Early Risers.

[PhilJ W]

I have received notification from the first wheelbarrow vendor that I am going to receive a 'full' refund. I will now wait and see what happens with the refund. They are such a bunch of cockwombles I will wait to see if they mess up the refund before I make arrangements to return the second wheelbarrow.

[Gwiwer]

Morning all,  

 

Welcome to Wetnessday Upon the Hill of Strawberries.  I could feel it coming and true to form now that it has arrived the small joints are working much less uncomfortably.  A few menial tasks of low importance require my attention between now and bed-time therefore I shall insert a muggercoffee before attempting any of them.

 

 

[TheQ]

Unfortunately most modern smoked bacon is sprayed with a smoking "preparation" rather than truly Smoked. One of my Aunts has a house with the iron steps in the side of the chimney and the hooks for hanging sides of pork. I believe they tried it once but it didn't come out well..

[Tony_S]

I mentioned after a trip to visit his wife’s family in Florida my brother attempted to import a turkey capable deep fat fryer. As a consolation he did manage to import a smoker. I don’t actually like the taste of smoked food but those who do seemed to think the resulting food items were ok. I notice that when Aditi buys smoked haddock she gets the “traditionally smoked “ variety. When I have barded  a turkey with streaky bacon it comes off rather like American style bacon after cooking. Aditi informed me when I told her bacon had been discussed on ERs that she preferred the American style bacon. 

[The Lurker]

Greetings all from Sidcup where it is currently dry but rained during my daily walk.

 

Nice to see Robert posting.

 

I am a fan of smoked food and smokey flavours, bacon, ham, turkey, cheese, hummus, beer, whisky (smoky and peaty), things cooked with paprika that end up with a nice smokey flavouring

[The Stationmaster]

Afternoon all,

 

Ah, food.  Yesterday evening's self catering turned out not to be as family members various returning from locations various seemed to be in a competition to supply me with fish & chip[s.  The Good Doctor won because she was expected home first but she only just d vbeat the returning pair from the follicle re=arranger in Marlow.  So it was fish & chips for three of us while the Good Doctor has her preferred sausage in batter and chips.  The evening afforded the occasion for direct comparative testing and Mr singh won on both the excellence of his batter and the very fresh quality of his chips, the Portuguese came second, the Chinese were not involved in the competition.

 

as to bacon thetre are of course two basic sorts of bacon in England (and Wales (and Scotland).  One is back bacon which comes from the loin and is the thicker, meatier sort.  The other kind - exceptionally popular at Christmastide for 'pigs in blankets' - is streaky bacon which comes from the belly and is basically cut in strips - definitely the better if you like your bacon nice and crisp or are using it in a meal with something else (it is my regular bacon for consumption with mushrooms).  The sort to avoid is that coming from Denmark because however it might be cut it has a very high water content so shrivels and goes leathery on cooking although some UK produced stuff, especially at the lower price end of the market tends, to be as bad.  And in every case the best bacon comes from pigs which have been properly reared and allowed to live in the open rather than in some horrendous factory farm building which inevitably has the aim of quantity rather than quality production.  Decent quality bacon does not need to be served with anything else at all and definitely no sauces of any kind, so that its natural flavour - smoked or unsmoked - can be properly savoured.  As with most other meat properly raised and individually looked after animals always provide the nest natural flavour although regrettably it's not so common nowadays except from a few select butchers and sometimes from farmers markets.

 

Back to RMweb and no doubt there'll be a good (unintentional) laugh going somewhere so I shall head out in search of such crass amusement.  Enjoy the rest of your day one and all and while it might no longer be very fashionable take care and stay safe.

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Morning all,

 

Woke up to my dad coming home very early from work, he’d only been there 30 min. I latter found out, that the large industrial gate to our workshop on the other side of town was gone. A half hour later this would accompanied by pictures and the caption that it was destroyed by a drunken corvette driver. So he went look at it, I didn’t not knowing anything. 
 

