Archers thread #166: Choppy waters in Ambridge! Look out for the red flags and discuss The Archers here.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads.

All views on The Archers welcome here! New blood welcomed, and of course we are always delighted to welcome back former or occasional listeners/posters. We don't all agree on all points, although we do mostly try to be civil about it. Most of us are posting tongue in cheek a lot of the time, so don't worry about revealing that you'd love to be married to Harrison, or other unusual views.

Spoilers: not on this thread, please! We don't wait for the omnibus to discuss the weeknight episodes, but we do try our best to avoid cross-contamination from www.mumsnet.com/talk/radio_addicts/4636789-the-archers-spoilers-thread-7-cant-wait-for-702pm-join-us-here, where spoilers are positively welcomed!

For newer listeners, lurkers or those who just have no idea what we're talking about, @DadDadDad has created this useful thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3557323-For-Archers-fans-a-guide-to-acronyms-on-the-long-running-discussion-threads-and-any-other-meta-thread-questions-you-may-have - BOOP point for him! (See thread for explanation.)

Another thread started in great haste, mid-packing! Over to you.

haha is that right? Brilliant

I’m so unbelievably behind but I appreciate the heads up from you all about the continued miscarriage SL so I can skip those bits when I finally catch up.

Definitely skip last night then - it was heavy handed

Welcome back@HumphreyCobblers - those are definitely amongst the several theories posited about Joy.

I wouldn’t mind if her background remained a mystery - but it does look as if there might be some revelation soon.

Not if I get between the two of you: I'll have ALL the lemon, coffee and chocolate puddings going.

<makes note>

Sounds very nice! Many thanks.

So at the archers Mumsnet thread annual lunch we need to make sure there is a fruit and non-fruit based dessert and ensure fink gets one of each so ours don’t get scoffed before we get the chance!

Can we have what my mother used to call "elephants' breath"? That's puréed apple with whipped egg-whites folded into it. She made it to use up the egg-whites left from making chocolate mousse, and then served both as pudding at dinner parties – she had to entertain occasionally for my father's job, and I was allowed to fold the table-napkins into fans and swans and things following the instructions in Mrs Beeton's Household Management, but not to come to the meal because those were for grown-ups. I got the remains later in the kitchen and didn't care which pudding got left because I loved them both equally. One was sweet and rich and heavy, and the other was light as air and quite tart.

How lovely! We had that too, but much more prosaically called apple foam, I think. My Mum was more likely to make meringues with leftover egg whites, as my Dad adored them.

Oi! Some of us also want to share the lemony stuff, thank you very much!

<folds arms and hoicks bosom>

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime and @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g, I think we called that “apple snow”?

Fortunately I'll eat almost anything.

That's right! Snow, not foam. Haven't had that in several decades.

Apple meringue, with the beaten egg yolk mixed into the stewed apple and the white (whipped up with sugar) baked on top is another good old-fashioned seasonal pud. To be eaten with cream.

I heard "snow" later, and I think it's called that in one of Dick Francis' books. Would it be the one about taking a train across Canada?

My mother couldn't make meringues: they always sank and went squidgy. One of my aunts could, and tried hard to teach Ma how but never succeeded.

So did we. But ‘elephant’s breath’ has a certain charm. Rude children, however, might be inspired to rename the chocolate mousse

Apple desserts are great - my mum used to make amazing tarte tatin but my favourite of hers was the creme caramel.

if I have to choose between the cheese plate and dessert I will tend to go for the cheese though (unless it has a boring blue on it)

I was at a friends new home and they had used F&B elephants breath but because of her accent I thought she had said ‘elephants breasts’

I'm not sure. since posset is more usually used for what the baby dumps on your shoulder after feeding.

Posset as a pudding (noun) seems first to have been recorded in 1460, and posset as babyspew (noun) not until 1607, and as a (dialect) verb for a baby having a little spewkette not until the late 19th century. The 1933 Shorter Oxford doesn't include the babyspew meaning at all, but does have "posset: to curdle like a posset" as an intransive verb.

I think you should all send your recipes to Fallon, who could open a dessert restaurant off the bypass. Or better still, thousands of miles away from Harrison.

Oooooh finally something about infernally cheerful Joy is about to come out

"Rochelle" is actually her son.

Just getting my bet in before the end 🤣

(We aren't going to find out anything are we)

Yes Fallon!!

Right, so Joys birthday. So Kirsty hosted? Or Helen?

harrison being totally unbearable. She has said she has a party to go to and he sabotages again. He’s a real fun sponge.

and she says ‘it’s still giving me nightmares’ and he responds ‘and me’🙄

it’s hard to listen to someone who is being so irrational. And ‘we’ got pregnant - glad she picked him up on it. His distressed groaning🙄. Please let him walk off the enormous bridge

well joys not happy with mick! He’s getting too close to the truth

I said that in the last thread!