Becca Jane St Clair

I love meal planning. And I honestly DO meal plan every week….I just don’t always post it to my blog.

Here’s this week’s meal plan, along with Tim’s work schedule:

Monday, Early Shift – Roast Chicken, Roast Potatoes & Parsnips, Yorkshire Puddings
Tuesday, Early Shift – Toad in the Hole with Lincolnshire Sausages. Probably peas & leftover roast potatoes
Wednesday, Early Shift – Oriental Turkey Burgers (making this up as I go along, will let you know how it goes!)
Thursday, Off, Steam-Up – Chicken Tacos in the Crock Pot. I make this everytime we have a steam-up, because it feeds a crowd and is super easy to make. Frozen chicken + taco seasoning tossed into the crock pot for 6 hours on low. I probably got it from crockpot365 at one point.
Friday, Training in York – I’ll be going with Tim as long as it’s not pissing down rain to wander around York, so we’ll be having chicken sandwiches when we get home or possibly frozen pizza. Something fast and easy, unless we decide to grab dinner in York.
Saturday – Steak and chips, because I promised Tim a steak.
Sunday – Chicken Tetrazinni with Monday’s leftover chicken.

So, there you have it. Things will probably change along the way. They always do.

[Image at top courtesy of I’m an Organized Junkie]
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I created a list of US items for my snack swap partners and people sending me packages to take a look at. If you want to look at it, it’s here: http://www.blog.beccajanestclair.com/what-to-send/.

The list is long, but I tried to think of everything from the US I would consider a treat to give my swap partners plenty of items to pick from.

Yesterday, Tim and I went over to visit our friends N and P. They live over the Wolds, about 25 minutes away and we always try to get together with them as often as we can. We like spending time with them, and we love their three daughters, S-l, K-m, and A-r. Matter of fact, A-r loves Tim so much, I tease Tim and tell him he has a little girlfriend ;).

S-l is their oldest child, at 6. She’s allowed to stay up a little bit later than her younger siblings, and yesterday evening she told me she wanted to read to me. The book was about going to the grocery store, and the first thing I noticed was that all the pages rhymed….except for the page with potatoes and tomatoes.

Now, in American English, we would pronounce them alike. Puh-tay-to, tah-may-to. But in British English, it’s different. Potato is still puh-tay-to, but tomato is pronounced tah-mah-to. They don’t rhyme. And makes the children’s book confusing as a result since it’s the one pair of words that don’t rhyme! Even S-l pointed out that it didn’t rhyme!

And then the rest of the adults pointed out how weird it was that in British English, they don’t say poh-tah-to….which of course, made everyone sing a verse of that silly song.

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I blogged about my friend, Miss M, last week. She’s had a few updates since then, and in her own words:

You can follow the progress of visits, current health, etc on my blog with my hysterectomy tag but this is just a summary of the situation. The full details can also be found here: http://giveneyestosee.com/blog/hysterectomy/

Memorial Day Weekend [Note to UK readers: US Memorial Day weekend is the same weekend as our bank holiday -R] I went into the ER after two days of non-stop severe pain. Many tests and an overnight stay later, it turns out that my uterus is full of tumors.I have multiple softball and multiple baseball sized fibroid tumors and equally large cysts. The total mass is approximately the size of a basketball.

I was on a fast-track for a hysterectomy when my OB/GYN discovered that it was worse then initially believed and I’m too high risk for surgery. High risk is 250 grams of tumors. I’m at over 1,200 grams. I am now on a shot to induce medical menopause in order to attempt to shrink the tumors prior to surgery. The larger the tumors, the more complicated and lengthy the surgery, the more time I will be under anaesthesia, the more complications and blood transfusions I will need. So we’re trying to get them shrunk at least half.

I work a part-time job that does NOT give me insurance. I also do NOT get paid for any time off period. So I’m already out two weeks of pay with many more to come. (When I do have surgery, I’ll be out 4 weeks in unpaid recovery as well.) I have already applied for and been denied financial and medical assistance by the state. I’m asking anyone who can help for your support as a result.

I need a total of $2,600 just to pay my OB/GYN, $1,400 of which must be up front before the surgery. This does NOT include the hospital, anaesthesiologist, radiology, etc. It also does NOT include the fees for the office visits and tests pre-op. (I’ve already spend $463 on those as of June 7th)

How can you help Miss M? Several ways —

First, you can make a direct donation to Miss M via this link: http://tiny.cc/hysterectomy. Link will take you directly to PayPal, the safest way to send money online. If you’d prefer, Miss M can provide her PO Box for a physical cheque.

