General Chat

I have this strange idea that, if something is essential, you probably need it quite badly and would buy it as a priority over things you can do without.

Aldi sell essential lemonade and nachos so maybe I have the wrong priorities.

Last week The Scotts of Stowe (ideas above my station?!) came and one of their kitchen essentials was.................a milk frother!

Maybe those to whom the Scotts catalogue is aimed really do need a milk frother for their lifestyle. I have to make do with a fork.

Apparently, Waitrose are now selling "Essential" baby avocados!


Aaah, bless! :-D :-D ;-)

I must have a strange view of essentials too.

I buy lemonade and avocados 'every other blue moon' ( never for myself) and think nachos are one of the most horrible snacks.

I don't know anyone with a milk frother.

I obviously don't mix with the right groups.

Gwyn

Stowe is a nice place and Scotts are quite practised at parting Dave's mates from their money buying Christmas prezzies for Ms Brookes and such. Nobody I know in the Cotswolds would be very likely to buy furniture there though.

Their web site does list some essentials. However £ 18 for a bathroom squeegee seems a bit steep. A Dualit toaster is another essential ... I have a fetching blue number 2 slice bought on eBay new half price and a more practical 6 slicer free from an Islington pub which just needed new heating elements and quite a lot of spit and polish.

Dunno about baby avocados but OH says Waitrose fine green beans are essential. I like their goat's milk. Essentials are tea, coffee beans, bacon, toasting bread, eggs, beanz, milk, OJ, real sausages, real Melton Mowbray pork pie, Branston pickle, HO sauce, pizza, toms, pasta, creme fraiche, beer, malt whisky, Quarante42 (a Spanish drink). Oddly enough all of these bar one can be bought in Waitrose for less than. Tesco.

Don't judge a leopard by its baby avocados!

Sharron ..............

I think I agree with your idea of essential :-)


I wonder if it is something to do with the way we were brought up?



Although we do have a milk frother :-D .................... OH's sister gave it to us for Christmas several years ago, and it has remained in the drawer ever since :-)

I haven't even tried it once :-D



I do notice that many of the younger generation, regardless of how they were raised, seem to have very different ideas of "essential"



I think it is essential to have a working cooker, fridge etc, but prefer to pay as little as possible for one that has the features I consider "essential" (eg, a large oven :-D )...........

......... my mother found a working cooker "essential", she never had a fridge, just a cool marble slab in the pantry


My son-i-l thinks a working cooker etc is "essential" ................... but it is "essential" that they should be the top-of-the-line from a certain manufacturer, whose lower line ones are too expensive for me



We had a lovely experience with the s-i-l 4 or 5 years ago ...... they had just bought another house, and as is usual over here, the appliances were all left behind. The previous owners had done a renovation of the kitchen and bathroom, and had installed new appliances within the previous 2 years.

We had also had to buy new appliances within the previous 2 years ............

............ s-i-l was sitting there being very disparaging about the ones he now had, and said "they're by xxxxxx, and that manufacturer is no good. I'll get them replaced with xx as soon as possible"

I looked him in the eye, and said ............... "the ones we've bought are by xxxxxx, a lower line than the ones you have inherited, and we are very happy with them"



Silence :-D



What makes me laugh is that he has to have these very high priced appliances .......................... but my daughter does 90% of the cooking. He cooks only when they have invited guests for dinner (and that doesn't include us :-) )


5 years later .......... they have managed to replace only the microwave with the desired maker.

When Fred was washing up monitor ( remember when he put it in the washing machine?) I used to buy those dinner services from Scotts.

For £28 I had enough plates for him to cletter, shallow bowls and saucers for the cat and some cups.

They really were essential at the time!

what is "essential" differs from time to time :-)

Milk frother?

The stick mixer does it. Only for DH when he wants a frothy coffee.

Essential in this house......... coffee...... real stuff!

:-D

LS


I didn't think a milk frother was essential either .........


........ but sis-i-l obviously thought it was a "neat" gift idea :-)


I prefer to go out for my latte with frothed milk :-D

We have a small espresso machine with a frother.

I used it once. Never again. It's too difficult to clean! :-(

We've had the machine for 18 years...... bought with gift vouchers. It cost about $85 and makes a great espresso, just as good as the fancy machines that cost megabucks, and you need a pilot's licence to operate.

OH once gave me a very fancy espresso / latte / cappucino maker for my birthday


it was quite big, could make 2 cups of cappucino, and cost him quite a bit of money.


I tried it 3 or 4 times, but found it awkward to use ................. you had to pull it out so you could open the water reservoir at the back, add the water, then move it back into place.


It sat there on the kitchen counter for several years, he tried making espresso with it a couple of time ......... but the same problem.


Eventually he asked our daughter if she would like it. We were going over there by train that Christmas, and I thought the machine would fit into a small gym bag or similar.

No ........... he decided it wouldn't, didn't even try my idea .................. he took it to pieces, and fitted the pieces into a small gym bag.


He put it together over there ................ but it didn't quite look right.




I have no idea whether the daughter has tried it, had it checked over, or thrown it out.

I daren't ask her :-)

I'd do the same Sylvia..... I hate faffing about with things.

