Cunard Cruisers - How are things where you are ?

[MrsPeel55]

@Lanky Lad thanks , think gonna get the Ninja 🙂

[rakkor]

We have had a couple of air-fryers in the past, both of which did a good job, but Jane bought me an Instant Pot Ultimate Lid (Ninja also do one) for Xmas, which is one of those multifunction devices, and includes an air-fryer as well as a pressure cooker, sous vide etc,  so as counter top space was limited, the trusty old Philips went to a good home and I've never looked back, pressure cooking a whole chicken and then finishing it off in the air fryer is a revelation, and all done in one pot albeit with a wipe out half way through.

Edited November 21, 2023 by rakkor

[MrsPeel55]

@rakkor thanks! I knew about the Instant Pot pressure cooker, we cook a lot with a stove top pressure cooker, and then some 10 years ago I got an electric slow cooker which we use a lot.

When I heard of the Instant Pot (which had both features at the time) it was expensive... I got then a King's Pro, which is supposed to do the same....it was a gift, I had by then already known that in these kind of things, it is worth paying more....my thing was trying to cut down on the amount of washing up (our pans are brilliant but not dishwasher safe) as it was then that I started to get worse with mobility.

That Kings Pro was used twice... because it was small, when we used the frying function it would end up steaming stuff, not sure how to explain, but we gave it away.

I did look at the Instant Pot Pro Crisp, but the smallest is that the smallest is 5.7 L and weights 8 kg, the Ultimate weights 10.6...as product dimension actually isn't that big, I think it maybe more or less the size of the 3.8 Ninja air fryer but I would never be able to move it 😞

I was looking for a 2, 3L maximum, more as a way of not deep frying anymore, cutting down on both health risk and the gas bill...

Ended up late last night getting the 3.8 Ninja on Amazon, we'll see how it goes 🙂

[Host Hattie]

Happy Thanksgiving for those who celebrate. 

It's getting to the business end of Bake Off, the final next week. 

[alc13]

Are we seeing the same Bake Off as you?  We have about 3 weeks to go to the final...  

 

PS  Happy Thanksgiving to all the Americans on this Board!

Edited November 23, 2023 by alc13

[techteach]

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

[Host Hattie]

7 hours ago, alc13 said:

Are we seeing the same Bake Off as you?  We have about 3 weeks to go to the final...  

 

PS  Happy Thanksgiving to all the Americans on this Board!

If these are the same bakers it sounds like you're 2 weeks behind, if not you're at least a year behind !

 

[alc13]

15 hours ago, Host Hattie said:

If these are the same bakers it sounds like you're 2 weeks behind, if not you're at least a year behind !

 

Yes! - that's the gang we're watching here.  

 

Post mortem in a couple of weeks.

[Host Hattie]

OK, I'll try not to post a spoiler next Tuesday!

[Bigmike911]

A belated Happy Thanksgiving to our American pals. I was so busy preparing for the event, as I am chief cook and bottle washer in my household. My Sister and her Husband joined us, and my son Jeff came down from Dallas to spend the weekend, so it was busy.

 

A sixteen pound Willie Bird fresh pre-brined turkey arrived from Petaluma on Tuesday and was roasted to a fair thee well. chestnut cornbread dressing, wild rice with mushrooms, green bean casserole (one of those American things) a Waldorf Salad, yeast dinner rolls for the meal. My sister baked a Pecan Pie a.k.a. as a Pecan nut pie in the U.K. and a couple bottles of Vueve Clicquot. Any one remember the Vueve Clicquot Champagne Bar on Queen Mary 2?

 

The low light of the day was the lower dishdrawer of my Fisher and Paykel dish washer leaked all over the kitchen floor as I was finishing the dinner. Well it got mopped quickly and the meal went on. The clean up after took longer than usual with only one dishwasher in service, fortunately the top still worked,  but it's all done, and on to Christmas. 

 

Happy Black Friday to all.

[techteach]

We’re celebrating Thanksgiving today, Friday, so everyone could be together. The oven is heating, the bird has been brined and is ready to go in. I’m about to make the deviled eggs. The beans are ready to be dropped, the carrots are ready for a glaze, the horseradish cranberry sauce is ready to go. The only thing left is making the dressing, not stuffing, with dried cranberries and porcini and trumpet mushrooms. Oh, I can’t forget the chocolate mousse! And of course, DH makes the buttery sinful mashed potatoes!

