Bondbug

Ugh! Barbarian! While I'm here can I ask a favour. Can someone design a Smiley showing someone with a big wooden spoon - 'stirring'. For some of us it is a favourite occupation but unfortunately liable to be misunderstood, even with the available emoticons. That's what I am doing here. Despite the fact that you may be right...

Have to come back to you on this one. You are too quick for me. And today is a busy baking day. I have the wood oven lit, wife's making bread, and pizza, and stews and cassoulet. I'm mincing stuff for the pate, and bottling wine. Sleep well. (later) Pizzas were good, but we received a visitor right in the middle of all that, so even further delay Checked my list..I don't think (woundn't swear to it) you have: stain, lit, let, stile, feint, flit, ant, time, tile, mast, finest, leant, tease I didn't get far with the second list. The only one I have to add is: slime What is tesla? - I feel I should know but cannot place it

types of wooden ...

...... sorry had to scrub this!

Whoops, I thought that was BC

deep fried worms

Yep. I will be sitting in bed trying to find a second word. Wow life is tuff.

There's a recipe which includes 'Bell Pepper' and 'Flour tortilla'. Can you tell me what is nthe significance of the words I underlined. I thought all tortillas were made with flour? And lay off the fairy-cakes, I like them - if the cream is good, and they were not made at school. Did you get a recipe Carolyn or would you like me to volunteer for erialc to post the recipe in a new thread? I must be thick, I only just saw where the name erialc comes from. :rolleyes: And since I am on, what happened to....

No I am not a Scot, but I was in a Scottish regiment, lived, worked, played and sang in Scotland for long enough, so I feel qualified. And I have made haggis and survived. The traditional haggis was stuffed into a sheeps stomach, which has made it something of a laughing stock in France 'stuffed lamb's paunch'. But the sheep's stomach is irrelevant. We tried it once. It was a pain in the butt and contributed nothing at all to the haggis itself. Modern commercial haggises are offered in a very plastic looking skin and bear little resemblance to the old traditional mix. Also sold in 'sausage' format in fish and chip shops. We took our recipe from an old cookbook. I don't know what diehard Scots will think of it but a French butcher friend, very cynical and under no obligation to be polite, enjoyed it. When I first tried it here there was a butcher in a nearby village with a small slaughterhouse out back, and on the odd occasion when he used it, good fresh material was easy to order. Brussels, in its wisdom - aimed to control big business and kill off small family businesses - has since forced him to close this facility. I remember my veterinary daughter bewailing the same loss of facilities in Scotland as meaning long painful journeys for terminally ill animals (not subsequently used for haggis). The basic mix is similar to a paté but with a very large proportion of oatmeal and suet added. It takes a lot of time and I can't guarantee that YOU will like the end product. But it is an experience! You need: - 1 lamb's paunch (not recommended) or sausage skins and a pump for making sausages (not expensive and making your own sausages is a way of getting away from the universal pork for sausage filling) We get sausage skins free from the local supermarket butchery section - 'boyau', those miles and miles of internal tubing found in all animals. Not as disgusting as it sounds. If you insist on a paunch, make sure it is already scraped and cleaned and soak it in cold salt water for at least 3 hours, or overnight. Neither paunch nor sausage skins are in effect essential. - the 'abats' - heart, liver, lights. Precook the lights (with the windpipe trailing over the side of the pan) 1hr30mins, and the heart 45 mins. Chop this lot up, including the uncooked liver, and mince fairly coarsely, with 2 large onions - Put into a large mixing bowl and stir in: 12 oz coarse ground oatmeal, 12 oz shredded suet, juice of 1 lemon, 2 teasp grated nutmeg, salt, pepper and 2 tablespoons whisky. 1.5 pints of stock (water and a stock cube) are included in the recipe but mix this in progressively and stop if the mixture threatens to become sloppy! OK if you have survived this far - but it's not cooked yet. 3 options: a) If you opted for the paunch..You may have to tidy up the paunch into a reasonable bag shape. Stuff the mixture into the paunch, but not too tightly or it will burst in cooking and that is a messy business.. Sew up the opening(s) with strong thread or string. Put into a large pan of boiling water and simmer gently for 3 hours. Serve hot. b) Forget the paunch, forget the sausage skins. Put the mixture into a basin, cover, and steam for 2 hours. Serve hot. Or you can then roll it into patties, or pieces the right size to fry and put in a hamburger. Be adventurous. c) For the sausage method, proceed as for b) above. Let the mixture cool and use it to fill sausage skins following the instructions for your sausage maker. Mine is a bit like a large version of the thing you use for piping things onto deserts or cakes, or like a short fat bicycle-pump, with a long enough open end to shove the sausage skins onto. You can then heat the sausages any way you like: steam long enough to reheat, or micro-wave, or fry, or deep fry in batter is nice but they might burst. The traditional accompaniment is mashed 'neaps' - I.e. turnips (N.Eng and I believe Ireland), swedes (S.Eng), rutabaga (US and France) AND A GOOD WHISKY. All the traditional stuff with piping in the haggis and reading Robbie Burns does not affect the haggis itself, but the whisky sure does We found that the main problem was to avoid the mix being too soggy. And finally Borg , as we say, the best of British mate.

At least those two are both quick and nice....and bread crumbs is a whole new ball game.

