Low/No Spend Month Coming Up

 In this day and age many families all around the world have some form of debt and my family is no different.

I will hold my hands up and admit I am a compulsive buyer and my husband does enable me to an extent (I am currently getting help for my issues and I have a diagnoses of anxiety and depression as well as childhood PTSD which we believe these issues can trigger my "need" to buy"). However I do wish to make larger payments to get our debts down fast as the interest rates have risen again! In Feb the rate went from 3.50% to 4%, in March it went from 4% to 4.25%, in May it went from 4.25% to 4.50% and now as of June 27th the rate has increased from 4.50% to 5%. Thankfully my husbands saving account interest has risen however it is still under 4% interest though.

All that aside I have to talk to the husband to finally take on a low/no spend month, I have talked about doing it for ages now! So I am hopeful we can start this coming Sunday, I say Sunday as it is the start of the week and I really need to go and buy a few more balls on this really pretty pink/pinky blue purple/blue yarn as I am knitting a throw blanket that will become a Christmas present for one of my female in laws and I need to get the yarn that matches. All Christmas presents this year will be handmade!

So for the next few hours I will be trying to go through my pantry and prepping pantry and freezers (I have a chest freezer, a mini under counter freezer and of course the freezer that is part of the fridge) and make meals strictly from these and try not to buy anything food wise which will be difficult as both my kids have issues around some foods and our youngest is currently refusing to eat anything that is not french fries,nuggets, milk brioche rolls, yogurt and ready brek and I am at my wits I have no clue what to do if anyone that reads this has/had a child like this what do you find helpful?

With that said I only have roughly 4 hours until Shabbat starts. So I want to wish everyone a lovely weekend as well as a lovely week. Shabbat Shalom & Shavua Tov.

Thunderstorms.

 We have been having thunderstorms here the last 2 weeks (fortnight) & to be fair it's been thunderstorm weather for like the last month, ya know hot and humid.

Well last night & this afternoon was probably the worst I have been through! Thundering so loud it woke my daughter up, who came into our room not only scared but needing the bathroom. She refused to go by herself and wanted me to go with her and once back in her room ended up sleeping next to her little brother. To be fair the storm was on top of us and it made the house quiver on a few thunderclaps, the quivering of the house woke me up as well however I sleep with in the ear phones in and of all things I listen to a thunderstorm track to go to sleep. I honestly thought at first it was my husband tossing and turning, but no it was the storm right on top of us and we had to scramble to close all the windows as it started to pour!

This afternoon was quite the sight and sound as well, I was having a bit of a lay down when I decided to check my weather app followed by looking out the window and found it not only started to rain but the chickens had been let out of their run and the rabbits needed their plastic sheet placed back over the front to stop them rain from getting in. So I rushed out covered the rabbits and got the chickens back in their run and just started walking through the gate into my raised garden bed when I decided to look up to the sky  to the front of our house and the next thing I knew I was blinded by a bright flash and then was quickly left with ringing ears after a thunderclap that followed.

The road in front of our house was practically flooded and the side walk on the other side of the street was underwater within a few minutes as the rain started to come down in fast & heavy sheets.

So to sum it up, in the last 24 hours my part of the East Midlands has had some of the loudest thunderclaps I have ever heard  and some of the prettiest lighting flashes I have ever seen. It has also caused flooding in some places and even knocked out power to the village next to us.

Little bit about my journey on raising chickens plus pros and cons

So I have had chickens since around May 2017, I started off with 6 hens from Meadow I do recommend them as they are very nice and they have a good selection of chicken breeds available (not affiliated with them). I decided in June of 2017 that I wanted to try hatching out my own chicks, so we bought one of the smaller brinsea incubators. I personally do not recommend brinsea incubators I never had a good hatch rate with their incubators or any incubator that is similar in design to theirs, I believe it is really down to the design as about half of it is clear plastic. I do however recommend Heka Brutgerate incubators I have had their Heka format 90 egg incubator since I believe 2018, yes it is way more expensive then the basic brinsea but the hatch rates are 90%+ for me and was worth it so if your interested please visit their ebay store Heka or you can visit their official site Heka they are in my honest opinion worth the money.

I did breed my own chickens for the 2018 season but did stop breeding my own chickens before the 2019 season due to issues with a neighbour who did have mental, emotional and physical health issues. Very long story shot and also trying to keep it a bit vague I did become a target for the neighbours harassment and it really messed with my own mental, emotional and physical health as they were not just verbally abusive but used our local council and the local RSPCA as a form of harassment, they did eventually stop as I believe they may have been told to stop. Unfortunately Covid-19 hit and the lock-downs came in place and once again we had to deal with the neighbour and then the local police thankfully they were nice and understood the issue once explained to them sadly by that point the neighbours health had really declined and they did sadly pass on, I do not blame the neighbour for their craziness I do however blame the health system and local government for failing to make sure they got treatment. However keep my story in mind as this is a possible con if you have chickens, if you live in the UK make sure you are doing everything possible to keep your flock in good health and are following what guidelines are set out by local and country wide government offices.