 

Seahawks lost miserably last night so we’re ready for the two local rivalries, Washington State vs. U. Of Wash. and Oregon St. vs. U of Oregon. DH has Dr. and teaches at U.W, daughter in law graduated from WSU, and our son is U of O, the ducks, graduate. It will be an exciting afternoon! Everyone have a fun Black Friday.

[naturelovergirl]

We had a lovely Thanksgiving meal in Florida! 

Homemade deliciousness of recipes passed down through the generations on both sides with lots of leftovers! We tend to freeze our leftovers in vacuum seal bags. This keeps our leftovers tasting amazing in the future! Truly the gift that keeps on giving.

 

Today we started decorating the house for the Holidays- with lots of Christmas music playing in the background!

We just finished decorating our tree... One of those ornaments was from our recent Cunard voyage to Alaska in August (a handmade wooden whale we purchased at a gallery selling Alaskan-made crafts).

Placing the ornament on the tree made me think of our beautiful time we had, once more, on Cunard.

 

 

[Victoria2]

On 11/24/2023 at 5:49 PM, Bigmike911 said:

A belated Happy Thanksgiving to our American pals. I was so busy preparing for the event, as I am chief cook and bottle washer in my household. My Sister and her Husband joined us, and my son Jeff came down from Dallas to spend the weekend, so it was busy.

 

A sixteen pound Willie Bird fresh pre-brined turkey arrived from Petaluma on Tuesday and was roasted to a fair thee well. chestnut cornbread dressing, wild rice with mushrooms, green bean casserole (one of those American things) a Waldorf Salad, yeast dinner rolls for the meal. My sister baked a Pecan Pie a.k.a. as a Pecan nut pie in the U.K. and a couple bottles of Vueve Clicquot. Any one remember the Vueve Clicquot Champagne Bar on Queen Mary 2?

 

The low light of the day was the lower dishdrawer of my Fisher and Paykel dish washer leaked all over the kitchen floor as I was finishing the dinner. Well it got mopped quickly and the meal went on. The clean up after took longer than usual with only one dishwasher in service, fortunately the top still worked,  but it's all done, and on to Christmas. 

 

Happy Black Friday to all.

Glad you survived the dishwasher crisis. We had one the day before a big dinner at ours  [a dozen sitting down to dine would have me hand washing for days] a few years back. Luckily, we managed to get a new one installed the day of the dinner. We still have one dishwasher but a friend remodelling her kitchen has had two installed. Apparently two dishwashers is becoming the new 'two ovens and a half' in kitchen design over here. 🙂

 

Happy belated Thanksgiving all.

 

[exlondoner]

11 minutes ago, Victoria2 said:

Glad you survived the dishwasher crisis. We had one the day before a big dinner at ours  [a dozen sitting down to dine would have me hand washing for days] a few years back. Luckily, we managed to get a new one installed the day of the dinner. We still have one dishwasher but a friend remodelling her kitchen has had two installed. Apparently two dishwashers is becoming the new 'two ovens and a half' in kitchen design over here. 🙂

 

Happy belated Thanksgiving all.

 

We have one only and barely use that, except when there are visitors. With just the two of us, it takes about three days to fill up, and I’ve run out of cheap glasses.

[Victoria2]

8 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

We have one only and barely use that, except when there are visitors. With just the two of us, it takes about three days to fill up, and I’ve run out of cheap glasses.

Ah

Glasses, assuming you mean  drinking ones and not specs. I'm a lazy hound and three days is about the right length  for us in a normal week.

We have loads of them, non glass,  in all shapes and sizes. I discovered a brand of polycarbonate 'glasses' when little ones had a tendency to drop their drinking ware. Plus, all the best parties we went to when abroad eschewed actual glass around the pools.

Strahl.

Their drink wear lasts years and years and is great in the dishwasher, or indeed, out of it.

 

 

[exlondoner]

8 minutes ago, Victoria2 said:

Ah

Glasses, assuming you mean  drinking ones and not specs. 

 

 

If there were a route to cheap varifocal specs, that would be a useful thing.
Also nearly all our knives are bone handled, which does not help the dishwasher’s cause.

