Cooking for one (Mark Two)

PasturesNew

I did an 4sda run, with a list of 3 items on it. It wasn't my official annual 4sda visit, this was an extra as I needed to give the car a bit of a thrashing as the battery's nigh on dead from under-use/sitting around. Trouble is, that didn't really work that well as I couldn't really go very far without other people being in the way and then when I left 4sda it took 20 minutes to get out of the car park and it was dark and cold so I had my lights/heater on a bit.... so I don't feel I achieved the primary objective.... which was to stop the battery being sluggish on turnover

I've stocked up on drinking chocolate (3 jars) and chocolate spread (4 jars) to last a whole year as it seemed daft not to as I get it from there.

Also got tinned peas and tinned carrots, just because I'm out of both - and 2 tins of satsumas (in case I make jelly/trifle). Two tins of meatballs in tomato sauce (one of my "meals in a tin" that I'd serve with rice or noodles when I CBA) - they were a bit of a clearance item at 50p/tin (two meals in a tin). A 6-pack of chocolate mousse (NOM!).

Bit of Xmas stuff: 18 packs of crisps (because you have to buy 18 to get three packs of 6 to pay £3 rather than £1.50 for six and because only 2 shops sell the flavour I wanted). Two boxes of stuffing mix. A block of baking margarine (for delusions of cooking things). A random jar of garlic granules (instead of buying real stuff for the planned nut roast). Two jars of crab paste. Bag of salted peanuts. I also bought the Xmas Day bottle as I figured "I'm here, it's here, get it now else I'll be driving round trying to find a bottle in 2 weeks' time.

I then grabbed a random Chicken Burrito Salad Bowl - it was a YS (78p instead of £1.75) and I have no idea why I thought it was a good idea, but I bought it anyway.

Ate the burrito salad bowl - way too much salad .... but that burrito sauce was tasty and creamy. Never tasted anything "burrito" before. I need to investigate what the heck that is as it's nice. That was tea.

So, a lot of Xmas stuff, 5 meals of actual food, some annual stocks of other stuff ..... and I spent £15 or so in 4sda.

I was trying to "buy Xmas stuff" rather than "everyday stuff", which is why I'm now home and have no bread, no eggs, no milk, no potatoes ... oh well.

PasturesNew

One of those strange CFO things. If you always CFO then all your equipment is small....

My SC is therefore a 3.5l one. I want to make a nut roast and will probably cook it in that - in any case I want to cook/bake other things in there, such as bread, or cakes etc. So I'd like a small loaf tin to fit.

I tried my existing smallest loaf tin the other week and it doesn't fit - you'd think it'd be easy to find a smaller one.

4sda have a 1lb loaf tin - you'd think that'd fit because my existing 1½lb loaf tin "aaaaaalmost fits in" - but no. They've got them at £2, but they're almost the same size as their 2lb loaf tins, indeed it'd be easy to grab the wrong one if you didn't read the label ....the 2lb is indiscernibly larger .... it's just subtley deeper. Deep/shallow isn't my issue, my issue is finding one with a shorter length.

I now suspect I'd need to find a "mini loaf tin" which is probably a daft price just because they've cutsied it up a bit. So my nut roast will end up being in "a random tin that I can find in the cupboard that fits" - and it won't be "loaf shaped" at all, which doesn't really matter, it's just annoying.

Farway

caronc wrote: »

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

Thanks Caron, that is just the type of thing I went looking for.
BUT nothing like it in the shops at the moment, well it may be in T8sco but my nearest is over 5 miles away.
I don't count the nearby T8sco corner shop that closed down my local pub & I refuse to ever shop in there, even if the turkey came stuffed with diamonds and was served up by Nigella

PN, your battery. You may already do this, if not press & hold the clutch down as you turn the engine over. It will stop the drag of the cold oil & gearbox and should give a bit more oomph on turnover
Lid's will have a battery charger / booster on sale next week I think, mind you it is nearly 40 quid, cheaper than new battery though

The jumbo baked spud was as tasty as ever, and some much needed green items as well.
Sliced banana, Greek yoghurt & honey for pud

PasturesNew

Farway wrote: »

PN, your battery. You may already do this, if not press & hold the clutch down as you turn the engine over. It will stop the drag of the cold oil & gearbox and should give a bit more oomph on turnover
Lid's will have a battery charger / booster on sale next week I think, mind you it is nearly 40 quid, cheaper than new battery though

Yes, I always put the clutch in, I used to hang out with mechanics and rip engines out at weekends .... unlike my friend's mother who thought the choke was a handy handbag hook

It was a new battery about 12-18 months ago - but I've only been taking the car out for 2-3 miles for the past few months, so it's been under-used and never given a run.... so it just needs a good daylight run, but geographically I am poorly placed for a long/fast run... I under-estimated the length of the dual carriageway 4 miles away ... and the speed limits on that (1 mile then it was down to 50, then 1 mile and down to 40).... I ended up totalling just a 5 mile "run", which isn't nearly long/fast enough.

