Frugal Living, Making Bacon results.

Well we did it... it wasn't an absolute complete success, but we ate it for lunch and it wasnt bad... the trouble was we dont generally take salt with much at all, and not in cooking ever... and this seemed very salty to us. It was edible though and we will defo make some more soon I just need to play around some with the mix.
I got the recipe from a thread on Self sufficientish , a website that you can finsd a link to on our 'friends' links on here . The forum they have there is an excellent place to find out all kinds of things you never realised you needed to know...
Right.
What I did...

I bought a piece of belly pork, about 12 ins x 12ins ... and washed and dried it well. In a bowl I put one large handful of sea salt and equal measure of cooking sugar, here its açucar amarelo. A sort of golden sugar... lovely stuff. I then rubbed the mix into the meat as much as I could, paying special attention to the cracks and crannies...
Then I folded it as my tub I had was too small, and sealed it in a plastic ice cream tub... and left it a few days, 2-3 is about right...
Drain the juice off and re rub. do this every 3-4 days for three or four times. The meat should go hard.. if there are any soft spots make sure you rub them with more mix. After around two weeks or so, drain, and then rinse well. Leave in a cool place to airdry... I put mine on a cake drying rack in a cool cupboard for three days...
For my next lot, I'll add a bit more sugar and less salt... I think its a trial and error thing, to personal tastes.

Frugal Living,. Making Bacon.

One of the things I really love is bacon, the Portuguese bacon is delicious... but for me with our limited budget, far too expensive to even think about buying, generally about 7-9 euros a kilo, but it is so good! Smoked and tasty with none of that horrible slimy white gunk that comes out of English/uk type bacon whenever you start to cook it... the stuff they put in that meat is disgusting... and I'd never want to eat it...
So having said all that, Ive been looking at ways to 'do it myself'... No, I really dont want to kill and butcher a pig... but the sheets of belly pork that is generally used for making bacon , I can buy very cheaply...
Ive found an excellent recipe on another site that seems to be working well, Ive had some curing now for almost two weeks. Hopefully after the weekend it should be about ready for eating...
Ive taken a picture and will take a couple more and then once Im happy with it... I'll post it on here and let you all know the results...
If it has worked, I'll have a large chunk of bacon ready for slicing, that will have cost me under two euros the lot...

Frugal Living - Cheats Baked beans.

Well to be honest, my recipe doesnt involve baking the beans...
I soak my dried beans overnight, we prefer a combination of white beans and the blackeyed beans.

I then cook them till soft, with an added bayleaf & garlic clove but no salt as it hardens beans before they are cooked. Drain, then set aside .
Meanwhile, I open a jar of my homemade tomato sauce, or Pasta sauce,(a bought jar of passata would do if you had it) blitz it till smooth with the blender, pour over the beans , stir well and return to gentle heat for flavours to meld well. Maybe add a little sugar to taste. Pour over bread or toast... yummy.

Beesa.

We get so much feedback about our dogs, and emails asking for pictures of Beesa , well here are some I took the other day, she's certainly filling out now. She doesnt seem to have grown as big as we were told she may, but she's still growing so maybe she will in the end. She's six months old now and we adore her, such a character, a real comedienne... Her bark is really really deep, her paws are huge, and she has an appetite to match..Bonnie and her are best friends and really love each other, playing a lot. They often cuddle up and generally sleep together.

Growing... plans for this year..

I hope to continue my more fresh less freezer plan this growing year. So far we've done quite well, considering I decided to do this pretty much too late in the year to get much in the ground for the worst part of the winter.
But this spring I plan to plant, all our normal main crops,
Peas, runner beans, french beans, yellow waxy pods, portuguse green beans for shelling , beetroot, carrots, cabbage, caulis, onions, courgettes, aubergines, tomatoes, peppers, melons, squash,corn and potatoes.
But.... Im going to try to plant in a more organised way, instead of the all in at once way we usually do it...
More of the a little an oftne type of planting, plus Im planing tons of different squashes this year as they keep so well all winter. Pumpkin, spaggetti pumpkin, butternuts, and chirik kiri ... Im sure I didnt spell that right... but hey... you get the idea. Also I was very pleased with the courgette marrows.. not something we'd normally eat. I just let them grow as big for chutney making. But had three left that I didnt know what to do with, they stayed green and firm all over the last 4 months.. I used the last one the other day , I roasted some in big chunks with herbs and put the rest in soup... well worth another go this year.
I also have the jerusalem artichokes in the ground for next winter... plus we plan tons more cabbage, this year they have been excellent but still not enough... I cant believe how much cababge Rick can eat!! The second batch of caulis I planted in July, have been very good, keeping us in leaves for soup and around one cauli a week... for the last couple of months.. and if I look after them a little better this year I hope for more... definately something we'll be doing for the winter...
The Grelos was a bit dissapointing, but I think the land where we planted itwas just exhausted... I need to rethink the winter garden areas...
Im going to plant and try to keep more varied veg going over the winter, especially carrots.. we eat so many of them... and I still have the odd one growing so the cold doesnt bother them too much...

