General Chat

I'm making it for my son when he comes at Easter....lol.

He doesn't put on an ounce, he's like a 6ft beanpole...even if he turned 30 yesterday lol

That REALLY is Chocolate heaven !!!

I may make one of those cakes (Birdis or TWs) for OH's birthday later this month...can't justify it as a run of the mill dessert cake !!

It's so great...you only have to stock up on key ingredients and it costs so little to just go for it and do it yourself. My monthly shopping now contains flour, caster sugar and icing sugar vanilla essence etc...when in years gone by I'd have thrown it all out cos it was out of date.

It really costs so little to do...I wish I'd known this sooner x

Likewise, Muffy. When my kids were small I thought I didn't have the time to cook from scratch and bought ready made rubbishy meals. Now I make fish pies and fish cakes from 'trimmings', pies from a small amount of meat and loads of veg. I feel quite smug at the checkout when I see what others pile in their trolleys.

If it wasn't for the wine I would wear a halo!

Likewise the wine lol xx

Yeah me too, but I can justify it by saying that good food deserves wine......honest....it does.....really lol

Well it DOES lol x

I saw something quite shocking recently. I saw a lady had READY MADE mashed potatoes in her shopping trolley!

ewwwwwww even in my ready made days ...smash is gross lol x

I see people picking up expensive bags of ready-grated cheddar FGS.....save a bob or two and grate it yourself.

Same as chicken breasts. If I can I buy with the skin on, it's cheaper and doesn't take a second to take the skin off.

I never ever buy ready sliced chicken for stir fry. I have a good pair of scissors just for cutting chicken (much easier than a knife lol)

But really, ready made mash is taking the biscuit lol

NO smash Muffy, actual potatoes already cooked and mashed...in a tub in the cook/chill cabinets. I've seen it, along with the ready cooked new potatoes in their skins (quick rinse, boil 20 mins, drain, add bit of butter or olive oil, done at half the price.)

OH used to work for a potato factory TW and for about a year we used to get beautiful new potatoes smothered in a thick garlic sauce in a little polythene wrapper. Lovely they were.

Haven't a clue how much they cost because we got them for nothing...but no way...even in my more frivolous days would i have paid good money for them lol lovely though they were !!!

BUT i know that around here they are moving towards producing more ranges of *ready mades* which is a shame but I can understand there's a market for them with busy working mums. Better that than a takeaway or chips x

I can understand ready meals, because of the prep time for the main part, but the veg? Nah

I worked full time, and still cooked a meal when I got home. It's not easy, but it can be done. There are plenty of quick and easy meals that can be made in a relatively short time.

What could be easier than cooking pasta or rice? or rinsing a few new potatoes and boiling them while you get showered and changed after a days work?

Mind, I was lucky in a way, because my own mum worked full time when I was at school, and in those days we didn't have the range of ready meals available (and she was working in a potato factory at the time strangely enough to this conversation), so she HAD to cook.

I guess I learned it all from her and never gave anything else another thought.

My Mum's day:

she got up at goodness knows what o'clock and lit the coal fire (I bet she longed for warm days!). She got breakfast for the family and fed Dad when he got in from his night shift. She arranged 'jobs' for her elderly mother who lived with us, did some housework and left for her part time job. Shopping on the way home then made a two course dinner that was on the table by the time I got in from school and brother cycled home from work. Washed up with grandmother then it was half an hour walk with the dog. Home to make a cup of tea and then more work at home. Some days she went back to work for another couple of hours.

No ready meals then. Phew!

Goosie

Many thanks to Muffy and Wildgoose for the links to the two chocolate cake recipes. I have not made cakes for years. I feel a cake baking mood coming on soon, and am now collecting recipes towards this end.
I have printed both these recipes out, in readiness
Many Thanks
Julia in Derbyshire

Thanks for the recipes girls...Ive been looking for a nice chocolate cake.
The only cake I have made for years (apart from victoria) is a coffee and walnut.
Kay

Well i was rather proud of my own accomplishment yesterday

a very tasty and stunning looking shephards pie made from scratch - first time i've done one - i hope some of you saw the pic on FB ?? lol

Off to look at the bbc cooking thingy for inspiration lol xxx

Kay, please put up your Coffee and Walnut Cake. Another I have not made for years, but a favourite
Many Thanks
Julia in Derbyshire