General Chat

I understand from the local radio, that there is , yet again, to be a hike in the price of food. In the light of this, tomorrow morning, there is to be a cookery demonstrator, giving us advice on how to get more from the food we buy and cook.
Now, and please forgive me, if I am wrong, but as housewives and mothers, have we not been practicing this for years. And, has there not been an increase in food prices, since the year dot.
Just walk into T**co., S****bury's, M***sons et al, and buy the same articles this week that you did last, and I bet at least half a dozen of the items have increased in price. And it is not just 1p,2p,3p,, it is 5p, 10p, 20p.,
Yes, I do know we all have to keep our eyes open, and get what bargains we can, and we have to find ways to make things go abit further.
But, to incesantly parade these so called food experts in front of us, telling us we are all going about this the wrong way, and therefore must be bad wives and mothers, is rather patronising.
I even heard a vicar extolling his own virtues as to how he stocks up his pantry when shopping.
For Gawd sake, life is too short to stuff a mushroom.

Disgrunteld in Derbyshire

I suppose there are some people who need help Julia, the rest of us go on in our own way and managing as we have always done :-D

There's probably a LOT of people who need help, not just females who run the family kitchen.

Its a skill that has been lost to the fastfood/chilled meal generation. Even if the graduated students survive on pasta as filler, some cheap new ideas to make it different/tasty should be welcome.

What annoys me about the 'stock up your larder' bit is that it pre-supposes there is the cash available to do that, yes 24 rolls of toilet paper costs less per roll...but you have to have enough 'in the pot' to fork out for it...if you're living to the absolute penny each week that just isn't possible.

That said, if you can stock up there are some bargains to be had, providing the shop is local, and you are not having to add bus fares or petrol to the overall cost.

It might come in useful for those men and women who are moving into their own homes and also students.

Yes DET, thrift has been lost to the era of Fastfood/Chilled food generation. My own theory on this is the demise of cookery lessons in schools for the last few generations, so we had one generation after another that cannot teach their children to cook because they were never taught, themselves This has been compounded by several generations of mothers who have had to go out to work, and havn't been able to teach their children how to cook .I don't mean to say this dogmatically.
And yes Rose, you are quite right also. It is always assumed that there is money in the pot to bulk buy.
This person who is to give us the benefit of her advice, is employed in her capacity as a food demonstrator, by what must be the most expensive pottery in this country. Even at the wekend James Martin gave a demo. there, but the food could not be eaten buy the audience, because it was not cooked in suitable conditions, eg., a marquee.
This pottery is not above taking rents from 'outside caerers' eg burger vans, pie vans etc., when holding festivals in it grounds. So where does the thrifness come into this.
Yes the demonstrator may well be self employed, but I find it all so hypocritical.

Julia in Derbyshire

PS. I would have thought more of the radio station, if they had engaged a school cook to talk about thrift, and how to make your money go further. They also have to manage on a strict budget.

Haven't you all got it yet?

We know nothing about anything.

We need someone (probably) appointed by some Government department to tell us how to wipe our b*ms.

It would never occur to me to look for bargains and make best use of leftovers.

Why would I dream of making my own fresh pizzas using leftover French Stick when I can go out and buy a pizza fully of crappy e-numbers and too much fat and salt that I can shove in the freezer?

Why use leftover bread to make breadcrumbs for stuffing to keep in the freezer when I can buy a perfectly good packet of dried stuffing mix to keep in the cupboard?

Why would I use fresh fruit (on offer- even better) to make a fruit salad when I can go buy a tin?

And I'd rather bin any unused fruit than make smoothies in the liquidiser. After all I can buy them from the supermarket so why make my own? Of course they nearly all have bananas in which my kids are seriously allergic to - but that's just them being awkward.

And I'm sure that that shop-bought frozen cauliflower cheese is much better than I make so why would I bother to make more than I need for one meal and freeze it myself for another day?

Golly. I am so glad that I'm going to have someone who knows what they are doing to help me to be more ecconomic. Beats me how I've managed all these years, what with being just some stupid wife and mother trying to balance a budget and feed her family.

And as for that vicar stocking up his cupboard. Does that mean he eats everything from a packet and nothing fresh?

And as regards children learning to cook. A few years ago I saw how cooking was being taught in the classroom. Talk about boring and a massive put-off. And even my daugher when she was in Yr7 was left so bored by it all. Three weeks worth of lessons to do 'pizza'.

Week 1. Study all the ingredients required and specify exact quantities, plan how the pizza would be created, etc.
Week 2. Take all ingredients into school.
One slice of white bread
One tomato
One small piece of cheese for grating

Teacher analysing pizzas as they were being made, told daughter tomatoes incorrectly sliced and not correctly placed on the bread.

Week 3. Writing a report and analysis of the pizza. Can't remember the term used now.

No wonder kids have been so put off going in the kitchen.

Going to get off soapbox now. I'd have washing up to do but thanks to all those ready-meals everything goes into the bin now :-P :-P :-P

ah! what about the toppers that get left over? not in my house,

they get recycled as bread pudding

Why so defensive? :-S Is someone pointing and saying this is for YOU? :-S

A lot of people can't cook! Generations reared on convenience food might just benefit from being given some practical advice if they wish to save themselves a bob or two.