Last year (2022) I hatched out a few chickens to give us hopefully a few new hens over half were roosters (cockerels) the extras were processed later. As many know the last year has been rough in some aspects for certain food items so my husband and I made the decision to go ahead and breed from our existing hens and try to get new hens as all of our hens save for the 5 hens born in 2022 are 5+ years old so we need new hens. April of this year (2023) I put a trial run of 53 eggs into my incubator in the end I had 44 hatch and 43 survived. Now at that point I did have 5 roosters running with my 25 hens, yes to many roosters to few hens I know, I know that has now been fixed and I have 2 roosters which I will not go above 2 roosters with my flock in the future. But because I had so many males chances are there is going to be a good gene pool so I should not really have to worry too much for at least one season maybe two to which I can then get a new rooster the for the following season although from my understanding inbreeding/line breeding etc does not have issues until 5-7 generations in still reading up on that.But I now have a second hatch going on as I type this out in fact 3 have hatched before my estimated hatch date by 3 days at least! At the time of posting this we have had 15 hatch, sadly I found one had died at some point after piping and so I pulled it and found it did not absorb it's yolk.

Now there are pros and cons to having chickens from a small 4-6 bird flock to a much larger flock depending on where you are and the size of your property etc. These are just my pros and cons that I can currently think of.

Now the pros are:

You get eggs, you don't have to worry about if the store has any because your hens will give you eggs.. Well as long as you feed them!

You have a meat source, if things get a little rough you could always process your less productive hen. I have not personally done this to any of my hens at this moment in time but who knows maybe down the line I will.

You could use their feathers in pillows,blankets, coats etc if you process your own chickens and want to keep their feathers. I have not done this yet but I think I might in the future.

You can make Schmaltz (rendered chicken fat) and you can have the yummy crispy chicken skin after. This is something I do plan to do and maybe see if I can maybe pressure can the Schmaltz for later use.

They are amusing especially when digging around and one finds a worm and gets excited.

They are a good way to introduce kids to livestock in my humble opinion.

Cons:

You might have a neighbour that doesn't like chickens or any animal on your property.

Red mites! You will get them, don't think you won't. Put together a red mite kit!

Feather plucking and or a rooster's favourite hen. It's going to happen so don't think it won't because it will, so you will need to make a feather plucking and or favourite hen first aid kit. In case of straight up feather plucking you should look into chicken blinders to help reduce the issue before straight up culling. As for the favourite hen you can also try chicken saddles, I personally have found them a bit hard to get on and keep on and my girls did not get on with them.

They can destroy a garden in a day or less depending on size, I did find this out the hard way with only 10 chickens. So I very much recommend a coop & run combo that gives them the ability to graze off a portion of any space you decide is for them. I get if you want to free range your chickens but with the H5N1 avian influenza, I personally would not risk my flock right now as I do depend on my flock for eggs for my immediate family as well as some of my extended family.

That is all I can think of right now I will be posting more blogs about my chickens and maybe even make a list of UK items for those in the UK looking to keep chickens. Oh and before I forget I do recommend joining Backyard Chickens they have a lot of helpful people that have been keeping, hatching, raising etc chickens, ducks, geese etc they are a wonderful forum to join even I am on it.

Baking something up (with recipes & a few pictures)

The last two days I have been baking a bit of bread, each loaf has been baked in my new pullman loaf tin which I love the shape of. But I of course will still use my bread machine if I need my bread in 2 hours or less or if I need 2 different breads on the go with little time to spare! I also made a batch of french cruller dough to which it later became churro's!

I do suggest googling cruller or churro recipes as I am way to new to doing these, but below are the results before cooking as I completely forgot to take after pictures I will admit this dough was better fried vs baked.

Now I did try a recipe from Tasting History With Max Miller it was from his video titled the original pb&j from 1901, very interesting video and also finally found out what the square bread tins I have seen a few times were called. The recipe for the pullman bread is what I used however after watching the video I started craving apple jam which I can't find here in the UK so far. Thus this was my first loaf in my pullman tin it did sink a bit in the middle and gave my bread the look of having cat ears which my daughter loved. So please go check out Tasting History With Max Miller on youtube he is very amusing and has some interesting recipes that I plan to mess with in the future. 

Pictures of the resulting loaf from Tasting History With Max Miller *before and after*

The next 2 loaves were an "Italian" white bread from my Panasonic recipe booklet/manual, makes a great fried bread with powdered (icing) sugar. The other loaf was a challah, now I have braided or plaited challah but this time I just shoved it in my pullman tin for an easy sandwich bread. The recipe for this challah bread came out of one of my cookbooks titled The New Complete International Jewish Cookbook by Evelyn Rose. I do have another one of her books from the early 2000's and it's signed, it is one of my prized  books. The challah bread recipe from this book is so darn good!

