New BBC2 Back in time for dinner

Goldiegirl

I'm surprised more people didn't pick up that Rochelle was joking about the tin foil in the microwave.

I found the 1970's house very evocative in terms of decoration, but I didn't really recognise the 1980's house - my house wasn't decorated like that, and none of my friends or relatives had houses that looked like that either.

I was married in 1981. I recognise lots of the gadgetry from my home in the 80's.

We got a microwave oven in 1986. I didn't go to the lengths of trying to cook a whole meal in it, but I did make my cakes in it. They tasted fine, but they were so pale!

We had a toasted sandwich maker, barely used, as my husband hated the smell of the sandwich cooking.

There was a filter coffee machine - barely used as it took too long - we wanted our coffee immediately. Plus the filter coffee always seemed to taste weak

We had a soda stream. We did use this, but cola never tasted like it did from the shops, and it was some relief when we admitted this and started buying coca cola again!

I also bought a Braun food processer in the mid 1980's. This is still in use to this day.

We rented our first video recorder from Radio Rentals. It was amazing to be able to watch programmes when we wanted. Before the video, i used to hate it what the final programme in a series was on and I had to miss it.

We sometimes had pizzas delivered, but more normally we'd pick up the pizzas on our way to our friends house, or they'd pick up pizzas on the way to us. A lot of pizza was consumed by us in the late 80's!

Rainy-Days

Really enjoyed last night.

We had out first breeze style block of a video recorder and mum used to put a cushion in front of it when we went out :rotfl:

I got a portable TV set for my bedroom - which was bliss!

I used to tape the top 40 off my small cassette player onto TDK tapes

We had our microwave which speeded things up such as jacket potatoes but mum would always 'finish' them off in the oven for crisping.

We never had take-away pizza. In fact I am not sure if we had a pizza place in the town this decade! McDonald's opened up in that decade in our town.

The clothes shops full of Dallas/Dynasty style clothing and the Lady Diana lace blouses that were all the rage. The curling tongs for the big hair; the tins of hairspray which later got blamed for the ozone layer being depleted the mad make-up, the peddle-pusher style trousers and the Ra-Ra Skirts. Arh yes the decade that style well and truly forgot.

Those white storage jars they had with the little cherry squares on them - I had those in my first home in St Alban's - blimey that was a true blast from the past for me. Also the Swan cooking pans I had those as well along with all the red kitchen bits was all the 'rage'.

The lounge made me laugh because I had two huge pink sofas and I loved them! All that chintz!!

culpepper

I still use our microwave to cook a whole chicken. You cant really do the vegies as they were attempting to do them though, you need a flat even layer and a little water and then covered to keep the steam in. The decor was interesting, more like you might find in a magazine of the time than a real home I think.

carriebradshaw

I found the decor very odd too, my house wasn't like that, we did have similar dining chairs but smoked glass table top rather than red plastic. I hated using my microwave and food processor in those days, just couldn't get to grips with them at all but love the ones I have now. We didn't have a soda stream or coffee maker,still don't have either of them in the house. We did have a sandwich toaster and I still use one regularly as we love toasties :T Was surprised they went straight to using oven chips and didn't experiment with electric deep fat fryers that came on the market , I had one as a wedding present but what a pain it was to clean with all it's filters and two baskets. I soon went back to a basket in a pan on the hob LOL

Liz3yy

I remember the late 80's well as I was born in 1978. We had a huge clunky VHS at the time but before that a top loading Betamax - remember them?! There was a war between the two brands during the 80's, Betamax I think was better quality but VHS won the day as it was far cheaper and more cassettes available.

Every Sunday I would record the top 40 on my ghetto blaster, but home work had to be done first - I was allowed a glass of ginger beer if I did it all without complaining

Dad would give me £1 a week pocket money, Saturday mornings I would ride my bike to the local shops and spend 20p of it on penny sweets and stash the rest for a rainy day. Dad taught me from a young age to be careful with my cash.

As for meals, I remember mostly how awful they were! Sunday's would mean a roast, but not a real chicken or joint of beef. We had a Bernard Matthews processed Turkey roast "thing", they were just about edible and stunk the house out. I think our cats appreciated it more than we did.