Alternately, Miss M could use some help with her groceries while they are down to one income, and I’m sure gift cards for Wal-Mart or Target would be well appreciated! Or to Michaels, so Miss M could get more crafting supplies to make more things to sell. Miss M lives in Tampa, FL, so please check before sending other store gift cards to make sure she has one local.

Second, you can take a look at her Etsy shop, PhoenixFireDesigns, or her Website, PhoenixFireDesigns. Miss M makes beautiful jewellery, and like I said in a previous post, I have many items made by her including a Tree of Life necklace, a personalized Bird’s Nest necklace, snowman earrings, and several custom pieces. I always look at Miss M’s site first when I need a gift for someone!

Here is just a small selection of items Miss M has for offer:

Third, you can take a look at the items donated by her friends over on PhoenixFunds. Currently, there are some children’s items, chocolates, and accessories listed, with more being listed as they come in. I plan on donating some 8×10 photographs and a few pieces of jewellery this weekend.

Forth — If you are a crafter and would like to donate an item for sale in PhoenixFunds, please let me know in the comments. We are looking for anything handmade, as well as craft supplies and vintage items (basically, anything that can be sold on Etsy. This also includes patterns for things). You can either send your donated item directly to Miss M for listing, or email detailed photos/description of your item. If you choose to hold onto your item, you will be responsible for shipping the item when it sells. If you sell on Etsy or on an external website, Miss M would be more than happy to link back to your site as a thank you.

Fifth….Promote this. Please re-post this post or a version of this post, post the links to the shops, post a link to my post here or to Miss M’s blog at giveneyestosee. Miss M is also on LiveJournal, and can be found as memoryanddreamover there.

I have been friends with Miss M for years, and we have met in person several times. I have been to her house and met her partner and her kitties, so I can vouch that this is 100% legitimate. Miss M prefers not to use her real name online, however I assure you I do know her real name. Out of respect for Miss M, I will not refer to her as anyone other than Miss M on my blog.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you can help in some way!

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In the US, a new show on TLC has been raising eyebrows everywhere called Extreme Couponing. I’ll link to one of the blurbs for an episode below, but you can very easily search for Extreme Couponing on YouTube and pull up loads more clips, including personal videos by some of the people on the show where they give extensive “tours” of their stockpiles. If I linked to every single YouTube video I’ve watched, it would be a very long list. The show isn’t available in the UK (or if it is, it’s not on the channels I get), so I have to watch the segments on YouTube.

The show has been also raising eyebrows all over the blogosphere, too (yes, those are all separate links). Lots of legitimate couponing sites (again, google for more) have been blasting the show’s policies, including the people on the show using coupons for the wrong items in order to lower their bill.

The idea behind the show is to save as much money as you can on your grocery bill, by ANY means possible, even if it means buying coupons online for $70 or dumpster diving for discarded coupon inserts.

I love saving money as much as anyone else, but there’s a reason the show is called “extreme”!

In the UK, couponing isn’t a big deal. Every once in a while there might be a coupon for something in a magazine or through the post, but there are no Sunday inserts — most of the grocery stores don’t even put out weekly fliers. But every time you walk around one of the shops with your grocery list, you’re bound to find at least half of the items on your list on special offer, and if you are really pressed for funds, you can purchase things off of the ultra-value line, where cans of soup cost 17p. I get a little thrill when our total is shown as £58 and then the cashier scans our clubcard and the total gets reduced to £35.

A few weeks back, Tim and I went to Tesco armed with £9.50 in clubcard vouchers and whatever loose change we had in our pockets (well, and our debit cards). We set ourselves a goal of spending as close to £10 as we could.

Here’s a copy of our receipt:

As you can see, we spent £1.49 out of pocket.

I consider this an awesome shopping trip, but was it extreme? No, probably not. For one, we didn’t deliberately buy things just to get them “for free”, and in fact we added the Red Leicester cheese and the Lighter Cheese (on an offer 2/£3) just so we would definitely spend more than our vouchers.

But take a look at some of the other things we purchased:

Wholemeal Bread 47p
Tinned Pineapple 43p
Chocolate Hazelnut Spread (Generic Nutella) 86p
2L Sparkling Water 16p

All of the above items came from Tesco’s “value” range. The jar of chocolate hazelnut was larger than the largest jar of Nutella and the Nutella was over £3. Fortunately, we had tried the Tesco brand before, and actually like it. I can’t tell a difference at all between it and Nutella. And it’s less than £1. Sparkling water? Sure, I could have gone for one of the brands, but in my opinion, water is water. I’m going to pour it into a glass and top it off with some fruit squash, so does it really matter? The same with the pineapple – it’s an ingredient in another recipe. The value tin came in syrup instead of juice, but I’ll rinse off the pineapple before I use it. The bread probably wasn’t the greatest. It’s really thin slices of bread, but it doesn’t taste bad.