Beans, bacon and toast is being eaten as write this, more bacon for inspection. The remains of that gate, normally about 30 ft wide is below.

I will never know why our neighbor fills his yard with those wrecks, but each to there own.

 

Edited July 8, 2020 by Florence Locomotive Works

[roundhouse]

Afternoon from a very damp Surrey.

 

Some crust earning completed earlier. Hopefully more on the way this month.

 

A surprise box of beer arrived at our front door by Courier. It was from our next door neighbours with a thankyou note for looking after their garden. Their daughter has been about a lot recently s I fear that his cancer has got worse especially that I have no seen him for a while even when doing their garden.

 

At the weekend our local council introduced a temporary cycle lane in Reigate reducing the one way down to one lane without consulting local businesses who could no longer get deliveries due to the barriers and cyclists weren't using the new lane. traffic jams were huge on  and a number of ambulances got stuck in the new single traffic lane. It didn't look good when we walked through the town on Sunday and had to use back lanes to avoid it on Monday when we did the food shopping. After costing £160k (according to local newspapers) and many complaints its now all been removed. I wonder how many other such schemes have caused similar issues.

[J. S. Bach]

23 minutes ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

 ...snip...

 That bacon   Did that bread even see the toaster? Note that I like mine hot enough to thoroughly melt the copious amounts of butter that I use but not more than lightly browned.

[Florence Locomotive Works]

6 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

 That bacon   Did that bread even see the toaster? Note that I like mine hot enough to thoroughly melt the copious amounts of butter that I use but not more than lightly browned.

Its toasted in the middle, underneath the beans. My toaster isn't very good at equally browning all surfaces of bread. The bacon looks much better in person, my ipad camera darkens things in the foreground.

[J. S. Bach]

8 minutes ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Its toasted in the middle, underneath the beans. My toaster isn't very good at equally browning all surfaces of bread. The bacon looks much better in person, my ipad camera darkens things in the foreground.

As long as you enjoyed it, that is all that really matters. We all have our food (and railway!!!) preferences and probably should not be making fun of others' enjoyments (well, maybe except for railways ). I do like the bantering about pain-in-ear vs saddletanks and the constant GWR vs LMS vs others. But, of course, we all know that the WESTERN MARYLAND is the tops!

Edited July 8, 2020 by J. S. Bach

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

Ah, food.

Never knowingly over-rated  

 

2 hours ago, TheQ said:

most modern smoked bacon is sprayed with a smoking "preparation" rather than truly Smoked

I have yet to try Smoke-Your-Own.  The recent arrival of a Cobb cooker (similar to a small BBQ) means we can do so but we are bound by a condition of tenancy to not make smoke.  Specifically to not use a bbq but the prospect of smoking some sliced pig, or indeed anything else, for several hours without attracting unwanted attention means I have to have a really good story up my sleeve    

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

bacon ... two basic sorts of bacon ... back bacon which comes from the loin and is the thicker, meatier sort.  The other kind ... is streaky

There seems to be two sorts of bacon here also.  Supermarket "wafer-thin-and-watery" or butcher's "decently-thick-and-dry-cured" of which the latter is often rather harder to obtain in the current environment.  I am not minded to queue for what might be a half-hour outside the butcher's just for some bacon and whilst it can be ordered for delivery the minimum quantity would suggest either a severe addiction or the operation of a B&B with Full English on offer.  In a few weeks Ocado switch from Waitrose to M&S for their supplies.  M&S has sometimes had decently-sliced bacon but it comes at M&S prices which is almost twice the Waitrose price per kilo.  

 

Swings and roundabouts eh?  If getting good bacon is the biggest problem of the day we aren't in too bad a place.  

[TheQ]

Afternoon awl, 

One extreme Cockwomble on the way home,  braking at every junction,  braking from 10mph below the limit to even lower at speed cameras,  and then in Effin clown town turning the wrong way into a one way street. 

