idun

I have gathered that quite a few posters have bread machines. I was wondering what else you have and use a lot. We have a Kenwood food mixer, and I haven't used it in at least five years, and the only thing we use is for these days is the mincer attachment which we bought separately. We had an old hand mincer we bought in France, but I cannot find it since we moved back to the UK. I have a hand mixer, haven't used that in an age either, although I will get it out for merangues or if I am making a big amount of cake mix. We have a cuisinart blender with chopper, not cheap and neither of which I would recommend to anyone at all. I have fond memories of my old Moulinex blender and coffee bean chopper, which did veggies great, but I wore the poor thing out. I shall try and get another when this current thing gives up the ghost, which I daresay will not be that far in the future. It has already had to be replaced after just over a year, and ofcourse the guarantees don't start afresh, more or less from the original date of purchase............ and in comparison to my Moulinex, it is hardly used........ the Moulinex was used everyday when the kids were young and then several times a week! I have lots of hand whisks and wooden spoons. When we first moved to France we bought a press chopper, a german make and that is one of the very best things i have ever had in my kitchen, needless to say I wore that out too and could not find the same make again. I ended up with a zyliss but it wasn't a patch on the 'braun' I think was the first one I bought. So I have a simple kitchen really. Husband bought a pasta maker, used once so far, I am not such a pasta fan as to want to make it. I have a 2 fondue sets, and two raclette sets, how could I not having lived in the Alpes. And I can get all the ingredients I want for authentic fondues and raclettes so we still use them.

Whether one likes or dislikes Boris, he is a force of nature, and I found myself feeling more distressed than I had ever imagined I would be yesterday. I can only wish him well and a prompt recovery.

Yes, you said you had found a packet of bread mix and yes, it would have the 'levante' dedans.[:D] In fact I think it is good that these packets are available. I have heard that people like these and they make good bread, but I cannot use anything with dried yeast in it.  It makes my husband very very seriously ill, so I stick with fresh yeast, which does not affect him at all, and old fashioned bread making.

I remember her best from The Avengers, I loved that when I was but a young girl.

Decency in Football: Birmingham City have halved salaries for those on over £6000 A WEEK[:-))], still a lot of money A WEEK, I could well manage on that. But credit where it is due, and this is a good thing. And Leeds United have deferred wages for the first team, Team Before Self, Every Time. So decency does exist, but Lineker and Rooney, well they say we shouldn't be picking on footballers. My heart bleeds for the greedy barstewards!

Yup, they have died. [:(]

[:D]You have reminded me about a board I was on years and years ago and there was a lady on that board who announced the following: She was some sect in america and was marrying 'again' and she  and her new husband had paid their church for an upgrade in heaven, not only for themselves but for certain family members too, so that they would all be together. They didn't want to be with the hoi polloi, but have a special place. Their marriage didn't last long and I have often wondered about it, because IF she and her church were right about this, she could end up for eternity with him (and she said very bad things about him later) and his awful family. She had nothing good to say about them either. I don't believe in any of this, but none of us 'know' do we, as no one has come back to tell us what the score is post-life[Www]

  And before I go on, which I am going to do, I have heard of some players acting with decency and honour.  I have not had any time at all for those obscenely overpaid prima donnas who play soccer for many years. However, now I have read and seen, what I imagine certain of their number believe that they are righteously complaining that their indecent salaries should be cut and that the government should top up the clubs to pay the ordinary mortals who work there! They say that they are easy targets, well, it strikes me that ALL they have to do each time they play is try and hit a fairly easy target and yet, all too often they are not even up to that task.  ah yes, apparently they would be paying less tax...... well, let them just donate at least half their pick up salary each week to food banks and hospitals.  Which would probably be more than the amount of pension we will ever ever pick up and they should do that every week. The words I would like to use about such greed, is unprintable on here as I am beyond disgusted. They are not the only ones, and sadly the list is growing of those who are acting in a despicable manner.

Ah Alan, men are always more kneady! It is a known fact, amongst women at least[Www]

We have loads of sliced bread here now, but not the flour. I have read that the problem is the packaging and a priority is getting flour to the bakeries, which is fair enough. I have not even looked for fresh yeast recently, doesn't seem much point. Has sliced bread in France changed? It was rarely that I could get it that I liked, far too sweet usually, as it was Harry's American Bread and that is always too sweet for me.

Yes, GG your husband kneading, rather than you. As I said, I never do that first knead as well as any man who has been in the house and I have got bread making.

We have a mixer but I never use it for bread. For one I find that our Kenwood can only do a limited amount of dough at a time, and two, I can give the dough a good bashing and I find that very therapeutic.[Www] Also, men tend to be better kneaders, than me at least, more strength and better bread with a 'hard' knead before the first prove.

