AS: Tea and biscuits and GIN, the British thread

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  • @The Intrepid Mrs S fantastic you managed to keep loose photographs around the move - lots of people lose the will to pack and bin more than they keep, to regrets later.

    @Heavenlyannie - I had chick pea and cauliflower curry for supper with a spinach bhaji and naan - the gluten-free carnivore swapped the naan for a sheekh kebab. Double cooked so same again tonight, without the spinach as that cooked down to two portions, not four.

    Yesterday felt as if all I did was cook and wash up as I also cooked stuffed peppers for lunch, using up leftovers - rice and peas mixed with refried beans for me and meat for the carnivore - quiche Lorraine for picnic lunch today and fruit tartlets to use up the gluten free pastry pack. I need to start experimenting with different flours to bake gluten free more interestingly. I didn't. I cut out the fabric for my daughter to make a pair of pyjamas for a friend for Christmas and traced off a shirt pattern which has instructions on fitting properly and a number of variations in lengths, sleeves. pockets and collars. The aim is to replace shirts lost in the wave of cannabis with collars to hide my neck and collar bones, to hide the more obvious scarring.

    We have a planned day out to the consultant, a new and different consultant as the last one went on maternity leave last week. That will make three different doctors seen in just over 4 months, contrasting to consistency from same consultant over 7 months at the previous hospital. This time we are going prepared and I'm going suited.
  • I hope it goes well with the consultant.
    I must have a go at making a shirt, I have a pattern somewhere and it would be a great Christmas present for the other half. But my more pressing matter is that I need to make an authentic Victorian dress for a re-enactment in December, I lost over 2 stone in the last year and my old dress won’t fit properly. I have some teal wool silk mix waiting for it and some sky blue and brown cotton for a new petticoat to go over my crinoline. I need to alter my corset and take in my crinoline waist too. Hmm, might start today with those.
  • I think I’ve discovered how my feline housemate spends her outside time: yesterday, when I called her in for dinner, she strolled casually along the path alongside a hedgehog. She’s been socialising with Mrs Tiggywinkle!
  • How odd! What could they possibly have in common, apart from discussing how well you (their staff) feed them?

    :worried:

    IJ
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    I think it's rather nice that they're friends. I love hedgehogs - they've got such cute little faces. I don't know if we get them over here or not - I've never seen one - but I'd be happy to have one as a tenant under the steps of the deck! 🐗
  • O indeed - Hedgehogs are delightful little Animiles, and much to be encouraged!

    I'm not quite sure that the same applies to Cats, but YMMV...

    Where's that missile-ducking smiley when you need it?

    IJ

  • There aren't any hedgehogs in the Americas, sorry Piglet. I'm partial to a hedgepig too, although they're pretty feisty beasts in reality. Sadly I don't remember the last time I saw one in the wild :( Too many roads and cement-bottomed fences in these parts.

    In other wildlife tales, Yesterday I was at home downstairs minding my own business when there was a loud bang and, on looking outside, a flurry of small feathers. The landing window has a large wing-shaped mark. Presumably it was so windy yesterday one of the group of doves that roost in our hawthorn tree was blown into the window. Yikes.
  • Yikes indeed! Did he/she survive the encounter, do you know?
    :fearful:

    IJ
  • Youngest dragged me to his window yesterday. There was a sparrowhawk sitting on the wormery eating a bluetit. I'd post the footage, but technology and I aren't friends. A tiny piece of bluetit was left, which went in the wormery. Normally I'd be upset, but it's several years since we had a sparrowhawk. Last time our gigantic feral landed on one, compelling it to leave the pigeon it had just caught.
    It's welcome to come back, as long as it confines itself to pigeons.
  • SarasaSarasa Shipmate
    edited October 2018
    James grieves are one of my favourite apples, and not one you see in your local supermarket.
    At present I'm lying in bed in Tuscany about to get up and go down to breakfast. The rest of the people on our 'walking and wine tasting tour' have gone into Florence, but having spent a week there a few years ago we've opted for a lazy day at the very nice agritourismo instead.
  • That sounds very civilised. I may have to investigate such a tour. If only Italy were nearer to Oz ha ha.

