All those in the US...

[OverRated]

... here is a lovely new thread. With an uninspired but easy to find title. And an old list.

Please update as needed.

1. Mamama - Chicago, DS 2
2. Twirl - MD - married, DD 3 and DS 1
3. Califrau - Milpitas, CA - married, ds1 (7), ds2 (4). sahm
4. Greatgooglymoogly - NY State - married, DS1 (3), DS2 (17 mths)
5. Alipiggie - Erie, CO - 2 DS's aged 5 and 4
6. Tinpot - North Carolina
7. dooneygirl - Oregon City, OR A married SAHM. DS 4 , DD 2
8. Earlybird - TN, DD (6)
9. SofiaAmes - LA
10. LATyke - Redondo Beach, CA
11. NannyK - Boston, MA
12. Marls001 - Bentonville, AR
13. Hellish - Ottawa, Canada
14. Sunchowder - Florida - DD Girlscout age poss 14ish, SDS um late teens.
15. SittingBull - near San Francisco, CA - married,two children, 1 DS 3 years, 1 DD 18 months
16. ChiTownLady - Chicago
17. MKG - New Jersey -ds1 22 months,ds2 3 weeks
18. Yesthereare4ofthem - NY State
19. Albert, Brazil - married to Brasilian, DS(7)
20. Texan Dallas, TX, married to a Scot, DD (7), DS (5)
21. Tiggyhop - Houston. DS (4) DS (3) and DD (20 months)
22. Bananapudding - Texas. married, DD 6
23. jabberwocky - TN married, ds1 3.10, ds2 6 months
24. Brooklynmom - NYC. DD, 14 months old...
25. Vixie78 - Houston Texas
26. TwinMommyToBe - Boston
27. Barefeete - British Virgin Islands
28. Dodgykeeper - Dayton, Ohio 29)Syd - Manhattan Beach, LA
29. Weewilliewinkie ? VA
30. Chocchipcooke - Ohio
31. Mummimamma - PA. Married, DS, soon to be 5, DD 1 (15 months)
32. Shouldalistenedtomymum - Canada - Hamilton, Toronto,
33. Anorak - Bermuda, DD 15 and DS 7

East Coast
NannyK - Boston
Twinmommytobe - Boston
Greatgooglymoogly - NY State
Yesthereare4ofthem - NY State
Brooklynmom - NYC
MKG - New Jersey
Mummimamma - PA
Twirl - MD

The South
Earlybird - Soon to be in TN
jabberwocky - TN
Sunchowder - Florida
Marls001 - Bentonville, AR
Tinpot ? NC

Midwest
Mamama ? Chicago
ChiTownLady - Chicago
Dodgykeeper - Dayton, OH
Chocchipcookie - Ohio

Rockies & Southwest
Alipiggie - Erie, CO

Northwest
dooneygirl - Oregon City, OR

California
SittingBull - nr San Francisco
Califrau ? Milpitas
Syd - Manhattan Beach, LA
SofiaAmes - LA
LATyke - Redondo Beach

Texas
Texan - Dallas
Tiggyhop ? Houston
Vixie78 - Houston
BananaPudding

Canada
Hellish ? Ottawa
Shouldlistenedtomymum - Hamilton

BVI Barefeete Bermuda Anorak Brazil
Albert, Brazil

gosh have just googled for a Bermuda rum cake recipe but there's not much about! A very closely guarded secret. I have an old traditional Bermuda recipe book in the house, will copy the recipe from there:

1 Package (560g) yellow cake mix
1 package (115g) vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup rum
1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts

Sauce
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup rum
1/4 cup water

Preheat oven to 360 degrees F. In a bowl, blend cake and vanilla pudding mix. Add eggs, oil, water and rum. Grease a 2-1/2 to 3 quart ring mould. Sprinkle walnuts over bottom of mould and pour in cake-pudding mix. Bake for 40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Mix last four ingredients over low heat. Tear off two 2-ft pieces of tin foil and lay one piece on the other, criss-crossed in the centre, on the counter or other flat surface. Turn out cake in the centre. Pull up sides of foil so sauce doesn't run all over the counter. With a toothpick, prick holes all over top of cake and pour warm sauce all over. It will eventually be absorbed. Serve hot or cold.

This cake is on sale in all the touristy shops and the supermarkets too. It's a really big thing here. Interestingly they go on and on about the Bermuda rum here and normally cite Bermudian Gosling's rum in all recipes but this one calls for Barbados rum or any good amber rum.

We are going into town in a minute and I will see if I can look at the ingredients on a rum cake in a shop for you

Anorak you sound like you are really doing well. I'm so happy that you are up and about and checking up on rum cake recipes!

ali, sympathies on the viral front. The boys are recuperating nicely but dh and I have now caught it and it seems that an asthmatic such as me should not play around with RSV

Cali, hope the trip is still going great. It sounds like wonderful fun.

