General Chat

Re the dried milk - I would think it's OK to use.

Is that a "use by" date or just "best before" ?

From a Google search:

Dry milk retains quality for a couple of years if stored properly. Even if it's a year or two past its date, it still makes sense to give it a go. More often than not, prepared milk will be just fine in terms of taste. Nonfat dry milk retains quality for longer than a whole-fat one.
https://www.canitgobad.net/can-powdered-milk-go-bad/


Powdered milk can go bad, but it takes awhile. Most manufacturers recommend using powdered milk (also known as dried milk) within 18 months, but this is really just a "best by" date. According to the USDA, powdered milk can be stored indefinitely. An unopened package is probably still usable for 2 to 10 years after the printed "best by" date. Some survival stores sell nonfat dry powdered milk labeled with a 25-year shelf life.
But the shelf life does depend on the type of powdered milk. Nonfat powdered milk lasts longer than powdered whole milk or buttermilk, as fat is less stable. As such, nonfat dried milk is preferred for long-term food storage. If you are looking at the label of dried whole milk, you will want to use it up soon after the "best by" date.
https://www.thespruceeats.com/does-powdered-milk-go-bad-1388298

The tin of Marvel dried milk is dated Mar 2021 but is sealed so anyone know if it would still be ok to use in the breadmaker or indeed still use it? Does it go off?

Afternoon everyone.

After doing some ironing, i was so hot & bothered so decided to venture outside as it was dry but breezy.

I started de-heading some flowers and weeding some of the pots. Was getting on quite well and then daughter came out and said" mum ,look at the sky in the distance."
It was so black and thundery looking so quickly finished off and now indoors waiting for the heavens to open.

Yesterday, I went through my cookery book shelf and removed all those bits of paper with recipes on and wrote them in my recipe book. So huge pile of paper to be shredded but now the shelf is tidy and got rid of 3 very old cookery books which I think came from a charity shop years ago!.

But in tidying, I found my breadmaker recipe book from the new machine & the previous one so maybe going to make something later on.

Linda poor thing. Esme was obviously terrified and found the whole thing upsetting. I hope she is settled today and all went well?

Well the rain hasnt come and the black clouds are moving away :-S Was so expecting a clap of thunder but glad there wasn't.

Not sure about tea tonight. I'm hungry but just fed up with food lol. I have exhausted all my usual recipes so who knows.

Hope everyone well today

Florence in the hebrides

Good morning everyone. It is a nice day here . I went to my slimming class and miraculously had lost a pound. I wasn’t expecting to given the naughty meal out we had fir our anniversary
I took Eve to have he r ears pierced this morning, she was very apprehensive, but is pleased now it is over.
Little Esme has had a general anaesthetic this morning so she could have Botox injections into her Achilles tendons. She has had two major operations to lengthen then before, this is supposed to be instead of another operation. She wasn’t happy about having it done, she was working herself up into a right state last night. She stayed in a Premier Inn opposite the hospital last night as they had to be there so early. I don’t think her mum got much sleep. She was shouting at the nurses telling them she was angry and tried to kick one nurse this morning. I am sure they are used to it, there isn’t much you can do with a child with severe learning disabilities.

It is all go today as we are also having major work done on the Beech hedge which runs along the front of our front garden and between the gardens to separate us from the house next door. The hedge continues along the front of their garden as well. We are having the height reduced to two metres. It has encroached quite a way into next doors garden as they have never really kept on top of it, so they are having to have more work done than us. There is also a maple tree on the joint boundary. OH has taken quite a few branches off the bottom over the years. The neighbours haven’t, so the tree is growing right through the hedge on their side. They decided to have theirs cut, so it made sense to have it all done at the same time. OH cuts it twice a year and for the last few times has been saying that he was going to get someone to do it as it is such hard work.

Well another wet day. Its been gale force winds and torrential rain since yesterday and no let up!!

I didn't even get dressed today!!! Shock of horrors as never done that before but wasn't going to venture outside or get any visitors so didn't see the point.

I made some cards earlier with geometric shapes, something different from what I had been doing.
pizza and left over salad today as couldn't face a huge meal.

Joan , your poor pan! I once left carrots boiling with plenty of water and went off to take a tel call in my bedroom. I came down smelling something burning and realised there was no water left in the pan! Well & truly black. I cleaned it several times but couldn't get the pan back to the way it was before.

Linda, what an unusual collection of rubbish in your haul today. never surprises me what people just chuck out.

Anyway just chilling on here for the evening and watching tv at the same time lol.

Florence in the hebrides

Vinegar certainly works.
Put in enough to cover the burnt bits, bring it to the boil, switch off and leave it sitting overnight.
In the morning the burnt bits just lift off - at least in my experience!

Rnubarb works wonders on stainless steel, I wonder if it would work on the nonstick.

