Food and Drink #20

[Aquamarina]

I think I mentioned a few months ago there's a vegan place near me that does a peanut butter and strawberry jam cheeseburger. Well, I finally reached peak 'fuck it' and got one, with ginger beer-battered onion rings and fries. It was (as you might expect) quite weird. I think the cheese is what was throwing me off.

View attachment 864309

Spoiler: depressing self-involved wallowing

I was celebrating my birthday today, except that was the extent of my celebrating. My mum had good intentions and took me out quite a way to a non-specific coastal town to go to a café for lunch. Unfortunately it was so busy that I got overwhelmed and had to leave before we had even ordered which I feel very bad about. A total of four people remembered it was my birthday: my parents, my sister and my grandma. This is the first year I haven't got a card from my other grandma, being as she is now quite DEAD. For some reason, even though I was demonstrably far more alone during the first lockdown when I didn't see anyone for months, I am feeling more alone than ever. I am also in a bad mood because I have injured my shoulder and am prohibited from bench pressing the Queen and instead can only press 3.5 large or 5 smol corgis max. Sorry for Misery Hour with TS, I'm going to get back to work on Festive Slopbot's new look.

Happy Birthday Sidey T! Sorry you’ve not had the best of days today. You’re not totally alone, you’ve also got us mithering ninnies and we love you and Slopbot. I for one am very much looking forward to Festive Slopbot 2021. Sending you my love.x

 

[heretoreaditall2019]

Online is so fickle. Our Sainsburys online seems so limited compared to our local store (and the subs are rubbish).

I tried Waitrose (fancy I know!) a couple of weeks ago but the freezer dept is being refurbished at the only store within 50 miles (joys of living in the north east) so no frozen food. No Waitrose for us then and no £40 nettle cheese. Shame.

Ocado has been ok so far and Tesco is always fine.

This is interesting and not something I’ve ever really thought about - had always assumed they just came from warehouses rather than actual stores?!

Our power went off on Friday and we abandoned the house for a hotel, so have been eating pub grub all weekend. I’m looking forward to getting home and having a few vegetables! I know I could have ordered something “healthy” but it’s kind of the law that you don’t in these situations

Hope everyone is well

I am another one who has butter with peanut butter on a sandwich! Whole Earth crunchy peanut butter and a cheap Tesco vegan spread

Spoiler: Me-rail mental health stuff

I went to meet some friends today and had social anxiety. I’ve had lots of experience with anxiety, but luckily never social anxiety until today.

It’s just because I am going through depression at the moment (I’m not saying this in a sad-fishing way just to explain). Just now my brain rejects anything “good”.

To be honest it gave me even more respect for people who deal with social anxiety frequently, I’d always empathised, but now I know how it feels and ugh, it’s mentally and physically hard, and it must be so hard dealing with that on a daily basis, when we’re in such a socially-orientated world.

I am so lucky, I’ve always been able to just walk into a room of strangers, and not be shy. I’ve always been considerate of my more introverted friends, but now I have a bit more understanding of what it’s like, and just so much respect and admiration for anyone dealing with that.

Oh I’m so sorry you had to experience this, you’ve written on it so well though (if that’s not a weird thing to say?). Suspect a lot of people will be experiencing a step up in social anxiety because of the pandemic so you won’t be alone in this at all.

I would say make sure you look after yourself but sounds like you’ve got it nailed with acknowledging & processing these feelings! Also love butter with peanut butter, it reduces the clagginess a bit IMO??

 

[Captainmouse]

I had my booster Friday, and felt ok. Yesterday I had arm ache (expected) and was tired. Woke in early hours to visit the loo, sat up and 'water' poured from my nose, hitting the floor. Same thing happened when I next woke up, and a couple of times later when I bent down. I don’t feel ill, just a bit odd.

