Cooking for one (Mark Two)

caronc

meg72 wrote: »

Off to the church Knit and natter for a couple of hours.

That's civilised - our local one is called the "Stitch and B*tch" group :rotfl::rotfl:

Good evening,

Boy it's it a wet and wild night here, not great conditions for my son to drive home in. I did suggest he left it until tomorrow, but no he's determined. Mainly I think because he stripped his bed this morning and CBA making it back up tonight. He brings a fair bit of washing home as he can only dry things in his room which isn't ideal. He does do it himself when he gets here though. He's ended up being later leaving than he hoped so will eat en route so I'm back to CFO tonight so a slight change in the menu. Instead of the mince round & mash, I'm for an individual chicken & mushroom pie from the food market with either a few McCain roasties (I got a free bag with a Tesco voucher) or the last of the oven chips. I'll have that with the planned sprouts and peas.

I take a fairly pragmatic view to putting the heating on, if I'm sensibly dressed and still chilly it goes on. My house is well insulated but it is an old sandstone one so can get cold & damp if not adequately heated. I do use more fuel in heating these days as being less mobile I feel the cold more. One of my meds also causes your extremities to get cold, which can get be painful if ignored. Like shopping charges and taxi fares, I reckon the higher bill is what my PIP is for.:) Growing up we only had a coal fire in the living room and only if it was really, really cold was a portable electric fire put on for a short while in the bedrooms before bedtime. It wasn't unusual for there to be ice on the inside of the windows in the morning. That said I don't every remember the cold being a particular hardship. Flannette sheets and nightwear, hot water bottles, blankets and feather quilts meant it was always cosy in bed and my Dad used to get up early to make sure the fire burning well before we got up. Clothes were always toasted on a rack in front of the fire so warm to put on. :)The bathroom was always baltic though, it certainly didn't encourage anyone to linger though. :eek:
I economise on many things but decent food and adequate heat are essential as far as I am concerned.

Need2bthrifty

Chicken & sweetcorn pot pie tonight, with brussel sprouts & broad beans, I remembered the hairy dieters using a pizza dough mix instead of pastry to top their pies so thought I would give it a go. I used a couple of tablespoons of the mix and it worked ok, just a bit doughy although I did enjoy it, I just need to roll it out a bit thinner next time.

Last of the bacon and a fried egg for brekkie and went a bit healthier for lunch with some cottage cheese, toast, cucumber and tomato.

caronc wrote: »

The bathroom was always baltic though, it certainly didn't encourage anyone to linger though. :eek:
I economise on many things but decent food and adequate heat are essential as far as I am concerned.

Mum always put the paraffin stove in the bathroom so it was warm for us getting ready for school. My bedroom had a skylight window and it regularly had frost on the inside, I was often woken up by the drip.....drip.....drip....of it defrosting and dropping onto the lino :rotfl: :rotfl:

caronc

I think keeping the batjroom baltic was a deliberate ploy to avert lingering. There was 5 of us and only one bathroom....:rotfl::rotfl:

[Deleted User]

clever clogs caronc!!

Past my bedtime but I am still hyper from finishing sorting and culling photos. Then I had to work out how many sq feet my house is, so had to find the epc certificate. 1400

Off to recycling tomorrow and only then will I think about food

moneyistooshorttomention

Kittie, I guess you're working out your square footage to figure out what you want for your next house? Mine was easy enough to do - as its such a regular shape house - so measure across the front and measure along a side and multiply together and bingo. More difficult on a less conventionally-arranged house though..

I guess that's all part of working out how well (or otherwise) a house will "work". Must admit that I'm still struggling to get myself to do the housework okay - as I hate housework so much. Latest scheme is sorta semi-working (ie of allocating a bit per day each day to the house - so I don't get fed-up with having to do several hours of it at a stretch).

Followed by thinking "Well - far from houseproud/able to make myself keep the housework up to scratch as I am" - actually quite a high proportion of houses of people I know couldn't be called "clean and tidy" in all honesty and are noticeably dirtier/untidier than mine is. In fairness - thinking of a couple I go in here sometimes and they are noticeably harder to keep clean than mine is (inconveniently arranged and more "stories" to them than mine) and I know from my own experience that it's downright depressing living in a house where renovation isnt finished yet/or maybe even started yet/will it be ever?

