SWMBO's off babysitting until tomorrow and left me this in the fridge for my dinner: tinyurl.com/nf7bd2d
As my culinary skills are even less than Pat's, I thought I'd better RTFM.
I wear glasses and my state pension's looming next year, but I had a problem reading this, even squinting at it through a magnifying glass.
Perhaps I should lobby my MP, I doubt if there's any point in complaining to the retailer. It may even form the basis for an electoral platform (judging by the age of us on here).
Edit. Just zoomed into it on the scanner and it's quite clear................................
Edi edit. Subject reads: f o n t s i z e, nothing rude.
Last edited by: R.P. on Tue 26 Nov 13 at 21:58
|
|
A-mazing how they manage to add sugar to just about everything!
|
A constant source of annoyance to me too.
When I was responsible for various regulated consumer agreements and advertising material, the wisdom from the lawyers was that anything under 6 point (1/12" for a full height letter) could be considered illegible and therefore subject to challenge.
Most of the stuff you might actually want to read on food labels (what's in it, how to cook it) seems to be less that that. My eyesight's pretty good bar the inevitable age-related presbyopia but I often struggle with these especially in anything but very good light.
They also have a very annoying habit of printing them in unhelpful colours and backgrounds, like orange out of red.
|
>>They also have a very annoying habit of printing them in unhelpful colours and backgrounds
A propos, why do newspapers and magazines do this? It makes these sections hard to read and sometimes even obscures advertising copy.
|
My late father had packs like those delivered for him to heat in his microwave. Near 90 YO his eyes weren't the best and even my wife and I had trouble reading them. We even bought him a magnifying glass to help but he wouldn't be fussed with it all.
He was supposed to wait for his carers to prepare the meals but he often fancied a meal before they arrived which he would sort out in whatever way he felt like at the time.
Sometimes the meals were actually microwaved, but either well overdone or hardly even warm. At other times he would grill them or bake them (often without turning on the oven) and sometimes without removing any plastic wrapping, whatever the chosen cooking method.
We would often arrive (as would the carers) to food lining the inside of the microwave or bubbling all over the grill or with him struggling to eat a still frozen meal.
For those who are not used to these things, or at least the ones father had, the instructions are tiny and very complicated. "Heat at Max for 4 minutes, leave for 2 minutes, heat again for 4 minutes, leave for 2 minutes, heat for 3 minutes." This was all too much to bother with.
It wouldn't have been so bad if all the meals needed the same heating regime, but many were different. A large printed instruction sheet posted near the microwave was of little good, though at least the food would have been sort of cooked, he wouldn't do the cook, leave, cook, leave, cook, routine.
We had to shut off the gas to the cooker in the end as he became dangerous. A great worry with oldies who refuse to go to a care home.
Social services couldn't suggest a remedy.
|
I won't buy anything without cooking instructions on it but so often I find when I use them the instructions are on the underside of the food.
Surely I'm not the only one who doesn't want to stand in the kitchen with a pack of food held high above my head with a crick in my neck?
Pat
|
>> I won't buy anything without cooking instructions on it
Your veg has cooking instructions on the skin?
|
|
A mirror on the table helps read the underside of anything...
|
|
Helps if you can read back to front if you try that!
|
>> Your veg has cooking instructions on the skin?
>>
I fear for some the only veg comes out of plastic bag in the freezer. We seldom buy ready meals or indeed use the microwave much but when our kitchen was being renovated I did buy a few. I was struck by the fact as to how expensive they were and that by the time you had opened the packets, read the instructions and heated the stuff up it was almost quicker to cook a simple meal from scratch
|
>>I fear for some the only veg comes out of plastic bag in the freezer<<
With arthritic hands peeling potatoes, slicing a swede, peeling sprouts or slicing beans isn't easy.
I used to load fresh peas straight off the field in Coldham and they had to be in Lowestoft just two hours later to be frozen within the deadline.
I'm sure they are better than some 'fresh' veg which does many miles before it sits on the shop shelves for days.
