menthe

Sorry, Lori, I didn't mean to quote myself. As you see, this is in the Lighter Side, so no need to be too worried. However, no garlic doesn't sound great: now I'll be finished off by a vampire!

Yes, Lori, it has to do with the cough. Apparently, chronic coughing (especially dry coughs) could mean a condition of gastro-oesophageal reflux. I googled (of course) and it's true. I'd never heard of it but, there it is*; I have no other symptoms, weight constant, no heart burn or indigestion....it just took me by complete surprise. The list of no-no foods is longer than what I have said here. But it's OK, I plan to do as I am told for a month say and see if the coughing gets better. She has said I was to try the meds for 4 months and I could stop if better, otherwise take for 1 year and she will see me then. I have seen her for about 8 years and I trust her judgement. TBH, I wasn't so much concerned as intrigued.

Thought it best to tell my forum friends. I am not sure I can carry on with my life as I have always known it. Went for my annual contrôle with my pneumologue yesterday. Been feeling fine and dandy, apart from coughing a lot, my asthma has not been much of a bother all summer and I couldn't imagine anything much amiss with my health. What do I come away with? An ordonnance for some additional medications to my usual asthma drugs PLUS a long list of what I shouldn't eat or drink! Don't want to be boring, the list was divided into things I shouldn't take in the evenings and those that I shouldn't have at any time. Giving the shortened version, it contained things like not much coffee, ditto chocolate and bananas, no acidic foods like tomatoes (my favourite roasted!), vinaigrette, citrus juices, no spicy foods, no alcohol and, wait for it, pas d'oignons ail MENTHE. So you see, how to cook and eat meals without onions or garlic, or spices? What is left to make dishes tasty and yummy, I ask you? And, to add insult to injury pas de menthe!!!

As I see it, the only problem with your suggestion, Loiseau, is this: If it's a UK number, you'd always have to dial by using +44. I have come across many instances where people with UK phones have had their numbers challenged in hospitals, doctors' surgeries, utilities companies etc. I am told that the phone owners would then be asked, have you a French phone whose number we could use? My part-time Aussie neighbours have a mobile that they get some gadget for from Orange. When I next see them, I shall ask them what this device is. Apparently, it gives them internet access for the amount of time they pay for on the gadget. OTOH, you could buy a phone with dual SIM function and you could then use the same phone with a SIM for the UK and one for France.

Wow "courgette cake" does not do yours justice! Yes, we will have figs and peaches but no apples. Figs are lovely sliced and baked in a cake. Also fig and walnut muffins are lovely for breakfast, tea or any time of day! We have terrible soil, full of builders' rubble and the top soil is only about half an inch, useless for growing anything. In the past, we have grown courgettes, peppers and tomatoes in grow bags but the results are very variable. Now I buy from local growers and it's always a pleasure to have a chat with the growers and the other buyers. It's such a laid-back concern that you really have to have the time to queue up and wait while the man tots up the sums on his little hand-held calculator.

I agree with you, Lori, that peeling pumpkins, in fact any sort of squash is a right pain in the behind. What a good idea to soften it in the microwave first. I don't have a pressure cooker but I bet that would get the skin off easily. Last year, I was experimenting with making cakes using vegetables rather than fruit. However, I was disappointed with courgette cake but I did like the pumpkin one.

Last year I made a pumpkin cake. To get the pulp, I roasted cut up pumpkin and put it in the liquidiser. Cake was lovely, a subtle flavour. I also read that in the States, you can buy pumpkin purée in tins and use it straight from the tin. I couldn't believe it! It would make pumpkin cake a cinch. Lori, do you make this cake and if so what do you do to get pumpkin purée?

OK thank you, Nick. I don't plan trips to the UK but, as they say never say never🙂

I'm glad you've mentioned that, Norman. I had renew the EHIC once just telephoning so I did the same thing a couple of years ago for myself and OH. He got a new card but I never had mine. Must look into this matter again though I have not had cause to use it or need it.

Thanks, crabtree, I keep my cds with my carte vitale and also my credit card so if I am knocked over by a bus and get taken to hospital they can treat me without wondering if I am entitled to health care and if there is something to pay, the means to do it is there. I guess it's a variation of when you were told to always wear clean knickers in case of a bus hitting you by accident.

If you have no self-raising flour, you can add 2 teaspons of baking powder to 150g or 6 oz of plain flour and the cake will rise exactly the same way. If I do have self-raising (rarely) I use the SR but also some BP for good measure if making scones. Can't bear scones that don't rise up nice and high so that you could split them easily.

The media have been mentioning these visa waivers for non-holders of EU passports when entering EU countries. Though I have no travel plans in mind this year and though I haven't visited the UK except for a brief 10 days in 2008, I do have walking holidays in Spain and Italy some years. So with my UK passport, does that mean that I would need these waivers when I go for my walking holidays next year?

Quick thank you for all the useful replies: So Norman for the glossary Loiseau for DS's brownies (though in my copy of Delia, the brownies are on pg 509) Lori for those recipes and pictures that make your mouth water. Oh, isn't it FUN to talk about baking and making yummy things to eat? What's holding me back from rushing into the kitchen and starting is that the oven needs cleaning! Will get to it tomorrow though. Otherwise instead of looking at the brownies coming out of the oven smelling delicious, I will just be looking at the oven shelves and thinking those need cleaning!

