The Last Day of the V.R.E

Thank you for comments yesterday, sorry I didn't reply, I've got  6 year old Eldest Granddaughter here for a couple of days - makes things a little  busy!

 Day 31 which I decided would be the very last of the experiment because almost everything I'd bought had been eaten!

 I used the other half of the home made pizza dough which I'd frozen and made a tomato topping by cooking an onion and the last tomatoes from the 4th tin and a squirt of tomato puree. Then on top I added all the remaining grated cheddar plus a good amount of the remaining parmesan and the second half of the mozzarella from out of the freezer.

I was going to take a photo but then thought it looked just like the first one I'd eaten so didn't bother again.

So what's left over from the things bought? 

Almost everything from the two pictures of stuff from the cupboards is still around in smaller amounts.(I'd added £4 at the beginning for the parts of things used)

Plus also left...............

Part packs of Rice Crispies; Self Raising Flour; 1 can carrots; Some of the grated cheap Parmesan; Half tub Gravy Granules; Almost all the Mayonnaise; Pasta; Most of the second cabbage; Few slices of the sliced wholemeal bread; a few of the Very small Yorkshire puds; some of the bland frozen mixed vegetables; a little coffee; two pieces of the frozen white fish; a couple of apples and pears from the last fruit purchase and  2 medium potatoes.

I'll come back tomorrow with more details.

Sue

P.S. A brief bit of pastry info to answer a question for readers not in the UK..........

Shortcrust pastry is flour, butter in the ratio 2:1 and water and that's about all

Puff pastry is pastry that's folded and butter  added and then folded again and butter added and I've never made it because it's easier to buy ready made if needed for something lighter and fluffier than shortcrust.

Flaky is Puff but without so much butter and folding and rolling - I think.

There are other sorts too like filo - never made that either.

In other words I only make ordinary what we call short-crust!

April 5th - The Penultimate Day

Thank you to everyone for comments yesterday. It's the fresh fruit and open space all round that I miss most as well as Colin of course!

Those photos from the smallholding were from the last two years but before that we'd kept goats and sheep, established the popular camp-site and built the selling side up ready for Colin's early retirement from the County Council, because for most of time he was working full time too! Have no idea how we fitted everything in - much younger and fitter back then I guess!

Day 30 and the penultimate day of the experiment was a pasty using the rest of the shortcrust pastry that I put in the freezer when I made the sausage rolls. I part cooked a couple more small potatoes, and softened a small onion and the last chopped leek, put in half the last of the grated cheddar cheese and some of the grated parmesan .

It made a rather(too) large pasty which I ate with yet more of the frozen mixed vegetables and a good spoonful of my homemade red onion sweet chutney.

Very filling and quite tasty, would have been even better with extra mature cheese instead of the rather bland  Asda Value Range grated cheese.

Tomorrow is the last day and I'll see what's still left and do a round up of meals eaten and costs on the day after.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

4th April = 10 Years Blogging

 My first attempt at blogging was on Wordpress around Christmas 2012 - it didn't last . Next attempt was when I switched to Blogger and began on 4th April 2013. I found it very complicated to work it all out to start with and wasn't helped when I couldn't load photos - only to find that it wasn't my fault at all but a local connection problem.

I  never thought about how long the blog would last but knew I liked writing and that's probably the reason for carrying on and still writing ten years later with no plans to give up.

Thought I'd share some photos of the smallholding from the first years of the blog- they make me feel incredibly sad for a life that's gone but proud of all we did to be self-sufficient.

We had 23 years at the smallholding and 8 years after illness forced us to sell up I still miss it.

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Meal 29 was the last chicken thigh joint roasted with small potatoes, a couple more of the very small yorkshire puds plus the very last carrot (still firm 4 weeks after purchase) and cabbage with gravy of course.

Back Tomorrow

Sue