Pat
|
I haven't peeled a potato in years. So I eat the skins too. Even in mash. And nobody has ever complained about my cooking
Shelling peas is a waste of the current life... So I buy them frozen. (Or grow them, and then the two peas that grow in my garden aren't too much trouble to shell (or eat entire) whilst sitting in the garden with a bottle of Fino.)
Last edited by: Mapmaker on Tue 26 Nov 13 at 17:38
|
My veg comes in a packet, ready prepared, complete with cooking instructions from Tesco.
I do occasionally buy a huge cauliflower from the farm shop in the village and make cauliflower cheese.
It's easy. Bing cauli to boil and drain, put in a dish and make cheese sauce with granules from a tub by Aunt Bessie. Add a good dollop of mustard and grate some cheese on top.
Bake in oven while roast Aunt Bessie's spuds are doing and serve with a good sized pork chop!
Pat
|
|
Tamworths are the best! For chops: huge.
|
Cauliflower cheese is one of my favorites. Me and my brother need to eat at about 5:30pm as we are starving by then but boss (Mum) doesn’t usually get back until 7:30pm, sometimes later, so in the week I usually do the evening meal. In order to reduce the hassle I have developed a fortnightly menu (ten meals) and we have those alternating, it makes shopping and planning so much easier since you know what you are going to do and need to buy.
1 cauliflower
½ pt milk approx, depends on the size of the cauli
6oz grated cheddar cheese
3oz butter
3 tbsp plain flour
Pepper and mustard to season
Wash and chop the cauliflower. Boil for about 10 mins until tender but not fully cooked.
Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the milk and flour bit by bit, stirring continuously to avoid lumps. I use a hand whisk as it deters lumps from forming. Stir until the sauce thickens, boils and is smooth. Allow to simmer for a further 2 mins. Add three-quarters of the cheese, mustard and pepper, stirring to keep it all smooth. Cook for a further 1 min stirring well.
Place the cauliflower in a dish and pour the sauce over. Sprinkle the remainder of the cheese over the top. Place in the oven until nice and brown – about 20 mins.
Sometimes if I’m really short of time or tired then I use a product called Maizena my uncle gets from France, it’s a powder you sprinkle into the milk to make the sauce. I’ve not seen it in the UK but all you then do is add the grated cheese which all the supermarkets sell already grated.
It’s really tasty although if I use strong cheese it tends to give me quite bad gas.
Another of my favorites is salmon in cream and mustard sauce, this is really quick and easy and great for blokes who want to impress the ladies as it is so simple and they think you can cook :-)
4 salmon fillets (less if you are only two people)
½ pt. double cream
3 or 4 teaspoons of Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons capers (drained)
Juice of 1 lemon
Ground pepper
Herbs, for example basil
Place the fillets in an oven dish, sprinkle lemon juice on and season with pepper.
Place the cream in a bowl, mix in the capers and mustard.
Pour over the salmon. Cut a few herbs and sprinkle on the top.
Cook for about 30 mins, gas mark 4 or top oven of the Aga or similar range oven.
These meals re-heat well in the microwave without them drying out, so the boss has hers when she gets home. If she has her meal ready and waiting then it’s generally a more peaceful environment ;-)
Sometimes I go around my best mate’s house and he’s always staring in the fridge wondering what he’s going to eat. I’ve tried getting him to plan a weekly or fortnightly menu and then work from that, it is sooooo much easier. Like pushing water uphill with your bare hands with him though, drives me nuts at times.
I won’t bore you with the other things we have :-)
|
>> Cauliflower cheese is one of my favorites.
.
.
.
.
.
.
>> I won’t bore you with the other things we have :-)
Will someone marry this bloke a bit sharpish, otherwise I could be tempted! (Even if he can't spell!)
;-)
|
>>Even if he can't spell!)
Oi. :-P
Here’s another good one I regularly do, it’s a bit more work but the method is very simple. It is really good and quite difficult to mess up. I don’t know what you would call it, I learned about it at catering class three years ago and modified it.
