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#1: After English Tea at Freudesheim Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 1:30 pm
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Why weren't more girls ill after having tea at Jo's with all the cream cakes & lemon biscuits etc.?

I would have thought that a huge creamy tea, and don't forget all the cream that went into the cups of tea, followed by supper with its usual pudding of fruit and cream, would have made more girls ill than sharing a box of chocolates, but no-one ever stopped the girls going to Freudesheim.

Or they were ill after a midnight feast, but not after going to Jo's for tea.

Was it just EBd's partisan views?

#2: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 1:34 pm
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I think EBD worked on a divine retribution theory - stuffing yourself at an "official" meal is OK, but stuffing yourself when you aren't supposed to upsets your stomach Wink

#3: Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England

Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 1:36 pm
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It's all to do with Anna's special secret. She didn't spend ages whipping all that double cream - it was a spray can of Anchor light Wink

#4: Author: Lisa, Location: South Coast of England

Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 8:45 pm
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LizB wrote:

It's all to do with Anna's special secret. She didn't spend ages whipping all that double cream - it was a spray can of Anchor light Wink

splutter

Sorry to go off topic, but a year 10 pupil I know who does GCSE Food Tec had to make trifle today, and he duly made custard from scratch etc etc - but one student in the class brought a tin of custard and a can of Anchor spray cream ... for a GCSE cookery assessment Laughing

Yes - it is interesting that they only suffer from overeating in 'illegal' situations - also interesting how Jo etc can stuff herself with cakes but still remain slim (until after the children there are a few comments) but some girls and staff are slightly mocked for their plumpness, although from what I can see they only eat the same as everyone else Rolling Eyes

#5: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 10:23 pm
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Lisa wrote:

also interesting how Jo etc can stuff herself with cakes but still remain slim (until after the children there are a few comments) but some girls and staff are slightly mocked for their plumpness, although from what I can see they only eat the same as everyone else Rolling Eyes

Some people are just like that! I'm sure I can put on 2 lbs just by looking at a cream cake Sad

, but I know people who stuff their faces all day and yet are very slim. 'Tis very unfair Crying or Very sad

. I can just imagine Hilda Jukes and others who were slightly overweight watching thin people like Mary-Lou scoffing a load of cream cakes and feeling very hard done by!

#6: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2007 12:24 am
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More than just feeling hard done by - I personally want to murder them! Have lost count of the people I see for health assessments who are stick thin and say that ' oh they never worry about what they eat - they can eat anything' I can visualise me hitting them! Laughing

#7: Author: Pat, Location: Doncaster

Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2007 8:22 pm
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Well I used to be like that! Skinny as a rake - but I still weighed 10st!!! Could eat what I liked too. Then I had 2 kids and gave up smoking, and I'm now a good deal heavier than that! So there is hope for all those skinny things! Twisted Evil

#8: Author: Rosie, Location: Land of Three-Quarters Sky

Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2007 11:29 pm
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Lisa wrote:

I call that a good use of initiative, personally.

#9: Author: alicat, Location: Wiltshire

Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 11:06 am
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Hmmmmmmm

I was horrified when the recipe my daughter brought home from school for her FT assignment (making pizza) said

a readymade pizza base or piece of french bread

AND

a carton of Dolmio tomato sauce.

further proof I am officially a Grumpy Old Woman, I suppose.....

#10: Author: Caroline, Location: Manchester

Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 4:18 pm
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Hmmm. Wonder what the point is in making pizza if you don't actually, y'know, Make Pizza.

Rolling Eyes

That's not so much cookery as putting stuff together. Which is fine, but not in a cookery lesson.

#11: Author: KB, Location: Melbourne, Australia

Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 9:54 pm
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Which perhaps makes it even more appropriate that your current tagline is Cooking Disaster!, Caroline... Laughing

#12: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 10:40 pm
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I once blew up a pizza in the school home economics room. To this day I don't quite know how - I can only assume that the heat-proof dish wasn't actually heat-proof after all because it just sort of exploded. It was a very CS moment, but extremely embarrassing to say the least Embarassed

#13: Author: Lulie, Location: Middlesbrough

Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 10:49 pm
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I remember at school being given an assignment in which we had to choose a country and research its food, ending by cooking a dish. My friend and I chose Belgium (Lord knows why - I think all the easy countries had been taken by others) and one of the dishes we made contained rather a hefty amount of Parmesan.

