Cooking for one (Mark Two)

Need2bthrifty

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Ahem....ahem.....Pastures.....did I read that sentence "if you were a girl" in 2017?:rotfl:(The first gender-neutral clothing for adults is now in the process of going into chain shops).

Thinks.....do I get rid of my shopping trolley now (on the grounds of "would a man use one? If the answer is no - then I'd better get rid of mine) or tell Andy to get one too?:rotfl:

I'll go for "blow what sex anyone's body is" - and howzabout getting one too Andy?:)

There are a couple of gents in my neighbourhood that have shopping trolley's - they are what I would call gender neutral - more like a holdall on wheels - and why not I would rather they use those than hurt themselves or strain a muscle lugging shopping around :cool:

Farway

PasturesNew wrote: »

If you were a girl I'd suggest, if you can cover the distance, getting a "granny shopping trolley" - as they're pretty "trendy" these days; but few fellas can get away with those until they're 60 as they'd not feel them macho enough... and nobody wants to look like a plonker.

I'm a bloke, but probably older than Andy, and looking like a plonker comes naturally and can be very useful at checkouts, hopeless old duffer = smiles & help from nice checkout ladies

My trolley is just plain, drags along behind me and very handy

"I have NEVER .... said I am politically correct. Never. And I won't be changing " Ditto, my son despairs and rolls his eyes

Dinner was as per schedule, but found some nearly wrinkled mushrooms in the fridge, so they joined the bubble & squeak

moneyistooshorttomention

I'm not exactly politically correct either Pastures :rotfl:- 90% probably - but the other 10% is one that some disagree with.

I guess it's some form of "equal opportunities" that part of my way of speaking gets accepted without batting an eyelid here - that wouldnt be where I'm from.

It goes into reverse that some stuff no-one would bat an eyelid about where I'm from gets disagreed with here - and that's just being in a different part of the same country:rotfl:

Glad

poppystar wrote: »

Uh oh, found the downside to my new cooking homemade from scratch and ditching the ready meals plan:(

I've just started cooking everything from scratch, no meat and as little processed food as possible, I've lost 7lb in 7 weeks

PasturesNew wrote: »

I'd call that dogging

I don't know what this referred to but I'm going to have a few giggles tonight making things up :rotfl: :rotfl:

PasturesNew wrote: »

Yes familysearch.org - for some people though they're not happy - and the group have "got into trouble" with a lot of churches refusing them data...although I think they're trying to work round it.

In short: the belief is that what they do is "take the dead people's information and baptise them into their church post-humously when they enter their details onto their database". I have never looked into it to be honest - not wishing to look a gift horse in the mouth and all that

It's a great website that's got easy/fast search facilities - and I'll often use it as my quick way to find out what I might be looking for, all the possibilities to explore. It's just free/easy and growing more extensive by the minute.

I do everything "for free" as I can't afford the subs or any certificates .... I just have to "use the free stuff and look at what looks likely and document my sources so I can always double check or verify/inspect things more closely in the future".

It's an expensive hobby once you start putting your hand in your pocket!

There are actually some churches who refuse ANY websites to list their information and to look up records you have to write to the vicar and make an appointment and actually GO there! Can you believe that?

I do like familysearch and do some voluntary transcribing for them, I'm lucky enough that I have an ancestry and a FMP sub (it's my big hobby so my little indulgence) but I like to give a bit back so I take photos of churchyards for findagrave too

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've got an old book that covers the subject of missing registers and strange events that have caused registers to go missing in the past. e.g. one vicar's wife was using old registers as fire starting paper! And another verger/similar would get excited at having church visitors, so would offer them a torn out page from the register as a "thank you" for visiting. Then, of course, there were fires - and people breaking in and destroying or stealing the parish registers ... or just individual pages if they wanted to erase their marriage/whatever from the records.