Granted, on a regular shopping trip, we probably would have picked up Nutella, Buxton brand water, and Kingsmill bread, but we were deliberately trying to see what we could get for approximately £10 and I wanted to try out some of the Tesco value line products.

What I learned? The value products really aren’t bad. And if it means I spend only £20 on weekly groceries, I’ll take it.

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I was on the radio today. For about five minutes, but it was a fun five minutes. William Wright and I follow each other on Twitter and each day he usually tweets about what he will be talking about on-air and asks people for responses. He’ll read most of the replies out on-air, and will talk with a few of the people who tweet him. A few weeks back, he was discussing impulse buys, and wanted to have me on-air to talk about an impulse buy I tweeted him about (my mom when she was in her 20s went out to get her hair done and came home with a new car), but we couldn’t coordinate it because I was out in Haxey and mobile reception isn’t the greatest.

This morning, William tweeted about height. Apparently, there is a convention of tall people taking place in Paris right now, so he was curious about people’s height. I wrote back and told him I was 4’10.5″, and it was the half inch that really mattered. I also mentioned that my Brother-in-law was 6’8, so it made family functions fun. William wrote back and asked if I could come on the air and talk about being short, I said no problem and direct messaged him my phone number.

I received a call from Helen at BBC Lincolnshire who needed to take down some personal details and told me to expect a call back between 10 and 11. The phone rang a few minutes past 11 and William asked me to repeat what I had told him via Twitter. He asked me if I ever hated being short, so I mentioned being away at Summer camp and having two older boys use me as an elbow rest, and told him about being the shortest member of the family I married into.

It was fun and enjoyable, and I wouldn’t mind doing it again.

Of course, this isn’t my first time being interviewed with BBC Lincolnshire. You might remember a few months back, I auditioned for Priscilla Biggadyke. They interviewed me pre- and post-audition, as well as recorded my audition. I haven’t seen or heard my audition though. I almost wish I had asked for a copy of it! I also was interviewed by Fox 11 when I went down to London for the Royal Wedding, so what an interesting few months it’s been for me! I’m (almost) famous. Okay, not really. But it was still loads of fun!

Apparently, the show will be available on the iPlayer. It’s Melvyn in the Morning with William Wright sitting in for Melvyn from Today, 3 June. The show airs from 9AM til 12 Noon, so if you want to skip to my segment, forward it for about 2 hours. I don’t know how fast the shows go up, so I’d imagine you can check later in the day. I’ll try to download and record my segment as well, but I’m not very good at that!

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One of my closest friends, Miss M has a problem. A really, big problem.

She needs to have a hysterectomy at the age of 34 to remove her uterus and possibly an ovary. From her blog:

I have two fibroids in my uterus the size of baseballs (exact quote from doctor) and two cysts as large too. They are apparently at the point where you can feel them through the skin and they’re so big it’s causing blinding pain and need to be removed. Most likely on Wednesday I will have laproscopic surgery to remove my uterus.

In a later post, M explains that her uterus is the same size of a woman who is four months pregnant, only she’s well, not pregnant.

Here’s the bad news….

Finally had the doctor’s office call me back. She’s saying I can’t do the surgery tomorrow because they need to see me pre-op. No shit, that’s why I’ve been calling since I was discharged Monday. She says the office visit for the pre-op is $140. Fine, no problem. But then she says they need $2,000 UP FRONT for the surgery.

You see, M is like many other women in the US who do not have health insurance. She works part-time and does not get insurance from her company. Now, I could get up on my soap box and start talking to you about how horrible it is that the US doesn’t have universal healthcare — and it IS horrible. But that’s not going to help M out.

M designs beautiful jewellery over at Phoenix Fire Designs. Even though I myself make jewellery, I have many pieces made by M, including a tree of life, and most recently I purchased a custom bracelet for my mom for Mother’s day, and a bird’s nest necklace for my Mother-in-Law. Currently, I keep eyeing a bracelet and earring set on her site, too.

If you’re wary of purchasing items off a regular website, M also runs an Etsy shop. You might want to check with her before ordering a custom piece, as I’m not sure what she is doing right now as she waits to have her surgery.

You can also, if you so choose, make a donation directly to M via her paypal account. There is a donation link embedded in her most recent blog post.

