Parents are not pack horses or taxi drivers

I have noticed over the last few years that children in pushchairs are getting bigger and bigger.

When my son started infant school at 5 years old, one of the other children was brought in a pushchair with a dummy firmly inserted in his mouth.

Now some 20 odd years later,I see many many big children being pushed around when they are perfectly capable of walking.

It is important to let children walk once they can. Baby reins help with stumbles , a wrist strap stops them running into traffic.

We had both of our children out of the 'buggy' as much as possible by 3 and walking everywhere as soon as they could.
It was easier with my son because my daughter was younger and he could always hitch a lift on the pushchair when he got tired .

My daughter was given a shoulder lift if she was too tired to manage a longer walk.

We could walk the 2 miles to school with both children and I would shoulder lift my 3 1/2 Year old daughter to town (about 3/4 mile),then she would walk  with me around the shops and we would both walk the 1.5 miles home.

It took time because small children cant walk as fast as adults and it meant that we could no longer  rely on the pushchair to carry the shopping but better that than have children who baulk at walking anywhere. Parents are not pack horses or taxi drivers.

When our kids went  to 6th form college after homeschooling, they were each presented with a bus time table and a bus pass.
The pass enabled them to get a bus at the top of the road and then another in town to the school, about 6 miles away. They both opted to walk to town and take only one bus rather than stand and wait for the first one.

Making milk ,yog and other white stuff

Almond milk in the machine

Yesterday I made Almond Milk in the soymilk machine.
It was quite easy.
A little cup of soaked Almonds, water up to the line.
Turn it on.

The milk hasn't got a strong flavour ,I think it is closer in flavour and consistency to Skimmed cows milk than the soy milk is.

Soy Yoghurt from home made milk

My soy yoghurt making has improved.
The last batch I made also had about half a cup of rolled oats added to the milk machine to add thickening.

When it was done, I added a Tablespoon of sugar and let it cool till it was yoghurt warm.
Then added the yoghurt left over from last time to start the new batch.
I put it in a jug, put the jug in an insulated picnic bag and left it for about 8 hours.

This batch was much much creamier than last time and had less whey on the top when it was done.
It was much closer to the shop soy yoghurt that I bought to use as the first starter.

Tofu from home made milk

I also made Tofu.
This started with making the soymilk as usual and then while it was still very hot, straining it and adding 2 tablespoons of  Epsom salts (bought from Boots the Chemist in UK for £1.25).
The milk curdles into a mass of little curds and thin whey.
You must leave it around 15 minutes and then line a mold with something to hold the curds while allowing the whey to drain.

I made a mold from a take away container with holes punched in it.
The liner was some clean material (tights/panty hose).
Then when the mixture was poured in and the mold put onto a cooling tray over a bowl, I put another take away container into the first, on top of the mixture and put some canned food on top as weights.

The Tofu is sitting in the Fridge till dinner time when I will make a Tofu scramble to have with salad.
I suppose it is about 1/2" thick by 4"x6" and cost me about 30 pence to make not including (20 minutes) electricity for the milk maker machine.

The pulp left after making the milk is Okara and can be used to add to foods in various ways.
The whey is also useful. It is quite sweet and tastes good in a risotto when used as part of the liquid or in porridge.

There is a little pot of Almond Meal left after making the Almond Milk which can be used in baking also.

Cheese trials

I made some cheese with cashews about a week ago.
The recipe required tahini which I had made in advance but my sesame seeds had been a long time in the cupboard so Im not sure if they were a little soured.
Anyway the cheese is quite firm although not really gratable.
I can just about grate it but it doesn't melt and the grater is very gooey afterwards.

It looks like red leicester because of the tomato paste used for colour.
When I had some on pizza,I found the flavour a bit too sesame seed like which might be because of the age of the seeds.

As a sandwich filling, it was hugely successful.
It goes great with tomatoes and cucumber.
I think they detract from the sesame taste.

I have a good stash of cashews so when all my cheese has been devoured,I will have another go with a different recipe.

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Hot and  muggy in July, who knew

The weather has been hot and muggy.
In the UK there is very little predictable weather.
I mean you can tell it will be cold in winter and warmer than cold when it isnt winter but after that, it is a guessing game.

