General Chat

Hello Julia in Derbyshire, this is Bridget who started Culinary delights, thank you for mentioning me! It is said that everyone has five minutes fame, this must be my five minutes.

I have read all the entries and found them amazing and was thinking "now how do i ask if the people on here would add some of their common sense recipes onto my thread ..
I was born in the 1940s so we had rationing, I still have my book! We never wasted anything and this was not just food, we unraveled wool and then had to wind it again to re use, we repaired our clothes, we polished our shoes, well dad did that, we cleaned and dusted, my mother used to wash the door steps and the put red polish of some sort, can' t recall right now what it was called.
A confession from me know. Having retired now I have plenty of time at home to cook. We had a great meal on Friday when we had six people round for dinner. The meat was local free range chickens and they were delicious .
Trying to be thrifty I decided to make chicken soup, well it turned out OK but I would not have served it to anyone other than OH and myself, please can someone add to my thread a recipe for this and any other soups or any recipes I and others would be really pleased. Meanwhile I will keep coming onto here for more household tips and memories

Not my OH,he is not allowed to behave in that way.There is a dried fruit salad soaking right now because he is going to be eating it just to show him that prunes are edible. He thinks he doesn't like them because he was forced to eat them at school. It was cheap in Julian Graves too.

It is my dad. He wouldn't eat yoghurt for years,well not at home anyway. Bread sauce,gravy,stuffing.

It may be genetic. Grandfather had a milk pudding,whatever it was made of semolina,tapioca,sago,he always called it rice pie,for his dinner every day. Dad took a bacon sandwich,a cheese sandwich and two flasks of tea with a Ribena bottle of milk in his dinner bag every day he went to work.

He did the shopping and cooking for a while.Faggots Tuesday,pie Wednesday etc.

Now he goes shopping most Wednesdays and buys,tea,eight rolls,a sliced loaf and some liver.

Maybe soup is not in his routine.

Mine refuses to eat Lancashire Hotpot - now I make a very good one, even if I say it myself, it has been praised by others. However only about 4 years ago I admitted to him that my lovely Cornish Pasties which he enjoys are quite often filled with leftover Hotpot.

He still eats the pasties but not the Pot!! How is that for pigheaded? Apologies to other southerners but I blame his birthplace! Annnnnnnnd he also likes Marmite. Yuck!

Hi Sharron, shakes hands. I have the same trouble with the OH and soup. It doesn't matter if I make it thin, to drink in a cup, or thick you practically have to cut it with a knife and fork. He will eat stew, so long as he has some greens, roast spuds and perhaps a yorkshire pudding with it.
He is the same with a nice home made jam. He will not eat a nice fresh baked slice of bread spread with butter and some nice jam.
I blame it on his upbringing myself. He's only working class, same as me, but I think he has dellusions of grandure. Don't know whats good for him, he don't.
Julia in Derbyshire

Have had a look at the recipes for the two cheeses and don't think I will be attempting them. We don't have the appropriate pot, bowl or thermometer.

If anybody does want to try it they may find it quite hard to find citric acid as chemists no longer sell it. Dealers cut heroine with it.

I have a bag which I bought from a wine making supplies shop.

Now have to deal with the longing to have a go at making some which would mean buying all that equipment to produce something we don't use anyway.


No,Liz,it doesn't matter what I call it,he won't drink soup.Not good for his street cred or something important like that,

Morning Quinsgran, that is marvelous. Perhaps you could put the full recipe and method up, for us others.
Don't knock Hugh. I think he is brill, abit eccentric, but to me the best chef on the telly, and who cooks real food.
I watch him every Saturday evening, even if it is a repeat. He is doing bread next week.
Take Care
Julia in Derbyshire

My dau in law is a whiz at left overs etc. Her latest triumph was making Mozzarella cheese which is expensive to buy

From 4 litres of full cream milk she made 700 grams of cheese and from the remaining whey she made Ricotta which she then later made into a Pineapple Cheesecake using up the remains of a fresh pineapple.

She looks into the fridge/freezer at all leftovers then goes onto the internet for ideas. She has made me more adventurous to try new things

I call her Mrs Hugh Fearnley Whitingstall

I feel so bad. I have just thrown the chicken carcass in the bin and I'm an
oldie. I will however use up the rest of the chicken for sandwiches and maybe a curry.

Used to cook a lot when younger and certainly had a background where meals were made out of nothing but have succumbed to the ready made meal. Daughter is veggie so tend to have separate meals. I wish I had a supermarket bill for £40. Must try harder.

Regards

Vera

Would he eat it if you called it Broth, Sharron lol?

No point me making soup.The old man won't eat it so I have to make him something else. He thinks soup is poofy or something.There is no logic to his thinking,never was!

Morning All Happy Scrimpers. This is to nudge this thread up.
Got me hands full at the mo. Will come back and contribute later.
Take care All
Julia in Derbyshire

We had rhubarb crumble for tea. It was the only pull we will have this year of the rhubarb we planted last year.

Oh yes,it did taste special.

I have nuged the soup thread for you to see.

Joanne, you did so well there, with all those veggies. It is a shame our dear Daffy is not on the boards at the moment. She is the Queen of Soups, and could make a pot out of sweety socks, I am sure LOL
Take a look at the Culinary Delights thread on the Chat Board. Several good recipes on there,some for chicken, even a loaf made out of Wheetabix.
I am sure in these current economical times, we will all be looking for thrifty recipes, before long.
Take Care
Julia in Derbyshire

Well revisted the green grocers which I worked out was worth the petrol and got 2 huge bags of vegetables and a leek for £4.21. Carrots, 2 cabbages, cauliflower, bag of parnsips, sprouts, potatoes, 2 turnips.

I now have a stockpot full of veggie/lental soup; veggies prepared for tomorrows lunch and the left over is bubble & squeak or topping for a cottage pie.

:-) PS any frugal recipes would be grateful :-)

You know those corner racks for stacking plates, If you stand one in your freezer you can freeze three pies at once in about the room you freeze one.

Julia, some very wise words there.
Carol

Mary - I do similar but I make the pies complete all at once and then freeze. Lift out and bake.

I have had my credit card taken off me.Oh the shame of it.

Well,I don't think I have used it at all this century and it was costing them more to send me a bill for nothing each month than they had probably ever had from me.

I keep a 'soup pot" in the freezer, if there are a few vegs left over after a meal, they go in, plus leftover pasta, meat bits etc etc. I make my own chicken/beef stock from a carcass, (and add 1/4 cup vinegar to the water when simmering it for stock - leeches the calcium out of the bones, and therefore a more nutritious stock). When the soup pot is full, I thaw it and the chicken or beef stock and voila free soup. Never the same twice. I freeze herbs from the garden for winter use, send leftovers from dinner for Sarah's lunch at school, make my own laundry soap, make our gluten-free bread, make a huge batch of GFpancakes and freeze, they reheat them in the toaster for brekkie. The saving is financial, not always time-wise!. here's another trick of mine, when mixing apples for pie, I prepare a large batch of apples with the flour,cinnamon and sugar, and fill aluminum pieplates with the mixture then freeze. Do the same with pastry, make a big mess once and freeze 7 or 8 crusts for pie, in foil piepans as well.. Then when I want to bake a pie, I take the frozen apples, which are already in the right shape of the piepan, drop it into a frozen crust, flip another frozen crust on top, cut a few vents in top and crimp the edges, - quickly made pie with NO mess.
Appreciate any new tips.
Mary