The BB cafe

[Kazzl]

The BB cafe is open for business!
Welcome all to a new chill and chat place for everyone on the forum.

The BB cafe is whatever you want it to be. There are comfy sofas, tables and chairs, coffee machines, a kitchen stocked with everything. There's a pool outside, a bbq area, an annexe with comfy beds for a quiet sleep, tv, dvd, books and whatever else you would like to have here.

Most of all, it's a place to meet friends and fellow travellers for a bit of company. Talk over problems, tell jokes, share your day, escape into a world of your making. Grab a coffee and pull up a chair ... 

So, with a nod to the wonderful Carole King (Hard Rock Cafe) ...

Now if you're feeling just a little bit lonely
Don't sit at home just mopin'
Come on down to where the friendship flows freely
You know the door is always open

At the BB cafe
Come to the BB cafe
They will help keep your blues at bay
At the BB cafe

Important Message from ModSupport: 
The main intention of the BB Cafe is to encourage light conversation. Please look after your fellow community members by nuturing the BB Cafe as a place to escape some of the more pressing issues in life and save those conversations for personal threads. 

[mmMekitty]

Hello Fiatlux,

I like the idea of dividing certain foods into portions, so I can, a) freeze them, & b) only take one portion out at a time. It makes the food last longer & is cheaper too than buying pre-portioned packs. Check out the unit price & compare. If you haven't done that already, you may well be astonished.

*

About the fish, you might have another google adventure on your hands. Briefly, Cod, Hake, Basa & Hoki are similar, related. But it seems there is more to it than that...

What does annoy me is when I'm looking up what fish is in the pack of crumbed fish fillets (or fish fingers, for that matter) & the ingredients list doesn't tell me.

Good luck with your fishy research.

*

Nice, cooler day, cloudy but not raining. Still humid, but so very enjoyable when compared to yesterday.

Hugzies

mmMekitty

[Fiatlux]

Good Afternoon dear friends,

I am contemplating as to what I should eat today. I skipped breakfast as I have heard that it’s really not the most important meal of the day anymore as we no longer go out and do any physical labour. Well not we anyway. So putting off the first meal of the day is fine. I think Brunch and Dinner is totally fine. I drink plenty of water till then and 2 meals a day is perfectly fine for me.

I started making my trifles with sponge fingers and sour cherries in cherry jelly. The recipe I came across has cubes of sponge in jelly and apparently they shouldn’t be soggy by the time the jelly sets. Let’s hope that I haven’t made a mess of it yet. I will set it overnight and add the custard and cream layers tomorrow.

mmMekitty, I always check the unit price of everything that I purchase. And you are correct that the larger the package the lower the unit price on most items. Except this week I purchased 1km of brown onions for $2.90. The 2km bag was $5.90 and I thought that can’t be right. That’s 10 cents more than it should cost. Yes, we are at that point where I refuse to pay 10c more. 

I have small portions of left overs from 2 dinners and I am going to combine them to make myself a Brunch.

When I make rice now in the rice cooker, I make a larger batch and use portions when I need them. I have learnt that cooked rice can be frozen and then tossed into fried rice dishes. This saves on power usage as well as time. 

Have a lovely evening everyone and I am looking forward to having Friday off. 🙏🏼 Fiatlux 

[sbella02]

Fiatlux,

I too no longer eat breakfast, the most I'll have is an Up and Go or even a smoothie if I'm exercising that morning. You're right, it's really not necessary unless you've got a day of intense physical movement. 

A trifle sounds so good right now. Even if it doesn't turn out the way you want it, there's something so special and heartwarming about homemade dishes and I'm sure it'll be delicious anyway.

I'd like to pose a question to the BB Cafe today. Specifically for the kitchen wizzes, where did everyone learn how to cook? Was it trial and error, TV shows, family members, friends? As somebody who's still actively learning how to whip up meals without a recipe, I'm curious.

SB

[Fiatlux]

Good evening BB Cafe friends,

sbella, I started to learn to cook at a young age from my father mostly. I was ten when I was expected to start the evening dinner for the family. My dad would give me instructions at 7am before heading to work. When I got home from school I would start with peeling vegetables etc. Mid week dinner was a little simpler, like roast chicken with roast vegetables or a stew.

My dad was a butcher and later in life started a catering business with my mother who was an amazing pastry chef. They mostly catered private functions on the weekends. I think I was about 14 when I started helping with the catering as well. I learnt more from my mother later on. 

Now I often apply every I learnt and get inspiration from online recipes as well. We don’t eat out as often as we used to so if I want Thai food I need to get my ingredients together from an online recipe and make it myself.

My trifles in my opinion were pretty good. I looked up a trifle recipe and adapted it to my taste and available ingredients. 

In the late afternoon I may watch a cooking show and get inspired. This happened when watching a chef on TV recently. The next minute I was up and using up cauliflower for cauliflower fritters. 

See, now it’s dinner time and although I made some sweet pumpkin puffs already I am going to get up and make some corn fritters. Yum.

Have a lovely evening everyone. I will be watching tennis shortly. Fiatlux 🙏🏼

[Ggrand]

Hello Dear everyone…..🤗..

I learnt to cook from my mil…my husband was Italian, his parents the same, he wasn’t a fan of Aussie food, mostly spicy European food was his go too….I enjoyed cooking European style dishes…took hours of slow cooking for pasta sauces etc….

