Cooking for one

moneyistooshorttomention

The wok price -......ahem....are you sitting comfortably then I'll begin...

£50.

There were very few ceramic ones to choose from on Amazon and it was the only one with stainless steel base, rather than aluminium.

Thinks I see why I have a problem getting stainless steel saucepans with the coating I want - as I am guessing that stainless steel is dearer than aluminium. Hence one can get just ordinary saucepans with no coating easily enough in stainless steel (because we've read about aluminium....:cool:) - but where there is a coating between the metal and the food there is just the assumption "Oh it will never wear off....". Hence I crossed my fingers and hope the coating never wears off on the ceramic-coated frying pans (as I couldnt find stainless steel ceramic-coated ones at all as I recall).

OMG - you mentioned "dealing with officialdom" - and I'd temporarily forgotten I've got some of that to do today - one of my (current) local Councils. Is seriously not looking forward to it - because I know they might well be as deliberately awkward as they possibly can in the circumstances considering what it's about. I do sometimes contact another equivalent Council (usually my old one) about whatever-it-is to establish clearly in my own mind what "normal practice" is before contacting my current one - so that I know how things "should" go. You wouldnt believe some of the tales I could tell you about local Councils here LOL. Girds loins - and wonders whether to take a bit of "Rescue Remedy" before or after ringing them....

PasturesNew

Anne_Marie wrote: »

PN - Totally agree regarding frozen desserts, would be better if they were sliced at factory level. Do Iceland not do a variety box of individual desserts? There is something at the back of my mind about this. Perhaps it was only around Christmas time?

I think it's, in part, conditioning - because I stopped looking most of the time donkeys' years ago.

I don't shop at Iceland - they seem to rarely have a car park and I've rarely been living close to one and owned a freezer.

Then there's the issue of price and space. I have to keep the spends tight (so I can afford the choccies/crisps) .... so it's possible such things do exist above my buying price point.

I'm happy now I'm back on the Dre-Top .... as that's a nice cupboard solution.

We never had cream when I was growing up and, as an adult, it's "scared" me as I get "a bit grossed out by it", as my brain connects cream to the nasty stuff that lurked at the top of milk bottles when I was growing up.

So, I never, ever, buy it. And you can't go round spending good money on things that you MIGHT simply find disgusting and/or that ruin good food when you try them ... IYSWIM.

e.g. if I told you that snail sn0t was lovely .... you'd never buy it to go on your food as the thought of it's gross .... and you might ruin your dinner

So, often, it's easier for me to simply not buy some items.

moneyistooshorttomention

I'm glad I wasnt eating my breakfast when I read that PN:rotfl:

.....and now cue for someone coming on and saying "Actually - I've eaten snails or insects or the like - and you know what? It was really nice.....":p

PasturesNew

Today will be cheeseburger day
I've 3 big bread rolls in the freezer and 3 beefburgers with chilli/lime. So plenty of meals there!
I've a bag of red onions I bought last week and I've got cheddar and I've got chilli relish.

I've also got two big tomatoes to get through - I might cut one slice from one of those for it ... although I might not because once a tomato is cut it really needs using up in 1-2 days.

I do love a good cheeseburger
Yes, it'd be nice if it had a small lettuce leaf and a slice of tomato on it - like in photos of cheeseburgers .... but that's just not practical.

Hollyharvey

As the weather is cold, wet and miserable I am feeling that I want warming food today.


I had scrambled eggs on toast this morning, and then a slice of toast and jam.


Lunch has been another portion of the mince and onion pie that I bought yesterday, and I had it with some mashed potato, carrots and cauliflower/broccoli in a cheese sauce. I really enjoyed that. It made a nice change


I then had a sponge pudding with blueberry sauce and custard.


Tea will be a couple of crumpets with some butter and a bit of cheese.


I have got some apricots and flat peaches if I want anything else.


I'm still not sure what to do with the other 2 portions of the pie though. I think I will freeze one portion and have the remaining portion tomorrow with some chips and beans.


I'll think about this conundrum for a couple of hours

Anne_Marie_2

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

The wok price -......ahem....are you sitting comfortably then I'll begin...

£50.

Blooming heck! A lot of eye-watering there. You'd better use it!
I've had my 3 pans for a good few years now, although bought them individually. I think that mine are aluminium base....they don't stick to a magnet, whereas my stainless steel pans do. The pans still look great, and not a scratch. No idea what I paid for them now, but know they were not £50 each!

Hope that you got on better than my friend with the officialdom garbage. Left at 08:30 and just back at 15:30, ok we stopped for a bite to eat when we had finished with it all, but that was only about 30-40 mins. A lot of standing, which is no fun in this heat and we need this and that, and back and forth between different offices, which are of course not in the same building, or even street, so a case of driving round trying to find the right building, then the right office. Conflicting advice from different people.......aaaargh! We are all exhausted. Sitting with a cuppa now and just glad to be back home.

