Nice People Thread Part 9 - and so it continues

silvercar

lostinrates wrote: »

http://www.hammerite.co.uk/products/direct_to_rust_metal_paint_hammered_finish.jsp

Copper barn doors? Too ott even for me? Road side? Would silver be less brash? Against my sort of teal paint?

Is this for the metal bits on them? Or are you trying to create the impression the whole door is made of metal? And why teal?

lostinrates

silvercar wrote: »

Is this for the metal bits on them? Or are you trying to create the impression the whole door is made of metal? And why teal?

The whole of the doors are metal, and the walls that are not brick are being painted not exactly teal, but a sort of great, blue, not quite grey colour more quickly expressed as 'teal'.

michaels

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Edited to add - I think our Paxos holidays were quite pricey - I have a vague memory that my mother said they cost £1,000 per person, for the 6 of us, for a fortnight in the early-to-mid 1990s. they were a lot of fun, though! We're looking for something a bit cheaper, both in £ terms and certainly relative ones.

Was it a Sunsail type set-up?

michaels

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

You don't buy meraingues. They taste like sawdust.

You make them - it's really, really easy. 2 oz sugar per 1 egg white, and careful not to let any yolk contaminate them.

Isn't there a magic bit about cooking them just the right amount without them buring on top?

neverdespairgirl

michaels wrote: »

Was it a Sunsail type set-up?

I don't know much about Sunsail - it was called the Greek Islands Sailing Club, and meant we had a self-catering place about 10 minutes' walk from the sailing centre in Paxos, with packed lunches provided on sailing days. In practice, we had bread and cheese at home for breakfast, and ate out in the evenings, which meant my parents had to spend a lot of their time trying to make sure their children ate some of their dinners, instead of giving it all to the prolific feral moggies who had a great line in begging.

neverdespairgirl

michaels wrote: »

Isn't there a magic bit about cooking them just the right amount without them buring on top?

No, it's idiot proof. You just have to whisk like mad, and cook on a really low heat, more drying them out than cooking them.

In an Aga, the lowest oven is perfect for meraingues.

lostinrates

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

No, it's idiot proof. You just have to whisk like mad, and cook on a really low heat, more drying them out than cooking them.

In an Aga, the lowest oven is perfect for meraingues.

A etchings actually do make a difference. Humidity of the day. Not using a lactic bowl to whisk in, Making sure everything you use is not only spotlessly clean which most people manage but also bone dry, which some peoe fail have mastered the clean bit,:D

Copper bowls are meant to be best to whisk egg whites in I think. I don't have one so cannot say.

(Typical lirism....lactic should read plastic)

PasturesNew

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

No, it's idiot proof. You just have to whisk like mad, and cook on a really low heat, more drying them out than cooking them.

In an Aga, the lowest oven is perfect for meraingues.

Yeah, whisk like mad. I've really not got the strength (or a whisk) to keep that level of physical activity up for so long......

Aga ... posh alert - that's the size of many kitchens these days

lostinrates

PasturesNew wrote: »

Yeah, whisk like mad. I've really not got the strength (or a whisk) to keep that level of physical activity up for so long......

Aga ... posh alert - that's the size of many kitchens these days

We opted not to get an aga because the only thing I think its irreplaceable for is toast Its a pretty expensive toaster. Its also pretty good for sitting on and reading. My dream is actually a la cornue cooker. Beautiful, functional and discrete from everything else in the house.

chewmylegoff

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Humph.

You might have a point, sadly.

I've only spent a short time in Greece - a fortnight's family sailing holiday in Paxos, a small island near corfu, twice, and 10 days in Athens for a debating competition. So I've never actually paid out my own money to go there!

The sailing in Paxos was fantastic - I was 15, and my siblings were 13, 9 and 8 the first time we went, and we returned the following year. We were staying in a house on land, and during 10 of the days, we had a choice of sailing various small boats (lasers, laser 2s, toppers, wayfarers, a catamaran or two) or windsurfing, one day we went n a yacht to the nearby island of Anti-Paxos, and the other two we walked all over the island so my Dad could see every old Church in the place.



My Mama usually says about Christmas / New Year time, "lighter ever day now until summer!"

My not-so-darling Dad likes to email or phone us all in late June, saying, "darker every day until Christmas"......

I've been to Greece too. A week in Kavos when I was 21. As a result of what British people have done to that poor town, I think that the Greeks are perfectly entitled to expect is to bail them out!