We were well and truly told off by the teacher as cooking the Parmesan, as per recipe, resulted in the entire HE area smelling strongly of vomit help

We were supposed to know that cooking Parmesan had this result and substituted the cheese accordingly. As neither of us had heard of Parmesan before and our cooking experience was limited to cakes and the usual basics one cooked at school we were terribly indignant about this. My mother, a cookery teacher at the time, was furious and went up to the school to tell the teacher that she should have checked both recipes and ingredient lists and done the substituting for us. Of course this made things worse from my point of view - I was so Embarassed

Still, it just proves the fact that one should never assume that people know the basics of a subject such as cookery, or as in this case, the higher-than-basics Rolling Eyes

#14: Author: Rosie, Location: Land of Three-Quarters Sky

Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 2:00 pm
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Caroline wrote:

Hmmm. Wonder what the point is in making pizza if you don't actually, y'know, Make Pizza.

Rolling Eyes

That's not so much cookery as putting stuff together. Which is fine, but not in a cookery lesson.

I think that's the problem with cookery lessons in a lot of schools. They don't seem to have quite decided what they are trying to teach. Ours were "Food Technology" as part of Design and Technology (ditto sewing and woodwork) and involved a lot of design and marketing and were bizarrely geared towards a career in the area (bearing in mind no other lessons were this vocational), as opposed to learning to make cheap and easy, and healthy, meals. Which is why you get first-years who cannot cook a thing - and I don't entirely blame the parents as I can see it is far easier to just do it yourself half the time, when you're rushed etc - but I do think schools should teach these basic skills!

Mind you, I had to teach my FOURTH YEAR housemate how to cook pasta and ready-made sauce last night. I don't think she's cooked anything more technical in the 6 weeks we've been in this house!

#15: Author: RoseCloke, Location: In my pretty box-like room

Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 2:54 pm
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I second that Rosie Very Happy

One of my flatmates last year ate nothing but pot noodles for two weeks Shocked

My sister took Food Technology for GCSE and, whilst she knows how to make a lovely bitter chocolate torte, along with all other manner of wierd and wonderful pretty things, she has absolutely no idea how to cook the basics - when my parents go away she lives on pasta, cheese and cake.

As far a bilious attacks go, I presume Joey picked up Jack's habit of 'dosing' everything and everyone. She probably put anti-bilious medicine into the cream as a preventative measure, along with anything else that she thought the children needed... *cackles*

#16: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 4:18 pm
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I think it's an appalling situation when people of eighteen, who are supposed to be adults, can't cook a simple meal for themselves. I'm notblaming them, but the madness of Food Technology, when what is needed is simple, basic cookery, so that you can feed yourself.

And I also blame the supermarkets. Honestly, they sell mashed potatoes, and at very high price, too.

It would never occur to me to buy ready meals, I prefer to know what I'm eating.

#17: Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar

Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 4:38 pm
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Yes, I wish I'd been taught some good dishes so that I can make a variety of simple things that actually taste good. I'm not a very good cook and don't really enjoy it. In fact, I really don't like the whole 'What on earth can we have for dinner tomorrow?' thing that I seem to do every day.

#18: Author: RoseCloke, Location: In my pretty box-like room

Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 5:04 pm
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My Dad comes from the EBD era (actually, if my Maths is right, he might be the same age as Sybil Russell Shocked

) and it wasn't until he retired that he learnt how to cook; my Mum (quite rightly) refused to work a full day and do all the household things.

Four years down the line and he's doing okay, although there's still the odd disaster and he's never quite managed to choreograph everything. He also has a firm belief that the water in the steamer should be lightly simmering, not boiling. Laughing

However, compared to what we started out eating, his cooking is fantastic. I can still remember crunchy vs. mushy vegetables that defied cutlery and eggs that literally swam around the plate in their own sea of fat *shudders*

#19: Author: Karry, Location: Stoke on Trent

Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 5:11 pm
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When my daughter did "food technology" we had a whole term of vegetable soup - different variations for her to investigate taste and texture! However, both she and my son cooked with me and both are now good cooks!

#20: Author: Billie, Location: The south of England.

Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 5:21 pm
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Jennie wrote:

And I also blame the supermarkets. Honestly, they sell mashed potatoes, and at very high price, too.

The worst things I've seen are batter mix ("just add egg and milk!" considering you need egg, milk and flour to make yorkshire puddings or pancakes, that's got to be the biggest rip-off) and ready-grated cheese.

Shocked

#21: Author: RoseCloke, Location: In my pretty box-like room

Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 5:50 pm
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I think the crowning glory is 'instant breakfast' Very Happy

My sister went on holiday with her best friend and BF's parents to France a couple of years ago. As previously mentioned, she isn't too keen on vegetables, but she came back craving anything green as apparently the BF doesn't eat anything fresh. This includes 'instant breakfast'.

