CHATTERBOX

[Sakkarin Profile]

Nudged by the "Eat My Books" thread, I'm trying for once and for all to construct a list of all my cookbooks, and have been playing with a free app which converts speech to text, then emails the text file direct to my computer. It's not quite as good as Google unfortunately!

Four attempts at trying to decipher "Vatcharin Bhumichitr":

Southeast Asian cookbook by veteran lumeter which is
Southeast Asian salads by virtue and beauty tutor
Thai street food by Vectra and boo Wichita to
Taste of Thailand by factoring do with chitter but

...and this made me laugh loudest:

The Food of Barley (which should of course be The food of BALI!)

[Joanbunting Profile]

Sakkers I thought of you when I unearthed my ancient copy of Margert Patterns Make a Menu book. Split three ways into starter , main and dessert.

I can't find it mentioned anywhere.

[Renée Profile]

I once won that book, Joan, in a Rowntrees Jelly competition!

[Sakkarin Profile]

Ha! "Fanny Craddock" (I have three of her "books") translates as "funny credit"!

"Heinz Book of Baked Bean Recipes" became "Facebook of Baked Beans Recipes"...

[Uschi Profile]

Renée, Axel has one of those protectors and it works really well.

Gill, I also keep stashes of fabric and stuff for such "emergencies". I guess that's what having had war time parents does to one.

[Renée Profile]

That's good to know, Uschi. My computer room has a carpet and the mat prevents damage to the carpet. I can move the chair easily too.

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

Sakkers.
You need to put your teeth in for those apps to work proper.

My parents kept everything too. It's a virtue, Uschi.

You've got a computer room, Renee. What, like your own study.
How civilized.

[Renée Profile]

Yes, Gill, but it's actually the spare bedroom, which was used more when Charlotte came to stay, but those days are gone now!

[Sakkarin Profile]

They WERE in, honest...

[Uschi Profile]

Sakkers.
You need to put your teeth in for those apps to work proper.

My parents kept everything too. It's a virtue, Uschi.

You've got a computer room, Renee. What, like your own study.
How civilized.

One can be too virtuous, Gill. My father came home to nothing in 1949. Before the war he still lived with his mother and she was bombed out three times. All she had managed to save were the family papers, photographs, the duvets and her disabled son.

He had to go to the Salvation Army for his first set of civilian clothes.

And he kept everything from empty cheese spread boxes to rubber rings to old screws and rusty nails. I am still throwing things away. You should have seen his newspaper archive.

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

Ha ha ha.
The great gurning competition is alive and well.

Oh dear Uschi.
My sister is a hoarder. When they extended their house, they put everything into expensive storage.
Cost a fortune for 2 years (big building project).
My BIL blew his top when he got the boxes back, that were full of broken dollies, plastic rubbish. Newspapers and wrapping paper.
Tupperware.
Even a smashed black and white telly.
They should have binned the majority.

[Uschi Profile]

It is difficult. I have to be strict with myself, I tend to hoard, too.
Some of it is due to having moved in here with no place to move and stuffing everything everywhere. I could not find things and am now slowly excavating. I did manage to give a lot of my mother's Tupperware to the relatives, though.

[Sakkarin Profile]

Venice bans kebab shops!!!

Seeing the comment "Only shops selling artisanal ice cream will be spared from the measure", reminded me of the double take which made me laugh out loud a few days ago when I passed the local Tesco "Giraffe" restaurant, and they has a sign up offering "Artisanal Coffee only £1.25".

Maybe the kebab shops should rebrand them as "artisanal kebabs".

Artisanal: (of a product, especially food or drink) made in a traditional or non-mechanized way

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/ ... tions-city

[Petronius Profile]

Artisanal?

There's got to be a joke in there somewhere.

[Sakkarin Profile]

It has been suggested that I don't know my artisanal from my elbow...

[Joanbunting Profile]

Talking of hoarding. Since mid January we have been sorting the mounds of stuff in"stor" in DD's house next door beca +use they are ready to start on the top floor.

It is from the time we condensed two houses into one ( and the bit next door). 300+ vinyl records for example, not to mention my remaining 400 cook books and all M's family/local history documents, papers and books.

We've had more shelving and cupboards built in the library and are still trying to organise the stuff we haven''t thrown out/given away/ or sold.

[Sakkarin Profile]

Reminds me of the old Beach Boys song, "Wooden it be knife".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKH63_r0OCA

[jeral Profile]

Wow - truly a thing of beauty and labour of love.

It reminds me (only slighly) of a chopping board made of olive wood bought for me from Italy, with strict instructions not to put it in the dishwaher lol. That, I would never do, but I do keep getting the urge to coat it with Danish Oil to bring out the lustrous almost luminous difference in colour. Maybe I'll give in, oil it and mount it in a glass case over the mantelpiece with one of those lignum knives...

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Get some cheap (TRS) almond oil from an Indian shop or supermarket, it's what I do cheese boards and wooden fruit platters with, nearly as effective on wood as Danish oil, virtually tasteless and entirely edible (if not allergic obvs.)

[jeral Profile]

Thanks Stokey Sue. I do have some food-safe sweet almond oil which I buy as it's excellent to nourish dry cuticles in wintry weather, but I suppose I can spare a bit for my olive board lol. It would make me disproportionately happy