Friday Five!

The positive is that your location now gives you (and them) the excuse to do more travelling together!

Yes! My oldest is meeting me in NL in April. We will be staying on the opposite coast for a week with trips into Amsterdam.

And Eden and I are already discussing where to meet for our next trip.

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Daughter likes Almond Milk in her tea. And Hemp Milk.  But neither of them in coffee. Says it has to be the unsweetened ones.

Friday again.Wow! AND August - when did that happen???

1) We tried making dill pickles last night. I processed three packed pint jars of Tesco baby cucumbers in a dill and spice brine. The Daughter says the brine tastes like dill pickle brine should taste (she tested it while we were jarring them). It certainly did smell right. We'll know in about three or four weeks when we pop one open and taste 'em. Was nice to just do a boiling water bath canning session rather than a full pressure canning one. For whatever reason, our hob takes FOREVER to get the water up to temperature, so I'm reduced to starting the canner on to warm up almost before I do anything else related to canning food. And fill all the other burners with pots of water to bring to a boil to add to what I get started in the canner, and it STILL takes forever. That's one of the reasons I was hoping for a gas hob. But the other features (primarily energy efficiency and the lift) of this flat more than balance that little quirk out.

2) Mailman left a snarky note "to all" two days ago at the building entrance about not being able to get into the building and how we should "sort it."  Since I'm home six days out of seven at the time the mailman comes, and he hasn't tried ringing me to get in.... Then again, how have the other carriers managed, for the last year and a few months? The mail always managed to get into the building.  Whatever. I left a reply and taped the card to the glass so the others could add comments. Nobody has, of course. He managed to buzz me to let him in today.

3) Ordered a package from a whole foods place that said it was coming next day mail. Got word on Wednesday that it had shipped, so assumed it would be here by today at least. Nope, apparently it's still in Kent somewhere? On the good side, I ordered a small bottle of organic vanilla (just bourbon, water, and vanilla in it) and they apparently were out of that size, so they are sending a larger bottle at no additional charge. (!) I hope it turns out to be good stuff, as it's really hard to find vanilla that doesn't have sugar or chems added....

4) The weather is beautiful out. Overcast, not too warm, not too cool, just a bit of a breeze. It would be great walking weather except I've got a sort of a mild stomach bug, so I need to not go share it with the public. Have all the windows open and will vacuum the place out later this afternoon. After I watch "The Mongolian Death Worm" on the telly. (I love a schlocker sci-fi.) That seagull has been casing the place again, flying/hovering outside the kitchen window until I came into the room. May have to modify the "wide open windows" scheme a bit.

5) The diet. Tomorrow marks two weeks. I'm no longer hungry all the time, and I was able to slip on some jeans yesterday that would not button three weeks ago. They buttoned, without pain.  Still tighter than they were when we first arrived, but better.  We don't actually have a scale in the house, so we're going by measurements and clothing. I have modified up from 800 to 1000 calories a day (as my basal rate with no activity included is about 1700 calories), and the Daughter is still shooting for 800-900. Since I'm doing the cooking, she's probably getting closer to 900-1000, as I can't manage to get a balanced diet into her otherwise. We never could find a meal replacement drink without artificial sweeteners, so it's "real" food.  She says she's noticing her clothes fit better as well.  So, two weeks down, 6 to go.  We'd like to be able to fly back to Calif before Christmas for a week, and purchasing a lot of jeans, etc., is in that formula so we need to be at a steady-state weight by then, but that'll all depend on the driver's licence thing anyway. Oh, well. The Home Office (or whomver is the DMV here) has the Irish passport card and form, as of yesterday, so hopefully it'll arrive soon and then I can call "Tommy Automatic" and see about lessons.

Lotta hoo-haw in town about the European Sporting Championships. Lotsa roads going to be closed next week. Might have to shoogle over and watch.

Daughter likes Almond Milk in her tea. And Hemp Milk.  But neither of them in coffee. Says it has to be the unsweetened ones.

Friday again.Wow! AND August - when did that happen???

1) We tried making dill pickles last night. I processed three packed pint jars of Tesco baby cucumbers in a dill and spice brine. The Daughter says the brine tastes like dill pickle brine should taste (she tested it while we were jarring them). It certainly did smell right. We'll know in about three or four weeks when we pop one open and taste 'em. Was nice to just do a boiling water bath canning session rather than a full pressure canning one. For whatever reason, our hob takes FOREVER to get the water up to temperature, so I'm reduced to starting the canner on to warm up almost before I do anything else related to canning food. And fill all the other burners with pots of water to bring to a boil to add to what I get started in the canner, and it STILL takes forever. That's one of the reasons I was hoping for a gas hob. But the other features (primarily energy efficiency and the lift) of this flat more than balance that little quirk out.

Our hob is the same. It's annoying! We usually boil water in the kettle first. I hope the pickles turn out

3) Ordered a package from a whole foods place that said it was coming next day mail. Got word on Wednesday that it had shipped, so assumed it would be here by today at least. Nope, apparently it's still in Kent somewhere? On the good side, I ordered a small bottle of organic vanilla (just bourbon, water, and vanilla in it) and they apparently were out of that size, so they are sending a larger bottle at no additional charge. (!) I hope it turns out to be good stuff, as it's really hard to find vanilla that doesn't have sugar or chems added....