[Victoria2]

13 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

If there were a route to cheap varifocal specs, that would be a useful thing.
Also nearly all our knives are bone handled, which does not help the dishwasher’s cause.

We have inherited bone handled knives.

 

They stay in their protective packing.

 

In the loft! 🙂

[Bigmike911]

33 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

If there were a route to cheap varifocal specs, that would be a useful thing.
Also nearly all our knives are bone handled, which does not help the dishwasher’s cause.

You are right, there are some things that cannot go in the dishwasher, bone and wooden handled knives are a couple of them. But if I can get the rest of the stuff dealt with automatically, I can hand wash a few things. I also hand wash Crystal, because over time it will cloud from the heat of drying in the dishwasher. 

[techteach]

We have stemless glasses for everyday wine, but at dinner use the stems. The Irish crystal hasn’t been out of the china cabinet for several years! We usually serve two different wines during a dinner party, so 6 people means 12 glasses to wash by hand. DH washes and I dry. We ran the dishwasher 3 times on Thanksgiving. I hope you didn’t have floor damage due to the dishwasher mishap @Bigmike911.

[Victoria2]

1 hour ago, techteach said:

We have stemless glasses for everyday wine, but at dinner use the stems. The Irish crystal hasn’t been out of the china cabinet for several years! We usually serve two different wines during a dinner party, so 6 people means 12 glasses to wash by hand. DH washes and I dry. We ran the dishwasher 3 times on Thanksgiving. I hope you didn’t have floor damage due to the dishwasher mishap @Bigmike911.

We've started using stemless for cosy dinners as well as for every day use. Less chance of them getting knocked over!

You forgot the water glasses. That's eighteen. 🙂

[techteach]

6 hours ago, Victoria2 said:

We've started using stemless for cosy dinners as well as for every day use. Less chance of them getting knocked over!

You forgot the water glasses. That's eighteen. 🙂

I also didn’t add the champagne glasses used prior to dinner which definitely have stems. Poor DH gets wrinkly hands from all the washing.  😞

[Victoria2]

7 hours ago, techteach said:

I also didn’t add the champagne glasses used prior to dinner which definitely have stems. Poor DH gets wrinkly hands from all the washing.  😞

and the beer glasses and any liqueur glasses and...😀

 

That's why all our glassware now is 'cheap' as opposed to the expensive stuff which sits gleaming, when I've periodically dusted it, in glass fronted kitchen cupboards. The percentage of lead crystal is much lower and washed on a low temp. in the dishwasher, it takes a bit to cloud and can be easily and relatively cheaply, replaced.

Our inherited stuff is safely packed away as there is no way we will ever use it. It's all irreplaceable and breaking one of those would be heartbreaking. I keep meaning to sell it.

[Bigmike911]

On 11/27/2023 at 9:30 AM, techteach said:

We have stemless glasses for everyday wine, but at dinner use the stems. The Irish crystal hasn’t been out of the china cabinet for several years! We usually serve two different wines during a dinner party, so 6 people means 12 glasses to wash by hand. DH washes and I dry. We ran the dishwasher 3 times on Thanksgiving. I hope you didn’t have floor damage due to the dishwasher mishap @Bigmike911.

No floor damage, the kitchen floor is tile, and being in Texas the house has a slab so problem with the floor. I had a bit of good news today, my SubZero has been showing a wrench in the information panel indicating an issue. It also has a problem with water leaking and turning to ice. I had the SubZero repair guy out and he said the problem is a design flaw and is covered under warranty (on a ten year old refrigerator) The part has been ordered to fix it properly and the cost of the repair and the service call is fully covered. I doubt I will have the same luck with the Dishdrawer tomorrow. But these days every little bit helps. 

[Lanky Lad]

I've been looking at trips for 2025 (I have 2024 sorted already) and finally found "the one". QM2 leaving on 1st March 2025. I'm looking at QA to the Med but want to wait until I've been on her next year before booking. 

[ronpes]

Today in NE Scotland it is -4C and forecast to drop to -8C tonight. 

I hope its a lot warmer wherever you are. It is bitterly cold now. 

 

I swear it feels colder here than it did when we went to Antartica at the beginning of the year.

It was between 0 and 5C when we were there (South Shetland Islands) but then again, it was the middle of their summer!