Smudge

Members
  • Posts

    377
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Smudge

  1. We are having our Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve and will be feeding about 10 people.

    We will be having:

    Turkey, salmon or pork loin

    Roast potatoes

    Carrots

    Sprouts

    Peas

    Sweetcorn

    Broccolli

    Cornbread

    Stuffing

    Cranberry Sauce

    Desert will be:

    Chocolate Cheesecake or

    Chocolate Yule Log

  2. Puff pastry cheese straws - roll out some ready made puff pastry. sprinkle grated cheese on half of it, fold in half, reroll out, sprinke cheese and repeat once more. Brush with either a milk or egg wash and top with some more grated cheese. Cut into strips - and place on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake (can't tell you the temp because I am not sure what it is - I just go by what it says on the packaging)

    Sausage rolls - sausage meet wrapped in puff pastry and cooked for about 20 - mins until golden brown

  3. Funny that, as I know several married women who didn't take their husbands surname but use Mrs as their title. I also know several woman who are in a relationship but not married who use Miss.

    I was taught that Miss was the title for an un-married woman, Mrs for a married woman and Ms for a divorcee.

    Must vary - across the UK then as well between here and the USA

    My mother is Divorced and hits the roof if anyone dares to refer to her as Ms

  4. Over here at least Ms has a couple of uses

    1 - if someone is married but doesn't take their husbands last name (maybe for professional reasons = for example a teacher who gets married part way through a school year)

    2 - women who are in a relationship but are not married

    3 - women who don't want the world to know if they are married or single

    I realise it might be different in the USA - but that is why I always score out Ms and write in Miss

  5. I am a big fan of using bicarbonate of Soda/Sodium Bicarbonate - put your towels in a bath of it in solutions. It is great for absorbing smells in general - in shoes, fridges, funky smelling water bottles!

    I between summers at summer camp, when my water bottle was stored in friends Shed so I didn't have to cart it home, I would just put some in my bottle to prevent smells.

    Good luck

  6. Where I live, people actually walk to most places. :o:D

    I read this and thought what is so surprising about people walking places - and then I looked at where you live and remembered my experiences in the USA and suddenly I understand why it is so surprising!

    In my town most people walk to - but that is because we have a completely different attitude towards cars for the most part and we have better public transport!

    And talking of various berries! My house has it its own Blackberry patch :) Which produces award winning ankle wrecking Blackberries!

  7. The vitamin C factory in my town is (or at least was) the worlds biggest factory and is the main employer in the valley

    My town (actually little more than a village) is one of 3 in a valley and about 2/3 of the population of 3 towns are all related!

    In my branch at the moment every active member over the age of 20 has been thru the temple - sounds impressive until you realise that we only have about 20 active adults!

    Dispite living in Scotland where everyone thinks we have long cold winters - I live on the west coast which is more mild - to the point that town over the hill, and right on the sea coast can grow palm trees

  8. Taking mass shootings as being more than a couple of people killed - but including all the incidents that don't make the world media - according to USA Today they aren't that rare: USA TODAY Investigation: Database of mass shootings, 2006-2013

    And since Sandy Hook there have been 23 - that is nearly 2 a month: Interactive graphic: the 23 US mass-shootings since Sandy Hook - Telegraph (this article only looks at shootings with multiple deaths - so doesn't include shootings like LAX where only one person died but lots of people where injured)

    In comparrison the last recorded mass shooting I can find for the UK was 2010 and that wasn't in a School!

    I think that what anatess says has some validity - because if you look at the make on the second link the bible belt states and Utah/Idaho are among the states with no mass shootings. But breaking the family is part of Satans plans to disrupt Heavenly Fathers plans

  9. Last week a read A Christ Centered Christmas - I thought it was a really well though out book with some really good ideas for making Christmas more Christ centered by starting various traditions of service and study and as you complete each one adding a figure to your nativity scene.

    Prior to that I read a very short book - more a booklet really - called The Last Straw which again was about making Christ the focus of your Christmas celebrations by carrying out acts of secret service and each time you do something adding another straw to a manager so that one Chrstmas Eve baby jesus (well a doll symbolizing Jesus) will have nice soft bed - the more secret service the more straw and therefore the softer the bed will be

  10. Gun control and disarming are not the same thing! We can own guns if we choose - after we have passed appropriate background checks and proved that they will be stored properly - in securely locked gun safes!

    I imagine that it may well be partly cultural - but why not learn from countries where children and go to school without having pass thru metal detectors or have the treat of armed security guards petrolling the schools! If I lived in the USA and had children I would rather home school than allow a child to go to school with armed guards! I believe their are far more effective ways.

    I am talking about things that have been bandied about american citizens interviewed for UK news who are saying things like teachers should be armed or there should be armed guards in schools!

    Guns are no more evil than cars or chocolate - it those who use or miss use them that are! The kind of people you talk about also are against other forms of education that fall within the scope of PSHE

  11. I honestly don't understand why so many americans are against gun control! Seems like over the last year or 2 our hearts have been torn at by the news of yet another school shooting!

    In the UK we have not had a school shooting since the Dunblane tragedy in 1996. After that regulations over who could own guns legally and how they had to be stored and even enforcement of said law, along with restrictions on where and how they could be sold were enforced! Don't get me wrong we do still have gun crime but much less and certainly not in schools.

    Personally I don't think that putting more guns into schools is the solution!

    Since the your constitution gives you right to bare arms why not teach mandatory gun safety classes - surely that coupled with gun control would be much more effective than putting more guns into schools.