We have a plan

which is more than these three look like they have?!  Standing around in a field in the cold doesn't look terribly strategic to me...

(image from dailymail.co.uk)

We spent the day with multiple cups of tea, some coloured marker pens and a big flip chart.  And we came up with a five year plan for the circuit, as well as an interim 1-3 year aims chart, and the best bit of all - some direction about what they want me to do between now and the 1st February - phew!

I'm going to continue to work with the smaller chapels in developing their fellowship and outreach in to their local communities but I have also been given the remit to develop the "family finance support" and the bereavement support work, right across the circuit.  Two topics very close to my heart, which I now have permission to launch into wholeheartedly - so exciting!  I don't want to go to bed tonight as I am too excited about getting some plans made, but actually, I know that I have three months to get this kicked off, so there is no need to go made tonight - but I am excited [I know, I already said that!]

Night night xx

Getting sorted

I've been doing my new job for the church for two months now, and I am so looking forward to today! The ministry team [two ministers and we two lay workers, and the admin lady] are having a day-long session today to iron out our aims and strategies for the next year or so.  Hopefully, I will come away this afternoon with a clear picture of the projects I am to undertake, and some goals in mind - which will be brilliant.

I've got about a 45 minute drive to get to the meeting, so I have that long to work on my strengths and weaknesses, which we are also going to discuss!

Will try to catch you later and share the outcomes....hope you all have a good day x

Vegetarian meal to share

Last night's dinner for the girls [I had to go out for a meeting] was stuffed pasta shells. The EFG introduced me to large pasta shells before she went back to uni this autumn and I have used them a couple of times. They are BIG and I served each girl with 5 of them last night.

First of all, I set a cup of lentils to boil in water whilst I put the pasta shells in another pan of water to cook to just before they got to the al dente stage.  You want them still quite firm for the stuffing stage, but not still hard.  Whilst all that was happening, I fried an onion and then added two grated carrots, a tin of chopped tomatoes and two cloves of garlic, crushed. When the lentils were cooked, I added them to that mixture and it was all combined together.  Smelled gorgeous!

I made a quick cheese sauce at this point.  I put a generous puddle of it in the bottom of a Pyrex glass dish.

When the pasta was at the right stage, I rinsed it in cold water to cool it down so that I could handle it. Then I took dessert-spoonfuls of the lentil mixture, filled the shells one at a time and laid them on to the cheese sauce in the dish. When I had filled all the shells, the remaining cheese sauce was poured over them so that there was a layer pretty much everywhere.  This dish was then put into the oven for about 25 minutes to cook through and go ever so slightly brown on the top.

There was some lentil mixture left so I popped that into a couple of small margerine tubs and stashed it in the freezer.

I served this with some spinach leaves, salad tomatoes and chopped cucumber.  It all got eaten!

I can't point to a source for this recipe, as the EFG told me the first version I made a few months ago and I have added the carrot and garlic this time around so it is evolving. If you are meat-eaters, I think it would work well if you stuffed the shells with a bolognese-type sauce mixture too.

Best of all, the entire thing was made of things I had in the cupboard, and it is cheap and cheerful for November's budget menu. When I make it again, I shall try to remember to take a photo or two...

Not in the party mood

Do you struggle to say No to people?  I do sometimes.  

Dear Sis is having a kitchen party tomorrow night and has been gently badgering me to go along.  I don't want to.......for all kinds of reasons!  I don't have spare cash to spend on what looks to me like weird food, I don't know any of her friends, and I'd just rather have a night at home.  Dear Sis is quite the party person, and has had candle parties, Spa parties, Pampered Chef and all sorts - I think I have been to one and hated it.  

For someone who used to sell Usborne Books, it sounds hypocritical to say that I don't like party sales techniques, but actually, I didn't do a lot of home parties because I found them uncomfortable, even then.  I preferred to sell the books on stalls at fetes and fayres, without putting anyone under any pressure.  It is always awkward to be invited to these gigs as a guest and then have the feeling that you ought to buy something - better to stay away, I think.  There are often a few people looking for the cheapest items on the price list to see what we can get away with buying for as little as possible - I know, because I have seen people do it, and I have been one of the ones doing it!

It seems to be that the stuff must be at the luxury end of the market, and that makes me think that it will not be cheap. In my minimum spend November, this sort of thing is definitely off the cards. 

The word is out

We have had the official notification and the Ofsted reports will be photocopied and distributed to parents today when the children go home from school.  

It's a historic result for us, as the school has never achieved this before - we are G-O-O-D!  

Good!  

GOOD!  

I'd like to shout it from the rooftops across the village and tell everyone - but I'll settle for sharing it with you - I am so proud of our team.  

(image from callington-tc.org.uk)

Freezer diving

In the spirit of my use-it-up and buy-no-more month, we had to raid the freezer to find some dinner accompaniments to go with the sweet and sticky chicken legs that I had cooked last night.  The veggie had the last remaining Linda McCartney pie in the box, and I found an abandoned bag of hash browns......the YFG had a phase of having three or four hash browns for her breakfast every morning before school, but although she still loves them, she is trying to be healthier nowadays.  They got eaten alongside the chicken and some veg.

And then there was pudding...well, UJ brought me some pears the other week, and there are some languishing in the garage because I don't want to add to the not inconsiderable amount of frozen stewed pears that I already have in stock.  I made two mini pear and ginger crumbles for the EF girls, and the YFG, who hates cooked fruit, just looked on as she was quite stuffed from the hash browns by that point!

I like to make meals from storecupboard staples that don't cost too much.  Spending today has amounted to £2 on two tubs of Utterly Butterly [the margerine that the village shop happened to have on special offer] and some orange squash at £1.25 for the bottle.  I've had a mostly stay at home kind of a day, so no problem to keep the purse under control, really!

An evening by the fire, knitting and watching Doc Martin, has rounded off the day nicely.  Pop back in the morning for some exciting news.

A new beginning

I do love a new month!  November kicked off quite nicely with a gloriously sunny day, once the mist had lifted at lunchtime, and I was able to sit under the verandah out the back of the house for a good hour this afternoon - and it was bliss.

But October has been a bit of a spendy month, so November is going to be a challenge month - one of those things I haven't done much of this year, but it is time to pull up the socks and tighten the belt a little, as there are things I want to save up for - not least another break in Sheringham!

I l-o-v-e-d it!  I love being in a town and it took me back to Cupar, when we walked everywhere.  I went for a walk every day in Sheringham on a circular route which I found, and I popped to the shops for milk and bread and veg, and it was fun, and convenient, and good exercise......perhaps I am ready to live in a town again after nigh on eleven years as a country mouse.  We shall see.

Today's frugal accomplishment was the using up of spare bread to make a bread and butter pud which the EF girls loved, with custard, for their tea tonight.  I was determined not to waste it, and it turned out well as they both said how much they liked it.  I also have to try not to cook too much of some items, like pasta and rice, as the chooks are not here to hoover up the excess now and it has sadly to go in the bin quite often.  More strictness with the portion control is on the agenda.

Tomorrow, I don't have to go anywhere, so I am going to get my unpacked-stuff-everywhere bedroom under control, and get the ironing done, as well as some paperwork.  A menu plan would be a start too.