Our espresso machine has a screw-off top, water goes in there, coffee goes in the usual little metal thingie...... switch it on.......... YAY! Hyperactive!!!!!!!!!!

:-D

what on earth is a milk frother?

my fav. cooker is an Aga, lift lid and you r good to go. The complex stuff favoured by OH is way beyond me ... in London I have an ancient gas cooker from before the year dot and it does fine, even has an eye level grill. Some sort of cooker is surely essential.

Is Starbucks essential? Prob not now everybody has free WiFi. They do have frothy coffee though. Do I understand the assistants who for some reason are called barristas (?) No. I ask for a small black coffee expresso. I am asked 1001 lunatic questions and then get served horrible frothy coffee a cake and a large bill. Obviously frothy is essential. I just come from another planet.

I've got a coffee percolator. Didn't buy it, it was amongst my mum's stuff. It's at the back of a cupboard, along with various vegetable cutters etc.that she had.
My body doesn't like ground coffee, and I find a knife the most useful thing for vegetables.
I won't pay for one cup of coffee (that will invariably upset my stomach), the same as a small jar of good, instant coffee.

My washing machine occasionally decides to skip the spin cycle, my cooker is the most basic thing ever - all I could afford at the time. Since mum died, and I was left a little dosh, I could afford new ones - after all these are 'essentials', BUT, while the washing machine still works, albeit temperamentally, and the oven on my cooker hasn't yet caught fire, I will keep these 'essentials'.

However, I did buy a new kettle in a sale - the old one's filter has given up the ghost, and occasionally doesn't want to work, and a new toaster - the old one caught fire. BUT until I've re-decorated the kitchen, both new items are still in their boxes. Betty (cat) sleeps on the boxed toaster, which is currently on my living room floor :-D (as is a paper carrier bag - 'cos she likes sleeping in those too!)

Old habits die hard, and obviously, one person's 'essential' is another's 'Waste precious cupboard space with THAT!' :-D :-D :-D

If we bought all the gadgets advertised, we'd need another house to keep them in.

:-(

I like espresso, but don't drink it too often... a couple a week is enough; the rest of the time I drink brewed coffee (I detest instant). Most people hate the coffee we make, because it's strong enough to stand a spoon up in. I drink it black with NO sugar.. don't even stir my coffee with a spoon that's been used on a white with sugar!

We bought a new cooktop when we moved here 8 years ago (the old one was horrible, and two of the hotplates didn't work). The oven is about 25 years old, I recently had the glass mended.. it had moved, so had it siliconed back in place (I didn't know there was such a thing as oven silicone). It's a wall oven with an attached separate grill, and that size isn't made any more, we would have had to replace a whole cupboard if the oven couldn't be repaired.

We bought this house in 1972, and, most unusually for here, the previous owners took both the cooker and the fridge with them.

We didn't have too much money left over, so we bought a fridge immediately ................. so we could have cold beer for the friends who were helping us move.

I cooked on a camp stove on a board placed over the kitchen sink, with the window wide open (in early March!) for a month, until the next pay cheques came in, and we could just afford a cooker.


That fridge last until about 6 years ago, when the bird chirping noises every time it switched on became non-working refrigeration unit :-)

The cooker lasted until about 5 years ago, when it stopped working.


We did a major kitchen reno in late 2010 ......... ripped out all the lower counters etc. The only new appliance we bought was a built-in dishwasher ............. before that we had had a portable one that we rolled form one ed of the kitchen to the other when we needed to attach the hose to the kitchen taps.

We considered that the fridge and cooker were too new to replace!


Several people couldn't understand why we did that!



One of the men who brought the new fridge did ask how old the fridge was ..................... and then said "this new one won't last anywhere near as long as that one" :-(




LS ...............

I don't drink much coffee, just usually 1 cup a day

I don't like instant, never have. It has to be real coffee


But I just cannot drink it black ....................... and I can't drink milk. And soy milk added to hot black coffee just curdles.


That's my excuse for wanting to drink soy lattes :-)

When DH and I met, he had his coffee & tea with milk & 2 teaspoons of sugar.

It took a couple of years to wean him off milk in his coffee, and a bit longer to get him off the sugar.

But he still has milky tea with two sugars!

I hate tea, I can't even stand the smell of it..... except for chrysanthemum tea, which DH says smells like cat pee.

:-(

My OH takes at least 3 teaspoons of sugar in his black coffee (in a mug), and sometimes 4.

I cannot get him off it.





but it doesn't seem to do him any harm!




I don't take sugar in either tea or coffee, and don't add to cereal, etc

No sugar in coffee or cereal, I don't eat many biscuits or sweets.........I save up my sugar intake......... for chocolate! :-D

There was a big article in the newspapers about Waitrose Essential range.

Apparently, as you know, your till receipt shows what you have bought. And these are entered onto a computer bank. The Essential range is based on the articles bought most frequently by its shoppers. They are adding another 500 items to the list in the next six months.

Yes, I have bought baby avocados. They are the ideal size for what I want. I would sooner buy a smaller size than throw a biggun away. I buy most of my shopping there anyway.

No I do not have a milk frother, I would not know what to do with one. However, over the years we have had a popcorn maker, liquidiser that was more trouble than it was worth, and a sandwich maker!

I still cannot get the idea of an electric knife, anymore than an egg separator!



:-)