It isn't unusual to see people in t-shirts and shorts and flip flops, walking around in the pouring rain,they are determined that it is summer and so dress accordingly.

In the winter, people tend to have a coat with them but could still be wearing trainers and no hat or gloves.

I think it is why the weather is such a common subject of conversation here.

People have lost the plot.

When I was a child, we would wear wellington boots to school in very rainy or snowy weather and then at school ,change into the plimsolls that were kept there for PE.

Hardly anyone had extra shoes so that they could just get soaked feet and then wear dry shoes next day so it was very practical.

In the 60's and 70's School children had gabardine raincoats when younger and blazers when older ,which were usually wool and most had an outdoor coat with a hood when it was winter,worn over the blazer.
My younger sister was a teenager in the 80's and was determined to be trendy which meant walking to school,rain or snow in a school  pullover ,her coat and gloves and scarf left at home because they were not cool.

We always had a 'mac' when we went on sea side excursions.
They were often sold from machines on the promenade too just in case . You put in your penny and out would come a little pack all folded tightly. Then when you opened it,there was a thin but waterproof transparent mac with a hood. It was quite embarrassing to be wearing a hug plastic bag shaped like a rain coat but not as embarrassing as walking around soaked to the skin and wrapped in your own arms for warmth that is so often the sight now.
 
A lot of materials were natural ; wool ,cotton ,leather and kept the weather out and the warmth in.

Some of the clothes that are for sale now as hard weather gear, are ridiculous.
All nylon,acrylic  and PVC .
I remember watching a documentary in which some youths were staying with an Inuit family and the head of the family laughed at their expensive clothing  then had them kitted out in real cold resistant garb.

I suppose the more modern materials are cooler in summer.
They are certainly very nice for keeping fit.
All my running clothes are some sort of man made fabric and much nicer than the airtex shirts from the 70s that often stained with sweat and became unwearable .

Swimming costumes are also much better these days providing you go for the ones which have low elastane content.

Anyway as Billy Connoly says 'there is no such thing as bad weather,only the wrong clothes'

learning to make things without milk

I had a busy day yesterday.
I made cheddar without using any milk.
It came from the uncheese book.
Today we are having pizza so I will try some on it.

It looks quite orange like processed coloured cheddar.

I also made Ice cream.
That was from a  recipe on instructables.
We had some last night with strawbs, rasps and cherries.
It was pretty good and my first chocolate flavoured thing in about a month.

Today I made a separate pizza base so I can have pizza with the boys but not worry about how I will avoid their normal cheese.
I made a big pizza base using rice flour just for an experiment and it looks good.
I divided it into 6 and 5 slices are in the freezer.

The cherries are looking good on the trees.
I picked a litre bucket full .
Probably I'll get one more picking and then the birds will have polished them off.
I think they are white cherry but they look very like rainiers cherries in photos.

More about soy etc

I have been having fun with soya beans.
I made a whole litre of yoghurt after making some more milk in my machine.
Th yoghurt is a little runny but after looking online ,I see I can add a few spoonfuls of oats to make it thicker and sugar helps it ferment.

The Okara can be dried and made into protien powder which I have done.

Any whey can be used to add to buns or bread or on breakfast.

There really isnt any waste.

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I have dug up the onions and garlic I planted in the Autumn.
They were free as they were all from last years crop.
They are now dried and packed in jars as powder.

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Chalk and Cheese on ebay

We got our money back from the ebay sales person who made me wait in three separate days  for his collection driver.

The third time, they actually came.

He wanted me to retract my negative feedback,stating that the reason the driver hadnt turned up was that he (the vendor) had gone on holiday.

That excuse rang of dumb deceit so I did not take the bait but pointed out that it was not a valid excuse and that he had twice lied ,the second time being presumably while he was on 'holiday' and so unable to read his messages.
I also pointed out that there had been a problem with some parts being wrong and he said he couldn't know every part of all 6000 items he sold .
That would be the 6000 items he has sold in his lifetime as a trader judging by his feedback score.
He had never even acknowledged that the parts were a problem,choosing to ignore me until I said it was broken in 30 minutes when I used it .

