Cooking for one (Mark Two)

PasturesNew

I think the reality for most new builds is that they will be in "odd spots" and places you'd not "choose" to live in, just by the very nature of how they've come about. Run out of "good sized plots" to build and then start building on an entirely new field, or a small development on the site of an old building or two dotted here and there and their location starts by being "less than optimum".

moneyistooshorttomention

Unfortunately I do think Pastures has a point - but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you Kittie.

It is an obstacle to get past to be able to find a new-build that is a reasonable size and, perhaps even more to the point, with a reasonable size garden (which I think you'll probably want as much as I do).

I'm thinking of the best new houses currently being built round here - ie the most expensive/modern/etc and one of the first things I notice about them personally is these minute little gardens. Followed by looking at secondhand houses (in some areas - though it doesnt seem to happen here AFAIK) and a garden that was too small anyway gets some "current owner or other" adding an extension to it and bang goes some of what was already a small garden.

Don't get me started on everything that's being done to cram yet more people into the country......and the follow-on problems for existing housing......or we'll all be here till midnight....:cool:

*************

On a lighter note - ahem...ahem....and I've been resisting the urge to date - but it's all "got too much for me" and...errrm...Pastures...these yur various social outings you've been mentioning recently - and I'm wondering if there's a "man on the scene"?:):) Things look like they're looking up one way and another for some reason and I'm dead curious:):rotfl:

Farway

Just a choc biscuit & cuppa for breakfast, getting a habit there, must stop

Lovely sunny Autumn day, popped into Lild on way to volunteering, no YS suitable for me, oh well can't win every time, so just the boring bog standard stuff like a loaf & jar of coffee, plus some choc digestives to go with the coffee;)

Lunch was the other mini pizza, with added grated cheese & tomato.
I took the opportunity to feel the heat from the glass door & base of the mini oven.
Door, OK to touch, not hot enough to be uncomfortable
Base, underneath, too hot to leave your hand there, would not burn you but you would not hang around long. I have my mini oven on the kitchen worktop, and had placed it onto a glass chopping board just in case it got hot. Seems I did myself a favour. It would not burn the top but I suspect it could discolour say a cream top over time

Dinner is a[STRIKE] jumbo [/STRIKE]mammoth baked spud. Probably with tin of tuna & mayo plopped in, or maybe grated cheese, with my 1950 style salad. I had intended to get some coleslaw in Lild, but forgot it, and certainly not going out just for that

caronc wrote: »

I've just had a (planned) visit from the local Occupational Therapy team ....... They have also put a work order in for a proper bannister rail at my front steps as I'm not finding the mini grab rail my son installed there much use..

I had one of those handrails installed before I came out of hospital last year, also by health folk. Mine is very sturdy tubular metal construction, cemented into the ground. Solid as a rock, and very useful to stop me tumbling into the flower bed.

PasturesNew

My house was built as part of a small new development 7 years ago on the former gardens of two 1940s homes.

The same developer has just built "almost identical houses" next door, on the space where they had demolished the two old homes.

From two homes with large gardens to 23 houses.

I have probably got the biggest garden of my lot, even bigger, or at least the same size as the 3-bed houses. The 2-beds have 1 parking spot; the 3-beds have 2 parking spots.

The new builds, "almost identical" to these are 10% smaller in square footage and the gardens are smaller. All the houses have only 1 parking space each. The single 3-bed detached has a garden just 12' deep and just the width of the house (18'?).

Over time, each new development chips away just a little extra space, a little garden off, fewer parking spots .....

PasturesNew

Farway wrote: »

....
Base, underneath, too hot to leave your hand there, would not burn you but you would not hang around long. I have my mini oven on the kitchen worktop, and had placed it onto a glass chopping board just in case it got hot. Seems I did myself a favour. It would not burn the top but I suspect it could discolour say a cream top over time
...

Blimey! I'm going to have to feel mine now, next time I use it.

There's no discolouring or signs of heat that I've noticed, but I have noticed that when I wipe down the worktop where the oven has stood there's a slight "dry, black, sooty residue" - there's definitely some black particles somewhere .... and I've kept the oven clean, there's no spills or drips or anything burning at all, so it's not as if aged cooking spills are creating that. Inside and out it's "99.99% as clean as it was on day 1"

I'll have a feel next time I use mine... and report back. I don't expect that to be today though.

