General Chat

I don't have ready meals, I have the 'beige bags', usually containing some sort of stew cooked in the slow cooker, and, in reality, enough for 4 meals (or people)!
After eating the same thing two days running, the rest is put in a bag or two, and frozen :-S

......but it's all cooked from scratch!!

I was only thinking the other day, when neither of us felt strong enough to cook any sort of meal because we each had a horrible cold, that sensible people always have ready meals in their freezers.

Hello Penny..how I agree with you.
Even living on my own I only buy the occasional ready meal and make ,say, a stew and freeze some or stir fry.
In my view I eat healthily and have always had a hot meal for when family came home from school/ work...and always sat round the table where you can discuss the events of the day...that doesn't seem to happen much these days.
You didn't see many overweight people around when I was young!

I love this thread. My younger sister & I were having a similar conversation just a day ago. We believe that the school's should still be teaching girls & boys to cook because they really haven't got a clue. Everything in a packet or tin. We both agreed that our school cooking lessons (Domestic Science) was invaluable to us. Our mum, bless her , was not the greatest cook but did her best to show us and her Yorkshire pudding recipe will stay with me forever. I'm convinced we would all be better fed and possibly would not need all the "Food Banks" . We learned how to make a great meal from fresh air.......almost . ;-)

We have yorkies with all meat meals,,,, pork chops or a stew which contains only 3 root veg..onions carrots and swede.
we have a gravy meal Sunday to Fri.......then Sat is a grill meal,,,,,bacon etc.......

we dont eat chicken or turkey as we dont like it.

thank goodness OH dislikes almost the same things as me.......apart from mustard yuk and I wont even wash a plate thats had it on,.!

:-D :-D.
and a pizza would be thrown like a frisby,,,,,we dont eat them.

I grow all my own veg so have a good daily fresh supply with no chemicals into the mix.......

I'm not a fussy eater...will try most things ...never fancied tripe though and my mum used to have it with a summer salad
It's only as I've been older and travelled quite a lot that I have really enjoyed certain foods that I never grew up with.
I love Spanish food and do cook myself certain dishes that I grew to love while living in Andalucia.
We are all familiar now with multinational fare and have our favourites...variety is the spice of life...still love a roast dinner with crispy roast potatoes and ,living alone only have it when I go out or family come here.
Have just found a local eatery where they do roast potatoes like the home cooked ones....a lot of places ,I find they are on the soft side and not crisp....
Why do they all serve Yorkshire pudding with every meat as well as beef??

Yes,Rollo I would love to go to New Orleans....maybe??
Have a lot of musician friends who have been.
:-)

I am a fussy eater,,, :-D,mainly because of a list of things I dont like,,,,,,,if its something I can push to one side fine,but if its in the cooking such as garlic,peppers,spices, sauces added wine etc then I will leave the food untouched.

I fed my children a wider variety of foods than I had when I was a child but that's a sign of the times, I think. My grandchildren also.

What surprised me when I was young (I am way over 70) was how many of my friends ate their evening meals with siblings but not with parents. We all ate together.

The other thing that surprised me (and I only learned about this when I was an adult) was that whereas my Dad would always be happy with a salad in the evening others' dads 'had to have a hot meal' when coming in from work.

Sorry, folks, I eat anything put in front of me so I find it hard to understand 'fussy' eaters .. I do favour some meals though.

By the way, one has to be careful with the amount of garlic if someone is on Warfarin, also if anyone has Coeliac Disease it's a 'must' to cater for that person's needs.

Brenda loves to play jazz. The music is born of its culture in Lousiana and inseperable from the (fabulous) cuisine there which is def. not very plain.

New Orleans at Mardi Gras ( you have 11 months to save up ) is something any musician will want to experience once at least. Right now the city still needs all the help it can get. Hungry jazz fans are very welcome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4o86juvMEE

:-D

I just do what my mother always stated....everything in moderation...
They now say that animal fat is Ok for you...all these spreads have additives.
As long as you don't overeat and have regular balanced meals and reasonable amount of exercise you should be OK.
My dad used to say ....always leave the table when you feel you could eat a little bit more...and I suppose that has stuck with me ,as I don't like the uncomfortable feeling,of being over full.

Allan ,I expect browning was only used in dry weather.
I used to watch my mother's young sister doing all these things and then I remember her buying tan in a bottle that I suppose didn't run.

:-D :-D

All these things are OK if you use them sensibly. If we have a pie we don't have potatoes but we do have two or three portions of veg, usually steamed. If you have a large helping of steak pie and chips, followed by spotted dick, and you don't get any exercise, then, yes, it is bad for you. But that's down to lifestyle.

We were discussing a meal we had out earlier this week, which led on to British 'plain' cooking. Unfortunately, those which we enjoy are considered 'bad' for you.

Steak & Kidney (suet) pudding
Steak & Kidney pie (pastry top)
Stew & Dumplings
Liver & Bacon - sliced lambs liver dipped in flour then fried, the whole lot smothered in a thick gravy - flour, fat/oil and a stock cube made in the pan you've used to cook the liver and bacon.

People tend to do the 'now you are talking real wickedness' bit when I mention dumplings these days as if they dare not eat them.

So what is so very wrong with something made of flour, water, salt and baking powder?

When we lived in the US I couldn't find gravy browning... nobody knew what I was talking about. Pale gravy just looks awful......... I ended up sticking a teaspoon of Vegemite in the gravy! Yes, we took our own Vegemite... Himself is addicted!

There's a packet of gravy mix in the pantry, but I couldn't tell you when it was last used, it's probably gone hard & horrible. I make my own gravy (using gravy flour). Heat a couple of Tablespoons olive oil, brown the flour, add beef stock, fresh ground black pepper and a bit of Worcestershire sauce.... and if it's too pale, add a few drops of Parisian essence.

:-)

A bit messy in wet weather ;-) :-D :-D

That was used during the war to paint the legs before you put a stocking seam up the back.

Has anyone tried gravy browning as a fake tan?

Dark soy sauce with cornflour add s&p makes nice gravy with meat juices aswell.......dark soy is a lot less salty than light soy.

Gravy browning....... in Oz it's called Parisian Essence


I wonder if Rollo approves


;-)