Chitchat thread #24

[Snoop Puss]

Can you make all these cakes sugar free and I will pop in for a chunk later....................................................

Well, I was going to suggest Yorkshire pud as your best bet, Burnie. But you prompted me to go looking for sugar-free cake recipes. I've never used xylitol and know nothing about it. They don't look to be low-calorie though, but then no cake is, I suppose.

Are you allowed no sugar at all? That must be very hard if so.

[rary]

As you can see I have loaded some photos unfortunately I got lost with adding what was what, the first photo shows one bed sorted and ready for some seaweed, it also shows a white screen behind it, which actually reflects light back on to the veg, when growing onions this year, the leaves were growing quite strait, I removed the screen and they all started leaning toward the sun, after two or three weeks I put the screen back up and all the foilage straitened back up, so reflected light definitely works, 2nd bed planted out with lettuce leeks and kale, 3rd. Is work in progress with the last bed, I thought I was going to have to move a fair bit of soil but with adding the wood around the beds I should be able to retain all the soil where it is, I expect as the wood in the bed starts to rot the soil level will drop so the wood is just temporary, though very likely will be there for quite a time, once I get them all sorted out I recon they should be fine for working with and make for an easier time when I get old

[Nicos]

Evenin n’alln’all
Not been around - sorry…we decided yesterday to head off in the camper overnight. Parked up next to a river on the site of an old water mill.
The race etc has been converted into a kayaking course when it’s white water in the winter. Absolutely no one around apart from three fishermen yesterday evening.
All very pleasant and calm - no internet service at all !
It was amazingly bright during the night- so it didn’t surprise me to see it was a full moon last night- a Harvest Moon. And nope, I didn’t sleep very well which is unusual for the camper, but at least we got to hear several tawny owls hooting away.
Early night tonight then!
Rary - those beds look very substantial - well done matey! great idea about reflected light
When we got home OH watered the tubs - only to spot that a couple of our outdoor tomato plants have started with blight. Oh well, tbh I would have thought they would have succumbed by now.
We were hoping to get our Covid vaccines this coming Monday but when we asked, they said there is a two week delay with supplies. We could of had a booster of last years vaccine but we want the new one.

Great to be back home
You know…I don’t think I’ve ever had a warm lemon melange pie!
see you in the morning peeps…

[burnie]

Well, I was going to suggest Yorkshire pud as your best bet, Burnie. But you prompted me to go looking for sugar-free cake recipes. I've never used xylitol and know nothing about it. They don't look to be low-calorie though, but then no cake is, I suppose.

Are you allowed no sugar at all? That must be very hard if so.

I was told to look for items with 5 percent or lower sugar content to ensure I don't wind up diabetic, so it now takes twice as long to go round the shops as I have to read the ingredients. Problem is some of the "sweeteners" are not very healthy either, we just reduce the sugar and I have the odd wee treat when no-ones looking.

[bramble]

Good evening all.
A busy day here but everything g on the list got ticked off.
Went for my flu vaccine this afternoon and got the new Pfizer covid vaccine as well.

Rary, those becks look great and the soil looks really crumbly.

Nicos, your trip away sounds so peaceful, glad you enjoyed it but it's always nice to come home.

Snoop, you're a great one for baking, I get do many ideas just from reading your posts.

Burnie, hope your health continues to improve.

Have a good evening all.

[Snoop Puss]

Morning all.

Those beds are absolutely amazing, rary. A tremendous amount of planning and effort. I know you like redoing things, but those look like they're here to stay. Brilliant. Well worth doing these huge earthworks while you're still young, of course.

I've started looking at labels more recently, burnie. It's amazing how much sugar there is in things. I make all of our sweet stuff and nearly all of our bread (Mr Snoop occasionally sneaks a shop-bought loaf in, for the freezer he says, as the house doesn't feel like a home to him if there's no bread in it!), and I nearly always put less sugar in than the recipe says. I'll keep an eye out for low-sugar recipes that don't use artificial sweeteners and see how I go. Thanks for mentioning it.

bramble, many of the things I bake are inspired by people here. Jay22 recommended Lavender & Lovage as a website, seconded by Bren. The mincemeat cake is fantastic and couldn't be easier. The most tedious thing is lining the bottom of the tin! In the first one I made, the fruit sank, as it's quite a runny batter, but it tastes amazing, so who cares?! https://www.lavenderandlovage.com/20...meat-cake.html

Got a very nice day ahead of me. Gardening (weeding, if I'm honest) and then a leisurely late lunch followed by a film. Mr Snoop will choose the film, but he knows I like trashy stuff (anyone asks me what kind of films I like, I'll answer guns, lasers and fast cars, none of which I like in real life), so I'm sure it'll be good.

Have a great day, everyone.

Edited: Sorry for not @ing you, Bren. For some reason I have trouble with your name. It almost never comes up.

[Bren In Pots]

Morning

It feels like autumn here, I love that crisp feeling the air has.