I also made Bazlama (Turkish flatbread) from a recipe I found online and I very much like these flatbread's, I have debated if I should try using this as a substitute to plain old flour tortilla's for soft taco's or even as a pizza base! Please visit this link for my favourite Bazlama recipe. They are really easy to make I have substituted bread flour for all-purpose flour and much prefer the bread flour vs the all-purpose flour, also found it easier to shape the disk shapes of the bread with slightly oiled hands and patting it out and rotating while doing so. Below is what I managed to make, grant it not as pretty as the person who post this recipe as seen in the above link!

Because Mr Miller's bread recipe is easy to get to because of his video please do look him up, the title of his video and his youtube name are up above!

Now the other loaves are from a cookbook and Panasonic's recipe/manual as stated above. You can easily buy Mrs Evelyn Rose's The New Complete International Jewish Cookbook I managed to get mine like new second hand from World Of Books (if you live in the UK I highly recommend them for second hand books!). Now as for the Panasonic recipes well you can get the recipe book/manual if you do a google search for Panasonic  SD-YR2550SXC manual or buying said bread maker.

But if you don't want to do any of that you will find the recipes below. If you are the author of the mentioned cookbook or a representative of the author/ publishing company and/or represent Panasonic and wish for me to remove the recipes please do contact me via my instagram page.

Panasonic's "Italian" White Bread (If made in a bread machine it uses the basic rapid option):

2 teaspoon yeast.

400g strong white bread flour.

1 1/2 tablespoon olive oil.

1 1/2 teaspoon salt.

260ml warm water (you may need more or less).

It is very simple to make with or without a bread machine, you can just add everything into one bowl mix it and hand knead it for a few minutes like you would any other loaf (or use a stand mixer) once done put it in a very lightly oiled bowl to raise around 30-45 minutes. punch it down & put it into a small bread tin let it raise again and bake it at 170c fan. Or you could even just throw it in a bread tin after you knead it let it rise for 30-45 minutes then bake it straight after if your a bit tight on time.

Here are my results using a pullman bread tin with this recipe, It is not as golden as others but it was done also the top looks rubbish as some of it stuck to the cling film as it was rising in the tin.

On a side note the "Italian" white bread makes a really tasty fried bread with powdered (icing) sugar on top for a sweet treat.

The Challah bread recipe from The New Complete International Jewish Cookbook by Evelyn Rose *please note the directions are how I did it and not what is described in the book*:

Perfect Challah *book states it makes 2 large plaited loaves 12-15" long or 2 medium tin loaves. It can also make one large pullman loaf if you use a 34 x 13 x 12 cm pullman loaf tin*

300ml warm water

675g strong white bread flour.

25g yeast *I personally used SAF gold instant yeast for high sugar loaves*

50g sugar *or 2 rounded tablespoons honey you can reduce this down to 1 tablespoon if preferred*

1 1/2 teaspoon salt.

4 tablespoons of flavourless oil *sunflower or vegetable oil etc*

2 large *extra large* eggs.

For the glaze *you don't need to use the glaze if you don't want to nor do you need to add the seeds*

1 egg yolk.

1 teaspoon water.

pinch of salt

poppy seeds or sesame seeds.

Now I personally use my stand mixer to knead my bread currently, so I honestly just put all the dry ingredients in and give it a mix with a spoon, then I add the wet ingredients and mix it with my kneading hook for around 8 minutes on low to medium speed. I then turn it out on a floured surface and knead until and I'll quote Mrs Evelyn Rose *until it is tight and springy with a silky feel - as smooth as a baby's cheek! I then put it in an oiled bowl  and cover it with cling flim (plastic wrap) and leave it to rise for around an hour or until it doubles in size. I then either plait it and let it rise again give it some of the glaze (minus the seeds) then bake at 200c (around 180c fan) for around 30-40 minutes or until the bread sounds hollow when tapped. Or I put it into my lightly oiled/greased pullman tin let it rise almost to the very top of the pan and then slide the lid on and pop it into a 170c fan oven for around 30-35 minutes (I don't use the glaze on this one), after that slide the lid off an see if the top is golden brown (mine always is) if it's not golden or not as golden as you would like go ahead and take the lid off and pop it back in until as golden as you would like.

Below are both 3 strand and 4 stand plaited Challah bread's as well as the pullman Challah loaf.

I do plan on blogging more about my cooking and baking antics, If there is any recipe you would like me to try and blogging about my results just leave a comment or head over to my instagram and leave a comment on one of my food posts :). I do hope you found something useful in my blog post, also just a note I have no affiliation with anyone I have linked to I also do not get a "kickback" for mentioning them. If I were to be affiliated or paid to link to someone or something  I would have to 1 like whatever it is and 2 would let you know if I was affiliated and getting paid.