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I really love the taste and texture of early Sprouts - but, by Christmas-time, I tend to find that they are often far too bitter by then to be as enjoyable.
suzysunshine7 wrote: "I really love the taste and texture of early Sprouts - but, by Christmas-time, I tend to find that they are often far too bitter by then to be as enjoyable."I like to get the ones still on the stalks, or 'trees' as they're often known. I find they taste sweeter, but does depend on the variety.
We usually do too - but the last two years they have been SO small on the Stalks that we have opted for picking out loose larger ones instead. I don't mind small? - but by the time you have removed the outer leaves and cut the ends off them you still want to have something left to them worth cooking and eating - LOL!!! ;o>
suzysunshine7 wrote: "We usually do too - but the last two years they have been SO small on the Stalks that we have opted for picking out loose larger ones instead. I don't mind small? - but by the time you have remov..."
My local store had some British ones a few months ago during the springtime (?!), freshly prepared, and they were massive! 'bout the size of a ping pong ball...and very nice there were too. I can only assume, they were that size, cos somebody forgot to pick them at xmas time! :)
Yeah, we bought some absolute beauties on a Stalk about three Christmases ago on the day before Christmas Eve and they were SO good yet were only on offer at just 50p at the time?! We went back very early on Christmas Eve and bought several more to give them out to Neighbours and friends who we knew would enjoy them ;o>
The first year in our Sheffield house we planted onions, spuds, carrots, caulis and F1 hybrid sprouts. The onions were huge, the carrots bendy and the sprouts were just superb. Must have been good soil as only onions succeeded here where the soil is full of stones and easily gets swampy. Perhaps rice might do well.
suzysunshine7 wrote: "A Scottish Paddy Field? ;o>";-)
WoW?!! - just in this last year alone I have seen parts of Stockport being used several times for various Adverts. I was just half-watching something on Freeview on the Quest Red Channel and suddenly found myself watching a new Ladbrokes Advert with a lad that I believe was one of 'The Inbetweeners' (although I never watched it myself) and I am 99.9% certain that it was filmed slap-bang in Stockport Marketplace right next to the Market Hall.
If not? - then we must have an identical twin town somewhere! ;o>
suzysunshine7 wrote: "Yeah, we bought some absolute beauties on a Stalk about three Christmases ago on the day before Christmas Eve and they were SO good yet were only on offer at just 50p at the time?! We went back v..."
Oddly enough...the sprout on stalks used to commonplace around xmas time, but last xmas, but my store didn't have any. I get the impression they aren't as popular, as I've often bought them reduced in the past. I guess folks don't want the hassle of preparing them. Pity really, as the stalks make good stock for soup & stews..which we then use when turning the remnants of the turkey into soup! We use the bones for making stock too.
They also last longer when bought on the Stalk and less frequent Fresh Produce shopping at Christmas-time makes good sense to me ;o>
Yeah...I sometimes put them in a jug with a little water, my thinking this keeps them nice and juicy! It probably doesn't, but I like to think it does!If Co-op don't get any in again this year, then i'll try Tesco.
They always seem to sell them at Christmas-time at Morrisons - but I don't know if you have one of those there?
suzysunshine7 wrote: "They always seem to sell them at Christmas-time at Morrisons - but I don't know if you have one of those there?"Apparently there is a Morrison's somewhere in my county..but I've never found it! I've never been in one either! My nearest town, Pembroke Dock, has a Tesco, Asda (a small one), Aldi, Lidl (never been in either), a B&Ms..and a Wilkinson. But I tend to go to the Co-op in the village nearest to me, as that's the closest store to us.
There is a small Sainsbury's in Tenby; which I don't go to anymore, as that's where I used to work. It's too small to have any decent choice, and a bit pricey.
Martin wrote: "suzysunshine7 wrote: "Martin wrote: "Good news for the four brown bears rescued from Japanese museum and given a new lease of life in Doncaster after being kept in small cages for years. Now the be..."The family and I visited the YWP about 18 months ago. Chilly day for humans and animals requiring warmer conditions, but I was concerned about the polar bear enclosure at the time. It looked to have been a fairly new pen and certainly it was of a decent size (especially if the bears had been kept in confined conditions previously). However, the terrain was one of mud and rubble IIRC. The low temp most likely suited them, but I had to wonder how often the bears would get to prowl around in their beloved snow, and as mentioned, Lord knows how they will have coped with recent high temps. The pen they were in I'm sure had no pool for them, but iirc I think that might have been under construction. the variety of animals there was certainly worth a day out, though, and it's in a spacious, landscaped site. Being January, we were frozzed, though
theDuke wrote: "suzysunshine7 wrote: "They always seem to sell them at Christmas-time at Morrisons - but I don't know if you have one of those there?"Apparently there is a Morrison's somewhere in my county..but ..."
https://my.morrisons.com/storefinder/...
