Mundane News

[oldwheels]

Knackered.
Got home after a slow run up the road behind 5 touroid cars. I did let a local pickup past as sometimes that reminds them to pull over for faster traffic. No chance.
Mostly unloaded and urgent freezer stuff packed away but some is still in the fridge to get done tomorrow.
The bashed van is still where it was a week ago and another stopped car with a “ Police Accident “ sign beside it. In fact it is probably an automatic which would not start and stuck in gear so cannot move without being lifted by a breakdown truck. Been there according to FB for several days now. Same thing happened to a friend with a Jaguar who got stuck in the exit from the local main car park. Very embarrassing but was caused I think by a faulty connection cable between the two batteries.
Sod’s Law. I found an appointment for a hospital appointment next Wednesday waiting behind the door. That is the day of course that the passenger lift on the ferry is out of action for repair. I think I will have to get this rescheduled but ferry timetables show a long wait hanging around Oban anyway. Not fun.

 

[Jameshow]

Apple pie made on a role.

Big run tomorrow.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

I hope the Welsh members of CycleChat are ok.

View: https://twitter.com/NoContextBrits/status/1591389923399331840

 

[KnittyNorah]

I'm the other way round... And then throw in things like nuts and tangerines and stuff...

The one thing that does bug me though is turkey*. I don't mind a good quality free range bird, but I'm only catering for two, so I'll just buy a nice joint of whatever mum and I fancy. Christmas chez Casa Reynard is a mix of European traditions, and so we pick and choose what we like best.

* the advantage of turkey is that it feeds a lot of people relatively cheaply, but it wouldn't be my first choice for a celebration meal. Turkey breast steaks do make fantastic schnitzel though...

Nuts - yuk. Except marzipan and flaked almonds. Dried vine fruits - double yuk. Glace cherries, candied peel - triple yuk. Ruled out so far are most of the Christmas traditional 'sweet treats'.

I'm not quite vegetarian, but I try very hard indeed not to eat any bird or mammal meat that I don't know specifically where it came from - and preferably 'who' it is, too. So any invitation to a 'normal' Christmas dinner will leave me with vanishingly-little that I want to eat, as even the gravy is made from the turkey juices, and a plate of plain boiled veggies holds no appeal to me at all.

At least Christmas brings ample supplies of smoked salmon - which I love (I'm happy to be at least somewhat pescatarian) so I'll pig out on smoked salmon sandwiches, smoked salmon on crackers, pumpernickel, pitta bread, sourdough, in baked potatoes with a knob of cream cheese etc etc - and it's a good excuse for making sherry trifle and tipsy laird instead of just eating a yoghurt ...

One Christmas I went for a restaurant meal with a group of friends from the choir and there was a very nice Salmon Wellington, which I had with a Christmas Salad containing all sorts of colourful, tasty, crunchy, spicy or fruity bits. The next year we went back to the same place and the true veggie option was Celebration Mushroom Tarts, with big beefy mushrooms slow-baked in herbs and red wine served in puff pastry cases, equally delicious. I can honestly say it tasted more like proper beef than any 'chain butcher' supplied beef - it was just the texture which gave it away as 'not beef'.

The year after that was Covid and the place never reopened.

 

[Andy in Germany]

Nuts - yuk. Except marzipan and flaked almonds. Dried vine fruits - double yuk. Glace cherries, candied peel - triple yuk. Ruled out so far are most of the Christmas traditional 'sweet treats'.

I'm with you on this; I've just opened a pack of Mini Marzipan Butterstollen.

 

[KnittyNorah]

I'm with you on this; I've just opened a pack of Mini Marzipan Butterstollen.

All the varieties of stollen I've seen in the German discounters here have candied peels and/or dried vine fruits in them. Blergh!

 

[Reynard]

Nuts - yuk. Except marzipan and flaked almonds. Dried vine fruits - double yuk. Glace cherries, candied peel - triple yuk. Ruled out so far are most of the Christmas traditional 'sweet treats'.

Maybe not the time to admit I've about 20kg of foraged walnuts, then... Although being of part Polish and part German origin, sweet treats also include cheesecake, lebkuchen and a yeasted "swiss roll" type cake filled with poppy seed and honey.