 

[emm]

Oof, nothing makes your heart stop like turning into the village in the van and seeing 406 come belting down the hill on her own, no other sheep in sight, BAAAAing loudly. Sped home, grabbed some sheep food, jumped on the quad and went back down there. She's not particularly tame and is quite wary about following me even when Nibbles is with her, but she followed back up the hill a little way and then went on strike. So I went on because I could see some sheep on the ridge and thought it might be the rest of mine, although if it was they'd come a long way down from where I put them out. Shouting and rattling the bucket only produced one answering BAAAA and Nibbles came trotting out of the flock (turned out to be a neighbour's ewes), which was a huge relief, because my first thought when I saw 406 on her own was that Nibbles had died.

Nibbles and I, followed at a distance by the neighbour's flock, walked back down to where I'd left 406 and there was much happy BAAing as they were reunited. Those ewes only got put out today, so I'm guessing somehow my two got mixed up with them and 406 got separated and confused. Went down to the other end of the grazings where the other 20 were still happily working their way through the remnants of the bales that got put out for the cattle before they went off to winter indoors, so all's well that ends well.

And I have toffee cake from the local bakery

I love this little anecdotes, your life could not be more different from mine and I find it so fascinating

 

[heretoreaditall2019]

Sainsbury’s used to sell one like this but it also had little bits of pasta in too. I used to make this recipe, which at the time said “country soup mix” instead of the lentils and pearl barley it does now. Just use this mix and and add your own little pasta if you like.

https://recipes.sainsburys.co.uk/recipes/sausage-hotpot

I love the idea of one with pasta in especially as Heinz vegetable soup’s pasta % has plummeted? I’d pay more for an old school tin with lots of squidgy bits. Sorry I know there are some serious foodies in here and I’m bemoaning the loss of hyper processed pasta tubes suspended in a salty soup lmao, sorry guys x

I’m in hospital so a nice busman’s holiday this weekend. Feeling completely miserable but hopefully that I’ll get home after an X-ray, via McDonald’s because haute cuisine is the last thing on my mind right now!

Apologies for being so me me me, looking forward to being in my own bed and catching up on all the tea

Hope you feel better and get out this PM, McDonalds is definitely fine dining though! What do you get?

What is everyone having for dinner? I have an awful cold so cba to cook, decided to get thai takeaway to sweat it out, lovely but I really cannot cope with spice anymore

Ooooh love Thai, what did you get? We went out for dinner, it’s a posh-ish British place my husband LOVES but I’m a bit eh about, my MIL nearly expired of dehydration with her dry dessert tho so suspect she’s in the same camp as me! No slop or raw eggs though so a frau has to count her blessings!

Sorry I’m replying to lots of comments so this’ll merge into a MEGACOMMENT.

 

[Jay-cloth Cow]

Morning everyone. I don’t normally have time to keep up with anything except the MT but I’m still isolating and I’ve broken up from work. I did my PCR at 8am yesterday and results are usually much quicker so I’m checking my phone every minute and now I’m convinced they’ve been lost.

I did my PCR at 8am and got the email at 2am the next morning, then the text at 6am - have you checked your emails? Mine went into junk mail (THANKS HOTMAIL YOU NINNY) - they also said to me at the test centre (we did drive through) that some are taking up to 72hrs at the mo due to the volume? I know it's hard (I felt the same, on edge waiting) but please try not to worry dear heart, results will be on the way soon x

 

[Into_the_tunnel]

@emm This is the pink lake in South Australia, image from google as I'm 800ks away at the moment. There's a better one in Perth that's a salt lake. View attachment 907194

That is so lovely. It looks so unreal next to the blue sky.

Sending hugs to all those going through life changes at the moment. We have all been through so much upheaval, the added stress of life stuff is often a lot to deal with.

 

[Mustard]

Has anyone ever made cheese Welsh cakes? I’m going to try.

 

[Shesaidwhat?]

I don't have any friends or go anywhere so I will sit at home with my familiar, stirring an enormous cauldron and casting hexes like I do every day. It's supposed to rain heavily tomorrow but I've been reading the M&S thread and now I really want a pumpkin loaf so I might go out for some kind of pumpkin, or if I can't find one any kind of gourd will do. Cucumber loaf sounds refreshing.

