It was getting tough in 2006 and the workhouse still threatens us in 2011

Mrs_Veg_Plot

Thanks for the chutney recipe Greyqueen. Will be making that tomorrow.

Mardatha shame on you :rotfl:

meanmarie

Cat_smith....sorry I shouted at you in daily, couldn't believe it until I saw it in black and white!

Shame on you Mardatha.....I know its for you and RV really...

Marie

cat_smith

meanmarie wrote: »

Cat_smith....sorry I shouted at you in daily, couldn't believe it until I saw it in black and white!

Shame on you Mardatha.....I know its for you and RV really...

Marie

Don't worry. I had to do a triple take. I still cannot believe it.

redlady_1

Hahhahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa....she has turned to the Dark Side!!!

toottifrootti

GreyQueen a beetroot relish - sounds good - what do you eat it with?
poor Mardatha you have all worn her down:rotfl:

Seakay thanks for mentioning the vintage curtains on ebay - I did trawl a bit last night but there was very little and like you say the P&P is :eek:

ceridwen

SDG13000

To me - its obvious that you've been very good indeed to this neighbour of yours:T:A You've done a LOT more for her than many would have done - I'll admit the sh*t cleaning-up would have been WAY beyond me personally.

So - I would say - you've been extremely good to her - out of purely altruistic reasons. If you now wish to offer to buy some of her possessions from her - at a reasonable price - then if its a case of "landfill - or you've paid her a fair price for them" - then I see absolutely no reason why you shouldnt if she is agreeable to this. Why not? - and think of it as the last favour you do for her iyswim.

EDIT: In fact if I were the relatives of the woman concerned - then I would think it was the least I could do to give you your pick of whatever you wanted in the house as a gift for free for all you've done. So - you wanting to buy a keepsake or two is very "honourable" indeed and I would personally appreciate the offer of paying for whatever-it-is you want - but refuse pointblank to let you pay for anything and just give it to you.

westcoastscot

Hi Igamogam I'll have a look at le crueset - I'm looking for something loaf-tin sized, and they may have something.

Chocclare it sounds like Mardatha has the same stove as me - I burn eggs too, and wood when I can get it. It has a grill in the bottom to put fuel on, ash collects in a pan in the bottom, and we have a grill which sits in the front when we burn wood, which we call a basket but which just sits in the front of the fire to stop the wood touching the glass. Like Mar's ours heats the water and throws out heat also - it would be great if it were free-standing, but there you go. Wonder if a dutch oven type idea would work? It is a large stove inside - not sure how I would get it in or out - do you know if a dutch oven can sit direct on the coals???? It just seems a waste of heat not to be cooking on it - we had a free standing one on the island and it was fantastic.

When I said something to hook onto the basket, I was thinking about something to hook on the front log-catcher thingy, inside over the coals, like a wee basket or something that I could pop baked potatoes in and not lose them?

Mardatha we used to have calor gas but when it finally fell to pieces I bought an electric cooker as the only gas ones I could find were a fortune - am regretting it now and may well go back to gas when I can afford one. It just seems a waste to pay to run a slow cooker when the stove is always on???? Times are getting tougher for my family so we're trying to save where we can.

WCS

ChocClare

A dutch oven can indeed just sit on the coals - that's why I said I wouldn't want to put my nice Le Creuset in there, but you can get black cast iron ones which wouldn't get spoilt.

I imagine that the reason it's called a Dutch oven is that it is actually a very small oven if you think about it - a cast iron "box" which gets heated up. Therefore IN THEORY you could cook anything on the inside which you could cook in a normal oven - as long as it was small enough. The one thing you don't have is control of the temperature in the same way as you would have in a normal oven.

There's a lot of information about them here, but it would obviously be a case of trial and error. I imagine things like casseroles would probably be very successful, though I don't know what the timing would be!

As for your baked potatoes - could you not get a metal basket like you get for a chip pan or for the inside of a pressure cooker and do your potatoes in that? You could always line the bottom with foil if you wanted to avoid too much ash.

scottishminnie

I need a large gin and tonic and it's only Monday!!!

If anyone remembers my boiler saga from a few weeks back I have an update - the water jacket is burst and obsolete so engineer says that means a new boiler at a cost of approx £2500 -£3000 (that doesn't include installation apparently). The insurance company I have been religously donating £100+ per year to for a policy say they will give me £500 towards a new boiler. They can't understand why I thought I would get anything more than and think it's a more than generous offer. I could run a bl**dy mile right now.

About a month ago our 3 year old lawn mower gave up the ghost and was declared "dead as a dodo" by the repairman so I now have new mower at a cost of £550 which I didn't anticipate spending as I thought the previous one may have given slightly more than 2 and a bit summers of use.

My ever helpful mother has pointed out things do tend to come in three's so I have another disaster to follow soon. I bought an oven thermometer today to see how it's behaving after the scone saga - that better not be the third thing or I may just stick my head in it. On second thoughts it's not gas, it's electric so other than heatstroke I don't think it would serve any purpose:D

Who says you can't drink on a Monday - I'm off to have that G&T:o

redlady_1

Do you think that you could perch a Dutch oven on top of a wood burner? I already cook on top of mine so there is the room but its whether the heat would be sufficient to cook.