Things your mother should have told you

[Suffs Profile]

I am trialling the fruit fly trap ... currently we have fruit flies as I failed to notice that one of our ripening pears had damage.

[slimpersoninside Profile]

Taking one for the team there Suffs

[jeral Profile]

mark111757, a fantastic time capsule, although some are still relevant. I wonder how our handy tips will be viewed in 50 years when presumably oil and plastic will be rare, washing powder phosphates might be a thing of the past etc.

Suffs, nothing I tried attracted enough fruit flies to drown (the washing up liquid breaks the surface tension), but enough for them instead to walk around the edge meeting each other which was fun to watch but not the result of them thus multiplying prolifically, aargh. The answer here was to put what they liked (banana skin they came in on) on an open window's sill and voila

The use of cornmeal to overfeed/kill ants is interesting. Hope I remember before sunshine brings them up next year.

[mark111757 Profile]

Mum taught me and I suspect she got it from her home economics teacher, about measuring things like Crisco/vegetable shortening using the water displacement method.
If I needed a half cup of shortening, fill a one cup measure half full of water then add globs of Crisco till the water was at the top of the cup. Always worked for her. And drain off the water.

[Suffs Profile]

But so very much simpler to use weight to measure amounts.

[herbidacious Profile]

I suppose they didn't do knee socks for ladies....or shoes that they would fit in.

I never wore tights full stop until I was in my mid-20s. Knee socks and long skirts. I think when I started cycling everywhere when I left London caused me to start wearing shorter skirts and thus tights. But by then it was possible and affordable to buy woolly tights. I still don't wear nylons unless it's a wedding or somesuch.

My mother wore popsocks under her 'slacks' in the '70s (and beyond) I am sure. She said she couldn't wear tights (can't remember the reason.)

I have done copmost gnat/fruit fly thing in the past. Doesn't work with bigger flies, alas.

[aero280 Profile]

I have been wearing long johns for quite a few weeks now! Nice and warm.

[Busybee Profile]

A male family friend who also happens to be an ex professional jockey wore ladies tights under his racing silks, keeps you warm but doesn’t add weight apparently.

BB

[Pampy Profile]

A male family friend who also happens to be an ex professional jockey wore ladies tights under his racing silks, keeps you warm but doesn’t add weight apparently.

BB

I used to know several policemen who did the same!

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Nylons also make putting on knee high cavalry or racing boots a lot easier

Think of all those butch Horse Guards with sheer stockings under their boots

[Suffs Profile]

I know of butch builders who have ladies' tights on under their work jeans.

[Lusciouslush Profile]

I now have a vivid memory in my head of Nicholas Parsons in suspenders & stockings on stage in The Rocky Horror Show for some reason - he was brilliant, but the image is going to be with me all day I know!

[Suffs Profile]

To brings us all back to the more mundane ... we caught four fruit flies in the vinegar trap overnight.

[Earthmaiden Profile]

I now have a vivid memory in my head of Nicholas Parsons in suspenders & stockings on stage in The Rocky Horror Show for some reason - he was brilliant, but the image is going to be with me all day I know!

Good news re the flies, Suffs.

[scullion Profile]

i knew a load of bikers who wore tights under their 'originals' and leathers.

try putting a banana skin or part of a ripe tomato (or a bit of that pear) in a jar. cover the top of the jar with cling film (or bit of plastic bag with elastic band) and with the tip of a sharp knife, puncture a tiny hole in it. the fruit flies crawl in and can't find the hole to climb back out.

you can also use a bit of vinegar with a drop of the washing up liquid if you haven't got a bit of banana skin.

[mark111757 Profile]

Suffs

You are correct but growing up in the in the 60s and 70s here in the States, most domestic cook books showed ingredients by volume as opposed to weight. And mum did not have a kitchen scale. I doubt that her mum had one either.

[scullion Profile]

mum did not have a kitchen scale. I doubt that her mum had one either.

if you've used a cup (of any sort) since colonisation, custom reigns but it's surprising that that hasn't changed with the 'modernisation' of kitchens.
recipes written in cups can be quite elastic - some say well packed, some don't specify anything - thank heavens for the accuracy of weights!
i can't think of any of my antecedents (that i have known) that didn't use scales - it was one of the first things i bought after leaving home.

[herbidacious Profile]

I have a set of American cups and a set of Australian ones as I was wasting too much time trying to convert. A universal measurement is a no-brainer... Of course we have only relatively recently moved to that in the UK.
We have to put measurements in imperial, as well as metric, in our books at work to achieve a 'universal' edtion. (Cooking books have their own separate editions, of course.) It's a bit of a pain when you have limited space and are dealing with long numbers! (e.g. what's a light year.) At least a billion has been standardized (to the American billion).

[jeral Profile]

Cups must be thought infinitely preferable to our spoon weights (rounded/heaped), measuring jugs, guessing half a block of butter etc. I've found scales only essential once dealing with grams, which I can't naturally visualise or convert, since before that my scales rarely saw daylight.

[herbidacious Profile]

Ah yes. One forgets we have spoon measurements, so used to them are we. And these are different in different countries too. I have spent time trying to ascertain what French spoons are when cooking from recipe books bought in France. We are so much more international than we once were.
My baking spoons have measurements in ml on them too.