"Geoffrey" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 29 Aug 2005 21:35:39 +0100, "Mary Fisher"
wrote:

When I was a child my mother baked every day. She was (and actually
still is) a great cook and still makes great cakes. I STILL like shop
bought cake!

Don't let your mum hear you.

She likes them too.

So why does she bother baking?


I never drink wine during the day - except ocasionally champagne. But we
don't eat our main meal during the day either.

Sunday dinner in the evening? You's posh!

Every day, not just Sunday.

Once a year I clean the house. Actually I quite enjoy it, it's a bit
like a day out.

You can come and do ours.

Ick - no thanks.

No, on second thoughts if you have to stop for a cooked meal at noon you
wouldn't be fit for anything else afterwards.


I made marmalade yesterday - in the microwave. Done in 20 mins, hardly
any effort and tasted really good!

Super. I make marmalade in such large amounts that no domestic microwave
could accommodate it. But I start with whole oranges.

So did I. Bargain bags of discounted oranges from Tesco whizzed
through the food processor. So I had to do it in three batches but it
was all done in an hour and the most time consuming bit was cutting
the circles of greaseproof to fit in the jars.

How quaint! These days jars come with screw on caps. But see other post on
real marmalade.

I felt quite proud of myself although the general consensus among the
family was that we have enough marmalade to last a year and it'll
probably go off before then. Don't see why it should - I ran the jars
through the dishwasher at the maximum setting so they were probably
reasonably free of nasties.

It's more a matter of having the right sugar/fruit/water ratio.

I wonder if marmalade freezes.

I've never done that and we've kept marmalades and jams over decades. If you
do it properly it won't go mouldy. Keep practising.

I like the 21st century Mary, one day you should give it a try

C21st? Oh yes, that's the one with screw on caps for jars.

Mary