Cooking for one (Mark Two)

Farway

Woke up to wet snowing/ sleeting, just cold and dark and December. Not settling & turned to cold rain later

I had to go out, needed more milk and to get the M & S vouchers. I looked on line at the vouchers, cheeky what names wanted £3 P&P, nearly the cost of a taxi to my local M & S, I went in the car BTW

As it happens it did me a favour, M & S have one of the 2 meals for a tenner on, so an assortment bought, one of which is a strawberry trifle, which I will count as my Christmas one, even though it will never see the 25th
Plus mashed carrot & swede, not something I would bother making just for me. Being Marks it is not mash, it is "crush" :rotfl:

I also checked out turkey frozen breasts in a couple of shops, gasp:eek:, despite what is shown on line there are no little ones around £3, just jumbo over a tenner, nearer £15. Not in my range, could be back tracking from turkey this Christmas unless things change in next few weeks

Lunch was cheese on toast, with HM chutney
Dinner, torn between fish & chips [from frozen] or huge baked spud with salad. I think I am overdue some green food stuff

AndyCF

PasturesNew wrote: »

... So I packaged up 18 sausages in sets of 6 and popped those into the freezer...

This reminds me of another one of my 'pie content' ideas, sausage slices within said pie, possibly the rest of it just 'mash with mix veg' , that could actually be quite nice "all in all" if it was a sensible small size or possibly 2 or 3 made at once. yum. I'm hungry thinking about now.

Farway wrote: »

I had to go out, needed more milk and to get the M & S vouchers. I looked on line at the vouchers, cheeky what names wanted £3 P&P, nearly the cost of a taxi to my local M & S, I went in the car BTW

I still have some BonusBond vouchers from last year thankfully "in date" till mid 2018, although there are only two places I can use them, and neither online. One of the places the "Icy" one did at one point say "in the future" for online use of them but that was months ago, when I enquired a few weeks back about any updates I could no longer find that detail and they said no can't use online but can use in-store (which is obvious!) :rotfl: , so I may have to have a wander in the New Year I guess. The total voucher value is relatively large-ish enough for a small shop so if I walk there (30 min) then Taxi back (est £7) I will get £30 worth of goodies for the cost of the Taxi...

Farway wrote: »

Dinner, torn between fish & chips [from frozen] or huge baked spud with salad. I think I am overdue some green food stuff

How about a random compromise, have a large baked spud and the fish, assuming its separate from the chips ?

Farway wrote: »

I also checked out turkey frozen breasts in a couple of shops, gasp:eek:, despite what is shown on line there are no little ones around £3, just jumbo over a tenner, nearer £15. Not in my range, could be back tracking from turkey this Christmas unless things change in next few weeks

Similar issue with me the frozen packs of turkey breast/leg/whatever tend to be jumbo ones and although I'd eventually get through them it seems quite difficult sometimes to get a 'pack of two' rather than 4 (if you're lucky) or more likely 8/12/more.

Do you have a good local butcher within a reasonable distance ? I know the cost might be a bit more maybe but at least you'll be able to get (hopefully) exactly what you want, both size and quantity. Just a random thought. I will do that if I can't get what I need otherwise, if I don't go for cooked meat anyway. Not really sure, its too early to tell.

elona wrote: »

I looked out the address book and cards and will write them out tomorrow when I should be feeling better.

Hope you feel a bit better tomorrow. I'm not quite "with it" today, not 'bad' but not 'right' either, so a few things will go onto tomorrow's ever expanding list including sorting cards out.


Oh to cap it all I was waiting for a parcel today too, waited till 12 and then *had* to go out, I was out at most 10, 15 minutes tops and guess what I missed it. Decided to do the "deliver and collect from local Post Office" thing for 70p to avoid it again. Can't believe they turned up just when I went out, they are usually here a lot earlier in the day if its going to be that day. Oh well *shrugs* , its my "relative 'did you want this' gift" thing anyway.

Farway

AndyCF wrote: »

How about a random compromise, have a large baked spud and the fish, assuming its separate from the chips ?

Do you have a good local butcher within a reasonable distance ? I know the cost might be a bit more maybe but at least you'll be able to get (hopefully) exactly what you want, both size and quantity. Just a random thought.

Dinner is now settled, baked spud is in the oven, intention is have tuna / mayo inside with a side salad

Unfortunately my local butcher closed and CBA to drive miles just for a bit of turkey. There is an organic free range farm about 5 miles away, and a free range one about two miles away, plus farm shop types similar distance, but I want ready frozen, just in case I do not use it. Maybe nearer the day there will be better choices

Now off to write the gift vouchers & two more cards I had forgotten about

caronc

Farway - would this be of any use https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/271025014 or this?

caronc

Good afternoon everyone,
It got to a heady 3C in the sunshine this afternoon almost felt quite warm.;):rotfl:Didn't get above freezing in the shade though. The front of my house faces North so hadn't thawed at all. It was good see that there was no ice melt on the roof at all thanks to decent insulation so at least I'm not losing too much heat that way:)
Used up the lurking frozen tom & pepper soup for lunch and took out some cooked chicken for tonight so I'm working my way through the bits I want used up before the New Year. I reckon come January I'll have most of the "here's one I made earliers" cleared apart from possibly one curry and a pre-made cottage pie which only went in a few weeks ago so not hideously elderly. I've peeled spuds for a pot of mash so some of that will get frozen but I expect to use that next week at some point, so a sort-of roast dinner tonight of roast chicken, gravy, mash, sprouts and carrots:)

Need2bthrifty

wort wrote: »

If anyone has tips to keep crackers crispy , I'd love to know them, I like a cracker and cheese occasionally, but then take an age to get through them, before they go soggy.