I'm not quite vegetarian, but I try very hard indeed not to eat any bird or mammal meat that I don't know specifically where it came from - and preferably 'who' it is, too. So any invitation to a 'normal' Christmas dinner will leave me with vanishingly-little that I want to eat, as even the gravy is made from the turkey juices, and a plate of plain boiled veggies holds no appeal to me at all.

At least Christmas brings ample supplies of smoked salmon - which I love (I'm happy to be at least somewhat pescatarian) so I'll pig out on smoked salmon sandwiches, smoked salmon on crackers, pumpernickel, pitta bread, sourdough, in baked potatoes with a knob of cream cheese etc etc - and it's a good excuse for making sherry trifle and tipsy laird instead of just eating a yoghurt ...

One Christmas I went for a restaurant meal with a group of friends from the choir and there was a very nice Salmon Wellington, which I had with a Christmas Salad containing all sorts of colourful, tasty, crunchy, spicy or fruity bits. The next year we went back to the same place and the true veggie option was Celebration Mushroom Tarts, with big beefy mushrooms slow-baked in herbs and red wine served in puff pastry cases, equally delicious. I can honestly say it tasted more like proper beef than any 'chain butcher' supplied beef - it was just the texture which gave it away as 'not beef'.

The year after that was Covid and the place never reopened.

Fish, mushrooms and vegetable salads are the cornerstone of the Polish Christmas dinner (Wigilia) - which is on Christmas Eve.

 

[Reynard]

Time to feed the cats, and then time to see to a bowl of soup before the sprint race from Interlagos.

 

[KnittyNorah]

Maybe not the time to admit I've about 20kg of foraged walnuts, then... Although being of part Polish and part German origin, sweet treats also include cheesecake, lebkuchen and a yeasted "swiss roll" type cake filled with poppy seed and honey.



Fish, mushrooms and vegetable salads are the cornerstone of the Polish Christmas dinner (Wigilia) - which is on Christmas Eve.

Carp was at the heart of Austrian christmas food - I lived there for a couple of years - and have to confess that carp is NOT my favourite fish, as far as flavour and texture goes! Better was Sydney, down to the fish market on christmas eve for barramundi or a fat steak of freshly-line-caught tuna ...
I can eat lebkuchen and pfeffernuesse until they come out of my ears ... a bouche de Noel goes down very well, too. Just keep those mince pies, Christmas pud and Christmas cake away from me, please. Even the worst of them tend to smell divine but even the best taste - IMO - like dirty gravel.

 

[Andy in Germany]

All the varieties of stollen I've seen in the German discounters here have candied peels and/or dried vine fruits in them. Blergh!

These have raisins but I'm no sure that's mandatory. As for candied peels... do some people have no standards?

 

[Reynard]

Carp was at the heart of Austrian christmas food - I lived there for a couple of years - and have to confess that carp is NOT my favourite fish, as far as flavour and texture goes! Better was Sydney, down to the fish market on christmas eve for barramundi or a fat steak of freshly-line-caught tuna ...
I can eat lebkuchen and pfeffernuesse until they come out of my ears ... a bouche de Noel goes down very well, too. Just keep those mince pies, Christmas pud and Christmas cake away from me, please. Even the worst of them tend to smell divine but even the best taste - IMO - like dirty gravel.

I'm not a fan of carp either tbh... Too many bones and it's got a tendency to taste muddy. I'd much rather have even something as humble as basa. Oh, and one has to have herrings.

I have probably over two hundred different recipes for various lebkuchen, some dating back to the late 1800s.

Don't like Christmas cake either. It's too sweet.

 

[classic33]

I've found my smoke detector.

You were making toast again?

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Spectacular bottom bracket failure on tonight's ride and I walked about five miles home.

In the past fourteen months or so I've broken one ankle, two cars and three bikes. I wonder what will go wrong next!

Too much power captain, she’ll ne’er take it

 

[tyred]

I'm going to an Ulster - Scots poetry and storytelling evening.

It's funny that what is now culture was bad English when I was at school and probably earned you a whack from the teacher.

 

[tyred]

Too much power captain, she’ll ne’er take it

Old school cup and cone. The threaded part is still in the frame but the outside edge has completely broken away in a complete circle. I'll take a photo in daylight as I've never seen that happen before.