;o>
suzysunshine7 wrote: "What a busy Grizzly you are?! AND in this persistent heat too! I hope you get plenty of time to be able to enjoy being part of all the exciting Birthday celebrations. Are there still 5 year olds ..."
When our 3 were youngsters, we did traditional birthday parties for them until each reached their 8th birthday. We found that was about the limit when a large group was starting to get unmanageable with traditional party games. So many resorted to Maccy D parties, choosing to throw responsibility over to one of the workers there. We tried to be creative with lo-cost but different parties for them - animals being handed around at a nature centre, a Treasure Hunt in Brum Museum, sport multi activities and swimming parties. The latter then supplied a party room for afterwards and we needed traditional games to keep the kids entertained. The best we came up with over musical chairs etc were 'parachute games'. Not having a parachute, we brought along a huge nylon tarpaulin which we tried different things with until they became bored. Best one? Tsunami. All the kids held tarpaulin on one end and 2 adults held opposite 2 corners. Shake tarpaulin up and down to represent sea which got rougher and rougher, and then on yell of 'Tsunami'! adults suddenly run forward with tarpaulin and cover said kids in a huge tidal wave to fits of screams from the drowning kids! Also 'shark'! played under the sheet and loads of bouncing ball games on top of it.
We just stopped short with the ultimate cheek of having an Ikea party - ie sticking all the kids into their ball pool for an hour, then buying them Ikea-priced hot dog and ice-cream!!! ;0)
Sadly what you stopped short of doing now seems to be the cheapest Birthday option around here? The Adults will have a Meal at a cheapo All-You-Can-Eat Carvery whilst trying their best to simply ignore or even to completely disown all of the Kids in a huge nearby Ball Cage. Kids that are invariably all hyped up on Junk Food and Sugar Snacks and screaming their Heads off!I'm not sure if they really are actually having any fun at all? ;o<
My nephew and niece don’t do parties, they both take their offspring (boy & girl each, ages 4 -7) for a day out somewhere. The other local parents also do their own thing. They were all fed up with disastrous parties and the ridiculous giving of presents to all the little guests! They all enjoy themselves now.
It's all apparently come down to adding up to nothing more than just one-upmanship/social status, popularity/peer pressure and school bullying, hasn't it? ;o<
It's been over 10 years since we were doing parties, now, so we're out of the swing of what is currently fashionable. However, all too often parents opted for Maccy D parties, and kids in a set school year got bored with them. With little income, we had to think smart and also originally. For sheer cheek and creativity, one year we just invited the kids to B'ham Science Museum on a sleepy Sunday. The curators were delighted to see a sudden rush arrive and eagerly clicked their footfall clickers for the increased attendance. At the time the museum had a hands on science area so we turned the kids loose in there - all free. The curators even invited us to use the schools picnic table area for the party food we had brought, and one man even went down to the museum shop and bought our daughter a gift to give her! Following year, of the strength of that, we used even more cheek. In advance I visited the museum and art gallery and prepared an animal treasure hunt - ie animals in paintings, in the Egyptology area, on vases and coins etc, etc, Then we invited the party to the museum. The alarm was spread and a senior member of staff came out to us to ask who we were. We thought we were going to be turfed out but all he was concerned about was that we might have booked his services without him knowing. When we said we were running a treasure hunt ourselves he was was more than happy to let us get on with it. We led the kids round from gallery to gallery so we didn't lose any and marked the sheets at the end. Finally we handed out party bags and all went away happy - including parents who had puzzled over one of my questions - "What is the naughty dog doing in the painting of St Mark's Square" My answer was "crouching to have a poo". However, what I hadn't noticed was that there were 2 other dogs "getting jiggy with each other" elsewhere in the painting, and the parents couldn't believe I'd asked their kids to write down "playing a form of intimate leapfrog"!!!It was more fun than a boring Maccy D party, though!
Ohhh bless you, P and Lez Lee ;o>I really did need a good laugh today - and thanks to you both I've now had two!!!
... "playing a form of intimate leapfrog" ... and a terrorising baby Squirrel ... !!! - LOL!!! ;o>
Flamingos living in a British Wildfowl Reserve have laid eggs for the first time in 15 years after the heat-wave mimicked conditions they would normally experience in the wild ;o> ...http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/...
