Question for you

Do any of you own an Air Fryer?  Family members have them and are encouraging me to get one.  The two family members love theirs.  What is holding me back from getting one is that I use my upper/small oven all the time; it's the perfect size for the two of us.  The second thing is space, I don't want any more clutter on the countertop and storage is limited.

So what are the pro's and cons for you who own one.  Also if you have one, what size is it and how many people do you feed?  What brand is yours?

Thanks for your input.

Answering some questions..........

 from this past week.

Both Linda and JJ, asked if there was a link to the auction site.  It does have a site, BUT they do not ship, you have to pick up: King of the North Auction (kotnauction.com)

Cheryl, mentioned the price of the chicken in Costco was only $5 USD, which is more or less around the same price as $7.99 CDN with the exchange.

Re: the dentist.  I am so sorry other people have had to go through the same as I have.  My mouth is feeling a lot better so that's good.  BUT, hubby has now been back and forward on another issue with his denture plate.  He has had to get a tooth replaced on his denture as it had a hole in it????  I have never heard of that happening before?  Have you?

We are still waiting to hear back regarding the pension.  No idea how long that will take?

I have read and posted a review here of the book, "Room, by Emma Donoghue.

This week seems to have flown by again.  Is it me, but the older you get the faster the days fly by?  

Trying a new recipe tonight for dessert.  Got this book from the Auction Site:

It's such a lovely looking book.  I have a number of recipes tagged that I would like to try.  If I were one of those people who had to have "coffee table" books, this one would be on the top!!

I can't win an argument normally.........

especially with the grandchildren!  I personally think all three year old's should be lawyers as they all have the art of negotiating down pat!!  So imagine my surprise when I discovered I had won a competition.  I live behind an author and she was having a Facebook competition to guess how many words she would write in a month.  What would you think?  The answer will be at the bottom of the post.  I came the closest without going over.  She handed me my prize over the fence yesterday 😊  I am as pleased as punch with the prize.

I got a signed copy of one of her books:

and this lovely mug and pen. 

If you have a moment you can read  more about her here.

Now onto something completely different.  I was looking at this bag of peas I had in my freezer:

What other types of peas are they if they're not 100% natural?

Answer to the question was just under 24,000 words, I guessed around 23,500.  That's a lot of words isn't it?

Have a question for you.......

I made a couple more Soup Bowl pad's for ourselves yesterday.  My question for you is do you think they are a useful item and how much would you pay for one or two?  They are made with high quality cotton and are washable as well as reversible.  Thanks in advance for your thoughts...........

I also decided to finally make a batch of Curried Butternut Squash Soup that I posted about here.

That recipe is a keeper.  I changed it slightly as I didn't have enough butternut squash, so I added some carrots to it as well.  Well worth making and super easy to make.

Why?

If you look on the middle left hand side of this photo you will see a house and a garage door partially open?  Can you see it?  To the left of the arch, just below our blinds?

I am confused a couple of our neighbours constantly leave their garage doors open a couple of feet during the day; why?  Is it too air them out?  Is there a benefit to doing this?  Granted they only do it when its not raining or snowing; but I am still confused as to why.  If you have a garage do you do this?  Should I be doing this?  Lots of questions.........

I didn't want to post a closer photo as they do have a car parked on the left hand side of the garage, it is a double garage.

I answered in the comments, but am putting it here.  no animals, that particular neighbour is not an animal lover, and no laundry, no one does that.

Do you have a trifle bowl and a couple more questions

I do and got it out on Thursday as I had some strawberries that needed using up.  So I decided to make a trifle.

The only time I like hundreds and thousands, aka sprinkles is on a trifle and I LOVE them on top of the cream:

This trifle consisted of a bottom layer of strawberry jello/jelly with 1 lb fresh strawberries sliced in it.  A layer of custard, of course made with Bird's Custard Powder and a layer of whipping cream.

I have a couple more questions that I need answers too so I figured I would ask you guys.

