General Chat

Melamine


super stuff!

All our "crockery" at the cabin is melamine




mind you


... wasn't it melamine that the Chinese were putting in baby food to increase the protein level, until caught a couple of years ago

And I remember -- the brand name was Melmac.

Yes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melamine_resin

During the late 1950s and 1960s melamine tableware became highly fashionable. Aided crucially by the stylish modern designs of A. H. Woodfull and the Product Design Unit of British Industrial Plastics, it was thought to threaten the dominant position of ceramics in the market. The tendency of melamine cups and plates to stain and scratch led sales to decline in the late 1960s, however, and eventually the material became largely restricted to the camping and nursery market

However ...

Melamine resin is often used in kitchen utensils and plates (such as Melmac). Melamine resin utensils and bowls are not microwave safe, as they absorb the microwave radiation and heat up.

Oh well!



http://www.blackpondfarm.com/melmac_aqua.jpg

http://www.alleewillis.com/awmok/kitschenette/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/AW-Melmac-50s-pieces-550x366.jpg

Now that is stylish stuff!

I packed away my large collection of Petalware a few years ago ... I wonder whether it's time to start amassing Melmac??

You could dream of the Top Gear team whilst in the bath though Janey!!


Melamine! You mentioned Melamine! I was given some of that by some Canadians if I remember rightly.


Oh....and if you're going to light a campfire.....frying bacon is a MUST.

"Top gear bubble bath" ??

Er ... kinda spoils the alpha male image, doesn't that? ;)

For caravaning ... I have a couple of old enamelware pieces (the dark coloured with white speckles) I've picked up at second-hand shops that I think are gorgeous. Of course, they're great for campfires, but they don't go in microwaves!

So much safer to melt chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water, on simmer (on the hob)

I think re the caravan 'crocks', (talking items for cooking food and not the caravan users) there are lots of suitable pans and containers in the Betterwear or Kleeneze brochures, I think it can be bought on line as well.

Lizx

just heated a can of soup poured into one of the ancient smaller arcopal casserole dishes so off to eat now

So much safer to melt chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water, on simmer (on the hob)

I think re the caravan 'crocks', (talking items for cooking food and not the caravan users) there are lots of suitable pans and containers in the Betterwear or Kleeneze brochures, I think it can be bought on line as well.

Lizx

Oh dear Janey they are everywhere, its only a matter of time before you get the rest of their shows.

James Mays Toys,
James and Oz Clake and wine tasting
etc etc etc
James takes us through toys of our childhood, space hoppers etc.
It was ok for a while but tends to go on and on.
A couple of nights ago it was James May night!
My year 9 Son was so happy he extracted himself from the x-box to watch.

Richard Hammond,
Game show host and host to anything else come to think of it..
He was also in a major supermarket Advert which ran last year.
He is on kids TV.
He had a very bad accident on set a few years ago and was in ICU. and lucky to have made such a good recovary

Jeremy Clarkson,
Game shows
Chat shows
DVDs one made its way into our house at Christmas!

Not only did the DVD arrive but along in my sons Christmas pressies were :
Top gear bubble bath, a book, hot chocolate and mug, a pen and game.

We dont even have sky/cable TV, if we did Im sure they would be on there as well.

I live in a household of top gear addicts, even my Daughter watches it, I try to avoid it if I can.

Teresa

Jeremy Clarkson is the car guy, right?

I'll bet we get more of him than you do!

BBC Canada has become a junk channel here. Five years ago, it had dramas and serials; now it's all crap. During the summer, we got the same five episodes of build a dream home in the country (and will they get it done on time??!??!??) over and over and over, ditto for various dream homes by the sea etc. ... and four, yes, four, episodes of Top Gear every day of the week. I think they bought the back catalogue cheap.

Ah, I google and I see: Richard Hammond is the little guy.

Jeremy Clarkson is the alpha male supremo, isn't he just?

We actually watch it very occasionally at midnight if there is just nothing else on and it happens to be their trek across an African country or some such.

We don't seem to get anything else with them in it, though. I imagine I need only wait.


Even I manage to melt chocolate in the microwave w/o mishap, I must say!


And jax -- I see it now, the little nest for boiling eggs, I'd just been so agog at the notion at first I'd missed that bit. ;)

Yes it does poach eggs...one at a time so usless but it boils eggs max of four depending how much water you add to soft, medium or hard. I don't use the toaster but HID does

jax

Richard Hammond is on TV day and night Jayney.
He has two mates Jeremy Clarkson and James Mays and there is not a night or day of the week when one or all of them are not on a TV channel here.

They started life as a trio of 40 somthing men on a motoring show called Top Gear, but if that isnt bad enough they are everywhere else as well in different combinations.
They seem to appeal to the male of the species from the cradle to the grave.

