The Bluestocking: All You Need to Know About Risk Assessments, Jazz Hands, Battenberg and Sourdough (But Were Afraid to Ask) - and gerbils. Lots and lots of gerbils.

[MyrtleLion]

Welcome to The Bluestocking, the perfectly overblown, gloriously chaotic all-women’s pub where you can have a bit of a lie down if you need it.

Expect serious debates on musicals, cake and knitting, and whimsical musings on women’s rights and why the world’s on fire (again), all under the calm supervision of our support staff: gerbils, capybaras, and the occasional quokka on secondment.

The alcohol won’t get you drunk, the pastries won’t make you fat, but the conversation will digress, and that’s the point.

Remember to namechange before posting if you’re sometimes someone else.

I looked up Pelargoniums. Very pretty.

It is going to be cold later this week. Zero or minus numbers degrees Celsius.
This happens every year at this time. My DM told me it was snowing when she gave birth to DB2 this week many years ago.

And everyone always thinks it's a surprise.

It's not. It happens every year and then it will warm up. Trust me on this. But better get your Pelargoniums out of the frost.

Tell you what I'm grumpy about now, I went to the fridge to get the chicken breasts I was going to roast for today's and several other day's dinner, and they were bb14 November - Friday. I'm often relaxed about bb dates, and know the dangers of chicken are exaggerated, but sorry, just no. I don't know how I didn't notice on Thursday when I bought them, I'm usually quite beady eyed.

So I decided to get a gluten free breaded chicken breast out of the freezer, and guess what the freezer did not contain.

In fact my 'empty out the freezer before putting more stuff in' exercise has been surprisingly successful. Which is probably good. I think I can get rid of those ice cubes now as well.

Dinner will be spiced fruity pork casserole with rice and French beans. Leaving the freezer even emptier. Maybe ice cream for pud, with hot chocolate sauce. And some walnuts to make it healthy.

FuzzyPuffling's Big Book of Parenting Tips will be on the bestseller lists next year, take it from me!

Excellent.
Another favourite...

😂😂😂😂

I've just had a mince pie.

It was luvly.

My plan for ice cream was thwarted when I decided to taste it before I move the bag from the freezer to the fridge to start thawing. I like cauliflower cheese but not as a dessert.

But I do have one of those little mini Magnum-alikes, and some nice grapes, and loads of chocolate, so all will be well.

Toad in the hole tomorrow, cauliflower cheese and baked potato on Friday, Spag Bol one day during the week. Operation drain the swamp empty the freezer is powering ahead.

I’ve been in the knitting snug - I took advantage of Nick taking the dogs out, and got going on knitting the toy for his Christmas present this year - I’m making him a little Shaun the Sheep, and I managed to knit the body and head before he got back, so just the legs, tail, ears and assembly to go - which will be one thing off my Christmas fretting list.

I been looking at Christmas decorations for the tree. I don't need anymore but they are my weak spot. I'm finding them quite resistance for the most part this year. The fashion seems to be for banal items, reproduced as baubles. Sometimes with a bit of glitter. I can understand the London centric ones; Big Ben (as was), etc. I suspect they're attractive to tourists, or for expats to send to their families. I don't get the pizza slices, the broccoli, crisp packet, and so on. That's not festive! Even if it does have a bit of sparkle on it!

That said, m&s have a ball of wool, with knitting needles. Can't say I'm not tempted.

On the topic of freezers every so often we have a 'freezer week' where the shopping for food is minimised to key fresh items and the majority of meals come from items found lurking in the freezer. Can make for some quirky recipes but that is part of the fun!

Lovely 🥰

I don’t often make small items as they take more putting together than knitting, when I do them. It’s different for a special cause or person, though.

In theory I will finish a beaded shawl today. I’ll keep going until run out of yarn - 11.2g to go.

I forgot to say, bulbs in. Fortunately they were in pots so I brought them inside when the light went.

I think I may have told this story before, but my mother once did something similar in reverse. Thought she was defrosting Bolognese sauce but it turned out to be chocolate ice cream.

Bah humbug!

Thanks all for the advice on pelargonia. I'll sort mine out on Tuesday. Will not have time in daylight until then.

I've got the remains of a loaf of brioche in our freezer. It makes marvellous bread and butter pudding, and next week is looking like the perfect weather for that.

If there's a chance of frost in the interim, cover them overnight with something; a bucket, spare flowerpot, empty box.

Small child, maybe?

If you can be bothered dragging it from under the spare bed and unwrapping the newspaper.

I’m about to make supper, almost totally from items in the freezer. A tin of tomatoes, with frozen Quorn, puréed cooked carrot, sweet potato, sweetcorn and frozen peas all together.

What’s not eaten can go back in the freezer as a stew casserole.

That’s your advice as a horticultural expert?

That's my advice as a teacher!

We emptied our freezer recently because it was making funny noises so we defrosted it and gave it a good clean behind on its cooling grilles (is there a proper word?). That sorted it but we’d not fully restocked but that turned out to be a good thing because we had the power off overnight twice due to the leak/leccy potential problem. So we ate up a bit, what remains is just homemade bread and veggie soup which we deem to have stayed cold enough to be ok.

ah, not so practical for those of us who don’t have a supply.

Probably best to stick with a bucket or spare flower pot.

I forgot to put that those ingredients are cooked all together. I don’t eat them still frozen.