Cooking for one

PasturesNew

It's nippier today than yesterday, 61F/16C indoors. Grey skies. Been to the launderette and things are drying on the line - with a big building site next door I can't do this in the week, so have to hope for "drying weather" for a whole weekend day! Should've remembered that yesterday and done it then....

Home it was tomato sandwich and coffee for breakfast - because there's a LOT of tomatoes to use up

I opened a pack of 2 scotch eggs yesterday and just opened the top then "tucked"/folded the flimsy plastic back under the 2nd egg, so I should eat that today. I've got four hard boiled eggs. I've a basics pizza that needs to be cooked too. And don't forget two "cheap deals" bags of spuds to get through, so maybe another 1Kg of spud salad should ideally be made.

Hard to get excited about that really. I like the food when I buy it and it's fine when you eat it the first time ... but that perpetual having to use it up, having to use the other half, having to use the other 3-4 pieces ... gets tiresome. Oh to have a life where food is mostly bought and consumed in one sitting ..... where "leftovers" means one tiny item once a week or so.

Farway

Early start today, no real reason except have a beard trim & get spruced up for today's egg hunt with the grandchildren, don't want to look too much like Granddad Trotter

Back to another banana + honey sandwich for breakfast, that will be the sum total of my CFO today because I'm out scoffing whatever my daughter's, she does a good spread, even if it is 100% vegetarian it is still tasty, and it will be at least 10/10 for my veg score today

All that is left for me to do is hang the washing out and sit back until my lift turns up

See you all later

PS PN Home it was tomato sandwich and coffee for breakfast - because there's a LOT of tomatoes to use up
Same here with bananas !!!

caronc

Morning everyone,

It's still cold here with max temperature forecast as 9C dropping to just above freezing tonight. Chuck in some toreential showers and it's not terribly pleasant:(.

Offspring have just departed to visit their Dad for the afternoon, so I'm going to start the food prep for tomorrow. The brisket is in the sous vide and I started a yeast "sponge" last night to make bread later. Curry all bar a spoonfool was scoffed last night so I'll have what's left either on toast or in a roll:o
Think I'm not CFO tonight but it will just me and younger son as elder son and his girlfriend are off to Glasgow to see old uni mates, no idea what we'll have yet:)

I'm looking forward to a houseful tomorrow but suspect I might be quite happy to be back to CFO from Monday....:)

meg72

kittie wrote: »

couples just don`t get it. The fact that singles have to do ALL the work by themselves. Not just the lifting and pushing but all the work that appears in the home, all the cleaning, gardening, maintenance, shopping, washing. I was asked to do some continual work in the village the other day, I was the person that came immediately to mind because `she was keen and helpful`, admin type coordinating work. Well I said no. I have reached my limit of what I do for anyone outside family. I do enough to pull my weight and more

A satisfying breakfast today, cheese on toast. I am going to have to do without a mid morning snack because breakfast was filling. Got to get a chop out for lunch and all veg are ready in the fridge, thats what I do when I can, get the veg ready and keep it in ziplocks or a special jar. Later, the end of the soup. In between, I`ll get my fill of berries etc and I`ll try to stay away from frozen cake. Had to make more cake as I have visitors but wasn`t going to waste oven space so the freezer is again replenished with brownies. Wish I hadn`t but good when I am prowling for a snack :cool:

What gets me is the presumption that you have all the time in the world as theres only you. Weeks ago a friend asked if I would turn you some trousers for her. Its not been mentioned since yesterday she rang to ask that I do them straight away because shes going on holiday and I am away for the week. Not at all pleased to have this extra job before I go away.

PasturesNew

It went like this, something many CFO can recognise:

Big bag of potatoes, so use some for potato salad. Used about 600 grams from a 1.5Kg bag.