Thanks for reading.

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Okay, I know about Kayak, but Kayak isn’t giving us anything reasonable….My mom wanted to come out this Summer, but late August is already up above US$1000 for PHL -> LHR. Then, she looked for September/October, and it’s still over US$800. I just checked December, and the cheapest I can find is US$850. Last December we found a flight for I think it was US$700something, and that was with US Air.

*sigh*

I’ve even checked BWI and IAD for departures and Birmingham and Manchester for arrivals. This sucks.

Anyone know any other sites I should be checking or ways we can get a super good deal?

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A brief post today and then I will try to get back to my regular posting…I just haven’t been in a good enough mood to sit down and write happy things this past week while I’m still crying if I see a grey tabby cat on the telly.

On Saturday, my chorus held a workshop followed by a short performance for the attendees to invite their family and friends to. Tim tagged along to take pictures and video for us, and we were chatting in the car…

Me: It’s such a shame we were both stuck inside on this beautiful day.
Tim: The day isn’t over yet.
Me: I know. We should have gone to the seaside today or something.
Tim: Want to?
Me: Err…serious?
Tim: Serious.
Me: Yes!

So we did. We stopped off at home briefly to put tea in flasks, grab some jumpers and a blanket and we were off! Living close to the North Sea coast has it’s benefits for sure.

We stopped off in Sutton-on-Sea to pick up some fish and chips, and by a happy accident, followed a turned sign for parking completely bypassing the shore. Instead, we wound up in Sandilands, which I kept referring to as “Candyland”. It was gorgeous and empty, save for one fisherman and the occasional dog walker.

We spent a pleasant hour or two sitting on the beach, walking, and collecting some seashells before we decided to head home. As we turned a corner, I spotted a closed down hotel with a broken sign reading “We are”. I shouted “Penn State” and then I had to explain the cheer to Tim. He said “do you want to get a picture of it?” Erm, yes please! So we turned around and got some shots of Tim holding up my Penn State stadium blanket under the sign.

[If you click on the photo once, it will take you to that photo’s page. If you click on the photo again, you will be able to view it full size. I have no idea why WordPress made it so complicated! Apologies to LiveJournal Users. If you do not see the gallery below, please visit my website via the link at the top of the entry to view the gallery.]

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My mom texted Tim last night to have him tell me she was taking my beloved kitty, Will, to the vet. They thought he had a urine infection possibly.

From what I know, his bladder was swollen so badly it caused him to have a heart attack right on the vet’s table. Mom was with him.

I got Will in January 2004. I just decided that I really wanted to have a cat of my own, and so we went off to the humane society in Lancaster, PA. They had two kittens in their kitten room. One was a white girl kitten who was skittish and hid from me in the play room, and the other was Will. He craweled all over me and perched on my shoulder, and I just knew he was the right kitten for me. The vet estimated he was only about 4 or 5 weeks old, so that puts his birthday somewhere around the end of November 2003/beginning of December. I always said that January 3 was his birthday :).

Will originally got his name from Will of Will & Grace….and he would actually watch Will & Grace with me and anytime someone said “Will”, he would look up. He also gained nicknames, like William Shakespeare (espcially after I heard the Arrogant Worms Song “William Shakespeare’s in my Cat”), and even Prince William on occasion.

He was a special kitty. I still remember when he was a kitten and I couldn’t find him anywhere in my apartment…..and then I opened the fridge. He had managed to climb into the fridge while I had been preparing my dinner!

He was a curious and friendly cat. Will expected everyone who walked through the door to greet him and rub his tummy. If you didn’t, he would make sure to rub up against your legs and bother you until you did. He worked better than a doorbell for alerting us to people! He needed to know what you were doing, watching, reading, or eating…he even drank green tea on a few occasions — but no other “people food”. He never begged for food from the table, he just wanted to see what you were eating.

He knew when I was upset and would come and lay down next to me as if to say “it’ll be alright”. When I missed Tim and would be crying, Will was there. If Mom and I were on video chat with each other and Will heard my voice, he came over to “see” me and would try to lick the webcam.

I was looking forward to the day when we could finally move Will over to the UK so he could join us here. I’m going to miss him a lot….that crazy little furball meant the world to me.

Rest in Peace, my brave kitty.

Will
3 Jan 2004 – 13 May 2011

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This past weekend, Lincoln Sounds travelled to Birmingham to participate in this year’s Quartet of Nation’s annual convention/competition.

We didn’t do so good.

Last year, we came home with a bronze medal. This year, we came home all feeling a bit dejected and ho-hum about our score, which I won’t be posting to my blog, it hurts too much.

