Preparedness for when

nuatha

NewShadow wrote: »

Have you ever read Califia's Daughters (Leigh Richards) or The Shore of Women (Pamela Sargent - published the year before Women's Country).

If not, you might enjoy both.

That's the second recommendation of Pamela Sargent in just over a week (and I've just remembered a recommendation from Kris Rusch last year) so I'll definitely follow that up. (And the Leigh Richards as well)

If you like Armstrong, have you read Alice Borchardt? The Silver Wolf is really good.

I enjoyed Silver Wolf, was less keen on the rest of the trilogy but will reread them.

Same with the Dresden books - the Kate Daniels books (Ilona Andrews) have a very similar 'feel'.
{Black Company - Glen Cook}
I've actually only recently bought the first couple of these on my kindle. You've just bumped them up my reading list...

They sat in my Mount To Be Read for a long time, apart from Honor Harrington, I'm not a big military scifi fan, I found the set strangely compelling once started and found space for them in the permanent collection (limited to books that will get reread at least every two years)

nuatha

ALIBOBSY wrote: »

I am convinced I will be one of those old ladies with a dozen cats and floor to ceiling books
Ali x

I can't fit another bookcase in the house, though, due to a very ruthless cull, I do have some empty shelves (one currently has a cat sleeping in it) and mainly read on an ebook reader these days (storage space is far less on an issue this way) all my favourites are also acquired in hard copy so I'll have reading material if SHTF.
We have three cats, we do have a commitment to two more if circumstances dictate, but there's no way we're having more than that before or after retirement.

Hard_Up_Hester

Stop, stop please, I started following the bookworm thread and bought 30 books in as many days, I come on here and I've just bought 3 more!
Hester

NewShadow

Right, so, no politics, no books...

Does anyone here do once monthly shops?

If so, how do you do without fresh fruit each week - or even just the last week before payday when money's a bit squeaky?

I've got frozen bananas, blueberries, and raspberries, but they're a bit of a pest towards the end of the month when I want to take fruit into work. Tinned is a bit mushy, dried is fine but high sugar/kcal for snacking.

I throw some frozen in HM yogurt, or make pots of sugar free jelly, but I'm looking for other options.

Are there any good portable recipes for 'healthy' fruit snacks made with shelf stable or frozen fruit?

thriftwizard

I love reading, too, have often joked that my idea home would comprise of a small flat attached to the Central Library, with a secret door for me to sneak through, out of hours.

Ahem - entering L-space out of hours - may have unintended consequences!

GreyQueen

thriftwizard wrote: »

Ahem - entering L-space out of hours - may have unintended consequences!

Ooookkkkk!!!!!

Karmacat

I'd be willing to put up with unintended consequences if I had free run of the library

New Shadow, could you make fruit leathers?

NewShadow

Karmacat wrote: »

New Shadow, could you make fruit leathers?

Hmm... Like this?

http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_make_fruit_leather/

Any idea how long it keeps?

Not sure I like the idea of leaving the oven on for 8 hours.

:eek: http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/dry/fruit_leathers.html or 18 hours!

ETA:

Yum!

nuatha

NewShadow wrote: »

Right, so, no politics, no books...

Does anyone here do once monthly shops?

If so, how do you do without fresh fruit each week - or even just the last week before payday when money's a bit squeaky?

I've got frozen bananas, blueberries, and raspberries, but they're a bit of a pest towards the end of the month when I want to take fruit into work. Tinned is a bit mushy, dried is fine but high sugar/kcal for snacking.

I throw some frozen in HM yogurt, or make pots of sugar free jelly, but I'm looking for other options.

Are there any good portable recipes for 'healthy' fruit snacks made with shelf stable or frozen fruit?

I've just finished the last of my apples, picked in October. I generally find loose apples will keep a good few weeks, likewise citrus. Bananas I buy a mix of yellow and green, the green will ripen more slowly, providing they are separate from other fruit and kept cool - I use a banana hook for this.
I tend to keep a decent supply of mixed berries in the freezer and will make compotes, low sugar jams or add them to muffins as I fancy them. Bad planning last year meant I've run out of my home frozen raspberries which I would generally turn into tarts or muffins. I will often make muffins as (relatively) healthy snack.
I've stopped making fruit leathers - too little self control (I have more control around chocolate cake, not much, but more )
I also make date balls and have been playing with paleo protein bar recipes as snacks/meal replacements (still a work in progress at the moment)

I'll respect Hester's wishes and not mention fiction for a while but don't leave off the politics on my account.

To answer your original question btw, we rarely shop as often as monthly, even fruit and veg is likely to be 6 weekly or even alternate months. Though I will generally pick up fresh milk weekly and Herself gets eggs from a colleague roughly monthly.

thriftwizard wrote: »

Ahem - entering L-space out of hours - may have unintended consequences!

There lies serious temptation. I did get locked in the County Library storage for three hours without realising - the reference and storage worked office hours, the library was open late night. If I hadn't been near the staff room I'd probably have been there overnight (and happy, it still sounds like heaven to me)

Perplexed_Pineapple

Evening. I know that some of you like to keep stocked up on tealights, so thought you might like to know that I found some Spaas brand tealights at B&Q today, packs of 200 for £6 which I think is pretty good.