We are finally on the winemaking and cider-brewing bandwagon! Having collected demijohns and other assorted brewing equipment for months, our first batches of wine and cider are at last being fermented. (Beer is currently a glimmer on the horizon, but its time in the sun is coming.)

A lot of the necessary equipment was acquired in Thrifty fashion. The demijohns were purchased from a charity shop (a bargain at £1 each), and various bits and bobs came from my FIL, who has given up making his own alcoholic beverages (and given away most associated equipment), but still had a hydrometer, sterilising agent (Chempro) and heating straps. The biggest purchase was a plastic fermentation bin, from a winemaking shop for around £8.

Part of the appeal of homemade wine for me is the variety of wines that can be made. Never mind Corbiere, Shiraz, Merlot… how about blackberry, elderberry, crabapple or sloe wine (mmm, slurp).

My FIL still has some homemade wine left from his winemaking days, and his well-aged blackberry and sloe wines are so smooth and delicious, well I could wax eloquently, but suffice it to say they’re the cat’s pajamas (hmm, I’d like to see my cats in pajamas…)

And of course, NOT contributing to the coffers of Brown and Darling, that mad-cap duo who haven’t quite gotten a handle on how the average Brit lives, has major appeal as well.

I’ll be sharing my winemaking triumphs (hopefully disasters will be nowhere to be found) in the coming weeks with all of you out there in cyberland… Cheers!

I love leaving Stanley in charge of cooking. After a bit of preparation, I can leave him alone to cook my beans to perfection. He never burns them and doesn’t use ANY electricity or gas.

I’m talking about my beloved Stanley thermos, of course. Specifically, my 0.7 litre Stanley classic food jar. This Stanley is lined with stainless steel, and has a wide opening at the top, making it uber-easy to clean. Food keeps hot for hours and hours, and cooking beans is a cinch (and uses a minimum of fuel). It also has a lifetime warranty.

Stanley food jars aren’t easy to find, but one store that stocks them is Philip Morris and Sons in Hereford (Wales). They do mail order as well. If you’re picking them up in person, here’s a tip to save a couple of quid: If the store price is higher than the internet price (£15.99), ask if you can buy it for the internet price. I did and they readily agreed to sell it for the price in their online shop.

I can personally vouch for the superior performance of this Stanley thermos. If you decide to try a different one, I’d suggest making sure the store you buy it from has a good return policy. The first food thermos I bought promised to keep food hot for eight hours, but after six, the contents were barely warm. You can tell how well your thermos is working by touching the outside after you’ve filled it with hot food. The outside should stay cool… if it gets warm, that means the heat is escaping through the sides. Only the cap of the Stanley gets a bit warm… the outside of the body stays completely cool.

So far I’ve tried black beans, chickpeas and flageolet beans in my Stanley. The flageolet beans didn’t soften completely even after all day in Stanley, but the chickpeas and black beans were cooked to perfection (and I decided I didn’t like flageolet beans that much anyway).

You can cook other stuff in a thermos as well, like oatmeal and rice. More info can be found in this article from Bison Survival Blog. Actually, thermos cookery is kinda like a mini haybox cookery, and I’ll bet a lot of haybox recipes will work in a thermos.

If you’re really keen on this type of cookery, and want something fancier than a haybox cooker, vacuum pots are available (though not cheap). They are like thermoses on steroids.

Here’s the basic method I use for cooking beans in my Stanley. I use 110g dry beans, which when cooked makes an amount roughly equivalent to a 400g tin of beans.

Cooking beans in a thermos

Soak 110g dry beans (chickpeas, black beans, etc) overnight (10 to 12 hours) in a generous amount of cold water in a pot.

In the morning, drain beans, return to pot and cover with fresh water. Bring to a boil and cook for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the thermos by filling with boiling water, then capping it. Have more water ready on the boil.

When the beans have cooked for 10 minutes, drain and add them to the thermos. Add freshly boiled water and cap.

Let stand until it’s time to make the evening meal. I leave Stanley alone for around 10 or 12 hours. I’m not sure at what point they are ready… could even be a couple of hours sooner than I leave them for. If they’re not quite done when you check them and you don’t have time to let them sit in the thermos longer, you can finish them off in a pot on the hob.

This saves an hour or two on the hob, and it’s completely safe to leave while you go out.

Every thrifty household should consider getting a Stanley!

I’ve decided to move those blog entries which were dealt with “news and information” to a sub-blog — Thrifty Living News — instead of keeping them here in my main blog. You can access those articles by clicking the link found below the blog header.