You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion
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Watcha Doing? Version 2015.5
Good luck with the final bits Pragya. It happens here too if people for whatever reason don't finish in the 4 years they usually get an extension of some months, but when that also stops and you find a new job, it has to happen next to the job. You're doing awesome!Happy birthday Sarah!
Sarah wrote: "I haven't eaten bacon in 10 years but we used to use unsmoked. I wasn't keen on streaky so we'd get normal size bacon and cut it in half. Each sausage wrapped in bacon should be around 5-6cms. Have..."So, you just pour liquid cream over it? Like as is out of the container?
I might have to make the chipolatas- have to check the market I buy stuff at. I'm going to have to use streaky bacon because I think that's basically American bacon. I guess I'll try to render the fat out of it first.
Ah... of course, pigs in blankets. I didn't think of those.Not sure of what Sarah does for her brandy sauce. We have brandy cream which is cream we whip with the brandy. And brandy butter which is brandy, sugar and butter https://www.maggiebeer.com.au/recipes...
We cook the roast veggies separate too Janice, as you need the juices and dripping from the meat to make the gravy! But I have done it that way before when we didn't want gravy.
But I have taken to roasting my garlic, potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes seperately and another way now. I use http://www.jamieoliver.com/magazine/r... and swear by it. Everyone loves them, and as long as I'm not cooking asian or indian when people come over I make a huge tray of them. I usually do number 2 without the tangerine/clemintine, and usually double/triple the sage and garlic.
I'm not going to lie, all this talk about holiday menus is freaking me out a bit. I'm in denial that Thanksgiving is only a month away! Fortunately, we're not having it at our house, so I just need to bring a vegetable, and my mom will make the stuffing, because she makes the best cornbread stuffing on the planet (no seriously, it's just down-home, southern goodness!). I think I'm going to make a roasted cauliflower dish from Jamie Oliver. The holidays is the time of year when we dig around and play with fancy-pants recipes. Though we always have a traditional Thanksgiving turkey and pumpkin pie. I'm thinking of going off grains and sugar again, so I might make a pumpkin custard instead. Last year we started a Christmas tradition of brunch in our PJ's. My mom and I always have our own Christmas morning, then head over to my niece's. So, Mimosas and fancy-pants quiche recipes.
I also yelled "Happy birthday Sarah!!!" in my last post but I obviously posted quicker than i meant to and only said it in my head. Why posting while at work and trying not to get spotted is never a good idea.Hope you had a great day!!
@Bella - yep runny cream straight from the container. @Rusalka - I cheat on the brandy sauce/cream and by ready made but yours sounds far better. Oh and serving Jerusalem artichoke to your guests is brave. Don't they make you fart?
Yeah, but they usually have left by the time it starts to be digested. So not my problem!!Jerusalem artichokes are Lexx's obsession. They grow anywhere, no matter the soil quality and don't need to be crop rotated. So they are all through our garden. Luckily they make beautiful sunflower-esq flowers everywhere.
But more importantly, they are almost non-existent on the GI scale, they sustain you but don't make your blood sugar spike at all. And are digested in your lower bowels/colon, hence the farting, but this is one reason for the low GI level of the things. So if there is an apocalypse, and Lexx cannot get insulin anymore, he figures he could live on Jerusalem artichokes.
He also thinks potatoes are boring and taste of nothing, and the J. artichokes have much more flavour. I love potatoes though, and could eat them all day. I find the artichokes a little too earthy for a large pile, but eat a few when we have them.
The other side to the argument though is our old housemate has Crohn's Disease (which is a disease where you don't have the coating on your intestines that most of us do, and that leads to lots of problems with food and acid eating in to them and causing pain) and he can't eat them at all. The digesting in his intestines is too painful he can't deal with it, and really is probably doing horrible things to his insides. So I throw everything into a pan all together and people choose what they want.
Just don't come into my office the next day after I eat the artichokes...
