The Untied Kingdom? - the British thread 2021

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  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Chili con carne - spooned into shallow bowls rimmed with tortilla chips, topped with cheese and finished under the grill.
  • No shortage of urban foxes round here - I've had them come through the garden (about 15m long) *when I've been in it* in daylight, any chicken run here would have to be nuclear bunkeresque in scale.

    Well, if the foxes are 15 metres long, I think the humans need a nuclear bunker!
  • There is one plant - not yet identified, even by experts! - which has the most gorgeous little bright vermilion blooms, come summer.
    You say vermilion, but I wonder if it might be scarlet pimpernel?

  • We have scarlet pimpernel in our garden in the summer (our garden used to be a farmer’s field and it’s a common arable weed), our tiny blooms tend to be an orange red.

    A day off from marking today but instead I have the scary project of designing a conference poster. I am in no way a graphic designer and am relying on my husband to rescue me later in the day with something more professional.
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited March 23
    There is one plant - not yet identified, even by experts! - which has the most gorgeous little bright vermilion blooms, come summer.
    You say vermilion, but I wonder if it might be scarlet pimpernel?

    Alas, no - though that's certainly a pretty little flower. The one I have grows to several inches in height, has dark, spiky leaves, and the flowers have lots and lots of petals (like a dandelion)...I can't really give a better description than that.
  • SandemaniacSandemaniac Shipmate
    edited March 23
    I wondered if it might be fox-and-cubs, but that doesn't have spiny leaves, and is more orange.
  • SarasaSarasa Shipmate
    It's not some sort of marigold @Bishops Finger ?
    It looks like the sale of this house might be happening quite soon, so decisions about what to do in the gap before we can move to our new place need to be made.
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited March 23
    I wondered if it might be fox-and-cubs, but that doesn't have spiny leaves, and is more orange.

    Well, that's pretty close - I may have been wrong about the leaves (my memory is very erratic). It's not out at the moment, but I'll certainly bear *fox-and-cubs* in mind!
    :wink:
  • NenyaNenya Shipmate
    Scarlet pimpernel is lovely - it grows like a weed in our garden but apparently is quite rare in other parts of the country.

    I'm cleaning my oven today. :flushed: It's confession time :flushed: as I frankly don't ever remember doing such a thing before :flushed: and realised that at least partly it goes back to upbringing - I never saw my mum (or my dad, who barely knew where the oven was :wink: ) clean an oven, not ever, as she maintained the one we had was "self cleaning" and I've laboured under that fond delusion with mine. It's been niggling in my mind for months, particularly as I know our son in law cleans theirs every week :flushed: . I'd got as far as buying a pack of the Appropriate Jollop, which comes with gloves, bag and dire warnings about the caustic nature of the contents therein. I was gearing up to do it for Christmas as the family were meant to be here, then they couldn't be here so it got delayed. This morning I've started. I think it's going to be an all-day job. Everything is currently soaking and marinating and generally activating itself, I hope. I think a lot of Scrubbing will be required as well. :flushed:

    I've also started, yet again, on another Sort The House exercise. It all started so well at the beginning of lockdown last year... :flushed:
  • ZacchaeusZacchaeus Shipmate
    Nenya wrote: »
    Piglet wrote: »
    Beans on TOAST for supper tonight, I think - a dish fit for a king when you're in the mood for it!
    I love beans on toast - one of the few meals that takes longer to eat than it does to cook! I'd eat them several times in the week if it were just me in the house, but they don't agree with Mr Nen's Delicate Digestion, and on a Sunday evening when I have them for a treat for supper he has spaghetti hoops. This is only ok because we'll have had our main meal at lunchtime, because Something On Toast (as enny fule kno) is a snack, not a meal. :wink:

    Beans on toast are on of my favourite breakfasts
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Was in Aldi this morning and found in the bakery aisle 'Cheese and Chilli Hot Cross Buns'. Is outrage.

    (I thought we'd touched bottom with Salted Caramel, but apparently not).
  • M&S have had those cheese and chilli hot cross buns on sale this year, mostly on discounted sale, unsurprisingly from my POV. No, I haven't tried them, although I do quite like the apple versions and my daughter is currently choosing to eat a gluten free chocolate flavoured hot cross bun for breakfast as less likely to be inhaled than cereal.

