Home made pumpkin soup

Im not a huge fan of Halloween if truth be told! Im not too keen on opening the door to trick or treaters especially when it turns out to be a 'hoodie' in a £1 mask wearing a bin liner!

Perhaps Im being cynical my son loved dressing up as a child (actually he still does despite being 35! Last year he was the invisible man...or at least he said he was here! Ha Ha!).

Despite this we do usually have a pumpkin partly because it makes such delicious soup (not to mention the pies!). The soup is so easy to make as the following recipe shows.

Have a go at it yourself and make use of your pumpkin. Too many people scoop them out and throw away the pulp when it could be made into a delicious winter warmer!



Classic:How To Make Pumpkin Soup

Save time and money baking your own bread!

I was bought a bread making machine by my son last year and since bread has increased in price so much recently I have taken to using it more and more. I have to say that it has more than paid for itself and although some purists may scoff at using such a bread machine it does save a huge amount of time and effort (especially when it comes to cleaning up!) and you can choose your own ingredients to make your loaf as healthy as possible (organic flour etc).

Check any loaf of bread and you will see that many if not all contain soya flour. This is used as it is cheap and helps to bring down the price of ingredients used in making the bread. Many people however find that they suffer unfortunate side effects especially if they suffer from IBS (some research has indicated that the lowering of the male sperm count is caused by increasing use of soya products as soya contains oestrogen!). This is another good reason to make your own bread!

Here's a quick recipe for a tasty loaf of white bread which can be followed as it is or can be adapted for use in a bread machine.




Side Dishes:How To Make White Bread


See video jug link in sidebar for other great bread recipe's. Enjoy!

Retired magazine website

Here's another great web site I came across recently which I thought I would share with you! Retired Magazine:


There's a very interesting article about FREDs! Are you a FRED?

Apparently "Members of this demographic are over fifties who are ‘facing retirement earnings doubts,’ and according to the likes of Liverpool Victoria, the friendly society, and the Office for National Statistics, this group of around two thirds of all over fifties have very real fears that they will face an impoverished retirement."

Read the full article on their site and let me know what you think. Perhaps this new demographic is a result of the recent economic crisis or is this a longer standing issue?

Read more here: http://www.retiredmagazines.co.uk/lifestyle-areyou.html

Take a look at Retired Magazine website CLICK HERE

Retired? Make the most of your money with Martin Lewis

Whether you have a tidy nest egg for your retirement or are living on a tight budget the credit crunch is affecting us all. I like to keep a tight rein on my finances and one of the web sites that I have found very usefull is Martin Lewi's Money saving Expert site.



The site is free to use and is free of Ads. It's packed with money saving tips and has a great forum section where you can chat to other site users and get tips on where to find the best deals for insurance for over 65's, holidays, banking, saving money on utilities, mortgages, health etc the list is almost endless.

There is a permanent link to Martins site in the left hand menu (as I use his site a lot!) if you want to check it out now just click HERE

How to make a Spanish omlette or tortilla

Now that you're retired you'll probably find much more time to enjoy some of those things we take for granted like cooking for example! Even the simplest recipes can be a joy when you have the time to lovingly prepare them.



On a recent holiday to Tenerife I had a marvelouse tortilla or Spanish omlette and was inspired to make my own. You don't need to travel to try this so here is a quick and easy to follow recipe you can use to try out this tasty dish as well! Hmmm...my mouth is watering just thinking about it!


How To Make Spanish Tortilla

Retired and loving it

This is my first post for this new blog 'Retired Too!' which I hope will become a valuable resource for all those who are retired and want to make the best of their new found freedom!

Being retired is a wonderful opportunity to do all those things that you never had time to do when you worked!

Some famouse wit wrote "Retirement is when you stop living at work and start working at living!" (actually this is a quote from a mug I was bought when I retired...you'll probably find you get a lot of novelty tea mugs when you retire but the upside is you'll leave a lot of other mugs back at work!).

There's a lot to consider when you retire and your new found freedom can be bewildering at first but now you have all the time in the world to consider these things - Health and excercise, cooking and diet, pastimes like gardening or new hobbies, travel, entertainment, living on a budget (or for those with a nest egg blowing it all on that Harley you've always wanted and then living on a budget again), spending more time alone or with friends and family and perhaps like Shirley Valentine discovering who you really are and releasing hidden talents!

By the way if your not that computer literate like me (I thought that the world wide web was something to do with a giant spider!) a blog (which is what your reading) is an ongoing website like an online diary. It's called a blog as this type of site used to be called a web-log subsequently this was shortened to 'Blog'.

So relax and put your feet up for a while and have a look at some of the excellent resources on this blog. Pop back regularly and save this site to your bookmarks as it is sure to be as useful for you as it will be for me! Finally dont forget to drop me a line (email link in sidebar) or leave a comment if you have something that may be of interest to other readers or just want to say hi!

Hope to hear from you soon!