The only thing we can do is remain positive, and consider that next year, we could win “most improved chorus” 😀

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*sigh* I bought a buy-it-now on another one of those Soap & Glory Big Pink totes because I worked it out as being a very cheap option for getting all the S&G items I love using, and I can turn around and re-auction off the items I don’t like/can’t use.

Problem! The set is missing an item. I double checked the auction listing, and the missing item was listed as being included. What can I do other than a polite message to the seller? I can’t really dispute it with PayPal since I have most of the item, and I really don’t want to deal with trying to send this back, as it’s a large package and it looks like the seller uses drop shipping for their auctions.

They have LOADS of these sets on offer on eBay, so I’m thinking the missing item might not even be their fault – it might not have been in the original since when we bought the first big pink, I had to check through a few boxes before I found one that hadn’t had an item stolen from it as they are not sealed in the store. Either way though, they promised me that item was included, so shouldn’t they do something about it? Either send me the missing item (which I’m not overly fussed about, to be honest. It smells nice, but I don’t absolutely NEED it) or send me a partial refund?

How long should I wait before doing anything other than emailing the seller and what are my options other than leaving negative feedback? This seller also NEVER once contacted me, even to say “your item has been shipped”, so I’m not super impressed either way, and was planning on noting the lack of communication on the feedback.

For my own record keeping: Seller contacted through eBay’s “contact the seller” on Sunday, 8 May.

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For my own records: First message sent via ebay’s “contact the seller” on Sunday 8 May 5PMish.

Apparently my Olympus Mμ 3000 takes video in Mp4 mode (aka Apple format) and though Windows Movie Maker let me drag the Mp4s in and let me edit things, it wouldn’t publish the final video. This was frustrating me to no end yesterday as I tried about three times to edit the footage together, only to have it stall all three times at 20%, 46%, and 24%. I gave up and decided I would try again tomorrow, not realizing the video format issue.

I discovered the issue today, when I was looking at the files and noticed they had the Quicktime symbol on them….ooops. I converted the Mp4s down to wmv files thanks to a free program called Prism, and finally got it edited and up on YouTube*. So, here it is. My video from Friday!

Link if the embedded video doesn’t show up: http://youtu.be/F1TDnVX42B8

*I’m sure there are easier ways to do this, but what can I say? I like doing things the hard way!

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I woke up at 4AM on Friday morning and Tim drove me to the train station where I boarded a train headed for Newark North Gate (followed by a train to London King’s Cross). Yes, I was going to join the crowds outside Westminster Abbey. I didn’t expect to get close enough to see much, but I was going for the experience and so I could say I was there.

I will write a post later describing my day, but for now, here’s a copy of my Twitter feed from yesterday:

You also can watch parts of the Royal Wedding on their official YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheRoyalChannel including THREE HOURS of coverage via this link: http://youtu.be/schQZY3QjCw

I do have a vlog I took while in the crowd, it’s in the process of being uploaded now.

For other more official coverage, see:

BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11767495
Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/royal-wedding/
And another person who was amidst the crowds: http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2011/04/29/135834585/the-royal-wedding-a-crowds-eye-view

My photos are available on Facebook via this link: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.10150235908637160.371117.522022159&l=9961b76489 but I will post highlights when I write my longer post!

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Photo at the top of this entry © The British Monarchy and may only be used for media purposes.
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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, or the RSS feed(s), please notify me.

A few weeks ago, baked eggs were all over the food blogs. One blog posted about them, then another, and another. Each blog making their baked eggs posher than the blog before. But baked eggs don’t need a fancy French name or fancy bread. Here’s my simple, easy baked eggs recipe.

For each person, you will need:
2 eggs
1 TBS milk
2 TBS cheese
Parsley
Oregano, Basil, or other herbs
Cooked bacon (optional)

A single-serving casserole dish or ramekins.

1 – Preheat the oven to 175C and lightly grease the ramekins with vegetable oil
2 – If using bacon, crumble a piece of bacon in the bottom of each dish.
3 – crack 2 eggs in each casserole. If using ramekins, you might only be able to do one
4 – Spoon over milk, sprinkle cheese & herbs
5 – bake 12-15 minutes or until yolks are set to your preference.

This was something different for Tim and I to have for breakfast, and we both loved it. The eggs wind up nice and creamy and it was a nice treat for us on a Saturday morning.

[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users can comment directly on Facebook.]

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, or the RSS feed(s), please notify me.

Seems a bit silly to post this, as it’s not even really a recipe, but I’m really pleased with how it looks and how the photo came out, so I’m sharing it!