'Instant breakfast' is, shamefully (for it is my favourite supermarket), from Sainsbury's and it's freeze-dried egg, tomato, mushroom and bacon bits (possibly bread in there as well). You tip it into a frying pan with a little oil and presto! One meal. Or not, as the case may be. The funniest thing about the whole episode, as far as I was concerned, was that her friend and family actually have their own vegetable plot and grow their own fresh produce, although they seem to give it to everyone else rather than eating it! Laughing

#22: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 5:51 pm
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Custard is also a rip-off. There are no eggs in bought custard or custard powder, and custard is, by definition, a mixture of eggs, sugar and milk.

The day I can't make my own batter mix for Yorkshire Pudding or pancakes is the day I'll give up everything.

Perhaps we need to go back to simple, plain cooking in schools. These new suggestions to keep young people at school until they're eighteen are ludicrous. If they can pass a literacy test, reading and writing, a maths test, and can cook a meal and do basic sewing repairs, then let them leave. If they knew they had to pass these tests before they could leave, they'd make sure they could go.

#23: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 11:29 pm
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Tesco do an instant full English breakfast as well!

Obviously schools can't teach everything, but it's amazing how much useful stuff you don't learn at school. We did cookery and sewing, but the boys' branch of the school didn't Shocked

(not sure if that's changed now - it was disgustingly sexist!). You don't AFAIK learn anything about First Aid (most schools not having a readily available supply of doctors on hand in case of mishap), and you (bearing in mind how many people pay the wrong amount of tax) could probably do with being taught the basics of tax. And I appreciate that schools can't really afford to pay for cars for pupils to play with Laughing

but I wish someone'd taught me the basics of car maintenance, then I wouldn't be quite so clueless!

#24: Author: Rosie, Location: Land of Three-Quarters Sky

Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2007 12:37 pm
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Ah, I will admit to having bought ready-grated cheese in France. This, in my defence, was because the holes on my grater were too big for Emmental cheese - it was just too thick and stringy and not-nice.

I'm not sure I disagree entirely with the idea of using ready-made/convenience foods sometimes. It is, after all, easier to whack in a jar of pasta sauce than to make your own some nights. Equally, I think this gives someone even less excuse not to cook, when it's so easy!

I had a lot of amusement during a Guiding weekend in July - most of the girls were only 14/15, and we were given the task of making a meal from odds and ends. I've been a student for 3 years so I was well away! But it was a good example of what can be done along the lines!

#25: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2007 12:51 pm
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Sometimes is fine, Rosie. But there are people who don't even know how to use them properly, or how to cook from scratch and it worries me that we are bringing up a generation who don't know how to cook proper meals.

#26: Author: Charlotte, Location: Home in Wrexham!!! :D Except when I'm not...

Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2007 3:28 pm
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there's a girl in one of my lectures who has apparently had a dominoes delivery every night this sememster!
our flat make pizza from scratch every wednesday (because it's FUN!) and for halloween it had green base and extra red added to the tomato! then it was decorated to look like a pirate and a witch! it was yummy! (yes seretly our flat are all 5!

although I must admit I bought a tin of tesco curry sauce (for 5p!) which would be horrid on its own but is quite nice if you add stuff to it! and much better than the carbonara sauce my flatmate bought, which was horrid and tasted like cardboard

#27: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Sun Nov 11, 2007 2:56 pm
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I think another point is that cooking it yourself is actually cheaper than buying it ready-made. A packet of spaghetti is very cheap, and just make some onion, garlic and tomato sauce to go on it, then top it with some cheese and you have a very cheap meal, especially if you can shop for the Tesco Value Range, or the Sainsburys Basics, or have the good fortune to be near an Aldi or a Lidl.

#28: Author: Mrs Redboots, Location: London, UK

Posted: Sun Nov 11, 2007 6:51 pm
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I remember when my daughter did the one half-year of cookery that she did at school (and at that, it was a branch of Technology), she came home saying, "You know, Mum, I really think some of the girls in my class don't even know where the kitchen is in their homes, never mind how to use it!" And, to be honest, if I'd left her to learn cookery at school, she'd not be the competent cook she is today. Apparently at uni her speciality was roast dinners, which she and I agree is about the easiest thing there is to cook, and all her friends thought she was brilliant to be able to make them!

At the other end of the spectrum, when an aunt was dying, her husband took a cookery course because he'd never learnt to cook and knew he was going to have to.

#29: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Sun Nov 11, 2007 7:38 pm
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We started cookery in the 3rd Form, and we learned the basics, graduating to cooking a meal for ourselves in the Summer Term. Once we had learned the basics, well, I for one have never forgotten them.

I do agree that it's more trouble to make a fruit pie, but making one costs the same as buying one, but you end up with twice as much pie when you bake one.

I made sure both my sons could cook before they left home, that way I didn't have to worry about them. That's something I can't understand; how can people let their children go off to university without teaching them to cook for themselves?