PN Totally get where you are coming from. I do splash out on something that I really like as a treat, with no qualms, but at the same time, I rarely buy crisps/chocolate or other nibbles. I really am more of a breakfast/lunch/dinner person with no snacking in between, apart from on a very rare occasion. I actually have dark chocolate in the fridge that I bought before Christmas....very possibly out of date by now, not that it would bother me if it looks okay. I do like a bit now and again, but it's not that often. Might all disappear next month when son-in-law is here...no might about it, it will disappear!:p

Thank you so much(?) for the comparison with snail snot....only you could come up with something like that! :rotfl:

PasturesNew

Although I can't use a hob .... I did buy a set of saucepans in case I do ever feel able/brave enough to do it (which I doubt). I picked up a set of 3 for about £10. I've used saucepans of this quality/price before, occasionally found (if you look hard enough) in supermarkets, a box with "3 for £10".... metal/shiny, glass lids. I've never ever had a problem with any cheap saucepans, so don't feel I've skimped by spending so little.

They're there, unused, packed away, for the theoretical day that I might use a hob .... but, I know deep inside, I won't ever use it.

Farway

The rain arrived as promised. Be careful what you wish for

Early bird this morning, jsut woke early, maybe the rain pounding down woke me?

Decided to have a bit of a more in depth poke around Iceland now I have a Bonus card, just in case I decide to bung a few quid on it, once I sus out exactly how. I know I can jsut hand over say a tenner and get it on the card, but how about if I just add say a tenner to my normal shop there? Douse it count as cash advance?

I would have tried that this morning but it was not "my" usual person on the till, so a task for another day

What I did find in Iceland were one pound beef pies down to 50p YS, grabbed two of them. One for dinner & one for freezer. Never had them before & TBH I am not expecting much from them at that price, but worth a punt at 50p

I had wanted FR eggs in there, 89p for 6. But empty shelf. Good job egg & chips is not on my meal list this week. No chips in Lidl, no eggs in Iceland. Must be a conspiracy, either Brexit, Putin, EU, North Korea or Trump

I did check the pint bottle shaped dried milk I had. Asda brand, and date expired 2005. It was a solid lump inside. One for the bin and a tad more cupboard space. Well there would have been more space if I had not spotted Frank Cooper marmalade in £land. a jar of that has filled that gap:o

No breakfast despite the early start

Lunch same cheese salad sarnie, very nice despite the repetition

Dinner will be the 50p beef pie, and given the change in the weather and current chip desert, I think mix up some instant mash plus frozen mixed veg, with granule gravy. Not one item made or prepared by me. Idle CFO s0d

moneyistooshorttomention

[QUOTE=Anne_Marie;72761567

Hope that you got on better than my friend with the officialdom garbage. Left at 08:30 and just back at 15:30, ok we stopped for a bite to eat when we had finished with it all, but that was only about 30-40 mins. A lot of standing, which is no fun in this heat and we need this and that, and back and forth between different offices, which are of course not in the same building, or even street, so a case of driving round trying to find the right building, then the right office. Conflicting advice from different people.......aaaargh! We are all exhausted. Sitting with a cuppa now and just glad to be back home.

[/QUOTE]

Whew - that was a lot of time and effort tied-up with officialdom.:eek:

Do I recall aright that you are living in Cyprus or the like? In which case - then I guess officialdom can be even more onerous than it is at its worst in this country?

I've been "officialdom" back before retiring - which has its advantages in understanding how they operate:cool:. First rule of British "officialdom" is "Thou shalt protect thy own back". Second rule the same and so on....and they do like proper trails and rules they can quote etc.

So - I'd done my research in advance. Worked out their possible objections and answers to them to prove there was no reasonable grounds for objections and "The way other Councils operate is etc etc".

When you've got the Councils I have to deal with now - then you soon find out there are ways in which they won't operate very logically and work out in advance how to get round that:cool:. So I took the approach of "This is what I'm doing/it's what other Councils do/etc/etc and this is what I require from you" suitably phrased.

Despite all the research and working out how to get round how illogical this particular Council often is - I was still surprised when I told them what they would be doing to have the official at the end of the phone just "keel straight over" and agree with me and that's that = sorted:D

*******

and...on the food front...yep it's been yer archetypal singles meal for lunch today:
- green salad = repeated
- marinated sauted (in just tiniest little bit of spray oil - courtesy of ceramic-coated saucepans now) aubergine = repeated
- mashed avocado = repeated
- some of that Norwegian Mountain Bread (which I shan't be repeating actually - as it wasnt great) = repeated
- bit of fruit and vegetable smoothie = repeated

One lunch = 5 repeats:(.

Think I shall investigate making a chocolate orange snack thing in a minute - which must be downright healthy - considering the particular cookbook it's in:rotfl:

PasturesNew

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

... illogical ... Council

They should be called pubic servants ... because they're so close to being 4rseholes, it's closer to being correct.