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  2. Steve Harley death: Cockney Rebel musician dies aged 73
  3. Another season comes to a close - my first one since retiring and as a consequence I got out a lot more especially in the autumn/winter though plans were somewhat thwarted by the high water levels in the rivers. Since I left work in June we have had 9 consecutive months of significantly above average rainfall. The springs of the Kennet 'broke' unusually early in mid-October (they typically start flowing late December/early January) and as a consequence many venues have been inaccessible let alone fishable. This did at least nudge me to seek out some new swims - with some success! Best Carp 11lb 6oz. 25 September Free-lined bread flake - Willows Lake. As usual, I spent most of the summer trying NOT to catch carp in my pursuit of big tench. This was one of the few I caught deliberately on an evening the tincas didn't turn up. Best Tench 6lb 8oz. 20 June. Lift method, prawn sections - Willows Lake. A good summer on the tench front with 13 fish over 5lb and this was the best of 3, 6lbers. Rumours of an 8lber coming out of a club water had me putting in a lot of effort for the species! Best Chub 6lb 2oz. 9 February. Trotted maggot. River Kennet, Newbury -Whitehouse stretch. A venue I re-discovered as a result of trying to find bits of river I could actually get to in the floods! This particular swim became an instant favourite producing 3 chub over 5½lb in 3 of my first 4 visits to it. I wonder what it will fish like in normal levels! All in all though another great year for chub with 100 over 1lb for the 4th consecutive year, though average weights were down a little with 21 over 4lb of which 6 were over 5. Best Bream 5lb 2oz. 16 June. Trotted maggot. River Kennet - Marsh Benham. The majority of my Bream were river caught (same as 22/23 season) and this opening day catch was the only one over 5lb. Best Crucian 3lb 4oz. 10 August. Float fished prawn sections. Harris Lake, Marsh Farm Fishery, Milford. I only made 3 trips to Marsh Farm this summer - some quality tench fishing on club waters keeping me on 'home soil' - This super crucian however was a good reminder of why I make the effort - and was actually my biggest ever from Harris. Best Perch 3lb 1oz. 21 November. Trotted maggot. River Kennet, Hambridge. For the 2nd season running my season's best perch comes from the river as opposed to the canal though the K&A did throw up a number of big 2s this season. Best Grayling 2lb 6oz. 22 October. Trotted red sweetcorn. Lower Itchen. A feature this winter has been how well my local stretches of the River Lambourn have fished for Grayling. I've had over 70 1lb+ fish with quite a few 1½lb or better - including my first 2lber in 2 decades. My season's best however was this stroppy fish (twas a nightmare to try and photograph) from my only trip to the Itchen - my February trip being cancelled due to flooding. Best Barbel 2lb 2oz. 11 July. Trotted maggot. River Kennet, Hambridge. Always good to see barbel these days whatever the size and whilst there have been a smattering of half decent barbel coming out this season to other anglers, my only contribution, whilst float caught, was much more modest. Best Dace 1lb 1oz. 21 November. Trotted maggot. Kennet & Avon (flowing) canal, Thatcham. My best 'wow' moment of the season! A venue that has thrown up some big autumn dace in the past few years had me returning with the intention of trying to do just that again. Never expected anything of this calibre - my first 1lb+ dace since 04/05 season.
  4. Once i invent a device that stops water going through the mesh of my dehydrator i can then dehydrate water .think of the benefits ...extreme lightness compared to unhydrated water and you could fit a gallon in a matchbox so your haversack could contain enough to cross death valley . If you dehydrated sea water you would get free salt so you could rehydrate some and boil bacon . All you have to do is rehydrate a pint then add it to the amount of rehydrated water to get a pint of reconstituted water ,big game changer Todays soup was potato and leek ,pretty easy to make just cut up pots (no need to peel) into inch cubes but i used frozen leeks but chucked in an onion to improve it .Not as good as soup 1 (potato and onion) i think the chinese powder gave it the heat so i will put a teaspoon in todays soup tho see if it improves . So far the consistency is ok if you dont fill with water to max but use the veg at max .Its a pity you have no setting for a semi chunky soup but i guess if i could be arsed i could use the chunky setting then use the smooth+ button to manually chop it smaller ,but if i am going that far i might aswell just buy a tin of the stuff but get sugar and salt in deadly amounts
  5. My top time saving tip is very simple, lots of recipes call for boiling water but when I watch the kettle it seems to never boil! So I fill the kettle with water and wait for the click, then, when you have your boiling water place it in a suitable container and then freeze it, then when you need boiling water just take it out and bingo! **note** I’m not allowed in the kitchen very often.
  6. What! They poke a handfull up there and feel it swelling lol. hmm interesting nightime sex play though makes a diiference to a whole mackeral i suppose. OH you mean 'eaten' by the mouth ,whoops
  7. Pearl Barley was eaten as an old Remedy for Issues, "Down There" - specifically in women suffering with Cystitis.
  8. https://www.bwpawards.org/2024-winners Nice little video about Bitterling wins the Video category....