ETA: In my last school, when part of my tutor group had Food Technology, I had to read out a list of ingredients for them to bring.

1 packet shortcrust pastry
1 packet lemon meringue pie mix
1egg.

I ask you!

#30: Author: jennifer, Location: Taiwan

Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 2:55 am
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Where I live it is actually cheaper for a single person to eat out than it is to cook for yourself (really!) and many single apartments don't have any cooking facilities beyond a kettle and sink.

I'm not sure how much basic cooking can be taught in a single term at school. I learned how to cook at home, mainly by picking up basic things watching and helping. I certainly didn't develop any serious domestic talents until after leaving home. Of course, there's a strong gourmet gene in my family, so 'basic things picked up at home' included basic elements of stock making, pickling, and jam making.

I am surprised by the number of people even in my age range - mid 30s - who don't really know how to cook more than a few things. If I were designing a basic cooking class I would teach some basic, adaptable dishes from scratch: tomato sauce, white sauce, how to roast a chicken/roast beef, mashed and baked potatoes, steamed vegetables, basic vegetable soup, stir fry, steamed rice and boiled pasta, boiled, scrambled and fried eggs, how to grill or fry steak and fish, chili con carne, and a basic curry or two, plus cookies, cake and pie. With that, you can feed yourself quite handily and branch out more easily to other dishes.

#31: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 2:16 pm
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We didn't tackle anything international such as curry or chilli until we were in the Fifth Form, but did cook a wide range of English dishes so we had a good grounding in techniques.

#32: Author: Mia, Location: London

Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 2:41 pm
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Alison H wrote:

and you (bearing in mind how many people pay the wrong amount of tax) could probably do with being taught the basics of tax.

Am pleased to report that children are now forced to learn about tax, it's part of the citizenship lessons IIRC.

#33: Author: Elder in Ontario, Location: Ontario, Canada

Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 4:21 pm
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Jennifer, I really liked your list of dishes for a 'basic' cooking course - I didn't learn any of them in the single term of cookery I had at school, but did learn most of them either by helping at home or by trial and error in my early married life. They have stood me in good stead ever since, though my efforts with rice are hit or miss in the extreme - that's one area I've been glad to welcome the pre-prepared packaging.

#34: Author: Kate, Location: Ireland

Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 4:58 pm
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This thread has made me really hungry and I'm now cooking curry for everyone. Smile

*g* My mother has always made sure I know how to cook and is even making me cook Christmas dinner this year! Which might be fun. But might not. lol

#35: Author: JustJen, Location: waiting for spring training

Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 5:08 pm
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We never had cooking at school due to insurance issues.
I learned how to cook on my own but if I can take a short cut, I'll use it. I use the bottle pasta/butter chicken/curry sauce and add to it
I know people who order pizza/KFC etc. everyday using the logic it's cheaper that way instead of making food. Of course they have the waist lines to match as well.

#36: Author: Pat, Location: Doncaster

Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 8:21 pm
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And the lack of money, as there's no way that take-aways are ever cheaper than making your own.

#37: Author: Mrs Redboots, Location: London, UK

Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 8:59 pm
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We had a year of cookery at school, and the only thing I really value from it was that I learnt how to make bread. And marmalade. I don't make either very often (marmalade once a year, of course), but I still love making them.

I think the thing of school cookery lessons was that it taught you that you _could_ do it, because you _had_ to.

Now, after nearly 35 years of cooking for myself and my family, I do prefer to cook, as I know what's gone into it. Okay, like everybody else I rely on the occasional take-away or ready meal, but I try to cook far more meals than I buy, if that makes sense.

And, as I said above, I taught my daughter to cook, and expected her to, when she lived at home. She's a great cook.

#38: Author: Travellers Joy, Location: Middle of Nowhere

Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 9:23 pm
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I hated cooking and sewing at school and dropped both as soon as I was able to. I taught myself to cook at home. My children learned to cook when they were around ten and fourteen - they were so fussy that I finally refused to cook for them. They had to give me a shopping list for ingredients and they cooked virtually all their own meals from that time onwards. My son is probably the best cook of all of us. (In the process they also learned to eat different things so that now they're both very good eaters!!)

