Signs Fall is here......

Knit and worn

Pumpkin Muffins

Heating on.

I should dedicate this post to my younger brother as today I made one of his favourite things for supper:

Egg Pie is one of my younger brother's favourite meals, and as it was a cold day and I haven't turned the heat on yet, I thought I would prepare a couple of meals and one of them was Egg Pie.  I think all in all this meal would cost us all of $3 tops and I'll break it all down as we go along.

Egg Pie:
Hard boiled eggs, two or three per person
Cheese Sauce
Mashed Potatoes.

First hard boil your eggs, you know how to do that.  If you don't there are instructions here.  Peel the eggs and cut in half and place in the bottom of the casserole dish with the yolk side facing up, as in the photo.

Next make the cheese sauce.  My recipe consists of:

1/4 cup plain/all purpose flour
1/4 cup marg
2 cups milk
1 or 2 cups of grated cheese, I prefer a strong cheddar
1 tablespoon of mustard, any flavour you like
salt and pepper.

Melt marg in pan, add flour, using a whisk to bind it together.  Let it cook over a medium heat for a minute or two whisking all the time.  Gradually add two cups of milk, again whisking all the time until it comes to a boil and thickens.  At this point I usually season it by adding the S & P plus the mustard.  I then turn off the heat and add the grated cheese.  The heat of the white sauce will melt the cheese without any added heat from the stove.

Pour over your eggs:

Potato layer. I used Yukon Gold this time and I also cooked a big pan of potatoes so I could have leftovers.  I'll explain later.

When the potatoes have cooked, around 20 minutes.  I mash them and add salt and pepper to taste, a clump of marg probably a couple of tablespoons, and probably around a cup of milk.  When they are all mashed together, I then take a wooden or silicone spoon and beat them until nice and smooth;  or until my hand aches.

Layer the potato on the top of the cheese sauce and make a decorative pattern with a fork if you so desire!!

Depending if the egg pie is cold or warm, you need to put it in an oven to warm through..  I use our toaster oven and have it on at 250 oF for around 45 minutes so the top of the potato gets nice and crispy.

THIS EGG PIE DOES NOT FREEZE, THE EGGS GO NICE AND RUBBERY - ASK ME HOW I KNOW!

Before I said cook a big pan of potatoes as leftover mashed potatoes do freeze nicely.  It is so handy to pull out a bag of potatoes that can be heated up in the microwave in minutes.

Now I flatten the bag right down, so it is nice and flat and thin; the contents were still hot when I took this photo.  A flattened bag uses up less space and it takes less time to defrost.

In the back left hand corner of the above photo is part of another meal I made.  This time a favourite in my elder brother's household.  I'll post that recipe in a day or two's time.

So the cost break down is:

Eggs around $1
Cheese around $1
Potatoes, salt, pepper, milk, butter, mustard around $1

I got the cheese on sale for $4 for 500 grams, I probably used less than 1/4 block.
Eggs were well under $3 for 18
Potatoes were $1.99 for 10 lbs, I did not use 5 lbs in this recipe. Milk was free with another deal I got the other week.  
The other items used were not much of anything, at the most 25 cents for all.

I cooked this on a Sunday when it is cheaper electricity, so cooking everything wouldn't cost much either, especially as I use my toaster oven to bake it at night.

The added heat with cooking and having the toaster oven home also warmed the house up a little another added saving of not having to put the heating on.

Water Softener Salt and other things........

The kids came up on Saturday, so I popped into town to TSC to get some bags of salt for the water softener.  We like to get the 40kg bags, but cannot carry them down the basement.   So having the kids come up is a bonus.

I got six bags and it came to well over $70.  TSC is the cheapest place around to buy it, and I commented on how the price had risen.  The manager told me that we can expect a larger price increase on the salt, as back in August a tornado hit both salt plants in Goderich.  She didn't say there would be a shortage of salt, just an increase in price.  I am hoping we have enough salt now to last us until next February, then I'll have to make sure I invite the kids up so they'll move it down the basement.

Do you know of anything that has decreased in price?  As everything seems to be increasing in price.

Summer is over around here.  It was a nippy 2 oC when I got up on Saturday morning.  I did manage to warm up a bit by the afternoon and I did manage to get all my laundry dried on the line.  We haven't got our heating on yet, but did put dh's blanket on his side of the bed on Friday when I changed the bed.  I saw and smelled smelled smoke coming out of chimney's, so people are starting their fires.  Ours is laid ready to go, but so far we have held off from lighting it

Last year we didn't have the fire on until October 14th, as per this post and we didn't turn the heating on until October 21st, as per this post.  My goal this year is to keep the heating off until the beginning of October, and not have the fire on until around the same time.

Have you turned your heating on yet, or have had your first fire in your fireplace yet?

I had a pig of a day on Wednesday.......

We are going to a wedding on Saturday, and I have been meaning to dye my hair for a couple of weeks now, and finally got around to it on Wednesday morning. I bought the Nice 'N Easy Natural Medium Brown and due to the fact I have the odd grey hair, who am I kidding I have a ton of grey hair, I leave it on for the 45 minutes.

Now I am not one for swearing, but I get out of the shower and look in the mirror and say Holy S**t, what have I done. I look like a Goth :00 My hair is so dark and with my pale skin it looks even darker. So I am not a happy camper. I emailed one of my knitting group buddies and told her I wasn't coming to knitting class, as that is the first thing they will say what did you do to your hair. Told Eva the mail lady I wasn't setting foot out of the house, she told me not to be so daft. I mean I look like a Goth......which is all well and good if that's what you want to look like, but I DON'T!!! So goodness knows what I am going to do........

We have had rain for a few days now, so everything is wet. I put my wellies on to take out the ashes from the fireplace to the fire pit and walk on the wet deck; I slip on the wet wood and fall on my backside. My rear end is fine, as there is plenty of padding there!! However I twist my knee on the way down and I am in agony, I am hobbling around and it is so sore. So goodness knows what damage I have done there, as my knees were sore before hand.

Caught another three mice overnight, so I think that's 12 since Saturday, oh joy!!! Still haven't found the elusive trap that disappeared. Dh put wire wool in the hole, but there is more work to be done there. Don't think I will be doing much as I am in so much pain with this rotten knee. The fly population is down though, only got the odd one or two remaining!!

Then the icing on the cake was I caught two more mice on Wednesday afternoon, and one was still alive, with it's back leg hanging off. I should have hit it over the head to put it out of its misery, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I was actually in tears over that one.

Put the heating on, but it will only come on when it goes down to 14 oC in the house. We have the fire on, on a night so it's keeping the chill off the house. However it is cool upstairs.

So another GREAT day here on the Acreage!!