OK Gia, try this one. Minimum 3 letter words 2 lists: a) with the central T included in all words b) with the central T excluded from all words n I f l t m a s e Don't know about Indy, she sounds too clever. Organic chemistry!! The rules say that is an unfair advantage don't they?

Another question! I got photoshop on a 30 day trial. Not as difficult as I feared - the basic system of layers takes me back to drawing programs on the Mac 15 years ago. But terrible trouble drawing accurately enough with the mouse (a new one). Do I need a stylus and a proper graphics base of some sort to draw on?

Just come out of the bar. I know it seems stupid to you lot, but please define the US use of the term 'cookies'. I know it is used in Scotland, but not necessarily the same. I have enough problems with 'gateau' and 'biscuits' in France!

Another dry bread recipe: (Brown) Bread Ice-cream (not exactly quick) 6oz (wholemeal) bread crumbs, coarse texture half pint (275/300ml) double cream 8fl.oz (225ml) single cream 4 oz (100/125ml) soft brown sugar 2 eggs, separated 1 tablespoon rum a) Spread the breadcrumbs on a baking tray, toast under a medium grill till crisp and lightly browned. Stir frequently and avoid over browning b) Whip the double and single cream with the sugar till it holds a soft peak c) Beat the egg yolks with the rum and stir into the cream d) Fold in the breadcrumbs, pour mix into an ice tray, cover and freeze for 1 hour e) Whisk the egg whites till stiff f) Scrape the half-frozen ice-cream into a chilled bowl, stir well. g) Fold in the egg whites h) Put it back in ice tray, cover and freeze for at least 2 hours. I) Move to fridge half an hour before serving j) (optional) apricot or chocolate sauce. NB I have spent about an hour trying to get this image size down at Photobucket. Now avatar size but still no change this end. Sorry For a quick option you could use commercial ice cream at stage b) suitably softened for half an hour, work quickly and cut out d) and f) but I cant guarantee it will be as good.

How else would you take it if it's malt. I'll stick with Laphroaig - easier to drink than spell. :rolleyes:

Manky (Scottish/army dialect!), hunky Too many letters. The usual newspaper system is a 8 or 9 letter block based on a 8 or 9 letter word, but sometimes just letters with a central letter which must be used in all words. Is it worth continuing on this basis? Or do you lose too much sleep. PS. I'd lose too much sleep if I had to provide a full answer but I could get the better half onto it - more her line..

Pass the Alka-

I thought there were only 6, so one must be reasonable recent, or can't I count? PS: Not questioning your list but my data bank.

Bubble & squeak - not exactly 'haut cuisine' but a fried egg on it helps, and maybe a bit of bacon. Some might prefer half a gallon of ketchup on it. 'Cup'. My dictionary gives it as N.Amer (in cookery) a standard measure of liquid or dry capacity equal to half a US pint (0.237 litre or 8.33 British fluid oz). Wish I hadn't looked it up!!

This is also the season for currants and gooseberries, strawberries and rasps. We have only one bush of each and a small area for rasps and strawberries, so most of these are not enough on their own for jam or tarts, and usually get mixed up in a fruit salad. There's also a weird bush which is a cross between gooseberries and blackcurrants and is tasty and productive and has no thorns. I suppose the least liked (I.e. the least acceptable for eating raw) is gooseberries, so here is ..... Gooseberry Fool (dead easy version) - Stew the gooseberries, (proportions 1.25 lbs fruit to half pound sugar, or to taste) Make into a purée by whatever method you have to hand (sieve, fine mill, whatever). Leave to get cold - Make a thick custard and let cool. - Add the purée to the cold custard, with a little thick cream if required. Stir well till all is well blended. - serve cold, decorated (optional) with whipped cream and a fresh mint leaf. This can be done with any fruit that can be easily puréed. Another good one (also hardly popular raw!) for a fool is rhubarb.

Bangers are just sausages, any type. 'Bangers & mash' Haggis sounds terrible, but if you forget the sheep's stomach as a container (which might have been the best they could do in the 18th century or so) , then its just another sausage filling. Same as some French paté mixes but with lots of oatmeal added. Can give you a recipe if you like. I can put it in a separate thread.

CarolynYes. Very much so, and any straightforward query? Like 'what temperature would I set the oven to bake my head so that it is rare inside and crackly on the outside?' Fairy cakes - Oh wow. Shades of school cooking classes. dead right Erialc. What about curry spices, haldi (turmeric), coriander, cummin ? Can you get them? And chapati flour? Yes Carolyn, I would include any general background info. And conversational remarks like ' you seem dead keen on hot spicy stuff over there!'

Yes, incredible things can happen thro these contact things. My wife was recently contacted by an old school pal she had lost sight of forty odd years ago, who had seen the wife's brother's name (in Australia) and enquired about a possible link.

I don't know whether this is allowed, but there are a number of questions which arise which are not worth a thread. I note comments in other threads on vocabulary and brand name problems? And questions like: Can I ask if you have Tabasco sauce in the US? Do you have access to basic curry spices? What on earth is .......? For instance, so that I know whether to post certain types of recipe. So many products are known by brand names which are not known elsewhere or are attached to different products. Nothing to do with the kitchen (I hope) but try asking for Durex in GB and in Australia - not the same thing by far! So I thought a general info thread might be of value. What do you think?

horsebacks of course