Cooking for one (Mark Two)

moneyistooshorttomention

Elona - I'm reading the sequel to that "French women don't get fat" book at the moment. One of the things she says she does is to decide at the beginning of a meal only to eat half. Then, if she is still hungry, she eats half of the remaining meal. Then, if she is still hungry half of the remaining half and so on.

She says she even does it with a banana (ie deciding at the outset only to eat half) - now that some of the bananas around are so huge. I admit that I've been doing that anyway with bananas - as I've noticed sometimes the bananas on sale are normal size and other times there are only outsize ones to choose from. I wouldnt go as far as her and slice my portion of that up and then sit and eat it with a knife and fork - but I do cut the outsize ones in half and put the other half to one side for later.

I guess it's another version of "mindful eating" - ie thinking about whether one is really hungry for something before eating it.

For some time too - I've been telling myself to regard puddings and cakes as "a treat" and most days I don't have either. When I do - then I'll only let myself have one pudding or one cake or one bar of chocolate and that's my "rations" of sweet stuff for the day.

Mind you - it does help reinforce the willpower about not over-eating when most of the food I buy has an "organic price premium" on it:rotfl:. At those sort of prices - I'm rather less tempted to over-eat.

Lots of apples coming up now. I've picked quite a few quick - before the birds get them. They had pretty much all of them from one of my trees and brown rot got some from another tree. So I'm picking a lot from another tree at the moment.

Also trying to save my tomatoes. I've identified what tomato blight looks like and some of the leaves on them had it. So I've plucked all those leaves off quick. I also read that one should trim off the bottom 2" of leaves (so there arent leaves touching the soil).

Havent quite figured out how they are getting the blight. I've read stuff saying it's in the soil anyway. I've also read stuff about it "blowing in" from any blighted potatoes growing nearby. I do know a nearby house certainly grew potatoes in previous years and I wouldnt be surprised if they were growing them again this year and it's one of those houses that you only have to look at the state of the front garden (:eek::() to have a good idea what sort of "plant hygiene" levels there will (won't !) be in their back garden.

[Deleted User]

depends on the humidity and temperature money. If the tomatoes are a decent size then harvest them, put them in a bowl with an apple and put something on top to make it dark. Wales will have more blight chances than where I live but I am keeping on top of picking my small tomatoes, already bagged some for the freezer as they are nice with a cooked breakfast. Blight comes on a breeze, out of the blue and an awful lot of people don`t cut and bag blighted stems off potatoes

I treated myself to a solid, ie expensive mini breadmaker, although it was cheaper than my varifocals, so it is relative as I cannot eat my specs. It came today and my larger panny is now in the outbuilding for storage. The new one makes 1 lb loaves, cake and jam, it came today and I am making cake. apple, raisin, cinnamon and vanilla. It is in there now. It does it all, I only needed to scrape flour down and add the bits

oats, I use jumbo organic for porridge as I cannot eat slimey mush but I like pinhead oatmeal if I set the rice cooker on for morning. Normal rolled oats are best really for creamy all night soaked oats with no cooking. I usually add something like cranberry, figs, apricots

I`ll have to get my arris in gear to sort a saald for lunch but not too early as I had half a tin of sardines on toast earlier

caronc

elona wrote: »

DH used to say to me that I could not possible be hungry when I was mooching round the kitchen and I eventually came up with "My teeth are bored!"

Love it :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I'll need to be a lone voice and say I quite like JO and have a good few of his books and various dishes I make that came from them. I like that his dishes do work in a domestic kitchen and aren't too precise. Agree he's not a CFO though.

I had a lovely time with the "girls" last night lots of chat and copious amounts of tea. They brought a chinese takeaway which was lovely but I had to really just pick at it due to the salt/msg. Enjoyed what I had though. There were some LOs which my Dad has taken away for his lunch;)

Breakfast was the usual toast with tomatoes from the garden. Lunch will be something salady and I think tonight probably a pork chop with peas, courgettes and runner beans from the garden.

Thankfully so far no sign of blight here, I lost potatoes & tomatoes one year and was devastated so I keep a close eye for any signs. I need to pick my fennel as it beginning to bolt though the bulbs are still quite small, I'll slice and freeze some and trying dehydrating the rest.

Hollyharvey

Morning all,


I've not had breakfast today, after everything I have eaten for the past two days I wasn't hungry.

I'm getting a bit peckish now though, so I'm going to open another tin of tuna and have a tuna mayo sandwich.

When I was in the sm this morning I got some y/s cod loin so I'm making a fish pie for dinner. There are some prawns in the freezer that I can use up. I'll put a hard boiled egg in as well. I got some y/s pointy cabbage and cauli this morning so I'll have steamed veg wtih it.

The problem with buying y/s things is that I don't use food already in the freezer. I really shouldn't do this. Most of what is in the freezer is y/s anyhow so I'm not really gaining anything.