    I've just wandered up to town to collect a couple of prescriptions for the offspring, to be told that their system has crashed and nothing is available. As the more urgent script is for Prednisolone as she's struggling to swallow, I'm not sorry. Taking it will: 1) put her into the extremely clinically vulnerable category, and she hasn't qualified for the Covid19 vaccine yet, 2) it took 18 months to get her off it last time, and 3) this is happening as we're trying to plan how to start face-to-face youth work and Guides sessions from 12 April. Although, once bitten, twice shy: we'll be extremely careful with it this time around and we're not rushing to start Guides face-to-face.

    Our biggest problem for Guides is that the 15 girls on our books (the biggest group that can meet) attend 7 different schools, to my knowledge, and we're not supposed to allow them to mingle between school clusters. So running meetings even outside is going to be a challenge, without factoring in a mixed-use hall (nursery, scouts, cubs, beavers, brownies, guides, rainbows), and how we time the meetings to allow deep cleaning between sessions.

    Glorious day today, sunshine and blossom, harbingers of spring busting out all over. And we even got a less skiddy walk in the Forest this morning than last time we tried.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    It's a dull but not unpleasant day here, although cooler than it's been.

    The NHS got its money's worth out of me today: the phone seemed to be going like a Christmas tree most of the day.

    Nearly home now, with plans for paella for supper.

  • NenyaNenya Shipmate
    That does sound like a challenge @Curiosity killed . I'm glad the timing (or not) of the medication seems to be good for your daughter.

    The oven cleaning has pretty much taken up the whole day and I'm thoroughly fed up with it. I haven't even been out for a walk - I did get an hour outside raking moss out of the lawn. Such excitement. >rolleyes< On the positive side, the top oven looks good. The bottom one will need another go with some more Appropriate Jollop.

    Fish pie for tea. I'm going to get it into the oven and then have a refreshing shower; I feel all over sweat and grease. Ugh.
  • la vie en rougela vie en rouge Circus Host, 8th Day Host
    @Nenya look on the bright side: at least your oven didn't explode like ours did when it was supposedly cleaning itself.
  • DooneDoone Shipmate
    Mega-respect, @Nenya!
  • Nenya wrote: »
    Scarlet pimpernel is lovely - it grows like a weed in our garden but apparently is quite rare in other parts of the country.

    I'm cleaning my oven today. :flushed: It's confession time :flushed: as I frankly don't ever remember doing such a thing before :flushed: and realised that at least partly it goes back to upbringing - I never saw my mum (or my dad, who barely knew where the oven was :wink: ) clean an oven, not ever, as she maintained the one we had was "self cleaning" and I've laboured under that fond delusion with mine. It's been niggling in my mind for months, particularly as I know our son in law cleans theirs every week :flushed: . I'd got as far as buying a pack of the Appropriate Jollop, which comes with gloves, bag and dire warnings about the caustic nature of the contents therein. I was gearing up to do it for Christmas as the family were meant to be here, then they couldn't be here so it got delayed. This morning I've started. I think it's going to be an all-day job. Everything is currently soaking and marinating and generally activating itself, I hope. I think a lot of Scrubbing will be required as well. :flushed:

    I've also started, yet again, on another Sort The House exercise. It all started so well at the beginning of lockdown last year... :flushed:

    I seem to hear the strains of the Imperial March swelling in the background...
  • PendragonPendragon Shipmate
    Our current oven is a pyrolytic one, so just needs the insides baking, although the glass then needs doing separately. The previous one required oven pride though, and generally got done on the occasions once or twice a year when I took an afternoon off for cleaning but Dragonlets were still at the appropriate childcare provider, as small children and strong chemicals don't mix very well.

    Tidying upstairs is a work in progress partly driven by the impending need to move Dragonlet 1 to the spare room so 3 can share with 2.