Into that went: onions, herbs, salad cream....ah, salad cream - well, with it not being summer yet I've not yet bought my 2017 bottle... still got the 2016 bottle. On the basis I am not using any/much it had enough in it the other day, but as I already made potato salad yesterday it was nearly out - so I scraped the last bits of that out. Not quite enough salad cream really but it'll have to do - didn't have a "spare" in the cupboard as it's not yet the weather/time to buy the 2017 bottle yet (yes, 1 bottle/year max).

Boxed that up, it was 1.5 boxes.... so what's for lunch? Better eat some of that potato salad - that ½ box (180 grams) could be eaten in one go .... and what's going with it? Well, I've got a pack of cocktail sausages so I'll chop up 6 of those into it .... and what else? Well, that potato/sausage already looks like a big portion, so there's no point putting anything with it - and I've only got tomatoes anyway ...

So lunch was sausage & potato salad. Eaten with a teaspoon directly from the takeaway box I'd used to store it in the fridge.

This weekend I've fancied all sorts of food that I've not bought so not got in the house .... quiche would be nice, a deep/creamy one .... and a deep thick apple pie

moneyistooshorttomention

Well - as regards "all the time in the world" and, for instance, I can't afford a car if I wanted one.

So - living where I am now - that means that if I need a trip to the nearest "larger place" - then it's a case of = wait around for a once-an-hour bus and then spend over an hour sitting on it waiting for the journey to complete and the whole trip there takes me around 2 hours one way and another. If there was two of us - then a car could be afforded and I'd either drive it or get Him Indoors to drive it and we would set out the second I decided to go and just drive straight there and it would take about 30 minutes. So one round trip there = about 3 hours more than I'd take if "half of a couple" for that reason.

Me doing all the research for and supervision of my new kitchen involved days more of my time than if I'd only had 50% of the responsibility for that.

Back before retirement - the thought wouldnt have crossed my mind of doing things like taking in lodgers/doing overtime/doing sideline work. One full-time job on its own would have been quite sufficient to bring in my 50% share of the income to buy and run the house and have "pocket money" for myself. As a single person - I had to spend time doing all these other things that I would much rather have spent "doing what I want".

So - I'm not sure where this idea comes from that single people have more time:cool::think::huh:

[Deleted User]

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

So - I'm not sure where this idea comes from that single people have more time:cool::think::huh:

it comes from couples, most of whom are comfy in cloud cuckoo land, until they become singles

I am lucky, money, I have a car so can get about, for now. Buses here are at 2 hour intervals and 1/2 hour journey to go 5 miles one way or 6 the other and that is it. Both places are tiny and its hard to kill time in either. Bus sailed past me once, in one of those places and I had already killed a full hour, then had another two to kill, was awful. Haven`t used that bus since. Costs me 40p to park for an hour and 15 minutes to drive

You were brave re the kitchen, I know exactly as I also had to do mine. I was so lucky with the kitchen designer and the workmanship was A1 but getting big jobs done is still a scary prospect. I don`t think I am doing anything else, maybe my next home will be in a community, who knows, better to save my money, just in case. Who knows how long good health and independence lasts

CFO, its been good today, no picking and ate well. House smells of lamb chop, just tring to air it before visitors

PasturesNew

I wasn't hungry, but you go looking anyway don't you ... opened the fridge and the pizza was there. "Ah, that pizza will do ...and use up some of that potato salad ... and use up some of those tomatoes". Nothing else would really fit into that mix, not that I had many other choices...

So it was pizza. While that was cooking I cut up a few tomatoes and spooned out a couple of spoons of spud salad .... trouble was, once the pizza was cooked and I looked at it, I realised I'd only need 1/3rd of it as I'd got the potatoes/tomatoes on the plate and I'd be stuffed.

So that was my meal .... now I've got 2/3rds of a pizza to use up, 3 portions of potato salad to use up (and another 20 portions of potato something to cook from the raw potatoes in the cupboard) - and the tomatoes will still take about another week to get through .... oh, while you're thinking of these, don't forget you have 3 hard boiled eggs sitting in the fridge still (I ate one for breakfast this morning).... and a pot of sandwich filler that's not been opened yet ... oh - and those cocktail sausages (but they're easily frozen).

