Chat-a-Thon 2017-18 Thread!

[Natalka]

[walkonby]

good day all! @danger_dan have fun at that golf tourney! Oh yeah and TGIF!!

Who bought a brand spanking new washing machine and just now found out it can only be run using HE laundry detergent???
Oh brother, what will I use my umpteen bottles of regular laundry soap for now? I stock pile, that'll teach me!
Now I gotta run out and get that silly HE soap before I can even try a test load.

Downstairs bathroom tiles got installed by MOI yesterday. It looks so beautiful.......ALL WHITE!!, I know they will show every black hair ( I should have married an albino instead of Zorba the Greek! ha ha ) but for now it has brightened up the room.

Snagged a nice big $13.00 boneless roast from Sobey's this a.m. it has already been pressure cooked and sliced up with a delicious gravy poured over it ( made using that trick @Lynn49 taught me about browning the flour first.....a mason jar filled with it is kept on hand now just for that )

Oh and btw Lynn49 that is great that your GS is such an early riser! Well....I mean I think it's great because I only got one of those out of the 3 kids we had, he and I can bolt outa bed often before the alarm even goes off and we are ready to greet the day.....while those other sleepy heads can sleep through an explosion!

At Sobeys it was their Blue Friday deal day but there wasn't much I felt warranted a purchase of 4 or 6 or 10 of something to earn AM. Well....o.k. except for the kids I did relent and bought a mixture of 10 x 1L bottles @ .99 each. ( Brisk Ice tea, 7-Up and Schweppes Gingerale. ( earned 30 AM ) And then 8 cans of Old El Paso brand re-fried beans @ 2/$5.00
Yuck! to that stuff, it's never been on my radar but DD uses them when she makes up her weirdo concoctions. Earned 100 AM.
@Newfiescreech I thought of you as I picked up 2 more packages of cod today......sadly the frozen kind is not as good as freshly caught but I earned 15 AM on them too.
@Natalka the hot, sweltering weather you have had made me a bit envious, until I remembered about the lack of central air you are dealing with. I say set up your bed in the kitchen! ha ha
@cabmonk that is quite impressive the hikes you are doing!! Bravo my man! Have there been others on the trail as you walk?
The photos are lovely but make me nauseous because I cannot turn my head that way without feeling a " vertigo " episode coming on.
@avoncallingu ....Death by Chocolate eh? ha ha At least you ate it all in one fell swoop!

The jig is up this Saturday for me! I had rescheduled my usual 2 week check in appt. of a weigh-in from last Sat. to tomorrow because I was convinced no more than a pound had been lost in that 2 week stretch. I mean why waste the Dr's time and my own, and who needs a lecture?
The only tough part is this will measure my progress over a 3 week stretch now so I'll have to fess up if their scale rats me out.
Since Monday I have at least felt back on track again. Catching that nasty cold thingy sure put a wrench in my mood!

Oh one more update....my home grown celery! It is a slow process but kinda fun. The first one very quickly sprouted a head of fresh leaves in the centre and finally grew long enough roots on the bottom to transplant into a pot of soil, a new one was started in the water bowl but this was something called Chinese celery?? This variety has very slender ribs but tons of leaves, great for soups and stews. Hey look at me I'm a Gardner! hee hee

[Lynn49]

@walkonby , I grew green onions the same way from the bit that's left over after using up the good stuff; like you said, a slow process, but fun to watch. I hope your celery and leaves thrive!!

Glad you're still enamoured with my gravy-starter...it's the best, isn't it??

Our GS is the first every morning to get up, makes 2 Keurigs for his Mom and Dad, lol, which they have when they're finally out of their showers and all dressed for work. He gets his own breakfast also...usually an egg and toast sandwich. Funny how my DD and I are surrounded by men who can cook!

You must be very proud of installing that tile flooring all by yourself, Missy!!! Good for you! It's easy really, isn't it? I actually enjoyed doing our backsplash with my Hubby and still love it!!

Ok...back to work or whatever you're all doing today!!

[Lynn49]

[avoncallingu]

Good afternoon! I have pooped out for a while.
I was going to ask you about the celery experiment, @walkonby when I saw the celery selling for $5.99 yesterday.

For the amount of effort that I have put in, you would think that the kitchen would look better than it does. I am half through, but I have been really filing things as I go. I hate stuffing things in cupboards thinking I will get back to it later so it takes me forever when I finally set my mind to it.