    Our plans for Guides include some Zoom and some Saturday mornings, but the latter would be instead of meeting electronically on the following Monday.
  • Cleaning an AGA is easy. For a start, the oven doors just lift off so you can do those on the work top next to the sink. Other than that, the oven grills go into the dishwasher once a week and so long as you wipe down the top every week that's more or less it.
  • edited March 24
    Nenya wrote: »
    The oven cleaning has pretty much taken up the whole day and I'm thoroughly fed up with it. I haven't even been out for a walk - I did get an hour outside raking moss out of the lawn. Such excitement. >rolleyes< On the positive side, the top oven looks good. The bottom one will need another go with some more Appropriate Jollop.

    Girls just wanna have fun, eh, @Nenya ? :lol:

    We're currently painting 16 windowsills (I think that's the total). When we moved in all the windows and sills were dark brown; then, before Christmas, we had all the double glazing changed to rosewood on the outside and white within - the difference in light was astounding. So, while I am at my Monday childminding duties, Mr S applies 3 coats of primer/undercoat to two or three sills, and then it's up to me to put two coats of white gloss on before Thursday when the in-house child-being-minded arrives :smile:

    Fun fun fun... I know it would make more sense to do more of them at once, but I find the disruption it causes such a pain that we restrict it to one room at a time. We may be finished by next Christmas.
  • @Nenya - you've reminded me of how much I hate that job. The slightly easier way of doing it is starting the night before, arrange the trays on newspaper and spray with gunk, spray the oven with gunk and leave overnight before cleaning off. But I neither have the room to lay out the trays everywhere, nor can my asthmatic lungs cope with the gunk overnight, so I've been ignoring it too.
  • PriscillaPriscilla Shipmate
    Firenze wrote: »
    Was in Aldi this morning and found in the bakery aisle 'Cheese and Chilli Hot Cross Buns'. Is outrage.

    (I thought we'd touched bottom with Salted Caramel, but apparently not).

    Salted caramel hot cross buns make a wonderful bread and butter pudding, especially when the dried fruit has been marinaded in rum.
    The apple ones are quite good, but the salted caramel are the best. I have found a recipe for a chocolate orange bread and butter pudding - croissants spread with marmalade and a scattering of dark chocolate - sounds gorgeous!
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    Priscilla wrote: »
    Firenze wrote: »
    Was in Aldi this morning and found in the bakery aisle 'Cheese and Chilli Hot Cross Buns'. Is outrage.

    (I thought we'd touched bottom with Salted Caramel, but apparently not).

    Salted caramel hot cross buns make a wonderful bread and butter pudding, especially when the dried fruit has been marinaded in rum.
    The apple ones are quite good, but the salted caramel are the best. I have found a recipe for a chocolate orange bread and butter pudding - croissants spread with marmalade and a scattering of dark chocolate - sounds gorgeous!

    Sounds amazing.

    I’m busy losing Covid Kilos ‘tho so my treats are strictly limited.

    We have sunshine! 🌞 But no chance of going out as it’s my Zoom German this morning. Mr Boogs will be taking the dog up and over the moors, they’ll get good views today.

  • NenyaNenya Shipmate
    Nenya wrote: »
    The oven cleaning has pretty much taken up the whole day and I'm thoroughly fed up with it. I haven't even been out for a walk - I did get an hour outside raking moss out of the lawn. Such excitement. >rolleyes< On the positive side, the top oven looks good. The bottom one will need another go with some more Appropriate Jollop.

    Girls just wanna have fun, eh, @Nenya ? :lol:

    :lol: Yes, we really know how to live! I hope the window painting proceeds as it should. :smile:

    Although I was really fed up with it all yesterday, I keep opening the door of the top oven today to gaze on the shininess. I won't be so worried about doing it next time so hopefully won't leave it so long and let it get so bad. :flushed:

    @TheOrganist , how do you actually clean the insides of the ovens on an AGA, then? We once house-and-dog-sat one night in a house with an AGA. I've been told once you've had one you never look back but I didn't do very well with the one meal I cooked on it.

    I too am working to lose Covid Kilos but virtual bread and butter pudding contains no calories so I'm relishing the idea of one made with salted caramel hot cross buns.

    In other news, I've been out for a long walk and it was lovely - sunshine and spring flowers and singing birds all the way!
  • HM The Queen and Prince Philip have another great-grandchild.

