Chitchat thread #24

[rary]

Good afternoon, dry with occasional sunshine, though if it gets any cooler I will be putting the heating on, was at church this morning, OH gave it a miss as she is suffering from sciatica again, brought on I think with sitting in the car for too long, followed by having to walk to far downhill to get home on Friday, he is also on some medication for her breathing which is making her sleepy, so with that I managed to get some work done without being told I'm supposed to be taking things easy, so managed to get some weeding done and wood cut up, unfortunately I'm in the bad books as she got woken by the noise, still I got some work done, right now off to make the tea, so have a good evening and pass on the smiles

[greenishfing]

Good evening.

I'm really hoping that I get a good night's sleep eventually tonight. One of my sister's rang this morning. She was telling me that she'd bought some frozen vol au vent cases in the supermarket this week and that after baking and filling them, they were just as good as she remembered from the seventies. Obviously she got my taste buds all a-tingle. After searching online I discovered that only one supermarket has "supposedly" got them in stock. As this is not a supermarket that I have an account with I then looked at their offers. Would you believe they have one of my favourite red wines on offer and an extra first time order, one off discount, if the order is above a certain amount. Hopefully the vol au vents will arrive tomorrow evening..... and I won't be needing to order any wine for a while. I am so easily led astray, and my sister is a bad influence!

Does anyone else have fond memories of gorgeous flaky vol au vents filled with either mushrooms or prawns in sauce?

[Snoop Puss]

Morning all.

Do you know, GF, I think I might only ever have eaten vol-au-vents once. I often use puff pastry as a base for onion tart, though. Might that count as a kind of huge vol-au-vent?

Have got up early to try and get myself used to the early morning dog walking regime. But seeing as I went to bed at 1 am, it feels like I should still be in bed. Not enough hours in the day at the moment, but definitely need to get some more sleep in somewhere. Might have to have one of Rary's eyelid inspections later on.

Have a great day, everyone.

[Nicos]

Mornin n’alln’all
Rubbish sleep again…however, having had a siesta yesterday afternoon meant I could sit out until after midnight watching shooting stars. Not many…the moon was too bright reflecting off very hazy cloud…but I did get enough wishes in to make it worthwhile

We’re hoping to go wild swimming today, but the spot is well known and parking might be a problem. Still…we can take a picnic and just move on elsewhere…

I really need to attack a big mixing bowl of windfall apples today…and gather more mirabelles….

Vol-au- vents…not had one for years GF…but I do see them for sale here but they do look dry and hard. Fresh out of the oven though, homemade ones were a delight, melting in the mouth. Mmm…nice memories of those!
So…go on…which supermarket sells them?

Time for a brew…anyone care to join me?

Enjoy your day peeps…and don’t do too much if you are getting the heatwave!
I’ll be putting extra water out for wildlife for sure. ( we saw a fox in the back field yesterday!)

[Bren In Pots]

Morning

I remember trying Vol-au- vents just the once at a party, the pastry was nice but not the filling. Never tried them again.

Nicos the sunshade didn't work out as well as I expected it to but its finished and useable, maybe I'll tweak it later.

Enjoy your day

[Florence Fennel]

Good Morning All Warm already but the sticky kind. Last time I had vol-au-vents was at my wedding buffet! There were also cheese/pineapple/silverskins on sticks stuck in a grapefruit! Have a good day

[greenishfing]

Good morning all.

I have slept like a log for an unbroken 8 hours. Practically unheard of. I do feel a bit pudding-headed this morning though.

It is Morrisons that has the frozen vol au vent cases in stock. There is a big one near me but it's not a supermarket I like to shop in, it's too big and it always looks scruffy, or did when I used to shop there.

The first vol au vents that I remember were made by my maternal grandmother. She was an amazing pastry cook, and lived next door. She made amazing cream horns too and filled them with jam and whipped cream. She actually made her own puff pastry..... a step too far for me and my hot fingers. I don't mind making shortcrust, but my hands are too warm, even for that, and I make it in the food processor.

