General Chat

Afternoon all from a very wet village! Started raining early hours and Its still raining, so no venturing outside for me today.

Instead daughter and I have been making xmas and blank cards for 3 hours! So have finished clearing up! Oh my the mess with all the little scrappy bits of this & that.

There is a xmas fayre in Nov and we have booked 2 tables to sell the cards. I have ordered the cellophane sleeves to put each card in so they look professional.

So now to organise the tea. Jacket potatoes, mini corn on the cobs, home made tzatziki with naan bread strips, side salad etc. We have some lovely mint choc chip ice cream for desert as well.

Linda, I'm with Joan re the kitchen. I like everything in its place and would rather cook then let my daughter! Last night she put a whole bottle of cooking oil in a good pan and then put some oven chips in this mini basket to fry them????

She turned the hob to number 6, the highest to get the oil hot!! Oh nooo I said, we dont want a fire so turn it down to no 3. I was so nervous in case the fat overflowed or worse, it got too hot, smoked and went on fire.

I was so glad when she had finished and then she said where do I put the oil??? Well what a waste as I never fry anything. So down the bottom of the garden and over the fence in the deep grass, its rough waste land.

As for the mess.....hmmm she did clear it up but I went over it again later on.

Linda you must have the patience of a saint!!. Hope sil did all the dishes and cleaned up after himself?

Was so lovely last night to be able to shut the inner porch door and not trip over the carpet at 4am when I needed the bathroom lol

Well Im off to sort out the food now.

Enjoy your evening everyone

Florence in the hebrides

Linda :-D :-D Seemed like a good idea at the time. Is he the only one who uses the oil. It sounds as if it would be too hot for most people.

Florence what a mystery about your bruise, maybe you did it in your sleep. Glad you have got rid of the carpet, and that there was somebody available to help lift it.

Joan, good to hear that your granddaughters shoulder has healed and that she can help you again.

Ginnie isn't it frustrating when you have a good day gardening and then can't get back to it the next day. Typical of our usual British summers. But, I think, preferable to what they are getting in Europe.

The kitchen survived the oil - just. I left them to it while they were doing the prep, but went in while the oil was being heated. My pans have metal handles, but it didn’t occur to him that the handle would be hot, so he burnt his hand :-S
Then he had to sieve the oil into a Pyrex dish ( I stopped him from using a plastic measuring jug). The oil then needed to go back into the pan and be heated up with more ingredients, so he rinsed the pan in water and was just about to pour the very hot oil into the wet pan when I said that was not a good idea and made him dry the pan. He then attempted to pick up the Pyrex dish to pour the oil back into the pan of course it was incredibly hot, so he spilt some onto the hob top when he put it down. Luckily he didn’t get it in his hand.
He did wash up, but thankfully they went out to soft play, so I put all of the packets of ingredients away and gave everything a good clean. I dismantled the hob top and gave that a good clean as well, to be fair that was overdue a clean

The good news is that they exchanged contracts on the London house yesterday and completion is on Monday. Now they need to get a definite date from the house they are buying up here . When they had their offer accepted, the estate agent said it would be available from mid July, but when they went to measure up for furniture, the couple who are going back to America, said mid September would suit them. I think they gave compromised on mid August, but now the London house has gone, they are in a better position to push for an August date. We will really miss them, but it will be nice to have our house back.

Oh my Linda!! Yes you will miss them but by golly, you will be happy to just have the house back to you and hubby.

Would you believe it, after what I said yesterday about "others" in the family who just might ruin my pots & pans or the entire kitchen for that matter, I have done just that with one of my everyday/best pan, the smallest of the set that I use most often.

I had put a small amount of tattie into the pan & left it unattended whn I had to do something else ! in the mean time the powere went off then back on again quite quickly so I went back to the kitchen to switch everything back on re the hob & oven, only to find my tatties stuck the the bottom of the pan & brown, arrrrgh,

Just spent about 1/2 an hour GENTLY scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon in the hope of rescuing it, I have almost got the burnt residue off but a little more to go, but I don't see me getting it back to how it was.
It's a non-stick pan with a white interior, not really expensive but rather smart looking.
I am sooo dissapointed, I could cry, .

Horrible day here rain, sun, rain, sun, been doing that all day.

Joan.