Tonight I cooked some toast (2) pieces, small pork chop and chips….would have been yummy IF I didn’t forget about the chips deep frying 😂 , popped the toast up…not cooked yet, so pop it back down 😂…forgot to readjust the darkness of the toast…Well, my chips are black as licorice, hard as a piece of boiled candy…my toast is all shades of black n browns, hard as cardboard because I forgot about it and it cooled off in the toaster😂….I ended up having a small pork steak inside a bread n butter sandwich….It was yummy, at least the air fryer has a timer on it…

Earlier today I did make some Jelly…so I bought some in, with heaps of ice cream, all different flavoured….might help to cool you off if it’s a hot night like I’m having…

Enjoy your night everyone…

hugs, love and care 🤗💜🦋.

Grandy..

[mmMekitty]

Hello everyone.

Answering SB's question: I have, not so much 'learned' to cook, just learning to make things that I find edible, & to not burn them enough to set off the smoke alarm. I like knowing I can make rice & pasta without a machine.

When we were young, us kids all had chores, including doing the peeling & cutting up of veg. later my (ex-)step-mother told me how to put on the crock pot before going to school, & that was another chore added to the list.

My father had some favourite foods & meals he taught us to prepare for him. Popcorn, hotdogs under the grill, to add brown sugar to baked beans, (this was one meal he liked), also, his own pancake recipe & method, as well as how to make omelettes & how he like mushrooms (we'd picked before school) in butter.

& I learned some things from school, I suppose... I didn't enjoy learning cooking from either my (ex-)step-mother or school. 

I muddled along, reading what packets had on them, then later, seeing something on tele might have helped me, too, I guess.

Now I think the cooking shows use either expensive ingredients or assume I have gadgets in a big kitchen, or am feeding 4 or more people & they might expect more skills than I have... I very much like the most basic & easy to make recipes so I can subsequently, experiment & play with them.

*

I'm enjoying breakfast, without coffee (which was all I used to have). A dietician had said this was one thing which would help me towards a healthy weight. Whether or not that has been true is uncertain, but I am feeling better in the mornings than when I was only having coffee.

*

I love the idea of cherry jelly trifle, & jelly with heaps of ice cream of many flavours ... many flavoured jelly, too I hope?! 😹 Somewhat cooler today, but oh so humid!

Hugzies

mmMekitty

[blondguy]

Hey Hey Everyone! Readers and New Posters are always Welcome to jump in and post too! If we didn't have new members the forums would struggle to exist. 

Hi MK...I love this "I love the idea of cherry jelly trifle, & jelly with heaps of ice cream of many flavors"...So do I

Hi  Ggrand!....I dont want to laugh at your expense yet I felt like I was reading my own life story when I read your post...seriously! Everything you mentioned is a carbon copy of my life...and you have the style/strength to laugh at yourself! Sensational post!! 

I just bought an air fryer and its great!! It worked twice and then it died....oh crap!..I mean DOH!

my kindest bearhugs always

Paul x

Hey Hey Fiatlux...SB....😀..Always a Bonus to have you on the air x

[Paw Prints]

Hello Everyone,

I started learning to cook from about the age of 5, despite this I'm not a great cook. It was very basic cooking with most things being what my parents grew up eating in the 20s & through the depression & war years. So lots of offal & cheap meat cuts with whatever we had growing in the vege patch. From age 12 I did all the cooking as mum had passed. So if you like steak & kidney pudding or lambs fry & bacon, I'm a  master at those even though I don't like them myself, I can whip them up in the bb cafe easy peasy.

At high school all the girls did a couple of years of "Home Economics" where we learnt how to cook simple meals & meal planning/shopping etc. It was nice to learn some newer recipes. Though looking back it would have been even nicer to have been allowed to do the wood working that the boys all did.

Trifle.... yummmmmmm   I love trifle with jam sponge roll & raspberry jelly or plain sponge fingers with lime jelly. Another favourite is jelly mousse - make up the packet jelly, let it partially set, then whip in a can of condensed milk & when it is all thick & frothy leave it to set. Simple & oh so yummy.

Grany I had to chuckle at your dinner disaster as I have done the same so many times & yes you are right a pork steak sandwich is delicious eve when it wasn't what was planned.

Hugs

Paws

[blondguy]

Hey Hey Paws

There is a pie shop in Bayswater Vic and they make the best steak & kidney pie....yummy! there are fans of this pie shop that preorder in bulk (like myself) as they are an hour away. You mentioned ''steak & kidney pudding'...oh my goodness that sounds wonderful. I wish!

getting hungry here......oh my!

Nice1 Paws! 

Paul x

[Ggrand]

Hello everyone,

Dear Paul, thank you so much for letting me know that I’m not the only one that can burn my food to be unrecognisable in taste and looks….🤗….Oh!….I did say a few words I’ll not repeat here…but in the long run I think that if we can laugh at ourselves sometimes, it doesn’t effect us so badly…..I’ve had my air fryer for years, use it most nights…I think it’s just a small portable oven, given a fancy name….and easier to clean..

My mil made steak and kidney pasta sauce a few times, it was different and I did enjoy it…..

mmMeKitty, please do be careful skipping breakfast, just a light meal is best, porridge, cereal, weetbix …your body has gone quite long hours without food and nourishment…just my concern for you mmMeKitty….

Paws, my grandmother made Lambs Fry and Bacon…oh I loved it so much…I have tried unsuccessfully to cook it….if it’s okay, no pressure at all, but could you please, give me your recipe and a few instructions on how to prepare and cook it….I so much want to have it again since you posted on here you can cook it🤗💜..

Jelly and ice cream tonight…need something to cool me off…..

Love, Care and Hugs everyone..💜🦋🤗..

Grandy..