 

Went to the orange shed,  much reduced isolation,  they are allowing more people into the store . Spent money on good paint brushes to be used on the non sanded final coats of varnish.. Also more white Spirit. 

 

I know they have similar road schemes in various places in Norfolk but as yet not heard bad reports, Norwich city is doing enough stupid things to the road network even before the virus, every time I go in to the centre,  it's guess which direction they'll send us this time if at all..  

 

We've just had something of pretend Italian heritage,  Spaghetti Bolognese, not the best one we've made,  the seasoning,  is pre lock down, as we've been unable to visit our favourite spice stall.. 

 

The Cobb cooker is very popular amoungst the boating fraternity on the broads. 

 

Edited July 8, 2020 by TheQ

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. I googled 'smoked bacon' and I might be tempted by some of the delights on offer. One thing though there was plenty on smoking your own bacon including a few on YouTube. My printer will not now be serviced until Friday. The bits for the service were to be sent directly to my address for the engineer, they should have arrived today but somehow were sent to Birmingham. Now to catch up on RMweb, be back later.

[J. S. Bach]

Just now, PhilJ W said:

 ...snip... but somehow were sent to Birmingham. ...snip...

I wonder why were they sent to Alabama?

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, J. S. Bach said:

I wonder why were they sent to Alabama?

It was a surprise that they sent it to Birmingham unless there is a similar postcode. If it was Bristol it might be understandable as the district I live in is called Kingswood and there is a like named district of Bristol.

[Sir TophamHatt]

Yet another day gone.

 

I was really poorly last night - got worse throughout my training. Just felt nauseated and had a headache. Took some paracetamol and sleeping tablets, straight to bed. Woke an hour or 2 later, Mrs STH was still up.

 

Today, it's like it never happened. But Mrs STH slept funny so has had agony neck pain all day. I said if she's slept funny, she could have just asked me for some comedy and I would have helped out.

She wasn't impressed.

 

But I did also say it'll be like it most of the day and probably a bit of tomorrow morning maybe.

 

We are a pair! 

[TheQ]

Please tell Me I haven't lost the plot.. 

There was an appeal on BBC local TV for disadvantaged children... They wanted laptop computers....

 

 

 

To go to children having difficulty doing their homework on their smart phones???!!! 

[southern42]

20 hours ago, laurenceb said:

or listened to Allan Keith's Hundred best tunes on BBC R2 on a Sunday night

 

or just about old enough to be allowed to stop up late to listen to Winifred Atwell in the evening on the wireless.

 

This piece probably my favourite:

 

 

[tigerburnie]

If you want smoked food try a visit to Arbroath, when the wind is from the south I swear I can smell Smokies from 6 miles away....................

[TheQ]

And now some good news,  

https://www.edp24.co.uk/business/new-jobs-totalling-125-announced-by-lotus-in-new-factory-in-old-catton-norwich-1-6736028

Actually it's  not a new building I'm fairly sure it's the old Heatrea-sadia building that closed last year,  it adjoins the old RAF Horsham St Faith Station headquarters which I pass every day on the way to work. The airfield itself being Norwich airport. The problem lotus have with their main site at Hethel, formerly RAF Hethel is it's out in the wilds,  difficult to recruit enough cheap staff.. 

[Joseph_Pestell]

3 minutes ago, tigerburnie said:

If you want smoked food try a visit to Arbroath, when the wind is from the south I swear I can smell Smokies from 6 miles away....................

 

You could probably smell them in Aberdeen.

[iL Dottore]

9 hours ago, polybear said:

DIY Haircut No. 3 day...

.....Bear in underwear, sat on a stool

There is, my dear Bear, such a thing as “too much information“.

I may not sleep properly tonight,  Some mental images just cannot be easily erased...

9 hours ago, Barry O said:

i do like smoked bacon... at Christmas we order our meat from a local butcher as well as a stand pie (large)...

