soapdragon

I've found it fascinating following your vet school blog, Lewis! What are your plans after graduation?

Heavy snow just south of Oxford.A nasty drive through the villages on the school run this afternoon and it just kept coming. About 2' in total but thawing slightly now. Not sure about the overnight forecast - depends on which one you look at. Both boys excited about a possible day off tomorrow......ES was really late home this afternoon as the school bus could only go at a crawl!

You may still be able to look it up on the old Forum. Otherwise the wonderful Cat Tails may be able to help - she rescued me when I was looking for the boiled fruit cake recipe! I had made it on so many occasions (subbing the water for Earl Grey tea and using dark/light brown and muscovado sugars, differing fruits, as the mood took me!) but lost the scrappy, mixture splattered bit of paper that I'd transcribed it on to!

I recall that wiggly avatar - always made me smile! I often wonder what happened to Claret too - big . Seriously, CheekyChook has vanished into the ether - she lived quite close to us and also changed her name at some point. Hope she is OK! Who was it who had Robert Carlyle laughing as their avatar? Another one that made me smile too! Perhaps we should think of an Oxford/Berks meet up in the spring (if it ever arrives!) There seem to be a fair few of us in the area?

I have a butternut squash eyeing me every time I walk past the veggie rack. Tomorrow I will fry off an onion with chopped ginger and some chopped chili then add the chunked squash and then, when softened, add stock and cook till tender. Then I'll blitz with enough peanut butter to make a soupy consistency. Sorry, no quantities as I am a 'bung it' cook!

Chunk up your squash, fry with onion, chilli and ginger (no quantities as I am a cook by eye/taste person!) then add veggie stock and simmer until squash is tender then blitz with enough peanut butter to make it smooth and soupy. Nums!

We do NEED foodie/recipe thread so well done and thank you to AndyRoo and Daphne for taking the initiative and getting stuck in there

I have returned to the boiled fruit cake from ages ago - thanks to the super techie Cat Tails who dug out the old recipe for me - made it last week, fed it brandy and it's now clingo'd and maturing (I jazzed the recipe up with extra cherries, nuts and treacle for our Christmas cake - iced and marzipanned too!). I do the making in advance thing with parkin too so that I have something in reserve. If I combine with another baking session (did the fruit cake when making Anzac biscuits) then it doesn't seem to take too long. Also made banana traybake with a glut of over ripe fruit (should have been a loaf but I thought a shallow tray bake would take less time to cook and it did!) We have a fantastic ethnic food shop on the Cowley Road into Oxford (about 20 mins away from us PW!) and they have a great range.....went there last week and also to the Korean supermarket nearby and so are having Korean this evening; OH is cooking! Yet again I have killed my kefir grains...left them too long and there was a powdery stuff on top and they were so thick I had to cut the resulting mass with a knife to get it out of the jar. Must send off for some more! There has been a butternut squash in the vegetable rack for the last few days making me feel guilty every time I walk past - I think I'll make soup tomorrow with peanut butter, fresh ginger and chilli. The boys don't like it but I really do and it freezes well! We make sourdough and you are welcome to some starter if you want to pop in on your way to Thame?

Totally agree, AndyRoo! I really loved sharing foodie things!

I popped into the travel agent this afternoon after taking YS drumming - prob won't book via them but wanted to get brochures and look at prices. The smartly uniformed TUI rep asked if she could help and I said I was interested in an October half term city break to Palermo. She paused until her colleague called over to her 'Sicily' whereupon she grabbed the City Break brochure, flicked through it and put it back on the shelf. I asked her if Palermo was in the brochure and she said 'no, its only for, like, major cities'. Not quite sure how much more major you can get than a capital city but, heyho, wouldn't trust TUI to get me to Oxford Station after that!

Forgot to add Top Gear - Mary Berry, Gyles Brandreth (sp?) and Russell Grant Clearly I have too much time on my hands today!

We are all so used to seeing the same faces on the same shows/programmes and I've already proposed Ann Widdecombe to take over Most Haunted but, not wanting to hijack AJM200's thread, I am 'going solo'!! My suggestions are as follows: DIY SOS - Timmy Mallet (younger Forum members, go Google ) Top of the Pops (is that still a thing?) - Stephen Fry Master Chef - Mr Blobby Question Time - Alan Carr/Jeremy Clarkson (I am undecided) Strictly - Jeremy Paxman New Lives In The Wild - Victoria Beckham Blue Planet - Patsy from Ab Fab Antiques Roadshow - Michael McIntyre Supershoppers - David Attenborough A shake up in the Newsreader dept could see the following appointed to lighten things up a bit... Russell Brand Greg Wallace Bruno Canellini (Strictly Judge? Don't really watch it!) Waynetta Slob Over to you, my lovelies!

I loved her on Blue Peter but she's possibly not the right presenter for Most Haunted as she seems to panic at every little sound.....a more no nonsense approach would make for more balanced viewing.....Ann Widecombe ?

Now THAT would be SCARY!

Love that Light Sussex! Reminds me of our three!