Cooking for one (Mark Two)

caronc

I'll count myself as another one re-visiting forgotten favourites thanks to the thread:A

Well my son did end up "cooking" last night but as it was sticking a frozen pizza in the oven not sure it counts. That said I've not had pizza for ages and it was spinach & riccotta my favourite so I really enjoyed it. I had bought a 4 pack of Rolo Mousse as my son is partial to a wee pudding after a meal and of course I had to have one. I found them really coconuty which wasn't what I expected. A quick google to discover the fat element includes copra so that explains it. I've noticed a few things seem to have slight coconut taste recently so suspect a lot of manufactures might be using it (possibly instead of palm oil?). I don't mind coconut but much prefer it in savoury rather than sweet dishes. Of course the moral is to not eat cheap shop bought puds but make your own but hey-ho that's probably not going to happen.

SquirrelSmall sorry but :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:re the soggy puss:D

PasturesNew

caronc wrote: »

Of course the moral is to not eat cheap shop bought puds but make your own but hey-ho that's probably not going to happen.

I think desserts can be especially hard for a CFO.

When you get the shop dessert pots you're really often only getting 1-2 tablespoons of food. Last month I spotted some Quality Street Penny Toffee desserts and bought them (£land).
They were nice enough, but very tiny - four pots weighing 70 grams each.

The problem becomes what can you make for yourself in such tiny, tiny portions - and, of course, you can't easily make tiny, tiny portions, so you're left with making more - and then you think of the (hassle/time/ingredients) huge portion you'll end up making and it can be easier to buy individual pots on demand, although they're not as satisfying.

That was, in fact, why the digestives came into being bought by me the other week.... I had a plan for those that meant easy "serves one" cheesecakes ... but then I ate the biscuits.

Making tiny portions of a flavoursome smooth goo is hard.

moneyistooshorttomention

Ah-ha moment for the day and, recalling comment from Farway earlier about to how peel a pineapple. I couldnt picture it myself - so I goggled YouTube and, sure enough, there are videos of it.

I started off with not quite the correct method from one video (but better) and then found the "Good Food" one and bingo. Now I know - and I've been doing it the wrong way all these years.

Errrrm....I just copied the way my mother did it - ie slice in rings and then remove all the bits I didnt want of one description or another. Shoulda known that wasn't the most efficient way - having found out some while back that eating pomegranite seeds with a pin isn't the proper way to do it either....and guess where I learnt that from:cool:

So that's my "new food fact" learnt for the day:). Must check out other YouTube how-to videos each time I go to chop anything else - to make sure I'm doing it the most efficient way...

EDIT; ...and I gotta ask it "Is Soggy Puss going to have their own little purposemade lifejacket made?"....

caronc

PasturesNew wrote: »

I think desserts can be especially hard for a CFO.

When you get the shop dessert pots you're really often only getting 1-2 tablespoons of food. Last month I spotted some Quality Street Penny Toffee desserts and bought them (£land).
They were nice enough, but very tiny - four pots weighing 70 grams each.

The problem becomes what can you make for yourself in such tiny, tiny portions - and, of course, you can't easily make tiny, tiny portions, so you're left with making more - and then you think of the (hassle/time/ingredients) huge portion you'll end up making and it can be easier to buy individual pots on demand, although they're not as satisfying.

That was, in fact, why the digestives came into being bought by me the other week.... I had a plan for those that meant easy "serves one" cheesecakes ... but then I ate the biscuits.

Making tiny portions of a flavoursome smooth goo is hard.

Completely agree most home made desserts are not CFO friendly:(

caronc

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Ah-ha moment for the day and, recalling comment from Farway earlier about to how peel a pineapple. I couldnt picture it myself - so I goggled YouTube and, sure enough, there are videos of it.

I started off with not quite the correct method from one video (but better) and then found the "Good Food" one and bingo. Now I know - and I've been doing it the wrong way all these years.