#39: Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England

Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 2:09 pm
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Kate wrote:

My mother has always made sure I know how to cook and is even making me cook Christmas dinner this year! Which might be fun. But might not. lol

I'm sure it will be fun, Kate. And remember, the person who criticizes it gets the greasiest pans to wash up! Twisted Evil

#40: Author: miss_maeve, Location: Buckinghamshire, UK

Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 4:46 pm
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Anything I can cook, I've had to teach myself, or my mum taught me - cooking (or Home Economics) at school was taught on a rotational basis - one term for art, one for textiles, one for HE and one for DT (Design Techology, or woodwork LOL). I got two terms of Textiles and DT, and one each of Art and HE, before that section of education was dropped into the 'options' category.
I chose to do Textiles (sewing!!!) at that point, but even then, that wasn't sewing per se, it was more a case of fancy embroidery.
There's a lot to be said for teaching basic skills - even at my age, I can't make buttonholes or sew hems so they STAY sewn. Every time I go to see my mum, I have at least one pair of trousers that need shortening and re hemming that go with me, for her to do.

#41: Author: JustJen, Location: waiting for spring training

Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 2:20 am
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I can't sew to save my life. Matey would have something to say about my sewing if she ever saw it.!

#42: Author: jennifer, Location: Taiwan

Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 7:11 am
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In grade eight (the first year of high school) we had a rotating electives course. Six weeks each of sewing, cooking, metal work, woodwork and computers.

In sewing we made an apron, in metal work a coat hook and a tack hammer, in wood work a cheese board and a trivet, and in cooking we did baking powder biscuits, weiner roll-ups, and poached eggs on english muffins. I got bonus points with the teacher for nicknaming the latter barf on a bun (I loathed poached eggs, and we had to eat what we cooked to get marked on it).

The problem was, that if you were doing academic track you didn't have much room for electives. In junior high we had three elective slots. If you wanted to go to university, one was taken up by a second language. I took band for the second slot, and in the third I had typing one year, the electives course above another, and a mandatory course, consumer education, the third.

Actually, consumer ed was an interesting concept that was poorly executed. It was supposed to be a practical course that taught things like how to write a job resume, fill out a tax form, read laundry labels, balance a check book, make a budget, etc. It was just that it was taught at a really, really basic level that I didn't find all that useful.

#43: Author: Karry, Location: Stoke on Trent

Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 7:41 am
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We had to make our cookery apron in the first term of high school. Later on the sewing teacher and I hadbattles royal, as my mum, a professional seamstress taught me dressmaking, which did not have tailors tacks, etc. I finished my garment before the others, and to a higher quality, by not doing as she told me!

#44: Author: Travellers Joy, Location: Middle of Nowhere

Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 8:26 am
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Karry wrote:

We had to make our cookery apron in the first term of high school. Later on the sewing teacher and I hadbattles royal, as my mum, a professional seamstress taught me dressmaking, which did not have tailors tacks, etc. I finished my garment before the others, and to a higher quality, by not doing as she told me!

I was in the exact same position - I ended up coming bottom in sewing class (at age 13 - the only class I ever came last in), but I was also one of the few girls making most of her own clothes at 15. Razz

#45: Author: Róisín, Location: Ireland

Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 9:31 am
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jennifer wrote:

I got bonus points with the teacher for nicknaming the latter barf on a bun (I loathed poached eggs, and we had to eat what we cooked to get marked on it).

Same here! I could never understand why we had to actually *eat* what we'd cooked - that was my first and last time, at the age of 15, eating a grapefruit *shudders*

#46: Author: miss_maeve, Location: Buckinghamshire, UK

Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 9:40 am
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Karry wrote:

Oh yes, teachers do not like their pupils doing things differently, and better. I found that out as early as 6 years old. My mum taught me to read before I started school, and when I got there, a lot of kids either couldn't read at all, or didn't know very well, so I got really fed up with being one of the 'clever' kids who got no attention from the teacher, and started to misbehave.
The amount of times I ended up standing in the corner......it wasn't out of naughtiness, just extreme boredom at being kept waiting around all the time.

#47: Author: Rosalin, Location: Swansea

Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 1:42 pm
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My mother got in trouble with my first primary school teacher over my reading. She was told off for teaching me to read using the same books as the school used. My mother replied that she'd never seen those books before, but I had a good memory and had remembered the words from when the teacher read them out to us Laughing

#48: Author: Mona, Location: Hertfordshire

Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 1:45 pm
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Quote:

The amount of times I ended up standing in the corner......it wasn't out of naughtiness, just extreme boredom at being kept waiting around all the time.

I'm very grateful for a number of teachers in infant school who realised that I was well ahead of most of the class at reading and writing, and gave me new books to read whenever I'd finished and they had to spend time with the rest of the class.

#49: Author: Mia, Location: London

Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 3:16 pm
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Mona wrote:

Quote:

The amount of times I ended up standing in the corner......it wasn't out of naughtiness, just extreme boredom at being kept waiting around all the time.

Me too. I'll never forget my headteacher taking me out of class, showing me the teeny library we had and telling me I could read anything I wanted from it when the other kids were reading the reading scheme books. I must have been about six or seven. Hurrah for fab teachers.