What’s a Stand Pie? It sounds most intriguing. Would I be right in assuming that it’s some sort of hot water pastry crust pie where the pastry shell “stands up” by itself, not needing a former or a pie tin?

5 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

...Good Doctor has her preferred sausage in batter and chips....

...And in every case the best bacon comes from pigs which have been properly reared and allowed to live in the open rather than in some horrendous factory farm building which inevitably has the aim of quantity rather than quality...

I’m not sure that, for me, a battered sausage would be an adequate dinner or supper, notwithstanding the fact that a good battered sausage is a greatly enjoyable treat. In regards to chips, or at least what passes as “chips” for the most part in the UK, I fail to see what the attraction of them is. They tend to be soggy and greasy and invariably oversalted when not drowned in malt vinegar. Whereas a proper double or triple cooked chip is a thing of wonder: crunchy and crispy on the outside, moist and fluffy on the inside and not at all greasy.

 

I’m totally in agreement with your view that a happy and well treated pig is also a tasty pig. In fact, that is the case with all our food animals. I may be a carnivore, but I am very cognisant of the fact that each time we eat meat we eat something that was once a living being. And I firmly believe that we have a moral obligation to both treat our food animals incredibly well, giving them as natural and as happy and healthy life as possible before we slaughter them; and - to really show appreciation for what Is for them is truly the ultimate sacrifice -  we should eat every part of the animal – including offal and the so-called “difficult to cook“ cuts of meat. I would also go as far as to say that every butcher and meat counter should have the carcasses of the animals used for our meat hanging up in full view. Carnivores, of which I count myself as one, do need to be reminded of where their food comes from

4 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Its toasted in the middle, underneath the beans....

My dear fellow, we only have your word for that, the photographic evidence does not support your assertion!  
The scientist in me will not, and cannot, accept purely anecdotal evidence.  I strongly suggest that you submit evidence of properly toasted pre-bean slices of grilled farinaceous product for peer review here on ER .

Edited July 8, 2020 by iL Dottore
Typos

[Gwiwer]

30 minutes ago, southern42 said:

This piece probably my favourite:

Used as the theme to the televised snooker show "Pot Black" if I recall correctly.  

 

I'm back to record a most unexpected event.  The Hill of Strawberries is regarded as one of the lowest crime areas in Greater London.  A little exuberance among our student neighbours at times but seldom anything resembling serious.  

 

At around 20 o'clock tonight a stranger knocked at the door.  Upon answering it I was offered my wallet containing driving licence, bank cards and other personal bits and pieces.  The licence of course has my address and a tiny photo for ID that it was being offered to the correct person.

 

I had no idea it had even gone walkabout.  It seldom comes out of my pocket these days except when changing clothes.  This chap had found it on the train I had come home on therefore it had been on its travels since around 11.45 this morning.  As I didn't see it when I checked my set upon alighting I can only guess that it fell to the floor as I stepped off the train and was found by this chap who probably boarded at the next station; no-one boarded here.  

 

All is well.  There are no unexpected transactions and everything is exactly where it should be.  Including the £5 note tucked right inside and only visible if the wallet had been rifled through.  

 

My faith in human nature is generally quite good but this does something to reinforce that and assure us that we are indeed in a "good area".  

 

I would have tutted and muttered quite a lot in the morning if I had been unable to find things ......... 

[jamie92208]

10 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

 

What’s a Stand Pie? It sounds most intriguing. Would I be right in assuming that it’s some sort of hot water pastry crust pie where the pastry shell “stands up” by itself, not needing a former or a pie tin?

 

As far as I know a Stand Pie is like a large pork,pie, approx 8" diameter. Often bought at Christmas. Wilsons of Morley are famous for them though I am sure that 45146 may suggest a different emporium.  I am assured by my other half that the filling is the same as a pork pie as I've never eaten one.

 

Jamie