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CHATTERBOX

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Re: CHATTERBOX

Postby Pampy » Wed Nov 08, 2017 7:49 pm

jeral wrote:Good news about early pre-op assessment date. I think they tend to get on with it soon after (or they'd have to do another if an op delay) so they might well have a provisional op date already scheduled provided the pre-op goes OK :crossed

Don't be too sure about that. I had a pre-op assessment at the beginning of December last year and finally had my op. in the middle of March this year - without an additional assessment being done. It was quite major surgery too.

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Re: CHATTERBOX

Postby Suffs » Wed Nov 08, 2017 8:46 pm

I too will really miss Antonio Carluccio .......... I owe him such a lot :(

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Re: CHATTERBOX

Postby Renée » Thu Nov 09, 2017 1:06 am

It was such a shock to hear that sad news. He will be sadly missed.

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Re: CHATTERBOX

Postby smitch » Thu Nov 09, 2017 11:46 am

Depends on the hospital re. pre-op assessments.

I had two operations recently in different hospitals. The first one (gallbladder removal) I had the pre-op in the same hospital I saw the consultant. The nurse running the clinic told me it was valid for 3 months. As it happens, I had my op a couple of weeks later at their partner hospital. No further blood tests were needed.

My second op was done at yet another hospital. They only regard theirs as being valid for a week. The letter inviting me to the pre-op also gave me a provisional surgery date. When I passed the pre-op tests, the nurse gave me a confirmation letter for my surgery. As it was 8 days after I attended pre-op, I had to have more blood taken when I arrived on the ward :roll:

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Re: CHATTERBOX

Postby strictlysalsaclare » Thu Nov 09, 2017 10:50 pm

I will also miss Antonio Carluccio. I have got a booklet of his recipes that was sponsored by Cirio tomatoes in my collection. I think it came with an issue of Good Food magazine a couple of years ago. I must look through it again and cook one of the recipes in the next week of so.

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Re: CHATTERBOX

Postby Suffs » Fri Nov 10, 2017 10:15 pm

Went down to Southwold harbour today ...six plump sweet line-caught herrings fresh off the boat for £3 ... fifty pence a herring ... what a complete bargain!!!

I bought a few smoked sprats too for a light lunch tomorrow :D

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Re: CHATTERBOX

Postby Renée » Sat Nov 11, 2017 12:43 am

Oh, how fabulous, Suffs!

Whilst in Sittard, the Netherlands, we sampled the new herrings of the season which had been prepared on the boat and placed in salt in a barrel. Each portion was served with sliced red onion.

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Re: CHATTERBOX

Postby Gillthepainter » Sat Nov 11, 2017 11:49 am

Nice one, Suffs.
What a haul for you.

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Re: CHATTERBOX

Postby Lusciouslush » Sat Nov 11, 2017 12:42 pm

You have just reminded me that I have smoked sprats in the freezer Suffs...... :thumbsup

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Re: CHATTERBOX

Postby Sakkarin » Sat Nov 11, 2017 12:58 pm

Great buy, but the poor fishermen surely can't make a living on 50p a fish :-(

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Re: CHATTERBOX

Postby Suffs » Sat Nov 11, 2017 3:15 pm

It's not all they're catching and at the moment we're at the height of the herring season here in East Anglia ... when I asked if he had any herring he said 'Got hundreds of the bdooly things'. Those they don't sell get frozen and used for bait for crab and lobster pots etc.

There are three of these huts in the small harbour selling fish fresh off the boats ... https://www.yelp.co.uk/biz/samantha-ks- ... -southwold

one of them also has a restaurant on the harbour and a takeaway in Southwold itself https://www.solebayfishco.co.uk

they used to sell their fish to a local fishmonger but he retired and sold his shop in the town and it's now something else. The fishermen set up their own sales direct to the public who love to go down to the harbour (there's also a very good pub down there http://www.harbourinnsouthwold.co.uk/ ) and apparently they're doing better financially nowadays now they've cut out the middle man and sell direct.

If anyone's visiting East Anglia Southwold Harbour is a place not to be missed, any time of the year.

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Where's all the crusty bread gone?

Postby Sakkarin » Tue Nov 14, 2017 2:38 pm

With the demise of Tesco's "Euphorium" brand, most of their bread is soft as baby food, so I am having to get sourdough loaves to satisfy my urge for crustiness. However Both M&S anmd Wenzels do a better sourdough than Tesco, so I prefer to get theirs.

