekend, it just suddenly hit me when I noticed the completed pile this morning - scary!!

Then there is the pile of Charmin toilet paper which I've amassed over the past week - it's been on half price special in Somerfield for the past 10 days.  If I could have carried in more I would have done but this was the best I could do whilst only having a shopping trolley to get everything home in.  Packs of 9 toilet rolls may be light, but they're awfully bulky.

And there is a growing pile of knitted squares waiting to eventually be turned into a knitted blanket for keeping warm on those old winter evenings.  Sadly, I seem to be coming to the end of my stash of suitable wool.  It'll either be a very small blanket or I'll have to start checking out ebay to see if I can find other cheap wools that knit up on 5.5 mm needles.