Weeks ago, I placed an order with Tesco, as I do every week. If the store doesn’t have what you ordered online, your shopper substitutes an item. If the new item costs more than the one you wanted, you only get charged for the one you ordered. If the new item is less than the original, you get charged the lower amount. Most of the times this means I wind up with a slightly posher brand of loo roll or a different brand of brown bread. But a few weeks ago? I don’t know what was on their mind! I placed an order for a box of Betty Crocker Bisquick – you know, pancake mix – but Tesco sent me a Betty Crocker Carrot Cake mix instead! The driver decided to give me the carrot cake mix and I would get a refund for it. Well, I don’t say no to free carrot cake!

It also gave me a chance to finally try out the bundt pan my mom gave me for Christmas from Lakeland. It’s a terrific pan. You can tell it was made from good quality metal, and as it’s from Lakeland, I can be assured it will last for many years.

I followed the directions on the box and greased the pan with some butter and flour so it wouldn’t stick. The cake came out moist and spongy – just like a cake should. As far as taste…well, there wasn’t much carrot in it. I made a carrot cake from scratch with grated carrots a few months ago, and my cake had far more of a carrot-y taste than this one. My friends I served it to compared it to a spice cake, that was how little it tasted like carrots (but it did get her kids to eat it!)

To jazz it up a bit, I made a cream cheese glaze, which is super simple:

1 pack of cream cheese, left out to get soft
200-300g icing sugar (powdered sugar)

And all you do is blend the two together with a mixer. Start with about 150g of sugar. If it’s not stiff enough or sweet enough, add more, but I wouldn’t add more than 300g, or you’ll wind up with a TON of glaze and be stuck trying to find things to use it with like I was!

Does this count as a recipe post? Sure, why not! I haven’t blogged in a week, so at least I’m getting something out there for you to read!

[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users can comment directly on Facebook.]

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, or the RSS feed(s), please notify me.

I have issues with delivery drivers.

As I’ve mentioned before, our house is a farmhouse from the 1800s (oldest house in the village) that was divided into two in the 1930s. As a result, you can only see one house number from the road, and it’s the neighbours. Our road also isn’t recognized by SatNav or Google and is mislabelled, so you cannot get accurate directions to our house from either. A friend once drove around our village for a half hour because her SatNav kept taking her to the wrong street. And to complicate things further? The road we live on runs from our village into the next village, where it keeps the same name but the house numbers re-start. The people who were delivering our washing machine nearly took it to the next village over last year. I got a phone call from the delivery driver saying “I’m knocking on your door, but no one is answering”. To which I replied, “I’m at my door and there’s no one here!” So now I ALWAYS leave notes in the delivery instructions saying things like:

-House is attached to number x
-Behind green fence
-Go up the long driveway
-Look for garden railway
-Yellow farmhouse on bend
-Don’t use SatNav
-There are two 11s, one in Dunholme and one in Welton. We are the yellow house with the black door in Dunholme.

Etc, etc.

And usually, drivers don’t have any problems.

Except for DHL and ParcelForce.

ParcelForce is fond of taking my packages to my in-laws. They live around the corner from us, share the same last name, and even have the same house number. But it’s a different street and post code! My MIL is very good at refusing my packages and telling them how to find our house. And to be fair, ParcelForce rarely gets to see the detailed directions, since they generally act as a courier for Royal Mail, particularly overseas packages. So, I can kind of forgive ParcelForce for not being able to find our house.

But DHL? No excuses. The extra directions are PRINTED RIGHT ON THE LABEL!!

I put in an order for Boots online, something I do on a semi-regular basis, especially if I don’t feel like going into town or if I know what I want might not be available in store. I got an email two days ago that said my order was processed, and the expected delivery was today (Thursday). Since the email included a tracking number, yesterday morning (Wednesday) I decided to check the tracking to see where the package was. DHL’s tracking information said “delivered – left on porch” for the day before (Tuesday). But I didn’t have my package and we had been home all day. Not to mention our house doesn’t have a porch!

I rang DHL. They couldn’t do anything for me and said I needed to call Boots. Rang Boots and would you believe the person I spoke with had to put me on hold while he called DHL to find out the same information I asked DHL for 10 minutes previous? Crazy. Anyway, the person from Boots came back on the line to tell me that DHL “couldn’t contact their driver” and he would follow up with me later in the afternoon. The plan was for the driver to go pick up the package from wherever he had originally left it and bring it to me later in the day or the following day. At this point, I have no idea where my package is (no slip through my letter slot), Boots has no idea where the package is, and DHL has no idea where the package is.