And I've still got 2 "ripen to eat" plums .... and a whole swede ... sitting on the worktop from about a month ago. Not touched/opened the crumpets I bought either, they might have to be frozen.

moneyistooshorttomention

kittie wrote: »

it comes from couples, most of whom are comfy in cloud cuckoo land, until they become singles

I am lucky, money, I have a car so can get about, for now. Buses here are at 2 hour intervals and 1/2 hour journey to go 5 miles one way or 6 the other and that is it. Both places are tiny and its hard to kill time in either. Bus sailed past me once, in one of those places and I had already killed a full hour, then had another two to kill, was awful. Haven`t used that bus since. Costs me 40p to park for an hour and 15 minutes to drive

You were brave re the kitchen, I know exactly as I also had to do mine. I was so lucky with the kitchen designer and the workmanship was A1 but getting big jobs done is still a scary prospect. I don`t think I am doing anything else, maybe my next home will be in a community, who knows, better to save my money, just in case. Who knows how long good health and independence lasts

It was a question of "needs must" re the kitchen I felt. I would have replaced the kitchen in most houses I'd bought - but the particular one this house had needed it more than a lot. It's part of why I got a firm to take on the whole job of getting it sorted - so they could have the hassle of booking/arranging the assorted workmen involved. I just discovered today a minor (un-related) thing has gone wrong in the house that wasnt wrong before it started:mad: and got in touch and been assured it will be sorted out. There's been 4 different firms employed by the overall kitchen firm in the course of this - 3 were fine and then there was the "other one" and it's their fault.

But....yes....it's something I'd much much rather not have had to do (or pay for:eek:). So I'm busily reminding myself of the benefits of having a new one, ie more worksurface/more storage space/much more "time and motion" conscious/higher tap/better draining board set-up/much more in keeping with my very modern tastes/etc/etc.

Your location is even more remote than mine - and I can sympathise - with the way I am having to find ways to get round the sort of problems that remoteness brings. It is a lot easier when the answer to any home-related problem (or pretty much any other problem) is "I'll just go out/stay out however long I need to and throw whatever money I have to at it = problem solved". So, for instance, I tend to head out of here in one particular direction to one particular "larger place" because it's a more attractive/shorter route to get there. But also because there is a halfway small location that feels more like "me" and has a few places someone like me can eat or stay the night at a bed and breakfast and so it's a little fallback type thought for me if I got stuck.

Re married women not understanding. Now, as a baby boomer, every single woman in "My Circle" went to university except me - and ended up marrying pretty much straight out of university. My Best Friend and A.N. Other Very Good Friend didn't do so - but married even younger. I can see a very visible difference all round - compared to myself. Though my two aforementioned friends do understand my position and the latter is now after tips on "how to be single" from me. So - those two friends do understand - but I do know exactly what you mean by most long-married women don't basically seem to have a clue as to how strong a single woman has to be (whether she likes it or no).

moneyistooshorttomention

Pastures

I made a resolution today to avoid the whole "gotta use those leftovers" syndrome once I can afford it.

I'm going to eat what I decide I will of whatever-it-is and I am not going to be guilt-tripped into using up the last little bit of it.

Can't afford to think like that yet - am still having to think of "What can I do with this next?" at the moment. But come the day.......

So - I bought a cauliflower today, for instance, and being single can't just think "Right that's a helping of cauliflower cheese or a helping of cauliflower rice - and that's that because the rest of the household ate the rest".

As a single - I'm having to think "Right = cauliflower cheese I actually want and then I'd better have some cauliflower rice and then there will still be a bit of it to use up somehow and so maybe it will be crudites (yet again). Mustn't forget that I don't like to waste the cauliflower leaves and so I roast them and have as part of mixed roasted vegetables".

Grand end total - and I'll probably end up eating that cauliflower 4-5 times in a row - rather than the once someone in a family household would......

So I am NOT going to feel guilty about "chucking the rest" once I can afford it. So there.....:rotfl: