Duggar World Tour

[donks]

Most people I know don't put alcohol in theirs. Normal trifle is jelly with fruit or sponge sticks, cold custard and dream topping.

Oh. Well that's not nearly as fun to imagine them eating. *soopersadface*

[Triplet3]

Most people I know don't put alcohol in theirs. Normal trifle is jelly with fruit or sponge sticks, cold custard and dream topping.

All the trifles I've ever come across have had whipped cream on top, not dream topping. And likewise, I've never encountered a trifle without sponges in the jelly and fruit. I've seen recipes for versions without the jelly, but never without the sponge.

Sherry trifle is reasonably common as far as I'm aware. We don't put sherry in it in my family, but only because my mum doesn't like it - and sometimes we put in some relevant fruit liqueur instead, such as cointreau.

[Triplet3]

I got the feeling that the pub menu was a "fun" thing that was deliberately filled with unfamiliar items with strange (unAmerican) names. Surely a pub would have things like stew, shepherd's pie, meat pies, ice cream, cake etc. but that wouldn't have caused all the confusion would it?

With the inclusion of bubble and squeak and bangers and mash, spotted dick was probably included in their "quaint" menu, but totally vetoed by either the Duggars or their production team.

Did you get to see the menus? I suppose it's possible that there were things like stew and meat pies on offer (they're standard pub fare, after all), but it was the unfamiliar names that caught the Duggars' attention.

[IReallyAmHopewell]

Bet that tea wasn't sweet tea...

Course not! I'm a Yankee!

[yetanothermeg]

I can't stand marmite either. Allyisyourpally is right - you definitely either love it or hate it. Going on your description of popovers, Yorkshire pudding is different. It's basically a savoury batter made of flour, egg, milk, seasoning and sometimes juices from the roast meat it accompanies, baked in the oven either in one big tin or in separate muffin tins. It's served as part of a traditional Sunday roast dinner (if the meat is beef or lamb), and in some cases is still served before the main course, as it always was in the past. The original idea was that the Yorkshire pudding would help fill up hungry farmers/labourers before they got to the meat course, meat being much more expensive.

Ha, ha, this reminds me of when my husband and I were first dating (we were living in England). He asked for marmite on his toast. I had never seen or tasted marmite before so I slathered it on nice and thick, just like I like peanut butter on toast. The poor guy tried to eat it until tears were streaming down his face. Yeah, with marmite, a little tiny bit goes a long way.

[emmiedahl]

I have made Yorkshire pudding. The batter is similar to popover or dutch baby batter, but you put it in a pig pan and then stick that below the roasting meat. All the drippings fall in and kind of "fry" the top--it's very yummy.

I don't know if the Duggars would even know what shepherd's pie is. It is a favorite at my house, but I have met people who have never heard of it.

I make trifles with any kind of cake, layered with fruit and vanilla custard, usually topped with whipped cream. But I am American.

[MrsYoungie]

Did you get to see the menus? I suppose it's possible that there were things like stew and meat pies on offer (they're standard pub fare, after all), but it was the unfamiliar names that caught the Duggars' attention.

I didn't see an actual paper printed menu, but I was refering to the chalk board menu that none of them could even pronounce correctly. All of the chalk written items were things I would consider specialty items for the tourist trade.

[Triplet3]

I didn't see an actual paper printed menu, but I was refering to the chalk board menu that none of them could even pronounce correctly. All of the chalk written items were things I would consider specialty items for the tourist trade.

Oh, ok. Fair enough, though I wouldn't consider things like fish and chips, toad in the hole or bangers and mash to be speciality tourist food. They're all reasonably common pub dishes, albeit usually with pies, burgers, steaks, salads, curries etc. offered too. You could be right though. Sausages and mash isn't usually called 'bangers and mash' all that often nowadays.

I wonder if the pub they went to is on this list? http://www.pubfoodguide.co.uk/

[emmiedahl]

The same goes for how many loads of laundry they do, how much they eat, etc. They're thrice the size of my family (well, plus 1), but they do 10 times as many loads of laundry as we do. I could understand them doing four or five times as much, as they have small children, but 10 times?! My family's also never had any problems fitting a weekly shopping trip into one grocery cart, and it's never even full. They use, what, six? I can't help feeling like they might be a little wasteful in some way, because they seem to consume way more resources than I would expect merely given the family size.

We always get to the airport 2 hours before the flight. You never know what will happen at SeaTac--sometimes we sail through and have a ton of spare time, and then other times I have waited in the security line for almost an hour.

I was looking at the stats given in this article: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/20134584/ ... -all-them/

The family grocery bill is $2,000 a month. Transportation is provided by nine vehicles, including a 21-passenger bus. To get through a week requires 63 loads of laundry, six gallons of milk, 15 dozen eggs, 12 boxes of cereal and 12 rolls of toilet paper.