I had a nurse appointment that took us away from home for a while, and after it Tim and I decided to run some errands and deliver a birthday present to my FIL. We returned home in the afternoon, to find a slip from DHL through our letterbox telling us that they had put a package in our shed. Sure enough, it was my Boots order.

I rang Boots back to let them know the package had arrived, and the person I spoke to checked to see if DHL had added any delivery notes to the order. Nope. We still didn’t know where the package had been.

Cut to about an hour later when we saw our neighbours in passing. They told us that last night they had found a package for me in their enclosed porch on the side of their house when they were going out for the evening, but as it was late, they didn’t want to knock on the door (good thing too, since I went to bed at 9:30!). They left the package where it was and figured they would catch us the following afternoon, but by the time they went to get it, the package was gone from their porch. They panicked, thinking someone had stolen the package and said they were afraid to tell me they had had a package.

Seriously? DHL put my package at number x, which is attached to our house, and didn’t bother leaving us a note through our letter slot? We clearly have a distinguishable border between our homes (a green fence) and the fence is clearly labelled with our house number, and we have a number next to the front door. AND DHL had even circled the delivery notes mentioning that our house was up the long driveway attached to number x. But not only that – but DHL hadn’t even bothered to knock on the neighbour’s door either time – when delivering OR when picking back up the package. If they had, my neighbour would have pointed them to our door straight away. And leaving it at their side door and not their front? Stupid. I could understand if the side door was more prominent than the front, but you have to practically go to the back of the house to access it! I didn’t even know they had a side door for MONTHS because it’s not obvious.

And the fact that everyone was home on Tuesday makes it even more of a mystery. Tim and my neighbour were both working out in the gardens, and myself and my neighbours gf were popping in and out of the house regularly. How on EARTH did DHL even manage to bring a package onto our joint properties without anyone noticing?!

But I have my package. And Boots is awesome and even rang me again in the evening to make sure it had actually arrived and assured me they would be taking things up with DHL. I have no idea if this means I’ll get any kind of compensation or not. The problem is, I want DHL to pay, not Boots. And if I ask Boots for a refund on the shipping, I’m sure it would have to come from them and not DHL. OH well. But the important thing is that I did get my package in the end.

[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users can comment directly on Facebook.]

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, or the RSS feed(s), please notify me.

About a month ago, Tim had a trying day at work. He found out that the May training class he was supposed to be joining for his new job was full and he was bumped to June. He came home and was really upset, so I decided to cheer him up by making him a chocolate cake in a mug!

You will need:

4 tablespoons flour
3 tablespoons cocoa powder (not hot chocolate)
2 tablespoons sugar (use Splenda for a sugar-free version)
1 egg, beaten (beat it before you put it in the mug)
3 tablespoons milk (skim for less calories, but any milk you have will do)
3 tablespoons butter/margerine/olive oil spread (or vegetable oil)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla ( I didn’t measure this, I just used the lid of the small bottle to measure the vanilla out)

1 large mug
microwave

It honestly couldn’t be easier. Put all the dry ingredients in the mug and mix together, then stir in the egg, milk, butter, and vanilla. That cute little whisk for hot chocolate I picked up at a jumble sale was perfect for mixing this. Obviously, if you don’t have one just use a small spoon. Make sure you mix it well, or you’ll get a corner full of flour. Microwave on HIGH for 3-5 minutes, depending on how high your microwave’s wattage is. Ours is a 750, so it took about 4 minutes. You’ll know it’s done when you can smell the chocolate and the top of the cake springs back when you gently press it. You can tip it out onto a plate or just eat it straight from the mug. It’s about the size of one and a half cupcakes or two fairy cakes.

My photo shows the cake partially eaten because I forgot to take a photo when it came out, but the cake had risen up above the top of the mug, which is why I recommend using a large mug! Also make sure your mug doesn’t have any metallic paint on it, or it will throw sparks.

To make it extra chocolatey, add a handful of chopped dairy milk or other form of chocolate (if you use bitter chocolate, you will want to add extra sugar)

Want some frosting for that mini cake? Mix together 4 tablespoons icing sugar (10x/powdered sugar) with 1/2 tablespoon water. Add more water if your icing is too stiff, more sugar if it’s too thin.

[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users can comment directly on Facebook.]

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, or the RSS feed(s), please notify me.

