Nice People Thread Number 11 - A Treasury of Nice People

ukmaggie45

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've never done that - I'd do it if I knew/remembered, if the skies were clear and if I knew which direction I had to look at (and if that direction wasn't full of trees as it so often seems to be (unless I get the car out and go for a drive, then it's a bit daft).

NASA have a great site where you can sign up for email alerts for the city nearest to you. Or you can just look it up on the site, but I rather like getting the email reminder. It tells you how long it's visible for, the height, and direction. It's going over just after 9pm this evening, so we'll be out there watching if the clouds disappear. It does a second pass just after 10pm as well, but not visible for so long. The 9pm pass it's visible for 6 minutes.

PasturesNew wrote: »

Just thought of something else ... many people these days have a food processor, so lob stuff in there and make pastry by pressing a button.

I've no contraptions. For me, making pastry is the full manual effort (requiring space and a messy worktop to clear up).

OH always chops veg by hand, I don't get it - he says its too much faff to bother with the food processor! But they're great for soup, or for batch cooking for the freezer. You do need to watch the blades though as they're incredibly sharp. The slicing attachments and graters are useful too if you want to cut up onions or slice cucumber in industrial amounts.

We bought one of those little stick ones from Ald* last year for the caravan, it's fun to use and great for leek and potato soup. :drool: Took it home for the winter as caravan is prone to be damp in the depths of winter but we'll bring it back next trip. We ate a lot of soup here last autumn, warming and sustaining when it's bl***y freezing outside! (our van is rather older than most of the ones on the field, and has much less insulation. I have 2 hot water bottles to sleep with! )

PasturesNew

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

NASA have a great site where you can sign up for email alerts for the city nearest to you.

It'd need to be a text. I don't check emails regularly Also, if I read the email, by the time it was overhead I'd have forgotten

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

It's going over just after 9pm this evening, so we'll be out there watching if the clouds disappear. It does a second pass just after 10pm as well, but not visible for so long. The 9pm pass it's visible for 6 minutes.

Now I just need somebody to remind me at 8:45, if I'm here....

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

OH always chops veg by hand, I don't get it - he says its too much faff to bother with the food processor! But they're great for soup, or for batch cooking for the freezer. You do need to watch the blades though as they're incredibly sharp. The slicing attachments and graters are useful too if you want to cut up onions or slice cucumber in industrial amounts.

I use a paring knife, but if I am peeling potatoes, once I get to about 4 my whole hand does start to hurt.... it's rare I need to peel four though

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

We bought one of those little stick ones from Ald* last year for the caravan, it's fun to use and great for leek and potato soup. :drool: Took it home for the winter as caravan is prone to be damp in the depths of winter but we'll bring it back next trip.

I've a stick blender ... I'll get that out in a couple of months.

Re damp - I've read that if you get the really cheap (Lidl/Aldi) cat litter and pour it in a tray in the middle of each caravan room it can help with damp while it's shut up for winter.

Spirit_2

PasturesNew wrote: »

With the elderly come other troubles, so how she'd cope with filling it, pouring it, cleaning it. My mum had osteoporosis, so couldn't have picked up the jug bit with the hot soup in safely without often dropping it as her wrist would have given way. She couldn't cook a thing except toast as anything else was too dangerous.

That is it exactly, and why I have started to take things round. Her husband can microwave soup.

They are a very private independent couple, however our immediate neighbour told me last month that the lady was 'giving up'. She has become increasingly infirm, has a starirlift, riser chairs, walking aids, wheelchair on the rare trip out. Food delivered by a private meals on wheels type service each week for the freezer. No help coming in. She had said that the food was uninteresting, and was changing suppliers. So lady next door now includes them in her Sunday lunch..and calls to say it is ready and takes a hot, plated meal round.

I am not making a routine commitment but taking round freshly made HM soup as and when. I will take other stuff but do not want to rush in awkwardly or impose. If your environment is getting smaller food can be an important pleasure.

When we first moved here, this couple had the most productive garden. My FiL or OH would go fly fishing and bring back trout (we were sick of trout) and we would take a fish round. At times a box of the best veg in Britain would be brought to us. Carrots, Potatoes, peas,beans, brassicas. The garden is grassed or overgrown now.

Spirit_2

silvercar wrote: »

I have a list of passover cooking I should be doing today and really need a push to get going.

Oh that sounds interesting.

What is on the list?

neverdespairgirl

He did it! OH finished the whole thing!

4.5 hours. My clever darling, I'm so proud of him!

michaels

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

He did it! OH finished the whole thing!

4.5 hours. My clever darling, I'm so proud of him!

What a fantastic acheivement.:T

PasturesNew

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

He did it! OH finished the whole thing!

4.5 hours. My clever darling, I'm so proud of him!

Glad he got round .... if I'd started at 10am I'd be about half way round by now

neverdespairgirl

If I'd started at 10am, I'd have got about 5 miles by now. Walking, with regular rest stops (-:

vivatifosi

Well done ndb! Enjoy the kebabs, you've earned them!

vivatifosi

Generali wrote: »

Sounds like hot water pastry, what pork pies are made from.

My Mum makes really good cold water pastry, but she is a stickler for detail. She used to roll it out on a marble board that had been kept cold and using a cold empty milk bottle that she kept in the fridge.

It does taste very good though. Her raspberry jam tarts are my favourite.