PasturesNew

Hollyharvey wrote: »

The problem with buying y/s things is that I don't use food already in the freezer. I really shouldn't do this. Most of what is in the freezer is y/s anyhow so I'm not really gaining anything.

This is the thing - you have to see the freezer as something to empty, not to fill...

Once you adjust your mindset to it being that the freezer should be empty and not full, then you stop buying stuff to put in it.... and you can see what you've got ...and, because you know it should be empty, you are more inclined to use things from it.

I'm getting there slowly ....

But I am a lone voice in this way of thinking ...no doubt some celeb will realise what I'm up to - and launch a book about how to do this..... having read that I do it.

That's the advantage of "fame" you have 1million people to tell it to... so you might as well write a book about how to do it to flog to them

I think, especially when CFO, that the English weather's far too changeable to justify having a fully stocked freezer.... as the weather will change and you won't fancy what's in there any more. It needs to contain things more of "the moment", "the season", or your current obsession/fancy (e.g. crumpets and burgers for me).

Where's the motivation in August to finally eat the four Xmas puds you bought for just 25p on 28 December? Gone.... that's where. You bought it then, it was exciting then, now it's just a god awful thought ....

So try to move things through the freezer quickly, using the minimum of drawers .... with the empties "in case" you find something worth freezing.

PasturesNew

For breakfast, I had the remainder of a tin of beans lurking that I opened .... days ago. So I took the 1/3rd loaf from the freezer to defrost and used one crust, toasted, topped with the beans and some grated cheese.

All my crisps are gone.... all six packets.... shouldn't have done that. Oh well.

moneyistooshorttomention

Just been out removing all the blighted leaves I could spot on my tomato plants. Think I'll head out again and get the biggest tomatoes and have a go at that (ie in a bowl with apples). Guess bananas would do the same??

There's a discussion going on at the moment on the Net re this and, to date, three suggestions have come up for it:

1. Mix 3 Tbp bicarb of soda with 8 pints water. Add 1 Tbp food oil and 2 drops washing-up liquid (Ecover of course) and spray on.

PREVENTION
1. Put short pieces of bare copper wire straight through the stem and the plant gets doses of copper to fight it off starting.

2. Boil Mare's Tail (in water presumably) and use that as a spray.

Well - there's plenty of mare's tail here and it would only cost me a tiny bit of water (if that - as I could take some from a waterbutt) and a tiny bit of electric. So might do that next year.

Right - off to inspect the biggest tomatoes.

[Deleted User]

money, blight has appeared all of a sudden on my tomato plants, which makes me very glad that I only grew small tomatoes this year. They will ripen ok and then I will freeze what I cannot eat because it does spread into the tomatoes

Had a fresh-air bike ride and am sitting with a slice of apple cake and a cold bottle of appletise, I hid it when the grandchildren came. Very good cake and only need to make 99 more food items to pay for the cost of the machine. Cake is small enough to keep in a box in the fridge, so saving freezer space and poly bags

Ate halloumi and salad at lunchtime, very tasty too and easy because I slice the lot and keep in a zip lock in the fridge. CBA for my last meal, oh yes good, I stewed the rest of the apple so it will be that and blackcurrants, walnuts and yoghurt. Yum yum. We seem to be hopping from one meal to another, haha, the daily highlight is the pleasure of eating, while talking to the walls

Farway

Back again after yesterday's break, zero CFO was done, more of a CBA yesterday after day out

Bit dull & close today, popped into Lild on way to volunteering, looking for dinner, found a YS Melton Mowbray pie, only a small one which will do for tomorrow sometime

Spot of clear out gardening, removed the runners which have now finished cropping and looking like Autumn is already here, seems not long ago I was planting them out. Had a fair crop from them, and 6 jars of chutney as well

Blight arrived here at the weekend on the 3 outdoor toms I have, because of this I now grow most my toms in the conservatory. It arrives here on the West wind, nice and moist air

Lunch was cheese salady sandwich again

Dinner not sure but it will be the other pack of YS smoked mackerel, I had thought of doing baked spud & salad with it, but now getting CBA after bashing head against transferring mobile number across. Looks like tomorrow in town pop into the mobile shop and cry HELP. There are three mobile shops plus a c*rp*one warehouse, but not a butchers, Tells you a lot about modern times doesn't it?

moneyistooshorttomention

Whoops Kittie - re sizes of tomatoes. I've got a selection of different types - through from teeny little cherry ones up to those absolutely ginormous ones trying to compete with my fist size-wise:rotfl:

Oh well - I'll know a good bit better and be more "up and running" all round re the garden next year. It's no wonder it's taken a backseat this year - again. As I've done kitchen and larder and greenhouse and re-done some darn bathroom work (workmen!:mad:) and am about to re-do decorating work in two more bits of the house (workmen!:mad:). Not to mention fair bit of more "official" type paperwork....etc.

Must kick my arris into gear and do some housework now. This is displacement activity time right now - as I've kicked my backside about it quite a few times to date and not managed to succeed yet...:o