The Duggars' household is 21 people, right? The youngest 18 kids, plus the parents and Grandma. That is three times the size of my household. I do 3 loads of laundry per day during weekdays, and then on weekends I wash towels and bedding. So, about 20 loads per week, but that is with cloth diapers. Their grocery bill is five times mine, and food is cheaper in Arkansas. There is no reason that they could not eat a lot better. I'm also surprised that they use so many eggs, and so little milk. We go through about 2 dozen eggs and 5 gallons of milk every week. Our groceries fit in a basket, so I could see 3 baskets for them... but six?

I think they assume that we cannot add or multiply and just make the statistics as crazy as possible.

[annalena]

Um. It takes us about 6 rolls of toilet paper to go through a week with only 2 people. I know I am quite the excessive user, but 12 rolls a week for 21 people?

[emmiedahl]

We use about 4-5 for 7 people. You must really love your toilet paper! I do buy double or triple rolls. :)

[PennySycamore]

I can't stand marmite either. Allyisyourpally is right - you definitely either love it or hate it. Going on your description of popovers, Yorkshire pudding is different. It's basically a savoury batter made of flour, egg, milk, seasoning and sometimes juices from the roast meat it accompanies, baked in the oven either in one big tin or in separate muffin tins. It's served as part of a traditional Sunday roast dinner (if the meat is beef or lamb), and in some cases is still served before the main course, as it always was in the past. The original idea was that the Yorkshire pudding would help fill up hungry farmers/labourers before they got to the meat course, meat being much more expensive.

Yorkshire pudding is one of the few foods I really miss as a vegetarian. The batter is basically popover batter, but the juices from the roast give that extra deliciousness that popovers lack. If you make roast beef and Yorkshire pudding the way that my grandmother-in-law does and you pour the batter around the roast, the pudding at the edge of the pan is light and puffy while innermost pudding is very moist and and heavier. I liked it all, but the different sections have their fans. Of course, you pour gravy over the pudding just as you do the meat and potatoes.

ETA: My mother-in-law's trifle always has sherry in it. Apparently if you eat enough of her trifle you can get fairly tiddly. Someone asked about the name of the pub. I think it was The Wheatsheaf Inn, but I could be wrong. I doubt it was the same Wheatsheaf Inn where James and Helen Herriot honeymooned. That was up in the Yorkshire Dales.

[PBrooke]

Um. It takes us about 6 rolls of toilet paper to go through a week with only 2 people. I know I am quite the excessive user, but 12 rolls a week for 21 people?

Hmm. My family of two has gone through about one and half (double) rolls this week - and that's with me having, um, a stomach flu.

[Sola]

We always get to the airport 2 hours before the flight. You never know what will happen at SeaTac--sometimes we sail through and have a ton of spare time, and then other times I have waited in the security line for almost an hour.

I was looking at the stats given in this article: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/20134584/ ... -all-them/

The Duggars' household is 21 people, right? The youngest 18 kids, plus the parents and Grandma. That is three times the size of my household. I do 3 loads of laundry per day during weekdays, and then on weekends I wash towels and bedding. So, about 20 loads per week, but that is with cloth diapers. Their grocery bill is five times mine, and food is cheaper in Arkansas. There is no reason that they could not eat a lot better. I'm also surprised that they use so many eggs, and so little milk. We go through about 2 dozen eggs and 5 gallons of milk every week. Our groceries fit in a basket, so I could see 3 baskets for them... but six?

I think they assume that we cannot add or multiply and just make the statistics as crazy as possible.

I find that strange too. The milk; 6 gallons, that's about 50 pints isn't it? I buy four 6 pint cartons a week for our family of 4. Sometimes we run out the day before we go shopping and I have to buy another 4 pint carton. With the toilet rolls; 12 rolls? Really? We use at least one a day. As for laundry I do a similar amount to you emmie - I have muck magnets for kids who both wont wear anything two days running. How do they do so little laundry, even if they wear the same clothes 2 days running?

[annalena]

We use about 4-5 for 7 people. You must really love your toilet paper! I do buy double or triple rolls. :)

Haha, I like to say I am hygienic. My boyfriend makes fun of me all the time. I also use it for sneezing my nose thought and I almost always have a slight cold, my boyfriend loves to use it for cleaning for whatever reason. :roll:

[Aurora]

Yorkshire pudding is one of the few foods I really miss as a vegetarian. The batter is basically popover batter, but the juices from the roast give that extra deliciousness that popovers lack. If you make roast beef and Yorkshire pudding the way that my grandmother-in-law does and you pour the batter around the roast, the pudding at the edge of the pan is light and puffy while innermost pudding is very moist and and heavier. I liked it all, but the different sections have their fans. Of course, you pour gravy over the pudding just as you do the meat and potatoes.

Oh, man, getting hungry now!

[Renting with Raggles]

I'm afraid to find this episode. I don't really understand people who are that incurious about the world they live in that they were blown away by pretty common food items from a culture similar to their own.

