Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

I do love baking. I got into cookery absolutely by default. I did home economics  from 1975 when I started secondary school so learned to make the usual standard stuff. When it was time to pick my O'-level options, I chose music as one of them & this clashed with other possible options so as I was strongly advised against all the (useful) typing, shorthand, admin sort of courses because they were 'not for academic pupils' (!!), I was left with the choice of art, needlework or cookery (or 'Food & Nutrition' as it was called) for my final option. Well I couldn't draw for toffee & hated school.needlework lessons, so there we have it....cookery by default! But it was a hugely useful course & I ended up thoroughly enjoying it. 
My Nan was a good, economical cook -she'd lived through hard times - but my Mum hated cooking & did as little of it as possible. She did teach me how to make jam though, as Nan had taught her. @CRANKY40, it will be nice getting your frozen fruit stash out & doing a bit of New Year jamming. I shan't be far behind you, as the Seville orange season usually starts end Jan/early Feb, so I shall be making my annual marmalade.
F x

foxgloves

Hello Icicles,
Minus 5 in town mid-morning & my hands were cold even with my big proper mitts on. Pleasant & useful day. Small wins on the budget front:
*Had promised Mr F a birthday week breakfast & he found a '20% off your order between 9 & 10 am' offer for our favourite cafe....& it also came with a free coffee!
*Bought the rest of our festive meat items at local market butcher. Best prices in town.
*Put Christmas tree up..Have not succumbed to buying any new decorations this year. (I was shocking for general festive frittering back in the Spendy Era).
*Made fudge (for a gift).
*Two baths from one fill of hot water (esp as had just seen smart monitor......)
"Leftover evaporated milk from fudge has gone into a home made rice pudding for tonight's dessert. Leftover whole milk from same (which I don't much like in coffee) has been saved for making bread sauce. Love rolling ingredients forward).
Am racking my brains over a missing candle. I'm sure somebody gave me a large Christmas scented candle as a present last year & that I decided to save it to burn this year, instead of being tempted to buy one. It wasn't in our big Christmas crate & it's too big for the candle drawer. Must mount a search next week!
Blanket & Soot on my lap. Another icy night. Take care all. ...& never underestimate the efficacy of a hot water bottle tucked up behind your back.
F x

Sun_Addict

My hands were so cold today they were painful even with gloves on.  A colleague at work said he went to Canada a few years ago and it was minus 20. He found wearing a pair of light cotton gloves under normal gloves helped a lot. I can’t even begin to imagine what minus 20 must feel like 🥶

Makingabobor2

Oh yes, I did Food & Nutrition at school. Loved it. Remember having to make cold cucumber soup and I stood over my dad & made him eat it! 

Sun_Addict

Forgot to add my comment about cookery at school. The cookery teacher wouldn’t let me take it for O level unless I cut my very long nails. My nails were my pride and joy so I opted for light craft instead. I never did get the hang of the potters wheel, clay used to fly everywhere so I finally ended up doing (and passing) art 😆 We were never allowed to do useful lessons like typing as we were expected to go to university. 

foxgloves

I can't imagine being out & about in temperatures of minus 20, @Sun_Addict, although during that very cold winter in 2010, we did see some very low readings in our area of the county.  I remember one morning, Mr F went out to turn the car engine on while he started de-icing & it was showing minus 16. Then when he got to work (same county but 26 miles north of our village), he pinged me to say it was minus 17 there. By then I was setting up tealights in the old cupboard containing our water pipes because the ones at the back of the house had frozen. I lost heaps of plants that winter.
F

foxgloves

We were allowed to cook with long fingernails, but nail varnish was a no no..Anyone turning up to cookery lessons with painted nails was despatched to the loos with a bottle of remover so then got behind with whatever we were cooking.
I couldn't have my nails too long because I played the piano and they both got in the way and clicked loudly on the keys.
F

ladyholly

I di food and nutrition at school. I remember my O'Level practical was 5 dishes including sauces one of which was suitable for an elderly person. I ran out of time for one dish and I seem to remember every sauce was lumpy. The elederly persons dish was liver in brown sauce and as I am now that elderly person I waouldnt give a thank you for it but enjoy liver and bacon. :. In case you wondered I did pass so must have had a good theory paper. I still have a tendancy for lumpy sauce but a sieve works wonders on it.

Cold temperature? Here in the coastal west country we dont often get really low temperatures but the year after we moved to our old house in the same town we had a burst pipe in the attic straight through our DDs newly decorated bedroom ceiling followed by leaks in the kitchen where the pipes started leaking one after the other. As soon as Mr LH fixed one another one started. It was mayhem.

EssexHebridean

Loving reading all the school cookery stories. Never any question of me getting to do home ec as a GCSE as Mum was quite fed up well before then of having to buy often expensive ingredients for me to make entirely impractical things that the school had decided were relevant. The occasion when I had to make an orange jelly using juice and gelatine - and, when it came to time to eat it, far too little sugar, springs to mind! 

As for temperatures, I can’t recall seeing lower for here than our apparent -9° yesterday morning. It felt it, too! Thursday the car still read -7° at 8am when I went out. Delightfully we are forecast for above zero today which would be a nice novelty! 

Baileys_Babe

foxgloves said:

Am racking my brains over a missing candle. I'm sure somebody gave me a large Christmas scented candle as a present last year & that I decided to save it to burn this year, instead of being tempted to buy one. It wasn't in our big Christmas crate & it's too big for the candle drawer. Must mount a search next week!

I can remember you telling us you were putting the candle away to enjoy this Christmas.