The Year Round Nigel Slater Discussion Thread - Part 5

[RainbowZebraWarrior]

Hello all, and welcome to this lovely space for our continued chats.

A bit of background for anyone not familiar with this topic:

The Nigel Slater Christmas Chronicles readalong usually takes place here on Mumsnet between November and February each year - the Christmas Chronicles being a book written by Nigel Slater full of winter recipes and anecdotes - It has been running for a few years, and the contributors collectively decided it would be nice to have it running all year round.

So here it is. It is a place to appreciate all things Nigel-esque. Think seasonal food and recipes, enjoyment of nature, gardening, appreciation of the weather, and sharing of news and small moments of joy. It's a calm, cosy space for gentle chat and merriment so pull up a chair, grab a drink and relax.

A very hearty welcome to friends new and old!

Oops 150 miles from London in fact. I should know by now 😳

Feels like 41! Yikes. I am 278 miles from London and my forecast is "light rain and a gentle breeze, feels like 23 degrees"

What a difference those 128 miles further North make!

I love 23 degrees. We'll be at that by 7am on Thursday.

21 here already, I woke at 6 to go to the loo and get a drink so came outinto the garden then and it was lovely and cool but warming up fast. We’re forecast 33 today and 37 tomorrow and Thur. Ooof. DS works in a plant nursery, that’s going to be hellish.

Hehe. That's mad. I've just realised that I made an assumption you were 150 miles north of London. You get the gist though that a couple of hundred miles seems to make an enormous difference.

Yes, 23 should be reasonably pleasant for us, especially with a breeze. It will only be the 3rd time this year that we have gotten above 20 degrees.

I forgot I dived into the charity shop yesterday and bagged a couple of bargains. One of those crime thingys that seem to be very popular for a quid. Thought me and DD could do it in the summer hols. Also possibly the Least Nigel Ever Cookbook. Snoop Dogg's 'From Crook to Cook' Since it was new and sealed and only £1.50 I was curious enough to purchase. Do we reckon Nige is a Snoop Dogg fan? He's got a new single out with Chaka Khan (Snoop, not Nigel)

(By the way, I have no idea what he's holding on the front cover. Looks like a cut glass trifle bowl with pasta in it!)

All will be revealed when I open it up later.

@RainbowZebraWarrior your taste not waste box sounds absolutely perfect. What a bargain! I'm an online shopper so don't get into store very often. Will definitely look at those when I do get into a store.

I went out to dinner last night someone I used to work with in London (about 120 miles away) ten years ago and who has moved 7 houses down the road from me. Such a coincidence!

I prepped lots of chicken, salad veg, roasted sweet potatoes and pesto pasta yesterday so that cooking for the next few days can be very minimal. I also made a big batch of this which is very summery and tasty. I am braving the gym this morning but I think I will cancel for Thursday and Friday due to the heat.

Crunchy Cabbage Salad {with Peanut Dressing} - Taming Twins https://share.google/zjGr1Z7RQvGXGyh8B

Morning. Glad things went ok for your dad @RainbowZebraWarrior and your cake looks excellent. It'll be salad all week here - I do like constructing a salad.

I can't wait to find out what Snoop Dogg has been cooking!

I also love nectarines and peaches - the best ones round here are from the 'international' food shops, they get those lovely flat peaches in and they're so good in the summer.

I've just been out watering the garden and it was lovely, 17C. The nasturtiums, which are one of my favourites, have just flowered. I've been using some of their leaves in salad but I might add some flowers once a few more appear.

Unfortunately we're due to get up to 32C (feels like 38C, feels like 100C in the heat-trap that is my back garden) - 160 miles north of London here. I keep telling myself I did manage the year it hit 41C - although I did at one point go and work in my cellar, which is not entirely pleasant but at least cool.

Forgot my photo...

The TV news is making an effort to report from outside London. ITV is in a care home in Swansea and yesterday BBC reported from Bute Park in Central Cardiff.

Oh blimey. I had to go out - had a call about a house viewing and they were only doing today. Very hot taxi journeys there and back - they had the windows open but it didn't really help. But the place itself was nice - fairly recently built, ground floor flat tucked away a bit off the main road, surprising amount of storage and it was cool in there! Just waiting for them to send the application form through and then we'll see if there's some sort of competition this time.

It's 31C here now and I think I might need to go in the garden and hose myself down.

Fingers crossed for not competition this time round @martha79

I was always told keep windows closed and blinds / curtains closed. Keeps the hot air out. Definitely works for us.