I believe that if I hadn't gone to the resolution center,I would now be trying to get the manufacturers to mend it  . I did look them up and their service people are all miles and miles away.

Anyway he now has his substandard item and we had our money back

As soon as the money was refunded,I went straight back onto ebay and found another trader selling the same item . This trader has 100% feedback score and although it was £10 more expensive, I bought from him.

The item arrived with several messages before hand to say when it was coming (to the hour).
I opened it and found 3 bolts were missing.

That evening I messaged the trader and asked him to please send some and next day he phoned to check the address.

They were in my hand the day after that and fitted perfectly(unlike the first machines bolts which were too wide and touched the rotating blade).

Out in the overgrown veg patch,the machine did well.

I left him glowing feedback .
This morning he phoned to check they had come and I was happy with the purchase.

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I have been looking at various ways to make mock cheese using nuts etc.
It looks fairly easy so that will be my next foodie endevour.
No fancy machines this time.

More about Milk Allergy

Well I have had a busy few days.

I always like to be as frugal as possible so it was the usual task of digging deep into the internet to find ways to manage a Milk Allergy cheaply.

Soy milk made at home the easy way

I found a Soy milk maker on ebay and ordered it. It came yesterday.
The Instructions are in Chinese pictogram style writing but luckily they also include a very basic English translation.
Last night I soaked my first batch of organic soy beans(bought in bulk on Amazon for £21/5KG).

This morning I was up early and rinsed the beans(now about thrice their size).
They went into the bottom of the machine with a Litre of water.

I pressed the button and waited.
First it heats up and then whirrs around with a stick blender thing that comes out of its lid.
This process pauses and repeats and 20 minutes later there is a big jug of Soy milk which needs straining.
The milk looks just like the stuff you buy in Sainsburys.
Its very hot so needs to cool before you can really do the next bit.

The remaining strained out sludge is called Okara and I shall be looking into what to do with it later.

I put most of the milk in a big clean coffee jar and a tiny bit in a glass with a dot of vanilla extract and a few grains of sugar.
It was yummy.

I need to get something finer to strain the okara out as the sieve, although quite fine, isn't small enough mesh really.

Pricing this up (just beans per litre) it would cost me 27pence a litre which is nearly half the price of cows milk bought in UHT. And about £1 cheaper per litre than Soy milk in Sains where it is cheaper than the health shops.

The machine cost me £58 but takes all the hassle out of making the milk.
You can do it in a saucepan with a blender to cut up the beans but I like the convenience of the machine enough for the price.

I am soaking another batch of beans for making soy yoghurt which I shall do this evening.

Sausages have milk in! Who knew?

Another thing I would miss enormously are Sausages.

Quite a lot of sausages have milk powder in them so they are out.

I now have a meat grinder with a sausage making attachment so that I can make sausages without the milk.

Yesterday, I made some bangers with the new contraption.
It was very easy.
I used my blender to make bread crumbs to eke out the meat.
Added Herbs and seasoning to the crumbs.
Cut up some Belly of Pork with scissors and mixed it all together with my hands.

You have to be very fussy about cleanliness for sausage making else you would give yourself food poisoning.
The machine parts get washed first. Then immediately after use and are all oiled for the next use.

I managed to make enough sausages for about 16 links.

This is not cheaper than Asda Cheapo bangers at £1 for 20 frozen  or 50p for 8 fresh but they were so much less greasy (my microwave browner is usually overflowing with fat when they are cooked) and the flavour was very very nice.
It cost me £79 for the grinder and £3 for the sausage casings.
The casings will last a while as I dont think I even used a 1/4 of the amount.

You can use a hand mincer/grinder to make the sausages but they are hard work and you are in a sort of lottery when you buy a mincer due to the poor manufacture.
A really good one is about £40.

There are some meat grinders that run on electricity for anywhere from about £30 but they are priced low to sell abundantly and often are under powered or shoddy workmanship.



I shall be trying to make Tofu and cheese in future weeks and will increase my store of herbs for variations on the sausage front.

food glitches

Well I am back.
I havent actually been away but I was indisposed with a food intolerance thingummy and had to go through the elimination process to discover what it was.
It appears to be both Spuds and Milk.

Having eliminated the two completely, I feel much more my old self.
In fact ,I feel more my young self.

