Blackberry picking

[Cocksparrer]

My breadmaker makes excellent jam. Chuck all the stuff in it. Programme it, and it boils and stirs itself, and I only have to pot it up when the buzzer sounds. I am not into standing and stirring stuff for hours. Michael wanted home made chutney. I offered him the recipe book. He was not impressed.

I got a bread maker havent used in god knows how long in fact I see it everyday but obviously its part of the kitchen decor.

[dragonmist]

I do use mine, but normally only for making pizza dough, jam, and cakes. It makes a very nice farmhouse cAke, and it never burns it. I am the champion maker of chargoal glazed cakes in the oven. It is handy if I can't get out due to bad weather though. Even then I either make rolls or French Sticks. My kitchen is too cold to prove dough, but the machine gives perfect results every time. It was a real bargain. I got it at Aldi the Xmas before last. It has 2 paddles and makes a proper loaf not the square one. It was only £18.99. It is much better than the old one which was nearer £40.

[Cocksparrer]

I got mine about 6 years ago has been used but not so much over the last 3 years. My mum brought me mine. Ours has a single paddle & when making bread its square and the paddle tends to be inside the loaf. Daft innit. Nah should use it more often. You think you have the knack of burning cakes in the oven haha im just as good at it, but the blackberry & apple ones I did last night didnt get burnt due to the fact I was chained up in the kitchen watching our cement jam all the time.

[Bearsden06]

That combination Blackberry and Apple make a very good jam will keep twelve months if you get a good air tight seal on the jar

[Armstrongs]

I got one as a birthday present last year......MOI?
As said, I've only got a kitchen cos it came with the house pmsl.
So I did what every self respecting woman does when receiving such an illustrious gift from a very well meaning bloke...............




asked for the receipt...........then took it back!

Fast forward to the jewellers for a gorgeous gold & jade bracelet........

Well at least I wear the bracelet!!

Yvonne x

[Bearsden06]

Just a tip if you have problems getting the right setting point when you put some on cool plate, let it cool push it from the edge. if it crinkles all the way from edge to edge and no fluid underneath you will get a set.
I then put mine in the fridge let it cool properly turn the plate upside down if it sticks then jar it up asap.
PS Dont forget to take off the heat while you test it otherwise it will go over the top toffee cement take your pick I have been there.
Bearsden

[Cocksparrer]

I got one as a birthday present last year......MOI?
As said, I've only got a kitchen cos it came with the house pmsl.
So I did what every self respecting woman does when receiving such an illustrious gift from a very well meaning bloke...............


Yvonne x

You got a kitchen when you brought your house . LOL I wondered what that extra room was for

[dragonmist]

Wish I had a proper kitchen. I have an L-shaped cubby hole. Two people can just stand in it at the sink, elbow to elbow. That's the bottom of the L. Two people can just stand elbow to elbow while 1 cooks and the other makes a cuppa. Thats the side of the L. Floor area roughly 3 foot by 4 foot. There is room for a dishwasher or fridge, but not both. A fridge freezer or Chest Freezer was out of the question, as was a washing machine and tumble drier. The fridge Freezer is under the stairs off the back hallway, which is a pain in the neck as the kitchen is at the front of the house. The tumble drier and chest freezer is out in the conservatory. Posh name for an extension they put on the back of the house. Single glazed with a metal door, which expands and jams shut, or is impossible to shut in the summer. It regularly reaches over 100 F in the summer. It's freezing in the winter and there is no heating out there.
The washing machine is in what used to be the coal shed opening off the conservatory. It has been plastered, and tiled, and a sink put in there, but it's still a nuisance. Nearly all of my kitchen gadgets are in a cupboard in the sitting room, and the less used ones are in a cupboard in the dining room. I always wanted a proper farmhouse kitchen with an AGA, and a table where we could sit together for meals. Dream on.
They could have made the conservatory into a decent sized kitchen, but weren't prepared to spend the extra money and put in double glazing, a few units and a radiator. The boss, however, got a £30,000 swimming pool out of the Improvements Grant.

[Cocksparrer]

Damn Dragonmist, your place sounds really tiny. We have an average size kitchen 2 peeps can walk side by side with a bit of room to spare and at the end of that is the extension which houses the cooker, freezer & a place for me & my son to have our computers. With units with some of my ebid listings & other parafinalia.

[dragonmist]

Mines a farmworker's cottage circa 1935. They didn't think the plebs needed room to move about. You had a roof over your head, and that was good enough. The "conservatory" is 14' X 10', and is the largest room. It is useless. I carpetted it when they first built it. Unfortunately the manhole cover is in the middle of the floor. The first time someone down the road blocked the sewer, all the furniture had to come out, and the carpet taken up. I never saw any point in putting the carpet or furniture back in there. It's too hot for comfort in the summer, and freezing in the winter. It now has a dartboard on the end wall, the chest freezer and tumble drier in it, and that's all.