What produce/ingredients did you buy or obtain today (2023)?

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Having a couple of quick fry rib eyes tonight. Going to give this stuff a go…
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I've never tried Stokes..we brought in a case to sell. I was thinking about a brown sauce with dinner and decided to bring this home instead of going to the store for HP. Maybe that's why it doesn't sell well as HP is widely available here, also...smells similar..I am just dipping my steak in it..

I have a lot left over...How would you use it in a marinade?
 
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SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
Growing anything at home in the uk is a fight, we’re sandwiched between the woods, a quarry, farmland and the sea so wildlife is well fed and there in abundance, what you can protect from air attack you easily lose to a vast army of slugs and snails overnight 😆
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We only moved to Australia 7 years ago.
We used to grow most of our own veg and a lot of fruit as well. I really miss our old damson trees. They were wonderful. Damsons don't exist here. There are plums, some so big that they are larger than apples but the old british damson is just absent completely. My neighbour has something similar but it has no taste raw. You have to cook it for the flavour to occur and it isn't the same colour.
The biggest issue with growing anything rurally in the UK was deer and rabbits. We used to live on the edge of MOD training land, farmland and an SSSI. Wildlife was in abundance. The MOD land was a swamp/ marshland so insect life was abundant as well! Lol. Otherwise my childhood play ground was just south of Rannoch Moor, there and part of the lake district and the Pennines. All west coast.

We get something called slaters here. I'm in the cold part of Australia where it can snow and does routinely do to -10°C. I'll add its not the coldest part by a long way, but I'm at 900m so that factors in weather problems. Slaters are similar to earwigs and pretty close to woodlice, but they destroy anything that is weak and struggling in plant life. They'll strip a line of freshly germinate seeds overnight before they are strong enough to establish.

My parents had a second home in Tenerife (city of) but they've had to sell it because of brexit issues and financial problems from being stranded in Australia during the initial lockdown of Covid. They were over here visiting when all flights stopped. They used to down about 6 months a year at their apartment.
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
Oh crikey, steal his phone and set a daily alert, something like “if you love me you’ll water my tomatoes” 😜😆
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That's not a bad idea. I just wish he didn't sleep with his headphones on because lifting it at night would be so much easier! I'm just so glad I'm not on the UK for this operation. I hadn't expected to have needed both hips replacing before I was 50. I appear to be a few months older than yourself from what you've mentioned.
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
Anyone who purports to care for you must prove it by bringing real food 😆
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I have to provide all my own breakfast at the minimum. Plus the hospital doesn't do tofu (it any soy stuff because apparently people can be allergic to it, this is sarcasm if it isn't coming through written text, I'm seriously allergic to dairy protein, epi-pens the lot, but they don't ban that in hospital just what I rely on for protein), so the diet they provide me has very little in the way of protein in it. A serving of two of beans or peas is all I will get in a day from their diet. Hardly satisfactory after major surgery, but unfortunately I can't transfer to the solely private hospital into I'm moved to rehab. The 100% private hospital doesn't have an ICU which I need after surgery, so I'm in the public hospital as a private patient until I can transfer. So hubby will be bringing in food. I'm taking in a vegan protein shake to help with, but I hate this hospital but my surgeon is excellent and 2-3 weeks on a bad food hospital verses a life time with a new hip means I stay with an excellent surgeon. I've seen the results first hand with my stepfather what can happen when hip surgery goes wrong. His was in the hands of Crewe hospital and the NHS. It nearly killed him and left him permanently disabled. He had to sell his Harley and his various other motorbikes, plus their brand new camper van, and move home to a flat accommodation with no steps at all.

I'm go and raid the veg plot now. I sound have some ripe raspberries and I'm going to have to bully him into planting my garlic for me. The bed are ready, just need another round of chook manure and the cloves planted. All have rooted, but only half have started to grow. They'll be ready to plant by the weekend.
The apples will have to wait on the tree. The other pears will take a few more weeks anyhow and the squashes need another month or two. I'll wait until the vines shrivel and die back. I'll try to get a line or two of seeds planted. Not sure if I'll get chance. We're due heavy rain, but I might in the morning before surgery. I've not been told yet morning or afternoon, so I'm guessing I'm afternoon same as before. They appreciate we have to travel 1½hrs to get in and they want me showering with a special antibacterial wash immediately before we come in, so it looks likely it will be later not earlier.

Right, lunch time.
 
I suppose taking some Damsons back with you (for aeroplane lunch of course 😉 ) wouldn’t be allowed? I seem to remember Australia having very strict rules and even checking the soles of your shoes for signs of mud?!
Slaters - sound diabolical! I guess you’re forced into using pesticides?

