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

Rowan9

Haribo - really pleased for you re the hamper - I read your list with such a smile on my face as I LOVED it. My Dsis brought us a few packs of Waitrose smoked salmon - different 'varieties' when she last came up and it was such a treat. Good for you and very well deserved to you and your DH.
Softstuff - the curry was even better today yum yum. Had it with a big tomato salad again and there is the same again for me tomorrow. I'm quite happy to eat the same thing a few days in a row, especially if it is as delicious as this! Looking forward to the satay recipe now (unless I've missed it).
Had a big tidy up today including cleaning mirrors and windows and a sort out of the kitchen so it now looks good. Won't be for long though.
Been out for a couple of wines with DH and now heading to bed.
Weather to be good for the weekend ie no rain!!
W

Softstuff

kittie wrote: »

oh well I have to recommend brining green beans, it is so easy and must work as that is what all our families did just 2 or 3 generations ago. The hard part was trying to stop the top beans from floating then I remembered a lakeland sale buy from 2 years ago, bought and put away and unfortunately just one packet. Called preserving plungers and just a circle of open plastic with a spike on top. When you put the lid on then the plastic pushed down on the contents and they stay submerged. I want/need more but oh no I cannot get them anywherem so have e mailed lakeland with a plea to get some in. Something as cheap as that will be so important to us as we delve into preserving again.

Kittie - pop to your local pizza takeaway. Many of them use a little plastic disc with a spike in the middle of the pizza to keep it from moving around in the box. These would be fine to use for preserving too, and I'm sure a few pence would buy you some.

Sorry about the "sort of satay" delay for those who were interested, have been a bit busy here.

Okies, so here it is:
Take 2 packs minute noodles, and pour on boiling water, leave for a few minutes and drain. Finely slice some veg into thin strips - I tend to use some carrot, onion and zucchini (courgette), but anything you have is fine (broccoli, peppers, cauli, green beans, whatever). In a frying pan lightly fry the veg in oil with 2 cloves garlic, 1/2 tsp chilli powder, 2 tsp ground coriander, 2 tsp ground cumin, 2 tsp turmeric. Then add a tbsp soy sauce, 2 heaped tbsp peanut butter, 1 tbsp lime or lemon juice, a couple of teaspoons of brown sugar and either 100ml coconut milk, cream or a small handful of dessicated coconut in a bit of water. Make sure it is all well mixed, then throw in the noodles and mix those in well too. Serves 2 hungry folks.

Forgive the poor recipe format, but it reflects my cooking style! Feel free to substitute at will and never worry about precise quantities. Note that this is not intended to be real satay, but is the only version of it my hubby likes to eat!

r.a.i.n.b.o.w

Playing Mega-catch up here!

anguk wrote: »

I totally agree that attitudes have become more liberal. Thinking about my Grandmothers, they were lovely, kind women, one in particular would do anything for anyone yet looking back they were judgemental too. Living in sin was shocking in those days and I know that they both used to tell their friends that my OH was my husband despite the fact we've been "living in sin" for almost 26 years and have 2 grown up children.

My Nan was appalled that I had 2 babies out of wedlock (they were her first GREAT-grandchildren) - so much so, she couldn't bring herself to display even a school photo of my children, preferring to leave it face down in a drawer.

Then when my cousin married a..."loose woman" (men, drink, drugs) and had a child with her, my Nan proudly proclaimed that child as being her "first great-grandchild" - even though the marriage was a bad one (and lasted all of a few months, and my cousin's not seen his child since they split up), my nan was more proud about THEIR child than MINE.

Funny though, my own mother was very open minded when I had my kids as an unmarried mother (early 1990's), yet since my daughter had her son 2 years ago, my mother's become judgemental about the fact my daughter isn't married!!!!

r.a.i.n.b.o.w

charlies-aunt wrote: »

In my young days - it seemed entirely normal for old people to 'take to their beds' after an upset - some stayed there for the rest of their lives - nothing physical wrong from what I remember, maybe it was the OS syle of coping with a breakdown/stress.

I think this is totally NORMAL - for some people more than others. My OH takes to his bed if really suffering mentally, isn't it (or shouldn't it be) part of human sanity preservation...?

Having said that - my mother has said that she and her mother used to "nurse" their relatives in their home: my mother's aunts and uncles, all relatively young, seemed pretty much bedridden, even though they could only have been between 30-50 at the time...I must ask my mum what that was all about...

r.a.i.n.b.o.w

Sorry ladies & gents, still catching up...

ceridwen wrote: »

But - I DO know there is something that feels a bit "different" about my dining room (ie the room I use as a meditation room - errr...when I get round to things like that....errr...) and I'm darned if I can "put my finger on it". I've never been able to "put my finger on it" - but I just know I make sure the door is shut before I go to bed at night....and I really cant work out what/why or how and the only thing I'm quite sure of is that whatever-it-is is nothing to do with the immediate preceding owners of this house (I decided he was an obvious "toe rag" and she was "Mrs Downtrodden" as soon as I spotted them and I turned out to be right..... - so I dont think its anything to do with them...).

I don't know WHAT happened here before I moved in in 1990 (although I DO know there were 2 tenancies prior to mine) - BUT there is a man who stands near my front door (children tell me about it, my daughter was scared of it, and visitors see it), and I NEVER have been able to close my living room or kitchen doors. My flat isn't pokey/small, but with those 2 doors closed it feels claustraphobic and oppressive. So much so, that I've had to remove the kitchen door!