#50: Author: miss_maeve, Location: Buckinghamshire, UK

Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 5:17 pm
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Mona wrote:

Quote:

The amount of times I ended up standing in the corner......it wasn't out of naughtiness, just extreme boredom at being kept waiting around all the time.

Don't I wish...only one of my 'little school' teachers saw this, and I was pulled into being her little class helper, being responsible for helping some of the other kids with simple spelling and sums, when she didn't have time for us all.
I guess it was better than nothing, but it didn't exactly stretch me much. It also didn't help that that was the year that I was diagnosed with severe short sightedness and was, consequently, the only child in my class that wore glasses. At the age of six! I was absolutely mortified....I got called 'Zenith' after the double glazing company LOL
I can laugh now, but at the tie it was absolutely horrible. I was Miss Specky Four Eyes and the teacher's lil spelling pet all in one.

#51: Author: Travellers Joy, Location: Middle of Nowhere

Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 5:25 pm
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My youngest son was a year too young for his class at school (long complicated story of moving to a different region where the starting age differed) and was called upon to help the other children with their reading - and the teacher had the nerve to tell me he was immature and should have been kept out of school for another year! Rolling Eyes

#52: Author: Mrs Redboots, Location: London, UK

Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 9:13 pm
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jennifer wrote:

and in cooking we did baking powder biscuits, weiner roll-ups, and poached eggs on english muffins.

Sorry, but what on earth are weiner roll-ups????

I got very confused at maths, which I was very badly taught - it was just a matter of rules you had to learn parrot-fashion, and if my father tried to make me think about what was happening, I got very muddled. I'm still pretty innumerate and was not sorry to give up maths after O level.

#53: Author: miss_maeve, Location: Buckinghamshire, UK

Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 9:29 pm
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I'd guess they are like sausage rolls of a kind - weiners being the sausages you buy in tins (which taste most strange!).

#54: Author: jennifer, Location: Taiwan

Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 2:17 am
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Wiener as in hot dog wiener, which is a pretty far cry from any sort of real sausage. We rolled them in (homemade) biscuit dough and baked them.

Not too bad, edibility wise, if it hadn't come the class immediately after the dissection of the sheep's eye in science. Confused

#55: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 9:11 am
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To get back slightly on topic, has anyone else noticed that whenever there is a midnight feast, or any kind of unauthorised eating, EBD always incudes sardines? I don't like them, they do make me sick because they're too oily, but perhaps she included them in the blameworthy items because tey made her feel ill as well.

#56: Author: miss_maeve, Location: Buckinghamshire, UK

Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 12:51 pm
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How about Thekla's smoked bacon? *urg*
And on the subject of fish, didn't somebody suggest eating sardines pressed into gingerbread (or it may have been ginger cake)? I can truly believe in bilious attacks after those sorts of things......

#57: Author: Katherine, Location: London, UK

Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 1:17 pm
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miss_maeve wrote:

And on the subject of fish, didn't somebody suggest eating sardines pressed into gingerbread (or it may have been ginger cake)? I can truly believe in bilious attacks after those sorts of things......

I think that might have been Second Form At St Clare's.
I suppose sardines were a tinned food so easy to store as they do seem to feature in midnights.

#58: Author: Squirrel, Location: St-Andrews or Dunfermline

Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 1:32 pm
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No - they deffinately ate the sardines on some kind of cake, i'm pretty sure of it.

Joyce asked someone to hand round 'the bread', and everyone looked around for whoever was supposed to have brought that - there wasn't any though, and I think that the cake was the only substitute they had. Joyce apparently ate the mix with great misgivings, because she knew that she was fairly easily upset - and everyone turned green at Thekla eating the raw smoked bacon.

The things you remember sometimes Rolling Eyes

#59: Author: Pat, Location: Doncaster

Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 2:28 pm
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There's a discussion about wartime food on GO at the moment. One of the things looked at is the obsession with sardines that so many writers of the period had. They were available on points during the war, and I gather were very popular with a lot of people. I like them myself, though it's ages since I had any.

#60: Author: miss_maeve, Location: Buckinghamshire, UK

Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 3:17 pm
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I much prefer mackerel......

#61: Author: Pat, Location: Doncaster

Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 3:19 pm
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I love mackeral, but I rarely buy it fresh. I was spoilt by growing up in Cornwall, and getting them still virtually wriggling. I tried some from a fish shop and they just didn't taste the same.

#62: Author: miss_maeve, Location: Buckinghamshire, UK

Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 3:25 pm
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*is imagining Joyce coming to a midnight feast with a net of live mackerel*

#63: Author: Mrs Redboots, Location: London, UK

Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2007 11:38 am
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I can't digest either mackerel or fresh sardines, which is a great pity as I do love them and they are so good for one. But it's hopeless - I have terrible indigestion after eating them.

