Jane Mulberry

It's the best thing I've found for removing limescale in the flush toilet.

Hi Kayleigh! I don't know much about building permits, as we bought a property with an old house already on it. Though this isn't official, I've been told that one can often get away with building something else low-key on the land if there's a house already on the cadastral map for the property,

As you may have already found out, it seems in Bulgaria there are two sets of rules, the official what-the-EU-says rules and the local rules that actually get enforced. Have you had an informal chat with someone at the kmetsvo to find out what might be okay, even if it's not quite a match with the EU rules?  Our village seems very relaxed about these things!

We're counting down the days till I qualify for my D visa and we can move!

Deedee, I think the airfryers used by others in the thread were the oven type. I imagine it would be more challenging in a multi-cooker like yours. I did an online search -- it turns up a lot of bakers with the same issue, and the answer given is usually either turning the loaf over, covering with foil for part of the cooking time, or both!

Darci Larsen wrote:
I’m new to this place and this, this here, is why I’m so happy I found y’all. I have NEVER heard this anywhere else, I can’t wait to try it out this summer.

Welcome, Darci! This is a great place for learning new stuff!

Jesse Glessner wrote:

Hello Jane:  I ran across this TWO Ingredient recipe recently and tried it and it worked great! It isn't exactly 'bread' in the sense of a 'loaf of bread' - it is Biscuits!

Thanks, Jesse! Yes, I had thought about trying something similar. I will give it a try.

Tereza Okava wrote:
Jane, I have a 25L one, it's several years old and out of production (and filthy as all heck) but I love it. It fits a boule (on a pan with a stainless steel bowl over it), or a bundt pan, a large round cake pan, or a rectangular baking pan for a smallish cake (I bought a baking pan that was just the right size to fit on the tracks that hold the racks up).

Ah, that's great, thank you so much, Tereza! There are very similar ones being made still, and selling for a price that's in our budget. Knowing the size is helpful. I also want to find one with the ferment and dehydrate settings, that will allow a temp of 30C, which I don't think these ones do. But knowing the  size and wattage that work for you is very useful!

Josh, Thanks for your suggestion. The Ninja Foodie looks a wonderful device! It is probably bigger than we can accommodate. Also I wanted one with a ferment setting for proofing bread and yoghurt making, and I don't think that does.

Tereza Okava wrote: a few years ago I got myself an air fryer oven, which (wouldn't you know) turns out to make really good sourdough. I revived my starter recently to get back into the groove. Maybe consider encouraging people to try other baking options? In the meantime, most of the bread we have been making was steamed (Chinese buns) or cooked in a plan (turkish flatbread, etc), and occasionally even in the rice cooker.

Tereza, would you share what type of air fryer you're using? My biggest block to baking bread again is that where we currently live in the UK has a tiny kitchen with an unreliable oven.  

That, a husband on the autistic spectrum who hates the mess baking can create, plus only having about 1 square foot of spare counter space makes baking bread a huge challenge.

Annie, I don't know the answer to your question, but I suspect the cost would be in the $thousands for a device capable of producing high wattage and it would require a huge amount of heat input.

The little PowerPot I bought is claimed to produce 5W at peak performance, but will be probably nearer 2W in real life use.  Thomas said he was looking at a 100W TEG with a $700 price tag.

So it's probably possible to do what you want but may not be affordable or practical. I'd love to know if it can be done!

We have only a bath in our UK house. In previous houses a long soak in the bath was a delight but here, we have a chilly bathroom, a very small hot water system and no insulation surrounding the bath. A bath in winter is an ordeal and done as fast as possible!  Also, our water here is heavily treated with chlorammonation, not what I want to be marinating in!

The Bulgarian house now has a shower and a generous hot water system, but is also chilly when the weather is cold. That should improve once we live there and the woodstove in the adjoining room is in use. But for now, showering in cooler weather isn't much fun. We do have a chair in the shower to sit on, as we both have  balance issues. While we didn't have a shower there, and even now we do, a sponge bath can be far more pleasant. It's lovely in summer to come in after working in the garden and sponge down then sit soaking my feet in a washbowl.

We'll also set up an outdoor shower there, it's on my list for this year. Though a sponge wash in a bowl is great for not wasting any water at all and I can collect some of the water from the indoor shower for the very dry garden, an outdoor shower will let us make better use of the water.

That's HUGE, Amy, so important! I need to do the same at our Bulgarian house.