Early Risers.

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[Coombe Barton]

Attention to beards is OK, attention to eyebrows isn't.

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2020/07/09/caravan-in-service/

[Barry O]

Goodnight to most, good evening to others, good morning to our antipodean visitors!

Baz

PS hope Ian Abel is ok

[tigerburnie]

4 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

I have to robustly disagree with you, my dear feline friend. Firstly, a properly prepared mashed potato will have a lot stiffer consistency (and flavour) than “slushy”, even a pommes purée, if properly made, will have both consistency and flavour. And as far removed from a cow pat as one could imagine.

 

As to your last point, I must assume that you have never known a properly trained and experienced chef. A good chef most certainly can taste the differences between the different varieties of vegetables, mushrooms, pulses and the like. And, when it comes to using potatoes in a dish, a good chef will specify exactly what sort of potato should go into a dish. For example, you don’t use the same type of spud for Pommes Anna as you would for Pommes Boulangere.
 

Sadly, although the UK has many people who call themselves “professional chefs”, quite a few actually have less culinary knowledge than an enthusiastic and talented amateur. These are the ones you could rightly call “cheffy” (pretence without knowledge). Serving up a boil-in-the-bag lamb shank with a slice of kiwi on the side is neither cooking nor nouvelle cuisine, just pseudo-gastro pub at its worst.

We'll agree to disagree on that, personal taste and all that, for me a dish should taste of the ingredient and not the additions when dealing with a delicate flavour, I love different flavours from all over the world, but most of the food I prefer on a regular basis should be as Un cheffy as it can possibly be. I catch a fish and cook and eat it often with absolutely nothing added except perhaps some bread, a grilled fresh flat fish like a Turbot does not need a sauce, you can have one if you like, but the addition removes the taste, just as cream and butter masks the flavour of a nice tasty spud.

I do on occasion eat a lot of my ingredients that I have caught, foraged or grown raw, just to enjoy the flavour, a cob of sweetcorn eaten raw straight from the plant is a joy that I doubt anyone has enjoyed in a restaurant. I have eaten in French city restaurants', but much prefer a country pub or café and it would seem a lot of the French I knew were of the same opinion.

[tigerburnie]

G'night all

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Reading through the last two pages of ER's mostly on fried food I can faintly hear the sound of hardening arteries. Just to add to it I raise you fried bread done in beef dripping, the only fried bread worth eating. Traffic on Farcebook has dropped off considerably, almost down to pre lockdown numbers. Now to catch up on the rest of RMweb.

[newbryford]

6 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Morning all,

 

Beans, bacon and toast was had for breakfast. I think I’ve done a slightly better job of cooking the pig today.

 

 

 

And the bread.....

 

[Erichill16]

Evening All,

All this talk of bacon makes think I may have a bacon sarnie for breakfast.

Food run this morning and then a real surprise, a hair cut! I rang the barbers up to see if they were open but found  they were working by appointment only. Fortunately they’d a cancellation for the afternoon so I took it! 

On a less cheery note I then took a look at my book keeping. I’ve been having issues balancing/reconciling the bank statement. It’s out by 4p. I thought I’d realised what the issue was and this afternoon I’ve been through the ledger changing balances brought forward etc and then to my horror I’ve found that the reworking of the books has lead to a 8p error now!  I’ve probably wasted 4hours on this now and it’s not helping me. I gave up at tea time and will have another go tomorrow. When I’m behind or not on top of things related to work I find it difficult to justify doing some modelling etc so end up just moaping   around. I’ve learnt that sometimes it’s better to come back to a problem after a nights sleep and then the answer just stares you in the face. I hope that’s what happens tomorrow . 

Sorry for that moan but I do feel a bit better now. To cheer me up Syd has been sent for a sleepover, but I think he’s only been sent because he’s farting like a seaside donkey. (As Mil would say). He’s sleeping on the bed so if I don’t make it through the night you’ll know what’s happened.

Anyway,Goodnight 

Robert

 

 

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[PJT]

50 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Just to add to it I raise you fried bread done in beef dripping, the only fried bread worth eating.

 

Just had to stop myself dribbling into the keyboard at the thought of that one.

 

But hey, what about the very ancient favourite, Gypsy Bread?  Bread soaked in a beaten egg, then fried and served with HP sauce... or, just as nice but very different, served with Branston Pickle!