So one consideration (and quite a major one imo) is how well a house will "work" for living in once one has done any renovation work it needs on it.

[Deleted User]

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Kittie, I guess you're working out your square footage to figure out what you want for your next house? Mine was easy enough to do - as its such a regular shape house - so measure across the front and measure along a side and multiply together and bingo. More difficult on a less conventionally-arranged house though..

I guess that's all part of working out how well (or otherwise) a house will "work"..

Yes that is exactly the reason. I might do a paper exercise soon to get a measurement `want` but whatever I buy, will have to be able to have a good conservatory added, the modern ones are so insulated that they do add an extra room to a house. Its not going to be me jumping after the first house that comes up as it really will be my last move. Feng shui is also important and that money is the `is it going to work` aspect of your post. I am not bothered by wilderness garden because I plan to get a landscaper to do the heavy clearing and I don`t want a done-up kitchen, I want to plan my own

Ice cream is churning, almost done so I may have to dash, it takes so long but you don`t get that mouth full of sweet moreish sugar. A little is satisfying as it is so well flavoured. Just as well because I don`t look forward to making it ie the time spent.

While waiting for my tea to brew I made hemp milk, from shelled hemp seeds and had that on spelt flakes with cacao nibs and dried raspberries. I made a litre and glad I did, took a couple of minutes and hemp is very highly nutritious

More food thinking later

moneyistooshorttomention

Definitely agree Pastures that my ideal house would have a utility room. I feel re your pain too re clothes airers getting in the way - as the utility room is missing, garage is missing, conservatory is missing and there's no second bathroom they can go in instead - so they sit in the "house proper" and get in the way. There is a clothesline out in the garden and garden feels secure enough/clean air enough to use it - but then there's that West Wales weather to contend with (with lots more rain than I'm used to and it seems to be much more changeable than I'm used to as well - so I can look out and think "Clothes line weather" but a couple of hours later I've forgotten about the washing and it's got soaking wet from the weather having changed). So I don't..oh well at least I've made friends over here now and, thinking about them, I can't think what we've all got in common - all female, all English, all same sort of age group, all similar background LOL.....talk about "birds of a feather flock together"....LOL. I guess I'll get some outside those parameters at some point.....

One of these fine days, Kittie I'm going to add a conservatory to this house (on the gawdknowswhen section of the list - considering how much it will cost:cool:).

Pastures - when are you planning to do the work you've mentioned before on your house?

Hollyharvey

I've decided to have scrambled eggs on toast for breakfast to use up some of the eggs. I've got fed up with having them for lunch.

Lunch can be something different for a change, probably a toasted cheese sandwich.

I can't decide whether to have a dusted cod portion or a chicken portion for dinner. I'll have to decide in a minute and liberate it from the freezer. I think I may go for the chicken because it will free up the most freezer space .

I don't know the sq ft of my home. but I bought it because I like it, and it works for me .

[Deleted User]

PN do you have a respected local handyman? We have one here and I am going to ask him to help with all that wrt the builders. He is a local man and knows a lot of people. I know I will have to pay him but I am like you when it comes to builders, I have seen horror stories. Lets just say that there is a certain, very clean and neat encampment of mobile homes not far away and if I go past early morning, I see two sparkling clean builders trucks in there, they are used to block the entrance gate. They have signage on the side of the vans, two different companies. Its very much a case of buyer beware and personally, I will need all the help I can get although I am pretty good at researching companies via companies house and fly by night companies will not be listed there

I have a wonderful plumber and a fantastic kitchen company and know who the electrician is who works with the kitchen company, so would use him but actual builders?

[Deleted User]

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

One of these fine days, Kittie I'm going to add a conservatory to this house (on the gawdknowswhen section of the list - considering how much it will cost:cool:).

Pastures - when are you planning to do the work you've mentioned before on your house?

horrific price money, my dd had hers refurbished as cheaply as possible and that was 16k. Brand new maybe 25-40k

I had my first ever egg white omlette just now, hehe better than last time when I made meringues, used the half tin of baked beans and had my second breakfast with strong coffee. I have jobs under my belt this morning, maybe just wash the floors but no more

I like the sound of your very practical extension PN. It will make quite a difference to your comfort