Preparedness for when

ivyleaf

There seem to be two schools of thought; one is that this winter will be colder than usual because of the Gulf Stream being cooled by the melting of the Greenland glaciers (if I understand it correctly) and the other is that the El Nino effect will mean a mild, wet winter.

I suppose we'll have to wait and see, as usual

Nargleblast

I read somewhere that the El Nino thingy causes colder, drier weather in the northern hemisphere, so that would be another vote for a cold winter! I am inclined to believe the folklore about lots of berries heralding a harsh winter, so am assuming it will at least be cooler on average than it was last winter.

Ryanna2599

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

In my ponderings about stores I realised the thing I'd miss most is cheese, I used to be able to get tinned Kraft cheese from the world foods section at T*sco but haven't seen it for ages and today I found some non fridge Primula Cheese, which I know is a spread, but it comes in a tub or a tube and has several variants of flavour. I think I'll get a few different tubes to go into the stash, not cheese 'per se' but cheesy enough to give us a 'fix' if we need one. Pretty good use by dates on them too.

I realise it's a few weeks since the topic of cheese was discussed, however I wanted to share my experience dehydrating cheese. Odd thought to dehydrate cheese but for some cheese it seems to work. Cheddar was a disaster as too fatty but Feta on the other hand was very successful. One pack of Feta from the supermarket was opened, patted dry, chopped into small cubes and placed on a piece of kitchen roll in the dehydrator. An online site suggested a lower than normal drying temp (~45C) and a few hours later dry 'squeaky' feta that is now stored in my pantry cupboard. It was a hit with me, DH and DD, especially for sprinkling onto meals! Several more packs have subsequently been dehydrated since.

Living_proof

Ryanna2599 wrote: »

I realise it's a few weeks since the topic of cheese was discussed, however I wanted to share my experience dehydrating cheese. Odd thought to dehydrate cheese but for some cheese it seems to work. Cheddar was a disaster as too fatty but Feta on the other hand was very successful. One pack of Feta from the supermarket was opened, patted dry, chopped into small cubes and placed on a piece of kitchen roll in the dehydrator. An online site suggested a lower than normal drying temp (~45C) and a few hours later dry 'squeaky' feta that is now stored in my pantry cupboard. It was a hit with me, DH and DD, especially for sprinkling onto meals! Several more packs have subsequently been dehydrated since.

Would you just eat this as dehydrated or somehow re-hydrate it in dressing maybe? I dry a lot but haven't come across cheese yet.

moneyistooshorttomention

Hmmm...I've never heard of drying cheese before either. Well ya' learn summat every day. Guess the logic of feta does dry, but cheddar doesn't is that feta is a very wet/soft type of cheese. Logic tells me that it must be possible then to dry cream cheese and cottage cheese too for instance.

I can feel some experiments coming on.

I'm wondering what one would do, for instance, with dried feta cheese. Whether to dunk it in water to rehydrate it or use it as it is?

[Deleted User]

I've just thought of another stalwart of filling empty tums for very little outlay and that's BREAD PUDDING, not bread and butter pudding but real stodgy, cloggy, delicious fill you up bread pudding. It uses up stale bread so saves waste, keeps very well in a tin in the larder cupboard and I defy anyone to be hungry after consuming a goodly chunk of this. Other fillers slightly more outlay are PARKIN and GINGERBREAD both of which will literally keep for months in a tin and just seem to get better flavoured the longer they are kept. Recipes for all if anyone wants to play!

ivyleaf

Nargleblast wrote: »

I read somewhere that the El Nino thingy causes colder, drier weather in the northern hemisphere, so that would be another vote for a cold winter! I am inclined to believe the folklore about lots of berries heralding a harsh winter, so am assuming it will at least be cooler on average than it was last winter.

Perhaps I've got it wrong about El Nino then or else the "experts" are disagreeing about what it's likely to do.

One of the dog-roses in my garden has had more hips than I've ever seen on it, so I thought "Ooh, bad winter coming!" when I saw it, but then realised that the other identical rose had only one or two hips, so I'm baffled by that.

Lyn My mum used to make gorgeous bread pudding and gingerbread. I've tried, but mine has somehow never been quite as nice as hers! And I don't do much baking now as Mr ivyleaf is diabetic. Our baker sells bread pudding though, so I have a piece occasionally.

[Deleted User]

Given that it was 'Back to the Future' day yesterday and they were having the great debate on the TV about what of the predicted developments had come to fruition in the years up to 2015 who would have predicted then that we would be having this particular debate on here about reduced incomes and how best to feed, clothe and shoe your families and keep them warm on a reduced income should your job have disappeared overnight as it has for our friends in the Steel Industry? They can keep their flying cars and self tying shoe laces how about a decent living wage and a relatively safe job in a company that belongs to British owners? how about 'real' food on the shelves of the shops that is affordable and home produced to help our beleaguered farming community and food industry to survive?, how about affordable energy and public transport supplied by companies that are British owned and have the interests of their customers needs further towards the front of company policy than making dividends for their share holders? it IS 2015 but this particular future is beginning to feel more like the 20s/30s depression years isn't it rather than the high tech utiopa portrayed in the films?

thriftwizard

Hear hear! I think we should start an "OS" political party & bring common sense back to our islands!

Or maybe just a party... cheers! :beer:

[Deleted User]

Count me in I'll bring the canapes!!!( if I can't find one of those the nearest to it'll be a can 'o peas!)