The other good thing about it is, my weight has improved.
I wasn't massively OVER weight but had begun to notice that nothing was keeping me trim as it used to.  Bloating and water retention were the culprits.

I still jump rope 2 or three times a week and that and a couple of walks into town used to be ample exercise for keeping  fit but this last few months it was getting less and less effective.

I think the milk allergy may always have been there.
I fully remember my behaviour panning out over the long summer holidays which was most likely caused by the lack of the daily bottle of free school milk.
We ate very little cheese and butter and mostly drank water but of course milk is in so many things anyway. 
By the time I was a teen, I was drinking copious amounts of tea with milk and 3 sugars so I think that probably took the place of the knock on effects of school milk once I was out of the junior school.


Both my brother and I suffered many ear infections as kids and both had and still have allergy shiners.
I also had a bed wetting problem which went on longer than it should.
I just couldn't predict when it would happen and spent many worrying mornings discovering the awful truth and having to admit it to mum.
Bro is unlikely to do anything about discovering if he has the same allergy.
He just wants a quiet simple life and to be left in peace.
Sis has lots of allergies but I never heard her mention milk.

I did go wheat free for a few weeks to see if it was that but it seems not.

Cutting out the milk means also doing without cheese,many margarine type spreads, yoghurt, chocolate ,butter,many shop biscuits and cakes,even some gravy powders.
Luckily there are many work arounds and I am a good learner.

The spud thing is a surprise to me and was initially more disappointing but actually I am finding that is not so bad either and I have discovered sweet potatoes which are yummy and okay.
The men dont care,neither likes potato.

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Musically we have both been learning our instruments and practicing with them.
I can now do a few tunes with only a bit of squeaking and double stopping where I shouldn't.

OH bought a music stand for us so we can play without having to keep catching the music as it slides down or flops off a prop.
 Having it at eye line helps too to keep the bow angle right.

OH is now quite good with his guitar.
I am less diligent with mine ,I am practicing more with the violin.

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The poor old garden has suffered this year.
I started to chop down the brush with a brand new brush cutter only to have it die on me.
It has taken 2 weeks to get the seller to come and get it so I can be reimbursed.
I will be, I am determined that he will not find a reason to deny me a refund.
I think it was the first time in ages that I have had to go to the resolution center and argue for my rights  on ebay.

It is very strange but some sellers seem to think they are invisible.
I mean ,not that they cant be seen but that their actions and words are secret.
This sellers first reaction when I wrote and told him some of the parts were not right(obviously  replaced with the wrong things so the new item was not what it said), was complete silence.

2 days later I pointed it out again and then when I finally got a chance to use the machine when it wasn't raining, I had to tell him that it didn't work.

He seemed surprised that I was impatient for an answer and  said it was because he had so many queries and messages to get through.

 He said he would collect it and refund.
I waited in and he didnt turn up,well no one did.

I told him he hadnt sent anyone and he apologised and arranged to come.
I waited in and he didnt turn up,well no one did AGAIN.

So,instead of getting very shirty with him,I went into the resolution center and asked him to collect and refund , pointing out that he had twice lied about doing so .

He offered to let me send it at my own expense in 2 days from his message which was not sent until after mid day.

I wrote again and said that the law stated that I should not be out of pocket for a faulty item and he said he would collect it.

A courier finally came and got it . 3rd time lucky?

I took quite a lot of proof photos of the machine in case he is in any doubt about refunding me once he has it.

While his and my messages have been civil, his do scream of back pedaling and lying. I dont think he realises that the resolution team can read the lot.

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I finally finished reading the Game of Thrones.
Such a gripping read.
My favourite character is Aria Stark.
Cant wait till he writes the next one now.
We have watched 2 of the series on TV and find them very sleazy compared with the books.
There is some mild bedroom stuff in the novels but not the pornographical spectacles of the TV series.
Honestly do they think people are that nasty minded or are they just pandering to the imagines masses.
If that sort of thing was not depicted as normal  on TV, it would not be thought about as normal off screen either.

It is just like the old TV series in which every couple would be desperate to disrobe and go at it.

Come on ,life is more than just rutting .
Leaving things to the imagination is so much more respectful.