How does Anna expect to homeschool with an attitude like that? I get that they couldn't go to places like art galleries (the 2-dimensional 14th century Madonna's boob might defraud the boys) or science museums (people didn't walk with dinosaurs!) but there are so many sites of historical/ cultural interest in the UK that they could have seen other than a stupid hat shop and a pseudo-pub. Someone suggested the Imperial War Museum somewhere and that would be a great place to start - not like Brits weren't on the right side or anything in the First/ Second World War.

I would have thought that food was one thing that a homeschooling momma (I mean the crappy SOTDRT variety) could use to reinforce lessons in geography. So simple to look up online and make for small children.

[Aurora]

*holds up sheepish hand*

I had no idea what bubble and squeak was, or bangers and mash or puds. However, I do know how to pronounce Thames, and I've read a lot, including much of English childrens' literature (so much that I grew up using words/phrases that I realized years later were English and I'd never heard a regular American use). Just not, I guess, about English food. Mostly just pudding and biscuits and fish & chips and something about marmite. And things in tins.

AD, I doubt you would have considered different side of road = wrong side of road, and in the pub I doubt you would have been so obvious about your ignorance of the food or acted so relieved when it arrived and was actually normal people food! :lol: All of us have been ignorant and politely hidden it, it's another thing to rudely and loudly display it...

[donks]

Watching them on tv last night made me embarrassed to be an American-and a Southern American at that.

I apologize to all of you from Scotland, Ireland and England. We are not all huge braying jackasses like these hillbillies.

If I am ever lucky enough to visit your beautiful countries I won't:

come to your countries without picking up a book and doing a little research first

allow my (single) child to wreak any kind of havoc

endanger you all by driving like a maniac on your roads

insult your foods

be polite if allowed privileges such as going inside the stones at Stonehenge, or participating at events such as Highland Games

OH! and my husband said he would happily don a kilt :D

[emmiedahl]

I apologize to the Europeans as well. If one does not know what something is, one can politely ask the waitress. I am sure wait staff in popular tourist areas can easily explain the contents of a trifle to an American. I have interacted with people from other countries in the US and they are always very polite about asking for explanations of foods and idiomatic terms. JHC, it's so rude to imply that your culture is the norm and everyone else is "weird".

The Duggars are not average Americans. If they came to my house just a few states away, they probably would have trouble pronouncing some of the foods we eat.

[donks]

"it's so rude to imply that your culture is the norm and everyone else is "weird""

That, totally. Jim Boob is an arrogant twat.

[Feberin]

Did anyone notice how Anna was holding both kids (the baby strapped to her), while pushing an enormous luggage cart at the airport? There must have been 6-7 bags! Smugger was no where to be seen!! :evil:

I noticed another point where she was pushing a double stroller full of kids including either I think Jennifer and wearing Mack. Once again no Joshie. Poor girl is the pack mule in the family. Makes me feel sorry for her then she opens her mouth about normal food and I stop.

When I took a trip in high school to England (and France and Scotland) we studied the types of foods there would be before the trip. We even all had to take a turn bringing something in so we could try them before the trip. You would think this home schooling family would really study where they were going before they departed. I know that even though we plan to do public school if (hopefully) at some point we can go on a big trip overseas we'll learn all about the places we're going before we go because you get so much more out of a trip when you already know about the signifigance of things, what to expect and some of the language/slang.

[dawn]

We use 4, sometimes 5 triple rolls a week for 2 adults and 2 preschoolers, and we're away half the day. 2 triple rolls is what I need for myself on an average week. Eggs about a 1 dozen/week, milk 1 gallon/week (my kids don't like milk, but they do eat a lot of yogurt). Laundry ... 5 loads. I do bedding every other week (once a week for the kids), towels when we're about to run out and we wear the same cloths 2-3 times before washing.

[EmmieJ]

The family grocery bill is $2,000 a month. Transportation is provided by nine vehicles, including a 21-passenger bus. To get through a week requires 63 loads of laundry, six gallons of milk, 15 dozen eggs, 12 boxes of cereal and 12 rolls of toilet paper.

I do think that the "stats" shown are at least 50% made up by the producers to add interest. Looking at the above, 6 gallons of milk per week sounds low to me, since my one son easily drinks a gallon of milk per week by himself. Don't know about the 15 dozen eggs - do they supposedly make eggs every day for breakfast? That might explain it. I use eggs for baking and make eggs for breakfast just once a week, on Sundays. A box of cereal lasts in my house a long time, because toast is our preferred daily breakfast. Cereal is more expensive than bread, plus I think a piece of whole wheat toast with peanut butter is probably a better breakfast for my son than most cereal options.

Boob and his wife annoy me no end. I can't wait for the day their show is not renewed.

[Swamptribe]

I think he'll have been quoting from the Ray Comfort School of Evangelism™ script. There's a conservative estimate 9 sextillion stars in our universe, your odds don't look so huge now Dimbulb.

Wonder if the special is on Youtube yet.

Ya know, they have discovered bunches of extrasolar planets. Mars is also in the 'sweet spot' and scientists have discovered Mars has liquid water. Go figure.