Ds2 has just got home from a walk up to Roseberry Topping in Great Ayton, North Yorkshire. He has taken some great pictures on his phone:

This the topping, the highest point 

The view from the topping:

Its so beautifull up there!

This is my last menu plan for a while, as we are going off to Spain for our hols!! We fly next Saturday and we are all soooo excited!! 

 sat: curried parsnip soup and hm baguettes

saturday tea: green thai curry with brown rice

sunday: Roasted pousins with sweet potatoes and peppers

sunday tea: scampi chips and  garlic mayo dip

Monday: ready meals turkey and beef dinners (work late)

tuesday: breaded plaice with pasta and veg

wednesday: sausage chips and beans

Thursday: hm nursery fish pie

Friday: takeaway as will be packing

This is the hotel I have booked

This is my latest find in our local charity shop! It’s full of tips on how to live frugally!  I will see what tips I can extract from it later!!

My first call this morning was by the sea and it was difficult to have monday morning blues, as the sea was so beautifull!!

This is one of my favourite supper recipes: German Potato salad. My Mum used to make this and every time i eat this delicious salad, I think of her!

Ingredients:

boiled potatoes chopped

two hot dogs sliced

two vine tomatoes chopped

 about a handfull of chopped pickled gherkin’s

two boiled eggs sliced

a splash of olive oil, salt, pepper and finsih with dried parsley or corriander

Once made, leave for flavours to marinate into potatoes. Best eaten cold with a slice of fresh brown bread and butter!!         

Morning all 

I have been busy this morning preparing curried parsnip soup for our lunch later!

then brown off the cut parsnips and french onions off with some olive oil and a clove of garlic

then I added water, so it filled the pan, about enough for 3 portions of soup. I also put in one knorr chicken stock cube and a level teaspoon of  Tesco medium curry powder. Bring to boil and simmer until the parsnips are softened, then add all to the blended and blend for about a minute. 

Place the blended soup back into the saucepan and add some dried corriander and maggi to season! If you feel the soup is not quite thick enough add some blended cornflour and bring to boil slowly to thicken!!   

and finally Lunch is ready!

These include:
250g Mince - 50p
Mango-50p
250g Mushrooms - 50P
Iceberg lettuce - 50P
8 Sausages - 50p
500g Coleslaw - 50p
6 kiwi fruit - 50p
Cucumber - 50p
1 kg of loose new spuds - 50p
6 eggs - 50p
250g salted butter - 50p

begins 18/7/08 and ends tommorow 20/7/08

Channel Four News said it had seen an internal report for the company Centrica which suggested gas prices could rise by 70%.

Jake Ulrich, managing director of Centrica Energy, told the programme: “I think it is going to hit people hard.”

He admitted that gas price rises were likely to lead to a “potentially significant” rise in the number of people in fuel poverty.

And he predicted people would have to change their habits to deal with higher prices.

“I do think we will see people change their behaviour, I think people will use less energy and I hate to go back to the Jimmy Carter days in the US but maybe it’s two jumpers instead of one.

“I think people will change the temperature they keep the house, they’ll be more cognisant of energy waste, they’ll buy better appliances.”

Gas prices are likely to remain high in the foreseeable future, he said.

“The pressure is going to be upwards on prices for some time.”

And he added: “We’re part of a world economy and I don’t think we can rely on UK production or cheap gas, cheap energy of any sort any more.

“I think it’s a reality not only in the UK but in Western Europe and North America - energy is going to become relatively much more expensive in the future

quoted from Today’s Independent Newspaper!

So many bills are set to rise once more We do have gas central heating, but we also still have the original open fire place in our lounge and thank goodness we do, as the thought of having central heating as our only source of staying warm is frankly quite frightening!!! eekkkk!

 What with prices soaring through the roof, along with food and petrol I have been researching other ways of staying warm this winter.

I am seriously considering investing in one of these paper log makers

Thats the environmentally friendly log maker to recycle your waste paper into logs. To burn on open fires, wood burning stoves, chimineas and solid fuel fires.

Help to conserve forests, reduce landfill and save on heating costs by using newspaper, junk mail, shredded paper, cardboard, wood chippings, and wrapping paper as fuel.

• Soak old newspapers or magazines etc, in water
• place them into the machine and press out the excess water
• eave the paper brick to dry thoroughly
• The logs can be used as your regular logs and burn for long periods (approx 1-2 hrs)

ok, I am off to do some more research……………..

The Yorkshire pudding mix has been prepared, the carrots have been chopped:

We all love Yorkies in our house, even ds2 eats them,  which is quite something as he is a fussy eater!!

We need our engery this afternoon, as we are off to a car  boot sale  at Redcar, its quite a walk round it all! I am hoping to pick up some retro plates or some old fashined cookery books!!

The Yorkshire pudding recipe, I use has been passed down by my Mum:

8 tablespoons of plain flour

1 egg beaten

1/2 pint of milk

1 pinch of salt

Just mix all together, preferably in a jug, so you can pour the mix into the pudding tray.

Pour a little oil in each tray and heat in hot oven, till oil is smoking hot ,then just add mixture.

Bake in the top shelf of hot oven for 25 mins until crispy and they have risen!

even our black lab enjoys some yorkshires!!

I have been watching these retro soup bowls on ebay and I really like them :)  They look so 70’s would be great with chicken noddle soup in them!! hmmmmm