Day 21 + Seedlings

I've always grown some leeks from seed - they are so expensive to buy from the supermarket in winter and well worth growing. I had a fail last year when all the plants got trampled on when the new oil tank was moved in or they were eaten by pigeons - not sure which. I bought new seeds for this year and will sow later.

Then I spotted trays of seedlings outside the pet/garden shop in Diss and thought it would be good to have some earlier leeks too. They were £1.90 for these below which is much cheaper than buying from one of the garden seed catalogues where they are £7.95 for 20 plants.

I gently lifted the seedlings from these pots and teased them separate to re-pot as they are still too small to go out. There were 26 in total.

Meanwhile indoors all 8 Aubergine seedlings are growing but only 2 pepper seeds germinated so I sowed a few more..............and then five more appeared from the first sowing! I may have too many peppers! Yesterday the tomato seeds went into the electric propagator - just 2 varieties this year and both have been grown before. Usually I try something new and I do more different sorts so I hope there's no crop failure. Just Cucumbers left to do indoors now.

Meal 21 was a Fish Pie. Using a couple of small pieces of the frozen White Fish (which is actually Basa), I poached them in milk/water then used it to make a white sauce and added a handful of the mixed vegetables and a hard boiled egg, plenty of pepper and some parsley. Topped with mashed potato that I'd cooked up in the first week and frozen. With a little cheese sprinkled over before final cooking.

 Now considering I'd been avoiding mashed potato since Colin died (he loved mash and I don't) this was a strange thing for me to make. But it was the obvious way to use a couple of pieces of the Asda Value Range White Fish which were 7 small pieces for £2.50.

It certainly needed the black pepper and a little salt and could have done with more cheese too. But it was good and very filling which is what's needed if you are trying to make meals without spending too much.

Running Total £64.25 + £2.20 box of 8 decaf frothy coffees (up 20p from last week) for the end of third week = £66.45

There are two things here from the Value Ranges that I will use again, the fish and the bag of grated cheddar cheese. I've used the cheese for so many things and still some left, lasting much longer than a block of cheese (mainly because I'm not tempted to eat it by the slice like I do with a block of Extra Mature cheddar!)

Did you watch the little bit of annual tradition on TV yesterday? The University Boat Race is something I've watched as long as I can remember, always supporting Cambridge as it's just over the county border from Suffolk. 

Back Tomorrow

Sue