Cooking for one (Mark Two)

Wednesday2000

Hello to new people too.:hello:

Ooh, I forgot I bought some chocolate coins.:EasterBun

PasturesNew

Wednesday2000 wrote: »

Ooh, I forgot I bought some chocolate coins.

I always get some of those! They're nice tossed at the base of the tree, or mixed in a small bowl with other things and a bit of tinsel.

I'm tight though (have I ever mentioned this before?) and I buy them based on £/100g being cheapest/reasonable. I have a "chocolate buying price" which is about 35p/100g for "cheap chocolate" and 60p/100g for "branded chocolate" (e.g. buying Heroes) ... and it's against those prices that I compare the nets of coins for "value"

caronc

Good morning everyone,
I like crumpets but wouldn't hold it against anyone that doesn't :rotfl::rotfl:(all the more for me), like Holly I hadn't had any for years until this thread and now I've nearly always have some in the freezer:D.
I had the usual toast for breakfast as I tend to eat them if I'm low on bread.
Really heavy frost here this morning and it's still -3C so would have been much lower overnight. It's due to be freezing again tomorrow and then warm up a tad. It was certainly chilly when my son returned from Glasgow just after midnight. He appeared briefly a short while ago to get some juice and has headed back to bed. He needs to drive back to Newcastle this afternoon so I'll be a nice Mum and make him a cooked brunch so no doubt I'll have some of that too;).
Tonight I've a piece of rump steak looked out so will have that with spud slices, onions, mushrooms and tomatoes. I might make a stilton sauce to go with it or might stick to my usual peppercorn I'll see what I fancy later. Apart from changing my bed I've not much planned so might start wrapping while "Sounds of the 70s" is on this afternoon.

Wednesday2000

PasturesNew wrote: »

I always get some of those! They're nice tossed at the base of the tree, or mixed in a small bowl with other things and a bit of tinsel.

I'm tight though (have I ever mentioned this before?) and I buy them based on £/100g being cheapest/reasonable. I have a "chocolate buying price" which is about 35p/100g for "cheap chocolate" and 60p/100g for "branded chocolate" (e.g. buying Heroes) ... and it's against those prices that I compare the nets of coins for "value"

Choccie coins and tangerines always remind me of Christmas!

karcher

poppystar wrote: »

I really, really don't like crumpets:o:o:o

Please don't throw me off the thread:(

Need2bthrifty wrote: »

Come sit by me - I don't like them either

:eek::eek::eek:

How can anyone not like crumpets? :think:

Strange people :rotfl:

Farway

Woken in the middle of the night by rain lashing on the window, and it is still lashing, I guess this is the snow further north. But it is ten degrees warmer in my conservatory this morning than yesterday, 50F today

Decided to say in again, on line book shopping for the grandchildren, easy as they know what they want, my task is to find the cheapest lot, seems a South American river may be involved

Breakfast was a pot of loose leaf tea, with a couple of my nicked, chopped & nuked apples. Served with Greek yoghurt & honey

Lunch, possibly boring old cheese & salady sarnie

Dinner, the last of my stew, it has certainly been the ideal food for this weekend

Thanks HH for the alternative soda bread recipe, looks tempting. I have to use soured milk, buttermilk is not something I have "to hand".
And I had to search for "bread soda", doh!, it's bicarb:o

karcher

Farway wrote: »

I did make the soda bread to go with my LO stew
Both very nice, and some of the bread left just in case I fancy some with a bit of cheese later

The recipe called for oats in it, but i only have the jumbo ones and thought they would be too chewy / indigestible, so used just flour, very quick & easy

That looks yummy Farway.

Would you mind sharing your recipe please

Hollyharvey

Farway wrote: »

Thanks HH for the alternative soda bread recipe, looks tempting. I have to use soured milk, buttermilk is not something I have "to hand".
And I had to search for "bread soda", doh!, it's bicarb:o

I often use soured milk and it comes out just the same, I've never been able to tell the difference. I do the same with cake recipes that call for buttermilk if I haven't got any in. I should have mentioned that the bread soda is bicarb. I had to google it the first time I ever used the recipe.

I started to use that web site after a visit to Ireland where I enjoyed a lot of the food that we had while over there. I find that a lot of the recipes are pretty close to what I enjoyed while in Ireland.

Farway

karcher wrote: »

That looks yummy Farway.

Would you mind sharing your recipe please

Here you go
I used half the ingredients, CFO etc, and just added the oats weight to flour weight
And I used lemon juice because I read vinegar can sometimes leave a taste
I would shape mine a bit taller & rounder next time, or two big fat rolls

---

350 g Self raising flour
100g medium rolled oats
Level teaspoon salt
Level teaspoon baking powder
285 mls buttermilk or 285 mls of buttermilk substitute

Method
1. Preheat oven to 220oC , Gas mark 7.
2. Grease a baking tray with a little oil.
3. Sift flour, salt and baking powder together in a large mixing bowl, then stir in the oats.
4. Stir in buttermilk and bind to a soft dough, mixture should be a little sticky, add a little more milk or water if mixture seems dry.
5. Form into a round and place on baking tray, cut across top of loaf making four sections.
6. Bake for 20-25 mins or until golden brown.

Easy, and only takes minutes to make.


How To Make Buttermilk Substitute
Ingredients
285 mls Milk
1 tbsp Vinegar or Lemon Juice

Procedure
Put milk in a glass and add the vinegar or lemon juice to it.
Stir the mixture and let it rest at room temperature for 15 minutes (approx).
As soon as milk begins to curdle, stir the mixture well.

PasturesNew

I like to get the tree up asap, so 1 December.... but I've not got round to it this year.

The talk of chocolate coins got me going and I got the box of stuff down and opened it.... changed the small tables over so "the right table" is out... and I've got most of it out. Still got a few more danglies to hang off the tree and a few more baubles... but I'll pick at it over the coming days, including changing my mind about things and doing something different.

I have red and gold baubles - and thank goodness I left myself a note last year. It said "gold on the tree, red in bowls" ... else I'd have put red and gold on the tree before sitting back and thinking "tree needs to be more gold".

Each year I spend £3-4 or so on "shiny tat" to add to the collection. This year I've spent 89p on a bit of gold tinsel and £1 on six little plastic holly leaves/berry/mini pine cones that the cardboard said were "present decorations", I've just popped them into tiny glass vases with some battery LED lights in there.

The tree, lights, baubles and some danglies were bought for me 5 years ago as I didn't have any and was just going to "do without" and since then I've added annually another little LED snowman/penguin, a bit more tinsel and AN Other random small item.

It'd be easy to "go mad" just to have something fab looking and stylish ... but I've a random collection of cheap and cheery items which I enjoy.

I never buy Xmas tree chocolates - I used to, but they're not "good value" so I spend the money instead on general chocolate where I get more for my money

Re tangerines....yes, except it's nigh on impossible to buy just 1-2 at a good price. Like everything it seems you could buy, say, 25-30 for £3, or 10 for £1.50 ... but one would cost you 30p. (Made up the figures, no idea how much they are). It's also difficult to even see single tangerines sold.