Hash a cheap meal

Another good and filling meal is Hash. This I serve with pickled red cabbage and mushy peas.

1 tin of corned beef
5 medium old potatoes
1 onion chopped
3 carrots chopped (optional)
two oxo cubes
salt and pepper
water

Peel and chop the onions, in a large pan fry them gently until they are soft. leave on one side.
Peel the potatoes and then slice into cubes about 1.5inches thick. Put the potatoes into the pan with the onions. Boil approximately 1 pint water and mix with the oxo cubes. Make sure that the cubes are disoved. Add this liquid to the pan with the potatoes and the onions and add salt and pepper.Return to the heat and bring this pan to the boil and simmer until the potatoes are soft, cut the corned beef into chunks and add to the pan. Keep stirring until the corned beef has broken down and simmer for approximately 20 minutes until the food is piping hot.
Serve with Pickled red cabbage and peas.

Cheap Homemade Burgers

You can still eat very well with cheaper cuts of meat if you are prepared to make food from scratch. Here is my recipe for good homemade beefburgers. I serve them with either mash, chips, or boiled potatoes and a veg.

1lb value minced meat
1 large onion chopped
1 pack of stuffing mix
1 beaten egg
lea & Perrins sauce / brown sauce
Chillie sauce (optional)
small amount of flour
salt & pepper

Put the mince in a large bowl and mix in the beaten egg, the onion, and the sauce. Add salt and pepper. make sure that this is well mixed. You now need to take the mix and make into small rounds (burgers) not too big or thick as they do need to cook right through. Each of the rounds needs to be rolled in the flour before cooking.

I usually fry them over a medium heat for about 10 minutes each side. Make sure that they do not burn. Once cooked and cooled down they can be frozen for another day.

A strange twelve months

Its a long time since I last posted to my blog, such a lot has happened to us in that time which has made me realise how precious our time is.
We started 2008 with high hopes for the coming year, a new grandchil was on its way and everything seemed to be going well in our world.
We had lots of new chicks which are in the pictures, we were well and enjoying life.
At the begining of May, a neighbour decided to complain about our fox deterant in our field were are chickens lived, and he did this by shouting at us which was very upsetting for us and for my elderly mother. Three days later my mum had a stroke and passed away. Then as we had removed the fox deterant to keep our neighbour happy ( a real towny) all our chickens were killed by the fox. By the end of June I was living in a daze, a bit of happiness came when we became grandparents again, swiftly followed by our cat being run over and killed.
When September came we could see that there were signs of recession and so I tried to get a job as our money was not going as far as it was. lots of interviews, second intyerviews, but by now we were in recession and I still feel that my age was not helping. In the end, we could no longer afford the petrol to keep going for interviews.
By November our little cottage started to need major work, which the landlords agents new about but did nothing. Very depressing.
Christmas 2008 and the ceiling fell in in one bedroom. We had had enough.

January 2009 and we were looking in earnest for a new home nearer our family. It was not easy as we had horses, dogs, cats and four chickens to move.

Fate played our hand and we found a farm in February where we could put our horses, and were also offered a cottage. We jumped at this and moved in in March

The last few months have been about sorting out, but now we are in July and I shall be updating my blog on a regular basis

A Good Crumble

If you are like us and enjoy a good old fashioned crumble then try the following recipe. Always keep half fat to flour.

16 ozs self raising flour
8 ozs margarine or butter
2 ozs caster sugar ( this can be increased or decreased according to taste)
pinch of salt

Mix together the flour and the salt and then rub in the fat until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs. Add the sugar to this mix and then spoon over the filling of your choice.
Bake and then sit back and enjoy

here they come!

The eggs have started to hatch, as I write this thread three of the eggs have now hatched and the little chickens have been placed in the brooder unit that we have made. so far so good.

Who's Who

We have 14 chickens mainly ex battery, they have been with us a while now, we also have two leghorns, two black rocks and a welsummer, they are laying very well. We have Thomas our Rooster he is a White Star We also have a trio of Yokahammas. With the exception of the Yokohammas the rest free range our field but go away at night.