Oh dear Joan, I don’t think the pan will survive. My main pains are all stainless steel with metal handles. They were an expensive set when I first got them, but I must have had the twenty years and they are still going strong. I have several frying pans in the set and the large one, I use just about every day as a wok. They joy is that I just use a steel pan scrubber on it if I need to. I have burnt lots of stuff onto the pans over the years. When I end up with a charred black mess, I just put a dishwasher tab in, bring it to the boil and leave it to soak, that usually dies the trick.
I do have a small nonstick pan for scrambled eggs and a small nonstick frying pan for my omelettes, but I have to replace them regularly

It is a sunny day here, but very windy. I did a long litter pick this morning and got a very large bag of rubbish, a set of wheels on an axle from something like a child’s pedal car, a very large bag for life full of old electrical bits and a large nitrous oxide canister. Some people leave odd things by the road side.

That was a strange haul Linda.

Joan have you got any white vinegar? Try leaving the pand soaking in some of that.

Hi Ann, no white vinegar, but I have had a nother session gently "scraping" the burnt tattie residue off the bottom & it's almost gone, there is a little burnt look left but it's the pan rather than burnt tattie so I don't see that being removed, it's not much at all but dissappointed about it, it "may" wear off at some point, lol.

I have a set of cast iron pans on "display" but I do use them, the smallest for scrambled egg is brilliant, the sgg just falls off the pan, nothing left of the egg within the pan at all.

I have 2 elderly stone (JML) frying pans that have lost their "sparkle" the smallest is only for frying bacon, (don't liked grilled bacon !) the larger oneI use for things like Corned Beef Hash & Stirfry.

I like my white interior non-stick pans for most of my cooking so I'm annoyed that I burnt one of them today.

Joan.

Rnubarb works wonders on stainless steel, I wonder if it would work on the nonstick.

Vinegar certainly works.
Put in enough to cover the burnt bits, bring it to the boil, switch off and leave it sitting overnight.
In the morning the burnt bits just lift off - at least in my experience!

Well another wet day. Its been gale force winds and torrential rain since yesterday and no let up!!

I didn't even get dressed today!!! Shock of horrors as never done that before but wasn't going to venture outside or get any visitors so didn't see the point.

I made some cards earlier with geometric shapes, something different from what I had been doing.
pizza and left over salad today as couldn't face a huge meal.

Joan , your poor pan! I once left carrots boiling with plenty of water and went off to take a tel call in my bedroom. I came down smelling something burning and realised there was no water left in the pan! Well & truly black. I cleaned it several times but couldn't get the pan back to the way it was before.

Linda, what an unusual collection of rubbish in your haul today. never surprises me what people just chuck out.

Anyway just chilling on here for the evening and watching tv at the same time lol.

Florence in the hebrides

Thanks for the tips girls, I will have to get some white vinegar in case I do it again, I'm not planning to as I am usually sooo careful, just got distracted today. !

Joan..

Good morning everyone. It is a nice day here . I went to my slimming class and miraculously had lost a pound. I wasn’t expecting to given the naughty meal out we had fir our anniversary
I took Eve to have he r ears pierced this morning, she was very apprehensive, but is pleased now it is over.
Little Esme has had a general anaesthetic this morning so she could have Botox injections into her Achilles tendons. She has had two major operations to lengthen then before, this is supposed to be instead of another operation. She wasn’t happy about having it done, she was working herself up into a right state last night. She stayed in a Premier Inn opposite the hospital last night as they had to be there so early. I don’t think her mum got much sleep. She was shouting at the nurses telling them she was angry and tried to kick one nurse this morning. I am sure they are used to it, there isn’t much you can do with a child with severe learning disabilities.

It is all go today as we are also having major work done on the Beech hedge which runs along the front of our front garden and between the gardens to separate us from the house next door. The hedge continues along the front of their garden as well. We are having the height reduced to two metres. It has encroached quite a way into next doors garden as they have never really kept on top of it, so they are having to have more work done than us. There is also a maple tree on the joint boundary. OH has taken quite a few branches off the bottom over the years. The neighbours haven’t, so the tree is growing right through the hedge on their side. They decided to have theirs cut, so it made sense to have it all done at the same time. OH cuts it twice a year and for the last few times has been saying that he was going to get someone to do it as it is such hard work.

Afternoon everyone.

After doing some ironing, i was so hot & bothered so decided to venture outside as it was dry but breezy.

I started de-heading some flowers and weeding some of the pots. Was getting on quite well and then daughter came out and said" mum ,look at the sky in the distance."
It was so black and thundery looking so quickly finished off and now indoors waiting for the heavens to open.

Yesterday, I went through my cookery book shelf and removed all those bits of paper with recipes on and wrote them in my recipe book. So huge pile of paper to be shredded but now the shelf is tidy and got rid of 3 very old cookery books which I think came from a charity shop years ago!.