We went to Beauli Abbey Motor museum in Devon and low and behold there they were again, a whole section of the exhibition dedicated to them.

You are fortumate not to know who this hapless trio are and have been very very lucky not to have come across them in any shape or form

I read your post after a microwave incident this afternoon when I was melting chocolate in a bowl which was clearly not designed for the microwave!

Teresa

Ah, it poaches eggs. No good for me! We don't eat toast, and I only eat eggs hard-boiled and made into egg salad sandwiches, or occasionally well-done scrambled.

I'll stick with my tried, true and completely failsafe method: put eggs in pot with water to cover, bring to boil, turn off immediately and leave for about 12 minutes, and bingo, hard boiled eggs and 12 minutes of electricity/gas saved!

I'm sure it works with soft-boiled eggs if timed differently, but yuck. One of those things, like all the stuff that lives underwater, that I wish I ate but makes me gag.

Just google Tefal toast and egg

jax

Madmeg, sigh, I gave you the answer to your caravan cookware question back on page 2, straight from the Pyrex mouth:

Q: I need to buy some dishes to use on regular caravan holidays. We have a small oven and a microwave but limited storage space. What would you recommend?

A: The Pronto range would probably be fine, unless you are planning to cook many family meals in which case incorporate several items from the Classic range.


What I want to know is: whatever became of Melamine?


I've just been reminded of a little ditty I wrote a few years ago. (Sylvia -- the ditty you queried was, of course, The Maple Leaf Forever. It's just that when I learned it in grade 2, I had no idea who Wolfe was, and I heard it as "Oaf the dauntless hero" ... which, when I sang it in the car one day and my mother had to get me to sing it over to be sure, caused her no end of merriment.)

Anyhow. My then BFF got married to her Japanese partner, and a while later had a wedding party. When they lived in my next-door flat, she was forever borrowing everything I had that could be used as a platter, to serve sushi to her students. So I got her a couple of big round ones, and printed out this timeless verse in flowery font to go in the card:

Crystal may shatter,
China will chip.
But an acrylic platter
Won't give you the slip ...
Will always be hip ...
Holds the chips for the dip ...

She thought I'd found exactly the right card for the present.


Now, who is Richard Hammond, please?

And how on earth does a toaster boil eggs?

I have a microwave but hav'nt cooked anything for so long have no idea how it works.
I had an accident with a dozen boiled eggs some years ago when I ran a pub, forgot all about them in the kitchen downstairs and played happily on my computer in the flat upstairs...pebble dashed egg every where.

I now have a neat toaster with and egg cooker attached that turns off when egg is cooked......sorted

jax

hmmmmm

does that mean that something will have to be taken out to lighten the load


OR



a new car??????????

I've missed something. Why does Bobtanian keep calling it a michaelwave?

My new caravan (did I tell you about my new caravan? Sure I did - say YES or I will bore you again), has a microwave. So I need some light and friendly dishes to use in there. Suggestions please. Plastics preferred, but they melt, don't they? Guess its got to be Pyrex.

Hubby has just realised that the new caravan is a lot heavier than the old one. I TOLD him that. I ASKED his opinion. It is exactly what he agreed to. So I can see some problems ahead.

I HAVE been known to heat up cold plates in the michealwave........

if they.ve got metallic decoration..........All the better for the fireworks!!

have you ever watch richard hammond's program? they do stupid things like putting fairy lights in michealwaves,

Bob

Runs in >>>>

Sorry Janey! I had read your reply re flat pack but before i could reply I was assailed by a strange and inconvenient sensation which I found could only be controlled by hiding my face in a pillow until the involuntary spasms which shook my body uncontrollably had subsided somewhat.

It took a before I felt it safe to venture back, and fearing a recurrence of the symptoms, avoided any possible trigger by staying off your thread till tonight :) however I still feel a twitching sensation about the mouth so may have to run off again >>>>>>>

No, no, not you, DET! Anchor Hocking!

Somewhat seriously. Glass that melts in a microwave ought not to be marked "Microwave safe", if you ask me.


Now, if I'd actually done something like put a plastic candle ring in the microwave for a minute -- a minute!!

It took about 8 minutes to melt the handle on an 8-cup batter bowl. Divide that by a plastic candle ring ...

Oh Janey ...guilty about your finger? Sympathetic winces perhaps! At least you are still able to type about it so presumably on the mend thank goodness. :0))

We have small plastic decorative rings which fit over candle sticks which are brought out at Chistmas to 'dress' the table. This year, one of the candles dribbled. In an effort to remove the wax, I thought it might be an idea to melt the wax off in the micowave at defrost for one minute. You've guessed - one mini bonfire and no more decorative ring.

Poor Madmegs antics have certainly underlined the dangers of caravaning - that's another holiday idea crossed of the list ! And Suzian's hilarious recount of IKEA construction!!!!!!!