Pasta sauce. Frugal Living.

Well as the weather is looking at giving us some of the wet stuff for a couple of days I thought I'd best come in and update this while I can, cos if its pouring tomorrow I'll stay home by the fire...
Well Ive been checking on my Pasta sauces, we made them last August & September, well Rick made the august ones as I was in Ireland with Dad. Ive been really pleased with how they worked out, a few people actually said they would go off, as I dont do all that faffing about with boiling the jars up after sealing them etc..
Well I can honestly say, so far, almost 6 months on since we made most of them... they are all fine and lovely... I opened another one yesterday and blitzed it to make soup for lunch and it was great, tonight Im opening a different batch as its a different flavour(basil & sage) to make a baked Pasta. And this year I have huge plans.... for tons more. I still have around 27 jars left of my stores so its going well but I plan to sundry a lot, make even more roast tomato puree and the pasta sauces too...
They are so handy for sticking in a lot of things for quick meals when we've been working...
Boil some pasta add some sauce, a grating of cheese on the top, a few buttered split rolls with garlic sprinkled ontop toasted in the oven... hey presto healthy veggie pasta and garlic bread... add a salad and yummmm.

I use it with a handblender for soup, add it to stew if Im short on fresh veg, add it to a few other veggies as a base for spicy veggie stew with rice... oh theres tons of ways to use it up...

Just in case anyone missed it before my basic recipe is ...

Im as big a pan as you can...
Chop roughly as many toms as you want ...a big glug of good olive oil, add a good handfull of basil or any herb you like, I use all kinds for different tastes..
I then add chopped onion, and let it all simmer down to a juicy pulp... add a sprinkle of sugar if thats the taste you like ...
For tomato sauce I then blend it roughly with the wizzer, and pour into hot sterilised jars. Cover with a layer of olive oil put lid on tight and leave to cool. Label and date.

For Pasta sauce I add all kinds of extra veg I have a glut of at the time, chopped green beans, aubergines, peppers, courgettes... etc... and just proccess as above... yummy...

Frugal Living Soup.Soup and yet more soup..

Im a great lover of soup, we at the moment are having soup of some kind every single day... its one of the most frugal of frugal meals you could have in my opinion.
It takes so little to make a nutricious bowl of hot tasty soup. Even what are termed as weeds from the garden can be turned into a tasty meal.
Nettles for instance... make lovely soup, picked fresh and young , added to a chopped onion a bit of garlic... whatever you have...
Also I like dandilion leaves with mine.. adds a little peppery taste.. very good for you too!
We are eating a lot of 'leaf soup' at the moment, Im such a frugal cook and hate to see waste, and we have had lots of cauliflowers just recently, their leaves are excellent soup stuff, they are so big and fresh and lush green... they are not as strong tasting as the outer leaves on the cabbages which I tend to use too...
I also make 'yesterday soup' too, just all the leftover cooked veg blitzed with the hand blender and a little cumin added ... yummy..
Ive just picked tiny baby cabbage leaves this morning for soup, I cut the cabbage ages ago and left the stalk in the ground and now I have lots of small sideshoots growing and I pick them for soup too, added to potato, garden leaves, garlic or onions its really very good...
Plenty of fresh homemade bread is the key... you just cant beat the taste..

Visitors!

We had a lovely day yesterday, Precurso from on here and her husband Mark called in to see us, they are looking for Property in Portugal and came and had a bowl of soup and a really good chat, actually we had such a wonderful time they were really late leaving and probably didnt make their appointments at all...
It was so nice to put faces to names and really spend some time with people I talk to but have never met before... it seemed strange... but we all really enjoyed the experience...

We then called to see some English friends in the next village and had a coffee as we've not seen them in a while, and recieved a kind gift of some Strawberry plants, they were very welcome , Id only been moaning at Rick the other day that our soft fruit area was a bit sparse and I wanted to build it up with planting some strawberries... but with money so tight at the moment I could justify the cost... hehehehe now we have some for free... the runners are tiny, and probably wont fruit this year... but it is something to look forward to...

We've planted the garlic, some experimental rows of carrots, more Grellos and a few Cauli seeds to see how they go...
Later today I may prune the Kiwis, as Ive been told mine will fruit better (any at all would be good) if I pruned them hard...
So as long as this weather keeps on...

Sunshine & Planting ...