You have us. I was hoping it wasn’t going to rain I was planning to leave the sweets in a bowl on the step I’m in a top floor flat soI’m going to have to Usain Bolt it down the stairs or run after funsize bags of skittles floating down the street by the sounds.

 

[Captainmouse]

nick park’s birthday today
happy birthday gromit

 

[AlphaBetaDeux]

Someone needs to invent a vaccination against Noro, there’s just no need for such indignities in this day and age! Hope les bébés are feeling better and engines running more smoothly soon! Mini AlphaBeta has only in the last few days shaken off a cough which has lasted almost three weeks, two of which he was pretty unwell for (but not enough for any action other than paracetamol, ibuprofen, and copious amounts of YouTube Kids).

I’ve been out of hospital for almost a week now and still feel like I’ve been hit by a bus. I could have kissed the cleaners when they arrived this week because they just took care of all the chaos generated by my poor husband in trying to juggle me, a recovered youngster, and a full time job. I resisted getting a cleaner for ages just from some sort of internal guilt that I should be doing it myself, and honestly just wish I’d done it sooner. I can spend my days off either doing life admin, or focusing on a specific thing to sort out in the house, or doing absolutely nothing except hanging out playing games with the boys. So if anyone is on the fence, just do it (apologies to Nike for stealing your thing there)

 

[Hollaaa]

I'm trying to eat my own bodyweight in cheese after a minor workplace chaos today. I had to tell someone off for using inappropriate sexual language in front of me, and then a few hours later ask the same person for help assembling furniture because when I inserted part a into part b it was slightly too big for the entrance, wasn't connecting with the knob in the right place and was making loud grinding noises.
Edit to say: laugh reacts are fine, I was just like oh ffs of all the days I choose to have a word then I show myself up like that .

 

[Professor Slop]

Sorry this is going to compile into a mega post but only just read this - but hello fellow niche-er! There are SO many people in data from academia & the sciences, you’ll be a shoe in and hopefully really enjoy it. Re: clothes usually even formal companies are a bit more flexible with anyone in tech/data (even in IB) so don’t worry too much about having to be peak Cherie Blair but always love clothes chat! Do you like dresses? They’re quite an easy way to dress “smartly” ?

I looked through various promo stuff on their site and noticed most of the people wearing jeans and t-shirts with the odd jumper, so I think leaning more towards the casual than the smart will be OK. I will go more smart first day though just in case! I don't do any skirts or dresses which is why I'm slightly stressed over the clothes thing, but I'm sure it'll be fine.

There's no public facing stuff in the role but I would guess I'll be in on client briefings etc, easily solved if wfh and I can change before the meeting. A lot of the team are spread around the country so I'd imagine a lot of meetings would usually be online anyway, and they told me that even before the recent wfh recommendation most people were wfh 60-80% of the time.

I'm intending to spend time revising what I already know in preparation, but I've found myself obsessed with Red Dead Redemption 2 for the last week so that's going well.

 

[Falkor]

NO CENTRAL HEATING! You must be tough (and acclimatised).

We have this ridiculous electric system called THTC - Total Heating Total Control - which was installed across large parts of the Highlands years ago. We have 2 electricity meters, the second one just has all the heating stuff on it and is charged at a lower rate, which was something like 7.5p per kwh when we moved here and is now more than double that. The heating circuit is controlled by Scottish Power, who look at the weather forecast for your area and switch power on for the circuit up to 4 times a day when they judge it will be most needed. We have storage heaters in the kitchen, hall and on the landing, panel heaters in the bedrooms (which work any time you turn them on), an electric towel rail in the bathroom and a woodburner in the living room which also does the hot water. It's never properly warm in winter and the direct debit for the electricity bill is now at £249 a month, up from £95 a month when we moved here 13 years ago. And we can't switch suppliers because no one else will touch the two meter set up - I think some economy 7 tariffs can cope with it, but then all the heating units will be on standard rates.