 

Now, after all that, I might just have to graze from the fridge before turning in.

 

Pete T.

 

[brianusa]

Yesterday we were told a new cleaning lady would be arriving.  Instantly, hopefully, I had visions of traditional French maids but it was not to be.  But she cleaned house better than the old one!  Brian.

[newbryford]

First proper day off in 12 weeks or so. (Even weekends have been partly on phone/email duty)

My work colleagues had been advised that I will be "off grid" for four days (i.e don't call me or send me emails)

 

A departure time of 0830, socially distanced north on the M6 to Junction 40. Follow the A66 west past Keswick and then a couple of miles up towards Whinlatter Forest.

 

Unload bike, ride bike.

Come home.

Bath, food and evening beverage.

 

 

A brilliant day for a bike ride. The weather was virtually perfect - no wind and cool under the trees, with a bit of warmth outside them. 24km with 2000 feet of ascent - what goes up, must come down - 2000 feet of fun-filled descent. 

There were four of us in our group. My (fellow Rmwebber) mate and then a mate of his - Lee plus 14yo son. (more of the age gap later)

The trails at Whinlatter are great because there are three loops - each returning to the car park for a break and bike check. The three loops are the blue Quercus trail, and the red/black graded Altura trail, split into north and south loops. And that was the order that we did them in.

 

My trusty EX8 has had a bit of TLC last week via a new chain, rear cassette and bottom bracket - fitted courtesy of a very good bike mechanic (Good as in Olympic and Commonwealth medals good)

 

 

Although there wasn't much time for enjoying them, the views were brilliant. Keswick, with Derwentwater in the shot. 

 

This is the North Loop from the South loop (which is otherwise known as Hospital Fell). The Irish Sea is just in view on mid-left of shot

 

The trails descending the north loop are quite visible - we were on those about 45 minutes previously at speed.

 

At the top of the South loop - Lee tries to obscure the view of Derwentwater. 

 

This made my day - Lee's 14yo son absolutely up against "The Wall". He had got about 2/3 up the last climb of the day and then completely run out of steam. I had to give him one of my energy gels to help him up the last part of the hill. I think he was embarrased about being outdone by someone four times (and a bit) his age! (me)

 

Recovery over and not many minutes later and we were back in the carpark, having descended 700 feet or so.

 

I did post a picture of Lee on a previous rideout a couple of weeks ago - he lost a leg above the knee - due to a motorcycling incident. He now has an e-bike to get around the trails. Along the way today, he managed to break his leg - not his real one I hasten to add. He broke off part of the cover, revealing the innards.

His new nickname is Cyborg.

 

All in all, a very good day. Topped with a nice ebay sale of a yellow item. Some of the gain has already been "lost" on an ebay purchase.

Day off #2 is planned to be some DIY with a 4pm tee time for a golf doubles knockout, but there will be no rush to open the curtains tomorrow morning.

 

Have a good one folks.

 

Cheers,

Mick

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

Well I’ve had a busy day here in the northwest of England. This morning I gave a second coat of paint to the bench parts that received its first coat yesterday. I also gave the new shelves 2 more coats, a final coat on the top of the shelves and a first coat on the underside, these will get another 2 coats over the next day or so. Once I’d done that, I then went outside and took advantage of the dry weather fact that it wasn’t raining and finally got round to putting a large hydrangea in the ground. It’s been in a large plant pot/tub for several years now, but the heavy rain we’ve had recently has made the soil it was in turn to mud, (something that it’s never done before) and the plant looked like is was suffering. I’ve not been able to get it exactly where I wanted to put it, but it’s near enough, I also trimmed some of the ivy on the back garden fence. I then went to the front and cleared away the weeds from the block paving of the drive, I’d just finished when Sheila called me in for dinner. 

 

After dinner I loaded up the car with 6 large bags and a box of recycling items and then set off to the local tip. I’d expected to be gone well over an hour, but I was back within 35 minutes of leaving home. It was busy, but well organised, so things moved along quickly. 

 

I forgot to mention that all these bags bags were stored in the cellar and now that they’ve gone, I’ve got a lot more room in there. Slowly, but surely it’s getting clearer and I’ll soon be able to make a start on the BIG JOB, pulling the ceiling down and sorting the walls. 