So with the cycling, the upbringing and surroundings you’re an outdoor person then? That can speed up the need for new hips, my own are starting to ache (I turned 50 end of September). New mattress and yoga has fixed things but that’s short term. My husbands hips are wrecked but still working just aged 51 and of our two bezzies one has aching hips and the other has been told firmly he needs both doing now at only 49 years old. Perhaps there was something in the water for our generation?!

Sorry to hear about your stepfathers experience, it’s awful when it goes wrong. I suppose ultimately if he hadn’t gone for the hip replacement he would have ended up having to sell those things and moving to a flat but that’s small comfort when your expecting the very opposite outcome.

Large ops are always a frightening prospect because we have the risks so clearly spelt out and we want to know our outcome. After weighing up those risks n benefits and deciding to go for it I find it best to focus on the real life stats. That is that the vast majority of operation are routine and don’t have complications.

The hospitals food policies sound mad. Do they have a nutritionist? In the UK (in theory 🙄) if your a long stay and someone’s dietary requirements are complicated a nutritionist will write a plan of how to get you enough nutrients.

Shame the place in Tenerife I had to go, Covid caused some very hard decisions to be made by a lot of us and a lot of those we had no real choice in.

Finding ambient longlife dairy free vegan foods is a task in itself (I carry half a pantry in my panniers just being coeliac) so good luck with the op and getting proper food brought in!
May the force be with you!
 
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
I suppose taking some Damsons back with you (for aeroplane lunch of course 😉 ) wouldn’t be allowed? I seem to remember Australia having very strict rules and even checking the soles of your shoes for signs of mud?!
Slaters - sound diabolical! I guess you’re forced into using pesticides?

So with the cycling, the upbringing and surroundings you’re an outdoor person then? That can speed up the need for new hips, my own are starting to ache (I turned 50 end of September). New mattress and yoga has fixed things but that’s short term. My husbands hips are wrecked but still working just aged 51 and of our two bezzies one has aching hips and the other has been told firmly he needs both doing now at only 49 years old. Perhaps there was something in the water for our generation?!

Sorry to hear about your stepfathers experience, it’s awful when it goes wrong. I suppose ultimately if he hadn’t gone for the hip replacement he would have ended up having to sell those things and moving to a flat but that’s small comfort when your expecting the very opposite outcome.

Large ops are always a frightening prospect because we have the risks so clearly spelt out and we want to know our outcome. After weighing up those risks n benefits and deciding to go for it I find it best to focus on the real life stats. That is that the vast majority of operation are routine and don’t have complications.

The hospitals food policies sound mad. Do they have a nutritionist? In the UK (in theory 🙄) if your a long stay and someone’s dietary requirements are complicated a nutritionist will write a plan of how to get you enough nutrients.

Shame the place in Tenerife I had to go, Covid caused some very hard decisions to be made by a lot of us and a lot of those we had no real choice in.

Finding ambient longlife dairy free vegan foods is a task in itself (I carry half a pantry in my panniers just being coeliac) so good luck with the op and getting proper food brought in!
May the force be with you!
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Thanks yes we're outdoor people. Every holiday was our hiking/ mountaineering camping wild and so on. We thought nothing of a 12 mile walk on the common after evening meal 3 or 4 times a week. Covering 25-30 miles a day, every day 6 days out of 7 was normal for a holiday, often carrying a full pack. I stayed hiking at 11. When my parents said no to taking me somewhere, I'd just walk it instead. Often 2-3 hours walk. Friends would bring me home. Later when climbing 6 or 7 peaks a day in the lake district didn't fill a day's walking, we moved north and then on to Scandinavia. Camping wild over Christmas and new year was the normal. We did move more to bikes in our late 30's but we both cycle commuted for decades and then on to touring etc. We also did red runs and occasional black runs on mountain bikes and a normal Sunday was 125km (so around 85 miles) and I had a 79km cycle commute by then (rounds trip) which I did 4 out of 5 days. I was covering about 1,000 miles a month until 8 years ago when a previously unknown birth defect made itself known and overnight I was paralysed in my right leg. Surgery privately in the UK saved 75% use and feeling (NHS balls up) but I'm still fighting to fully recover from that.

