Cooking for one

Winchelsea

I always write a sticky label and put it on the box or bag of whatever I'm freezing, so very rarely do I have Unidentifued Objects. Shame! I'm missing out on some fun I can see!
Just had a very late lunch, so that may well do me for the day - I will see!

I don't do Sunday Dinner when it's just me, but what I had was very tasty and very cheap and cheerful - a big helping of stir fried veg with a 34p can of sardines stirred in at the end, served with rice.
I usually include plenty of bean sprouts, which I grow myself on the kitchen windowsill. Lots of other veg too - including a bit of chopped up Wonky cabbage from Morries!
Followed by a choc ice (the 8 for £1 ones that most supermarkets have in their freezer cabinets - and very nice too!)

PasturesNew

monnagran wrote: »

Thanks for that PN. Don't you ever go to bed?

x

No. I've a life-long sleep problem. I can't sleep until late, I often wake up in the middle of the night, or get up early (3.30am Thursday morning I think) ...

PasturesNew

karcher wrote: »

I burnt my pizza last night too ..I got side tracked watching something on telly. Was really annoyed with myself.

I can't leave the kitchen while anything is cooking in an oven, under a grill, or on a stovetop. I HAVE to stand there and watch, wait .... daren't leave the room as it brings on phobias that the whole room's caught fire the moment my back was turned.

Out of sight, out of mind - that's how I am. I am a uni-tasker, so if I did anything else I'd forget I was cooking. If I DO have to leave the room, I only allow myself to do so if I repeatedly speak out loud "cooking the pie... cooking the pie ... cooking the pie...." incessantly until I've gone back into the kitchen. I have to do that so I don't forget

Toaster ovens are good as they're like a microwave and you turn a timer that pings ... and as you have to do that to turn them on, it's not an extra step, it's foolproof.

I know somebody who forgot a small chicken in the oven for 5 hours.

I think this is another "vote against" me and cooking - other people feel able to leave the kitchen while something's cooking, I can't. Luckily, I DO feel safe leaving a SC or microwave or kettle unattended.

karcher wrote: »

I'm not that keen on filo pastry but persevered and used half to make some spinach and goats cheese filo parcels. They were nice but filo pastry does always seem a chore to eat.

To get rid of it easily .... if you've anything that could make a pie, e.g. some mince/veg, then just butter the filo then run a knife down the sheets so it's in strips ... toss it around a bit and plonk it loosely onto the top of the mince. Voila, a pie lid and it's gone.

Most filo recipes are a faff of folding, filling, tweaking, arranging... this way's just "rip it up and toss it about".

moneyistooshorttomention

PN - couldnt you take a kitchen timer round with you if you go in another room whilst something is cooking in the kitchen.

If it goes off - then you know it's time to stop cooking whatever-it-is.

I do that - particularly if I'm doing something like making bread for instance. I set the timer for when the dough has finished rising. Then set it again for when its finished cooking.

PasturesNew

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

PN - couldnt you take a kitchen timer round with you if you go in another room whilst something is cooking in the kitchen.

If it goes off - then you know it's time to stop cooking whatever-it-is.

I do that - particularly if I'm doing something like making bread for instance. I set the timer for when the dough has finished rising. Then set it again for when its finished cooking.

No. I'd have to remember it.... I'm a unitasker...

Anyway - I can't leave the room. It's not that I might forget to return, the primary problem is I can't leave the room while something is on. I don't leave the room, except for a quick dash to grab my mug or something...

PasturesNew

I've been out today and returned with a bit of a mega-haul. Lots of treats and some stock-up items.... it didn't start out like that, but then I saw stuff and thought "why not..."

I've got: tin of fruit, 350g chocolate fingers, bag of chocolate buttons, mini marshmallows (for drinking choc), a tin of rice pudding, 24 packs of crisps (Lidl, just 99p for them), 2 boxes of cheese triangles, 6 cans of my favourite fizzy pop, 10 buffet-sized sausage rolls, crumpets, bread, 10 eggs ... and the big item: a bagged "indian meal for two"

Already scoffed a packet of crisps, all the sausage rolls and one of the indian meals

karcher

PN I've got an open plan kitchen/living room which makes burning the pizza even more embarrassing

In my defence I used to have a gas oven which was very ineffective so took ages to cook stuff.

