Wednesday 27 February 2013

A glimpse into the frugal life

It has to be said, there is something very soothing, almost hypnotic like, about stirring a pan of frugal laundry liquid. The hardest part (and none of it is either hard or difficult), is grating the soap. You can of course use soap flakes but they are more expensive than a cheap bar of soap. 
 
The batch I made today used up three small blobs from all the hand washing areas in the house, plus 1/3rd of a new bar. I'm not going to post the recipe or pictures as I have done so before. Simply put into the search box of my blog (top right) frugal laundry liquid and you'll find all you need to know about how to make it and how much cheaper it is to use than bought detergent. Chose the post dated 10th May 2012 for the recipe.

Here is the 1/2 batch from today, cooling in the re-used milk containers. The red tape is simply to remind DB that these need to be kept rather than be thrown into the recycling bin.


Yesterday I made two loaves of 'corn' bread. I use the word corn in inverted comma's as it is not your regular corn bread. To make two loaves, I used 2lb of bread flour 4oz of fine polenta. As you can see from the picture below, I am not very accurate at dividing the dough into two equal portions!

Many moons ago, I read over at Sue's blog 'Our New Life in the Country” (see my blog list to the right), how she had invested in an electric food slicer to slice their bread, meat and anything else she needed to. 
 
We followed suit, saved up and bought ours from Lakeland for the investment of £40. Not cheap by a long shot but it does save a lot of work and is now used every week without fail.

Thought I'd show you it and us in action. Each of my loaves of bread makes 18 slices, including both crusts. 

Here is the bread loaded into machine ready to cut. The first half of the loaf is very carefully held in place by hand otherwise it squirms all over the place. Once half way through, we use the safety tool that comes with the slicer.
Here it is, finished and bagged up. One to use, one for the freezer.
 

5 comments:

  1. I was given one of these slicers last year and use it lots for meat. I am particularly dense- it had never occurred to me to preslice and freeze my homecooked loaves with it. Thanks for this idea.

    mine's a Lakeland too- most impressed, esp with the way it comes apart for cleaning

    blessings xx

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    1. You are welcome, just make sure the blade is as far as it can go. That way, you'll get a decent thickness to your slices.

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  2. I would love a meat slicer as I never buy deli meat and would love to cook and slice my own meat. I do however have bread slicer - little rods stand up on either side and you put the loaf in the middle and cut the slices using the rods as a guide. Bought it at a garage sale together with a bread machine and four books on breadmaking for #3, that was 15 years ago; I dont use the breadmaker as much as the oven but it is very nice to have as extra. I invested in a grain mill some years ago and love it and it has paid for itself many times over. I buy big tubs of wheat berries and grind fresh just before baking.
    I love pottering around doing my frugal stuff !
    Might save up for the meat slicer although I have to be SO careful in Lakeland; too much temptation.

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    Replies
    1. I think they are available online, that way, you wouldn't have to visit!

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  3. Love the idea of using a meat slicer for bread. I don't currently have one, but I can add it to my wish list.

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