Both hubby and I were diagnosed with OA within 6 weeks of each other. Guess we were just too active.
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
Thanks yes we're outdoor people. Every holiday was our hiking/ mountaineering camping wild and so on. We thought nothing of a 12 mile walk on the common after evening meal 3 or 4 times a week. Covering 25-30 miles a day, every day 6 days out of 7 was normal for a holiday, often carrying a full pack. I stayed hiking at 11. When my parents said no to taking me somewhere, I'd just walk it instead. Often 2-3 hours walk. Friends would bring me home. Later when climbing 6 or 7 peaks a day in the lake district didn't fill a day's walking, we moved north and then on to Scandinavia. Camping wild over Christmas and new year was the normal. We did move more to bikes in our late 30's but we both cycle commuted for decades and then on to touring etc. We also did red runs and occasional black runs on mountain bikes and a normal Sunday was 125km (so around 85 miles) and I had a 79km cycle commute by then (rounds trip) which I did 4 out of 5 days. I was covering about 1,000 miles a month until 8 years ago when a previously unknown birth defect made itself known and overnight I was paralysed in my right leg. Surgery privately in the UK saved 75% use and feeling (NHS balls up) but I'm still fighting to fully recover from that.

Both hubby and I were diagnosed with OA within 6 weeks of each other. Guess we were just too active.
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Wow that is a lot of exercise mileage! Reckon you did pretty well making it to fifty! What a shock to suddenly lose use of a leg. That is one hell of an adjustment for a very active person to have to make.
I’m in the arthritis club too 🙄 it’s held at bay by being careful, I’m not quite in the restricted club yet but I see it making a beeline in my direction!

Maybe a nice mobike, scoot or trike would suit you both too!! You still get that outdoor fresh air hit folk who like moving outdoors enjoy that you just don’t get in a car.
Didn’t think I’d get to enjoy touring with my other half due to his pain from wear and tear but with a motor on that cycle we can. Just can’t cover the miles together in a day others would consider normal ie a lot more stops!
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
So, another round of dehydrated pears. And I set more going for hubby to pull out of the dehydrator tomorrow.

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5 trays worth.
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Is there a dehydrator thread? I got into it when trying to recreate food flask mixes.

Take dehydrated ingredients that rehydrate in a flask of boiling water and voila hot lunch with ingredients that suit are ready and waiting. Very handy for travelling when you’re tight on time, don’t want to eat every meal in a restaurant or have dietary restrictions that are often not catered for.
 
No pics, but at work today, the vending machine supplier was replacing the stock, and they always set the stuff that’s within a week or so of expiring out in a box for freebies, so I came home with two bags of chips/crisps, a bag of pork rinds, a glazed honey bun, and a Little Debbie double-decker oatmeal cream sandwich.
 
Brisket was on sale. I told Craig and he booked it to the meat counter. An almost 15 pound packer at $5 a pound. He also found a nice, almost 2 inch thick chuck roast that was on sale for $6 a pound. Our grocery budget got blown to he// this week, but that packer will make many, many meals.
 
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
The prices for home grown produce in Spain are very good but anything imported is expensive, simple beansprouts 60p at home, 2 euros here. Native fruit and veg is just lovely, taste great and good value. But like a lot of countries they don’t embrace ‘foreign produce‘ so if you want to cook something that’s not a traditional Spanish ingredient then you might not be able to find it and if you do it will cost a lot more than you expect.

Thats probably why I hanker after Asian food when I‘m here 😆
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Buy some mung beans and sprout your own. It's super easy and requires only a little time and water.

I decided to try sprouting them recently because I was tired of paying the high prices in the grocery, then having them promptly start to go bad and get slimy and yucky. We could pick up a huge bag at the Asian market for pretty cheap, but it's way too much and we end up throwing half away, and it requires a special trip to the Asian market.

I have now bought a small sprouter, but i started off using a quart mason jar. You just have to wash off the beans, then let them soak overnight. Drain, place cheesecloth over the opening, tie something around the rim, turn the jar upside down and tilt it, slightly bracing it against a small dish or something so any leaks will stay in the dish, and so the air circulates. Cover with a towel so they are in the dark. Then, twice a day rinse the beans, drain, put the lid cover back on, place back in the dish tilted and covered. I rinsed and drained right after we got up in the morning and again before I started dinner. They only take 3-5 days depending on how long you like your tails. They also keep well in the refrigerator. Rinse and drain them a final time, then spread them out on several layers of paper towels, and lightly roll up the paper towels. They only sat in my refrigerator for 2 days, but they were as perfect as when I took them out of the mason jar.

I used 1/4 solid measure cup the first time and the mason jar was pretty packed. I used 1/3 cup the next time and I had to be really careful getting them out because they were really packed.

The ones I sprouted tasted WAY better than the grocery store ones and a little better than the Asian market ones. They were much crisper than either. There was also no bitter taste like you get sometimes.
 
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Frozen pizza is an anomaly for me, but I had a coupon.

Kroger sent me paper coupons in the mail, and usually when they do that, they’re just dupes of digital coupons I already had loaded, but not this time.

Since I had paper coupons to use, I went through a “traditional” checkout lane for the first time in ages - it felt like 1999 all over again!

Can’t complain, though…paper coupons saved me a whopping $13US on a $133 grocery bill! :eek:
 
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