  9. It seems a bit counterproductive buying a device (machine A) that produces things fast but to put in an ingrediant i have to go into the garden open cupboard 3 and get my pressure cooker out t( a nice multicooker machine B)to make a ingrediant suitable to go in machine A . I do have some pulse and grain additive somewhere its several years old but dry so i may resort to the old fishing method of putting some in a big vacuum flask covering it with boiling water and leave it overnight to see if its soft enough 12 hours later .Thinking about it boiling the water in my water dooda is machine C and perhaps the flask technically is machine D .Bugger once its made and i reheat it its done in a microwave (machine E) or on the stove top machine F .I may aswell just open a soup kitchen or a hotel kitchen lol No soup today i made sausage rolls i ate 5 ...they were awfull ! But i wont give them to the foxes after my hard work .Best use cheap sausage meat methinks 97% stuff doesn't work so well No soup because i had run out of potatoes and onions i kinder liked soup 1 and freezer 3 in shed 3 has a lot of room in it for errr soup and stuff i just wish frozen tomatoes came out better but are only fit for ........soup Ps i can recomend the 5.7l version of this ,not the cheapest but not a ninja ,the support staff are brilliant they sent a free silicone seal for my soupmaker after i asked if they sold replacements https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pressure-Electric-Cooker-Litre-Chrome/dp/B06XC7R53Z/ref=sr_1_3?c=ts&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.vnR2NiGIhLudKaS1WsIObiIibzEtKB9DX5JN2G0qkTYSQV0YymfJ1x4WjVJylEQQ0m013YqsZf5QeQ-ggPS7stGP9mqnkl_5jDmLrJEiyHZDYVZ8qzXAYw1ojl9y1VrbXlJuxpwyPL1qDf-CzaRoNs_-XdGqgACA6SGFC0XuVamlbJRVczuQBfg_ABOBjOjkkA_6goBcL6N98tFmgQtbzYz-dtACxItGjgKwoeZVnk0.NEckwzsQ0LnzlNTXKZyj2xG5sMHoG3zJZ8KmMmOZS8U&dib_tag=se&keywords=Electric+Pressure+Cookers&qid=1710454213&s=kitchen-appliances&sr=1-3&ts_id=3538346031 PS the mrs hates it lol as i mentioned shes no cook ,never used my combi oven bar as a microwave ,never used my breadmaker (s),never used my air fryer .........BUT uses the hotpoint hot water dispenser so could be trained eventually lol
  10. Middle Kennet (& Carrier) - Marsh Benham 0830 - 1400 Mild with sunny spells - topped and tailed with rain. AT 10º-16ºC. River very high and clear. 2 Chub; 5lb 2oz & 3lb 3oz. 3 Roach - all small. 2 Brownies - both 3lb+. Both chub from my south bank slack on the main river. Rested it after catching the 5lber and caught the smaller one when I returned ¾hr later. Best chub from my syndicate stretch this season - a nice way to end the campaign... A Fat Five
  11. We always used to use Pearl Barley in our Turkey leftover stews after Christmas which we cooked in the pressure cooker. I didn’t take very long at all to cook in the pressure cooker and it thickened the Turkey Stew nicely and took on the flavours it was cooked in. Unfortunately we no longer have our pressure cooker, which is a shame as me and our son always looked forward to a good turkey stew after Xmas. Keith
  12. Makes an interesting risotto variation too. It takes forever to cook, though.
  13. Pearl Barley is great in soup and stews, Mother used to use it a lot to make a rabbit go round all us hungry kids, the rabbit obviously was always poached. so is celery although I cannot abide it raw! If your cooking time is twenty mins then just pre boil it in water, you should always pre boil pb anyway because it can contain toxins, Mothers rule was cooked for an hour after soaking overnight but food standards have moved on since those days.
  14. River Kennet - Newbury (Whitehouse) 1330 1500 Mild overcast and breezy. AT 12ºC. River very pacey but surprisingly clear given all the rain yesterday. 1 Bream : 2lb. 3 Perch, 1 Roach (all small). Having fished down the Lambourn twice, a quick bite of lunch was followed by a 90 min session in my new favourite chub slack. Alas, ole rubber lips wasn't in residence - a bream taking my bait at just the spot I expected a chub to be!
  15. River Lambourn - Newbury 0830 - 1300 Mild, overcast and breezy. AT 11/12ºC. River very high - 1.96m on the Shaw gauge (21cm above top of normal range) but crystal clear despite nearly (yet) another ½ inch of rain yesterday. 13 Grayling: 5 over a lb - best 3; 1lb 13oz and 2 @ 1lb 9oz. 2 Brownies - both around 1¼lb (and might have been the same fish!!). Usual rest and return tactics - most fish from 3 swims and most fish on trotted red corn. Not so much The lady of the Stream - more The Black Prince!
