As The Workhouse Approaches....How To Do Everything To Avoid It, the Old Style Way

gailey_2

Afternoon guys.

Hope everyones having good weekend

fuddled-Cant belive your sister charging you a fiver. Ny sister treates me weird as I dont drive but mum paid for her lessons andcar.
As for school mums totally agree even if i did drive parking and kids running in middle of road would stress me out.
I try to stay local.

Ceridwyn 2points having worked on food retail sadly actual storemanagers have very little sayover range.
Theres times in past tried to get some regional lines that sell well in westcountry ie faggots/cider and headoffice turned me down.
Customers asked for specfics or moaned when something discontinued but could never influenece .
The huge brands pay for more space.

The different formats as devised by tesco or even sometimes area of country where you live make same products diffrent price as metro can be more than extra and express very pricey.

Agree on small homes ideas lot of small kitchens space saving gadgets cost a lot more and from more specilaist retailers.
Always love looking at the rooms in new ikea books as they seem to make one small open plan room seem spacious but looksvery minimal.
I feel asif our 3bed,1reception,tiny bathroom/kitchen far too smallfor family of 5 and shrinking.
The cupbaord of doom under stairs, shed and loft my saviour.
Really want to stockpile more food but dont know where?

I went to school early 90s, we did some cooking and sewing then learnt nothing useful home ec teachers very scary lot, mam taught me nothing.

Got book on craft projects in sainsbursy yesterday for 5quid they hadsome fab deals on books..

Jedi teacher-hope baby comes soon Iknow how crapis to wait around feel better now with newborn than pregant.

Had distrous weekend bus driver hating prams and kids stressedme out.
was suppost to go kids party today but 5year old threw tantrum so we dident go cue huge meltdown.
made some fairly cakes slightly burnt again.
keeping house tidy seems likelosing battle.

got some reductions in co-op other day was quite chuffed.
Definatly doing another online order.
now milks no longer offer farmfoods its not worth me going as quite out my way.
need todo mini lids shop always fin their nostria tinned tomatoes nicer than the value brand.

We tried to grow pumkins last year wasent very sucessful.

all this vitamin talk what can I take for energy as permanatly shattered?

Booked a joint baptism now trying to devise cheap reception buffet for pub to do as localhotel shocking 12quid perhead!

Slowly saving up lots empty jars cant wait to find time to make something!
Think really need to get on with brewing as sure the elderflowers out now.

Think baby might fit into cloth soon so small saving there.

ceridwen

Emptynester wrote: »

Ceridwen
Thank you for the mention of John Harrison his name was new to me. I have googled his name and marked his site to explore later. There seemed to be a lot of useful info there and I will have a good read later in the day.
Thank you
Empty

Well...yep...if anyone has a spare hour (or three) then its worth a look:

www.allotment.org.uk/

Seakay

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

Oh - does anyone have any ideas of what to do with Mizuna when it is huge, all over the veg patch and you have found that you don't actually like it that much in salads?

Mizuna is veery easy to stirfry and can be used in all sorts of recipes - generally needs about as much cooking time as spinach.
Loads of Japanese and American Japanese recipes on the net if you Google "mizuna recipes"
here is one very easy one:
http://www.japanfoodaddict.com/pork/mizuna-bacon/

bluebag

blackandwhitebunny, £300 for a prom dress and no ar*e in her trousers, beggers belief. Sadly I have seen such oxymorons myself so I know the despair you miust feel. It's a can't sort out priorities disorder.

Same type of thing with no gas in the meter, but latest X-box game. Tragic.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

blackandwhitebunny wrote: »

Re teaching in schools, I teach Food and Nutrition - what used to be Home Economics and we do our best to ensure that pupils get a good knowledge of basic cooking and food skills. I often feel that I am fighting a losing battle against their home lives though. I have the yr 7's for 30 hours in a year in which time I try to teach them how not to waste. We do a whole module on not wasting and using up food - practicals include eggy bread, bread and butter pudding, eve's pudding etc but then they go home and their parents tell them not to be stupid and feed them pot noodles and chip shop meals

....

A big problem with food teaching is that there is very little money to provide ingredients - the previous government promised it several times but it didn't happen and then there is the lack of new teachers coming into the subject. Its now part of the Design and Technology course at university, a colleague at another school has students coming through on their PGCE course and she spends many afternoons teaching them basic food skills before allowing them to take classes.

My eldest had Food Tech at her school (she's 18). For a few weeks, anyway. They spent weeks on sandwiches - how to make them, what to put in them, etc, etc, only on around the 5th week were they actually permitted to put food between 2 slices of bread. They made strawberry jam - which cost a fortune in the middle of winter as we had to buy imported fruit. And they made chicken tarragon - which was alright, but being charged the cost of a whole bottle for a couple of spoons of tarragon vinegar when we had already had to buy a packet of fresh chicken breasts and all the other ingredients, was quite a shock.

