Winter is coming.

[Forest Cat]

I spent 20 years living in a seriously stable weather region, in the tropics. It's hot every day all year around

That sounds dreamy. That's my goal in life, being somewhere where it is hot every day all year around.

 

[Outdated]

That sounds dreamy. That's my goal in life, being somewhere where it is hot every day all year around.

You might like Darwin or Far North Queensland then.

An odd reaction of the human body though, you dehydrate in the tropics far more quickly than you do in the deserts. Sweat doesn't evaporate so it gives no cooling effect, the body responds to this by sweating more and more. Until you become acclimatised you need to drink at least 1 litre per hour to replace what's oozing out of your skin.

The trouble is that if you drink 1 litre of water every hour it sloshes around in your stomach and makes you feel ill. However, if you drink 1 litre of beer every hour you feel great.

 

[Outdated]

If you do ever visit Australia you are going to need to drink a lot of water. What tourists from a lot of countries don't realise is that all of our tap water is perfectly good drinking water. (except for a few remote towns) You don't need to buy bottled water, you can just drink straight from the tap.

 

[Forest Cat]

If you do ever visit Australia you are going to need to drink a lot of water. What tourists from a lot of countries don't realise is that all of our tap water is perfectly good drinking water. (except for a few remote towns) You don't need to buy bottled water, you can just drink straight from the tap.

No problem, I already drink a lot of water. I'm used to it. We are very spoiled with the water here too, the tap water is perfectly fine to drink. No problems with it. Some places it's cleaner than the bottled water.

 

[Outdated]

We are very spoiled with the water here too, the tap water is perfectly fine to drink. No problems with it. Some places it's cleaner than the bottled water.

I was adult before I found out that that's not the case in other countries. If I travelled overseas when I was young I probably would have ended up getting sick simply because drinking tap water is a habit for me.

When we first started seeing bottled water on shop shelves I laughed, why would anyone want to buy water in bottles? Which shows my level of business accumen, it's now a multi billion dollar industry.

 

[Forest Cat]

I was adult before I found out that that's not the case in other countries. If I travelled overseas when I was young I probably would have ended up getting sick simply because drinking tap water is a habit for me.

When we first started seeing bottled water on shop shelves I laughed, why would anyone want to buy water in bottles? Which shows my level of business accumen, it's now a multi billion dollar industry.

I saw a tourist here a few weeks ago at a store, he was buying lots of bottles of water. I'll bet he was afraid of the local tap water.

 

[Mary Terry]

That sounds dreamy. That's my goal in life, being somewhere where it is hot every day all year around.

I live in a place much like that. You'd get tired of constant hot weather really fast.

I was adult before I found out that that's not the case in other countries. If I travelled overseas when I was young I probably would have ended up getting sick simply because drinking tap water is a habit for me.

When we first started seeing bottled water on shop shelves I laughed, why would anyone want to buy water in bottles? Which shows my level of business accumen, it's now a multi billion dollar industry.

Tap water is generally fine everywhere in the US, too.

Most people don't realize that tap water or "public" water is more highly regulated and tested than bottled water in the US. Not to mention ingesting plastic particles and chemically decomposed plastic in plastic water bottles. Ugh.

 

[Forest Cat]

I live in a place much like that. You'd get tired of constant hot weather really fast.

Oh, you're so lucky. I don't think I would get tired of it, something in me craves scorching hot weather. I just love it. If I lived in a place with constant hot weather, I would look like this every day:

And after a few decades of being spanked by rough Scandinavian winters, I want hot weather more than ever before.

 

[Outdated]

If I lived in a place with constant hot weather, I would look like this every day:

I did 20 years of it before I started to get sick of it.

 

[Forest Cat]

I did 20 years of it before I started to get sick of it.

I understand the words "get" and "sick" and "of". And the words "hot" and "weather". But when you put them together in a sentence it just doesn't make sense. I don't understand.

 

[grommet]

The days are getting shorter and daylight savings has ended for the year. I’m not a big fan of cold weather but winter brings something else that I love - winter vegetables.

I was never a fan of salads, and if anyone pours anything over it that contains vinegar then the smell is going to turn me away without even tasting it, but I love my vegetables.

One of my favourite and easiest meals is just a simple beef stew but it needs the proper winter vegetables, including turnip and parsnip. That’s easy this time of year, all the supermarkets sell Soup Starter Packs. The idea of these packs is that you’d use these vegetables to make stock and use that stock in all your soups and stews throughout the winter, but I just buy the packs for making stew.

I’m fussy about the meat I buy too, even if it’s one of the cheaper cuts it has to be nice quality grass fed beef. Today I bought 500 grams of rump, and a vegie pack. Throw in a few slices of buttered bread to go with it and I’ve got 4 or 5 days worth of really tasty food for less than $20.

That’s our tiny little Australian dollars too, not big shiny American dollars. Probably about US$14.


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I would like to make beef stew. What is your recipe please? I am wondering if I can make it in an inverter microwave on low. I do not use the stove but the inverter microwave is special, it does not cook in 100% on/off cycles, it is able to reduce power and run full time at that setting so it can warm things slowly or simmer.

 

[Outdated]

The way I fry all the ingredients first isn't a good idea in a microwave, they just don't work like that. Stews and soups need to be cooked long and slow. Not quite as good as using a pan on a stove, but a simple and easy tool for you to use is a slow cooker, picture below.

You just throw all your ingredients in at once and turn it on, depending on how much you put in it you let it cook for 4 to 6 hours. The beauty of these is you can't go wrong, you can't burn anything.

