The Robin has finally managed to alight on the tit-feeder! I had every confidence that he would succeed - they seem such determined little critters.A quiet day except that Y had a lot of washing & ironing and I cooked, by request, sausage and mash, plus brussels, carrots, courgette and french shallots. Each year around this time Lidl have these ''eschallots' and they are deliciously delicately flavoured. Obviously 'onion' family but refined! The mash was 2 thirds potato and 1 third swede, which we like, and I was lucky to get everything spot on. Simple ice-cream for pudding.
My reference to Boulestin's potato book did him a disservice. It wasn't a 100 ways as I said, it was 101 ways as you will see from Picture 2.My other misleading paragraph was about Professor Joad and the conjunction. It was a 'the' instead of an 'a' conjunction I'm afraid. He was using the '/' to mark where the conjunction should go. Along with everyone else I have always accepted that 'and' and 'but' etc., are conjunctions.
Things are no doubt even more obscure now than they were before.
A further technical problem today has been uploading some pictures to the Aldi online service which I have used before without any problem. Today they just seem to refuse to finish loading.
Comments........Thanks AnonymousReg for the boiling water information. I am still not clear though; is the water temperature higher on a 'fast' boil than on a 'simmer' ? This is where the disagreement lies. And we shall certainly put the Nempf Exhibition on our agenda.
Jill...... King Edwards were a good all purpose potato although Bungus has remarked that they seem different today. They certainly look slightly different. Maris Piper is good only, as you say, for roast potatoes. One of our favorites is Desirée - reliable for most purposes. We used to like Wilja which now only seem available at farm-gates in half-cwt sacks and we only want a few pounds at a time.
Bungus...... Glad the sketch-pad/mouse-mat idea has been incorporated. Difficult not to fill up a page too quickly though. But an A3 mouse-mat would be a step too far. Especially for a little mouse like mine!
Quotation time......
"Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more"
Mark Twain
One of my many uses of quotations used to be the deflection of 'tellings-off'. My Chief Superintendent was once in mid-tirade and I said "You could say Sir that it was a case of..
"Minerva's owl flies only in the dusk"
After a lengthy silence and a glare he simply said "Get out!"
I just hope those damned pictures have gone to Aldi. If not I'm going to cancel and try again tomorrow. Catch you soon. We are over to Joan's in the morning, then Y's nails and then maybe lunch somewhere..............
I just hope those damned pictures have gone to Aldi. If not I'm going to cancel and try again tomorrow. Catch you soon. We are over to Joan's in the morning, then Y's nails and then maybe lunch somewhere..............^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Are your French shallots the red torpedo shaped ones? If so, Netto also stock them and Marshalls have them in their seed catalogue as Long Red Florence onionds (picture by email). I like Marshalls because they seem to be the only supplier of my favourite (outdoor) tomato seed, Red Alert.
ReplyDeleteI too am greatly attached to swede and potato mashed together (Sandra will only eat them as separate veg) but find the swedes a lot less strongly flavoured than they used to be and therefore prefer a 50/50 mix.
I generally agree with you about potatoes except that M Piper are also very good for chips (most chip shops use them). Desiree are, as you say, reliably good and I bought some very good K Edwards a few weeks ago from Netto (at a reduced price too!). I also like Sante, Nadine and Roosters (bred from Cara).
Have you noticed that farm-gate Wiljas are always ‘Best Wiljas’? ‘Average Wiljas’ and ‘Worst Wiljas’ seem to be unobtainable.
Thanks for foggying things by explanation of conjunctions. What makes it difficult to sort out is that you now appear to have removed the original entry. Therefore I may continue to use ‘/ for emphasis!/
Why are you sending pictures to Aldi? Are they of unsatisfactory goods or of items which you think they should stock?
Most intriguing.
I am not too concerned about the temperatures of boiling waters (I know waters still run deep and that a washed pot never boils) and disagree with no-one about that aspect as I don’t think it matters (unlike the tea on a mountain top which does). But some things do require fierce boiling and others (eg stews) need only to simmer.
What is Nempf? I don’t know whether I want it on my agenda or not!
So far I have only used half my first A4 mouse mat / note page. Anything larger than A4 would take up too much desktop (in the old meaning of the word) space.
I think the Mark Twain quote is a cracker. I think I have been doing it for ever and admire your reverse swing’ comment to the Chief Super. It has the quality of Eric Cantona’s famous "When the seagulls follow the trawler, it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea." (not his only quotable comment).
I did some roast root veg last night and finished off the remnants for breakfast in a sandwich. Delicious! Possibly even better in a cob or ciabatta and I know that roast Mediterranean veg are equally good this way. A more nutritious and tastier (healthier?) alternative to the chip cob?
After a bit of nifty googling I found this on http://whatscookingamerica.net/boilpoint/htm and hope it answers RG's question:
ReplyDelete"Temperatures of water:
Water boils at 212°F (sea level), and simmers at 190°F.
Tepid Water - 85 to 105°F. The water is comparable to the temperature of the human body.
Warm Water - 115 to 120°F. The water is touchable but not hot.
Hot Water - 130 to 135°F. The water is too hot to touch without injury.
Poach - 160 to 180°F. The water is beginning to move, to shiver.
Simmer - 185 to 200°F. There is movement, and little bubbles appear in the water.
Slow boil - 205°F. There is more movement and noticeably larger bubbles.
Real boil - 212°F. The water is rolling, vigorously bubbling, and steaming."
It is preceeded immediately by a set of directions on how to boil water. Yes, really.
I presume from what Reg tells us that it is not possible to make a pot of tea on a mountaintop. But at what height does this take effect? If ever RG, Bungus, his volcano kettle and I go climbing we shall need to know. What's the point of a hike up Mont Blanc if you can't have a proper cuppa when you get there?
RG - to echo Bungus - why are you sending your pictures to Aldi? Surely you would be better off, in all sorts of ways, by printing them yourself?
Bungus, my advice, for what it's worth, is not to put Nempf on your agenda or anywhere else. It is a federation of camera clubs and photo societies covering the north and east midlands. To be pedantic, whilst the spoken word is pronounced nemf or nemph, the acronym is actually N&EMPF. An ex-EPS member once said that it stood for New & Exciting Modes of Photography Forbidden.
The exhibition that follows the Nempf one at Durban House should also be worth a visit. Several prominent Nempf-area photographers have been invited to show their work - it will have some of my Venice at Night pictures in. And if you visit Attenborough Nature Reserve in March, you'll be able to see 'em again, along with some very good stuff.
Rob
Graham, just catching up on your blog after having a very hectic weekend (you can read all about it at http://www.freewebs.com/mannananscloak/islandlife.htm#26831275
ReplyDeletewhere I've even managed to put in a link for a small video clip I managed to take whilst on the trip. Thank you for yor well wishes. i did feel better and everything did turn out fine in the end. Once again cracking canal photos which i love to see. Not so sure about the sushi as I've only recently started to eat smoked salmon (how sad is that) Anyway keep up the good word......Pete