We've had it crazy here and it wasn't forecast. I was at the beach most of the day and it was 19 degrees with a lush breeze. As I headed inland to pick up DD from axhool, the car thermometer went berserk. 32 degrees! How can there be that much difference just two miles inland?? We never get these type of temps.

I have just got home from my parents house. We had 450 honey jars delivered, so i have had to unpack them, rip up all the cardboard and stuff in their and neighbours recycling bins, drag the bins out, Water the folks garden and the neighbours garden (including their greenhouse!) I now feel quite ill.

Hope everyone else is managing ok

🤞 that you get the house @martha79

sorry for being quiet last week or so.. not a lot has happened. Just trying to keep cool. That was until 6:45 this evening when you could have knocked me over with a feather. After 14 weeks away DP rocked up at the house. Total surprise. Whilst I knew he was home this weekend it’s only Tuesday. And I’m trying to sort the house out for his return but the heat and he’s 3 days early. Gone to the local for tea as had nothing in for two people and totally shocked. Literally was sitting down to decide what to have for tea as he walked in .

@CrushingOnRubies what a lovely surprise! I knew your DH had been away, but didn't realise it had been for so long! Hope you enjoyed your impromptu meal out.

I have just about recovered from things today. The beach is probably a bit much for me, now. Certainly, it needs to be avoided at weekends until the end of summer. We unfortunately have a problem with local teens which has been going on for years (see Sam Fender's lyrics "The fist fights on the beach, the bizzies round us up, do it all again next week") It is totally out of hand now, though.

I am already feeling emotional after watching Elliot Anderson's interview pre England v Ghana Kick Off. Local lad done good, and Wallsend Boy's Club has an amazing record of churning out world class players.

Come on England!

Fingers crossed @martha79 gorgeous nasturtiums too.

How are you coping @LillianGish ?

@RainbowZebraWarrior i hope you can get some fluids down and a rest.

I managed to finish today’s youngster before it got too hideous. This afternoon was awful and the coolest place for me to work was on my front bench. So there I sat, laptop, papers and all, intermittently chatting to passers by.

I’ve had a cool swim and am about to go out for a walk. Last night, there was young fox hunting in the field. We watched him for ages. 🦊

Absolutely melting here @Bimblesalong. Just been out to watch the football in a bar with the kids and it’s 30 degrees outside 🥵 Keeping the flat cool with the curtains closed and the fans on, but too hot to do anything. Apparently last night was the hottest night ever on record in Paris and it’s going to be even hotter tomorrow. Funnily enough it’s quite a bonding experience as it’s got all the Parisians (who aren’t known for small talk) chatting and comparing notes. Poor DS ended up working a 12 hour shift at his cafe because the man who was supposed to take over from him passed out in the heat!

Jeez, my head is scrambled.

Yesterday, 23 degrees expected, school said the evening before that pupils could wear PE kit. Great, and a good job as it turned out to be 32 degrees. Today, 23 degrees expected again. Message from school last night: "As it is expected to be cooler on Wednesday (?!) full uniform including Blazer is required".

Message just comes through from school at 7.21 this morning. "As it is expected to be humid, PE kit is permitted today..." DD already fully dressed is now just getting changed and we leave in 15 minutes. Such fun!

God speed all in the heat today. Note to self: drink more flipping water!!

P.S. Gorgeous fox @Bimblesalong

Morning all. Aww how nice to have DP home early @CrushingOnRubies!

Lovely fox @Bimblesalong, they're quite magical creatures.

Glad school have allowed PE kit @RainbowZebraWarrior but annoying it was so last minute.

I've retreated downstairs to work today - it's a bit cooler and I can also get to the fridge regularly! Quick trip round the garden and yesterday's soaking seems to have been enough water for everything as the soil is still fairly damp. Admiring the very tall evening primroses this morning.

Gosh 14 weeks is a long time to be away @CrushingOnRubies. My DH is away for six weeks which seemed like a long time when he left, but I must say the sweltering nights are much more tolerable with just me in the bed and I have been sleeping much better with him away (every cloud and all that). Keeping my hydrangea head going having removed nearly all the stem - it reminds me of a 1950s swim hat bobbing in a rose bowl!

Lovely flowers! And what a nice surprise having DP back @CrushingOnRubies even if he did catch you on the hop. Good luck with the flat @martha79 it sounds nice.

I'm at work where there is aircon, but DS works in a plant nursery, that's not going to be much fun today (it's 31 already) and DD works in a pub that was showing the football last night so she hadn't surfaced when I left for work. We are in the red zone.

I was shattered last night, busy day at work, including part of the day in a non-aircon building, then I had to go to a governors meeting, no aircon in the school , then choir, no aircon there either, then the house was boiling I ended up watching the second half of the football half asleep. Keeping the curtains closed doesn't seem to help ours a lot, but we only have thin curtains as we all dislike blackout. It was 37 in the kitchen this morning.