  16. Todays was 'tomato' soup ,two tins of toms ,some dregs of a packet of freezer burned swede and a couple of chopped sweet peppers from last year ,a stock cube and seasoning . Pretty tasteless mrs didnt like it so i secretely put in a teaspoon of some chinese ( name to long to bother typing) dried additive for stir fry . Chucked it in and used the extra smooth function to mix it . Definate improvement it gave a pleasent 'warm' feeling and still had the tomato background ,mrs liked it less! Finished 2 bowls with my still warm extra fiber bread ,the other bowl once cold will go in the freezer . Its not easy to find a recipe that i have all the ingrediants for ,i see no point in buying ingrediants i will probably use a small amount off then chuck in the composter .Bought a book with 100 recipes but i found only one i could make without ordering in stuff ,got two freezers fulll of veg but the idea was use that not buy more! Its a shame soupmakers are so small they all hover round the 1.7ltr mark so "batch" cooking asides from a family of mice impossible its just 3 bowls of soup i could eat that in one sitting !
  17. I will try some but i dont think you can use them directly in the machine (nor our vast quantity of dehydrated tomatoes from our crop last year ) The process from start to finish lasts 19 minutes so neither would soften or rehydrate quick enough . In the winter i make Scots potato soup using a family recipe but as bones are used its not suitable for a soupmaker (well once perhaps lol) but i may stove make it then use the machine to see what its like in smooth form (i wish there was a 'medium' setting ) then soak the pearl barly and chuck it in in a potfull it will then be smooth but with whole grains
  18. Believe me i slightly burned todays and its in the machine lol a pan would have been in the dustbin by now . I chucked a few of last years peppers in and one obviously hid from the blade and sat still enough to stick to the bottom .
  19. “Neophilia you say Lance Corporal, mmmmmm, take two aspirin and come and see me in a month, NEXT!”
  20. Celery & Pearl Barley is good in soups.
  21. No need for a machine. I currently have cream of chicken soup in the fridge that I made from scratch on Saturday.
  22. No its nothing to do with cold women! Just bought a soupmaker ,its basically a kettle and a whisk combined but it works better than i thought. Got it sunday so started playing yesterday .Pretty simple you chuck stuff in it ( food not bolts or other car parts) and soup comes out .Yes pots do the same but my attention span means half the time the soup is baked onto the bottom and arouses wrath from my personal cold woman. Plenty of recipes out there but most have ingrediants we dont have in the cupboard at the moment .But i needed to try it (my wife dislikes cooking but can fry eggs and bacon so has some use in the kitchen) Anyway yesterdays efforrt was potato and onion soup ,chucked in 4 cut up strong onions ,no real spuds so used a tin of them ,seasoned it and bunged in an oxo cube .Machine made steamy noises and sudden roaring noises and 19 minutes later a tiny tiny beep was heard (our Echo Flex in the kitchen listens for beep and our Echo show 8 (told you i was a Neophile (sp?)) shouts out "somethings fooking beeping " you cant use the f word Alexa ignores it but 'fooking' sounds ok lol ) unfortunately the tiny beep went unheard by Alexa but the machine keeps the end product warm anyway. Result .....it was great ,bit watery as i filled it to the max line with plain water but even my cold mrs emptied her bowl and the remaining soup went into the freezer for my lunch in the future.Nice and warming the onions were a little noticable but if you like onions its fine . Today i chucked in an inch of sundays chicken (meat chopped up into half inch bits) to much rain to go outside for another tin of potatoes so i chucked in a tin of butter beans ,a tin of carrots and two chicken stock cubes and seasoning .I set the beast in action ,usual sounds and those tiny tiny beeps were heard (not by Alexa or my cold woman though) opened it up ,strange orange colour but thicker than yesterdays. I didnt tell mrs about the butter beans she hates them and its not phsycological she made the uuuurrrr !noise and declined it .I bravely took my bowl and whilst it was ok dunking bread in it when it came to spoon action it was uuuurrrr! From me aswell . Not a great loss the cost was less than a tin of real soup . Consigned to toilet for trouts and sickly roach to eat in the sewage outfall if will get disharged from in the excuse its raining . I will try seeing what canned tomatoes and some other tin of something will come out with tomorrow and keep you informed whether you want to be or not!
  23. Earlier
  24. Can they be damaged by handing like mackerel can?
  25. River Kennet - Speen Moors 0915 - 1300 Bright and breezy with a raw Easterly. AT 5º-9º but felt a lot chillier in the wind! River in full flood, in the fields and over the footpaths - but very clear. 5 Chub: 3lb 4oz, 2lb 14oz, 2lb 9oz*, 2lb 4oz* and a chublet of around 8-10oz. 1 Brownie c 2½lb. Surprisingly productive morning given the sub-optimal conditions - all fish on trotted maggot from the one swim which I rested for over an hour and caught 2 more chub* when I returned to it.
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