Which site was it? A friend introduced me to one based in Kent but I won't be able to order til next payday.

5) The diet. Tomorrow marks two weeks. I'm no longer hungry all the time, and I was able to slip on some jeans yesterday that would not button three weeks ago. They buttoned, without pain.  Still tighter than they were when we first arrived, but better.  We don't actually have a scale in the house, so we're going by measurements and clothing. I have modified up from 800 to 1000 calories a day (as my basal rate with no activity included is about 1700 calories), and the Daughter is still shooting for 800-900. Since I'm doing the cooking, she's probably getting closer to 900-1000, as I can't manage to get a balanced diet into her otherwise. We never could find a meal replacement drink without artificial sweeteners, so it's "real" food.  She says she's noticing her clothes fit better as well.  So, two weeks down, 6 to go.

I'm glad it's going well! Honestly, real food is probably better. There's plenty of low calorie vitamin full options, it's just a bit more effort to measure the calories. I also believe measurements and how you feel are more effective than scales when you're losing weight.

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Yeah, we are hopeful for the pickles, too. It's really hard to get Kosher dill pickles like Vlassic Spears here, and we miss them.

https://www.buywholefoodsonline.co.uk  is the place we tried. They had almond flour for like 7 pounds for 500g (about a pound-weight). It costs me $7-ish plus shipping to get a pound-weight of it sent from the States, so if it's a good quality I'll be able to source it from them from now on.  They also had a nice selection of whole spices. And the vanilla. Orders over 30 pounds (monetary) are free shipping. [There are times I wish I had a UK keyboard - no British pound sign on this one!] I really am hoping they work out. My old standby Vitacost is great, but sometimes stuff gets broken, etc., and so a "local" supplier would be nice.

Yeah, we don't keep a scale in the house for just that reason - one's weight fluctuates normally, and I don't want to watch the Daughter get obsessed with numbers. I was starting to feel bad - when I go over 200 my feet hurt and things just seem 'wrong", so I must have hit that. The Daughter is supposed to be on a restricted carb diet normally, so this has just been an extra push into that. We've tried a lot of things we've never had before, and been pleasantly surprised with a lot of them. I've been doing the cooking form scratch, and we're having fish twice a week and chicken usually at least three or four times, mixed in as part of a sauce or as a salad topper, or in a corn tortilla with fried onions, peppers, and cilantro as a topper. The spiralizer works great for making spaghetti out of carrots, and I have a butternut squash out there that is going to be half of it spiralized and half frozen for future use in soup. Have never worked with cauliflower, but have a head of it and a recipe for a soup that requires I toast it in the oven before it gets pureed into the soup. And a recipe that uses it to make a pizza crust! That'll be tomorrow, I think. What is hard is trying to keep things varied. The Daughter eats egg whites for breakfast, with whole-grain bread toast. We make the bread ourselves, so we know what's in it. Still keeps it to about 200 calories, and she likes that breakfast - would eat that even if she wasn't on a diet. But keeping the other meals varied is tough.  I did make a pot of chicken curry and have been stretching the sauce out over several meals. In the last incarnation it was mixed with quiona and served as a side (which actually was pretty good). Baked cod is nice. We have noticed that the pre-packaged greens we've been getting at Waitrose have been becoming a bit more bitter, with more shredded beet and less tender greens, in the last few weeks. Probably the result of the drought?

I swear though, there have been a few afternoons when I wanted to order just a plain cheese pizza from Dominos and to sit and eat the whole thing. Hence the keeping busy with canning and preserving - keeps me occupied and too busy to think about how close that phone is, and how Dominos delivers in a half hour, and how it's less than a tenner... aieeeee!    The Daughter has gone to the Uni for a few hours, if I hide the pizza box in the trash....

[hahahah, No, she'd smell it when she walked into the flat and I'd never hear the end of it!]

We have one of these:

It boils water even faster than the kettle.

I just saw the price... we paid much less than that.  Do shop around.

Lol Nan! The pizza dreams I am well familiar with. I've been doing lots of cleaning and tidying to stay busy and could definitely go for a pizza.

And that's the site she recommended to me, so hopefully it's good enough! She gave me a bag of dried red pepper (for attempting to make Italian dressing) from there. Planet organic is another I've used when we were in London, but I'm not sure about their shipping rates and some things are too pricey.

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Yeah, we are hopeful for the pickles, too. It's really hard to get Kosher dill pickles like Vlassic Spears here, and we miss them.

https://www.buywholefoodsonline.co.uk  is the place we tried. They had almond flour for like 7 pounds for 500g (about a pound-weight). It costs me $7-ish plus shipping to get a pound-weight of it sent from the States, so if it's a good quality I'll be able to source it from them from now on.  They also had a nice selection of whole spices. And the vanilla. Orders over 30 pounds (monetary) are free shipping. [There are times I wish I had a UK keyboard - no British pound sign on this one!] I really am hoping they work out. My old standby Vitacost is great, but sometimes stuff gets broken, etc., and so a "local" supplier would be nice.