    Zara Philips and Mike Tindall had a son on Sunday evening - Lucas Philip.
  • SarasaSarasa Shipmate
    I think it's Marks and Spencer that have marmite hot cross buns. Now I like marmite and I like hot cross buns but not as a mash up.
    We went for a walk in the sunny part of the day through Richmond Park to the Isabella Plantation. The aim was to admire camellias, and very nice it was too, though the camellias weren't as spectacular as we hoped they might be.
  • And were there lots of deer?
  • SarasaSarasa Shipmate
    Quite a few deer @Baptist Trainfan . What was lovely was looking at some in the distance - frolicking I'd guess you'd call it, leaping from tussock to tussock and turning in mid-leap. You get very used to seeing deer when you have Richmond Park and Bushey Park on your doorstep but I haven't seen them doing that before.
  • Perhaps it's "that time of year"? I remember once being nearly late for the theatre because we had to wait for a herd of deer to amble across the road there!
  • Well, the season is perhaps aptly named Spring!
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    I suspect that the oven in the flat, like the kitchen and much of the furniture, may have been installed with the sole purpose of getting the place sold; it certainly doesn't look as if it was used much before I moved in. However, that doesn't tie in with the frightful racket the fan makes whenever it's working. Sadly, it doesn't appear to be a self-cleaning one, which is a bummer, as I have no inclination to try and clean it.

    It was decidedly breezy and cool here today, and by some miracle I managed to get home before a quite heavy shower assailed the vicinity.

    Supper was Paella Part II - sort of like Henry VI Part II, but with more saffron and less regicide.
  • PigwidgeonPigwidgeon Shipmate
    Perhaps it's "that time of year"? I remember once being nearly late for the theatre because we had to wait for a herd of deer to amble across the road there!

    When I was in college the Music and Arts building was in an estate in the woods, quite a walk from the main campus. One morning I was indeed late for a music class -- a herd of deer took their time crossing the drive ahead of me (much to my delight!). Even though I walked there several times a week I never saw them again.

  • NenyaNenya Shipmate
    Piglet wrote: »
    Supper was Paella Part II - sort of like Henry VI Part II, but with more saffron and less regicide.
    :lol:

    Ours was chick frick. It's Wednesday.

    I've had a Zoomy sort of afternoon and evening and have been tiddling about on YouTube. For the past few days I've had Elton John's "Yellow Brick Road" as an ear worm, thanks to the Marsh family who have been one of lockdown's joys and whose latest offering Goodbye Pandemic Road is, in my opinion, one of their best.
  • Piglet wrote: »
    Supper was Paella Part II - sort of like Henry VI Part II, but with more saffron and less regicide.
    Prawns died, though!

    Sounds delicious. I hope there was some nice white Rioja to go with it.

    I remember Vesta Paella from the 1960s - it still exists! https://www.poundstretcher.co.uk/vesta-paella-146g

  • Piglet wrote: »
    Supper was Paella Part II - sort of like Henry VI Part II, but with more saffron and less regicide.
    Prawns died, though!

    Ah, but were they king prawns?
  • I decided to take a walk to the shop with my trolley early this morning, the first time since the summer. I used to go a couple of times a week pre-pandemic but long covid meant I could not lift and carry anything, and when I tried once or twice in the summer I found it exhausting. It was fine and I picked up the essential items of Easter eggs, daffodils and hot cross buns, as well as some meat to supplement the Abel and Cole delivery.

    A study day today and I need to read through my proposal before meeting my supervisors this afternoon on Teams.
  • Just had a call from an excited #2 son to say he's got some leave just after Easter and he's got a promotion.
  • BroJamesBroJames Purgatory Host, 8th Day Host
    Good news on both counts! Will you be able to manage a suitable celebration?
  • Celebrating may be somewhat muted - at the moment it would be going against the rules. The plan at present is for him to sleep in the summerhouse/shed - not as grim as it sounds - or we'll see if we can set aside somewhere within the house and eat at opposite ends of the dining table.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Well done, Lesser Organist and Heavenlyannie! :)
    Piglet wrote: »
    Supper was Paella Part II - sort of like Henry VI Part II, but with more saffron and less regicide.
    Prawns died, though!

    Ah, but were they king prawns?

    I suspect they were - those little pink commas that masquerade as ordinary prawns are a waste of space.