    Never heard of that variety...so many apples, so little time. I am partial to the bog standard Red Delicious, and like my Buerre Bosc pears (think that is how it is spelt).
  • Yikes indeed! Did he/she survive the encounter, do you know?
    :fearful:

    IJ

    When I worked at the Large Computer Company which @daisydaisy knows so well, the offices were out in the countryside and two buildings were connected by a glass bridge. There were so many outlines of owls on it that if they hadn't survived, we'd have been knee-deep in dead owls - but we weren't, thank heavens!

    Mrs. S, very fond of owls
  • I've had a pigeon fly at one of my windows like that - the imprint was both wings and a body. But it seemed to pick itself up and fly away. Smaller birds too; you hear a thump and see a bird under the window, that don't often stay around to make a meal for the cats.
  • I have a very healthy apple crop this year. One tree is James Grieve and the other's name I can't remember. Both are delicious, but I also can't remember which is which, I just remember one of them is James Grieve. Can anyone tell me are the Jamesian apples mainly yellow with a hint of red and an open texture, or mainly red with a hint of green and a firm white flesh?
  • James Grieve identification - that site helps people identify apples.
  • daisydaisydaisydaisy Shipmate
    edited October 2018
    Not only did I work at the aforementioned establishment in the countryside, but I grew up down the road in the countryside, where the sitting room had an enourmous window. Roughly once a year we’d hear a humongous bang when a pheasant had thought it could go further than it did. Sometimes they survived and walked off, a bit wobbly. Sometimes they didn’t and made it into dinner for next door (mother couldn’t face the palaver of getting it ready for the pot). Sometimes it came straight through the window, and would strut stunned around the sitting room surrounded by broken glass.
  • My balcony doors were so well polished by the cleaners that a pigeon flew straight into one a few weeks ago. It did get up and fly off, somewhat wobbly. At least it flew. Last summer I found a dead pigeon on the balcony. No idea what had happened. I have no love for pigeons and have trouble being at close quarters with any birds although I love watching them fly. No one else around, so I had to make myself get rid of it.
  • MMMMMM Shipmate
    Has anyone else noticed the noise pigeons make when they're flying? It's not a swooshy, flappy noise, but a real creak, as though their wings need oiling.

    MMM
  • MMM wrote: »
    Has anyone else noticed the noise pigeons make when they're flying? It's not a swooshy, flappy noise, but a real creak, as though their wings need oiling.

    MMM

    They make a loud "pop" if you run over one!

    On the subject of sparrowhawks, my sister-in-law sees them quite regularly, mostly because tits and finches nest in the garden. Naturally the sparrowhawk treats the garden as just one of many restaurants and cafes on its patch and they are in and out before you know it! It's sad to see the young taken for food, but the 'hawk always leaves a few so that next year's supply is secure.
  • la vie en rougela vie en rouge Circus Host, 8th Day Host
    My Dad, a keen gardener in the finest British tradition, puts out food for the birds and enjoys watching them through his living room windows. Now and again a sparrow-hawk swoops down and carries off one of the little diners. Far from expressing wonderment at the magnificent carnivore, he gets Very Annoyed about this and expresses his wish that the hawk would go and eat someone else’s sparrows.

    It always reminds me of that thing about not one falling to the ground without the Father’s knowledge :smile:
  • Yikes indeed! Did he/she survive the encounter, do you know?
    :fearful:

    I checked straight away and it seems to have flown off, so fingers crossed.

    As mentioned above, MuminElmet is the recipient of apples by the bushel. We had a donation of some red apples, with a request for jelly. It has come out the most beautiful jewel burgundy colour and looks lovely in the jar. In the meantime, we've had another batch of smaller apples some of which may be stuck on a stick and coated in chocolate.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Chocolate on apples??? :grimace: Not at all sure about that - I've never been a huge fan of chocolate and fruit together*, although I love them individually.

