Cooking for one (Mark Two)

PasturesNew

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

... if anyone can think of an easier/less messy way to get the seeds out of a pomegranite than = cut it in chunks and then painstakingly remove all that membrane stuff from the seeds (preferably without sending red liquid spattering up the kitchen walls and cupboards) do share.

They're always sticky. What I do is get a pudding/dessert bowl for the bits. Cut the pomegranate in half, then peel back/off the outer skin bit by bit, slowly exposing individual sections between the membrane.

I tend to eat through it at that stage, membrane by membrane. But you can just separate all the bits into a separate bowl.

It is possible to get the pieces dislodged by cutting it in half, then holding it over a bowl and smacking the back of the pomegranate... but that can be messy and you can still end up picking apart the individual membranes.

Mum used to buy me one a year, in the late 70s. As an adult, while I like them, I often just think they're too much hassle/too mucky/too sticky to bother - especially when they're £1 each!!!

PasturesNew

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I did try explaining ... "What's the problem?"

This is the problem isn't it
Until you have LIVED it, for a few years (not a weekend when the OH goes away)..... you can't see the problems, no matter how often it's explained.

The only way they'd understand is if you followed a couple round a supermarket and loaded up an identical trolley of food to the one they're choosing - and make them take BOTH home.... (four trolleys for a family of 4).

Given the choice before the cashier they'd soon unload a lot of things from their trolley: won't get through that, no room to freeze that, I only wanted that once, no room for this AND that so choose .... they'd end up with a tiny trolley of stuff if they had to think like that.

moneyistooshorttomention

...or some couples have the scenario where Him Indoors likes to cook (well - so do I - but not ALL the blinkin' time).

So they can alternate as to who makes dinner and both get several days off duty a week. A single darn well has to do dinner every single day - whether we feel like it or no.

Hence I find personally that I'd probably "make an effort" every time I cooked - if I were only responsible for alternate days for instance (rather than "I did yesterday, I've done today, I'm going to have to do tomorrow as well etc etc").

Can you gather I'm currently contemplating whether to ask an old male friend (well - ahem...he was rather more than that for some time way back) if he fancies seeing what weekends in Wales have to offer (lots of nice scenery here - if not many facilities) ....and thinking "The advantage to that is that I'm told he eats the same way I do these days.... and he likes cooking....:cool:".

wort

Hi:j
Yesterday sister and niece, picked me up and took me to a small garden centre, which we managed to trawl around for a few hours. It had a works in so picked up a couple of books -star wars and trivial pursuit questions -harry potter for dgson!

My sister bought us coffee, and we called to the chippy that does g free on way home as it was nearby, we are all coeliac, so was a nice treat. I can't even get chips from a normal chippy as they cook them in the oil with the battered items therefore they are contaminated. We hadn't pre ordered fish so I just got chips and peas.

The piece of beef I took out the freezer yesterday tea time was still a bit frozen this morning, it had been in the fridge. So I couldn't put in the slow cooker as I planned. So I let it defrost out of fridge till just now , when I put in oven, which will hopefully warm the kitchen. I have 1 potato and 1 sweet potato,left and I'm hoping that's enough for me and dgson, along with carrots and broccoli, left from last Sunday. A Yorkshire pud each and gravy. I'll slice what's left and freeze with some gravy for another day. Dgson has made jelly for afters.

We've just had spicy chicken with cheese and onion on bread, and dry fried in the frying pan, like a panini, as it was cold , I spread a little garlic mayo on before adding the ingredients, I also warmed the sandwich for 30 secs in micro to make sure the chicken was hot before frying.i followed that with the greengage and ginger yogurt.

The temperature here was showing 16 in my lounge so just popped the heating on to bring it up to 17.5.

poppystar

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

On a cooking today front - yep my kitchen duly looked blood-spattered earlier today - courtesy of me thinking "About time I used that pomegranite" and preparing it. Now, if anyone can think of an easier/less messy way to get the seeds out of a pomegranite than = cut it in chunks and then painstakingly remove all that membrane stuff from the seeds (preferably without sending red liquid spattering up the kitchen walls and cupboards) do share.

Here's a method that reduces the mess. For best results use a deep bowl!


Cut pomegranate in half through middle
Put cut side into palm of hand loosely
Put hand deep in dish
Hit with wooden spoon - pomegranate not hand:D
Your hand will get messy and there will be splatter if bowl not deep enough but boy is it so much quicker and more efficient than any other method I've used.:)

As a child I used to sit there for hours eating the seeds one by one using a pin while wearing a teatowel as a bib:D


Oops just seen PN got there before me with this one!

poppystar

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

...

