Not mentioning the T word at all

scottishminnie

I'm here SDG:wave: I also have power:D and I'm warm - although I think the warm bit is on account of a spin class followed by a step class tonight. I do so much darned exercise I should be like a whippet - well if only I didn't eat:)

It was really cold today - I ventured out at lunchtime to donate blood and it was the "nipping the face off " type of cold. I don't mind cold so much as long as it is dry.

Most of my online orders arrived today so my shopping is nearly finished:j - just a few odds and ends to do.

I have a dentist appointment tomorrow which I'm not looking forward to - I seem to have sliced a bit off a back tooth which has exposed the inside. It's niggling a bit and I just know it will involve a frozen mouth and a big bill - deep joy!
I've always taken care of my teeth so it's frustrating that I've had a couple of extractions and numerous filllings over the last few years. According to my dentist it's just an age thing -I guess he has a point but at just over 40 and fitter than I was at 30 I don't like hearing it!

I need to start the wrapping tomorrow now I have some tags - note I said some. for some reason I only bought one measly little packet - not sure where my brain was today.

I've been back on the Competitions board - I figure if I enter a couple a day then who knows so my entries today were for £400 of book tokens, £500 Aspinal of London voucher and £1000 to spend at Dobbies. I don't "need" any of them but it would be a nice lift.

i forgot about the Superscrimpers programme so I'm off to see if I can find a replay and sky+ it to watch at me leisure (goodness knows when that will be).

Have a warm and cosy evening -will be back tomorrow.

Meant to say - I have an old hurricane lamp in the garage I'd forgotten about - it will be getting a clean up tomorrow.

Also - we looked at having a stove or an open fire but the costs were prohibitive. The room where we would put the stove isn't big enough for it to have sufficient space out from the wall and we don't have a chimney for an open fire. (when we built the house I didn't include it in the plans so the builder wouldn't do it without resubmitting the full application. Pity I hadn't been more of a stroppy cow then!)
We are looking at the possibility of building the chimney on the outside then opening it up into a room , kind of like an ingle nook if that makes sense, but that's a 2012 project now.

CCP

Morning all.

I hope everyone in the Frozen North's doing OK.

It's chilly but bright on the south coast today, although with the promise / threat (depending on how you look at it ) of snow tonight or tomorrow. :j I love snow, probably because I see it so rarely that it remains a novelty. At least it might make me feel more festive than I do at the moment, although I'm feeling slightly better now that I've sorted out all but a couple of Christmas prezzies (thanks to the MSE weekly email :T), and I've written about a quarter of the essay that's due just before Christmas, and I've finished the quiz for the work Christmas party. I'm getting there!

I was going to start a new thread but I'll put this on here instead:

You know you spend too much time on the OS forum when...

you hear an advert on the radio for a 'S0ny tablet' and think "I didn't know S0ny made fudge". :doh:

Please tell me it's not just me...

VJsmum

CCP - it's just you! (kidding!) I thought a thread yesterday was talking about a calendar with 7 condoms!:rotfl:

Lovely night out with the girlies - a meal and 2 glasses of wine :beer: for less than a tenner, can't be bad.

First day off today - and i have nearly 3 weeks in all :j Today, though is to be spent running round like a BAF finishing the christmas pressies, posting the cards and buying some cup tie tickets for OH and DS (our non league local club has drawn one of the big guns, so it's an opportunity not to be missed). I have loaded the WM and fed Sandra the slow cooker with a pile of braising steak and a can of guinness. She can go on when i go out, but first i'm off for a soak in the bath (well it is my holiday!).

Have a fulfilling day all.

SDG31000

Morning everyone
I'm glad to know you are ok scottishminnie *waves back*
CCP It's not just you honest. Although I live with 3 gadget mad males of the species and wouldn't make that mistake. I think I pick up geekiness by osmosis.
VJsmum good luck with the shopping. I love your slow cookers name. My Kitchen Aid mixer is called Daisy Darling and my shopping trolley is named Dotty Yes I know I'm mad, but I live with teenage boys so it's allowed.
Today I need to stock take the baking supplies and work out what else I need to buy for the mammoth present making sessions. The plan is to make parkin today.
I have to admit that I felt a bit :mad: last night when I got a text message from my DSister telling me what I needed to bake for her and DBIL. I told her I'd add it to the bottom of the list and let the team of bakers I have on standby know about the brownies with raspberry ganache and chocolate and raspberry cupcakes they want. If they were the only things I had to make and I had been asked nicely instead of them "putting their order in" I wouldn't mind so much.
Thankfully she understood and she knows that chances are she will have to settle for what I have time to make.
That's my rant for the morning over and done with, so bye for now everyone xxx