    * except for Brookside, which I shouldn't like, but I do.
  • finelinefineline Kerygmania Host, 8th Day Host
    I have been putting pieces of apple in my salads. I like them better combined with a savoury meal. I like fried apple too, with fried onion, and steak or sausages.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Apples in salads are lovely, especially if there's a nut or two as well, and maybe a honey-and-mustard dressing.
  • finelinefineline Kerygmania Host, 8th Day Host
    I have been having them in chicken salad, and they are very nice with chicken. I prefer nuts with avocado. I like the contrast of textures. I cut in half an avocado, and fill it with brazil nuts or peanuts.
  • I love apples in salads and also cook them with onions. One of my favourite dinner party accompaniments is pickled pears, an old Tudor recipe of pears simmered in cider vinegar and spices. I serve it warm with roast meats.
  • I've never had it in that context ... worth trying with our Christmas venison, I think!
  • Piglet wrote: »
    Chocolate on apples??? :grimace: Not at all sure about that - I've never been a huge fan of chocolate and fruit together*, although I love them individually.

    * except for Brookside, which I shouldn't like, but I do.
    We've done toffee apples as well, but they don't seem as popular as they once were. The supermarkets sell both.

    In savoury dishes I'm partial to apple in coleslaw. Good with pickled herring.
  • James Grieve identification - that site helps people identify apples.

    Thanks. Definitely the red with a bit of green ones, then. They taste the best as well!

  • It’s apples with everything, chez daisydaisy- it’s one of the allotment crops that managed very well without my attention over the summer. As it’s my turn to do the coffee at church on Sunday, I’ve decided to try out making some apple & cinnamon cookies for the congregation.
  • Piglet wrote: »
    Apples in salads are lovely, especially if there's a nut or two as well, and maybe a honey-and-mustard dressing.

    The classic Waldorf salad can be a meal or an accompaniment. I can see how avocado fits in, especially if slightly under-ripe.

    Apples definitely improve coleslaw: the sharpness cuts through claggy blandness caused by rich dresssing.
  • Can I dissent here? I really don't like avocados!
  • finelinefineline Kerygmania Host, 8th Day Host
    I love avocados - always have, since before they were trendy. I don't like walnuts though, so don't tend to eat Waldorf salads. I should really just make my own version with different nuts.

    (Am I the only one who associates Waldorf salads with Fawlty Towers? That's where I first heard of them.)
  • MooMoo Kerygmania Host
    fineline wrote: »
    I don't like walnuts though, so don't tend to eat Waldorf salads. I should really just make my own version with different nuts.

    I have always used pecans in Waldorf salad.

  • MMMMMM Shipmate
    edited October 2018
    Another who doesn't like avocados. They taste like soap to me. And I don't like apples in salad or coleslaw, either (I don't like fruit in savoury things generally).

    MMM
  • I'm with you there, MMM! I loathe avocados, and am not a fan of sweet and savoury together, either. Long, long ago, when I went to stay with a Belgian pen-friend, I was served little meat balls with cherries! I quietly ate all the cherries before eating the meatballs, which seemed to me the best way of dealing with my meal. I thought no one noticed, but thinking it over, I bet they did!
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    Cheese and jam - yum

    Cheese and fruit cake - even yummier

    Avocados - delicious

    Apples and raisins in salad - perfect

    :mrgreen:
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    IMHO, avocados are proof that God loves us, and as several of you disagree, that's all the more for the rest of us. :smiley:

    The crab-apple jelly I made, I've discovered, is very nice with CHEESE and crackers, and also makes a good substitute for marmalade* on TOAST.

    * I like marmalade, but D. doesn't (it's one of the things he wishes he liked, but doesn't), and it doesn't seem worth it to buy a jar just for me.

    * * * * *

    It's another beautiful autumn day here - only 13°, but gloriously sunny - so I had a lovely amble over the bridge and then we had a little jaunt round the outskirts of Fredericton looking for a stationery warehouse so that we could pick up some files he'd ordered for the choir.

    The lady in the retail shop had only told us which road the warehouse was in, but the trees were looking so pretty in their autumn colours, it was really no hardship that we took a couple of wrong turnings along the way.
  • daisydaisydaisydaisy Shipmate
    edited October 2018
    Well, that was an evening and a half. I’m now Chair of the Orchestra I’m in, having stood against the previous Chair, an almost unheard of event but had to be done in order to keep the committee and MD. eek.