Well its another lovely day, Ive checked the forcast and apart from the odd blip here and there with a showery day, its set to stay nice for the next ten days or so. The temps are good too, mid 50s most of the time. Im not sure what this is for you lot out there who do it the other way... around 15-16 degrees or so I think. Mild and warm in the sunshine, thats the important thing.
So, I have a packet of cauli seed , a packet of carrots some garlic that is shooting, and some onion seed and Im going to see if I can make an early start. All say they are suitable for early planting... So we'll see.
I so look forward to the planting time of year, its such a positive time...

I'd like to say thank you to Heiko, over at the Path to self sufficiency blogspot , who sent me a lovely parcel of herb seeds that arrived yesterday, Im so looking forward to making the medicinal herb garden this spring... We just have to make a path for Rik to get hermann up there to cultivate it...

Today I had a bit of a blow to my hopes of cutting down on buying seed this spring . I went to look at all my saved bean seed, and all has weevil or something in it...little jumpy things that look like fleas, and all are covered in tiny holes. They were sealed in plastic containers, so the little buggers must have been in the beans when I sealed the containers... Im not sure how to counteract this... as I dont know what they are or how it happened... The bean plants were good strong and healthy and gave an excellent crop, we ate them and they were lovely, so where do the little buggers come from?

Sunshine!! and broad beans..

Well its brightened up beautifully, the weather yesterday was mild and dry and today it dawned dry and mild and with bright sunshine, I went to the veggie patch at 9am this morning and it was warm enough to go in tee shirt and jeans... excellent... and the forcast is more of the same all week... I went down to our winter garden in the orchard yesterday and checked out the new stuff down there, the broad beans are coming up really strong, and look excellent, although Im not counting my chickens as we generally get this far and then still dont get to eat them... Ive been saving all the wood ash from the fire for them so gave them a good top dressing of ash to help them along a bit, such valuable potash...
The winter peas down there are not too bad, a little sporadic , as they suffered a bit with the rain washing stuff out and maybe rotting some seed, but we have quite a few and this sunshine will really make them pull strongly now...
My onion seedlings are coming on too... Im so hopeful of them, never having grown them from seed before...
The Grelos is good, we are eating it in soup at the moment... and I'll plant another lot in a day ofr two.. there are still one or two caulis left to come as well, we've managed one a week for ages... I'll defo plant them late again, to have caulis during the winter has been a great help to us this year and I hope to repeat that success next year..
The cabbage is still doing okay, its slowed down a lot but the next batch will be ready any time now... Rick cannot manage without cabbage...

Im so looking forward to this growning year, I felt I missed so much last year with having to dash back and forth to Ireland. We'd planted so much extra stuff so I could preserve, and dry it all, and I never got to do much, Rick had to give so mmuch away as he couldnt cope with the workload without me.... aaaarrrhhh .

Weather... and stuff..

Well the weather is certainly giving us a few changes at the moment, Friday night, it was howling up at our place, wind , and lashing rain, we often get high winds when the village a klm away gets a breeze, it seems to funnel up the valley to us, and buffets the house really hard. Its noisy, but I like it... if Im not going out that is.. there's nothing better than sitting by the fire or being tucked up snug in bed listening to the wind and rain lashing down... sadly it still seems to end up all over my kitchen floor if we get too much...
Yesterday, it was gorgeous.. after about 10 ish it was T shirt weather... we spent a lovely afternoon wandering in the forest with the dogs and really enjoyed the exercise in the sunshine...
Last night the temps fell drastically as it was a clear night, the first for ages... so it was quite cold.. and as we have no heating upstairs, the hot water bottles were out in force!
This morning the wet is back...we awaoke early to a dry misty morning... and I thought it was going to be lovely again, but then looking across the valley I could see the misty foggy stuff on its way...

It really only takes a few mins at most for the whole valley to be full and you cant see the garden ..

The citrus squeezing goes on and on... we are picking up off the ground around a bucketful every day now.. Ive given tons away, and we are now juicing the rest as much as a small manual juicer and a strong arm can do in one day that is... Im freezing it in those plastic ice cube bags, I looked into the best way to do it and there isnt a no plastic way I can think of... Ice cube trays still have to be emptied into freezer bags for storage, these at least lay flat in the freezer taking up less space especially as we have so many more to come...
It will save us a lot of money on juice during the summer, I'll just pop a few fruit cubes in a glass and cover with either water or Gaseoza and its a cheap fruit drink...

Staying with us. Menus .

Well our guests have gone, and seemed very happy with their week with us. so happy in fact that they plan to come back in March.
While they were with us they ate an evening meal most nights. They thought it would help our cause and increase our bookings if I posted on here the menus for the week... so, its worth a try. Hopefully It wont bore you all too much.
We charge 7.50 euros per head. And that includes wine & coffee.