300g smoked haddock fillets (I prefer the undyed ones if possible)
¾ pt of full-fat milk - this is proper cooking, no low fat stuff here :-)
60g butter
60g plain flour
1 onion, chopped finely
1 teaspoon of mustard
200g grated cheese
Gently poach the fish in the milk until it flakes away from the skin, then put it to one side.
Hook the fish out of the pan and when cool enough to handle you want to flake it. If you can’t flake it then put it back in the milk and poach it a bit more. Keep the milk as you need it later.
Gently cook the chopped onion in the butter but only until it becomes soft. Do not let the onion become brown. If you overcook the onion then bin it and do another one, brown onion ruins the taste of this dish.
Then add the flour to the onion and cook on a gentle heat until it all mixes together and has a sandy, almost a gritty texture.
Then add the milk to the mixture, a small amount at a time, stirring all the time so it doesn’t develop lumps. Once the sauce is ready, then add the flaked fish, about 75% of the grated cheese, and the mustard. Adjust the seasoning.
Then put it all in an oven-proof dish, put the remaining grated cheese sprinkled on the top and place it under the grill (or in an oven) until it’s nice and golden.
As the dish is quite rich I usually serve it with something light, maybe salad or broccoli, peas etc.
When it’s cold it makes a very good sandwich filling.
All the supermarkets sell grated cheese in packets and I’m sure I’ve seen grated onion as well, so you can save time and washing-up if you want.
Sometimes I turn it into a fish pie, for that I add some cooked frozen peas, some tinned but drained sweetcorn, some cooked prawns and then put mashed potato on the top before the grated cheese goes on. Doing this is more work so I tend to only do it occasionally.
If I invite my friend over for dinner then often I will do this for her since it’s one of her favorites. In fact she usually asks if I will cook it for her. Sometimes I will make several and put them in the freezer and take one around to my best mate since he has no idea about feeding himself properly, although he’s perhaps a bit better than he used to be. Usually in his place I’m tripping over pizza boxes and empty beer cans.
|
|
My eggs come with "Place in boiling water for four minutes and then refresh in cold water." printed on the outside.
|
|
A widening problem as some Meals-on wheels services have been replaced by a small freezer, a microwave and a once a week delivery.
|
>> A great worry with oldies who refuse to go to a care home.
Careful! You could be upsetting a few of us here.
;>)
|
Hmm, I am certainly no spring chicken, so hope some remedy will be found within a few years before I am likely to be faced with this problem.
I did write to Hitachi, the makers of father's microwave at the time, to design a microwave that could read a barcode or similar to set the cooking times. This of course would also need the co-operation of the food manufacturers and packagers but wouldn't solve the problem of the failure to remove packaging.
A massive cost I assume would be the problem but would be of use to many, not just the elderly.
No reply.
|
>> We had to shut off the gas to the cooker in the end as he
>> became dangerous. A great worry with oldies who refuse to go to a care home.
>>
>> Social services couldn't suggest a remedy.
>>
We had a similar situation with Mrs B's mother. The fact is that dementia simply drained her of her faculties. No amount of simplification, notes or anything else would help. All we could do was get the carers in and try to mitigate the dangers until the care home route was inevitable.
In late 2008 I was off work sick for a fortnight. My days were punctuated by Ann arriving on the doorstep. I'd give her a cup of tea, chat as best we could (her attention span was too short for conversation) and take her home. Rinse and repeat.
She was also locking herself out of her flat on a regular basis or leaving her keys in the communal areas.
Finding her washing the baseplate of a cordless kettle under the tap was the break point. She went for a 'holiday' at a care home in Silverstone and never returned home. If she'd stayed then she'd certainly have had a bad fall on the icy pavements in Jan/Feb 20009.
Nothing Social Services could possibly have done.
|
Is this back to the future????
;-)
|
Food labelling f********
Thanks RP.
Edit. Well, sort of (!).
Last edited by: VxFan on Mon 27 Jan 14 at 12:44
|
Food labelling f******** - Dog
