Cooking for one

moneyistooshorttomention

A hunk of nice and freshly-made bread here for me along those lines - I'm thinking something like sourdough and multi-grain.

It's surprising just how difficult it is still to buy good bread - though I suppose difficult is one step up from the way it was a few years ago (ie utterly impossible).

That reminds me - the Tassajara Bread Book (of which I have had a copy for many years). Must look it out - as the nicest bread I've ever had was a recipe I made myself from there. It did take 2 kneadings and quite some hours as I recall.....

Farway

caronc wrote: »

Dinner plans changed a wee bit as a realised I had green beans (yum) to use up and I hit CBA mode re making onion gravy so granules it was:) was still blooming tasty:D

Blimey, call me lazy but I have never made gravy from anything but granules, is it me?

In my defence my mum jsut used 1 Oxo cube & hot water for gravy, so that was what I thought gravy was until I joind the Navy

But granules work, as does instant custard

mcculloch29

Farway wrote: »

Blimey, call me lazy but I have never made gravy from anything but granules, is it me?

In my defence my mum jsut used 1 Oxo cube & hot water for gravy, so that was what I thought gravy was until I joind the Navy

But granules work, as does instant custard

Gosh, you were lucky, in some respects. My mum was Estonian and a whiz with her native recipes but gravy was one thing she didn't do well, along with most meat. Her gravy was basically white sauce made with water and coloured with gravy browning. She would cook meat to death in this. All meat had to be very well done. Chops and liver were always boiled in gravy.
I had long left home before I realised how meat should taste and that it could taste good. For the last thirty-something years I have had my lamb very pink and my steaks blue, I love steak tartare and carpaccio of beef.

Not wishing to follow my Mum's example, until gravy granules were invented, Oxo in hot water did for me as well, ironically. Now it's granules all the way. I don't bother with deglazing the roasting pan, etc - I know, but it suits me.

I have never used instant custard though. I have used custard powder to make a sweet and sour sauce when I'd run out of cornflour, however. Worked a treat and nobody knew.

PasturesNew

I cooked up 6 more of the A1d1 spuds - just four left in the green bag now, but I didn't eat all six, so I've got a pot of cold potatoes in the fridge.

Topped with a hot/crunchy tuna topping with a whole chilli I'd frozen and some of the red onions I'd sliced/frozen after Xmas and a bit shake of cayenne.

[Deleted User]

greenbee wrote: »

That's the important thing - being able to still eat reasonably well when you CBA and there is no one else to do it for you or for you to feel it worth making the effort for.

thats summed it up for me. We all know about at least five a day, saturated fats etc etc but actually living along those lines isn`t easy. Today I used up 2 sausages one slice of black pudding one tomato and one egg, at lunchtime. Making freezer space

Later I felt like a rabbit munching on greens. I had a good amount of salad leaves all ready but did not fancy them at all in a meal, so at 4 I ate every last one of them. They felt endless and I didn`t like the peppery one but at least I got them down. A few minutes ago I had a pud, meringue, frozen strawberries (defrosted) and a dollop of my ice cream. Two meringues left. I`ll probably have a piece of sd soon with peanut butter and that will be the end of eating today

Tomorrow I`ll have a rice/tofu/veg meal set on a timer for evening as I`ll be out all day, then the next day will be the last of my hm ready meals, a nice mutton casserole. I don`t know what I would do without my freezer tbh or my rice cooker

Its ended up a busy but satisfying day. I think I deserve a glass of wine in a mo, my 4 year old hm elderberry. I have given wine making up, its a shame but thats life, nevertheless I can buy good organic wine in the county, just bought a bottle of tayberry which I will leave for a while to mature

caronc

Good evening everyone,

I feel as though I've spent most of today trying (so far unsuccessfully) resolve a banking issue (the bank's error) for a voluntary group I support talk about :mad: still eventually they realised I was not going to be fobbed off and it's been escalated

Crumpets, muffins, scones, bread love them all much prefer to sweet cakes

Farway - I do mainly use gravy granules unless having a roast unless I'm making onion gravy where I prefer the real mccoy, that said if I've no frozen beef stock I'll happily use a cube for the stock element

Foodwise I had toast and cottage cheese for breakfast, chicken, pickles, salad and crackers for lunch and I've just had a pear.:) Pasta I think tonight either with a portion of ragu from the freezer or a creamy mushroom and spinach I'll decide in a bit:)

PasturesNew

I went out on an errand ....you know how this will end ....

I'd paid £1 to park for 2 hours so I was DETERMINED to get my 2 hours' worth - and wandered aimlessly around town and I ventured into Waitrose - picked up a basket, but I wasn't buying ... I just wanted to see "how the other half live". It didn't look that different/exciting ... just the price tags were a lot bigger

Left there with nothing.

Then I popped into £land for something specific, that they were out of stock of - so I left with a bag of my favourite sweeties.

Into A1d1 ... just to see if they had any bread rolls reduced - well, they didn't, but they did have some 30% off muffins and crumpets (both best by today), so I had those anyway, for the freezer. Looked in the ready meals section for reductions, nothing - but then spotted they have a "new" Chinese chicken curry/rice, so I thought I'd try it - you never know, it might be good .... and a pack of 3 chocolate trifles (unusual purchase for me, but I was in gung ho mode by then).

Bought a loaf of bread and 10 eggs and a pint of milk - not sure why I bought the milk, now I'll have to get through it! But I did pick the longest-date one, some on the shelf said 23 April, but the one I picked was 29 April. I figured over 9 days I stand a chance of using it up.

I didn't intend to have the chicken curry for tea - I'd already planned to use up more of the cocktail sausages in the fridge, the final 1/3rd of a can of beans and 3 spuds from this morning's 'cooking'. I put the ready meal in the fridge, shut the door, put the crumpets in the freezer, opened the fridge door, grabbed the curry, pierced it, chucked it into the microwave and got it going, walked away and thought DOH ... that was tomorrow's dinner, I was supposed to have the sausages/spuds/beans.

Oh well .....

If you see those curries .... don't bother. Rice bland/disappointing and small portion; curry sauce pleasant/passable; chicken was a bit 'nasty' - no gristle, but it had a strange texture that made you think you were about to discover gristle in the next mouthful. I won't bother again, I can make better/cheaper myself.

caronc

PN - sounds as though it was "reformed" chicken pieces which IMHO have a really odd texture

I ended up with a "use it up" pasta concoction of some wrinkly mushrooms, chopped green beans, frozen spinach and garlic cooked in a knob of butter with a splash of cream, a ladle of the pasta water and lots of pepper served over spaghetti with some grated parmesan. It was lovely though one of these put togethers that you never quite manage to replicate

PasturesNew

caronc wrote: »

PN - sounds as though it was "reformed" chicken pieces which IMHO have a really odd texture

Yes, I think they're "too dense", so aren't a pleasant bite.

Tiddlywinks

You lot.... I've had a craving for crumpets for days now from reading all your posts. Bought some today and they're all gone already.

Brunch, lunch and then dinner... now I'll have to go out tomorrow to get some more for the weekend. The power of suggestion eh?

CaronC - I am a queen of gadgets but I bought something really useful recently for prepping single portion pasta.

I did used to use a microwave steamer to cook pasta but then a friend bought me a Joseph Joseph container after I burnt myself juggling the steamer.

This is brilliant because you just tip it up and it drains and is much safer for me on the co-ordination front.

Joseph Joseph Pasta