Kaz2904

Morning all well, I feel much better today, obviously the day in bed has shifted the cold so I'm really pleased about that.
Got back from doing the school run and saw that the big wheelie bin had blown over again. Unfortunately, when I picked it up, I realised that it has smashed one of my pots I now need to find another pot to put the strawberry plant into. It's a shame because I like the way they look sitting on my drain and hiding the ugliness.
My cousin has just phoned and said he won't be able to make it over for coffee as he has to get his girlfriend back to North London for 3pm. I was really looking forward to meeting her but (is this wrong?) I have got soooooo much to do today that it is a bit of a relief that they can't make it. I will meet her on Christmas eve anyway as they will be back down on the 23rd for Christmas.
I need to do some baking today among other things, I am hoping to get the chick peas sorted and get some houmus prepared for Sundays birthday party. I will also try to make DS's birthday cake tonight. If I can make him one for his friends tomorrow night and then another for his party on Saturday, then I'll feel happy and will save an absolute blimmin fortune on the cost of a shop bought cake.
I have all of the windows open in a bid to get the house aired. The littlies finish school tomorrow afternoon and DH finishes work tomorrow evening. He's off until 18th January :eek: so the house will be hermetically sealed whilst they're all home. Last year, the day the littlies went back to school, I got home (I'd left him in bed for a really long lie in as he never gets one), opened all the windows and started on the house work. He came downstairs when I turfed him out of our bed at 12 so I could wash the sheets. After half an hour sitting freezing, he said he was off to the barbers to warm up . He couldn't understand why I had all the windows open even when I pointed out how stale the air was. Yuk smelly house.
We are blessed with the cold wet stuff today. It's grim out there. Never mind heh, once the kitchen is cleaned, I can make some lovelies

katieowl_2

Was it someone on here who asked for the sugar free fruit cake recipe?
If so shout again, as I've found it now!!! It wasn't in a book, just one of many photocopied pages floating around the house at the mo!

Anyway I finished it this morning, ready for delivery this after noon, got a box from the bakers in town too, so it arrives in one piece. Quite pleased with how it looks, if I can figure out how, I'll post a picture!

Kate

katieowl_2

There did that work?

Kate

SDG31000

That looks incredible katieowl, well done :T

I would love the recipe as both my DPIL are type 2 diabetic and I'd like an alternative to the tea loaf I make them.

queenie68

that looks gorgeous:T Katieowl my hubby would eat that in about 3 sittings he loves fruit cake

katieowl_2

SDG31000 wrote: »

That looks incredible katieowl, well done :T

I would love the recipe as both my DPIL are type 2 diabetic and I'd like an alternative to the tea loaf I make them.

Here you are then.

Rich Fruit Cake.

Grease and line 8" round tin.

175g Stoned unsweetened dates
125g ready to eat prunes
200 ml unsweetened orange juice
2 Tbsp black treacle
finely grated rind of one orange and one lemon
225g Wholemeal self raising flour
2 tsp mixed spice
125g Seedless raisins
125g sultanas
125g currants
125g dried cranberries
3 large eggs separated

Chop dates and prunes and place in saucepan with OJ simmer for 10 minutes, remove from the heat and recipe says beat until pureed, but I bunged mine in the magimix and blitzed it. Add treacle and orange and lemon rinds and leave to cool.

Preheat oven to 160c Sift flour and spice into a bowl, and add the bran in the sieve back in. Mix in the dried fruits. When the date/prune mixture is cool, whisk in the egg yolks. (I did it in the Magimix again)

In a clean bowl, whisk the three egg whites until stiff.

Spoon the wet fruit mixture into the dried fruits and flour, and then carefully fold in the egg whites and transfer to the prepared tin, smooth the top flat and cook for one and a half hours. Leave to cool in the tin.

Two other things I did....I soaked the dried fruits in brandy overnight before I made the cake, and I 'fed' it with brandy a couple of times too, before I decorated it. We've tried this cake ourselves (I made a test one for us) and it was really good.

I got a jar of apricot glaze which was with the baking ingredients in the supermarket, which I warmed and used to stick the fruit on the top to decorate, and there are ready to eat apricots, halved and stoned Mejool dates (the ones they have with the fresh fruit) preserved ginger slices, halved glace cherries, and some little 'leaf' shapes cut from angelica. Glaze was then brushed over the top, and it was left to 'set' If you can't find glaze, you can use sieved and warmed apricot jam


Kate