Errrrm....I just copied the way my mother did it - ie slice in rings and then remove all the bits I didnt want of one description or another. Shoulda known that wasn't the most efficient way - having found out some while back that eating pomegranite seeds with a pin isn't the proper way to do it either....and guess where I learnt that from:cool:

So that's my "new food fact" learnt for the day:). Must check out other YouTube how-to videos each time I go to chop anything else - to make sure I'm doing it the most efficient way...

Some of the cooking "how to" demonstrations on YouTube are fantastic, I learned how to bone & butterfly a leg of lamb from there ages ago and now use it quite a lot if I'm not sure how to do something:)

Hollyharvey

caronc wrote: »

Completely agree most home made desserts are not CFO friendly:(

I think that is why I tend to have cake as a dessert, because I make them myself and freeze them in portions. As well as the type of cakes that don't really make good puddings I do make a lot of fruit based ones, like a summer berry loaf, cider and apple cake and bakewell cake that can be heated and eaten with custard/cream/yoghurt. I use the individual ramekins to make a lot of crumbles because they freeze well.


This doesn't solve the problem of things like mousse and trifle though.

caronc

Hollyharvey wrote: »

I think that is why I tend to have cake as a dessert, because I make them myself and freeze them in portions. As well as the type of cakes that don't really make good puddings I do make a lot of fruit based ones, like a summer berry loaf, cider and apple cake and bakewell cake that can be heated and eaten with custard/cream/yoghurt. I use the individual ramekins to make a lot of crumbles because they freeze well.


This doesn't solve the problem of things like mousse and trifle though.

Ah I never thought about ramekins to make wee crumbles - will be bearing that in mind when my brambles are ripe thanks:D

Farway

caronc wrote: »

Ah I never thought about ramekins to make wee crumbles - will be bearing that in mind when my brambles are ripe thanks:D

Well I have ripe blackberries , and the crumble items, just no ramekins, will just have to plod on with ice cream topping then

Tum seems to be finally over, which is good & bad, good 'cos I feel better, bad 'cos now hungry and fancy "stuff".

No breakfast as usual, double biscuits at volunteering, also as usual

Then Lidl, seems my one is having a clear out sale, not sure if nationwide, end of line stuff from what I could see, jar of strawberry jam 28p collared, plus now I know the tinned peeled toms are good'uns some more of them as a good standby

Lunch salad sarnie with mayo, no cheese because I think I am eating too much cheese, if that is possible of course

Dinner, just not sure. I have uncoated fish fillets in the freezer, so thinking of poaching one or two, they are only tiny ones, every time I zap them I get it wrong, either under or overcooked, served with perhaps scrambled eggs and fresh tomatoes

PasturesNew

Hollyharvey wrote: »

This doesn't solve the problem of things like mousse and trifle though.

I have the answer to trifle.... I've no photo as not done it recently. What tends to happen is I know how to make a trifle, but end up just eating individual parts of one as "there's not much point faffing about with this to make one tiny one". So I'd have, say, just the cake bit one day and/or make a jelly/fruit another day - and another day just have some custard

Never tried to make a mousse... but angel delight's close enough I'd have thought.

Trifle is: a small bit of cake, or individual bun + couple of cubes of jelly made up + a bit of random fruit from wherever you can get something (tinned, frozen, fresh) + instant custard + dream topping + anything you can blob on the top, like a grated chocolate or some sprinkles or even half a crushed chocolate digestive at a push.... or nothing.

PasturesNew

Farway wrote: »

Well I have ripe blackberries , and the crumble items, just no ramekins, will just have to plod on with ice cream topping then

A ramekin is a pot. Many things are a pot. Even folded foil is a pot

Farway wrote: »

now I know the tinned peeled toms are good'uns some more of them as a good standby

They are the thickest sauce/most full of actual tomatoes I've so far tried in cheapo tins. Better imho than the 4ldi or Wa1tr0se versions.