Val’s Comments (group member since Aug 28, 2019)

Val’s comments from the Beyond Zon group.

I agree that most home brand varieties of baked beans and also tomato sauce/ketchup just don't stack up against Heinz. They are just too watery. One exception we've found is Aldi's Just Organic Baked Beans which work okay for our taste buds.

Mr H's wonderful homemade hamburgers with fresh rolls, bacon, onions, tomatoes, cheese and pickles! Yum!

Good news indeed Suzy! I hope you get some positive news on your first vaccination soon too. I have no idea when we'll get vaccinated. To date, the completed rate of the first dose is just under 300,000 in a population of 20 million. We are in the second group eligible (Group 1B) as we are over 70. Last Monday there was a big press release saying contact your doctor to organise your jab. The website was really easy to access and very efficient; when I put in my post code, the first practice that came up was my own GP. But then........it said, ring for an appointment. Only the Federal Government hadn't told the doctors the site was up and none of them had any supplies either. So the end result was practices being run off their feet with phone calls and being unable to give any helpful advice. We are also at the mercy of the European Union who are saying that despite Australia having ordered X million doses of Astra Zeneca early in the piece, we must now go to the back of the queue until Europeans have been vaccinated. Which I can totally understand as their problem is much greater than ours. So we will just bide our time and wait until manufacture can commence in Melbourne, which should be soon, if it hasn't started already. Although about 10 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine were ordered, I think we've only received about 150,000 so far and they have been given to all political leaders (of course) and front-line workers in the health and quarantine sectors. It will all happen in good time.

Dole features prominently on supermarket shelves here but I have a policy of always buying Australian when I can so Golden Circle is my brand of choice for trifles, cakes, etc. And fresh pineapple is just the best coolant in summer!

Have you tried this:

https://vintagerecipetin.com/jello-in...

suzysunshine7 wrote: "Hmmm? - will Waitrose manage to deliver the 16 tins of Dole Pineapple that I've ordered from them?!! ... these certainly are exciting times indeed, P! ;o>"

Did you watch "Elizabeth Is Missing" with Glenda Jackson? Her cupboard is filled with tinned peaches.

"Mum, you've got to stop buying sliced peaches!".

"Are you sure you want more peaches Mrs Horsham? You bought three tins yesterday"
"They're in my basket, aren't they??????"

suzysunshine7 wrote: "I think that I might have mentioned this before? - but, in case I haven't, my Mum worked for many years as a Personal Assistant/Secretary to someone who once owned and lived in Chorley Old Hall in ..."

Looks wonderful! I'm sure you have some great childhood memories of the time you spent there.

suzysunshine7 wrote: "Sorry, Val, but I'm afraid that Tatton Park & it's huge Country Estate at the other end of the Road already belongs to The National Trust ;o> ..."

Bloody National Trust! They always get in before me!

And I'm not keen to mix with the riff-raff (footballers) so I'll just have to keep on looking.

suzysunshine7 wrote: "Have you got a mere £925,000 to spend, Isabella? ;o> .../"

Pfft! That's only the Gatehouse. I want the Big House! What happened to that?

Fingers crossed for you Isabella! May this be THE one!

Just checking in to say that the 2021 Aussie Rules tipping comp is open at:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Everyone is welcome. You don't have to know anything about Aussie Rules. You don't even have to like sport. Nine games every week - you just have to pick the winners. You get to choose a charity (must be here in Australia) and I donate money each week based on the results. The criteria for earning money are so random that everyone gets something. Last year we raised £427, spread over 15 charities. I'm sure Suzy won't mind me saying that even with abysmal tipping (she always picks the underdog) she raised £40 for a domestic violence charity - more than I earned and I'm supposed to know something about the game! Duke, Suzy, Lez and Grizzly have all participated and Isabella has signed up for this year. I'll assign you a team to barrack for, you can don the colours and I'll teach you the club song. It's just a bit of fun and no one gets hurt, I promise. Hit the link if you're interested.

Curried sausages here, with plain boiled spuds.

theDuke wrote: "So i presume you like Jeremy Clarkson then Val...he's refuses to go down the cosmetic enhancement appraoch...and it shows! ..."

Not a fan Duke but I respect his decision to tell it like it is.

Isabella wrote: "Last night, I was surfing the tv for something to distract me (unsuccessfully) and I noticed how many people seem to have veneers fitted on their teeth..."

A constant beef with me Isabella. Teeth aren't supposed to be white - they're not called ivories for nothing - and uniformly even! But people are always bleaching them. There's a presenter here that I often feel the need to don sunglasses whenever he appears. It's something I've always enjoyed about British TV shows - they're far more realistic when it comes to age, shape, hair loss, ordinary teeth, etc. American shows always have to feature the young and the beautiful. It puts me right off because in real life, police officers do not look like The Osmonds. The only time I've actually noticed that someone's appearance was improved by veneers (or similar) was David Bowie - his early videos showed poor teeth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYYRH...

A farmer friend gave me two huge marrows. We're having one of them tonight, baked in the oven with a stuffing of freekeh, mushrooms, capsicums, garlic and onions. Grated cheese will be added in the final 20 mins of cooking.

Very warm here. It's been 32 degrees all week and tonight's low will be 21. The next cool change may come through on Sunday if we're lucky. I've been spending a fair bit of time potting up cuttings (I'm a skilled thief of plants that poke the slightest way out of a fence) and have fingers crossed for hydrangeas, gardenias, hibiscus, lilac, philadelphus as well as the easier bay trees, geraniums, salvia, succulents, etc. I've just placed a huge order for bulbs which I hope to be able to plant by April and I've outlaid quite a bit of dosh on two trees (which will probably be tiny - 12"?) but I've always wanted a Eucalyptus Silver Princess because the flower is so pretty and I love its weeping form; also a Crepe Myrtle because apart from flowering so prettily and prolifically, they have a beautiful bark. I hate ordering from catalogues or online because colours aren't always true so I'm hoping the variety I've ordered is more pink/purple than red. Too late now though.

Spag bol made with tagliatelle instead of spaghetti because someone on these threads said that was the pasta the Italians favoured. Mr H. said the pasta made the dish - surprisingly!

The carcass, bones and skin from yesterday's roast chicken were boiled up for stock, then drained. We added 4 carrots (sliced), 2 onions (sliced), half a cup each of pearl barley, yellow split peas and dried chick peas (soaked overnight), parsley and thyme, and had a beaut soup with fresh rolls.

Roast chicken, roast potatoes, peas and gravy.

Best wishes Q. Hope the short-term side effects are just that - short!

No, there's no shortage of tinned corned beef here! Corned beef hash (or as Mr H like to call it, corned dog) is a winter staple for us.

Does anyone still cook tongue? It was the bane of my childhood as my mother cooked it every weekend and I had it sliced on my sandwiches for school. It was very lean and quite tasty but just the look of the whole tongue and the smell when it was cooking were enough to make you have second thoughts with every bite. My Mum also made brawn every weekend (she worked full time during the week which is why she was so industrious at weekends).