We were hoping to move out temporarily next month so we could gut the house, insulate it properly and put an air source heat pump and underfloor heating in, but despite starting the process in June or July we haven't even had a quote through yet, let alone got a building warrant. I spend most winters looking like the Michelin man in several layers of fleece jumper! Mr F was born up here and just wanders around in a t shirt not noticing it. Git.

 

[Into_the_tunnel]

we’ve spoken about food subs / shortages on this thread before but today they replaced some sanitary towels with full on incontinence nappies! I get that they’re the same ~absorbent technology~ but I can’t imagine many people wouldn’t have returned those?!

I’m in shock. Actually.

Spoiler: Sanitary products and menstruation issues

since having covid my ovaries have been on one and since January I have been having my period pretty much once every 2/3 weeks even though I have been on the pill with no period for 20 years. On a train of doom trying to get it sorted.

A) I cannot get over the cost of sanitary products now so go to Lidl but if I was a student/city resident without a car the only last-minute easy option (without the bus) would be expensive branded products. Our only city centre supermarket (Tesco express) does not sell own brand.

B) The inconvenience of a period once every f****** fortnight would mean that if someone sent me incontinence pants, I would just use loo roll and refuse to follow social norms.

C) definitely a man. No idea what women go through.

Sorry for long rant. In other news, FTM are using weetabix this week (again).

Risky in my books.

 

[Universal]

@Falkor I love the ladies. The car ride must have been so much fun.

@kachoochoo can I just check who is going topless, you or Mr KCC? I am a straight woman but I do like to admire lovely boobs. I have already voted but just curious...

 

[Nottonightbabe]

I am definitely more wary now of going out after dark, and traveling alone in general, more so than I have ever been. Directly because of the publicised attacks on women in recent years .

 

[kachoochoo]

aw, I fucking love this little corner of this vicious hate-filled site!

 

[EddieBeds]

Happy weekend everyone!

Is anyone doing anything for Halloween? I don’t really feel comfortable with mixing with people at the moment, but I’ve always loved the spooky, camp fun side of Halloween so will watch some scary movies and try and get in the spirit of it.

On topic, Tesco have started doing Christmas flavoured wraps, and (even though I think it’s way too early), the vegan plant chef one is really nice.

We’re hoping to go for a walk around in the Eve to take Little Beds trick or treating - the excitement has been off the scale so hope it doesn’t disappoint. Last year most houses left the sweets outside - some were amazing and still went all out decoration wise. Due to baby brain last year I forgot the sweets for potential trick or treaters so Mr Beds ended up handing out random chocolate bars he found left over from Easter so there were some very confused children!

We’ve put some decorations up for Little Beds and I’ve carved the pumpkins. I’ll also put some (packaged) sweets in a bowl outside - mainly so I’m not up and down constantly/can minimise interruptions at bedtime for Baby Beds and Little Beds.

I was in Tesco yesterday and I overheard someone call skittles “sweets of sadness”.

Compared to chocolate buttons (giant), obviously, but I thought that was a bit harsh. Everyone know orange revels are the OG sweets of sadness.

Maybe they had a bad experience with skittle vodka?

Talking of giant buttons M&S do giant chocolate mint buttons and they piss all over Cadbury’s so called giant buttons size wise. They’re taste pretty good too!

 

[MaineCoonMama]

Can I just ask, do you associate Christmas with hot weather?

Yes, I do! My mum was Canadian so we always had turkey and all the trimmings when we were kids but as we all got older it was salad and cold meats. Most Aussies have prawns and pavlova on the day and a game of backyard cricket is pretty normal.
When I was a kid our Christmas Eve was always a night at the drive-in in my mum's old station wagon with grapes and bananas for snacks.
It must seem odd to you guys but I've lived here most of my life and have no memories of cold Christmases.