Thread 14 - TalkLair: “What The Hell Are We Supposed To Use, Man? Harsh Language?”

[Kucinghitam]

(Previous thread 13).

Summer should be well under way, but the chilly wind, grey clouds and pouring rain beg to differ. Looks like 2024 continues to be a washout - on the bright side, the Tories got washed out too! In the TalkLair, we remain hunkered down keeping cosy and warm. 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…

@MouseMinge good to hear it went well. You sound quite out of it, as is only right and proper after surgery like you've had. Hope you're comfortable and well tended.

Lovely cats. Ex-house burglar looks to have settled right in and Kasper clearly has designs on world domination, starting with Victorian Bigot's pillow.

So many beautiful cats! And so much lovely Mouse news!

Reese and Skittles say that if you want to start the world domination thing on your side of the Atlantic, they'll join in over here.

Good to see Mouse posting, sending get well wishes.

Hello @MouseMinge and yay for the new oesophagus! I remember you mentioning this possibility months (more than a year?) back and assumed it would be some sort of plastic tube. Brilliant that they can use your own tissue for this.

Browsing round the charity shop, I wasn't sure whether to giggle, weep or shudder at the overheard comment (repeated half a dozen times) today 'throat cancer has got so popular!'

I am pretty sure she meant prevalent - the conversation was really about the wonders surgeons can do nowadays, with reference to a friend. But really - popular!

Anyhow, I bought a Pyrex dish exactly the right size to fit in my Lidl entry-level air fryer and a three-tier wooden cantilever sewing box full of wondrous treasures - buttons including black glass Edwardian ones and cute little plastic apples, a whole tin full of pins, French chalk, a nice pair of scissors, a thing for sizing knitting needles various elastic (not sure whether it retains its stretch) and about 20 spools of thread (mostly black and grey, you can't have everything fun) - all for 10 euro. I can transfer all my odds and ends into it and look forward to swanning into the craft group meeting with it next week.

a three-tier wooden cantilever sewing box full of wondrous treasures - buttons including black glass Edwardian ones and cute little plastic apples, a whole tin full of pins, French chalk, a nice pair of scissors, a thing for sizing knitting needles various elastic (not sure whether it retains its stretch) and about 20 spools of thread (mostly black and grey, you can't have everything fun)

What a find! Unfortunately it would be wasted on me as I struggle to sew Cubs badges on uniforms, but I love those cantilever boxes for the craftsmanship.

Eagerly awaiting product test report on the air fryer! Not that I'm fully convinced I have a need for one.

a three-tier wooden cantilever sewing box full of wondrous treasures

That sounds delightful, what a find!

I've had the air fryer a while and use it constantly - breakfast rashers and tomato, chips, chops, marinaded pork or chicken, meatballs, baked apples - but don't like cooking without some kind of liner. The Pyrex is perfect - I already have one (8 inch diameter, souffle dish shape) but it's always good to have a spare since I usually only use the dishwasher every second day.

Two people might use a bigger machine - for me on my own it is just right.

I see. But I don't eat meat, and I'm looking askance at 'chips'. Which are surely deep-fried, as any fule kno? 😛

Obviously deep-fried are best, but chip-chopped potatoes tossed in a tiny quantity of olive oil and cooked in the a-f for 25 minutes are very acceptable second-best (and if I do them in my nice Pyrex dish they can come to the table in that) . I'm planning stuffed red pepper halves next week - will report back - and I did Britinme's chickpea bake in it very successfully..

I don’t eat meat either but use mine a lot for things like aubergine, peppers, tofu and vegetable spring rolls. It’s also great for cooking those part baked croissants.

Do they cook pastry nicely, cos microwaves don't? Pies, quiches?

Spring rolls - Lidl had wrappers for those today (it's Asian week) and I didn't buy them because I wasn't sure whether they'd work in it. if they're still there next week I'll get some.

Yes! In fact I find they cook things better than ovens, they get things crispier and they seem to cook more evenly.

Edit: I do find you need to reduce the temperature compared to an oven. I usually adjust by 10-15%.

The ones I buy are frozen, ready to cook, but I can’t see why the raw ones wouldn’t work.

I would add that my air fryer was very cheap (£17 Daewoo one in the Robert Dyas sale because I was sceptical of them) so you don’t necessarily need to splash out for something fancy to get good results.

This is an entertaining thread.

We can't have traditional flasks with glass inners because I break them. We did have one that was used once before I broke it, but the last one didn't even used before I dropped it. Same with cafetieres. Now we use metal flasks and cafetieres and even those have dents.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5118667-new-things-that-got-instantly-ruined

Glass cafetieres are a bugbear of mine. I've replaced them with stainless steel ones. Glass ones are an accident waiting to happen. That thread's a bit sad. I felt for the woman who ironed her new carpet.

Some of it is sad, but I was reassured to find that there are people out there who are as clumsy as me.

@VictorianBigot Kasper is unbelievably cute!

Our air-fryer is a Cuisinart mini-oven type, in addition to the frying function it also does normal+fan oven, grill and also some other incomprehensible symbols. It is remarkably versatile. Like others have said, it is a champion at crisping up pastry things; chips are not as good as proper deep-fried ones from the chippy, but are acceptable for a normal weeknight meal. The frying function is also handy for any recipe that calls for things to be browned beforehand, e.g. wedges of aubergine for fish-fragrant aubergine (鱼香茄子). We've done pasta bakes, cottage pie, lasagne, roast chicken/lamb/beef, numerous cakes and biscuits, on the oven function. Grill for cheese on toast, cheesy naans, etc.

With a bit of careful planning on our part, last year it did Christmas dinner and all trimmings for five people!

@Kucinghitam ... fish-fragrant aubergine ...

Oooh! Possibly the most delicious dish in the world!

Looked at a recipe for fish-fragrant sauce and it looks absolutely delicious!

It is indeed the most delicious dish in the world!

Also I just want to squee with excitement... just got off FaceTime with my brother in Thailand - my lovely sis-in-law is 9 weeks pregnant, I'm going to be an aunt! 😍 They're keeping it low-key as it's such early days and considered a high-risk pregnancy, she's early 40s, there will be a lot of tests and monitoring.

I'm busy googling how to say congratulations in Thai so I can say it to sis-in-law directly instead of squealing excitedly into the phone in a mangled English/Malay mash-up that my brother had to translate