In the Netherlands they used to serve large vol au vents, pasteitjes, fiiled and overflowing with a warm stew, as if they were a Yorkshire pudding.

The forecast is for 27°C here this afternoon. I'll be skulking in the shade. Bren, I'm sure you'll appreciate your sunshade. ⛱️

Time to get somthing done now, before the mercury rises any higher.

[bramble]

Good morning all, 20 degs here already.
Domestics this morning.and thrn need to do some errands.
My daughter is visiting this afternoon after being away so I am looking forward to that.
Have a good day and enjoy the sunshine.

[mothhawk]

Afternoon all.

Thought I'd posted early this morning, but evidently not.
I'm not keen on savory vol-au-vents, but I like them as a dessert, filled with whipped cream with fresh strawberries on top. Or with apple and cream, like a light apple turnover.

My bro came over this morning to bring me a bag of spare organic compost he has. How can anyone have "spare" compost? I can always find a use for it. He's had it for a year unopened apparently.

I made some fresh slug killer gloop to refill the little pots, and managed to drop one I just filled onto the edge of the path in such a way that it bounced and splashed yeasty flour solution right up onto my shorts and t-shirt. As my mother would say, do one job, make six more!

[greenishfing]

Woohoo! My full order is arriving this evening. There's only actually 3 different items on it. A pack of 18 frozen vol au vents, a tub of mascarpone, and enough bottles of my wine, already reduced, to take it over the £60 that I needed to spend to get £15 off. My next few grory hops from my "normal" supermarket will also be cheaper as I won't "need" any wine for a while.

Oh, the necessities of life!?

What are mine right now? A reliable car, nice food, wine, fast internet, and last, but not least, my husband.

mothhawk, it seems to me that the more revolting and smelly the liquid the further it manages to spread.

[Bren In Pots]

Afternoon

MH I like the sounds of vol-au-vents as a dessert filled with cooked apples and topped with yoghurt. Might have to give that a go.

Enjoy your afternoon

[greenishfing]

I'd never really thought of sweet vol au vents but with apple and whipped cream it will just be like a different shape apple turnover. I can sense a few experiments coming on. I bet that I can cook them in the air fryer too!

[rary]

Good evening, temperature today was away up at 16c. cloudy all day, OH doesnt want me doing to much garden work, but I have a wall starting to go off the plumb so need to pin it, unfortunately there's a large concrete drain pipe below the wall so unable to drive retaining pins in so was out collecting some material I require to hold the wall, really gets me OH is going such a length about me not doing it, I finally contacted a company to come and do it, they will do the job if I supervise the workers, so that OH happy, me, I still reckon I coukd get it done in a day.
Was out and checked the veg beds this morning and everything looked fine was back out a short time ago and something has dug a deep hole in the garden, it started in the section with some leeks in it and dug down throwing all the soil behind it similar to how a dog would dig, but no dogs have been in the garden and as the garden is enclosed and the bed walls are 2ft. 6in high not possible for rabbits to get in, thinking either a rat but feel the soil was thrown to high for that or a squirrel, but havent seen one about for a couple of weeks I cant imagine a cat doing it, cats pass through the garden on a regular basis, will need to monitor this, I shoved a hose down the hole and flooded the bed with water, the bottom of the bed is concrete and I have several large lumps of wood resting on it, so the water will get soaked up wirh the wood, one hopes, I wish you all a good night and remember when out tot pass on the smiles

[Nicos]

I'd never really thought of sweet vol au vents but with apple and whipped cream it will just be like a different shape apple turnover. I can sense a few experiments coming on. I bet that I can cook them in the air fryer too!

Bet that would be nice at Xmas with a bit of mincemeat stirred it too

”Miss miss….

[greenishfing]

Bet that would be nice at Xmas with a bit of mincemeat stirred it too

”Miss miss….

Nicos , you are just as bad as my sister for leading me astray.