OR, lol at your arm getting fixed by your ds Maybe he will grow up to be a chiropractor

Sorry if I've missed anyone. Still coughing like a maniac...

Well I went into Hamilton and looked at all the recipe books in the bookshops but the only recipe was the one I copied above - it seems no one is ready to let this secret out. Even a book called 'Bermudian tea-time treats' did not have the recipe. I'm afraid I ran out of energy to go to a food shop or tourist shop and look at the actual item for a list of ingredients but will try and remember to do so sometime.

Hoping everyone feels better soon.xx

Can anyone help me with my American self-cleaning oven? I don't know how to clean it! It has a button marked 'self-clean', so I assume I press this, then for how long do I leave it on, and how often am I supposed to run this? Is there anything else I am supposed to do? Thank you! Rented house and no manuals or guides for any of the appliances.

I need a rant?

I love my family. Really, I do. But when they visit, why do they not take care of me? I have just realised that every time someone stays with me, they take advantage of their ?holiday? and I wait on them hand and foot. Not that I mind making dinner, cups of tea and doing a bit of extra laundry but after sorting out ?interesting? 3 meals a day for a week plus all the preparation and cleaning, and a billion cups of tea while my guest put his feet up and did the crossword I am pissed off. I know he has been sick and coming to see me is a big deal but? I have been seriously ill this year too. It nearly killed me. My life is a complete mess because of it. I am not asking for sympathy. But a bit of support. A cup of tea? something

Does anyone else have this problem? Or am I just wallowing in self-pity? Please give me a good kick and tell me to stop being so selfish.

Anorak, what a star! Must try the cake soon - thank you so much Strange that your recipe uses Barbados rum.

I'm afraid I can't heop with the oven thing - i have a very old one thats just cooks, nothing else. Not even a light or a timer

Hope you feel better soon jabberwocky

And sorry for my rant just now. Didn't mean to sound so ungrateful - feel much better. Just needed to get it out of my system. Am drinking mulled wine. It seems to help a lot

Oh dear OR. Can't you say anything? I haven't had any guests from England yet is this what will happen?

Can you not say when they arrive, in a laughing sort of way 'I'm thrilled to bits you're here, and I'm delighted to have you staying, but please don't expect me to cook every night as these are normal work days for me, and I don't have time or energy to provide a maid service.' then perhaps they will take you out for a meal here and there and run the vac round while you are out.

I think when people come to me I'm going to say, here's the fridge, here's the tea, coffee, eat what you want but please don't leave me the washing-up, ha ha. And then if I am cooking and don't mind I'll make for them too.

Maybe I should have done that, anorak. We've had lots of lovely day trips and bought nice food and treats and things so it's not as if they don't try. It's just not the type of help i really value. Anyway, am trying to be more appreciative now. I really am glad to see anyone who visits.

Anorak--Self cleaning ovens. We've had 2. One you had to flip a lever located on the top of the oven that locked it and then push the self cleaning button. The one we have now is newer, and all we've got to do is press the button and it locks itself. It usually goes for a couple of hours, at superfly hot temperatures. It then takes it a fairly long time to cool down and it won't unlock until it reaches a low enough temperature. For me, I've only used the button 3 times in 5 years, but it makes this funny hot smell I don't really like, and I thought it was a fluke the 1st time, so I did it a 2nd time with our older one, and then decided I didn't like the smell at all, so I just cleaned it myself. When we moved here, I thought it might have been our old oven that had a smell, but this one makes the same smell, so I have never used the button again. But I'm really odd about smells, so don't let that put you off.

That really wasn't a very ranty rant, OR. Sorry you had so much work to do with relatives visiting.

OverRated, sending you a big HUG. You'll get through this and you're totally right to want someone to look after you. You know I feel the same. Anorak - my self cleaning oven, you just hit the button and can change the time to be less than the four hours that it automatically selects. It should then self-lock and heat to about 500. Make sure you know where your fuse box is, just it case it malfunctions.

Once it's done and you can get in again, wipe over the surfaces with a damp cloth - should have white dust which is all the burnt off fat etc. Good luck.

OverRated you know you can always ring . Take care everyone.

Thanks for the oven tips everyone.

You know Califrau I haven't yet been homesick - although I've only been here 8 weeks and I suppose you will say it's too early - but a lot has happened in that time and although I can see that being near my friends would have been good while I'm ill, I haven't once seriously hankered after England. And I love England! But who wants miserable damp weather when you can have sunshine...I just don't understand people who complain about how hot the summers are in England

As for the smoking...God they have to be dedicated to keep it up throughout the weather they've been having, out in a gale 'enjoying' a smoke, ha ha. Perhaps when the smoking ban has been in force for a couple of years more people will have given up - one can always hope!

