Something for nothing

[happyaslarry 13]

My local bakery has been giving away bags of day old breadcakes marked "For the ducks" for free. I cannot abide waste so rather guiltily I took a bag with a mild quack.

The oven was going to be on anyway so I sliced up the rolls very thinly and laid the slices on a baking try. Very rapidly I had some slightly thicker than normal Melba toast which keeps nicely in an airtight tin.

Does anyone else have any Someting For Nothing tips?

[FIRETHORN1 58]

Our mum and dad used to send us to the butchers for "bones for the dog" or to the fishmongers for bag of "cat bits". We'd go towards the end of the trading day, in the last half hour or so before the shops closed and we'd get given big bags of decent stuff for free. It wasn't all rubbish either - not always fatty bits of scraggy meat or fish heads and fins. Of course, these were in the bags too, but there was almost always big lumps of decent, lean meat and big chunks of decent fish, sometimes even big bits of steak, whole chops, whole fish, prawns in their shells etc. Mum would make some lovely meals from the good stuff and the rest would be fed to the dogs. Mind you, this was in the mid-'60's when we were doe-eyed children and life was a bit more real. I'm not sure I'd have the nerve to walk into my local "organic" butcher's or painfully trendy fishmonger's these days and ask them for a bag of "dog bones" or "cat bits". They'd probably call the police and have me arrested for attempted extortion!

[happyaslarry 13]

I don't take sugar but when I go out for a tea or coffee those little packets of sugar call to me. So I take them. I reckon if I took sugar I'd have a couple of spoonfuls so I put a couple of sachets in my pockets and take them home. I can find plenty of uses for them.

 

---------- Post added 28-05-2014 at 22:38 ----------

 

Such as this. After I had bottled my bilberry wine I was left with about a pound and a half of very gin-sodden fruit. I didn't fancy them being baked in a pie but I don't like waste. So I have turned them into a sorbet. After a quick blitz in the blender I squeezed out even more juice. This I mixed with a sugar solution (150g in 120 mls of water) and froze in an old ice cream box. A good use for some of the cafe sugars I had been hoarding! With so much alcohol it took some time to freeze. Whizz it round several times with a fork to break up the ice crystals. A small amount makes a palate cleanser.

[happyaslarry 13]

I've just got back from holiday and found an unopened bottle of milk (I still have a milkman) in the fridge, going off. But we don't like waste in our house. I turned the pinta into cottage cheese.

I heated the milk in a saucepan to blood heat (stick your fingers in) and added cider vinegar by the capful. I got what I wanted after two and a half capfuls: curds began to form. After leaving the pan to cool I strained the contents through muslim and left to drain. Like Little Miss Muffet I now had curds and whey. The curds, broken up with a fork (they can be rubbery), salted and mixed with chopped garden herbs, made a reasonable cottage cheese, eaten of course on some of that Melba toast which has kept well in an airtight tin. And the whey? It tastes quite refreshing so I drank it. I'm told it's also good in baking.

A vinegar note: any will do but as it imparts taste I'd give malt vinegar a miss! Or you could try lemon juice.

[Ms-Shapes 10]

A bit late now but- collecting Wild Garlic for free - used mine in soup, with mushrooms, in omelette, to flavour oil etc.

Just made eldeflower cordial - the elderflowers are free, but sugar and lemons from Aldi or the market make this a cheap drink.

[southsheff24 10]

I went into Morrison's today to find a "try me" tray of full hot dogs so I decided to use my Swede and managed to sneak into the bakery and find some good bread rolls in the bin habit was towards the end of the day so I took one of then bread rolls, as I put my hotdog into the roll I noticed that a big pile of ketchup was on the floor within "please wait" sign next to it so presuming it was about to be mopped up I quickly scooped some up with my finger and put it on the hot dog, as I went to walk to the exit I overheard two staff members saying "those onions have been exposed to the sun all day and the heat has fried the onions golden crisps" the other one replies "just chuck em" as their backs was turned to deal with a young boy shoplifting a copy of Eurobabes magazine I quickly swiped a fried onion, ripping pieces up to put on my hot dog and then left to get into my 2013 model Audi.

[happyaslarry 13]

Interesting day's foraging. Looking for wild cherries but a little too soon. Instead, I found a couple of bushes of wild blackcurrants with about five per cent of the fruit ripe. I took some home, cooking the underripe berries in a little elderflower syrup (from the roadside between Baslow and Bakewell). I'll have the berries with my own recipe granola. I'm also on the lookout for sweet chestnut trees. Anyone help?

[taxman 12]

Interesting day's foraging. Looking for wild cherries but a little too soon. Instead, I found a couple of bushes of wild blackcurrants with about five per cent of the fruit ripe. I took some home, cooking the underripe berries in a little elderflower syrup (from the roadside between Baslow and Bakewell). I'll have the berries with my own recipe granola. I'm also on the lookout for sweet chestnut trees. Anyone help?

 

Ecclesall Woods is pretty famous for sweet chestnut.

[Carmen. 14]

:love:Bilberry wine?

No wonder you are happyastarry.

Always wanted to brew elderberry wine but never got round to it.

Best wishes.

[happyaslarry 13]

The chestnut sellers are once again in Fargate but their crop comes from China. English chestnuts tend to be smaller and, as Taxman says, are plentiful in Ecclesall Woods. They are still around, you just have to kick through the leaves to find them. I roasted my first haul in the oven but overdid it and the insides shrank to nothing. Boiling is better - about five to ten minutes, although check after five. They are easily peeled if you first nick the ends into a cross with a sharp knife. Peel a batch then sprinkle with salt, sea salt if you have it. Something for nothing apart from the gas.