BrotherR is going to a Kinsman conference which starts tonight. It has a Hawaiian theme. He really gets into these things. So I loaned him my sunglasses so he can look more like Hawaii 50. He'll have fun and the club pays his registration and accommodations. He loves swimming and is looking forward to a dip in their indoor pool.

The "mayor " of our building has gotten into tussle with management so there is tension in the air.

Our gardens are beginning to look lovely.
They are planning a bus trip to the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton in a couple of weeks which I would have loved to attend. Lately, though, I am really sensitive to "smelly" plants like lilies, lilacs, and hyacinths. It's such a shame! They are so beautiful!

Well, I must say adieu for now. I would love to hear about browned flour- now I know about brown sugar- I'm, after all, such a gourmet!😉

[Lynn49]

Real brown gravy!!..not those packaged chemicals!

@avoncallingu, you know that gelatinous, anemic sludge they call "gravy" in the states? Well gravy doesn't look like that.

We all love our deep, rich brown gravy here. Most people use Bisto or other packaged chemicals which usually have yeast, colouring...yuck. All Bisto products were once removed from shelves in the UK because of "metal" shards. Nice, huh? Thrifty people back in the day (and people who are now shunning those chemicals and colourings) found a different means to get that richness into their gravy: they toasted flour.
Yep. And that's what I suggested @walkonby try and she won't use anything else now.

Here's what you do:

Take a cup or two of flour (doesn't matter, you can keep it like any flour product) and dump it into a saucepan/frying pan with nothing else in it. Flatten it ourt and turn up the heat. Have a spatula ready, and in a minute or two, do some creative pushing and flipping around of the flour, and you'll soon see some tan colouring appear to the flour closest to the pan. Keep going, you're aiming for a nice deep brown colour, as deep as cocoa powder. At this point things happen quickly, and it starts to get browner faster, you can turn down the heat or remove the pan from the heat (on and off the heat) and just keep pushing it around, mixing the brown into the white, breaking up and wee bits that seem to want to stick together.
When you've achieved a nice cocoa colour, you're done! Oh, there'll be some smoking and it'll start to smell burned, but it's not burning, just toasting. The deeper the colour, the richer the gravy, but be careful it turns from toasty to burned quickly towards the end of the process.

When you want to make gravy, use stock, either boxed or homemade (adding stock or water if you need to), bring to a simmer.
In a coffee cup, place an amount of flour (you can start with a smaller amount, then add more later for thicker gravy), stir in cold water until it forms a very loose paste, and whisk vigorously while adding it slowly into the broth. You shouldn't see any clumps at all this way.

If you're using a whole box of stock, I'd use about 1/3 to 1/2c of the flour into enough mate to make a loose paste.
Continue to simmer, and if you feel you want it thicker, repeat...flour, mixed with water, add slowly while whisking.

There you go! Toasted flour on hand, all you need is broth and some water for deep, dark, yummy gravy!!!
You're welcome!!

[avoncallingu]

Wow Zowy! Sounds great, @Lynn49 ! Thanks!
Update for 22Hicks friends - after 4 months her fellow is home. He lost over 30 pounds in the process and still needs homecare, etc. But they are, of course, over the moon that he is home.
Gotta run!

[avoncallingu]

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[Lynn49]

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Did you let Tootie post for us?

Hope you use that recipe...seems complicated when its typed out, but once you get a container of that flour done, the rest is just as easy as using those chemical-laced concoctions.

[GoJays]

[GoJays]

[avoncallingu]

Ha! I don't know what happened. ...turn my back and Tootie starts dialing long distance 😁!

[GoJays]

[heartgirl99]

you're just not living right!

[walkonby]

Everybody sing " ta the dump, ta da dump, ta da dump, dump, dump! " yes...that was where I was at 7 a.m.
I hauled away all the scrap wood remnants from our ripped up old deck, along with so much other " stuff ". garbage is garbage.
The only ones I did not take were those longer than 4 feet, apparently there are " rules " about the length of the wood they will let you dump.

The line of cars there for free compost was NUTSO!! Thank goodness I knew better than to join that line, I drove straight past them all and turned into the weigh scales. Another task completed and it was only just after 7:30 when i got back home.

Physio soon and then my weigh-in. Enjoy this beautiful weather all!!