Ask yer Granny!

suzybloo

ohhhhhh I want porridge now!!!!!! I make mine cup oats, cup milk, cup of water, shake of salt. I put the oats water and salt in the saucepan overnight, add the milk in the morning and bring to the boil, turn off the heat and leave it cook a couple of minutes. Leaving it overnight softens the porridge oats so you dont have to cook them as long - it saves you a few minutes only but sometimes these minutes are needed LOL!

FairyPrincessk

I'm not a granny, but I eat so much porridge that OH calls me goldilocks. I think this is a little unfair as I did not steal mine.

I don't measure mine, I just pour some in a saucepan and add water from the kettle (usually doing coffee at the same time). If I've got enough milk in I'll top up with a splash, otherwise I'm not bothered. I add a shameful 2-3 Tbsp of brown sugar, large shake of cinnamon, splash of vanilla and cook until thick. I then pout it into a bowl on top of 6 or7 frozen berries (whatever I can get cheaply) the berries help cool the porridge down when I stir them in. Frozen banana would probably work as well but I'm not really a fan.

Although both of my grandmothers certainly had old style skills, they'd mostly stopped relying on them by the time I came along. Both were marvellous cooks, one still is and I did get her to show me how to fry a chicken last time I was there. She also crochets, although I don't. My mum is quite os, and we grew up without much money so I learned to eat beans and rice with rice and beans for variety. I also learned to sew from her, and how to make do and mend things. The family stuborness doesn't hurt either. I've just got the right tool to mend my tumble dryer knob myself instead of having to phone LL every time it falls off. It did require a £3 spend, but it will save me loads, both because I won't lose money ever time it breaks after I've put money in and I won't have to pay to re-wash all of the clothes that don't dry properly in my very damp flat. While a tumble dryer might not be OS, having the right tools and the gumption to do things myself has saved me both time and money.

mardatha

I have porridge every single day for breakfast and have done for years, I love it. made with water & salt and a dollop of single cream on top. As Red Doe says, oatmeal you soak, oats you dont. Well you dont have to. Re heart etc I don't see anything wrong with eating all that - in the old days that was simply being OS and not throwing out or wasting food.

meritaten

Ive eaten tongue (very nice) lambs hearts stuffed (very rich but very tasty) but not brain (at least I dont think so..........but knowing my nan they MAY have been served up as 'stewed murks and cauliflower' or 'Bees Knees and Beans'!

a poster asked about gran or grandads occupations. Miners - and I have gone back far enough that some of the females were miners too! before that they were almost all Agricultural Labourers. further back they were Welsh nobility.

My fathers mother however, 'Lizzy Ann' had a rather unusual occupation. She laid out the deceased for local families before the undertaker was called in (her services came considerably cheaper)! I cannot swear to it, but I believe my dad once told me she charged a Shilling.

I love this thread - its like listening to Nan and Grancher telling me about the 'Olden Days' when I was a young child!

katylou6180

My Nan is now long gone, senile dementia- that said throughout my young life and my teens she did have some pearls of wisdom to share in her more lucid moments, she had job after job since she left school at the age of 15, and when my Mum and Uncle were little she ran the local villiage shop with my Grandad, they then moved to the town we live in with my Grandad slaving away working 6am-10pm to make ends meet and she used to sew mittens at home Dementia didn't set in till after he died. If roast beef was cooked on a sunday, it was her traditional leftover dinner of "100 to 1" (100 pieces of spud to 1 of meat) basically whatever meat you had left over chopped up, in a roasting tin half full of gravy, with chopped up potatoes sticking up in the gravy like little islands- then open cooked in the oven so the potatoes went all crispy on the top, and the bottoms had soaked up all the gravy, served with any veg that was easily accesible, every time I cook it I think of her house. Another of her gems was "a little of what you fancy does you good" this was her excuse for buying "branded" ribena and giving it to me as a child as mum and dad were a bit strapped for cash at the time...think that was grandparents perogative! The final one in my mind sticks out when I was in my young teens, i used to be hormonal and moaning about how harsh life was, and how I hated this that and the other, and why was life like this blah blah blah....and the response was simply " You'll have worse pain than that before you die My Girl!" and oh how right she was!!

meritaten

Sorry to post back again so soon! bet you are all fed up of me by now! but, I couldnt not post about my grandfathers mother. She was in 'service' which was a common occupation for young women. but, she wasnt just 'anyones' maid. She was a maid to Madame Adelina Patti (the Madonna of her day). great grandmother Ellen was part of Madame Patti's household at Craig-Y-Nos. Madame Patti was a huge star in her day - my grancher told me that Ellen was her Ladies maid - whether that was true I dont know, but she absolutely adored her employer apparently. From what I have found out by googling, Madame Patti had a huge staff - it was needed........Craig-Y-Nos is massive! she was also well respected and admired for the kindness she showed her employees.
The only other story my grancher told me about his mum was that she went shopping in the village one morning and another lady asked her why she wasnt at Mildreds (her oldest daughter) wedding? She hadnt known about it! Aunt Mil didnt invite ANY of her family - probably cos she was marrying a bookie (bookmaker as in gambling not books) and knew it wouldnt go down well! Granch said that his mum was heartbroken - she WOULD have gone and gave them her blessing - but his dad would probably have turned up drunk and started a fight!
I remember Aunt Mil very well - this little old lady who lived in a house crammed with antiques - most of which I seem to have inherited by default! lucky to have been there when mum and her sisters were clearing out both aunt Mils and my Nans - most of the good stuff would have gone in the bin as 'that old junk'!

Kaz2904

Family folklore has it that my family is descended from the people who lived at Longleat. Apparently about 200 years ago, the daughter was disinherited for marrying a servant. We are descended from her . Typical for my family, always put love over a bit of cash. Nuts the lot of us

meritaten

The present owners a bit nuts too apparently - must run in the family!

maryb

The Loins of Longleat:rotfl:

kiss_me_now9

Another thing about my Grandad along a similar line was he was known for impressing us with tall stories... used to regularly tell us he'd been to tea with the Queen (took my mum some convincing to get me to understand that he was joking, I'm still not certain ) and that way back in our family tree, about 5 generations back, we owned a large family house but the heir to it, our great x 6 grandad or something, ran away with a serving girl and disinherited it. Maybe the same as yours Kaz!

He was also an avid Millwall fan... the kick in the teeth is that Millwall won something the summer after he died, he would have been immensely proud to see that.