GreyQueen

r.a.i.n.b.o.w wrote: »

I think this is totally NORMAL - for some people more than others. My OH takes to his bed if really suffering mentally, isn't it (or shouldn't it be) part of human sanity preservation...?

Having said that - my mother has said that she and her mother used to "nurse" their relatives in their home: my mother's aunts and uncles, all relatively young, seemed pretty much bedridden, even though they could only have been between 30-50 at the time...I must ask my mum what that was all about...

Hi r.a.i.n.b.o.w, it might have been that some of the people who were bedridden had diseases which doctors had no way of diagnosing at the time.

There's a family known to my family for several generations (same village) who are terribly afflicted with muscular dystropy; it has struck down generation after generation, usually commencing in the early thirties and killing them in their fifties or early sixties. Looking back down the generations, we can recall their ancestors who were bedridden but, of course, no one knew what was happening or could put a name to it.:(

I have a rare disorder which wasn't even described by medical science until the cusp of the twentieth century, and was only treatable (not curable) from the mid-century onwards. That struck me down in my early thirties, too, so I would have been one of those inexplicably poorly ones until it ran its course and killed me after a few months or a couple of years at most.

I give daily thanks for modern medicine, believe you me!

Ceridwen, I think that if you put chalk and its kindred limestone into vinegar you get an excitingly fizzy happening as the acid eats into the lime. Probably wouldn't do much for the flavour, either!

Flints are liable to go bang in a fire so probably wouldn't take kindly to being boiled. Could be the ruin of a decent pan.

These were things our foremothers would have had to have known back in the very ancient times when they would have cooked by dropping heated stones into pouches of animal skins suspended by tripods over fires to cook their stews.

I've often thought that each generation is less domestically-skilled than the last; what my country great-grannies had to deal with, and that they raised 6 and 11 (respectively) healthy, happy, productive and long-lived children (80+ and counting) in dire circumstances is humbling to me. I'd love to show them an automatic washing machine, they'd think we were sooooo fortunate.

They were really OS; one of the homes had only a pond for general water and drinking water had to be fetched in a cart and strained thru multiple layers of muslin to remove detritus, then boiled. Great-gran and her OH had 11 kids there in 20 years. I have a photo of them, taken in the mid-1930s, which I love. Just them standing on the cottage doorstep, obviously just pestered to step out and have their picture taken, her in her cross-over floral pinny with her hair in a bun, him in his shirtsleeves, braces, with his pipe. Seems a lot more real to me than posed studio shots. That cottage passed out of the family about 20 years ago but I have fond memories of it as a child, visiting Auntie G and her OH who lived there after the great-grands (great-grandad died before WW2 in an accident and great-gran passed over when I was too young to remember her).

kittie you awe me with what you do but I think I'm going to have to try brining my french beans...fingers crossed and will be hunting for suitable pebbles (lottie neighbours think I'm a bit cracked anyway so this will just confirm it.....:rotfl:)

I need TEA!

Jolaaled

GreyQueen wrote: »

kittie you awe me with what you do but I think I'm going to have to try brining my french beans...fingers crossed and will be hunting for suitable pebbles (lottie neighbours think I'm a bit cracked anyway so this will just confirm it.....:rotfl:)

I'm gonna try the French Bean Brining too, as starting to get too many beans in the garden, to get thro.
Can someone tell me......will I need to cook the brined beans later in the year..or are they served cold as a sort of pickle???
Very ignorant on this..!! I imagine having lots of pretty jars made, but not a clue on how to use them, come the winter!!

THANKS

ceridwen

Reet...thanks for that explanation re the pebbles - gotcha now....

Still havent figured out what the pebbles I have are composed of - as they are grey and some have white "tie dye" effects through them - I think they cant be any of the "wrong type".

Reet....I must hie me hence and look up Kittie's chard bake recipe - as I have LOADS of chard from my Veggie Box Scheme. Had to start by checking out whether the little nosegay of cornflowers that was part of my delivery was supposed to be put in a posy jug in my sitting room or I could eat them - and have gathered that I put the heads on salad. So - that'll be another "new taste" for me for the month - the last month has included wet garlic and green endive...adds interest to dinner when you never know what new veggie you'll be trying out next. DO hope they dont ever grow sweet potatoes - I really dont like sweet potatoes....and yes I know they are "fashionable" and pop up in everything - so I wish I DID ...:(

GreyQueen

Jolaaled wrote: »

I'm gonna try the French Bean Brining too, as starting to get too many beans in the garden, to get thro.
Can someone tell me......will I need to cook the brined beans later in the year..or are they served cold as a sort of pickle???
Very ignorant on this..!! I imagine having lots of pretty jars made, but not a clue on how to use them, come the winter!!

THANKS

Hi, I've got my nose in Carol Wilson's "Preserving" book on loan from the library and it says;

Leave the French beans whole but string and slice runner beans. You do this raw any layer the raw beans with salt, pressing down well between layers, finishing with a salt layer.

Seal tightly and store for up to 6 months.

To serve, rinse thoroughly and cook in simmering water for about 10 mins or until tender. HTH.

Jolaaled

GreyQueen wrote: »

Hi, I've got my nose in Carol Wilson's "Preserving" book on loan from the library and it says;

Leave the French beans whole but string and slice runner beans. You do this raw any layer the raw beans with salt, pressing down well between layers, finishing with a salt layer.

Seal tightly and store for up to 6 months.

To serve, rinse thoroughly and cook in simmering water for about 10 mins or until tender. HTH.

THANKS! Sounds a great way to preserve. I thought I'd have to add water/liquid, but I spose the beans sort of make their own.
I'm in for a busy day!