So The menus were as follows.

1, Homemade vegetable soup with homemade basil Soda bread.
Marinaded Pork chops, Roasted Vegetables(potates, carrots, butternut squash, garlic and herbs)Plus Rice & blackeyed beans.
Homemade Lemon rice pudding.
Plus wine & coffee.


2. Homemade Minestrone Soup & Soda Bread.
Homemade fresh tagiatelli pasta with cream/mushroom and bacon sauce. homemade garlic rolls & a salad.
Kiwi &Coconut dappy with custard.
Wine & Coffee.

3.
Tomato/onion and Basil salad on fresh lettuce , mushroom paté wit toast.
Garlic & paprika roast Pork, roast potatoes, roast carrots, green beans with seseame seed dressing, cauliflower & gravy.
Fig & honey Pancakes.
Wine & coffee.

4. Tomato Soup & Soda Bread.
Pork with mushrooms and chestnuts in a cumin sauce. Green beans and seseme dressing, Boiled rice.
Homemade Egg Custard Tart.
wine & coffee

5. Cheese/bacon Garlic rolls.
Savoury Mince (soya) and sage dumplings. Roast potatoes , Roast carrots. Cabbage.
Fresh Pinapple with homemade chocolate sauce...
Wine & Coffee.

On the 6th night they took us out to dinner in town... and lovely it was too...
Well there you are, Im going to add this as a sample menu on our accomodation page too I think.

Frugal Living, Dog Food Follow up.

Well , our vet popped in to see us yesterday, he was in the area and called to see how Beesa is getting on, as he found her for us when we wanted a new puppy.
He was very happy with her progress, he seemed to think she was (and Bonnie of course) fit, healthy and growing well. I had a chat with him about our dog food ideas.. quite expecting him to be not really keen on the idea, as generally vets promote the hugely expensive sacks of the dried stuff. He was very good about it, and said that generally dried food... or tinned,  come to that is fine for dogs, but that our system was excellent, and as long as I varied the diet, made sure that they got a diverse mix of veg, meat, fish oils, and carbs... that our dogs would be and are thriving. He did also say, that for many dogs, dried food can cause kidney problems, especially in this country where its so hot, as animals need access to lots of water when they are dried food, and often dont get it as much as they should... which causes many problems..

So, we will continue with it forever now... the dogs love it, it costs us almost nothing... and is actually better for the dogs...They are healthey, their coats are thick and glossy, and both have tons of energy
Last night they had..
A bag of beef & pork scraps and fat/sinew/unrecognisable stuff... I roast it first, then chop it into small bits,
potatoes peelings, chopped small, cabbage stems and scraps, chopped small, carrots tops and ends, chopped small, and a handful of leftover rice . I cook the veg in a small amount of water, then add the cut up roasted meat and any leftovers and simmer for a little while to mix nicely, let it cool and there you are. Depending on how much there is, sometimes I sprinkle a handful of dried biscuits over the top, sometimes not...
On odd occasions I'll mix a raw egg in, other times they have fish heads... occasionally the oil from the tuna tin... all good stuff... Do these look unhappy dogs...

So, what do you feed your dog on... and how much does it cost you? Would anyone else consider trying what we do? If not why not... Im interested in opinions..

Staying at Living the Dream

Ive added a link on the accommodation page to our availability Calendar on one of our ads as we've had to actually turn down bookings this week, (as we already have guests) which breaks my heart.... so this way hopefully anyone of you out there thinking of coming can check it...
Thanks
Pat

Fog Fog Fog...

Well the weather at the moment is a tad strange... its very mild, at times in the mid 50s.. but the last two days we've not been able to see a hand in front of our faces. Now we often get fog here, the low cloud, misty morning type stuff... but this has been real thick, I cant see where Im going type stuff... and its stayed all day.
We actually have guests staying at the moment, looking at property in the area, and I breezily said yesterday morning....  "oh this wont last after 10ish... it never does"..  hehehe its still here now... Luckily they are nice and she hasnt held it against me...
But its making life difficult for them as they want a place with a great view, and with this fog, cant see a damn thing... oh well hopefully things will improve...

Obviously this has curtailed our outside work a bit as its a bit too mild to where heavy waterproofs to work in, as you just sweat like mad, but then if you dont, this misty foggy stuff soon soaks you through... so we've been inside, Rik now starting to go a little stir crazy... I am enjoying relaxing by the fire, reading and cooking... that is when he's not driving me nuts wandering around huffing and being bored.... His problem is he doesnt read.... he can of course, he likes workshop manuals and stuff like that... but to relax with a good book... no... he just cant and doesnt see the point... to him, time spent sat reading a good book is time wasted when you could be working on something useful..... damn Philistine!