How to Get Through The Tough Times The Old Style Way.

bertiebots

mrswive wrote: »

GQ - I had a similar issue ie loads of chicken thighs bought reduced at Waitrose and no ideas. I went on the BBC website, scrolled down to 'Food' and lo and behold, there's a 'recipe finder'; just put in an ingredient and a load of recipes appear - 115 for chicken thighs if I remember rightly.
On another subject, what do people think about the proposed pension changes for public sector workers? As one of the so called lucky(!), well paid (£8.56 per hour!), NHS employees, my pension might just about cover running a car. I'm wondering where this gravy train is- I seem to have missed it!!

£8.56 an hour...luxury:rotfl: I get £6.47!!;) I pay 5.5% of that into my pension and hope that its not going to go up- so am keeping my fingers crossed..makes me quite mad that the front line staff will suffer yet again whilst the managers on fat salaries probably wont notice a thing :mad: I think the media portrays all public sector workers as people who will retire with huge final salary pensions taking away from the tax payers purse etc etc , but its actually only the big wigs who get the disproportionate payouts (surprise surprise!!!)

Pitlanepiglet

Council tax is likely to be frozen in most places (if not all) as Council's will get an additional "bung" from the Government if they don't impose an increase.

As for jobs....I suspect I won't be popular with this, as far as Councils go, it appears to me that some cases (certainly ours) they are trying very very hard to avoid job losses and this is being done at the expense of front line services.

In the case of our library campaign which I am involved with, Dorset CC want to withdraw funding from 20 libraries (leaving 14) but appear unable to make any headquarters savings so will end up running only a third of the library service with it appears the same amount of staff. It seems to me that we will end up with jobs being retained in our Councils but no services left for communities.

In times of recession and cuts, jobs have to be lost and I say that as someone who is unemployed for the first time in 25 years of working so I don't say it lightly but cutting costs by only hitting services is not what (IMV) our Councils should be doing. Dorset CC Library Services has a huge budget for relief staff - in the private world this is one of the first things that has gone, those lucky enough to keep jobs work harder when their colleagues are on holiday, they don't have the luxury of temporary staff to cover them. This budget alone could save the threatened libraries.

So I suspect in many areas we will not see vast amounts of jobs being cut from local authorities and Councils.

As I say I'm sure it's not a popular view but numbers of public servants increased hugely over the last 20 years and these numbers should not be retained when front line services are being decimated.

RAS

GreyQueen wrote: »

I've just retrieved a pack of these from the freezer which I grabbed on a whim from the whoopsie cabinet last month at Mr T.

As they don't feature as part of my normal "routine" I haven't got much of an idea.

Could you lovely and resourceful people give me a pointer or I shall have to resort to a jar of cook-in sauce? And that would be very un-OS, and I shall probably be sent to the Arms in disgrace....:o

try this http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/main-ingredient/poultry-and-game/chicken/chicken-basque.html

Big advantage is that it is very forgiving of extra cooking time, so it re-heats really well.

mrswive

bertiebots wrote: »

£8.56 an hour...luxury:rotfl: I get £6.47!!;) I pay 5.5% of that into my pension and hope that its not going to go up- so am keeping my fingers crossed..makes me quite mad that the front line staff will suffer yet again whilst the managers on fat salaries probably wont notice a thing :mad: I think the media portrays all public sector workers as people who will retire with huge final salary pensions taking away from the tax payers purse etc etc , but its actually only the big wigs who get the disproportionate payouts (surprise surprise!!!)[/QUOTE]

You're so right!!!!
It's the same in local government,(OH works for the local council), those at the bottom end are losing their jobs or taking pay cuts, those at the top are being given wads of money to retire early and having their pensions paid up - not quite sure how this saves money, but maybe that's not really the point!

bertiebots

Couldnt agree more mrsw! I work for my local council and lots of big jobs have gone with offers of huge payouts and pensions. The staff that are left have to cover huge workloads and bigger areas/more responsibilty. I work in my local school and do an average of 3 hrs overtime a week that I dont get payed for ..simply because the money is not there, but they want us to provide the service! Not on really is it! I could really do with that extra pay but I love my job ..local councils are very good at getting free work from there lowest payed employees I have found!

[Deleted User]

greenbee wrote: »

I eat a lot of pigeon (and pheasant, partridge, wild goose, wild duck etc) as my dad shoots a lot. Not much point in eating anything other than the pigeon breasts. They're best slow cooked with onions, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes, bay leaf etc or pan fried (worth marinating as you have no idea whether they'll be tough or not, then flour before frying) with sliced onions and mushrooms. Add a splash of red wine, port or brandy to deglaze the pan, then add cream to the sauce before serving. Treat it like lean beef - but remember it has NO fat on it, so you do need to add it or it'll dry out.>>



Where my brother lives in France its very rural and quite a bit of shooting goes on .They have a saying there that "if you can eat it shoot it, if not leave it to live" Most of the locals will eat almost anything .I was once sitting outside our friends bar after a heavy shower of rain and one of the local old boys from the village went past with a bucket half filled with snails which he had collected, he offered some to me with a big gummy grin:eek:.I said thank you but no you keep and enjoy them .They will as I say eat virtually anything if its at all edible.

mama67

mardatha wrote: »

I have just bought this as my next move in the war -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0563206853/ref=ox_ya_os_product

Oh ZZ just ignore me LOL! It's sugar deprivation!

I bought this years ago when the tv series was on it is a lovely book which i still go back to now and again.

I also have the Wartime Kitchen & Garden book, again another lovely book

mama67

flowertotmum wrote: »

Wow charlies-aunt..your not that far from me..it was cold here today but looked more like rain than snow..i haven't heard that saying for years...ne'er cast a clout til may is out...takes me back..but its true though..enjoy your super 6ing..
ftm

My FIL used to say it as well FTM and was Scottish

mardatha

It sounds funny unless you say it in a Scots accent - ie cloot and oot !:D

silvermaid

My mum says 'ne'er cast a clout 'til May is out' and she's from the south of Ireland