Farway

AndyCF wrote: »

I'm half looking for some kind of replacement handle for an ancient knife I use a lot, I'm quite attached to it even though its probably older than me. I had it sharpened up the other week by a neighbour but the handle is about worn through and also a bit burned and chipped. I don't know if it was originally ivory or bone or something like that, its very old. Said handle is slightly yellow but its so old it may of been white once. As long as I can get a 'modern but suitable looking' handle at a sensible cost I'm happy. I'll search for that over the weekend, a well known auction site may turn up a new handle hopefully.


Its a rounded end serrated knife about 3-4 inches blade, nearest 'new' equivalent seems to be sold as a 'Tomato Knife' as they are about similar size and have serrations and a rounded end. I'm not clued up on knife types.

I do use it quite a lot as its so handy though for lots of things cutting bread up as well as spreads, to be honest most of the time I'll grab that one first.

EDIT... I nearly brought a 'twin pack' of Spam earlier as it was on offer but decided to leave it simply as I have a small tin of ham for just such an emergency. Can't remember the last time I had actual "Spam" though. I do see they now sell 'Fritters' of the same, well I saw them online I've not seen them locally due to the lack of supermarkets nearby.

Could the knife be a Grapefruit knife? Like this? https://www.amazon.co.uk/KitchenCraft-Serrated-Stainless-Steel-Grapefruit/dp/B003EYN2U4?SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&!!!!!duc08-21&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B003EYN2U4

They were all the rage in the 50s, when grapefruit were the latest amazing exotic fresh fruit

Spam, don't bother, you will be disappointed. About a year back I bought a tin, harking back to childhood memories. Awful , nothing like I remembered. Same advice goes for Fray Bentos pies, as many here will testify

AndyCF

Farway wrote: »

Could the knife be a Grapefruit knife?

Almost but its serrated on one side only, as in not top/bottom as that one appears to be, and the end is rounded. I will get a pic later if I can.

Farway wrote: »

Spam, don't bother, you will be disappointed. About a year back I bought a tin, harking back to childhood memories. Awful , nothing like I remembered. Same advice goes for Fray Bentos pies, as many here will testify

Yes it was more a passing thought on the "S" , simply as I noticed it on offer while looking at other things, I did not get one as I have a tiny tin of Ham already for those 'tinned meat' moments.

The FB pies, they do seem a bit Marmite in the reviews generally, more so for the 'mini microwave' ones too. As far as I'm aware its those or the "Holland" ones that come with zapper instructions already, again a 'Marmite' opinion it seems on these.

The only thing I can remember was it could sometimes be a battle to open the tin :rotfl: , I think the solution was not to put the opener on 'into the lid' but fit it sideways so you cut both the lid and a couple of mm or so of the 'side' away at once.

PasturesNew

AndyCF wrote: »

... its serrated on one side only, as in not top/bottom as that one appears to be, and the end is rounded.

That sounds like a cheese knife to me.

I have a 65p paring knife for cutting almost everything - and a 65p serrated paring knife for other things.

I'd be dangerous with "proper knives".

PasturesNew

I made a list of food to buy .... wrote it down. Went out ... but then couldn't face going into the shop, to walk round the crowds, to then queue up, so half way between the car and the shop door, I did a U turn and came home again

Therefore .... no idea what's for tea!

It might be chips, they're easy. I've also got loads of fish fingers, they're easy. That sounds like a plan.... maybe peas, they're easy.



Sorted I think .... in a bit.

meg72

Farway wrote: »

Could the knife be a Grapefruit knife? Like this? https://www.amazon.co.uk/KitchenCraft-Serrated-Stainless-Steel-Grapefruit/dp/B003EYN2U4?SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&!!!!!duc08-21&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B003EYN2U4

They were all the rage in the 50s, when grapefruit were the latest amazing exotic fresh fruit

Spam, don't bother, you will be disappointed. About a year back I bought a tin, harking back to childhood memories. Awful , nothing like I remembered. Same advice goes for Fray Bentos pies, as many here will testify

Lol from my childhood memories ,war baby ,.
it always was bloody awful think my mum bought a joblot probably black market, although thinking about it it might not have been rationed. Anyway it was Spam sandwiches and fritters far to often. Though I did have a little school mate who just loved spam and jam sarnies