Over the previous two years, a party has been booked for our Granddaughter at one of those play zone places in Northampton (www.riversidehub.com), basically just an industrial unit fitted out with different play areas so there is something for kids of all ages. The actual party was held in an upstairs function room, and it's not cheap either at £19.95 per child and a minimum number of 10 children, party duration 2 hours (1 hour in the main area and 1 hour in the function room) - bloody extortion if you ask me!
This year is just going to be a small party at home for family and a few friends on Wednesday. Unfortunately, we can't get over until the weekend, due to working. I did try asking about booking a couple of days off but was told "If you want any time off in August, it will have to be in 2020 but be quick, that's filling up fast!"
We have had a new visitor in our garden this morning - a Great Spotted Woodpecker has been aggressively hogging the peanut feeder, nothing else dared go close while it was there. I waited until it flew off before doing the daily top up of all the feeders and cleaned the bird bath - I didn't want to scare it off in case it doesn't come back again.
I'm also seeing a juvenile Robin quite frequently, who is quite a brave little thing - often only a couple of feet away when I've been out in the garden hanging out the laundry or putting out food.
This year is just going to be a small party at home for family and a few friends on Wednesday. Unfortunately, we can't get over until the weekend, due to working. I did try asking about booking a couple of days off but was told "If you want any time off in August, it will have to be in 2020 but be quick, that's filling up fast!"
We have had a new visitor in our garden this morning - a Great Spotted Woodpecker has been aggressively hogging the peanut feeder, nothing else dared go close while it was there. I waited until it flew off before doing the daily top up of all the feeders and cleaned the bird bath - I didn't want to scare it off in case it doesn't come back again.
I'm also seeing a juvenile Robin quite frequently, who is quite a brave little thing - often only a couple of feet away when I've been out in the garden hanging out the laundry or putting out food.
The last couple of days we have had a funny little Magpie visiting us ;o>I get the impression it could be one of this year's fledgings - it is quite small and it does hilarious runs across the Lawn pouncing and diving and snapping away at Insects in the Grass or flying by - just like our Tia likes to spend ages in playing with her Bonio before finally settling down to eat it.
It seems to exaggerate every enthusiastic movement like he(?) is completely new to it all and is finding it all out for the first time as he goes along.
I sit on the Patio and laugh at all of his quirky antics - and he comes over as close as he will dare and I throw extra bits of Chicken to him. Then he flies rather precariously low over the Fence into next-door's Garden and gorges himself on their Windfall Apples as our Pear Tree won't be giving out any ripe Fruit until around mid-September.
So, what with our favourite Squirrel still insisting on joining us for Breakfast, I've been getting a lot of really adorable and daft wildlife entertainment whilst just quietly sitting outside with my Mugs of Tea this Summer ;o>
We've got Blackbirds old and young always running across from one bush to another on either side of the garden - it's like a relay race or tag team event :)
I think I've counted about seven different Blackbirds but I wouldn't like to say for definite.
We don't get any Magpies in the garden and haven't had any Jackdaws recently either - they've finally taken the hint about the feeders and are getting their food elsewhere.
I think I've counted about seven different Blackbirds but I wouldn't like to say for definite.
We don't get any Magpies in the garden and haven't had any Jackdaws recently either - they've finally taken the hint about the feeders and are getting their food elsewhere.
HA HA HA!!! - have you scared them all away or is Phoebe taking all the credit?!! ;o>
Phoebe?
The cat who is intimidated by our Zebrafinch?
No, as nothing else was working, I had to go to extreme measures - I sang to them! :)
The cat who is intimidated by our Zebrafinch?
No, as nothing else was working, I had to go to extreme measures - I sang to them! :)
... and now you have no Neighbours as well!!! ... HA HA HA HA HA!!! ;o>
Lez wrote: "That’s a bit harsh!"
It definitely falls into the category of cruel and unusual punishment, but it worked :)
As for the neighbours, I haven't been invited round for coffee recently.
It definitely falls into the category of cruel and unusual punishment, but it worked :)
As for the neighbours, I haven't been invited round for coffee recently.
Mum made a fabulous Roast Chicken meal with all the trimmings for Tea.I love Sundays ;o>
I've been saying for ages that my day will come and now it's finally here - today is International Lefthanders Day ✋🏻✋🏻✋🏻 :)
I'm Ambidextrous - so, if I celebrate my Left Hand, then my Right Hand might get jealous! ;o>
I managed to wind up the guy at work who is responsible for our uniform - I told him that I couldn't do up the zip on my jacket or hi-viz so he asked me to show him what I was on about. I proceeded to try and do up the zips on both with my left hand and they just wouldn't have it. on seeing this, he told me to try it with my other hand and both zips worked fine, no problem at all.
