General Chat

Julia,

We must keep our conversations to mundane subjects. When we discuss politics it gets rather heated !!!!

By the way you are not old. I am 72 and I am not old either, I recently went round the Go-Ape tree top challenge in Cannock Chase with my grandsons and I am just making plans to go back to the wilds of America next year. No cities, just real country, lots of walking and nature watching, the bird-life is superb. This year we stood under a tree as an osprey tore a fish apart, ate the flesh and showered us with the bones!

Bernie

Bernie my Boy, will try this recipe when it gets abit colder. I'm glad I am not the only one who uses pearl barley. Last winter when I was in our local Morrisons, and getting something near the pearl barley, a woman spoke to me and asked what you did with it. On telling her, she said"I knew you oldies would know what to do with it". I could of smacked her. I'm only 63, and she was about 40. Must get me grey hairs coloured. Oldie indeed.
By the way, about 40 years ago, I lived in South Wingfield also. Our world is getting even smaller LOL
Julia in Derbyshire

Just taken the stock out of the feezer. Tonight I will use it to make lamb hot pot. Time consuming but it beats anything you buy in a tin or packet.

Preheat oven to mark 4. (180 degrees or 160 degrees for a fan oven).

Brown the lamb for 5 mins. Add two small onions quartered; then carrots (half inch lengths); chopped rosemary; 2 ozs pearl barley; 2 bay leaves; seasoning to taste. Cook for two more minutes then transfer to an oven proof casserole dish.

Add enough stock to cover the veg and meat and then add two or three layers of sliced potatoes on top.

Put the lid on the dish, put in the oven and cook for 90 minutes, checking stock level every now and again.

After 90 minutes Remove lid and spray the potatoes with a drizzle of oil. Turn heat up to mark 6, (200 degrees - 180 degrees for a fan oven). Cook for another 15 to 20 minutes until the potatoes are browned.

Serve with in-season runner beans, fresh picked from the garden. Yummy.

ps. I make no apologies for using British Imperial measures, if you want it in Metric, go and live on the continent.

Well all the talk of making soup and stock I intended to do just that with the chicken carcass this evening after we had used the remains of the meat for sandwiches, so i got mine and left OH making his, went back into the kitchen after I had eaten mine to find he had picked the bones and thrown them in the bin. So that was that!!!!

Since we moved from Belper to Burton, my son has started going out with a girls from South Wingfield, so I am still driving up to that part of the world.

I love the drive from Derby up to Wingfield at this time of the year, the trees are so green.

Isn't it just Julia. Well if you trip over my Great Great Grandfather let me know wont you. although i doubt you will as I think he absconded to france for some reason and probably died there!!!

Isn't that amazing Ann, your roots being in Belper, which is about 8 miles from me. As I said to Bernie, it is a small world.
Julia in Derbyshire

Interesting thread I have to add my roots (not the vegetable variety) are in Belper!!!

I love the water that dark green cabbage has been boiled in. I have to say, though, that I don't boil it these days, I add chopped onion, a bit of garlic, black pepper and ginger powder and stir fry it; not for too long, just so it still has a bit of bite.

Mum and I used to drink cabbage water very hot with a sprinkle of white pepper. Marvellous. Mind you, Mum used to boil the cabbage for so long that all the vitamins were in the water anyway. She might as well have put the soggy cabbage in the pig bin.

Bernie My Boy, it is a small world, isn't it. But I do recommend the soup. There is a pie also that I fancy, but the soup always seems to win. LOL
Julia in Derbyshire

You live near Denby? I used to live in Belper, I am in Burton upon Trent now, only half an hour from the pottery. Will try their veggie soup next time I pass by.

You and me both with chicken carcase, would not dream of getting rid until I have had it in my pressure cooker for a boil up. All my casseroles, sauces and gravy are made from the stock. I freeze it in small batches and use when required. Everyone says, Bernie your gravy is great, which stock cubes do you use? I say "mine".

It was the thought of wasteage that first made me put up this thread. I also cannot bear to discard the chicken carcass without first boiling it for stock, and picking off the little bits of meat. I either put these into the stock, or, make potted chicken for sandwiches. Anyone got any more 'thrift' tips. By the way, like all the suggestions re the use of the cauliflower leaves.
Have a good day all, I'm going out for a few hours, but will look in when I get back
Julia in Derbyshire

Bernie my Boy, In the winter I love to go to the Denby Pottery Visitor Centre nearby. After visiting the Cookery Emporium I make a be-line for the Restaurant for my bowl of vegetable soup. They put everything in it but the kitchen sink,it is bsolutely delicious. Best 'outdoor' soup I have ever eaten.
Talking about celery. It seems the 'in thing' to sell this green these days, with only a few white stems inside to eat. So I chop all the green stems up for soup, and add the leaves. If having salad, I chop the leaves up and mix them with the lettuce. Nothing is wasted on celery by me. I can make soup out of anything, and made a spiced carrot soup the other day, with two containers going in the freezer for winter.
Julia in Derbyshire

I make vegetable soup and I put everything in it. All the normal vegetables like leek, onions, potatoes, carrots plus cabbage stalks, cauliflower leaves and stalks, turnip tops, celery trimmings, pea pods, etc. etc. Its delicious.

I eat the leaves - not necessarily with the florets - and I (and my children and now my grand children) eat the 'stump' (trimmed) raw!!
I've just munched the brocolli stump whilst waiting for my dinner to cook.

If they,re reasonably sized, Blanch them and use to make "Stuffed Vine Leaves with any left over meat Chopped up. Quite tasty. **M**.

That's a good idea with the leaves Janice, I would'nt have thought of that, though I mke soup and freze it, out of just about anything. I'll remember that one next-time. Waste not, want not.
Julia in Derbyshire

Edit. When we were young children, my mother made a belter of a soup. Soaked a packed of peas overnight. Next day, added loads of chopped veggies to the peas and let it cook. Gorgeous and thick. You only needed a hunk of bread, and a twirl of HP sauce. Made your ribs stick together, as it was a meal in itself, which was just as well, as there was very little money about in those days. Well, not in our house.

I cook chopped cauli stalk and the leaves at bottom of pan with minimum water and white curds steaming on top. Serve curds as veg or cauli cheese and blitz the remainder with seasoning into cauli soup which freezes well if not needed the next day, serve with cheese crutons or just grated cheese topping or a swirl of cream. Only compost minimal veg and make soup out of most varieties.

Sue,
You reminded me of when we had cabbage as nippers, Dad used to drain it through the colander and then add pepper to it and we used to drink it cold after Sunday dinner, it was lovely, I can't get it to taste the same now though.

Helen

SRS, it is so nice to know that I am not the only one. I tried smothering it in cheese one time but it still tasted YUK. But then I never liked my greens either, although I now eat them if they are chopped up in rice and other veges. 'Every man to his own taste, as Paddy said when he kissed the cow'. Poor old Paddy gets blamed for everything.

Huia.