Not sure whether I can manage tinned ones, though, or pilchards (mmm, pilchards!).

Just as well I can still eat trout and salmon, isn't it!

#64: Author: Katherine, Location: London, UK

Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2007 12:40 pm
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Squirrel wrote:

No - they deffinately ate the sardines on some kind of cake, i'm pretty sure of it.

I had a lookat Lintons last night and yep, they forget the bread so they cut slices of cake ('black with richness') and have the sardines on that.
Now I just need a copy of St Clare's too as I'm sure they press sardines into ginger cake. Guessing EBD got there first though.

#65: Author: aitchemelle, Location: West Sussex

Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 11:01 pm
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This thread is making me hungry, despite the fish on cake!
I can honestly say that school technology lessons taught me very little about cooking or sewing ( I remember making coleslaw and icing a cake!)
I am fairly happy cooking most things ( I can manage everything from Jennie's list plus a few more dishes) but sewing is my nemesis!!

Not sure if it was CS or St Clares but didn't midnights ALWAYS seem to involve people forgetting drinks and having to drink pineapple juice out of the tin. Rather syrupy I should think!

#66: Author: miss_maeve, Location: Buckinghamshire, UK

Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 2:49 pm
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In 'Changes for the Chalet School' there is a tin of sardines taken to a midnight feast, but the key snapped and they coudn't use them.
However......'They had brought everything of their own they could find, Primrose (Trevoase) even discovering an unopened tin of chicken and ham paste, which they spread on the gingerbread.'
Ick...still, none of them had bilious attacks, but then they did get overrun by a small herd of pigs that time!

#67: Author: Xanthe, Location: London

Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 10:30 pm
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*late again*

I learnt close to nothing in three years of "Home Economics", of which we had 1h45 a fortnight. The start of the first year was particularly splendid for me as it featured milk AND cheese tasting, during which I had to sit and "observe"...

We did a project on biscuits one year, and one on fairy cakes another. We made bread & butter pudding; open sandwiches; tuna-cheese bake; cheese scones; a dishy called "crunchy flan" which was angel delight on a biscuit base; and a whole host of other pointless things. I suspect my books (with recipes copied down into the back each lesson in readiness for the next) have been recycled on the grounds I was never going to use anything we did.

I'm still able to cook though - I just have absolutely no interest in doing so - and (sadly for me) that's nothing to do with having had my mummy teach me (nor indeed my daddy, for that matter).

As for the actual subject of the post - presumably EBD felt that eating outside the normal hours (like working outside the normal hours) was a sure way to wreak havoc upon onself, as it were... And there was no form of adult control over what was consumed so the girls were stuffing themselves on a surfeit of strange things; rather than eating a controlled amount of reasonable foods...

#68: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2007 4:07 pm
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Such as everything doused in cream or cooked in butter?

And don't forget, EBD definitely linked such things as midnight feasts with the danger of appendicitis. Hm, what had Kathie Ferrars been doing then?

#69: Author: Xanthe, Location: London

Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2007 5:30 pm
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Well, we might not agree with it, but it was obviously her assessment of the school food Shocked

#70: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2007 5:44 pm
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I only wish I knew how they all managed to stay so slim with all the cream etc they ate. Poor Madge - in Joey & Co - was considered so overweight that she ended up going to some sort of mega-strict health farm, and yet she only weighed "a few pounds over ten stone" which sounds pretty good to me, so most of them must've been super-slim!

Maybe it was all that walking ...

#71: Author: Xanthe, Location: London

Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2007 10:30 am
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I was looking at things somewhere & discovered that the modern size zero & the 1964 US size 10 are actually very similar in terms of measurements - so yes, I think people being super-skinny probably is part of it...

And somewhere else (if I could remember where I'd been reading I'd say: curse my broken memory) a researcher into "the obesity crisis" suggested that what we understand as "fat" has been getting steadily fatter & "normal" is much bigger than once it was...

#72: Author: JackieP, Location: Kingston upon Hull

Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2007 1:08 pm
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Jennie wrote:

Such as everything doused in cream or cooked in butter?

And don't forget, EBD definitely linked such things as midnight feasts with the danger of appendicitis. Hm, what had Kathie Ferrars been doing then?

And Julie Lucy - she must have been midnighting for ages with her grumbling appendix... Shocked

JackieP

#73: Author: Emerence, Location: Australia

Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2007 2:09 am
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I adore cooking but I rarely use eggs and never butter or cream. I've found all sorts of useful alternatives Wink

#74: Author: Lolly, Location: Back in London

Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2007 3:28 pm
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Xanthe wrote:

a dishy called "crunchy flan" which was angel delight on a biscuit base; ...

oh HOW disgusting! Did you have to eat it afterwards.

