The OS Doorstep - a helpful and supportive thread in these tough times

kidcat

Our Aldi has maslin pans at the moment fuddle

fuddle

Thanks kidcat. Planned a trip to Aldi anyway as need manuka honey for the medicine basket. Do I need a Maslin pan though? What's special about them in terms of jam making. Thank you muchly

Dodging the rain. Just picked up a lady's shopping and heading back for a cuppa and a slice of coffee cake. Big happy bonus today was that before the showers came I was picking blackberries for the lady who can't get in her garden. Thrilled she was. Happy helpful feelings for me but too much in the way of cake gobbling! Rude to say no though eh?! Haha

ginnyknit

I used a pressure cooker pan for years Fuddle with same results. It just has to be a deep solid pan - jam can expand and bubble up. I got a thermometer from HobbyC*aft for £3. If its runny it could be short of pectin (setting agent) and im sure someone will come along and tell you what to add to help it set, possibly lemon juice?

Kidcat, have a lovely time and S*d the parents :rotfl:

Pooky

I use my big stock pot pan for jam and jelly making - works just fine

Kidkat - Glad you got there safely - sorry to hear about so many poorly animals though

[Deleted User]

FUDDLE for Maslin Pan read Big Preserving Pan and no you only need one if you're going to make bigger batches of preserve otherwise a good sturdy deep saucepan is perfectly fine!!! To add natural pectin to a jam or jelly add in a chopped up apple or two or apple peel in a bit of muslin as apples are a source of pectin and that will help the jam to set. If you add apple it will dissapear into the jam and not change the taste, if you add the peel in muslin you can just hoik it out at the end and you'll have set jam.

FairyPrincessk

I don't use a maslin pan either Fuddle. I have been looking into it, and it seems that their main features are a thick and heavy bottom, a handle, and a pouring spout. I either don't need the feature or my stock pot does it just fine so I don't think I'll bother.

Pectin, either naturally occurring or added is what makes jam set. If your jam is runny, you can either try combining your fruit with another fruit that is naturally high in pectin, or adding pectin. I found this site really helpful:
http://foodpreservation.about.com/od/Preserves/a/High-And-Low-Pectin-Fruit.htm

monnagran

A thick, heavy bottom eh? Oviously made for me!

Lyn: Vintage chutney? Well, it works for wine. Hope the Italian restaurant lives up to expectations. I had some great Italian friends and their HM food spoilt me for any commercial Italian restaurants, but there was one on the IOW that came close because it was run by an Italian family. I am anxious to try out the ones near here.

Fuddle: Your day sounds great. And just to let you know, I do a really good potter.

Nutty: I can tell you how I cope with moving.
Very badly.

Kidcat: Hope you have a really lovely holiday. If anyone deserves it, it's you. Hope you get the vet's results soon and that they are not as bad as you fear. As for the parents - presumably you all have mobile phones so they can contact you if necessary, so what does it matter where you are? Is this a control thing again?

Well, I'm up here on the pretext of finishing off my bedroom. Hollow laughter. It's a fast day today so don't have to do much in the way of cooking. However the Rev will be looking for something to eat soon so had better go and raid the salad drawer.

x

stiltwalker

Hey Ginny - that's my neck of the woods - if you'd shouted I could have said hi!


Well it's been busy, busy here all summer so I'm actually looking forward to a bit of a rest when the kids go back (not that that will happen, but a girl can dream).


Last exciting thing at the end of the week with a trip down southshire to lego land and to meet up with some other families at Kew whose kids also have jouberts like ours. The London hotel was booked on a good deal ages ago, but we were driving back from a trip with a group we belong to at Lightwater Valley last Friday - DS had had an mazing time, he loves to rides and we'd had more good communication and another sentence from him so we were trying to think if we could afford another night and use the merlin cards to go to lego land. Well we only go back to a tax refund for DH who worked part of last tax year before becoming a carer so we took that as a sign and booked another hotel for Thursday night on late rooms!


Anyway must go - this afternoon is primarni for school jeans (DD has special permission as she'd be through the knees of the ordinary trousers and grazing her actual knees in a week!


Catch you all later - X

savingqueen

Afternoon folks

A warm welcome to LilySue

Still feel I haven't quite caught up on here, been busy catching up in RL. Still have lots of washing but the weather is not being helpful, going to have Mr Dehummy on full time duty drying the clothes, towels and bedding.

DH has this week off too and it is so nice to have him around. He hasn't done many of the everyday chores but he has cut the lawns, tidying up a bit and taken down the trampoline as boys would now rather have space for playing football (our garden is tiny.) Gardens looking tidier, just the hedge to do.


We all went into town today to get boys hair cut and new shoes and drop off several heavy bags of his old course books into charity shop. DS7 still the same little shoe size he has been for ages and doesn't match his much taller than average height. His shoes can wait a bit longer phew. DS10 needed school shoes and plimsolls - price in THAT shoe shop beginning with C was eye watering. Thank goodness we can spread the cost of shoes over more than one month.

DH at dentist now, think he needs a filling and then hopefully a trip to the recycling/tip. Getting practical stuff out the way today so tomorrow we can have a family day out.

We finally have a set of matching, solid wooden kitchen chairs :jdonated by our lovely friends who are splashing out on new ones. We have been using the cheap battered ones left behind when we bought the house 12 years ago supplemented by cheap fold up chairs we already had to use when guests come. Good job I am patient eh? Its nice that people think of us when getting rid of furniture and helps us out. We are really grateful even if we do sometimes feel like the poor relations. I remind myself that our friends have more expensive stuff yet to be paid for (bank loans, credit cards and re-mortgages) whereas everything we have (bar the house still mortgaged) is paid for up front. Our way of doing things is the right way for us and I hope our children grow up to have the same attitude. Ooops sorry ramble over .

Right best get on, dishes to be done, dinner to decide on, something with left over chicken and a good old tidy up beckon then I will do a couple of little sewing jobs.

[Deleted User]

SQ not poor relations but sensible, thrifty and down to earth people who have thier priorities in the right place and the patience to live with what they already have until something is offered that will do the job better. If everyone had that philosophy to live by there would be less debt, less waste and less discontent all round!!! Pleased for you love, Lyn xxx.