"Right," I said, "You need to order me some some left-handed uniform then so I don't feel discriminated against."
His reply was far too offensive to put up on here :)
"Right," I said, "You need to order me some some left-handed uniform then so I don't feel discriminated against."
His reply was far too offensive to put up on here :)
We have one very determined young male Blackbird in the garden, currently hanging upside down from the suet ball feeder, wings aflapping and pecking furiously at the suet balls. Falling away after a couple of seconds, he picks himself up from the floor and does it again!
It's a shame I can't get good pictures or video of it on my phone :)
It's a shame I can't get good pictures or video of it on my phone :)
That's one ambitious birdy!I use to have hanging bird feeders in my garden, but a former resident squirrel always managed to get it open, so we don't bother anymore.
Our Blackbirds are always utterly obsessed with windfall Apples at this time of year and, whereas some of the other large Birds will just have a quick peck now and then, the Blackbirds will devote many hours of every day in wandering around the Lawn gorging themselves on them ;o>
suzysunshine7 wrote: "Our Blackbirds are always utterly obsessed with windfall Apples at this time of year and, whereas some of the other large Birds will just have a quick peck now and then, the Blackbirds will devote ..."It’s too early for windfalls here, the apples are really small. I rely on the blackies to demolish them but I wish their parents had taught them to finish one before starting another!
Our Blackbirds are spoiled when it comes to fruit - I get through a lot of pineapple and melon which I use for smoothies (along with blueberries, strawberries, grapes and bananas), but it still goes off quicker than I can use it, Any left over after a couple of days gets thrown out under the bushes where the Blackbirds normally hide and they can often be seen running across the garden with a lump of pineapple or melon in their beaks :)
Also, when I make up a Waldorf salad I only use about half an apple so the rest of that gets chopped up and thrown out. The seed, peanut and suet ball feeders are all topped up every day - it's a wonder that the birds who visit our garden can actually still fly :)
Also, when I make up a Waldorf salad I only use about half an apple so the rest of that gets chopped up and thrown out. The seed, peanut and suet ball feeders are all topped up every day - it's a wonder that the birds who visit our garden can actually still fly :)
Expect a News Report on the rapidly rising increase in Bird obesity any day now ;o>
There’s some really interesting bird-poo!
WoW?!! - I was right! ... the Australian Daily Telegraph back in May 2010 ...https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/rea...
I'm probably the very last person on here to have seen this new TV Advert - but I'm going to post it up anyway as it gave me a right giggle tonight ;o> ...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP-38...
Last but one then, suzy - I hadn't seen it before :)
Still not temped to try one, though.
I've just placed a takeaway order and while browsing through the menu I came across this;
Lamb Shashlik
These 'Royal' dishes are pieces of lamb marinated in exotic spices, skewered & barbecued with onion, tomato and capsicum, served with salad and naan. Very tasty and especially made for the descending diner.
Still not temped to try one, though.
I've just placed a takeaway order and while browsing through the menu I came across this;
Lamb Shashlik
These 'Royal' dishes are pieces of lamb marinated in exotic spices, skewered & barbecued with onion, tomato and capsicum, served with salad and naan. Very tasty and especially made for the descending diner.
Amazon exiles
Books mentioned in this topic
Ten Poems about Snow (other topics)And So This is Christmas: 51 Seasonally Adjusted Poems (other topics)
The Tiger Who Came to Tea (other topics)
The Quangle Wangle's Hat (other topics)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Christina Rossetti (other topics)John Keats (other topics)
Joan Aiken (other topics)
I haven't got a cauli yet! But yeah..my bake is to die for..i get the cauli just right, not too soft, not too hard.
Written down Helen's recipe..will defo give that a go, but I think i'll play around with it...add a few more things in..and season it with fresh coriander..i absolutely adore coriander! And get some fresh crusty rolls to dip in it.
I'm looking for new low calorie dishes to try out...defo need to lose weight, but not feel hungry all the time!
Word has it...some things might be in short supply because of the ultra dry summer we've had, so best make the most of it now. The xmas sprouts might be the size of peas, this year!
Mum has even been talking about stock piling dry goods, like pasta and rice, plus tinned food, just in case Brexit falls on it's arse next March! :)