I would love to know what this book is called PN

back to CFO the smoked salmon pate/hummus was so good, definitely be making again, I had that for lunch with carrots, butternut squash, tomatoes, cottage cheese and an egg

Farway

Glad wrote: »

I do like familysearch and do some voluntary transcribing for them, I'm lucky enough that I have an ancestry and a FMP sub (it's my big hobby so my little indulgence) but I like to give a bit back so I take photos of churchyards for findagrave too

What a good idea, I'll look that up and maybe do that. I am a volunteer Online Parish Clerk for "my" ancestral village

PasturesNew

Glad wrote: »

I would love to know what this book is called PN

I sometimes shuffle round car boot sales - not often/many as the cost of fuel to get there/back would soon add up, especially if one were to buy things.... one thing I "keep my eye out for" is local books similar to "Old Bob's memories of XYZ...." where the people/locations MIGHT include a reference to somebody on a tree. I also look for "old/odd books of a genealogical nature" ... usually with a budget limit of about £1-2. So ... I've actually very few as I do have to really, really consider if I actually want to own the book in question. To put it in perspective, my total book collection is probably about 6

The book I mentioned is: Old English Social Life as told by the Parish Register.

Inside the front cover the original owner has written his name and address and the date:
Walter Marshall, April 1899.
The Cloisters, Windsor Castle.

It contains odd entries found in parish registers too. Page 15 mentions some that have been lost in fires (inc West Lulworth in 1780 which is annoying as that's one I desperately need)

It's actually on archive.org, so you can skim through the entirety of the volume: https://archive.org/stream/oldenglishsocial00dyerrich#page/n5/mode/2up

Page 12 has an interesting story too - there was a peerage case in Huntingdon, that relied on parish registers of Christchurch, Hampshire - but the curate's wife had used many pages to line her kettles.

On the same page - a woman wanted to remove her marriage to a Lieutenant, so went to the church and stole the relevant page - the chap then became the Earl of Bristol - so she went back and handed the sheet over as she wanted the title that being his wife would give her.

PasturesNew

Farway wrote: »

What a good idea, I'll look that up and maybe do that. I am a volunteer Online Parish Clerk for "my" ancestral village

Also see BillionGraves - they have an app. You take the photo and it uploads - and is then available for "anybody" to transcribe.

I transcribe for BillionGraves sometimes. You can literally just log in and dip into places to see if there's anything to transcribe and you can just do a few, or skip a few, or do them all ... or whatever!

PasturesNew

What I've not declared ... is that, as my Internet was down, I popped out to the shops. As you do

I bought some marshmallows for my hot choccy ... a big bag of chocolate finger biscuits .... a 225 g box of some nice chocolates .... and a big 459g jar of sliced beetroot. I only went in to see if they sold mixed nuts (they didn't/not at a price I was prepared to pay).... and, as they didn't I then had to freeze the rest of the loaf (to turn into breadcrumbs) as I need the nuts to make a nut roast.

In my defence.... I didn't buy a six pack of crisps!

AndyCF

Farway wrote: »

AndyCF, I recently bought a mini oven, only for convenience, I have a gas oven, plus nuker but just wanted an easy "small pie size" heater

Mine was from Lild, on offer, about £30. It seems to be fan because the out sides do not get hot, nor do the the heater bars glow. But it works a treat. I guess it would cook baked spuds, a cake, or anything really, but as said I have a gas oven so the mini oven is for convenience and on the worktop. I love it though, one of my better buys

I'll take a look, I had glanced at Ebay, AO, Argos etc etc amongst other places like Curry's etc, although it was (at this stage) really to just see what was available and price ranges. There is a much larger selection that I expected to find.

PasturesNew wrote: »

I nuked up a portion of the chicken with stuffing I'd cooked in the SC - and the final two pieces I tossed into the freezer.

I also nuked some veg, just spuds, those brussels and carrots I bought ... and threw a dab of gravy at it ....

https://s33.postimg.org/f0zgnfshb/Dinnerx500.jpg

That looks really really good. I'm hungry again now after seeing that.

PasturesNew wrote: »

Mini Ovens:
I can't compare other things because I've only had/got the one I've got, which is also the £30 one from Lidl. It takes a 10" pizza, but that's its size limit. Great for 7" giant Yorkshires though 10" pizzas and endless pies, the odd two sausage rolls and some oven chips. I use mine about 3-4x a week I'd imagine. The elements do go red, but in daylight you really have to peer to see that they're actually red. There's no internal light, which is annoying if you are cooking when it's getting darker. But it always works and I love the way I can just turn it on by twisting the on/timer and it pings when it's finished. No need to pre-heat in most instances (I only preheat for a Yorkie, then just 3-4 minutes).

