I know, it's still a week away yet but - next Tuesday is my wedding anniversary and all suggestions of having pancakes that day have been met with an icy stare that my wife has slowly perfected over the years. Instead, we'll be going out for a meal, for a change.
Seeing as I couldn't get off to my Dad's today I decided not to waste the day and have sorted some letters out that needed doing and then had a look at the kitchen window, as there's been a bit of a draught coming in from round the sides of it. We had the double glazing installed about 7 years ago now and I never did get round to 'finishing off' as I had promised. Earlier this week I went to bought some uPVC strip and some other bits to finally do it.
So, this afternoon I set about mixing some filler and sorting out the gap between the tiles and the new window that was created when the new unit went in, there was a good inch wide by inch and a half deep of a hole, right the way along behind the tiles. That's now been filled in using some offcuts of wood I've had kicking about for ages, and the filler plaster. It would have been far too much to do with filler alone so that's a bit of a cheat really to use less plaster and make it dry out quicker too. Some builders used to pack in rolled up newspaper before the plaster for jobs like that.
Well, I was enjoying myself mixing the filler, I got a box of the powder type, rather than buy little pots of the ready-mixed. Tea-time came around and I decided I'd do a bit more mixing, flour, eggs, salt and milk with a dash of mixed herbs and I've had some pancakes for tea! All told I did half a dozen and added half a pint of onion gravy, with loads of chopped onion in (OK, cheated again, it's a bag of prepared chopped onion we have in the freezer).
I even started to sweat as I ate them, boy did I warm up and feel a lot better than I did earlier. They've not only filled me up but warmed me through as well. Or, was it because I was watching a 'railway walks' programme on TV at the time and the presenter was visiting a lot of Scottish whisky distilleries on the way...?
I've not totally gone against the calendar. Yes, here in the UK it's Tuesday the 12th that's down as Shrove Tuesday this year but our American Cousins were celebrating their National Pancake Day yesterday
One tip I will give is to use a good non-stick pan, ours even has a red indicator thing in the middle to show when it's hot, and only a tiny bit of fat when you're cooking them. I was always told to get the fat smoking hot first, but prefer to keep my eyebrows these days.
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Gordon57
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Wish I'd had an invite to yours today Gordon the pancakes sound yummy scrumptious !
If I'm not around next Tuesday (highly unlikely but one never knows.........) I'll wish you an early Happy Anniversary and many more to come, despite the icy stares from SWMBO
You have been a productive fella today, repaired a window, made pancakes and produced a blog worth publishing. What wedding anniversary it is for you next Tuesday?
Here's hoping this doesn't duplicate. Have had a lot of bother posting today
Wow Gordon it sounds like your wife's already got the best present she could have! Have a great anniversary when it arrives.
Next Tuesday we will celebrate our 13th wedding anniversary and 17 years together, we met on Feb 12th 1996 and married on the same date on 2000. I've been married twice before, the first lasted 12 years and the second only 4, so wife #3 had lasted the longest
I don't normally cook things as I have chest problems standing upright over the cooker but had used my meds after doing the window and must have been at a peak of some sort. Not always bad on the top of the cooker but I can't do with bending down to the oven. And, I had my perching stool in there too, I only just realised how much I've used it today!
The window isn't finished yet, I still have to put the new edging in place and I've only prepared the bottom so far, I've two sides and the top to figure out yet. I have the uPVC, and some 'no nails' so guess that's OK for the sides, after I put the bottom bit in place tomorrow. The top has a big gap though. I can't really use filler as it will fall out, so may have to come up with some other ideas yet.
For one awful minute I thought you were going to say you made your pancakes with the plaster
Who said you can only have them on Shrove Tuesday anyway, I love them anytime and have the traditional lemon juice and sugar with them never had them with gravy.
Hope you are well enough to go out for your anniversary next Tuesday - going anywhere nice?
We will be in the car so I'm not expecting any problems, it's when I've to walk to bus stops and so on that I get problems. I can manage the few steps to the car, unless the wife goes and parks it by the bus stop of course...
My wife prefers her pancakes with golden syrup but I always had onion gravy as a kid We got a small hand held blender/mixer thing with a Christmas voucher and it came with it's own tall mixing container, which makes it a lot easier for me to do the batter as I'm not having to hand whisk. They're quick and easy to do so I've made myself 3 batches since we got the mixer, against perhaps once a year before then
We'll be going to a nice pub out in the countryside. We used to go up there perhaps once a month when I was working as it not the cheapest going, but we like it. They do real ale, so that's me sorted. I nearly always have the same option, home made steak pie & chips, when we go. The wife likes to try different things though.
Always knew you were one of the good guys and I applaud your belief in marriage as it shows you to be the optimistic and tolerant person most of us on here take you for - not to mention hardworking and funny.
Maybe the builders of old had a point Gordon with the scrunched up paper to fill in your top window part but hope you'll leave that for another day. Happy anniversary when it comes mind you it's kinda near Valentine's day isn't it?- oh well a combined celebration.
Oh, I believe in marriage, nobody could have imagined my first wife! But that's for another day, there's only about 5 hours before bedtime so not long enough to talk about her and her wicked ways.
I debated scrunched up newspaper for the top of the window frame but I stopped all the freebies being delivered and I don't buy a paper so simply don't have the raw material. I'm going to cut a bit of MDF and shove that up into the gap then twist it round so it sits on top of the edge of the window itself and use a couple of blobs of the good old 'no nails' to hold it on place then to put the PVC strip up. Once I've done I still need to do a silicone bead round it all to seal it. Not tonight...
Sorry Gordon, but really the BEST way to eat pancakes is one at a time, fresh from the pan - just a plain mix but liberally sprayed with fresh lemon juice, then a crunchy layer of caster sugar - mmmmmmmmmmm........can't wait for next week. Interesting you should be talking about DIY though - I was trying to explain to a lad at work years ago how to make pancakes - the nearest I could get that I thought he would understand was to tell him to add milk until it was the consistency of emuslion paint. Did the trick !
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