Thanks for the sympathy. I feel very guilty now - I love my Dad and I really liked having him to stay. I always have these secret hopes though and don't ever tell my guests that I'd like it if they helped me out. I shouldn't ex[ect them to know how to deal with a 2 yr o;ld either - they never see any. I think the last one they dealt with was my siser, about 25 yrs ago.

Hope the oven cleaning works well.

Was lovely to read about England, Califrau, even if it was stinky How was the dreaded Embassy?

Am off to enjoy a dunner of Hula Hoops and Cadburys chocolate

Don't feel guilty. Guests need to help. The in-laws were very good at keeping the kids entertained and cleaning up after meals. FIL even watched the kids while MIL and I hit the early sales. It would be a long visit if it wasn't that way.

That's funny what you said about the smoke, Cali. To me, the East Coast of the U. S. is way smokier than the West Coast, and while I've never been to England, the thing that disappointed me most about Europe was how everyone smoked everywhere.

On a totally unrelated note, I found a drink recipe for a Wallaby Darned (really good drink at Outback Steakhouse) It comes really close. I've had 2, and this is as close as I get to being pissed, pretty much.

The East Coast is/ was definitely smokier than anywhere else I've been in the US. I have rose-tinted spectacles when it comes to England and have no recollection of any negative things at all but I do have vague memories of feeling sick when I woke up the day after a night in the pub. I used to have to have a shower before I went to bed, even if it was 3 am, so that I wouldn't wake up stinking of smoke.

What's in the drink, Dooney? Do I need to make some to go with the Rum cake? I only have rum, baileys, sherry and red wine in the house, so am hoping it is made from those although I highly doubt it - that would only make some sort of curdled poo type of concoction, wouldn't it?

It sounds like you could make something that I would have only drunk shortly after turning 21 and only because I was 21 and I could.

Its a peach-champagne-peach schnapps-peach nectar-vodka drink. Very foo-foo. Which is probably why after having 2 big glasses I'm not very tipsy. Which for me is just fine.

That sounds lovely.

Unfortunately, I had an 'incident' with peach schnapps one lunchtime when I was about 17 and haven't been able to tolerate even the faintest whiff of peaches since then. Best not to go into details but I think I will never recover.

Help!!! I;ve posted on weaning but they're all asleep over there. I'm really worried about my baby. She has just stopped eating solid food. Full stop.

Happy baby up to now, eating pretty much everything.

For a week now she has had a bad cough and cold. Today she wouldn't eat any solids - screamed if I even tried to put her in the high chair.

She has been very fussy around solids for a couple of days now.

I gave up and upped the bottles.

Is this normal? What should I do?

She's eleven months and pretty heavy so I'm not worried about weight loss - just that she will be downing a bottle at the Prom.

Both mine went off food when they were sick at that age. I worried horribly with DS (my 1st) even though he was a chunky monkey, but by the time DD came around, it was much easier to watch her not eat. I did exactly like you and upped the fluids. Neither one of them had a bottle after 14 months.

Yes we all lose our appetite when we're ill. I wouldn't worry about it unless it goes on longer than two or three days. And make sure she has plenty to drink, water as well as milk.

Thanks, that's a great help. When did you stop bottles. She loves hers!

DD was easy. She wanted to be a big girl like her brother, and gave them up for a sippy cup really early on. DS took months from when we 1st introduced a cup. He gave up his bottle mostly around 13 months, but didn't drop having his last one at night until close to 15 months. The really weird thing was he was breastfed, but had the odd bottle of expressed milk here and there, so only really had a bottle mainly from about 11 months on. DD had a milk allergy, so she wasn't breastfed after 2 1/2 months.

Chocchipcookie - DS used to go through phases when he ate almost nothing for days on end. He would usually breastfeed though so I never worried too much. I think if your DD is taking a bottle I wouldn't worry too much - as long as she remains hydrated, I think that's the main thing.

I am sure she won't have a bottle at Prom although I do understand your concern - I did worry that DS might still be breastfeeding at his wedding, but he gave up all by himself (and he's not nearly ready to get married!) Can't help though as DS never took one (much to my frustration). I tend to think with these things that they'll give up when they're ready. 11 months is still young. Hope she feels better soon.

Thanks for all the help, it has been really reassuring. She had some banana and ready brek this morning.

How much milk are they supposed to have at a year? She is still having four bottles of 5-6oz US ounces now (eleven months) plus three meals.

I mentioned to my babysitter this morning, she comes to my house, that we will have to move to a sippy cup at some point and she looked horrified. 'But she loves her bottles sooo much,' she said. To be honest I can't face it right now either!

BTW I breastfed for six months and I think the bottle is still a big comfort thing for her.