Yeah, we don't keep a scale in the house for just that reason - one's weight fluctuates normally, and I don't want to watch the Daughter get obsessed with numbers. I was starting to feel bad - when I go over 200 my feet hurt and things just seem 'wrong", so I must have hit that. The Daughter is supposed to be on a restricted carb diet normally, so this has just been an extra push into that. We've tried a lot of things we've never had before, and been pleasantly surprised with a lot of them. I've been doing the cooking form scratch, and we're having fish twice a week and chicken usually at least three or four times, mixed in as part of a sauce or as a salad topper, or in a corn tortilla with fried onions, peppers, and cilantro as a topper. The spiralizer works great for making spaghetti out of carrots, and I have a butternut squash out there that is going to be half of it spiralized and half frozen for future use in soup. Have never worked with cauliflower, but have a head of it and a recipe for a soup that requires I toast it in the oven before it gets pureed into the soup. And a recipe that uses it to make a pizza crust! That'll be tomorrow, I think. What is hard is trying to keep things varied. The Daughter eats egg whites for breakfast, with whole-grain bread toast. We make the bread ourselves, so we know what's in it. Still keeps it to about 200 calories, and she likes that breakfast - would eat that even if she wasn't on a diet. But keeping the other meals varied is tough.  I did make a pot of chicken curry and have been stretching the sauce out over several meals. In the last incarnation it was mixed with quiona and served as a side (which actually was pretty good). Baked cod is nice. We have noticed that the pre-packaged greens we've been getting at Waitrose have been becoming a bit more bitter, with more shredded beet and less tender greens, in the last few weeks. Probably the result of the drought?

I swear though, there have been a few afternoons when I wanted to order just a plain cheese pizza from Dominos and to sit and eat the whole thing. Hence the keeping busy with canning and preserving - keeps me occupied and too busy to think about how close that phone is, and how Dominos delivers in a half hour, and how it's less than a tenner... aieeeee!    The Daughter has gone to the Uni for a few hours, if I hide the pizza box in the trash....

[hahahah, No, she'd smell it when she walked into the flat and I'd never hear the end of it!]

Alt 156 makes the £ sign on a US keyboard. Make sure your number lock is on.

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We have one of these:

It boils water even faster than the kettle.

I just saw the price... we paid much less than that.  Do shop around.

Hmmm. Not sure if my canner would work on an induction hob or not. Will definitely have to check that out, though! It takes hideously long to warm up all the water I need for a boiling-water batch and takes a similarly long period of time to bring the pressure canner up to pressure. (Which I think is messing with the processing, I'm losing fluid out of the jars in both processing types, and never have before doing the exact same methods, so I think it's the overly-long heat up.) [EDIT:  Ah, no, it won't. The canner is aluminum. I'd have to buy a big stock pot to use for boiling water canning to use an induction hob. Which I'd do if I was going to be doing a lot of acidic foods. But I think I'll primarily be putting meat, soup, and veg up, which requires a pressure canner. Neat idea, tho!]

Thanks for the tip!

Hmmm. Not sure if my canner would work on an induction hob or not. Will definitely have to check that out, though! It takes hideously long to warm up all the water I need for a boiling-water batch and takes a similarly long period of time to bring the pressure canner up to pressure. (Which I think is messing with the processing, I'm losing fluid out of the jars in both processing types, and never have before doing the exact same methods, so I think it's the overly-long heat up.) [EDIT:  Ah, no, it won't. The canner is aluminum. I'd have to buy a big stock pot to use for boiling water canning to use an induction hob. Which I'd do if I was going to be doing a lot of acidic foods. But I think I'll primarily be putting meat, soup, and veg up, which requires a pressure canner. Neat idea, tho!]

Thanks for the tip!

Okay, for normal cooking, I wouldn't recommend this, but it could really help you.  They also sell this induction-ready discs of ferrous metal that you can put on your induction hob to make it work with any pan. I don't know if it's as efficient as an induction-ready pan, but it's something to consider:... This is not worth consideration for your purposes.



Edited to add:  Nah, I read the description and reviews on some.  I wouldn't use it for canning.  They don't recommend you use these discs for high heat cooking.  Nevermind.

It's almost time... preparations have begun!

I like unsweetened almond milk for drinking only... drinking on it's own, not mixed in to something else!  He knows the error of his ways, now.... 

It's almost time... preparations have begun!

You're not messing around, are you? 

You're not messing around, are you? 

Weekends are serious business.  We have had a year and a half of conditioning... we learned to maximize our time.

Edited to add: Thank goodness for autocorrect.  We had cheese and port first.  I'm struggling.   

Weekends are serious business.  We have had a year and a half of conditioning... we learned to maximize our time.

Edited to add: Thank goodness for autocorrect.  We had cheese and port first.  I'm struggling.   

I really wish you were my wife!

I really wish you were my wife!

We'll adopt you!  The more the merrier!