I'm like you and may go months between eating crackers, I started buying Doria Doriano Italian Crackers the box if I remember correctly has about 6 packs of crackers each pack has 4 large crackers which can be broken in two.

Need2bthrifty

I've been out :j wayhay, had to clear a bit of soft snow that had fallen during the night and at last we are starting to see a bit of tarmac through the snow and ice; the main routes are fine its just a bit precarious getting up/down my street and because of all the parked cars you just pray you don't meet anything coming in the opposite direction. Admittedly I didn't really need to go shopping but I was getting a little stir-crazy .

I'd taken out a piece of the Chicken plate pie from the freezer so having that tonight with last of the cabbage & brussels. Cooked the last of the potatoes and swede yesterday, had a portion of each with stewed liver last night and froze the rest for later. That leaves me with one and a bit little gem, 5 tomatoes, 3 celery stalks and 2 bendy spring onions, I bought 2 aubergines and 2 red peppers when I went out. I don't think I've ever been so low on fresh veg but I will make do for a few more days until L1dl have seasonal veg on special later this week then I will get what I need for the next couple of weeks.

I've also been doing my wish list of festive food and am very quickly narrowing it down because nowadays huge plates of food put me right off. I saw Nadiya (from GBBO) do a vegetable and nut roast on Ch4 a couple of weeks ago and thought I fancy that for a change, but I will also probably buy all the usual suspects but only have a maximum of 5 on my plate on any given day - Turkey and brussels or Gammon and brussels or Nut roast and brussels are the foundation (bit of brussels fan :cool:) and it will definitely boil down to either/or for the rest
Roast pots or Roast parsnips
Carrots or Swede
Stuffing or Pigs in blankets.

moneyistooshorttomention

Loadsa neglected washing-up just done and the top I am wearing feels a bit on the damp side at the front section by the waistline - and it's down to the apron I was wearing whilst doing the washing-up.

It's gone a bit "thin/cracked" at the waistline - and....yet again...I've had nothing like my "fair wear" from an apron. It's only literally months old - but it's "gone" on me.

I don't actually want pvc aprons anyway (which is what this is) and the one before (that didnt last very long either - though it was a National Trust or summat type one) and the one before that lasted years (but it was the quality of clothes made at that time - ie a lot better than nowadays).

Anyone got any suggestions on what/where to buy a new full-length apron for things like breadmaking/washing-up that I will get my "fair amount of wear" from (yep....that means 5 years upwards) and isnt pvc (as I never wanted that in the first place - ie its plastic)? I'm prepared to pay the equivalent of a 1970s price for them (yep...I guess that probably means up to £40/£50 - provided I get a 1970s quality from them = before everything got "made in China or the like").

caronc

Need2bthrifty wrote: »

(bit of brussels fan :cool:)

same here as long as they're not soggy;)

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Loadsa neglected washing-up just done and the top I am wearing feels a bit on the damp side at the front section by the waistline - and it's down to the apron I was wearing whilst doing the washing-up.

It's gone a bit "thin/cracked" at the waistline - and....yet again...I've had nothing like my "fair wear" from an apron. It's only literally months old - but it's "gone" on me.

I don't actually want pvc aprons anyway (which is what this is) and the one before (that didnt last very long either - though it was a National Trust or summat type one) and the one before that lasted years (but it was the quality of clothes made at that time - ie a lot better than nowadays).

Anyone got any suggestions on what/where to buy a new full-length apron for things like breadmaking/washing-up that I will get my "fair amount of wear" from (yep....that means 5 years upwards) and isnt pvc (as I never wanted that in the first place - ie its plastic)? I'm prepared to pay the equivalent of a 1970s price for them (yep...I guess that probably means up to £40/£50 - provided I get a 1970s quality from them = before everything got "made in China or the like").

Try looking at waxed "butchers" aprons that what my boys' swore by when they worked in kitchens

Glad

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Anyone got any suggestions on what/where to buy a new full-length apron for things like breadmaking/washing-up that I will get my "fair amount of wear" from (yep....that means 5 years upwards) and isnt pvc (as I never wanted that in the first place - ie its plastic)? I'm prepared to pay the equivalent of a 1970s price for them (yep...I guess that probably means up to £40/£50 - provided I get a 1970s quality from them = before everything got "made in China or the like").

how about a trade chefs apron, should be hardwearing and prices here about £6.99

https://www.nisbets.co.uk/clothing-aprons-and-footwear/aprons/bib-aprons/standard-bib-aprons/_/a33-4