Thread 9 - TalkLair: “Russell's teapot goes on being round”

[Kucinghitam]

Continuation of previous threads (thread 8).

The new lair of JTT escapees is all cosy and homey; we have truly settled here. Outside, the garden is blooming with summer flowers - should bloody well be, what with all that rain. Inside, the hearth is glowing, pictures are up on the walls, rugs are down on the floors (and assorted pets curled up on them).

We just won’t mention the gnawed bones of our prey over there in the corner of the cave…

I wish I'd been more appreciative of Philip Larkin when I was still living in Hull (until 1969) and he was still alive. I think his poetry is pretty brilliant now, though maybe that particular piece isn't his best. Now when I read poems like the Whitsun Weddings it takes me right back to the Hull of my youth.

He was a librarian at Queens, Belfast, when one of my English teachers was studying there. He developed an attraction to her and used to sit outside her window trying to woo her. She was not interested.

One of his girlfriends was one of my lecturers at university. She used to wear very unflattering green tights.

CyanCrystalViolet · Today 19:55

Ooh I’ve just remembered we also went to Butlins in Ayr once. I remember this pool:

If only! I remember posting in The Old Place about the "holiday" at a semi-derelict caravan site.

I've just checked online and it's completely different, now!

I had to sleep in the awning, in pissing rain, blowing a hooley. I was told to stop whingeing and run around to get warm every morning.

Re: holidays, I daren't ask on the AI holiday thread because I know I'll cause offence - but why would one travel to (e.g. Mexico or Sri Lanka or somewhere exciting) only to spend the entire time inside the resort, eating only the hotel food at restricted times causing massive queues? And from that thread I gather that it's also eye-waveringly expensive to go AI.

I know I said horses for courses upthread, it's more that I genuinely don't understand the logic.

I can understand that kind of never-leave AI resort for people who don't actually want to go Abroad (where there's funny food and foreigners) but want a holiday with guaranteed hot weather. Going long haul for that does seem daft though.

I suppose if you want that holiday in the Northern hemisphere winter, it makes sense.

There is some sense there, although surely somewhere like the Canaries would be more logical? Shorter travel time, less jetlag, pretty reliable weather I believe?

Incidentally it's miserably cold and pouring rain again today. I feel like I need another holiday already!

This is macman’s final week off work following a cataract op on 22/7, and the sun has come out twice all month. I thought initially “how great to get a month off sick in August!” but it’s been really grey and dull and wet.

If this summer was a restaurant meal, I'd have sent it back to the kitchen for being Too Cold and Not As Described On the Menu.

I'm contemplating starting an air fryer thread for recommendations, even though there are already about 395867 such threads.

Our oven, you see, has finally crossed the "barely usable" event horizon - for many months, it's been randomly tripping the circuit breaker for its half of the consumer unit (so not just its own breaker but the entire section). We were putting up with it because it didn't always happen, and usually it only happened after prolonged use (over an hour). Recently it had been getting more sensitive. Yesterday, it happened repeatedly at 5-15 minute intervals. We had to finish off our roast potatoes by frying them on the hob!

We do not intend to replace the oven - it is one of those built-in big wide-format ones, not exactly energy-efficient. So I'm thinking of a multi-cooker or an air-fryer. We really can't do without a thing that can roast/bake.

Air fryers are excellent, but as a family oven maybe try one of those small ovens that will sit on the countertop - I have one that will bake a couple of loaves or roast a chicken and it is used several times most weeks. I can cook my whole dinner in one - if I was cooking for several people an additional air fryer for the roasties might still be useful.

I love my air fryer but it depends how many of you there are. You can cook a whole medium sized family roast but that would involve cooking bits separately and keeping some bits warm while you cook others. A couple of people, though, and it's perfect especially with a two draw fryer.

I have a Cuisenart air fryer that is also a toaster oven. https://www.target.com/p/cuisinart-air-fryer-toaster-oven/-/A-88687226?ref=tgtadvvxsp&AFID=googleplaadf&fndsrc=tmnv&DFA=71700000112493690&CPNG=PLADVM%2Ba064R000011e3RBQAY-ConairrCusinartAOOGoogleSearch2023-918785&adgroup=PLAAConairCusinart&LID=700000001393753pgs&network=g&device=c&location=9002574&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIg5CDj5XcgAMVwQ6zAB0b5wtqEAQYAiABEgKurfDDBwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

It's perfect for the two of us and I use it all the time but might be less useful for a family of four. You could get a chicken in it.

We have a Ninja cooker, which does air frying, slow cooking, pressure cooking and some other stuff. It's quite good.

Thanks everyone! Yes we would be looking for an appliance that could feed 4, so it can't be too tiny. But it doesn't have to serve a full roast dinner each time either.

The multi-cooker concept is quite tempting - means we could get rid of our ancient slow cooker. What model is yours @SinnerBoy and can it do a family-sized meal?

You can roast a joint in about 40 minutes, but roast potatoes would need to be done separately. Stress, casseroles are fine.

You can use it to do, say oxtail, or chicken drumsticks, on slow cook mode. Put potatoes, carrots, onions and greens in, with no water - you get a sort of rich gravy.

I have a two drawer air fryer and have seldom used the oven since getting it. I use it for pretty basic stuff though. I haven’t tried baking in it (except for a crumble but crumble doesn’t really care how it’s cooked) or making proper roasties.

For dinner tonight I can either do crispy duck with pancakes, or some lean and very flat minute steaks with chips and garlic mushrooms. I love crispy duck but it takes me AGES to thinly slice the spring onions like they do in restaurants, and it’s no use asking macman to do it, he cuts them way too tough and thick, also if he shreds the duck he again does it too thickly, and manages to discard all the lovely crispy skin while including fragments/shards of bone. I wonder if he’s deliberately useless? So crispy duck isn’t quick or easy, but if I do steak I’ll also want to do garlic mushrooms with onions and white wine, and that’s not quick and easy either.

I’d be happy with a sandwich.

Oh! I could do the very flat steaks in bake-at-home baguettes, with onions and mushrooms!

I wonder if he’s deliberately useless?

Oh, Mavis, that's one of those questions to which the answer is invariably "yes".

I had a thick juicy steak (intended for yesterday but I discovered far too late that I'd inadvertently put it in the freezer instead of the fridge) with mushrooms, tomato and lettuce. Very tasty. Didn't finish the steak and will have the leftovers with mushrooms and onions in a sandwich for lunch tomorrow.

Sadly because I'm trying to do a 5:2 thing there were neither chips nor wine today - I did have some shockingly carb-laden grapes for dessert.

This is me every night at the moment I’m so tired of cooking and eating.

I love sandwiches and buffet food of all types. Macman doesn’t see it as a proper meal. He used to cook much more than me, but always pasta, and in as little time as possible. I spend ages, make proper delicious meals, usually from proper ingredients, and when I suggested the other night that he do the cooking “but not pasta”, he got out a boeuf bourguignon ready meal from the fridge and said he’d do rice with it - rice is his go-to when there’s no pasta in the house, and obviously he can go and sit down while it cooks, no fuss (and no fucking flavour), so I MADE him do mashed potato and God, the fussing and muttering just to do that! Gah!

I like cooking when I’m in the mood for it. But yeah, I’d always rather have a sandwich.

I like cooking when I can spend time on it and make something delicious and vegetarian but the day to day stuff is a bit dull and I am thankful for the speed and simplicity of the air fryer.