Tuesday Thoughts
Why do people post 'recipes' which in their list of ingredients call for boxed cake mixes/pudding mixes? (eg: here - which sounds amazing even if it looks a bit ordinary. But boiling a gallon of cider down to a couple of cups worth? Better get the cheaper stuff then!) I guess it's an American thing. Cake mixes are generally very expensive ways of buying a specifically ratio-ed mix of flour, raising agent, fat, sugar and, perhaps, flavouring. You usually still need to add eggs. Srsly, Dear Baking Reader, it's cheaper to buy the relevant ingredients and make from scratch. Particularly now everyone seems to have whizzy mixers so it's no chore to cream fat and sugar then beat in eggs and finally fold in the flour. Whateva!
A low tide at Lymington allowed an Isle of Wight ferry to touch bottom today, to 'ground', with knock-on delays of around 90minutes. The trouble with making ferries, or any ship, larger and larger is that they require ever deeper water, and tides have a regular habit of going out. At this time of year (Equinox) they tend to go out further than ever, hence the grounding. Teehee!
The socks for Niece are knitted, now to embroider the cat faces. As the grey yarn has deposited black bars at the top of the socks I think they'll have yellow eyes. Thinx: do I have some white four-ply for the whiskers? I can see another purchase of yarn coming on, if only for the commissioned socks. That's this afternoon's job, the cat faces. Then I can get them into the post, in a wild hope that they'll arrive before Niece's birthday on Sunday. I've heard a rumour that she may be going away for the weekend, so it mightn't matter so much if they don't arrive til Monday, but . . .
And Finally - plastic carrier bags will no longer be free in England from next Monday. There will be a charge of 5p for single use carriers in the hope that we will get smart and use fewre of them. Plastic carrier bags go to make up a heck of a lot of the stuff we throw away, and they take nearly forever to break down. Yes, I know you can get biodegradeable bags, the whizzy new Co-Op near us had them when it re-opened. Then they realised how 'down market' the area is generally, and switched to 'flimsies', though 'Bags for Life' were available for a small fee (10p). The supermarket is now an Asda, with green-printed white 'flimsies' which will, from Monday, cost 5p apiece. The moral of the story, Dear Reader, is to find some re-usable bags which fold down very small, and always take them with you - which we do for major shops, it's the quick trips to the corner shop when we forget and generally get given one to bring home. The good news there (for forgetful shoppers, not for the environment) is that corner shops won't be charging for bags.
On the whole people are in favour of this charge. The only exception being people who re-use 'flimsies' as wastepaper bin liners. They'll either have to find something else, or pay 5p per 'liner'. Mind you, if they're anything like us, even with taking our own bags when we go shopping, they'll have a vast pile of old 'flimsies' anyhow. Not to mention the weekly addition from Domino's Pizza - we've tried returning the bags but they don't seem to be interested. Evidently their bags cost Domino's a lot less than 5p apiece.
Other people find many re-uses for 'flimsies'. Wonder what they'll be using come October?
Y'all have a good, and plastic bag free(?), day now!
A low tide at Lymington allowed an Isle of Wight ferry to touch bottom today, to 'ground', with knock-on delays of around 90minutes. The trouble with making ferries, or any ship, larger and larger is that they require ever deeper water, and tides have a regular habit of going out. At this time of year (Equinox) they tend to go out further than ever, hence the grounding. Teehee!
The socks for Niece are knitted, now to embroider the cat faces. As the grey yarn has deposited black bars at the top of the socks I think they'll have yellow eyes. Thinx: do I have some white four-ply for the whiskers? I can see another purchase of yarn coming on, if only for the commissioned socks. That's this afternoon's job, the cat faces. Then I can get them into the post, in a wild hope that they'll arrive before Niece's birthday on Sunday. I've heard a rumour that she may be going away for the weekend, so it mightn't matter so much if they don't arrive til Monday, but . . .
And Finally - plastic carrier bags will no longer be free in England from next Monday. There will be a charge of 5p for single use carriers in the hope that we will get smart and use fewre of them. Plastic carrier bags go to make up a heck of a lot of the stuff we throw away, and they take nearly forever to break down. Yes, I know you can get biodegradeable bags, the whizzy new Co-Op near us had them when it re-opened. Then they realised how 'down market' the area is generally, and switched to 'flimsies', though 'Bags for Life' were available for a small fee (10p). The supermarket is now an Asda, with green-printed white 'flimsies' which will, from Monday, cost 5p apiece. The moral of the story, Dear Reader, is to find some re-usable bags which fold down very small, and always take them with you - which we do for major shops, it's the quick trips to the corner shop when we forget and generally get given one to bring home. The good news there (for forgetful shoppers, not for the environment) is that corner shops won't be charging for bags.
On the whole people are in favour of this charge. The only exception being people who re-use 'flimsies' as wastepaper bin liners. They'll either have to find something else, or pay 5p per 'liner'. Mind you, if they're anything like us, even with taking our own bags when we go shopping, they'll have a vast pile of old 'flimsies' anyhow. Not to mention the weekly addition from Domino's Pizza - we've tried returning the bags but they don't seem to be interested. Evidently their bags cost Domino's a lot less than 5p apiece.
Other people find many re-uses for 'flimsies'. Wonder what they'll be using come October?
Y'all have a good, and plastic bag free(?), day now!