Nice people thread part 4 - sugar and spice and all things

LydiaJ

As previously mentioned, lir and fir kindly brought some gifts for our hamster yesterday - some dried corn on the cob sticks, some hamster treats that look rather like dog biscuits (and are a similar size) and some seed thingies on a string. DD opened all the packets and let the hamster bite a few pieces off each present yesterday.

Last night, I went down to lock up and discovered the hamster had escaped. DD (who was not asleep but should have been) heard me catching her and putting her back in the cage, and came down to see what was going on. I sorted out one or two things and let DD put the hamster back in the cage. When we went upstairs, I asked her if she had checked that the cage was now definitely secure and she assured me that it was. (It's one of those modular cages with lots of tubes, so it's easy for there to be a loose place somewhere.)

This morning, DD went downstairs to find that she had in fact left the lid open or loose or something, and the hamster had got out. She's spent a very busy night, industrious little creature. She hadn't been able to do much with the seed thingies on a string, because the string was trapped under the cage, so she'd left those. However, she'd found the open packet of dog-biscuit-type treats, taken out all the treats and moved them inside her cage and stored them in her wheel. She had got both corn cobs out of their packet, stripped every single kernel, and put those in her wheel too. She had found what was left of the ice-cream-shaped seeds-in-a-cone that DD gave her for Christmas, and brought it into the cage, although it wouldn't fit through the tubes to the wheel. She'd got into a kitchen cupboard and found some raw spaghetti so bitten off plenty of pieces of that and put them in her wheel too. She'd also found a few pieces of dropped crisp & cereal etc - not sure where from, probably down underneath the cupboard where she goes through to climb up the back - and added those. DD found her this morning sleeping inside the wheel, on top of her hoard (which nearly filled the entire wheel), like a dragon on its treasure. :rotfl:

We have emptied it all out into a box, and DD is sorting through it, separating the hamster food from the spaghetti, crisps and other junk.

silvercar

NP help.

I'm making desserts for 50 people for tomorrow night. I'm planning on mousse, crumble, fruit salad and ice cream. Ideally, to ease serving and portion size control, I would like to make the mousse and crumble in individual portions. Any idea what containers I can use? I don't have enough ramekins to make the crumble in. OH suggested paper cake cases, but I dont think they will hold their shape for mousse and would be too small for crumble.

michaels

Could you get slightly larger foil 'mince pie' dishes? Something like this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/50-x-4-Small-Fruit-Pie-Foil-Dishes-/200355220549

silvercar wrote: »

NP help.

I'm making desserts for 50 people for tomorrow night. I'm planning on mousse, crumble, fruit salad and ice cream. Ideally, to ease serving and portion size control, I would like to make the mousse and crumble in individual portions. Any idea what containers I can use? I don't have enough ramekins to make the crumble in. OH suggested paper cake cases, but I dont think they will hold their shape for mousse and would be too small for crumble.

misskool

silvercar wrote: »

NP help.

I'm making desserts for 50 people for tomorrow night. I'm planning on mousse, crumble, fruit salad and ice cream. Ideally, to ease serving and portion size control, I would like to make the mousse and crumble in individual portions. Any idea what containers I can use? I don't have enough ramekins to make the crumble in. OH suggested paper cake cases, but I dont think they will hold their shape for mousse and would be too small for crumble.

waxed paper cups. Should be able to bake the crumbles in them (Pink Whisk baked cakes in hers, http://www.thepinkwhisk.co.uk/2011/12/paper-cup-christmas-cakes.html)

You can buy cheap clear plastic cups for the mousse

zagubov

silvercar wrote: »

Is there a real risk of infections in hospital, or is that Daily Mail reporting?

That's a tricky one. Ben Goldacre would suggest the infection rates are exaggerated and sensationalised by journalists (anyone remember the 1994 "We're all going to be killed y the Flesh-Eating Bug" headlines)

Unfortunately now and again you do hear of people (or FOAFs) who get infected so it must happen occasionally.

silvercar

misskool wrote: »

waxed paper cups. Should be able to bake the crumbles in them (Pink Whisk baked cakes in hers, http://www.thepinkwhisk.co.uk/2011/12/paper-cup-christmas-cakes.html)

You can buy cheap clear plastic cups for the mousse

Interesting, I thought the wax may melt!

SingleSue

zagubov wrote: »

That's a tricky one. Ben Goldacre would suggest the infection rates are exaggerated and sensationalised by journalists (anyone remember the 1994 "We're all going to be killed y the Flesh-Eating Bug" headlines)

Unfortunately now and again you do hear of people (or FOAFs) who get infected so it must happen occasionally.

On my recent admission to hospital, every patient was routinely swabbed for MRSA before they were allowed onto the wards (obviously, the results would not be known quite that quickly).

The hospital though, has got one of the lowest rates of MRSA and C dif, mainly through their process of stringent cleaning and testing...it used to be one of the worse hospitals in the country for it!

My aunt got C Dif after her kidney transplant about 5 years ago, very almost killed her...different hospital though.

lostinrates

silvercar, I do things like that in multiple cake cases, I often even bake cupcakes in three cases stacked when I've run out of cup cake/muffin tin space. It will be heavy for the crumble though.....if you are hiring crockery I'd do the crumble in a roasting tin and serve from there, less delicate but more stable.

Yesterday while in Lydia's home town dh and I bought a couple of takeaway pretzels for breakfast this morning. DH insisted at breakfast I teach him how to make them....which would b e fine but I've never tried before and like to have a run through before trying to show anyone something! Anyway, I've just made my first ever pretzels. Not bad, not bad at all.

zagubov

SingleSue wrote: »

My aunt got C Dif after her kidney transplant about 5 years ago, very almost killed her...different hospital though.

I'm afraid transplants probably have a higher risk of infection because of immunosuppressive treatments that have to accompany it. I don't think other patients would have as high a risk.

treliac

zagubov wrote: »

Unfortunately now and again you do hear of people (or FOAFs) who get infected so it must happen occasionally.

It does and unfortnately more than now and again though, in general, diligent testing of patients seems to be improving things.