I was once told by our home economics teacher that I made the worst cheese straws she had ever come across. She seemed surprised that I wasn't more upset by this. I did run a needle into her finger though in an entirely unrelated incident Twisted Evil

#75: Author: Tamzin, Location: Edinburgh

Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 9:01 am
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Jennie wrote:

Such as everything doused in cream or cooked in butter?

What's wrong with that then? Laughing

Seriously though I always fry things like bacon in butter. I figure that I may as well be hung for sheep as for lamb! It's just so much nicer and to be honest I think it's more natural to use something like butter than those horrible "spreads and margarines" which always taste like engine oil to me. I also hate juice with "no added sugar". It always has a horrible artificial taste to it.

Given the way the current paternalistic attitude to food is going we soon won't be able to buy butter and cream and such "unhealthy" food anyway. Crisps are already all horrible now that they are all made in that ghastly "sunseed oil" - they are like cardboard, too dry and tasteless. Not at all like the lovely crisps I remember eating in my younger days. I still dream of the old M&S sour cream and chive crisps in the dark green packet and also their old spring onion crisps. Why oh why do we only get offered the "healthy" option in crisps nowadays? There are some people who would like the choice to have nice unhealthy stuff. I seldom eat crisps now because they are so dull and righteous.

Will it make those of you who strugglw with their weight mad if I say that I'm a size ten and don't put on weight whatever I eat?

#76: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 9:09 am
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Tamzin wrote:

Will it make those of you who strugglw with their weight mad if I say that I'm a size ten and don't put on weight whatever I eat?

Yes!!!!

#77: Author: Rosie, Location: Land of Three-Quarters Sky

Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 12:49 pm
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Tamzin wrote:

[
Will it make those of you who strugglw with their weight mad if I say that I'm a size ten and don't put on weight whatever I eat?

We could band together. And be extremely unpopular together.

*has a bit of a crème fraiche obsession*

#78: Author: Mona, Location: Hertfordshire

Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 1:05 pm
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Tamzin, Rosie, I'm not sure what age you are, but if it happens to be under 30, all I have to say is, your metabolism will change as you get older and you'll have to work a lot harder for that to remain true. Enjoy it while it lasts! Wink

#79: Author: Simone, Location: Newton le Willows

Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 1:43 pm
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I totally agree Mona - I was like Tamzin and Rosie until I hit my mid thirties - now, alas at nearly 42 I'm at two dress sizes larger, and cannot
shift the extra weight.

It could be since I had Polly I suppose; or I could be that I can't leave chocolate alone, or cheese or cakes or rich sauces or ... well food really

#80: Author: Rosie, Location: Land of Three-Quarters Sky

Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 2:05 pm
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This is what my Mummy says. Actually, she mainly blames getting pregnant with us!

#81: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 4:43 pm
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Tamzin wrote:

Will it make those of you who struggle with their weight mad if I say that I'm a size ten and don't put on weight whatever I eat?

Not mad - just plotting vengeance. Twisted Evil

#82: Author: Tamzin, Location: Edinburgh

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 8:33 am
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Mona wrote:

Tamzin, Rosie, I'm not sure what age you are, but if it happens to be under 30, all I have to say is, your metabolism will change as you get older and you'll have to work a lot harder for that to remain true. Enjoy it while it lasts! Wink

I'm nearly 37. My Mum has the same sort of body type and she's nearly 60. We've just got "skinny" genes I think. It's certainly no credit to me because I don't watch what I eat at all so I deserve to be quite podgy. Sincere apologies to those of you who aren't so lucky but just think - you would last far better in a famine than I would!

#83: Author: Xanthe, Location: London

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 9:33 am
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Rosie wrote:

This is what my Mummy says. Actually, she mainly blames getting pregnant with us!

Mind you, your mummy is not in any way big now. None of your family are, excepting the bunny. And she's not fat, she's REGAL...

#84: Author: Mona, Location: Hertfordshire

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 11:02 am
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Quote:

Well in that case, yes, I officially hate you. Wink

#85: Author: Rosie, Location: Land of Three-Quarters Sky

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 5:20 pm
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Xanthe wrote:

Rosie wrote:

This is what my Mummy says. Actually, she mainly blames getting pregnant with us!

Mind you, your mummy is not in any way big now. None of your family are, excepting the bunny. And she's not fat, she's REGAL...

Mollie-Bunny has now lost weight and the vet says she's meant to be that size. To be fair, I'd say that if that bunny glared at me.

Eating the cat's dinner can only help.

And the lobby curtain.

The CBB -> Anything Else

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