At 10am last Wednesday we walked the boys and we got soaked, we didn't have our jackets because it was warm. Tried to shelter under some trees but it wasn't much good.
"Sod's law" says that if a domestic appliance is going to fail, it'll do it the most inconvenient time. "And thus it came to pass" that our oven packed in at 7.00pm last night. (Friday). It wouldn't heat up, so I guess the element had failed. Now it wasn't the end of the world as we've a microwave. The oven is a built-in Baumatic. It's getting on a bit now. It went wrong about five years ago and it took nearly two weeks for the repair people to get the part. So to tide us over, I bought a Cook's Essentials air fryer. (Well, my wife ordered it off her favourite shopping channel and I paid for it). We've not used it since the oven was repaired. I suggested we might as well have a new oven rather than have it repaired. These days, you have to look on line as few appliance stores have many built-in ovens on show. I always find searching on-line a pain, as most sites are more interested in getting you to agree to accept their cookies than take you to what you want to look at. I always have to delete a boat load of them every time I close down my laptop. You have to be careful when ordering a new oven, as not all single ovens now will fit in the standard aparture which is 56.5cms wide by 58.5cms high. Anyway, we settled on a Bosch. Searching around I found it 10% cheaper at Curry's than at John Lewis. ("Never knowingly undersol,d" they announced recently, no longer applies). It's coming on Thursday. I turned down Curry' offer to "install it" for £90. It's just three wires for heaven's sake. I also turned down their offer to take the old one away for twenty quid. and "an arm and a leg" to extend the two year guarantee. I took the old one out this morning. Just a question of turning off the kitchen ring main and disconnecting the cable from the cooker box in the back of the cupboard above it, (remembering to turn the ring main back on!) Getting an oven out on your own can be tricky, you don't want to damage the housing unit. When we bought the Baumatic which replace a Smeg my wife chose, then hated after a couple of years, I made this wooden stand on castors. Used once, it's been doing service in the garage as additional storage for over ten years now. I made it out of scrap wood, it's exactly the same height as the shelf on which the oven sits. So just a question of standing it up against the unit, sliding the oven out of the housing on to it, then turning it round and taking it out through the kitchen door. Then down to the tip with it, a journey which took all of twenty minutes. Before I went, I examined the controls which showed that they had been considerably affected by the heat over the years so I don't think it would have been worthwhile repairing. The problem with built in ovens is that you need to get rid of the heat, as not all of it comes out of the front vents. It's made more of a problem by people like me who like to box in the tops of their kitchen units. So it's as well to fit a vent like this for the heat to get out that come off the back of the oven. There's an extractor fan in the window three feet away. Installing the new one when it arrives, should take all of twenty minutes.
Curry's arrived around half-eight this morning. I had the oven unpacked, installed, connected and clock set by 9.00am. without taking any lumps out of our now 18 year-old kitchen units. I read no further than, "How to set the clock in the instructions, as it's not my department." There's just two push in/pop out controls and the clock/timer is touch control, it's pretty basic, with seven functions as was the Baumatic I'm glad I got it done early before it got warm. Just got to register the two year guarantee on line.
Today was up really early to put the cabbage rolls in the oven while the house is cool, and run the dishwasher. I put a fan in the door way of the kitchen to blow in the cool air and hopefully balance out the running oven. A large pan of rolls went to the neighbours as well, but uncooked. Today is a big day of blanching green beans, making dill pickles and blanching carrots. Lots of laundry to go on the line and ...if I'm lucky we will tie some flies for fly fishing in a few days. So want to go fish the river if the weather and life allows it.
Melody Mc .. sounds so yummy… cabbage rolls a fav… pickles are a lot of work but we’ll worth it. It’s a good thing your home is a long distance away… I may be your new neighbor just for the goodies… “Lucky neighbor”.
Car Blue Badges, anyone have them? I've had one for my wife for about 40 years because she has MS. She's entitled "in perpetuity." Over time the renewal of these has become more difficult. I'm not against that, as some people who aren't entitled try to get one. But it became a bit of nightmare for those who were entitled. Every two years or whatever, we had to queue up at the town hall, then later the public library, bring all the documentation, then she had to sit in front of a screen whilst the clerk or whatever took a photo of her. It could take an hour. But today I received an e-mail from Trafford Council reminding me the current badge expires on 11th November and would need renewing. I thought "here we go again," but further down the e-mail it said "apply on-line." So I did, just a question of confirming all her details, it even said it would use the last photo (they always wanted a new one before). So job done. They could have done it this way a decade ago if they tried. They e-mailed me this early as badges can take 12 weeks to arrive!
That's great @Doghouse Riley, they're years behind what they should be able to do. My brother worked for the tax office, that was in the late 60s and they was then, so nothings changed.
Made 6x1lb Christmas puddings, keep 3 for 2023 Christmas. With clean greaseproof paper and 3 layers of cling film. I'll cook the other 4 tomorrow
Defrosted the stand up freezer, hubby gets the full drawers out and puts them on the floor and I cover them with a lot of blankets. Altogether it takes about 2 hours, i put a lot of bowls filled with boiling water to melt the ice. I've got a freezer scraper to do it, i like doing the ice bit but it takes too long altogether.
Hopefully going fishing this afteroon if the winds stay calm. It's a trip we've been looking forward to for a long time, so hope it works out. If not, that is why we have tomorrows. @Logan - you are so ambitious making your puddings now. They look like a lot of thoughtful work. Do you have them wrapped to steam them? or store them? I'm not familiar with the process.
@Melody Mc. hope that you could go fishing. Thanks about my puddings, it's traditional to cook them in October to let them mature, but i did them now when I had the time. Before cooking i put 3 layers of greased greaseproof paper on top of the mixture and then aluminium foil on top and down the side,usually i tie it with string around the rim, but i found that a elastic band works well. After cooking i take that off and put a clean greaseproof paper disk on top of the pudding and let them completely cool down, then i put 3 layers of cling film all around the basin, then i put them in the cupboard, i do two for Christmas and 4 for the year after, but after about 6 months they do start going mouldy so now i feed them with some sherry, that stops the mould. I cook them in my pressure cooker, i can do 2 at a time and the cooking time is reduced.