Fingers crossed for your flat @martha79. Good to hear it felt cool in the heat. We live in such an apartment - though we didn't realise at the time we bought it! We now thank our lucky stars every summer that it's one of the coolest places to hang out so we are always glad when we get back home. Some of the flats here, under the iconic zinc roofs, are like ovens! I love your nasturtiums - they were the first plants I ever grew from seed as a child. I seem to remember they were attractive to caterpillars - though this was a bonus for me at the time! @RainbowZebraWarrior you have shattered my illusions about your beach - it looks so wild and windswept in your photos. I know my only reference for Northumberland and the North East is Vera, but I like to think the crime is all fictional.

37 in the kitchen this morning!! @ElegantDresses Wow! I hope it's much cooler in the coming days, as that heat really builds up within buildings (as the school realised when they opened up this morning) I turned my bedside lamp and telly off at half time last night as that game had Nil Nil written all over it. Will make Saturday very interesting. Although there is no way I will be watching on Saturday night as I have a stall at a festival all day and can't stay awake past 10pm at the best of times!

Love your centrepiece @LillianGish and can totally see where you are coming from with the similarity to the 1950s swim hat. Due a revival I feel? In a similar vein, I have just dropped off a rather natty floral shower cap for my Dad to use to protect his skin graft and dressing. I did warn him it was flowery but he doesnt seem to care (he showers at the gym!)

It's not quite so much my beach with the reputation and issues with the teens, but Tynemouth. Which is a darned shame as Tynemouth is very lovely. 300 plus kids every weekend as young as 13 descending on the beach getting drunk and causing mayhem. This is what social media creates!

Regardless, there were still too many at my beach yesterday plus a good few barbecues which aren't permitted. I shall go back to doing a quiet hour at 6am once the summer hols starts I think.

I was going to go and see the Virginia Woolf film at midday. It would at least have been cool. I decided to skip it as it's just going to rob me of another couple of hours so I have Slowly Pottered and managed get get some stuff done. Must set aside some time tomorrow getting the last of the stall stuff sorted.

Mum is cooking us both some chicken as their aga is always on anyway (l was surprised to learn a couple of years ago how many folk switch them off for six months of the year) so I will pick up my share after school and have with some salad. Dad is making some convoluted Gordon Ramsay marinated game palaver and DD will have her usual pasta. We are rarely people who eat the same things as a family, even when I lived at home as a kid.

Wait i didn’t know this was a thing?? I LOVE him, it’s almost parasocial. He’s so comforting and seems so warm.

It's our Everhot @RainbowZebraWarrior I have turned parts of it off, it might have to go right off tonight apart from the induction rings. We rarely all eat the same thing either, I gave up on that when the DCs were quite young.

Hi @GreenCaterpillarOnALeaf yes, exactly, we all aspire to Be More Nigel, although the warm part is optional at the moment.

Hello @GreenCaterpillarOnALeaf

I am just finally leafing through the Snoop Dogg cookbook that I shared a photo of yeaterday and, as expected, it's as far removed from Nigel as it's possible to be.

Example quote: "I like my pancakes like my money. Stacked high to the ceiling"

Also, he shares a photo of his pantry and lists his 'must have's' which appear to be pop tarts and that luminous orange instant american mac and cheese in the blue box. (Along with lucky charm cereal, haribo bears starburst and red liquorice twists!)

That said, there are some cracking looking recipes and a lovely looking vintage stove. He does go on about barbecue lays quite a bit, but then, our Nige has also been known to wax lyrical about the humble crisp.

All in all, it's quite an interesting read and also some lovely looking cocktail recipes.

Still none the wiser whats in the cut glass bowl on the front of the book as it mysteriously doesn't appear to feature inside..

Gosh it's hot. Spent this morning in a stuffy care home's sitting room having some training. Home now and sat by the fan with a cup of tea. Always think of my granny who said of tea 'it warms you up on a cold day and cools you down on a warm day'. Not entirely sure that's true on a day like today! Waiting for a bit more shade to come in the garden then getting DD (and probably me!) in the paddling pool!
Love the Snoop dog cooking book @RainbowZebraWarrior. I think he's also branched out into wines as well, sure we had some a while ago and it was surprisingly good!
Beautiful hydrangea @LillianGish I can't remember who on here is going to the exhibition of the Queen's dresses but I went last month and there was a hat very similar to that! Definitely gave bathing hat vibes but very pretty all the same.
Hope everyone coping in the heat.