Can you gather I'm currently contemplating whether to ask an old male friend (well - ahem...he was rather more than that for some time way back) if he fancies seeing what weekends in Wales have to offer (lots of nice scenery here - if not many facilities) ....and thinking "The advantage to that is that I'm told he eats the same way I do these days.... and he likes cooking....:cool:".

Do we need to go buy hats?!;)

PasturesNew

poppystar wrote: »

As a child I used to sit there for hours eating the seeds one by one using a pin while wearing a teatowel as a bib:D


Oops just seen PN got there before me with this one!

That's how I did it at first - but once I got a bit older, I got "lazier" so ended up peeling the whole membrane and just nibbling straight off that.... you get a wet chin as you can't fit a teatowel on your chin.

Farway

First really hard frost this morning, even the grass. Farewell nasturtiums, you did me, the bumble bees, blackflies & the cabbage white butterflies proud. I look forward to seeing your "children" next Spring

Breakfast was pot of tea, with toast & jam, new jam opened, seedless bramble. Bit too sweet for my taste, but I bet it would be nice plopped in a bowl of rice pud

Nice cold but sunny day, off to Morries, needed milk due to bad planning. Also found doughnuts in my trolley:o

Lunch was yet more of the pork [not yet fed up with it], in a sandwich with some piccalilli. The P I bought from 1celand, £1 a jar, looked same as the dearer branded stuff. Wrong there, same colour is about the only similarity. In future I will but the dear stuff, especially as I only buy it once every 5 years or so

Dinner, the pork casserole thingy idea has gone CBA, I had fancied a baked spud with it, now I find the spud I had earmarked for sacrifice has a slug tunnel in it, thus dinner is reset as Actifry chips and cold pork, with ersatz piccalilli

Doughnuts may feature along the way

Beetroot. I have baked them in tin foil in the oven, were OK but I think I would just boil them if I had to cook them again, spatters & all
Luckily Lild to the rescue, pre-cooked & vac packed beetroot is on offer next Thursday. I have had them previously and find them good. I sort through to find the packs with smaller ones in, sizes vary in every pack, ideal for CFO use

Eeeh, when I were a lad, we used to come home from school and stick our feet in the gas oven to warm our frozen feet up, wellies topped up with snow, as we chewed on a lump of coke [made that last bit up]

karcher wrote: »

I had that with brown rice...and that is where I went wrong. For some reason I just can not eat rice without having a bloated, uncomfortable stomach the next day

I am nearly out of rice now and I don't think I will ever buy any ever again. I do like it, it just doesn't like me! I'm the same with pasta but to a lesser extent.

As a result, I haven't been hungry all day so haven't eaten as yet. I'll no doubt have something later but right now I feel like I have a football sat in my stomach!

Shame about the rice, it was only a couple of weeks back I found the same with brassicas, so no more broccoli / cabbage etc, except small amount from a packet of frozen, now a whole one would never get eaten before it turned to compost

Glad

as son also left some cheddar cheese in the fridge I've had a mushroom and cheese omlette for lunch
I'm hoping the cheese doesn't disagree with me as I haven't had hard cheese for 2 months now!

meg72

PasturesNew wrote: »

And now, can I have a grumble ..... 4ldi had some "wonky veg" stew packs. A couple of small parsnips, a tiny swede, a couple of small carrots. £1.

"Great" I hear some people muttering .... a stew pack's good as you get small quantities..... but hold on, what's this! It's a con.

£1 for a 1Kg stew pack.

Parsnips are £1/Kg, so that bit of the bag matches OK
Carrots are a LOT cheaper than £1/Kg, probably 50-65p.
Swedes are currently 39p for a WHOLE one that's 4x the size of the one in the bag.
Maybe there's a tiny onion in there, I didn't really look after I was outraged.
To be honest, I only checked the price of the pack as I expected to be outraged at their pricing....
Worra rip off.... *grumbles*

A pauper might have felt "forced" into buying the stew pack, but with more money you could buy a whole Kg of parsnips, a whole swede and a 500g bag of carrots for a total of £1.72.

This has been a particular rant of mine for ages. what really dissed me off is the particularly small parsnip in relation to three times the number of carrots.

Sometime ago in an effort to convince a friend to stop buying them I costed it out.

Onions 32
Carrots 32
parsnips 60
swede 20
Celery 30 174 = 35p kg


She was gobsmacked ad now just wont buy them lol.