I feel for your work colleagues Rusalka ;-) After my Indian cooking class weekend with all the lentils, I was best left in isolation. Thanks for the birthday wishes. I've had a great day at the spa along with a lovely lunch. Just waiting for my parents to arrive then we're off out for dinner.
B&N has a new ebook reader- it's waterproof like the KoboAura H20, but about half the price.http://nook.barnesandnoble.com/u/nook...
I think this is what I want for Christmas.
That's good to know, Bella, I'm going to have to replace my Nook Simple Touch eventually, it's developing so many little lines across the screen it's starting to become a bigger annoyance. Does anyone have a good sense of how fatiguing the Glow Light is on the eyes?
Bella wrote: "Lynda wrote: "Is it odd that I find the idea of an English-themed Thanksgiving dinner ironic? Sounds good, though.I've been busy this week, since the weekend, but my load at work is light enough ..."
sounds delicious
Bella I am not English by my husband is - each year his Mom makes christmas pudding which is definitely an aquired taste (I have not aquired it!)His trifle recipe which is popular with our friends and family:
raspberry jam
lady fingers
vanilla pudding
canned peaches
cream, whipped
amontillado sherry - you can use creme sherry if you want more sweetness
walnuts or almonds
let the lady fingers get a bit stale
heat the jam to liquify then roll the lady fingers in it
put the lady fingers in your bowl and then soak with sherry
add a layer of pudding
add peaches (we used canned because some people are allergic to fresh fruit
refrigerate until just before serving
top with whippped cream
decorate with walnuts or almonds
Joan wrote: "Bella I am not English by my husband is - each year his Mom makes christmas pudding which is definitely an aquired taste (I have not aquired it!)His trifle recipe which is popular with our friends..."
That trifle recipe sounds yummy.
Joan wrote: "Bella I am not English by my husband is - each year his Mom makes christmas pudding which is definitely an aquired taste (I have not aquired it!)His trifle recipe which is popular with our friends..."
Hmmm, I think I may skip the Christmas Pudding. I'm not sure I want to make something for the kids that sounds like it may be an acquired taste. I think between the trifle and the mince, I need to find something chocolate. Maybe I'll make the Lamingtons- even though I know it's not a British or Christmas thing. But it's chocolate and looks easy to serve.
My grandmother used to make trifle from leftover cake or lady fingers and custard. (We may be one of the few Americans who have six trifle bowls- small family, small family-fancy, regular family, regular family-fancy, large, large-fancy.) But it wasn't a Christmas thing...more like a leftover thing.
Lynda wrote: "That's good to know, Bella, I'm going to have to replace my Nook Simple Touch eventually, it's developing so many little lines across the screen it's starting to become a bigger annoyance. Does any..."I've never used a Nook Glowlight- when I was going to replace my old Nook Simple Touch, we found a brand new NookColor for $50. I use the ereader a lot- sometimes hours. I don't get eye strain from it, I use the night setting for text. (Black background, white words and that seems to really help.) I do want the new Glowlight, though, because it's waterproof.
We drove along Skyline drive, , Shenandoah National Park, yesterday! The fall colors are gorgeous. Pictures don't do the colors justice (but of course I have to share a couple :)). We brought Blake along for the drive. He was quite tired when we got home. 
What a beautiful fall drive, Stephanie, I'm jealous. I've been wanting to head to our capitol city, Olympia, to take fall pictures, but the weekends haven't been cooperative weather-wise. I think I might miss out on fall colors all together this year.I didn't accomplish much yesterday; discovered, "How To Get Away with Murder" on Netflix, and got myself sucked in.
Beautiful pics Stephanie. I love fall; the leaves are so pretty this time of year.
Thank you, Lynda and Anna :) the news outlet said the leaves are at peak color for where we were this weekend. Lynda, I love that show :) it definitely sucks you in and keeps you guessing :) I haven't watched last week's episode yet. Is season 2 on Netflix yet?
