Weezl and friends Phase 2 -giving it a whirl for Shirl! Testing meal plan for a month

Allegra

Bigjenny wrote: »

Weezl

Querry about Bread of Heaven (Home Made Bread) Recipe.

Ingredients say 15g Allinsons Yeast.

Insructions say to activate yeast.

I thought you didn't need to activate dried yeast.

Sorry to be picky.

Jenny.

With Allinsons you do have to activate it, Jenny. It's only "fast acting" dried brands (such as Doves farm) that can be added straight in withou being activated first.

weezl74

weezl74 wrote: »

I think I've done all the main meals but would value your help with checking the batches and quantities are good for

everything involving the apple
the carrot cake 4 batches and the cereal bars (also 4 batches I think, but it's whatever doesn't make us go into huge stock deficit or positive IYSWIM?

How does that sound?

Oh and the pate needs adding too?

also now we know mustard is 2.5g per tspn and most recipes are 1-2 tspns can you rescue any mustard anomalies?

Sorry to be so woolly of head, I'm not feeling right today

Allegra, I've no right to be outraged I was contracting once every 6 minutes when I wrote this :rotfl:

Bigjenny

Thanks Allegra

My mistake. I though it was the fast acting one.

I've used the sachets of fast acting yeast in the past, but didn't realise the tubs of yeast had to activated.

In_Search_Of_Me

[QUOTE=weezl74;32637753

Allegra, I've no right to be outraged I was contracting once every 6 minutes when I wrote this :rotfl:
[/QUOTE]

See...you all thought she had the day ff to pop a sprog..nope, there she was typing away lol!! :rotfl::rotfl:
Just found the site (sometimes my brain cells just cant make it!) and I think some info on how you got there would be good (ie long, long ago an innovative weezl and her willing husband embarked on a challenge which people on xxx (dont know if you can name mse & attach linkies to the previous threads?); this then grew to another, even more frugal challenge followed by some more revolutaionry thinking, innovative cooking and a bunch of willing helpers...etc etc.)
Also I, understand that you dont want people asking endless questions (which I think is sensible as you could be doing a ft job on that...jst look at Martins fb blog a week ago...he was feeling rather overwhelmed with questions and not enough time to answer!!)but it would be nice for people to comment so that you can hear about the impact of the project?
And finally...a huge well done from me weezl...havent been of much use with this one due to life getting in the way but hope you know that I am immensely proud of you, your dad and mr weezl for all the hard work, recipes, devising, testing, tweaking, thats gone into this in the last few months...my hat also goes off to the testers who have been fabulous and not forgetting Ferg who has been a willing tester...esp of the pizza!!!

weezl74

In_Search_Of_Me wrote: »

Also I, understand that you dont want people asking endless questions (which I think is sensible as you could be doing a ft job on that...jst look at Martins fb blog a week ago...he was feeling rather overwhelmed with questions and not enough time to answer!!)but it would be nice for people to comment so that you can hear about the impact of the project?

I agree, I just don't think you can allow one without the other!

ie if you have a comments box, you will get one person saying:

thanks I've saved 300 quid and 97 people saying your planner is rubbish because george doesn't like peanuts etc...

this is because of something psychologists have studied where people only comment on dissatisfaction rather than satisfaction. So the satisfied won't post (or only 1-2 percent of them will)


So I wouldn't mind but another reader would think, 'oh! I thought this website was good, but look, 97% of people don't like it' and give up.

And I don't want to lose Shirley.

Does that make sense?

xx

Hippeechiq

weezl74 wrote: »

Thank you for the feedback the design was me and some of the coding. My Dad did the complex coding. Hippeeechiq, please can you say a little more about the bit in bold?

so many web recipes appear either daunting or unappealing because of the way they're presented

I'm assuming from your asking me to elaborate, and the embarrassed smiley, that you thought the words you highlighted were directed at you :eek: not at all.
It is so easy for the written word to be misconstrued, and my sincere apologies if you thought my comment was a dig at the site.

I should have put; "often recipes found on the internet
appear either daunting or unappealing because of the way they're presented", e.g.
Poor or no photography of the finished dish/ingredients
Recipes written with poor font choice - either too fussy, too small, wrong colour
Over complicated methods as long as your arm!!

Delia $mith is a prime example of this for me, as is J@mie Oliver.....Google his Best Tiramisu recipe... was it really necessary to have a method the length of War & Peace? Their websites are "too busy" and try to be "too clever"

Are their sites as crisp and visually appealing as your web site? No. Does it make me, the reader want to rush into the kitchen to try said recipe? No. at least not IMHO

I love your website. I love the complete layout. I look at the recipes on there and think: "I like the look of that, could I cook it? Yeah, I think I could" and that is what a good recipe site should do, not intimidate the would be cook by trying to be too fancy and too superior, or just be so visually unappealing you don't even want to try and cook it in the first place

Shucks....that was a bit long winded - bet you don't ask me to elaborate again for a long time :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

weezl74

thanks Hippeeechiq, I knew you didn't mean me, I was just fascinated to hear more about what people like/dislike about recipe webpages, so what you've said is mega useful, thank you

While you're on, I liked the look of your recipe on 'cheapest meals' thread. Can I ask whether it would be a plentiful dinner if served with 80g each of 2 vegetables peas and carrots? Or what do you usually serve it with?

No worries if you haven't got time, I can make it myself to see

shanks77

Weezl i think a short note about who you are would be reassuring for the reader. Its nice to know its written by a normal(ish):rotfl: person who has a family and hubby and who has a house the same as them without access to fancy kitchens and equipment and not have loads of people doing the work for them and them taking all the credit. I would feel that the meals you were suggesting were more achievable for Joe Bloggs (another person to add to our "family") if i knew they had been done by "real people". Hope that made sense?

Hippeechiq

weezl74 wrote: »

thanks Hippeeechiq, I knew you didn't mean me, I was just fascinated to hear more about what people like/dislike about recipe webpages, so what you've said is mega useful, thank you

Ah, right. Am pleased you didn't think it was aimed at you and you're welcome for the input

weezl74 wrote: »

While you're on, I liked the look of your recipe on 'cheapest meals' thread. Can I ask whether it would be a plentiful dinner if served with 80g each of 2 vegetables peas and carrots? Or what do you usually serve it with?

Totally. It's very filling. I usually serve it with broccoli and peas, so peas and carrots would be fine.

An additional potato layer can easily be added too (child coming home from uni before you expect them, parents dropping in, childrens school friend staying for tea, that kind of thing). Just sprinkle with oxo and season as with other two layers and add additional sausages at the appropriate time.

It's a good idea to check the water level when you add your sausages, as different potatoes, and also, potatoes at different times of the year - i.e. old and new - absorb the liquid at different rate, so you may or may not need to top up your liquid at this point

hornetgirl

shanks77 wrote: »

Weezl i think a short note about who you are would be reassuring for the reader. Its nice to know its written by a normal(ish):rotfl: person who has a family and hubby and who has a house the same as them without access to fancy kitchens and equipment and not have loads of people doing the work for them and them taking all the credit. I would feel that the meals you were suggesting were more achievable for Joe Bloggs (another person to add to our "family") if i knew they had been done by "real people". Hope that made sense?

This makes a lot of sense. We've had stuff like Jamie Oliver telling us how to feed our family for a fiver, which is too much money anyway and also seems a bit patronising when we know he doesn't have to worry about such things.

I think potential users of the site would be very reassured to find that the plans have been devised by an ordinary (in the nicest possible way ) mum from Cardiff - someone who has a job and kids and a mortgage and a life. Someone rather like them in fact.