I've not tried that cake Snoop but I will when I buy more mincemeat. I do make my own bread but we do like a store bought sliced loaf for toast.

Enjoy your day.

[greenishfing]

Good morning all.

I do really like the look of that mincemeat cake. I might buy a jar of mincemeat this week and have a go. I hate lining cake tins, as it was always one of my jobs as a child when my mother was baking. I tend to use the greaseproof cake and loaf tin liners that I can get in the pound shop now.

I'm going to the surgery this morning with Mr GF and his brother. We're all having our 'flu jabs. Unfortunately it looks as if the weather is going to be pretty awful by the time that's done......pouring rain. At the moment it looks like a mellow Autumn morning.

We must have a poltergeist here. Yesterday I stripped the bed and immediately put the bedding in the washer. I remade the bed. When I went to take the washing out of the washer, to hang it out, a pillowcase had disappeared. I expected to find it inside the duvet cover or on the bedroom floor. No! It has completely disappeared! I have searched high and low.

Rary, can I borrow a bit of your energy? Those beds look great.

[greenishfing]

Yesterday while making my trifle like creation I went into the booze cupboard to look for something to moisten and flavour the base. I found a bottle of Madeira which I think I brought back from Madeira many moons ago. It did the job. I also found a new bottle of Mr GF's favourite whisky. I have no idea where it came from. I'd have sworn that he didn't have a full bottle. I'm now thinking the poltergeist option is more logical. Mr GF says it can have all our pillowcases if it swaps them for whisky!

[Florence Fennel]

Good Morning All Sunny here. Apple's to peel. Have a good day

[bramble]

Good morning all.
Dull and grey here with rain on the way.
A day of domestics for me and then packing for our holidays.

Snoop, I will check out that website, it looks interesting.
I also use the cake tin liners you can buy in the pound shop.

Have a good day all.

[Snoop Puss]

I would love to use cake tin liners. But as there's not much of a market for them here, they all get imported from the UK and the States and even though I can buy them on Amazon, they work out very expensive. I have been known to put them in my suitcase and bring back with me from the UK, but it's a bit of a waste of luggage space.

As for Lavender & Lovage, my next one will be her Manor House Cake. By the sounds of it, it's a homemade Mr Kipling-style fruit cake and I used to love those... The mincemeat cake is now out of the oven. I'd forgotten that as it's very warm, the oven needs to be set a bit lower, so it's a smidgen burnt around the edges by the look of it (still cooling in the tin). But it smells amazing. Will post a picture if it looks half decent when turned out. I think the smiles will come rushing back at teatime.

[Nicos]

Afternoon n’alln’all
Up with the larks this morning!…two days of rest clearly did me good
We got a call from the local agricultural shop which used to give us loads of old plants for the seed/ plant swap we used to run. Do we want their old plants otherwise they are being binned. Oh YES please!
So we’ve collected absolutely loads. Most are in really good condition - like geraniums, but try as I might, I can’t overwinter them.
There are some perennials and loads of herbs so we’ve been sorting those. There were 4 basil plants - two of which are Greek basil , so I’ve cut them right back and will try and bring those on indoors, and we’ve frozen the stripped stems. The other normal basil leaves have gone in with our stripped tomatoes and reduced down for pizzas later on in the year. Waste not want not!
I now need to find homes for most of the other plants….
Oooo…caaaake….oooo….

[rary]

Good afternoon, dull but dry today no blue sky showing at all, doing some housework when daughter dropped as she was out with the dogs, so while she was blathering to her mother I decided to go for some seaweed, collected three barrow loads which are now on the raised bed, scramble I reckon that my soil looks good due to using seaweed,
I have put it all onto the one bed as it can sit there till I have all the garden sorted out, of course I will be collecting inbetween now and March, the next photo shows it covered with enviromesh, as I had a bit of an argument on whether to cover or leave it open to the elements, if left open flies will breed in it, possibly the birds could feed on them, but there's always the chance they don't hence the covering
The other good point is that I won the argument, though as it was with myself I was going to win whatever the outcome
Snoop my planning consists of "I think I will do this or that" then adapt as I go along , I knew what I wanted but wasn't shour about the road it would take I go on what I dream of doing but never sit down and plan, with this project I expected problems and just adapted as they came up, it certainly will do for me when I get old, but I might decide to change it in four or five years time, as I have said before I like to keep myself busy and try different ways of doing things
hope you all have a good evening, as I am doing a reading in church tomorrow I am off to practice it, fortunately its just a short chapter with no big words, I struggle with words bigger than them and their and and the Good evening

[bramble]

Good evening all.
Got nothing garden related done today.
It lashed rain and was cold and miserable.
However, I now have a very clean and tidy house.

Rary, could you not bring some of your geraniums indoors if you cut them back?

Snoop, a pic of your mincemeat cake would be good.

Have a good night and enjoy Strictly come dancing for those that are watching it.