Lovely pictures, Stephanie. We don't get the reds here - mostly yellows and oranges. Most of the leaves have fallen already.
Wonderful pictures, Stephanie, especially the one with Blake. He looks so happy. What a great way to spend the day. We don't have fall, color changing trees here. I think we have two seasons- hot and cold.
Thank you Janice and Bella :) That happened to us last year, Janice, with the leaves mostly gone :( it was still pretty last year but there was a lot more red this year than last :) I think my favorite is the orange coloring on leaves. There were a few trees that seemed to have a mix of red/orange/yellow/green (in the lower elevations) ..probably just in the process of changing :)
We had a nice sunny day here so we got to enjoy the different colours of Autumn too. We even stopped at the top of a really big hill near here to take a couple pictures because the colours were so great. I was just saying this week that I've been enjoying all the colours this year. Living in a City for the last 10 years I never got to see the different types of tress and the stages they go through when they change but now out in the countryside more it is much more noticeable. Loving it.
@Stephanie. My favourite is the reds, but that's likely because we don't get many. Some people have trees or bushes in their yards that will produce red, but most trees out in the countryside are yellow & orange. It's still pretty. One of my clients has a carpet of yellow leaves on her front lawn all clustered around a huge tree in her front yard. I commented the other day how much I liked it. She didn't quite share my enthusiasm because she's the one who has to rake it.
That sounds pretty, Janice :) I probably wouldn't like the leaves as much if I had to rake them...then again I might because I'm weird like that, lol :)
Stephanie wrote: "We drove along Skyline drive, , Shenandoah National Park, yesterday! The fall colors are gorgeous. Pictures don't do the colors justice (but of course I have to share a couple :)). We brought Blake..."beautiful pictures and what a handsome dog!
Stephanie wrote: "Lynda, I love that show :) it definitely sucks you in and keeps you guessing :) I haven't watched last week's episode yet. Is season 2 on Netflix yet? "No, it's only on Hulu right now. It's really good, I don't think I've ever seen Viola Davis in something where she didn't just own her role. She's a total boss.
We have two red leaf maple trees in our front yard that turn an amazing bright red, but a neighbor has the the most amazing tree. The changing leaves have an almost ombre affect, where they change from green to yellow to red to range at different rates.
Just got back home today .. Was so tired and couldn't sleep for 24 hours, so I took a very long nap, did some work around and now trying to relax a little before heading to the airport and pickup mom and sisters ! My feet are all puffy, I guess it'll take longer till it gets better !
Joan wrote: "Stephanie wrote: "..: "We drove along Skyline drive, , Shenandoah National Park, yesterday! The fall colors are gorgeous. Pictures don't do the colors justice (but of course I have to share a couple :)). We brought Blake..."beautiful pictures and what a handsome dog!
Thank you :)
CFDeeDee wrote: "Just got back home today .. Was so tired and couldn't sleep for 24 hours, so I took a very long nap, did some work around and now trying to relax a little before heading to the airport and pickup m..."Hope you have a great visit with your mom and sisters, CFDeeDee!
Thanks Stephanie .. It was nice, it was a nice trip .. But a very exhausting one !
Instead of going to bed last night I found myself curious as to what makes a goodreads top reviewer. Supoosedly it is most reviews using 50 characters or more and they are ranked by week, month and year. Well I can't figure it out. If you live in a small country in Europe you will still have a top 100 list but the total members from the country is small and there are probably coubtries that don't have 100 people. I don't know. Point is at least as you look down the list it makes sense. Number of reviews. Now find the top 100 for the US. It makes no sense. You have people doing 500 reviews a week. 10000 reviews a year. In some cases there are people with (not exact figures here), say 2000 reviews for the year so far yet only have say 500 books total in their library. I don't know how goodreads measures top reviewers but the hour I spent last night trying to grasp it leaves me too confused.