That was a strange haul Linda.

Joan have you got any white vinegar? Try leaving the pand soaking in some of that.

Oh dear Joan, I don’t think the pan will survive. My main pains are all stainless steel with metal handles. They were an expensive set when I first got them, but I must have had the twenty years and they are still going strong. I have several frying pans in the set and the large one, I use just about every day as a wok. They joy is that I just use a steel pan scrubber on it if I need to. I have burnt lots of stuff onto the pans over the years. When I end up with a charred black mess, I just put a dishwasher tab in, bring it to the boil and leave it to soak, that usually dies the trick.
I do have a small nonstick pan for scrambled eggs and a small nonstick frying pan for my omelettes, but I have to replace them regularly

It is a sunny day here, but very windy. I did a long litter pick this morning and got a very large bag of rubbish, a set of wheels on an axle from something like a child’s pedal car, a very large bag for life full of old electrical bits and a large nitrous oxide canister. Some people leave odd things by the road side.

Oh my Linda!! Yes you will miss them but by golly, you will be happy to just have the house back to you and hubby.

The kitchen survived the oil - just. I left them to it while they were doing the prep, but went in while the oil was being heated. My pans have metal handles, but it didn’t occur to him that the handle would be hot, so he burnt his hand :-S
Then he had to sieve the oil into a Pyrex dish ( I stopped him from using a plastic measuring jug). The oil then needed to go back into the pan and be heated up with more ingredients, so he rinsed the pan in water and was just about to pour the very hot oil into the wet pan when I said that was not a good idea and made him dry the pan. He then attempted to pick up the Pyrex dish to pour the oil back into the pan of course it was incredibly hot, so he spilt some onto the hob top when he put it down. Luckily he didn’t get it in his hand.
He did wash up, but thankfully they went out to soft play, so I put all of the packets of ingredients away and gave everything a good clean. I dismantled the hob top and gave that a good clean as well, to be fair that was overdue a clean

The good news is that they exchanged contracts on the London house yesterday and completion is on Monday. Now they need to get a definite date from the house they are buying up here . When they had their offer accepted, the estate agent said it would be available from mid July, but when they went to measure up for furniture, the couple who are going back to America, said mid September would suit them. I think they gave compromised on mid August, but now the London house has gone, they are in a better position to push for an August date. We will really miss them, but it will be nice to have our house back.

Linda :-D :-D Seemed like a good idea at the time. Is he the only one who uses the oil. It sounds as if it would be too hot for most people.

Florence what a mystery about your bruise, maybe you did it in your sleep. Glad you have got rid of the carpet, and that there was somebody available to help lift it.

Joan, good to hear that your granddaughters shoulder has healed and that she can help you again.

Ginnie isn't it frustrating when you have a good day gardening and then can't get back to it the next day. Typical of our usual British summers. But, I think, preferable to what they are getting in Europe.

Afternoon all from a very wet village! Started raining early hours and Its still raining, so no venturing outside for me today.

Instead daughter and I have been making xmas and blank cards for 3 hours! So have finished clearing up! Oh my the mess with all the little scrappy bits of this & that.

There is a xmas fayre in Nov and we have booked 2 tables to sell the cards. I have ordered the cellophane sleeves to put each card in so they look professional.

So now to organise the tea. Jacket potatoes, mini corn on the cobs, home made tzatziki with naan bread strips, side salad etc. We have some lovely mint choc chip ice cream for desert as well.

Linda, I'm with Joan re the kitchen. I like everything in its place and would rather cook then let my daughter! Last night she put a whole bottle of cooking oil in a good pan and then put some oven chips in this mini basket to fry them????

She turned the hob to number 6, the highest to get the oil hot!! Oh nooo I said, we dont want a fire so turn it down to no 3. I was so nervous in case the fat overflowed or worse, it got too hot, smoked and went on fire.

I was so glad when she had finished and then she said where do I put the oil??? Well what a waste as I never fry anything. So down the bottom of the garden and over the fence in the deep grass, its rough waste land.

As for the mess.....hmmm she did clear it up but I went over it again later on.

Linda you must have the patience of a saint!!. Hope sil did all the dishes and cleaned up after himself?

Was so lovely last night to be able to shut the inner porch door and not trip over the carpet at 4am when I needed the bathroom lol

Well Im off to sort out the food now.

Enjoy your evening everyone

Florence in the hebrides

:-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D

I am pleased that your trip hazard has gone Florence.

It has been raining all morning here, so I haven’t ventured out yet.