 

Goodnight all 

Edited July 9, 2020 by BSW01

[Ozexpatriate]

7 hours ago, polybear said:

Just think how much better it would look with a couple of eggs, sausages, saute potatoes, onion rings....

 

6 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

And onion rings in the morning, I quake at the thought! 

I wonder if there's a misunderstanding there. 

Do bears eat their onion rings deep fried in batter with breakfast? I had assumed sautéed onions rather than these.

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[The Stationmaster]

8 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

 

I wonder if there's a misunderstanding there. 

Do bears eat their onion rings deep fried in batter with breakfast? I had assumed sautéed onions rather than these.

Some eateries do have onion rings offered as an extra with breakfasts but it's not an idea which appeals to me.   But they're nothing like as widespread or as bad as those appalling hash brown things which have become so popular with catering establishments in recent years.  The latter is probably because proper sauté  potatoes are too much like hard work for them and producing, or even sourcing, a decent quality potato cake is beyond their wit despite the fact that Tesco sell a very good one - Rankin's potato farls (sometimes).  While we rarely have proper job cooked breakfasts at home Mrs Stationmaster can knock together some pretty good potato cakes if we happen to have any left over mash from the previous evening, far better than chucking it away.

[Ozexpatriate]

16 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

Some eateries do have onion rings offered as an extra with breakfasts but it's not an idea which appeals to me.   But they're nothing like as widespread or as bad as those appalling hash brown things which have become so popular with catering establishments in recent years.

Deep fried onion rings are very well known in the US - mostly in burger joints. They are a common appetizer or side dish with burgers, and sometimes even appear on burgers. They are not usually offered at breakfast in the US - which I suspect resulted in Douglas' reaction.

 

We've discussed hash browns at length before. The potato cake / hockey puck marketed (and made famous in the UK and Australia) by McDonalds should be called something else. I would suggest potato puck as setting expectations nicely. It has very little relation to proper hash browns.

[J. S. Bach]

2 hours ago, PJT said:

 ...snip... But hey, what about the very ancient favourite, Gypsy Bread?  Bread soaked in a beaten egg, then fried and served with HP sauce... or, just as nice but very different, served with Branston Pickle! ...snip...

Pete T.

Sounds like what we call "French toast" over here; it can be very good.

[J. S. Bach]

Good night owl from the Piedmont.

[pH]

8 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Nor does fried bread exist in this country.

But frybread does:

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frybread

 

I’ve eaten it travelling along Route 66 in Arizona - made when you order it at roadside stands, so it’s hot and fresh! 

Edited July 10, 2020 by pH

[Florence Locomotive Works]

1 minute ago, pH said:

But frybread does:

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frybread

 

I’ve eaten it travelling along Route 66 in Arizona - made when you order it at roadside stands, so it’s hot and fresh! 

Those are almost always called funnelcakes, they are excellent. Frybread is probably regional?

[Ozexpatriate]

49 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

Sounds like what we call "French toast" over here; it can be very good.

French toast (pain perdu en française) also includes milk (and normally vanilla), sometimes cinnamon, sugar, nutmeg, etc.

Edited July 10, 2020 by Ozexpatriate

[Ozexpatriate]

10 minutes ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Those are almost always called funnelcakes

Almost, funnelcakes are made differently and usually served with sugar. Elephant ears are more similar to frybread.

 

They are all fried dough.

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Goodnight all, from Greencountry.

 

Douglas

[roundhouse]

4 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Deep fried onion rings are very well known in the US - mostly in burger joints. They are a common appetizer or side dish with burgers, and sometimes even appear on burgers. They are not usually offered at breakfast in the US - which I suspect resulted in Douglas' reaction.

 

We've discussed hash browns at length before. The potato cake / hockey puck marketed (and made famous in the UK and Australia) by McDonalds should be called something else. I would suggest potato puck as setting expectations nicely. It has very little relation to proper hash browns.

I have been known to have two helpings of Dennys hash browns, one thing that I will be missing due to our cancelled flights across the pond. Today would have been the outbound flight and tomorrow highly likely to have been a Dennys in Aurora IL, our normal stopover location with beers in two Brothers brewhouse and a day at Rochelle watching trains.

 

Instead I will be disturbing my other half (shes had a lie ins since mid March due to working from home) for an early drive to avoid any hold ups around the Stones by the A303. We were hoping to visit Peco but they are shut this year to visitors.

Edited July 10, 2020 by roundhouse