Other foods I had regularly were findus crispy pancakes, pot noodles, hot dogs and spaghetti hoops. The only meals Mum made from scratch were beef burgers on a Saturday. I'll never know why she didn't try harder in the kitchen as she was always a stay at home mum and never worked after I was born.

Liz3yy

culpepper wrote: »

I still use our microwave to cook a whole chicken. You cant really do the vegies as they were attempting to do them though, you need a flat even layer and a little water and then covered to keep the steam in. The decor was interesting, more like you might find in a magazine of the time than a real home I think.

I agree re the decor, I don't remember anyone's homes being like that during the 80's

emg

Liz3yy wrote: »

I remember the late 80's well as I was born in 1978. We had a huge clunky VHS at the time but before that a top loading Betamax - remember them?! There was a war between the two brands during the 80's, Betamax I think was better quality but VHS won the day as it was far cheaper and more cassettes available.

Every Sunday I would record the top 40 on my ghetto blaster, but home work had to be done first - I was allowed a glass of ginger beer if I did it all without complaining

Dad would give me £1 a week pocket money, Saturday mornings I would ride my bike to the local shops and spend 20p of it on penny sweets and stash the rest for a rainy day. Dad taught me from a young age to be careful with my cash.

As for meals, I remember mostly how awful they were! Sunday's would mean a roast, but not a real chicken or joint of beef. We had a Bernard Matthews processed Turkey roast "thing", they were just about edible and stunk the house out. I think our cats appreciated it more than we did.

Other foods I had regularly were findus crispy pancakes, pot noodles, hot dogs and spaghetti hoops. The only meals Mum made from scratch were beef burgers on a Saturday. I'll never know why she didn't try harder in the kitchen as she was always a stay at home mum and never worked after I was born.

Just wondering if we are related as this sums up my homelife in the 80s too. I really remember those turkey breast roasts, the outside of it was always given to the cat. Oh and the toploading Betamax with my dad insisting it was better than VHS. I remember toasties with scalding hot baked beans inside them and microwaved Lean Cuisine meals - Chicken a l'orange anyone? Was practically neon orange!

Butterfly_Brain

I was married in 1987 and we had bought our house three years earlier, we were so skint everything was second hand, apart from the bed, we didn't even have a settee for two years, just a couple of second hand arm chairs and we were both working, in fact I was made redundant a month before the weddding but almost straight away walked into a much better job, in fact I earned more than DH in those days.

Added to that we had nearly 15% interest rates, prices for everything going through the roof, job insecurity, people losing their jobs everywhere and of course the hated poll tax.

We had a few Bric a Brac shops around, I can't remember the amount of charity shops that there are now though.

I remember taping the top 40 as well :rotfl::rotfl:I still have the tapes and have just bought myself a tape player from Argos so I can listen to them again

Goldiegirl

At one point in my life, the new top 40 was the high light of the week.

I remember Lean Cuisine, it made you feel as if you were eating healthily, but it was probably full of additives!

We also had the Matthews turkey breast roasts. I seem to remember they also started to do beef, lamb and pork.

We used to have them because they were easy to carve, but they weren't exactly full of flavour

moneyistooshorttomention

That was the surprising fact to me in the programme, ie just how long there has been listing of product ingredients on the packaging. Admitted, product listing is still not what it ought to be - but its a sight better than nothing at all.

With that, I was thinking "But product listing has been around for so long now - so how come so many people are still buying junk food? Arent they reading the listing?"

I remember nouvelle cuisine too. I think I had precisely one meal out of that and remember how nicely-presented/tasty it was - but we were all still hungry afterwards and I was thoroughly embarrassed about it (ie because I was the hostess and had inadvertently starved my guests). Fortunately my guests just laughed about it and we then went and ate some more food elsewhere.

I guess we can thank nouvelle cuisine nevertheless - because it was the start of Nice Food. I don't remember ever having any food that I actually liked/thought was tasty before that era. Prior to the 1980s food was either awful or tolerable imo - never tasty.

Those pre-packed sandwiches! I burst out with rueful laughter - as so many pubs in my new area are still doing that sort of sandwich (ie the white or dyed white rubber-bread and boring fillings) and hence I have to remember to take a packed lunch with me on days out or I'll be going hungry until I get home again. The worst of 1980s cuisine is still "alive and kicking" in some areas.