Preparing for Winter V

chirpychick

We have only a small house but I really want to stock up a little for the Winter as we usually run on empty most of the time.
Our freezer is small.
What do you do for bread? Buy and freeze? buy ingredients to make your own? keep part bake bread?
Also milk does UHT taste the same?

babyblooz

Crispbreads can tide you over in an emergency. If you have gas or electric (I'm thinking power cuts etc) then you could always bake some bread and a bag of flour and some dried yeast keep for ages. I try to have a carton of milk in store - either sterilised UHT or a small carton of fresh milk in the freezer.

I always have some bread in the freezer but its usually because I've stocked up on yellow sticker loaves or rolls.

babyblooz

My emergency stores include things like tinned soup, baked beans, a tin of corned beef or stewed steak etc. crispbreads, a bar or chocolate or some other kind of soul food, dried milk or long life milk and anything else that you could survive on until life gets back to normal.

I always have plenty of tea and coffee, oats, cereals and eggs and cheese in stock, so never worry about those kind of things but it depends on what you have in your cupboards already.

toozie_2

chirpychick wrote: »

We have only a small house but I really want to stock up a little for the Winter as we usually run on empty most of the time.
Our freezer is small.
What do you do for bread? Buy and freeze? buy ingredients to make your own? keep part bake bread?
Also milk does UHT taste the same?

Depending on how "small" your freezer is, I would try and have a loaf in there if possible, otherwise have the ingredients to make some bread-maybe?
I've never bought part baked bread-but I think they do have a use by date to check-in case they go "green" without you realising!

You could maybe have some crackers as a stand by.

I don't think UHT tastes the same, but it's drinkable when there is no option, personally it's be okay-ish in a hot drink, but not sure if I could stomach it on corn flakes-but that might just be me!

Our local butcher does 10lbs of minced steak on offer, and bags it into 10 bags.
I have made some of these into a bol mixture & frozen ready for chili, spag, lasagna etc.
Would you have room just for the meat before cooking to be frozen, or chicken fillets?
That's if you are a meat eater.

Dried pasta is great to stock pile- and versatile.

[Deleted User]

Starting to get closer to winter now. I changed all the CH and HW settings this morning and the CH came on for less than an hour this morning, nice to see the pellet stove firing up automatically. I put the hall thermostat on 19 but will reduce it to 18. There is no rad in the hall. I also just ordered a few rad keys as I cannot find any

Being older and more achy nowadays, I think I will keep the stove pellets topped up as I use them, it was pretty hard moving almost a tonne. I can buy a few at a time, even though I am storing a tonne now. Getting some plastic tarpaulin will be a good idea, to stop any damp descending on the pellet bags as they are stored in the garage, on a pallet

I keep bread in the freezer but it is hm pure sourdough that I sliced with the electric slicing machine, too hard to do it by hand nowadays, small ziplock bags. When these 4 large loaves are gone then I will just feed the starter as needed and can also easily make yeasted bread in the bm. I keep flours in lock n locks in my cool shed, which is vermin proof. They keep extremely well too

I don`t like uht milk either but am keeping a few cartons in the shed, also organic powdered milk, ideal for baking or custard. I have quite a few almond milk, the unsweetened ones, which is very nice on cereals

I haven`t yet put the winter car kit in but it is handy in the garage

There was a good offer from my favourite ethical site, divine chocolate, so I have stocked up really well. Bring it on !!!!

nicki_2

greenbee wrote: »

Nicki - do you have an extractor fan in the bathroom? If not, ban showers in the evening. Quick wash only. Showers in the morning when you can then air the house for 30 minutes to clear the condensation (even if it's cold). As for the dog... he's a collie, and many of them live on farms and spend their lives outdoors. And they have fur, which you don't. The snuggling may not be about being cold, just affectionate.

No extractor fan. We used to leave the bathroom window open a crack while we had a bath (a tree right outside meant the bathroom would fill with bugs/bees if we left it too far open. The tree has now gone ) but the shower is right next to the window and we have to have the blind down so we don't put on a show for people :eek: I had a hot bath & shower last night but locked the window open afterwards. It wasn't too bad so it's definitely DD's long hot showers thats the problem. I've got all the windows upstairs open now to let the place air while I do stuff downstairs as the windows were wet this morning but nowhere as bad as yesterday :rotfl:

As for the dog He loves snuggles so that could be partly to do with it. Judging by his behaviour his previous owner fussed over him a lot with hugs and stuff which would be fine if he didn't think that jumping up on my knee for a hug when I'm sat at my desk is okay. My friend said that our dog dominates me and that's why he always demands affection from me and goes nuts at anyone (especially males) coming into the house and showing me or DD attention. The same friend came round a few weeks back to meet the dog for the first time in the house. The dog went nuts but started to calm down a little until my friend touched my arm then he went nuts again. We definitely need to work on that otherwise I'll be single forever

Our heating didn't come on this morning when I expected it to so when I woke up it was cold. When it finally kicked in DD was leaving so I decided to turn it off so I could have the windows open. Thats when I noticed it was running 30 minutes slow! Its a digital one so I've replaced the batteries this morning and added a reminder to change them on the 1st October next year to my digital diary. I'm also going to change my smoke alarm batteries when I can find the pack of new ones I bought

I need to do a stock up shop for the freezer as we're nearly out of veg. The meat will need doing as well, probably in half term so DD can help me bring it home

missyrichards

Re: keeping bread, I have a small kitchen and I sometimes buy part baked baguettes or rolls as you can keep them in a cupboard for ages.

I have an old cat and she seems to feel the cold and I was wondering whether to buy her a jumper, if such things exist for cats, or a warm blanket, the self heating type.

Just off to look online.:)

jim-jim

Morning,
I've just spotted this in our Derbyshire newspaper (online)


An early weather warning has been issued across the UK as experts forecast months of heavy snow in what is expected to be the worst winter in half-a-century.


A combination of freak conditions including the most powerful El Nino on record and changes in air pressure over the Arctic are set to cause contribute to the icy conditions.
The forecast shows snow is expected to start falling in December and continue until March although the earliest snowfall could arrive by early November.




Also migrating swans have been spotted early down south. The other years they have arrived early was a bad winter. I saw this on the Daily Mail (sorry, dont judge me!):)

Linz4383

I saw that article although ive not read it lol

Alisonpennypincher

It has felt properly chilly today for the first time here. Really made me realise how close winter is.

I need to buy;

• Wellington boots for DS as they wear these at school when very wet or snowy.
• Some more tins etc for the store cupboard. I like to have things like soup, and packet noodles etc as a quick warming standby
• Some more salt for de icing icy paths
• Need to check and re stock de icer for the car

Things to do are cook and freeze some more meals for days i don't want to cook (spag bol, chilli and lasagne) and find the bag of hats and gloves also get the winter coats out from strorage.


I have run and checked our heating and bled the radiators that needed it, so i know that is working ok. I also find that on chilly evenings burning candles help me feel cosier and warm the temperature up slightly. Must put some candles by for use in power cuts too.


The weather today has definatley made me want to get everything sorted and putting it on here makes me feel like i have to get it all done now :rotfl:.