    BT - it wasn't a Rioja (I'm not sure I even knew it came in white), but a rather less geographically apt NZ Sauv Blanc.

    This evening's repast* was salmon baked with veggies (and more NZ SB).

    * a favourite word of my late father's - usually preceded by the word "magnificent" - my mum was a very good cook. :heart:
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    edited March 25
    I have a strained relationship with salmon. Eaten in the Pacific north-west - no problem (there, they regard pink salmon as cat food).

    But most British farmed salmon - meh. I get mine from my fish van man, which is as good as it gets. Plus doing in a Keralan style (recipe from Madhur Jaffrey) and altogether satisfactory.

    (Having got the healthy eating out of the way, tomorrow is pizza).
  • MarthaMartha Shipmate
    It seems to be the day for salmon - we had it too! With mango salsa (chopped mango, tomato and spring onions), potatoes and peas. Also I made one of those self-saucing lemon puddings for dessert. I'm not convinced it was quite the right consistency, but it tasted sweet, hot and lemony, so that was OK.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Self-saucing lemon pudding sounds lovely!

    How does it work (the self-saucing, I mean)?
  • Wesley JWesley J Shipmate
    edited March 26
    Ah! Salmon! I haven't had any for a while, I just noticed the other day. I really need to go to the (fairly well-stocked) supermarket and say to it, Salmon: Rush thee (into my shopping trolley)!

    Furthermore: This constant talk of oven-cleaning will have me look into it - the oven and the cleaning - very shortly, I imagine! I shall report back.

    Strangely inspiring, all this! :)
  • I like the idea of mango salsa, must try that.

    This week has been an odd one for me, very bitty as I have no formal teaching or marking to do (a bunch of marking arrived today which I will prep and then start on Monday) and a few small research projects that needed doing. I have my covid vaccination this afternoon which requires a long walk into town (husband forgot and put the car in for it’s MOT) so I am all anticipation of that and can’t focus on anything else.
  • SarasaSarasa Shipmate
    Its an amazing how going for a covid vaccination has become a highlight of our lives. A friend was describing last week how she and her husband felt like they were going for a night out to the theatre or similar when they had theirs.
    No salmon here in this semi-vegan, totally vegetarian household. The last few days it's been lentil soup for lunch and chick pea curry for tea. Today it's pasta night, so I'm doing pasta in a mushroom and mustard sauce.
  • Wesley J wrote: »
    Ah! Salmon! I haven't had any for a while, I just noticed the other day. I really need to go to the (fairly well-stocked) supermarket and say to it, Salmon: Rush thee (into my shopping trolley)!
    I know they - famously - leap; but it's a bit harder for them when they're dead. I fear that your command will not achieve the desired result (and that's assuming, of course, that you can speak Salmonese).

  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    edited March 26
    We have a fabulous salmon dahl occasionally. But my favourite slalom is - tinned! Especially on a sandwich made with homemade bread. 🍞

    Today is showery. Mr Boogs will be taking the dog and I will be trying to stir myself to do ‘jobs’. Floor mopping, washing, hob cleaning, dishwasher emptying, dusting. >yawn<

    Church is back in action on Sunday so I also have the AV to prepare. I won’t be going until 3 weeks after my second vaccination. I still don’t feel entirely safe with other people indoors. But I am preparing the patio - with fire pit and warm blankets for knees - so that I can invite people for bacon butties and a brew when we are allowed (next week, I think?)
  • MarthaMartha Shipmate
    @Piglet it's one of those ones where as it cooks, the ingredients separate into a sponge on top and a runny bit underneath. There's a chocolate version which is dead easy. The lemon one involves separating eggs, which always puts me off. My mum used to make it and hers came out much better - I'll have to get her recipe.

    In a similar vein, there's a coconut impossible pie, where you mix everything together and it separates into crust and filling as it cooks. I think I may have tried it once, a long time ago.
  • I have several recipes for self-saucing puddings. My favourite is a "Black Forest" version, using frozen cherries (defrosted, but not drained) underneath a chocolate sponge and chocolate sauce.
    I also have one with a whisky sauce - but have yet to try that as the visitors I usually make desserts for now come accompanied by small people.
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