I also tried low gear where possible, but it's " a bit rude" to be driving in 30mph areas in 3rd gear as it's a bit noisy (and makes you look like a clueless woman driver!), just trying to keep the revs as high as possible on the slower sections.

I can't use an extension lead without serious hassle because the car's distant from the house, and if I parked the car at my gate there's the potential for having to faff around wedging the gate open etc etc and all sorts of annoying nonsense. I'd also need to have the window open for the extension lead, that'd need to be about 50' long or so... so, again, not ideal.

poppystar

I know it's not CFO but am so anxious - it's forecast to be -10 here tonight and below -5 for over 12 hours. I've never experienced it that bad before but when we had the last really, really bad winter all the outside pipes froze and one inside one. Will have the heating on low (although I now have a condensing boiler which if what I've read is true may itself stop in the cold) but the bathroom and kitchen have 2.5 outside walls and are north and the heating only ever takes the chill off.

I know, I know that I'm far luckier than the original occupants of my Victorian abode but it's scary and these houses were't built for warmth but for workers

Any advice from those of you in the frozen north v welcome:o

karcher

poppystar wrote: »

I know it's not CFO but am so anxious - it's forecast to be -10 here tonight and below -5 for over 12 hours. I've never experienced it that bad before but when we had the last really, really bad winter all the outside pipes froze and one inside one. Will have the heating on low (although I now have a condensing boiler which if what I've read is true may itself stop in the cold) but the bathroom and kitchen have 2.5 outside walls and are north and the heating only ever takes the chill off.

I know, I know that I'm far luckier than the original occupants of my Victorian abode but it's scary and these houses were't built for warmth but for workers

Any advice from those of you in the frozen north v welcome:o

Don't worry, if your heating is on and the water moving you will be ok.

It's best to isolate any outside taps so they can be switched off/ not fed with water and emptied during cold weather to stop the risk of freezing as well as having the pipes lagged.

Just keep the heating on low and if up in the night, flush the loo and run the taps to keep the water moving.

Try not to worry. If any pipes do freeze you just need to thaw them slowly and patiently...I've done it many times, though also had burst pipes before I learnt how to deal with it.

I really don't think you should worry though

elona

PN

Would a silicon loaf tin fit? It should be a lot cheaper as I think some pound shops used to sell them.

caronc

poppystar wrote: »

I know it's not CFO but am so anxious - it's forecast to be -10 here tonight and below -5 for over 12 hours. I've never experienced it that bad before but when we had the last really, really bad winter all the outside pipes froze and one inside one. Will have the heating on low (although I now have a condensing boiler which if what I've read is true may itself stop in the cold) but the bathroom and kitchen have 2.5 outside walls and are north and the heating only ever takes the chill off.

I know, I know that I'm far luckier than the original occupants of my Victorian abode but it's scary and these houses were't built for warmth but for workers

Any advice from those of you in the frozen north v welcome:o

First thing is don't worry, having your heating on low (even if it just means "chill off" in some rooms) will be fine. The beauty of most old houses is they have thick walls:). Make sure internal doors are closed to preserve the heat in rooms. Good advice from Karcher re outside taps but don't worry if that does freeze just leave well alone and hope for the best (has worked for me so far). Most important is keeping yourself warm, have a spare blanket nearby in case you get chilly in the early hours, try and go into a warm bed if you can and make sure you have slippers beside your bed so you don't do as I did recently and end up with cold feet by nipping barefoot to the loo during the night;)

PasturesNew

elona wrote: »

PN

Would a silicon loaf tin fit? It should be a lot cheaper as I think some pound shops used to sell them.

I've got a couple tucked away I planned to try, but I was hoping for a rigid one. I love silicone, but it does have a tendency to mis-shape once ingredients are added, they bulge. I had hoped to find one ... but plan B was to dig out the 2 silicone loaf shapes I've got to see...

But they do bulge. People don't tell you that. I used to end up baking bread in a silicone mould ...inside a tin one to keep the shape!

caronc

PasturesNew wrote: »

One of those strange CFO things. If you always CFO then all your equipment is small....

My SC is therefore a 3.5l one. I want to make a nut roast and will probably cook it in that - in any case I want to cook/bake other things in there, such as bread, or cakes etc. So I'd like a small loaf tin to fit.

I tried my existing smallest loaf tin the other week and it doesn't fit - you'd think it'd be easy to find a smaller one.

4sda have a 1lb loaf tin - you'd think that'd fit because my existing 1½lb loaf tin "aaaaaalmost fits in" - but no. They've got them at £2, but they're almost the same size as their 2lb loaf tins, indeed it'd be easy to grab the wrong one if you didn't read the label ....the 2lb is indiscernibly larger .... it's just subtley deeper. Deep/shallow isn't my issue, my issue is finding one with a shorter length.

I now suspect I'd need to find a "mini loaf tin" which is probably a daft price just because they've cutsied it up a bit. So my nut roast will end up being in "a random tin that I can find in the cupboard that fits" - and it won't be "loaf shaped" at all, which doesn't really matter, it's just annoying.

Would one of your micro dishes fit? You could use that as a base, shape the loaf as you want, wrap the whole thing in foil and then SC as you planned.