General Chat

I am not vegan and I must have semi-skimmed in my tea but, when we went into lockdown last year, I bought a bag of porridge oats and some dates in case I needed to make oat milk in case of all deliveries ceasing.

It was not until the other day that I finally had a go at it and the recipe is very simple.You just soak a cup of porridge oats in a litre of water for half an hour with four dates. Then you add a little pinch of salt and half a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Liquidize it all and put it through muslin or a fine sieve twice and there you are.

It tastes alright but I didn't like the raw oat taste to it so I simmered it a bit. So there we are then, smooth porridge!

When it was cold,put it through the muslin a couple more times and it was delicious but thick. Diluted and sweetened a bit it was bloody lovely!

I think I might start making and using it more now I can do it.

Time for more experiments I think!

Have to admit, I just bought a tub of powdered milk!

And some long-life milk, Maggie.

Be prepared - was that the Boy Scouts motto?

Long-life milk is devil's wee!

Longlife is OK in porridge or similar, but I'm not so keen on it for hot drinks.

I usually buy some at the beginning of winter, just to have by for emergencies, but often find myself having to find a use for it as it nears it's 'best before' date.
Can't waste it.

Then I have some devil's wee in my cupboard! :-D

When I did my paper round, I was getting on a bit then, somebody on the farm would make me a cup of tea.

Her son was cowman and he brought the milk in straight from the dairy.

Usually it was fine but, when the farm got hold of a load of apple pulp to feed the cows, it was horrible, tasted off to me so I drank my tea black.

Once it went into the bulk tank the nasty taste would have dissipated.

I don't actually like powdered milk, and for preference, use unhomogenised milk in my tea, and double cream in my coffee.

The last dairy farm in the village, which now also produces ice-cream, will sell you raw milk as well.

I am toying with the idea of buying a gallon of cream to have a bash at butter making.

I'll come around and help you scrape out the cream tub! :-D :-D :-D (at a distance, obviously)

As for raw milk - yummy!
Ex used to bring it home from work in two cute mini-churns, when we worked for Sparsholt Agricultural College.