But in tidying, I found my breadmaker recipe book from the new machine & the previous one so maybe going to make something later on.

Linda poor thing. Esme was obviously terrified and found the whole thing upsetting. I hope she is settled today and all went well?

Well the rain hasnt come and the black clouds are moving away :-S Was so expecting a clap of thunder but glad there wasn't.

Not sure about tea tonight. I'm hungry but just fed up with food lol. I have exhausted all my usual recipes so who knows.

Hope everyone well today

Florence in the hebrides

The tin of Marvel dried milk is dated Mar 2021 but is sealed so anyone know if it would still be ok to use in the breadmaker or indeed still use it? Does it go off?

Hello.
The rain bypassed your area Florence & come down to us in Aberdeenshire instead.
It started off first thing nice & calm & sunny but by the time I had got dressed (9-00am) it started to rain, then prceeded to chuck it down & is stilll doing so, really fed up of all the rain, day after day.

So yet another indoor day doing some housework, put some washing in & had a tidy round, run the hoover round the living room as there were a few bits of my hair on the carpet after giving my hair a trim last night.

Doing a simple tea today, Baked tattie for hubby with "something" probably beans, lol, I'm having a bit of a fry up, got 2 rashers of bacon to use up so I will do a fried egg & some of the beans to go with it.

I hope esme has recovered from her ordeall at the hospital Linda, poor bairn, it must be so hard for her & for everyone else to have to go through sooo much at her age.
Do take care of yourself, you have a very busy life what with one thing or another

Joan.

Re the dried milk - I would think it's OK to use.

Is that a "use by" date or just "best before" ?

From a Google search:

Dry milk retains quality for a couple of years if stored properly. Even if it's a year or two past its date, it still makes sense to give it a go. More often than not, prepared milk will be just fine in terms of taste. Nonfat dry milk retains quality for longer than a whole-fat one.
https://www.canitgobad.net/can-powdered-milk-go-bad/


Powdered milk can go bad, but it takes awhile. Most manufacturers recommend using powdered milk (also known as dried milk) within 18 months, but this is really just a "best by" date. According to the USDA, powdered milk can be stored indefinitely. An unopened package is probably still usable for 2 to 10 years after the printed "best by" date. Some survival stores sell nonfat dry powdered milk labeled with a 25-year shelf life.
But the shelf life does depend on the type of powdered milk. Nonfat powdered milk lasts longer than powdered whole milk or buttermilk, as fat is less stable. As such, nonfat dried milk is preferred for long-term food storage. If you are looking at the label of dried whole milk, you will want to use it up soon after the "best by" date.
https://www.thespruceeats.com/does-powdered-milk-go-bad-1388298

Esme’s Botox went well. It has to be a general anaesthetic because apparently it is very painful and they have to keep absolutely still. While she was out, they also took two skin tags off, one just under her eye and one on her nostril.
They only did one leg and it will be a while before they know if it has worked. If it does, they will then do the other leg. Her leg wasn’t even sore, she was jumping around dancing to the tv when she got home. She had two large white plasters over the puncture wounds and she didn’t like them, so her mum swapped them for small plasters, but even they had to come off at bed time. She had a runny nose and that was making the little wound on her nostril sore. She took Katie her best doll with her. Katie went into the theatre as well and when she came out, she had one arm professionally bandaged because apparently she has a broken arm.
By this morning she was fine and has had a good day at school. Tomorrow is her tenth birthday, so she is very excited about that. It will be party day at school. She is taking money in and they order pizzas for the class. She also has balloons and a birthday cake, plus party bags for the other five children in her class. They make sure the children have a good day,

Linda Happy birthday to Esme, It doesn't seem possible that she is ten. The same age as my eldest Great Grandson. I hope the botox works as with their being no wound problems afterwards it must be much better for her. Maybe the next time she will remember that it was not so bad and won't be frightened, which will make it easier on Mum and staff.

It is fairly bright here this morning although there are rain clouds around. I woke up early and couldn't get back to sleep so am early on here. Probably before everyone else is awake.

I am always awake early Ann, the radio comes on at seven, but I am always waiting for it. I don’t get up until much later as I doze and look at my iPad.
We were up at 7.20 this morning for the birthday girl, I thought it would be much earlier, but she slept in. We all came down so she could open her large pike of presents, There is also a huge blow up unicorn in the lounge, just what we wanted :-D

I am taking Eve out today with my next door neighbour. We are going to do a historic walking trail around old Hartlepool. I have done it before and it is very interesting The German navy shelled it in 1914, destroying lots of houses and killing lots people