Talking of Bob :-D Do you have Beanos with your Toppers? :-D
I take it a topper is the crust? We just eat them :-D

Well said JustDinasaurJill. That is just how I feel. LOLOL

Julia in Derbyshire

Surely it is aimed at people who can't cook or manage a domestic shopping budget? Not those who have been doing it for years.

I didn't have cookery lessons at school or home, it was common sense, tight purse strings and wanting to eat that got me cooking.
I'm always interested in money saving tips though :-D

I see food is to rise in price due to the wet summer affecting British crops.
I expect imports will rise too :-S
Will they go down if there is ever a glut?

I've never seen them bring the prices down Island, in a way that we feel it, in the purse.

Julia in Derbyshire

Notice some food prices are cheaper. A dozen frozen snails in garlic in my local Lidl are £1.99 or 2 packs for £3. Far less expensive than 20 years ago. My current treat.

But food had got so expensive generally. 30% off 6 ordinary looking apples in Lidl and I still paid £1.50. For something that grows on loads of trees round here. And I have never understood why I can buy a Mars Bar for 5p on holiday in India and same thing is 60p here.

Food, insurance and gas and electricity price increases must have hurt all of us badly.

Personally, I would like to know a lot more about choosing ingredients and cooking, I must admit. And most of my career was supermarkets:-D But when I started, an exotic fruit was a grapefruit. Nowadays, I can't even pronounce half of them. :-(

Too much of the stuff out of the hedge went off this year before I could use it. The apple blossom was destroyed by rain, many fewer apples,terrible cereal harvest.

I think we should be grateful we are living in the 21st century where we are only facing difficulty paying.

Not so very long ago, and in other places on Earth, that would mean difficulty sustaining life.

Phew, just come in for a warm. I am emptying the hanging baskets, and cleaning them of for next year. I havn't got the heating on, but it is warmer her in the kitchen, than outside.

Sharron, I did very well for blackberries from the hedgerow on the allotment, and will make it into Bramble Jeely in a few weeks. Meanwhile they are in the freezer. Similarly with our own strawberry harvest.
But, I did not 'come across' any cooking apples and plumbs this year, for the first time in quite a few years. I have some lovely recipes using them, that freeze well.

We grow as much of our own fruit and veg., as we can. But we can't grow soap, toilet roll, wash powder etc. and all the other comestables that a household needs to get by, week after week. I know that Sharron and Island are both vegetarians, so meat is not in their trollies, but other things are.
We, that is the OH and myself, have gone from eating meat probably 5 out of 7 days a week to 2-3. This is not only down to cost, as I am a dab hand with the bottom oven, but as you get older, you don't need it as much.

I was bought up just after the war, and rationing was still about where we lived. My mother never got over rationing, and it was many years before we saw any kind of luxury, food or otherwise in our house. So, I have not been bought up to squander money, especially on food.

I will listen to the programme I mentioned, and report back.

Take Care All

Julia in Derbyshire

Years ago, hubby and I used to pick Elderberry and Elderflower from the along the towpath at Lapworth. I used to make wine. If I got the chance of Blackberries I would include them in with the Elderberries or make Blackberry Jelly. When our rhubarb plant was ready I would make Rhubarb and Ginger Jam which I learned to love in Shetland as my Great Auntie Annie made it.

A couple of years ago, Sainsbury's had some silly prices on Raspberries and Blackberries. They weren't cheap enough to buy loads to make jam so I bought some of their cheap Gin and Vodka and made enough for little gifts and a treat for us on a cold day.

I so want to get back into jams and wines again. It sounds like we are big drinkers but we're not. I've always been more fascinated by creating something from basic ingredients. I'm just a mega-crafter.

Because of both kids and hubby having individual dietary requirements and restrictions, I often cook different meals for each of them. This means that I cook virtually everything from scratch anyway because there is always something in shop-bought stuff that one of them will react to.

I am just glad that I learned to cook at a time when convenience food was buying a bag of Birds Eye Peas.

Happy to share my pizza recipe if anyone wants it. I do a variation when we have a picnic with friends and kids love them.

xJ

People don't use washing soda much any more but,if you use it on greasy pots instead of washing up liquid,which is a very recent invention,it turns the grease into soap in the water.

That was the same principle as when people made their own soap from lye,which is wood ash water, and the fat left from their meat.

When I said the hedgerow fruit went off I meant that I had no time to make something before it went mouldy overnight. Cherries I bought from a stall went mouldy overnight,not rotten but mould from the damp atmosphere.

As for toilet rolls. What did people do before there were toilet rolls? Don't tell me about newspaper,been there,but how about all the preceding centuries when nobody read newspapers. You can't rely on dockleaves and sponges were an expensive luxury. I am not prepared to try it but there must be an alternative and it will probably be free.

My atitude to cooking is that it is the way you make what you have available palatable,Seasonal is usually the best value and Marguerite Patten is often the woman who can give you a good idea of how to do that.

Sharron,the answer to toilet rolls, Constipation. :-D a cork, :-D then Whoosh> :-D or a bedet. but ensure the jets are not set too fine. :-D :-D

No Merlin,I think you will find there were no bidets in the average labourers cottages .