Burra Maluca

The soil at our last place was too thin to reliably knock in a post to tether the donkey to, so we made a round concrete block with a ring set in which could be rolled around or moved in the box behind the tractor.



The underside looked like this, just to confuse people...



The new house has a tethering ring in the wall.  We'd just knocked a brick out so we could put a glass one in to let a bit of light in downstairs, which used to be just for animals, and my other half is helpfully pointing to the ring so you can find it...

My other half managed to pick up a bag of chicken offcuts. Not very big, but certainly worth having!

I sorted it out and put anything with bone in to make broth in the big crockpot and the skin and boneless offcuts in the small one. Usually for rendering I add half a cup of water but this was a different composition to my usual renders, which are usually  based on pork skin and fat trimmings, so I added a lot more water to make sure it didn't all just stick. When it was cooked I poured the juices into a pyrex jug and left it to cool then put it in the fridge.

This was the result.



When the fat was as hard as it was going to get I lifted it off carefully and set it on one side to be used as cooking fat.



The stock underneath set really, really well and smells heavenly and is likely to be turned into soup in the very near future.

I went through the skin and meaty bits and sorted them out. The skin was cut into small pieces and laid out on a silicone tray to freeze. I can add a handful when I cook the next batch of rice-and-lentils. And then the meat went into a bowl.



Then for lunch today we used the chicken meat in with the second half of the black-eyed peas I'd cooked up a couple of days ago and added smoked paprika, onions and green peppers, and served it with some galega cabbage, parsley, and buttered corn-bread. Which went down VERY well!

Tereza Okava wrote:these are the cheapest beans we can get here, and for years i tried to make them in some way that the family would eat them.

This is the video I based it on

We both loved it as a cheap and cheerful sort of meal but thought it would be better with a big heap of greens next to it. Smooshing up enough of the beans to make it really thick seemed to be important, as was the smoky flavour. I cooked up enough of the basic bean stuff so that we can have another go in a day or two and make a few modifications. I might let Himself play with it to see what he comes up with...

I tried using some of the pork scraps to make a soul-food type black-eyed peas, cooked up in bone broth.

I think smoked meat is preferred, but this is so much cheaper! I did use smoked paprika though, and we had buttered corn-bread with it. I think we'll be having it again as it's the best way I've ever had feijão frade as they are known here.

You could always modify it by removing the basket and doing 'Ruth Stout' type composting instead, tucking vegetable scraps under the mulch in other parts of the growing bed.

Eileen Kirkland wrote:My partner doesn’t have any projects (other than ‘placate wife’).

He seems to want to read, play video games and do the bare minimum.

I’m not financially dependent on him and the things I’m asking him to manage I used to do for myself in English

it often seems to me that when I want to be in fix mode men want me to be in fawn mode.

I will agree that it’s not positively reinforcing to get criticism instead of praise.

I think if I set my real boundaries the relationship would end.

I love my husband, but I don’t need him.

I have always told him that I don’t want to be with someone who doesn’t want to be with me.

I use the word disappointed, but his apathy is soul-crushing.  

Him: Nothing is ever good enough for you!

It sounds to me like his soul is already crushed...

Eric Hanson wrote:I too like the paper role tied with jute.  What would happen when the jute burns through and the paper roll unrolls?  Would the sudden availability of more oxygen to more of the paper thanks to a sudden increase in surface area burn too quickly?  Would it matter at all?

I think if it did turn out to be a problem. they could be tied with wire, which could then be sifted from the ashes and used to tie another bundle.

I can absolutely see myself with a truck load of paper making up wire-tied logs and jute-tied logs in all different sizes figuring out the ideal amount of paper to use, the ideal tightness of the bundle, the best way to tie them and the best ratio of paper-rolls to real wood logs.

Then sieving the ash to get the wire out the next day for more experiments.~

I'm kinda weird though...

My son arrived back from work, even later than usual having agreed to pick up something largish from a store and take it to someone after work in his van. He turned up on our doorstep wearing a brand spanking new black faux-leather biker jacket and carrying three shopping bags full of clothes and shoes, some new but most lightly worn and smelling of someone-else's laundry liquid. Apparently they were a thankyou for doing the delivery, and I'm assured the guy is legit because he works for the council. I'm not entirely convinced of the logic of that and can only assume the guy has recently done a house clearance for someone, maybe a relative, and thinks my son is a worthy recipient of some of the spoils, even if most of the stuff is too small for him. There are some brand new socks still in the wrapper, though the used Y-fronts are destined for the bin because I don't think any of us are quite that desperate.

I now have a cute black jacket and an apple-green lambs-wool V-neck jersey. My son has the faux-leather biker jacket, a red Marlboro padded winter jacket and a nearly-new pair of Nikes. And I guess the rest will be offered around his workmates in the morning.

I look back and think that clothes used to be so hard to get, and now they show up by the bag-full and I have so many donated shoes that I didn't even bother to try on any of the pairs in the bag even though they looked useful.

It's a strange world...

I'm currently testing the jersey and I'll add a photo of the jacket if I can persuade my son to take one later...

Edit - worked cancelled so he showed up, though he's hiding behind his balaclava 'cos he doesn't like having his photo taken.



And me testing the V-neck jersey, with Rosa because wants to join in the fun...



My son says I look like I belong to the Weasley family in it, which I'm taking as a compliment...

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote: UK for United Kingdom was an abbreviation I learned from the internet (maybe even from the Permies forum), before I only knew GB, for Great Britain. Maybe you can explain the difference between those two?

This might help, or maybe it will just confuse you all even more...