My husband has just left for work, and the phone rings at 17:17. I picked it up, and there was silence on the other end. I stayed on, thinking it might be Tim calling from his mobile at a traffic light or something and I repeat hello a few more times. A female Indian voice (from India, not Indian as in Native American) gets on the line and says to me “Is this [insert our street address?]”. No hello, no asking if I was me or to speak with Tim…just is this [address]. I responded with “I’m not going to verify anything until you tell me where you are calling from”. I got rattled back some random organization name and then “we’re calling on behalf of a grant for this property”.

Me: no, I’m sorry, we don’t have any pending grants for our property (again, not giving name or address)
Woman: I am calling to tell you about them
Me: No, we’re not interested. (woman starts talking over me) Please take us off your calling list. (Woman still talking over me) Thank you.
Woman: [pause for breath]
Me: Please take us off your list. (woman starts talking over me again) Thank you.
Woman: [pause for breath]
Me: Excuse me, we are not interested. (I suppose at this point I should have just hung up, but generally, if the other person hears you say “please take us off your list” they respond back with “Yes I will do that. Sorry” and I was waiting for confirmation that she heard me)
Woman: How about your husband, I bet he is interested
Me: No one in this house is interested. Please remove us from your list.
Woman: No, I will not remove you. We will keep on calling you. I will give your number to everyone I know and then everyone will call you [woman slams phone down].

Cue MASSIVE panic attack.

I tried 1471*, and I get the response that the number wasn’t recorded or something like that. So I called BT. Spoke with a lovely man named Roger. Roger explained that he couldn’t trace the call because the message I received indicates that the phone call originated from overseas. I told him about the phone call, but there was nothing he could do, he said. I asked him if I should file a police report, and he said I could if I wanted to, but without the phone number there isn’t much that could be done.

I’m really quite shaken up right now over it. I mean, I get that it was just a telemarketer (though to get around the fact that we have our number registered, the operator will always tell you that it is a survey and they do not have to comply with the telemarketing list**), but you don’t threaten people like that!

And, it’s 17:44. The phone just rang. I jumped out of my skin and was honestly afraid to answer it (it was a friend of mine).

*Edit* 18:14 – Spoke with Tim. He doesn’t think I need to worry about it and thinks that if anyone calls us I should just slam the phone down. When I pointed out to him that they had our phone number and address – he pointed out that anyone with a local phone book could get the same. I’m feeling much better now and we’ve decided that if someone from India wants to waste their money calling the UK to get their jollies off — let ’em. If the call had been more local, then I’d have grounds to file a police report and things, but as it’s coming from India, I don’t think we’re in any danger of people showing up on our doorstep.

*If you have a BT Landline in the UK, 1471 will repeat back to you the last number that called. I think it’s similar to *69 in the US (or is it *66? I never used it, so I don’t know!)
**I know this is true in the US, as I used to work at a company that did satisfaction surveys fur nursing facilities and we were allowed to call family members who were listed on the Do Not Call list because we were conducting a survey. I have no idea if this is true in the UK, but it’s what both Tim and I have been told when people like this call us.

[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users can comment directly on Facebook.]

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, or the RSS feed(s), please notify me.

[adapted from a recipe in Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food]

While I’ve been typing this, I swear I posted this before….but I can’t find it on my blog!

You will need:

75g pasta per person
1 package bacon lardons or one pack of bacon
1 bunch fresh mint
50g frozen peas per person
300g cream fraiche (US: Sour Cream)
50g parmesean cheese (or other grated cheese)
50g bread crumbs

Wok or large frying pan

-cook pasta according to directions on pack.
-add a little oil to the wok and fry the bacon lardons. If using regular bacon, cut the bacon into smaller pieces first.
-reduce temperature and add frozen peas, cooking for about 5 minutes
-chop the fresh mint and add to wok
-add container of cream fraiche and stir. If you need more liquid, add some milk. turn up the heat and cook until bubbling
-drain pasta and add to wok, stirring pasta to coat
-sprinkle cheese and bread crumbs over top and stir until pasta, mint, and peas are coated.

This would make enough to serve 4 people as a main dish, more as a side. The beauty of this recipe is that you can add more bacon if you want, different vegetables, different kinds of pasta, and even different cheeses. I’ve made this with penne, sausage, and cheddar cheese (it didn’t taste as good with sausage!).

This meal takes about 20 minutes to prepare, too, especially if you start the pasta before you start cooking the bacon, so it’s easy to throw together at the end of a busy day. It also tastes good cold, and makes for a really good pasta salad for picnics. To convert this to a cold salad, don’t add the parmesean or breadcrumbs until after the pasta has cooled.

[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users can comment directly on Facebook.]

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, or the RSS feed(s), please notify me.