Son in law decided that he was going to make some extra hot chilli oil to put on noodles, another of his fads. It requires a huge number of ingredients, some of which he ordered on Amazon. When they arrived, he just abandoned them on the kitchen work tops. When I pointed out the error of his ways, he rammed them into various cupboards. Eventually this morning, he decided to make it, so,I have been scuttling round trying to find everything for him. Luckily for him, I had bought all the other ingredients the recipe mentioned. Eve is helping him, it involves heating oil up to a very high temperature in one of my good pans. They are toasting all sorts of spices and chillis, so the whole house is starting to smell. Eve is now wearing her swimming goggles :-S
Once they have made it, it goes into a Kilner jar and I guarantee that it will sit untouched in the fridge for months :-(

Afternoon everyone looking in.

Yay :-D :-D :-D The carpet has gone and i have back my space in the hall and no more tripping over it. The guy came on his own! I said I cant help lift that so luckily my neighbour was hanging out his washing and i said" yoohoo" lol and asked if he would spare a pair of hands and some muscle. Well he chuckled and and said " hands yes, not sure about the muscle." hes about 5ft 6 medium build.

Anyway he came over and within a couple of minutes all loaded and all away.

I decided I couldn't put off ironing the 2 duvet sets any longer at the bottom of the pile. I managed 1 the other day but had left 2 covers and a sheet. So all done now and Im sitting with a coffee to relax my legs.

Yesterday i did loads in the garden including taking some lobelia out of my large pots for my neighbour then helped her to repot them. They did wilt in the heat but overnight have perked up and now look very pretty.

Its forecasting heavy rain overnight, so hopefully the garden will get fed and watered well.

Joan so glad your grand daughter is recovering well. I had forgotten you mentioned her some time ago.

JustGinnie I'm sure your rain is heading towards us as the wind has suddenly picked up and the clouds are huge, probably filling up to downpour later tonight.

How annoying about your cheese. I would have been fuming as that's my fav food and surely, there are plenty of other cheddars they could have substituted with? I got 2 cucumbers instead of spring onions lol

Yes I am on blood thinners and do bruise easily, I just couldn't remember banging it. It came out and now is purple and yellow.

Tea tonight, no idea lol maybe just crumpets and my mint ice cream mmn

Florence in the hebrides

Hi everyone,

Raining today so it's an indoor day for us, we had a good tidy up in the garden yesterday and pleased that we did it and didn't leave it for today.

My Asda shopping came today, I have subs for out of stock items as Asda have been pretty good at sending reasonable alternatives . Today though the cheese I ordered was out of stock but no alternative was sent, it was only a average size block of cheddar but they had no sub available apparently.

I hope your arm isn't too sore Florence are you on blood thinners ? My sister was and a slight knock would leave her with a big bruise.

Good that you enjoyed the museum Linda , nice to have an afternoon doing something you enjoy.

Hope Joan, AnnG and all looking in have a good weekend.

Ginnie.

Aw bless her Linda. Glad you enjoyed the museum.

The bruise is getting bigger! I still cannot recall hitting my arm at all!! Major senior moment me thinks :-S :-S

Still no rain, so daughter and I spent an age watering plants tonight and they were really dry despite the heavy rain last weekend.

Finally getting rid of the old lounge carpet. original lady pulled out so re advertised an hour ago and someone taking it tomorrow yay :-D :-D

Off to make me a coffee now.

Florence in the hebrides

It is annoying when it rains nearby but you don’t get any. I hope that your arm is OK Florence.
I had a very nice afternoon with my friend at the museum. Esme was very good at her “ jelly belly” appointment this afternoon. She had a scan every three months as people with her condition are at more risk of childhood cancers. Thankfully she has been fine so far. She got four stickers for being good

Afternoon all.
Hope you enjoyed your trip out Linda, sounded very interesting where you were going.

Rather peculiar day here. Was black and overcast but no rain and scorching hot. I decided to do a bit of weeding and tidying of my pots. Neighbour came out and I gave her some cuttings to fill some little pots so we chatted and potted.

Suddenly Tesco appeared and I thought oh my the time has gone very quick as it was between 12-1 they were coming. i looked at the clock and it was 11.30!!

Anyway shoved it all away and then went back outside and other neighbour was out so had a good chin wag with him and then carried on gardening.

Daughter went to town and said it was bucketing and in another village 6 miles away it was also chucking it down???

It is still black sky but dry & very warm. I had to come inside as was too hot for me at 2pm.

I even took my towels in which were nearly dry as thought it was going to pour...but it didnt. So def will have to spend and hour watering everything a bit later on.

Awhile ago, I was feeling my right lower arm sore and when I looked, there was a big lump and now a bruise :-S I have no idea how I got it as dont remember banging into anything. Anyway its sore and going purple!

I removed all the alyssum plants from various pots as they were dead as if there was a bug or disease, didn't want it affecting anything else, still baffled by it dying though.

So quick tea tonight, pizza and chips yay my fav.

Hope everyone ok
Florence in the hebrides