Mélange de 4 huiles, that's the one I use. I had experimented with colza and sunflower and they do produce different results and the cake looks different as well. With this one, it's a mixture of colza and sunflower with a bit of linseed oil. Can't see what the 4th oil is! I got into making cakes with oil after my compostelle walk half a life-time ago and I noticed that all the Spanish cakes were light and sooo easy (far too easy!) to eat. So I got to talking with the people responsible for the cooking and asked them. Loiseau, ALL muffins are better made with oil, if you like them well risen. I believe that's the origin of "muffin tops" for when you have a waist and then love handles at the hips! Note my dear Loiseau, BANANA cakes and muffins are best made with oil. Also apple cakes. In fact, all cakes using fresh fruit of some kind. The biggest plus for me is that it's just so much easier and quicker. Usually just sift all dry ingredients. Get your beaten eggs, fruit, whatever else you are using plus oil in another bowl. Then tip wet ingredients into dry and, using a light touch, fold everything in. Just be EXTRA careful that you don't over mix. I do what I learned from Delia years ago, usually no more than 8 turns of the mixing-spoon in a figure of eight. Don't wory if there are still patches of flour, just do not be too enthusiastic with the mixing. Judith, your cake sinks in the middle because it is under-cooked. If your oven is temperamental like mine, start it on a higher temperature than the recipe and wait about 10 minutes and watch if the cake is rising well. Then you can lower the temperature for the rest of the bake. Now if someone tells me how to make brownies, I might try again. Whether using oil or butter, I have never ever succeeded in making brownies. Texture is never right and, TBH, they don't even look appetising.

I came across a recipe (sorry une recette) that requires the use of beure en pommade. As I like baking and it was a cake recipe, I guessed (correctly I think) that it means softened butter. It seems to me that French cake recipes seldom require you to cream butter and sugar until "light and fluffy" so beloved of English recipes. Mostly, it says to beat melted butter with sugar, mixing in the flour and raising agent well (bien mélanger). Nowadays, my cakes are mostly made with oil. This is not only because oil is usually cheaper than butter (present prices of oil might not be actually less), but because oil makes a lighter cake and there is less danger of a stodgy pudding instead of a well risen cake as the end result. Does anyone have any thoughts about this? Or have any other cooking terms that might not be familiar in UK or American recipes?

No, of course, he is not blaming her, it's just that she seems unsure of the on-off switch but I suppose she'd want the current model of whichever car it is?

Ah, so that's why the elderly farmer in my commune who's never driven other than a tractor, now drives around in a sans permis! I don't know that he owns any ponies but I thought that was in wife sitting next to him?

In view of Lori's observation that it is a "fancy looking ride", I just thought you might consider taking it out with you dressed up as Father Christmas? You could add the sleigh bells and such and you wouldn't have to carry the sack? Reindeers being hard to come by where you live, you could say who needs reindeers to any child who asks.

Wooly, I wrote about this, the Dacia Spring, a couple of days ago on this thread. Also that the Hyundai Ioniq (5 or 6) is said by the experts to be a MUCH better option for roughly the same sort of price.

"no idea how to behave on the road".....YES, that's the worst of it. They WOULD stick to their max 50kph, driving in the MIDDLE of the road as though on purpose! Same with some car drivers mind who have never ridden a bicycle or a motorbike. They are guilty of overtaking a cyslist and then immediately turning left, leaving you to spill yourself on the road. Of course read RIGHT if you are in France! Nowadays motorbikes do have side lights for signalling and I have no issue with large bikes where the riders do know how to ride them safely for themselves and others on the road. But, the little bloody things with 2-stroke engines that make a noise fit to pop your ear-drums and ride right on the middle of the roads, with pillion riders wobbling dangerously so that you are nervous about overtaking in case one or both of them fall over right in front of you. Stick with a mid-range EV if you do want one, not worth having the small tiddly ones as they may not be powerful enought to drive safely.

Yes, mon amie bought one of these amis. She swore it came in a large box and that they fitted the wheels and put the kit together in their hall! See that round yellow thing on the door in your picture? That where you plug it into a 3-PIN domestic point! She took my OH and me for a spin (separately, of course!) and it is actually OK. So much so that, after we got back in one piece, OH said, that is the future of motoring!!! Meanwhile, I saw a dinky Dacia Spring in Aldi's carpark but I have read that, for the same dosh, you could buy a Hyundai Ioniq. NOT that I know anything about these other offerings.

It seems to me that you have provided your own answer. How long is it since you last posted on here? What was the post about? Was it, by any chance, for posing a question to which you needed an answer? There you have it! Some people only come here once in a blue moon to seek solutions and, once they have obtained the information or advice they need, they disappear again and will only be back when they have something else to ask about.

Well, that doesn't seem many days to have searched, compared to the time they spent searching for Mosely in Greece and the time the Spanish searched for that immature boy in Tenerife. Must think it is fruitless. Simply not possible to cover the terrain on foot but I am not sure how effective drones are (in fact, I know very little about what drones are capable of doing)

What makes me cross is that this irresponsibility would mean that the gendarmes, mountain rescue, volunteers would then have to spend considerable time and effort looking for them and possibly putting their own lives at risk.