First a food question.  I have a bottle of Zesty Italian Dressing and it needs using up.  Any suggestions on what I can do with it as I have no idea?

Also for those of you who have a wood burning stove or a fireplace, what do you do with all the ashes?  We use our fire 24/7 for six months of the year so have a lot of ashes.  Other than just dumping them around the property what else can you do with them?

Now finally I saw this over on Little Home in the Country's blog.  Really interesting and I agree we need more people like this to do these things.

Follow up, cooking and questions..........

Do you remember this dish I bought?

Well I got an answer from the lady at the Wedgwood Museum in England.:

"I do not know if you have access to the publication ‘Adams Ceramics. Staffordshire Potters and Pots, 1779-1998’ by David A. Furniss, J. Richard Wagner and Judith Wagner (Schiffer Publications, 1999. ISBN 0-7643-0847-5) – in the above named work a number of early variations on the Adams’ factory backstamps appear – though I must admit I cannot find one identical to that featured on the item in question – however, although the Prince of Wales’ backstamp is not featured in the appendix at the back of the work, there is a reference to a ‘WA & S’ printed backstamp, which was used by the factory from 1819 to 1861 – and I suspect that this is related to the printed backstamp below the Prince of Wales feathers as portrayed on the image you forwarded.

Stylistically the shape of the dish would seem to correspond with this era of production – and the (almost) pheasants’ eye decoration is very similar to copper plate printed work which has appeared on the Adams factory production again around the time indicated.

It maybe that with a thorough perusal of the above named work – which is excellent – that you will be able to come to a more satisfactory conclusion, but on the face of it I would say yes, that this is a William Adams piece."

 

I have called the library to see if I can borrow that book through inter-library loan, to see if I can find out more about it, but they can't find a copy.  It is nearly $80 to purchase a copy online, so that's out as well. The thing that fascinates me is this area was settled in the 1830's, so this piece may have come over with them?

 

I went grocery shopping on Friday and bought some ground beef and cooked that up with some onions and divided it to go into the freezer.  This is such a great way of dealing with ground beef I wouldn't dream of putting it in the freezer without pre-cooking and dividing it up.

 

Also made a casserole of liver, onions, mushroom and bacon...........I know you either love liver or hate it with a passion.

 

Then dd is hosting her first Thanksgiving dinner on Monday and she asked me to make her some bread sauce.

 

We were invited to go, but are not going which is just as well, as there will be 8 young 'uns between the ages of 23 and 28.  We would be the odd couple out!!!

 

Now for the questions.  I was ironing today when I thought of all of these.

 

1. Do new houses in Britain have airing cupboards?  Ever since we have lived in Canada we have never had an airing cupboard, so we don't technically "aire" our clothes like we did in England.

 

2. How many sets of sheets do you have for each bed.  I was talking to a friend and she washes and dries her sheets in one day and puts them straight back on the bed. 

 

3. How often do you wash your sheets on your bed?  I wash ours every Friday.  Same friend was very evasive when asked!!!!

Updates and a question..........plus the daily savings club..

House we are purchasing:

He's accepted our offer.........YEAH!!! It's conditional on us selling our house. I will tell you more about the house, when we have sold our house. I just don't want to jinx it by saying too much. I am all excited and am looking forward to us moving there, if all goes well.

Our house:

Well that is back on the market. We have had to take a big price drop, but we so want the other house, it will be worth it. It's on the front page of our local real estate paper this week, so fingers crossed we get some people viewing it.

Washer:

We have gone out and bought another washer, just a cheap top loader, cost us $348 + taxes, pretty annoying having to do that, but what can you do?

Now for my question. Does anyone out there have a septic tank? I thought I read somewhere that you should put a block of yeast down the toilet once a month, to keep things going okay? Are there any other things I should know about a septic, to keep it in tip-top condition. This one was pumped in 2007, so it won't need to be pumped for another year or so.

Also are there any do's and don'ts regarding a well, as this property is on well water?

Finally are you keeping up with the daily savings club, if you are following the formula, you should have $6 in your pot today, 12 x 50 cents.