Thread 11 - TalkLair: “The candle flame gutters. Its little pool of light trembles.”

[Kucinghitam]

Whoops, missed the filling up of the previous thread! (thread 10).

Although the nights are gradually drawing in, the new lair of JTT escapees is all cosy and homey inside. The hearth is glowing, the walls covered in dubious artwork, books by non-approved authors line the shelves, 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…

Thank you, Kuc!

Might it be an idea to post an alert in FWR general conversation?

Hooray! I found it!

Third 😸

Seeing if I can go back to my 'talk lair' name...

Yes, it works!

Good idea! It's the first time in 10 threads that the ending caught be completely by surprise.

Thankfully this wasn't too far down the chat thread list. Phew.

I'm afraid I won't be all ripped and muscle but I have a lot of energy and only got just over an hour and a half's sleep last night. I would have slept longer but Django has become the black prince of waking me up when he decides he needs to be fed. I was awake until nearly 07:00. He woke me at just before 08:30. I thought I'd go back to sleep but I didn't. I feel a bit tired but not exhausted. Steroids! I went to the local H&M to pick up an order I'd made to make me feel a bit better earlier in the week. Three pairs of leggings, standard but with a slit up the front, lace and sequinned. All three were too long for me and taking them up would be a faff beyond all faffing so they're going back. I was most gutted by the sequinned ones which were glorious and made my legs look fabulous. I also ordered a jumper, however, and I love it! It's grey and has a big old snoopy on the front, a black outline, white Snoopy (not racist) with peanuts written across the jumper. I love Snoopy, seriously and deeply. I will be wearing this jumper a lot. Plus, because none of the leggings fit I'll get the money back. Result!

Good evening!

Evening all.

I have just had pizza made on a garlic and coriander naan, and a cinnamon scone.

I just put some pears and blueberries in the oven to bake, with a little blueberry sauce (they make quite a lot of liquid when they are baked so not much liquid needed). I have some leftover baked salmon so I am hard-boiling eggs for kedgeree. Yes I know you're supposed to use smoked haddock but we can't get that around here.

What are you going to do with the baked pears and blueberries @Britinme?

I have just had half a tin pineapple. I had forgotten how nice it is.

@VictorianBigot - dessert! Three pears and a pound of blueberries (Maine grown) will make dessert for a couple of days for us. We usually have squirty cream with them. We're just about to eat them now, actually, having finished the kedgeree I made for the main course.

Ooh that sounds good. I love desserts but need to find a way to make them more healthy so I might give it a try. I don’t like smoked haddock very much so am also intrigued by the baked salmon kedgeree.

We're trying to cut back on sugar and eat more fruits and veg so we do quite a lot of desserts like that. I can buy Robinsons blackcurrent and apple sugar-free squash over here (they don't really sell squash here) so I often use that to sweeten baked fruit desserts. Pear and blueberry is one I do often but also apple and blackberry and plums on their own or with other fruit.

The salmon kedgeree is nice enough but it needs more curry flavouring than with smoked haddock. I also chop up spring onions and soften them in the butter first before I add in the rice and fish. Also peas! So not particularly traditional kedgeree.

Do you cut the pears up or just core them? I think I’ll try it in the air fryer.

I cut them up - quarters or eighths depending on size. They cook quicker that way. I just stick them in the top (small) oven at 350F, which I think is 180C, for maybe 45 minutes. That seems to do most fruit. I haven’t tried them in the air fryer, but mine is a Cuisinart not a Ninja, so it’s essentially the same size as a small toaster oven so I guess I could do them in there.

@Britinme was it you who was thinking of getting a small smoker for fish?

I must dig our smoker out again.

Hello new thread and everybody.

I think we have the same Cuisinart airfryer as @Britinme, it's a smallish toaster-oven-looking thing. We've roasted (fried?) pears in it, turned out quite nice and made an interesting topping, with a sprinkling of toasted almonds, for vanilla ice-cream. In general, we're utterly in love with our little oven and have done cakes, roasts, lasagne-type things, "fried" chicken, chips, biscuits, curry puffs, etc etc. Sometimes it takes a bit of adjustment to get the right settings, we cremated a couple of cakes at the beginning.

Our only questionable result to date was pumpkin pie. DH found a recipe in an air-fryer magazine, which assured us that no blind baking was required because of the magic of air-frying. We've tried it 3 times now (the filling is delicious), and SOGGY BOTTOM every time. Perhaps it'd be different in the drawer type of fryer?? Next time, we're going to bake blind first.

I’ve just bought a £19.99 one in a Black Friday sale. I did have one previously, very briefly, but had to send it back as it was recalled due to fire risk. I wasn’t sold on it but I’m going to give it another try as I hate putting the oven on for just me.

Come this Saturday, we'll have been here a year. I don't miss the other place one bit.

A whole year! I'm happy for those of you who are happier now. I've become more of a mumsnetter since you lot moved here and I've really enjoyed that so I'm certainly glad you decamped!

A year I remember the day we moved here quite well as I met up with another student I hadn’t seen for ages for a study session at a cafe and was checking mumsnet at least as much as I was doing any work. It was pouring with rain when we left, not unlike today. And now said friend has just had a baby!

@Vegemiteandhoneyontoast - yes I did buy a small fish smoker but tbh the results weren't great and I probably need to persevere with it. I do love my air-fryer, which I also use for making toast in as well as air frying. It does brilliant chips and roast potatoes with minimal fat. I ought to use it more as an oven, but I do have a two-oven stove and I can get two items side by side in the top smaller oven so I tend to use that more.

And happy Mumsnet birthday to us!

@Britinme we found that the little hot smokers don't create as intense a flavour as you get with cold-smoked fish, but it's acceptable. Now I want some smoked fish!