How cruel ALBF, on lockdown and our local chippies are shut.

Sadly I have found the current labour party truly awful. Our MP pre the new Boris government was absolutely terrible and they were voted out, so many of us were so fed up with 'them'. I can find nothing that I find helpful or truly postive in anything that has been said recently by Labour, and Blair, well, I wish he would shut up. And I live in a Labour area AND I am basically a socialist, with as I get older, some extreme views which get even more extreme as each year goes by. ie I would now bring back corporal punishment for some crimes.

I use SR flour for american style pancakes, but not for crepes or 'english' style ones I make.

Last night on CNN they were interviewing parishioners who attended services at something like the Solid Rock church in Ohio? Apparently they have the blood of christ and would not get the virus. As was pointed out to them, they could contaminate other non parishioners, to which they said that such people could contaminate them. They believe that they are immune from this and are not social distancing and hugging etc etc. Such are people. Wasn't it a church in South Korea that had a very very bad contamination rate. I do not care about them. This is the Darwin Awards stuff isn't it.

Good! So jobs a goodun then.[:D] I asked as people have been contacting me here and asking about using SR Flour for bread. Simply I wouldn't too much rising agent.

Holidays, well, unless booked, then who will really be booking until the last minute. Also, getting overseas may well be very problematic. I know where I am going after this, well  at some point, and hopefully this year, it's not far, but somewhere I love.

Re the BAC, that will be like some exams here and as has been pointed out, by those studying for these exams, that when they did their mocks, that they decided to work harder for the actual exam and get better marks. My friend's son in France was moyenne, very bright but lazy and when they did their mocks, realised that he no longer wanted to be 'moyenne' and worked and got a really good BAC. This 'system' of measuring in either country is not good, and I think in the future the results should be treat with scepticism.

Kong what exactly does it say, because if it is not an actual preprepared bread mix, then it will probably be SR Flour for cakes. I know it would depend on the  make of flour, but sometimes it would say something like, avec poudre levante dedans or poudre a lever incorporee. Whether you can use SR flour for bread I do not know, I would not even use it for yorkshire puds.

 Don't like the cut of the new one either. Lamentable at the moment.

I used to like watching Jeremy Vine, but I have little time for him now. At one point I used to help at a language school. One fine day I got there and the owner came up to me and said that they had said something that perhaps they shouldn't have said, and that was 'I am knowing'. They asked me to say it was OK, and if I was irish, I may have agreed, but it just felt wrong. At the end of my little class, I asked if there were any questions and one lady, whose english was pretty good said ' would you say, 'I am knowing'' To which I speedily replied and said, 'I wouldn't say that, any more questions?' She did not persue it. Strange language school, they got me to record some stuff, that was simply not right, and could not understand why I said it wasn't. Language is a strange thing. Apparently some 'americanisms' are old english. And yet some people from the british isles get riled, including my husband. And yet english is a wonderful 'b  as tard' language, always evolving.

ROFLPMP[:D]

I am quite curious as to how each country is helping their people as so many will need help. I knew about France, because I read some french news and ofcourse I know what happens, or should happen in England. Funny isn't it that apart from Romania and Bulgaria, I never think of former USSR satellites as being 'behind'. I know little about either country, but, the bits I have read, it has felt like they were just that.

[quote user="Gardian"]Well, we're OK down here in the Gard. I have to say that people around here seem to be pretty philosophical about it all. Although not completely clear, the level of infection seems to be low. I go out in the car every 2 or 3 days to get bread / fruit / veg, and the shops seem to have adapted really well. Sensible limits on the number of customers in a shop at any one time, protective screens for staff and customers. I always have an Attestation with me, but have only been stopped once and that was on the first day of the requirement for documentation. He let me go on my way, but he was extremely grumpy. Back in the UK, elder son and family are fine and on directed (by his employer) self confinement because of an initial health scare a week ago - turns out to have probably been nothing, or just maybe they were very mildly affected. Younger son lives and works in the Czech Republic where he is an English teacher. The borders have been closed for weeks now and the regime (incl the wearing of face masks when out) is very strictly enforced. The language school has had to close of course and face-to-face contact with his private clients is impossible, so his income has evaporated. However, social security payments have been suspended for 6 months and he may qualify under the 'help for self employed' scheme which has been announced. The good news though is that he has been able to conduct an increasing number of 'skype' type lessons, so all is far from lost. In general, we're just fed up to the teeth with it all, but our irritation is as nothing compared to the worry that so many, in whatever country, must be feeling. For us, March 2020 has been the worst of months - let's all hope that as we get towards the end of April, there's a chink of light at the end of the tunnel.[/quote] Good to know that the Czech Republic is helping self employed people too.