Travis of NNY wrote: "Instead of going to bed last night I found myself curious as to what makes a goodreads top reviewer. Supoosedly it is most reviews using 50 characters or more and they are ranked by week, month and..."Hmm I suspect anyone doing 500 reviews a week is a fraud.. therefore I conclude the rankings are *#@! and ignore them.
@Stephanie, Beautiful pics. And Blake is as handsome as always. :)@CFDeeDee, Glad to know you had a good time.
@Travis, I wondered the same thing a few months ago. I couldn't understand the pattern. From the moment I had a good amount of friends whose reading tastes I trust and respect, I mostly read only their reviews. Let say a 80% of the reviews I read are from friends. And I tend to avoid "professional" reviewers. Specially since all this stuff of the fake/paid reviews in amazon, etc.
@Joan, totally agree!
I been sort of MIA since my mom and my step father are visiting us. Long time since the last time we saw them. I was in need of some pampering. :)I have to admit that I have missed YLTO, though. :)
I often wondered how the reviewing system worked too Travis. All seems a bit strange to me!
I'm like Sandra in that I generally read my GR friends reviews although if there is a book which none of them have read, then I'll look down at the reviews but I don't go out seeking professional reviewers or those who write a lot of reviews. I don't see it being possible for someone to both read AND review 20000 books in a year.I'm excited as we're going to be puppy sitting on Thursday. It's our first time and I'm looking forward to it. But... it does mean after that that I'm going to be whining like a little girl wanting to get a dog NOW. We've agreed New Year realistically though.
I read my friends reviews. After that I try not to read revuews until after I've read and reviewed a book. I don't like some piece of wit from soneone else to get stuck in my head and then put it in my review thinking it was my own idea. There are some books where I do read reviews mainly if the book description tells me nothing and I want to know if a book is about a particular thing.
I'm feeling a bit sad and helpless right now. On the canal that we live, a number of lock paddles have been left open (if they are supposed to be left closed) and closed (if they are supposed to be open) and water has either backed up and flooded the area or drained down so much that there is no water in that stretch. Either way, so much damage has occurred these last few days. Boats are left high and dry, no longer floating at quite dangerous angles and in some cases, people are trapped on their boats. In the flooded areas, the towpaths are unusable and some have subsided and had to be closed. Thousands of pounds worth of damage has been done and it's possibly looking like it was a deliberate act, rather than just a careless boater. It's affected roughly a 20 mile stretch of the canal. Luckily I'm up the right end and we haven't been effected but I really feel for all the boaters who have. I feel like I want to travel up (not by boat) and see if I can help out in anyway. It's terrifying that something like this could happen and I really hope it never happens to us.
Oh no, that's horrible Sarah! It does sound like a deliberate act rather than someone being careless as I doubt they would forget to open/close all the lock paddles. I really don't understand why someone would do such a thing and cause so much damage and chaos. It makes me so angry!
Sounds premeditated. After all someone like me, a land lover, wouldn't even know where to begin such a thing.
That sounds really bad Sarah :( It sounds deliberate indeed. I can understand someone forgetting to put one lock back into the correct position, but all of them? No. I really don't understand that people can get a kick out of doing such things.
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You'll love this one...!! A book club & more
Books mentioned in this topic
It Starts with Food: Discover the Whole30 and Change Your Life in Unexpected Ways (other topics)The Whole 30: The Official 30-day Guide To Total Health And Food Freedom (other topics)
Fortunately, the Milk (other topics)
Fortunately, the Milk (other topics)
Where the Sidewalk Ends (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Gillian Flynn (other topics)Fiona Wood (other topics)
Jay Feldman (other topics)
Kevin Hearne (other topics)
Cherie Currie (other topics)
Thank you so much for thinking of me and for the pep talk Rusalka. Much needed!
Thank you Sandra for your kind words.
Happy Birthday, Sarah.
And I hate hate hate missing the toppler!! Arrggh.
Anyone got recipe for creamed spinach? Sounds delicious.
All that food talk has me hungry. Got to grab a snack now.