At the end of term they got to cook what they wanted, so I sent DD in with enough ingredients for her and her best friend to bake flower cakes (standard cupcakes plus edible flowers on top). Plus a handwritten recipe - which included 'if the mixture starts looking a bit sloppy and gross, add a spoonful of flour and keep mixing - it'll sort itself out'.

Teacher came along as DD's friend's mix curdled, snatched it off her, declared 'that's ruined' and chucked it in the bin :mad:


DD kept on wanting to say 'Hello, child of single working parent here - I know how to do this stuff, can we actually do some cooking?', but instead she just made sure she dropped the subject at the first available opportunity, as she wasn't learning anything from it.


DD2 adores cooking - she is miffed that the oven has broken down, but immediately cheered up when I said it wasn't a problem and we'll just do stove top cooking instead. She was most impressed with my chopping the backbone out of a whole chicken, squishing it breast side down in my wok and sticking a lid on top - it'll be something she remembers, I think. If I am ever ill, as long as there is food in the fridge, I know she is perfectly capable of cooking/making something for herself.


Thinking about it - that's what the problem is with people - they don't know how to deal with stuff when things go wrong, whether it's a cake mix curdling as the eggs are added, a fuse blowing or a drawerfront coming loose. Everything is all 'that's ruined, can't use it anymore, have to chuck it away' when there is a good chance that twenty minutes with a bit of patience could sort out whatever it is.

elisamoose

I work in a primary school and there is very little room for cooking in the curriculum.Also most schools do not have the facilities either.I did a 'healthy school cooking club' training from our local NHS dietician a couple of years ago and got money for equipment.This means all our Y6 get 6 weeks of cooking with me. we start with fruit kebabs- sounds basic but how else do I find out who can use a knife!
We move on to using the hob , baking a cake and the final session we cook a three course meaL and eat it!


I found the flora cooking with schools lesson plans useful for the food safety and healthy eating sessions I do before letting them loose with actual food!

I find most of the kids have helped with cooking at home and can use basic equipment.I work in a inner city school which is in a deprived area with a mix of nationalities. With a few exceptions the ,ids a really enthusiastic about food and cooking.
maybe the answer is to start it in primary schools!

hex2

My boys love cooking at (primary) school, we do lots at home but it is still a treat to do it at school. They insist on recreating whatever they made at school which is such positive feedback, even if it means wasting ingredients on yucky rock cakes. They seem to do a lot on nutrition too and insist on balanced meals which amuses me.

I remember making chocolate crispy cakes at primary, and then nothing again till one term of cooking at secondary school at 14. Might have been a bit more useful than the 'personal development' we got forced to sit through. I have to confess I could hardly cook until maternity leave nine years ago, I had to learn to keep costs under control then.

valentina

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

Thinking about it - that's what the problem is with people - they don't know how to deal with stuff when things go wrong, whether it's a cake mix curdling as the eggs are added, a fuse blowing or a drawerfront coming loose. Everything is all 'that's ruined, can't use it anymore, have to chuck it away' when there is a good chance that twenty minutes with a bit of patience could sort out whatever it is.

:T:T:T Couldn't agree more :T:T:T

shegar

Hi all, I suppose its that time of year where everything in the garden is growing even though it doesnt rain at all, I just seem so busy all the time I dont know where the time goes but it does........

I went to a car boot this morning while the carer was in,I did it it in a bit of a rush and didnt miss a stall.......I got some fresh water fishing gear for gary, there was a lot of stuff in the box for £2.50, I usually knock the prices down , but it had so much in there for 2.50.......a guilty pang come over me...:o...gary reckon there was at least £35....worth of gear.......bargain eh, just got to find someone to take him now...........

Ive been buying him some paper books this year and putting them in a cupboard so that when winter come he will have some great books to read....im picking them up for 30p each...:T..
Ive got a appointment at the eye dept Hospital on Tuesday to have lazer surgery in both eyes due to the diabetes damage.......and gary go up Wednesday for botox, and 2 other Social Services appointments this week so im going to be quite busy..........I hope all you are ok, ive not had time to night to catch up on all the threads........catch you all later....:)

Charis

Thinking about it - that's what the problem is with people - they don't know how to deal with stuff when things go wrong, whether it's a cake mix curdling as the eggs are added, a fuse blowing or a drawerfront coming loose. Everything is all 'that's ruined, can't use it anymore, have to chuck it away' when there is a good chance that twenty minutes with a bit of patience could sort out whatever it is.

Added to that, those of us who want to sort out a minor problem often find that devices have been designed to be impossible to repair. My carpet shampooer, which has sprung a leak, is impossible to take apart at the site of the leak. It's hidden inside a trigger device and try as I might, neither commonsense nor brute force will enable me to get to place the water is dripping from. Last night my bedroom blind (vertical, slatted kind) started to disintegrate. The plastic fittings appear to be biodegrading in situ. Nothing at all wrong with the rest of the blind but the bits that hold it together have the consistency of stale royal icing.