You shouldn't put the black plastic ready meal trays in there though because the elements will cause those to melt.... the bottom element (even though shielded with a strip of metal) will melt the tray onto the aluminium baking tray provided with it .... and if you were to turn on the top elements then I'm sure it'd melt the tray from the top too. So, if you're using it for tray meals, decant those into a proper oven dish first.

I'd not want a halogen as I'm short and have little worktop space - so fear getting things out safely. I've not actually seen anybody using one in real life.

Mine is super lightweight.... about as light as a toaster, not like a heavy microwave.

Good point about the weight I figured they would be a bit lighter than a microwave but not much, although it would not be a mass concern to arrange a lift back if it was too heavy but from what I see that does not seem the case.

Good point too about ready meal plastics. I do not think I have ever put one into a conventional oven however I've always nuked them.

The light is a thought too. I do think if I can find a sensible price one with a fan it would be ideal. As there's no rush I can await something to appear.

PasturesNew wrote: »

They're mostly a "con" - in that they are just created to sell to make money and don't address the real issues of cooking small quantities in a microwave. They rely on people having a "family sized variety of ingredients to hand without having to think how to use up the rest" - they also are tiny .... I tell everybody: Forget a mug, if you want a meal drag out the pyrex measuring jug

That's very sensible advice. I was only planning on spending at the most say £3 or so on a book (second hand) although to be honest a cursory search around usually throws some ideas or advice on 'ways to do xyz' , that reminds me of Garlic Bread actually but that's something for another time.

PasturesNew wrote: »

If you were a girl I'd suggest, if you can cover the distance, getting a "granny shopping trolley" - as they're pretty "trendy" these days; but few fellas can get away with those until they're 60 as they'd not feel them macho enough... and nobody wants to look like a plonker.

Its fine I have no objection (or care!) what anyone would think. I had a thought of a cool bag to keep the frozen goodies sensible given I've had erm 'issues' with part defrosted things through no fault of my own. I do have a new freezer now thankfully, well its about 2 months old. Only downside of it is its much taller than the old one I did not realise, so I can't use the 'top' as a handy shelf. On a positive note the freezer area is sensibly split into 4 drawers instead of 3 huge ones.

PasturesNew wrote: »

Life's too short... just cut the spud in half, pour the mince on top, grab a spoon and scoff it.

Have you tried frozen mince? That comes in handy I find, for tiny quantities. 2-3 minutes to nuke 1/4 of a mug of it.

I did used to do just that "pour some on the halves" then it for some reason occurred to me to put some directly in it. It did seem to keep a bit warmer longer that way maybe. I've not tried frozen mince I was actually eyeing up some Quorn mince last week out of 'I wonder what that is like' moment. I do have a very very good local butcher however.

I was having some random idea/thought earlier about trying the 'mince mix with veg' onto a waffle or something like that or onto say a few potato slices or such. I might try that at the weekend.

PasturesNew wrote: »

Carrots are odd things in their various guises (size/shape/variety, frozen/fresh/tinned) ... grate a fresh one into the mince and nuke it in that. Peas, yes, don't really need cooking.

I'll try that. I did try chopped baby carrots and then some diced bits but it did not work like that. I may try adding a bit of sweetcorn next time actually just as I enjoy it but I don't recall trying it 'in the mix' offhand.

PasturesNew wrote: »

Yes, no one thing is to everybody's taste. We all have different palates and access to food and food storage issues.

Very true.

Glad

Farway wrote: »

What a good idea, I'll look that up and maybe do that. I am a volunteer Online Parish Clerk for "my" ancestral village

https://www.findagrave.com/I visit churchyards for my own research and while I'm there anyway it's easy to take photos of all the memorials, so far I've added 5,985 photos to the site

just eaten a bowl of leek and potato soup from the fridge, now looking for what else I can munch on