Usually you put some meat, some vegetables, herbs and spices, and some corn flour, I think you call that corn starch in the US. Then add enough water to fill the pot. Walk away and leave it, come back when it smells too good to resist.

You can get little ones for single people too.

 

[Neri]

One of our cities has a reputation for that. An old man told me "If you don't like Melbourne's weather, wait for half a day.". I think it was 1987, we had high temperatures in the 40s for a few days, then overnight the temperature started plummeting, the next morning it snowed across the northern suburbs. It was the first time in my life I'd ever seen snow.

Tassie's like that too.

 

[Neri]

We have hot and very wet and humid summers, here. We are now getting cooler weather, I love this season! Autumn and spring are my favorite, summer, not so much, it's the humidity and mold that make it not so lovely. Winter is beautiful here, clear, warm days, perfect days and fire-worthy nights and mornings. Not many places have fireplaces though, as it is generally warm and there's no need, except for winter, but, I love fires. I wish I had a fireplace. I'll have to go stay with my oldest son again and enjoy his fireplace. I also love winter time for the food, and it's not too hot to cook. I love cooking and eating stews, roasts, baking, soups, mmmm, love them all.

 

[Outdated]

We have hot and very wet and humid summers, here.

I just went for a ride to the shop and noticed all the trees and shrubs and everyone's gardens are all bursting in to flower again, like a second spring. We haven't had a summer here for about 4 years now and all the plants seem a bit confused.

 

[Mary Terry]

The way I fry all the ingredients first isn't a good idea in a microwave, they just don't work like that. Stews and soups need to be cooked long and slow. Not quite as good as using a pan on a stove, but a simple and easy tool for you to use is a slow cooker, picture below.

You just throw all your ingredients in at once and turn it on, depending on how much you put in it you let it cook for 4 to 6 hours. The beauty of these is you can't go wrong, you can't burn anything.

Usually you put some meat, some vegetables, herbs and spices, and some corn flour, I think you call that corn starch in the US. Then add enough water to fill the pot. Walk away and leave it, come back when it smells too good to resist.

You can get little ones for single people too.

I would like to make beef stew. What is your recipe please? I am wondering if I can make it in an inverter microwave on low. I do not use the stove but the inverter microwave is special, it does not cook in 100% on/off cycles, it is able to reduce power and run full time at that setting so it can warm things slowly or simmer.

I agree with @Outdated that you can't make a stew in the microwave. The meat would be extremely tough, and the flavors wouldn't coalesce or mingle together like a long, slow braise in liquid. You should get a crockpot!

You might be able to make a decent chili in the microwave using ground beef. Microwave the beef until it is cooked, take it out of the microwave and set it aside. Then microwave chopped onions, peppers and some garlic all mixed together till they are cooked through. Then mix together the cooked meat and vegetables, a can of tomato sauce, a can of beef broth or beef stock, some canned beans of your choice (pinto, black beans, etc.), and some chili powder, salt and pepper. Mix all of that together and put it in the microwave on low power or alternating power as you described and let it simmer until everything gets really bubbling hot. Stir it several times while you are microwaving it. That should work, @grommet.

 

[grommet]

I agree with @Outdated that you can't make a stew in the microwave. The meat would be extremely tough, and the flavors wouldn't coalesce or mingle together like a long, slow braise in liquid. You should get a crockpot!

You might be able to make a decent chili in the microwave using ground beef. Microwave the beef until it is cooked, take it out of the microwave and set it aside. Then microwave chopped onions, peppers and some garlic all mixed together till they are cooked through. Then mix together the cooked meat and vegetables, a can of tomato sauce, a can of beef broth or beef stock, some canned beans of your choice (pinto, black beans, etc.), and some chili powder, salt and pepper. Mix all of that together and put it in the microwave on low power or alternating power as you described and let it simmer until everything gets really bubbling hot. Stir it several times while you are microwaving it. That should work, @grommet.

Since I got an inverter microwave I have been impressed with how it handles food. It is nothing like the old microwaves. I can use the lowest setting and it can soften candy that is too chewy. It is supposed to be able to soften butter without melting.

Stews and soups are my favorite foods. I have an electric stove and two non-stick fry pans. Maybe I would have to use them to prepare the beef but the inverter microwave could still work as a slow cooker though I do not think it could do at all what a crock pot could do.

Lately all I eat is green beans with potatoes or rice. Sometimes tofu with the green beans. The tofu has a lot of water and sometimes it comes out when I heat it and it makes a kind of broth for the beans. On my own I do not make any food that tastes good, it is pretty grim. My ex girlfriend used to cook for me, she made delicious food. I think she must have worked extremely hard to make it. That is the only time I had good tasting food. Now I just buy cases of green beans, bags of rice and cartons of tofu.

I remember when I used to socialize sometimes I would go over someone’s house and it would smell so good because they were cooking. I did not know how to cook but so many people seemed very good at it.

Thank you for trying to make something like the chili you mentioned. I cannot eat that but I do like very much slow cooked food.

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

One of my favourite and easiest meals is just a simple beef stew but it needs the proper winter vegetables, including turnip and parsnip. That’s easy this time of year, all the supermarkets sell Soup Starter Packs. The idea of these packs is that you’d use these vegetables to make stock and use that stock in all your soups and stews throughout the winter, but I just buy the packs for making stew.

And rutabagas. Gotta have rutabagas for a good beef stew.

I agree with the parsnips and turnips. Also carrots and onions. It's actually hard to find rutabagas in Florida, but occasionally they show up. We have not had cold enough weather consistently in several years, so no opportunity to cook stews.