Chitchat thread #24

[lottie dolly]

.Good morning all,snow gone,at least for now,the flask is a good idea,had another car parked all night,gone now,i took a couple off pics,the regestration and showing it parked on the dropped bit,i aso put a note on it,did they know they were on a dropped kerb,will see what happens,if it keeps happening,i will have some evidence,hope you got more sleep GF,

[Snoop Puss]

Morning all.

I started a reply but fell asleep at the keyboard. Clearly needed a bit more sleep.

I'm afraid I've no idea where the smiles are, Nicos. Possibly playing outside with Jack, who has adopted a stone (about half a football in size) as his latest chum and is carrying it about. Not the kind of thing I'd fancy having between my teeth.

Really cold outside, but toasty warm indoors. I lit our little range when I got up - nothing like a new wood delivery to make me a bit match happy - and now the sun is shining Mr Snoop has decided to start the pellet heater. Should be like the tropics here soon. The air here is totally still outside, odd after the strong winds of recent days. How does it just stop? Hope conditions improve where you are, especially you, CG. That sounds grim.

Right, better get on with the work I meant to do instead of sleeping.

Have a great day, everyone.

Edited to say I grate garlic on an IKEA version of a microplane grater, GF. Do the same with ginger, though that's more of a nuisance to clean afterwards due to all the fibrous bits that get left behind. Always up for a garlic press recommendation, though. My hands do rather smell of garlic after grating.

[greenishfing]

Nicos, the Italian seems to be slowly seeping into my brain. I am only on day 15 however. In theory I could order a coffee and a croissant now. I am not a linguist but did study French, Latin and German at school. German never "clicked" and the Latin was all about wars and heroes. After my first year of French lessons and an exchange visit with a penfriend in Paris, French did "click" and I've been a francophile ever since. When I worked in the Netherlands the company provided a one week intensive one to one course in Dutch. I was never anything like fluent but lived there for 2 years and could do my job and hold a basic conversation. The main problem was that everybody spoke excellent english. I've never had a Spanish lesson, but spent a lot of time there and can just about get by. I think my proudest linguistic moment was getting a taxi driver in Beirut to take me to a bakery for bread. He spoke no French and I didn't think that I knew any Arabic but somehow I got my French sticks.

Ah, Mr GF has now woke up again and I think he's now swallowed a painkiller.

[bramble]

Good morning all, dull and damp and not a breeze, totally still.
Nothing on the cards other than domestics.
Have a good day all.

[burnie]

A dry morning winds gone too but everywhere is flooded, with quite a few roads closed, though the hill roads have the snow gates closed with snow. We are on top of a small hill some 80 feet above the river, we get hit by high winds, but luckily only a couple of soggy patches in the lawns and not floods.

[mothhawk]

if my oven is on/heating up I throw some cloves into a dish, unpeeled, put the dish in the oven, and let them cook until soft (not long) and then take them out, cut the ends off and squeeze the garlic out. What is everyone else's favourite method of preparing garlic?

That's what I do with garlic too, GF. The mashed garlic is squashed in a square of baking parchment into a thin layer like a wafer, the parchment edges folded in, and then wrapped in aluminium foil to seal it. It goes into the freezer and when I want some garlic I can easily break off a piece to use.

[Containergardener]

Oh I will have a green tea if there is any.
Was a lovely walk and no ice hurrayyyyyy. The sun is shining and I've got the washing out blowing as it's pretty windy here , I also have windows open for some fresh air

Now, what to do next?

[Nicos]

I did a year of Latin at school too!…I forgot about that. Flippin Romulus et Remus…amo amas amat…and for some strange reason….porcus sordidus est.

Some things are best buried deep in the subconscious!…having said that, some words did come in very handy when learning medical terms, so I guess it wasn’t wasted knowledge

Talking of garlic…I leave that to OH now!
I do rather like the idea of gently roasting and squeezing out the paste though…. I guess that would sweeten it up a tad too?

[Nicos]

Baking CG….you can never have too many cakes/ biscuits …
Alternatively…how about counting your seed packets?

[greenishfing]

That's what I do with garlic too, GF. The mashed garlic is squashed in a square of baking parchment into a thin layer like a wafer, the parchment edges folded in, and then wrapped in aluminium foil to seal it. It goes into the freezer and when I want some garlic I can easily break off a piece to use.

I hadn't thought of freezing it in a thin layer. What a brilliant idea. It must break up easily and defrost very quickly.

[Bren In Pots]

Me neither GF, I do freeze herbs but never thought of freezing baked garlic.

[Snoop Puss]

I keep meaning to put garlic and ginger through a mincer and freeze the paste in ice cubes. Trouble is I forget until I'm reminded by a big chunk of rubbery ginger...

[Jay22]

Afternoon all, started writing this earlier and got distracted! A better day today after yesterday’s rain. Picked the right week to go to Ayrshire, had pretty good weather and also a wee trip to Culzean Castle Country Park. First walk in a while which was lovely.
Enjoy the rest of your evening.

[bramble]

Good evening all..the day stayed dry and we had some sunshine so I took the opportunity to do some gardening, mostly cutting back old seed heads and weeding.
I came across one of my geraniums in the corner of the garden and it had a few flowers on it...tough plant, it always survives the winter outdoors as its too heavy to bring inside. Hope all had a good day.

[Containergardener]

While browsing TV at mum's yesterday Prue Leith came on, she put cloves in oil and bakes until soft then puts it all into a jar. Garlic is soft so can squash or squeeze and the oil is garlicy. Thought I'd try it.