Since moving I now have an electric fan oven which I am yet to judge properly as it is super efficient and [STRIKE]cooks[/STRIKE] burns things seemingly in minutes :eek: :rotfl:

PasturesNew

karcher wrote: »

PN I've got an open plan kitchen/living room which makes burning the pizza even more embarrassing

In my defence I used to have a gas oven which was very ineffective so took ages to cook stuff.

Since moving I now have an electric fan oven which I am yet to judge properly as it is super efficient and [STRIKE]cooks[/STRIKE] burns things seemingly in minutes

Where I rented, before I moved here, I could use the oven (just not the hob as it had those solid black round slabs as rings, which scare me) ... and the oven had a window... so I could sit on the sofa and watch pizza cook.

I could use that one as it was almost brand new, and immaculately clean (I can't be the first person to use an oven as I hate that whole "burning off" thing you have to do first time, to rid it of residues and it might smoke and stink) ... and, ultimately, if anything went wrong and it all burnt down, I was renting, so could just find somewhere else to live. Different ball game when you own somewhere

Also, when cooking, I prefer to have the back door unlocked - open if it's daytime .. somewhere to run to if there's an emergency.... here, I've no back door, which I hate....

For fan ovens, you should always reduce the temperature by at least 10C from regular oven temperatures provided - and, if it's modern/not cheapo, then it will get up to temperature quicker, so will then cook it quicker.

There are no instructions for cooking with my mini oven, so I write everything down. Each time I cook the same item again I find the notes I made which tell me: which shelf setting, oven setting, whether I put it onto foil on the shelf or in the baking tray and how many minutes I did it for. I'm now at the stage where I can quite often guess it right.

But, I still don't twist the timer all the way round - e.g. where my FB Pie said "25-30 minutes", I set it for 10 minutes, then 10 minutes, then 5 minutes. I am scared to have appliances on for longer than a few minutes at a time so this is my work around.

caronc

I'm back:) goodness that was a challege/intersting way to spend a Sunday afternoon .....
Only one UFO - think it might have been grated parmesan LOL

Not a huge amount ditched:- some very old egg whites, ham stock (Jan 2014), a bag of sliced home grown) courgettes (Summer 2015) and a bag of cranberries which I think I bought to make cranberry vodka many moons ago.

Some pleasant surprises too:- a sirloin steak which is handy as I already had one in my other freezer but was going to buy another to make a steak dinner when my son's home next weekend and a wee ramekin of trout pate which I'll have tomorrow.

Just need to type up my lists (I'm not going to need to buy pitta bread for a while.....) and pin them to freezer - I now have approx 1/2 a shelf free which means I can flat freeze bags instead of dealing with the odd shapes from cramming them in:eek:
Loving the tales of freezer surprises they add an intersting twist to mealtimes LOL

Winchelsea - thanks for the tips. After the lentil soup incident I'm generally pretty good at remembering to label stuff. Unfortunately my son who was at home until a few months ago wasn't quite as diligent:mad:

Karcher - fan ovens do take a bit of getting used, I really struggled with mine at first but now struggle with the non-fan ones

PN - I'm a bit like that with my pressure cooker have to stay in the kitchen with it. The "modern" ones are pretty safe but I remember my mum's blowing and the entire kitchen literally being covered in soup. Thankfully noone was hurt but it's left me a bit nervous about not keeping an eye on it

karcher

PN I like the pie idea with filo pastry crust.

I've been perusing Filo pastry recipes and chanced upon something similar.

However I also found this and may have a go tomorrow night as I would need to buy a leek...

http://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/caramelised-leek-onion-and-camembert-parcels/


I've no cider vinegar or pine nuts but figure I can make it without?