The last time I bought an M&S sourdough, they asked me if I wanted it sliced. It kinds of defeats the object in my view, but what worried me was that the guy was automatically about to put it in the slicer, so quickly that I almost said "Yes". Had I done so, it would have been butchered before I'd had a chance to realise what was going on.

A couple of days ago I went to get another M&S sourdough. This time virtually all the fresh loaves had been pre-sliced. There were several sliced sourdoughs, but no unsliced. Fortunately I was on my way to the Italian deli anyway, and got a superb crusty loaf there, but I do fear that proper crusty bread may soon disappear completely.

Maybe there should be a law against pre-slicing artisan breads.

EDIT: P.S. The best bread I've had this week was a very crusty small baguette from a new "artisan bread" stall (right next to the "Korean" one) in the market. However it was £2, their crusty loaves are £3.70. Expensive occasional treat I think.

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Re: CHATTERBOX

Postby Suffs » Tue Nov 14, 2017 3:55 pm

I think there are a lot of people who don't have proper breadknives and who don't know how to cut a slice of bread from a whole loaf.
The concept of an unsliced loaf scares them.

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Re: CHATTERBOX

Postby jeral » Tue Nov 14, 2017 5:31 pm

With crusty bread, rolls especially knots, or plaited bread, it always seemed a crime to me to slice it as half the joy is preserving its "strandy" texture or "letting it pull apart where it does". Needless to say, it got me in a lot of bother as a kid if I started pulling apart the family loaf :lol: so pulling doorestep slices apart was the nearest I could get.

Anna Olsen was on TV this a.m. Food Network and made a yeast starter rested for only 12-24 hours, for a pain de campagne(?) with a decidedly crusty crust. (Also a ciabatta which actually looked like a ciabatta rather than the cardboard supermarket versions.) I recorded the programme so could expand although it'd take me ages to stop-watch and capture in type.

That said, some bought breads can just be put in a hot oven for a minute or three. My counter-top halogen is brilliant for that. Not if they're sliced though ;)

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Re: CHATTERBOX

Postby Petronius » Tue Nov 14, 2017 6:58 pm

Sainsbury's do a quick version of sourdough

https://www.sainsburysmagazine.co.uk/re ... -sourdough

And the Real Bread Campaign complained about it.

https://www.sustainweb.org/realbread/as ... acket_mix/

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Re: CHATTERBOX

Postby Sakkarin » Tue Nov 14, 2017 8:12 pm

I may give that Sainos recipe a bash. That Paul who wrote it, that's not Paulthebread is it?

I wondered how you become an "artisan baker" which much of the discussion hung around. Apparently you can become an Australian artisan baker free for individual bakers.

http://artisanbaker.org/about

However this is actually an interesting site, its definition of sourdough doesn't really suggest the idea that you can take short cuts in the process.

http://artisanbaker.org/definition-sourdough

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Re: CHATTERBOX

Postby Petronius » Tue Nov 14, 2017 9:52 pm

No Sakks, it was Paul who sent the RBC link in the first place.

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Re: CHATTERBOX

Postby Sakkarin » Tue Nov 14, 2017 10:15 pm

Ha!

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Re: CHATTERBOX

Postby jeral » Wed Nov 15, 2017 1:36 am

Isn't the relatively skill-free, relatively quick bread-making method just echoing using a tiny amount of yeast and extended proving time, i.e. that New York chef's method, so doesn't pretend to be artisan or sour dough, just something that produces a good tasty result?

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Re: CHATTERBOX

Postby strictlysalsaclare » Wed Nov 15, 2017 8:57 am

Morning everyone

I just wanted to let you all know that I am really enjoying my new job so far. Everyone is so genuinely friendly and our team members have been really helpful and settled us newbies in. There are 3 of us so far, plus one who's transferred from care work to office and started a week before us. We'll have another member of the team joining us next month, who also attended the same induction day as me. She is also lovely.

Anyway I ended up doing some baking over the weekend to take in. I just needed to say thank you to the established team members for all their help and making us feel welcome. The department has been very short-staffed admin-wise in recent months, so they have all deserved medals....or cake! I made a butterscotch victoria sandwich and Mary Berry's fork biscuits from her ultimate cake book. The biccies tasted a bit like shortcakes. Both items were very well received! :P

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