    How interesting - Piglet's D. has the same view on marmalade as I do - I feel I ought to like something so beautiful but can’t swallow it.
  • I have Very Particular Views on marmalade. It must be thick cut, with a high fruit content, and not too sweet. Ultimately there is only one which really satisfies me and that is Wilkins' "Tawny" - unfortunately it is at the higher end of the price spectrum so I do alternate its purchase with Lesser Varieties.

    My wife can't stand the stuff.
  • I’m also in the ‘I feel I should like marmalade but don’t’ camp. I do like lemon and lime marmalade but am really not keen on the orange. My other half loves marmalade and is a fan of Wilkins’.
    Tired this morning, it was a long day yesterday getting ready for students to start this week, applying to do some critical review work to get up the academic ladder and phoning a student in the evening. But I do now have a lovely new computer to work on.
  • For those who like marmalade, I can offer virtual jars of homemade orange [also with brandy or whisky], three fruits, lemon-lime and blood orange, and soon cumquat as our tree is delivering a second flush of fruit for the year. Our little town's farmer's market folded a few months ago, and the stock that used to go on the parish stall is cluttering the pantry.
  • It is 10am and no-one else in the house is awake yet! The lazy things. I was hoping to persuade them to go out for breakfast but at this rate it will be too late.
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    It is 10am and no-one else in the house is awake yet! The lazy things. I was hoping to persuade them to go out for breakfast but at this rate it will be too late.

    Awww - I love going out for breakfast, we only ever do it on holiday. But my sons and friends meet for breakfast regularly - I’ve brought up really civilised boys!



  • I think it's legal to have breakfast up until 12 noon. After that, it turns into lunch (though the menu might be identical!).

    Mind you, it's such a Dismal Desmond of a day here that I can't blame anyone for sleeping in. I am about to console myself with a nice lunch of pork steaks with a baked POTATO, which latter will be crispified in the Palace Rayburn.

    I do believe there's half a bottle of Bordeaux to go with it.... :grin:

    IJ
  • MooMoo Kerygmania Host
    When we lived in Belfast, we used to enjoy Keillor's lemon chip marmalade. Unfortunately they seem to have stopped making it.
  • I have Very Particular Views on marmalade. It must be thick cut, with a high fruit content, and not too sweet. Ultimately there is only one which really satisfies me and that is Wilkins' "Tawny" - unfortunately it is at the higher end of the price spectrum so I do alternate its purchase with Lesser Varieties.

    My wife can't stand the stuff.

    BT, you may have Very Particular Views on marmalade, but you clearly have Very Good Taste!
    :wink:

    I'm happy with cheapo Co-Op marmalade, but do enjoy trying different makes/flavours from time to time. These days, however, I'm mostly having TOAST and MARMITE for breakfast...

    IJ

  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    You can have my share of the Marmite, BF! I admit I'm no connoisseur when it comes to marmalade, but as a matter of principle I'd probably buy Tiptree if I were buying it.
    ... Our little town's farmer's market folded a few months ago, and the stock that used to go on the parish stall is cluttering the pantry.
    That's a shame - farmers' markets are a Really Good Thing. We don't patronise ours as often as we should - it's only open on Saturday mornings (6 a.m. to 1 p.m.), and as we're inveterate night-owls, we have to make a concerted effort to get up and go to it.

    Why on earth do they need to open at 6 in the morning? Surely they could open at 8 and stay open until 3 in the afternoon - after all, some of the stall-holders probably come from quite a distance away, and they must be setting out in the middle of the night!
  • finelinefineline Kerygmania Host, 8th Day Host
    I don't like marmalade. I like butter on my toast, and dipping it into a boiled egg. Marmite is okay, but I'm happy to have the cheaper Asda brand, which tends to horrify true Marmite fans!
  • Baptist TrainfanBaptist Trainfan Shipmate
    edited October 2018
    Marmalade on toast, Marmite on toast - both are excellent (but not on the same piece of toast, of course!)
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