Cooking for one (Mark Three)

Brambling

I was given bed socks from a friend a couple of years ago WHMF when I complained of cramp and it seems to work most of the time

Day of culture for me screening of the NY Met opera Madam Butterfly, as it was the encore it was at 2pm which throws me out time wise, it's a strange time of day to be watching opera :cool: the old couple in front of me got out sandwiches in the interval at 3pm. I need to stop reading the emails I get sent as a friend of the venue as I'm going out Tuesday and Wednesday this week as well

As I had to leave 1.30pm I had brunch rather than lunch, potatoes farl from the freezer, scrambled egg, smoked salmon trimmings and saute spinach.

I repeated something Caronc did a few weeks ago and took out two lots of chicken thighs from the freezer for dinner in error :cool: one lot thigh fillets. I roast a couple for dinner and had with Savoy cabbage cooked with onions, garlic and bacon, braised leeks and celery. There's enough braised celery left to blitz to make a little bit of soup, the thigh fillets i crumbed and airfried as I don't mind them cold. Whilst the oven was on I made some mini crustless quiches using the last of the smoked salmon trimming

caronc

Good evening everyone,
For the impromptu dinner for three it was a case of "thank goodness for a store cupboard and well stocked freezer" as I'm low on fresh stuff as my shopping doesn't arrive until tomorrow. Frozen cauli was turned into cauli cheese with a HM cheese sauce made with a mix of milk & veg stock, tinned corn & carrots provided other veg and I had enough spuds to make a large tray of garlic & rosemary wedges. Pud was HM rice pudding in the SC made with evaporated milk and I opened a tin of mandarin oranges to have with it . They was just enough gammon to give us all a decent enough portion. They were both ravenous as things are a bit chaotic at home and cleared the decks. There is a little corn and some pud left over but nothing else.:) As a I really want pea & ham soup this week I've popped a gammon shank from the freezer into the fridge to defrost, I'll pressure cook it tomorrow for meat and stock. It was lovely to be able to "come up with the goods" so to speak and make sure everyone was decently fed without buying anything. :money:

I'm definitely for a quiet day tomorrow as I'm shattered now, not quite the day I had planned and not something I could cope with every day but I enjoyed it.:D

unrecordings

unrecordings wrote: »

Got sausages to eat here. They're already unpacked, separated & in tupperware, so it's easy to freeze the surplus. I was thinking of sausage & mash, but when Mrs Un mentioned she was having baked potato, a cunning plan was hatched. Let's just call it a Lincolnshire Fajita. I'll leave you to guess the rest

In true Baldrick fashion - yes cunning, yes a plan, but not a very good one: four really nice sausages, two baked potatoes. Eat contents of baked potato, wrap buttery relishy potato skin around sausage (no laughing at the back !) like a fajita. First one was nice/interesting, second one was 'erm...' Three & four I just ate the sausages separately. Not one of my better ones

Farway

Bright but cold this morning. My promised cold is still lurking but not breaking out into full blown man 'flu yet:)

Last night's nuked LO beef stew + dumplings was excellent, matured for 2 days in 'fridge improved what was already nice

Breakfast porridge again
Lunch, not sure, I've LO HM veg soup or maybe some of the gammon in a sarnie.
Dinner, def gammon & HM chips, brain says it should be with use up salad to get some fresh veg inside me, [STRIKE]belly[/STRIKE] heart says fried eggs & mushrooms

caronc wrote: »

Pud was HM rice pudding in the SC made with evaporated milk and I opened a tin of mandarin oranges to have with it .

Full on 50s food:j
Nice to hear the store cupboard & just in case food proved their worth

caronc

Good morning everyone,

Farway - Yes my sis and I agreed that it was very like a "Sunday dinner" my Mum used to make in the 1970s and the type she grew up on in the 40s & 50s.


It's blooming freezing here this morning. It was -6C at 7am and the frost was so thick it looked as though it had snowed:eek:! The sun's out but it's only just beginning to lift and I reckon shady spots won't thaw before it's due to dip well below freezing again later. I'm wearing a pair of leggings under my trousers and have thermal socks an a vest on as I want to get the place aired since it's a nice, dry day.
My groceries are due to arrive anytime and then I'll start making pea & ham soup. I probably won't have any today as I think it tastes better the day after making it but will use some of the meat from the shank for dinner tonight.

Wednesday2000

I had Tesco cauliflower florets in a seasoned tempura batter with spicy sauce last night. OMG they are as nice as ones I have had in vegan restaurants!:drool:

I might try and recreate them today with some frozen cauliflower florets I have.

I watched the end of Jack Ryan. Wow, I really liked it. Have you watched it all Farway?

I would like to watch more shows like that.:T

Brambling wrote: »

I was given bed socks from a friend a couple of years ago WHMF when I complained of cramp and it seems to work most of the time

Yes, I do that too. I also wear pyjama bottoms that close at the bottom like tracksuit bottoms and that seems to work.

I used to wake up cramp following knee surgery when it was cold weather, but now I don't.:)

caronc wrote: »

Pud was HM rice pudding in the SC made with evaporated milk and I opened a tin of mandarin oranges to have with it .

I keep eating mandarin oranges lately. A woman on YouTube mentioned them and I thought I hadn't them in years. Delicious with ice cream.

Brambling

I would definitely go down the ham, egg, chips and mushroom route Farway, too cold for salad. I did think of you today as W8itrose had stollen on offer half price although there was only the shelf label left in ours, it’s not the slices or the bites but this one https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/waitrose-christmas-stollen/737996-104900-104901 I was tempted with a half price panettone in there which I will need to hide in the spare bedroom.

Caronc one of my sisters once told me that the sign of a good housewife was one that could feed visitors a two course meal from stores if they arrived unexpectly :cool:, it was said tongue in cheek and I did ask if she had been reading the Lady :rotfl:. If they didn’t mind lack of fresh fruit, veg and bread I could feed a fair few unexpected guests from my stores

All this talk of gammon meant I lingered in W8itrose next to a £17 piece YS reduced down to £10 and then regretted not buying it when walking back to the office, it’s definitly the size putting me off even though I had decided to get one and cut steaks off to make it a managable size. I’m sure my sister could have found a good home for it in the freezer to save her paying full price at Christmas. (I’ll just not tell her :whistle:). I did pick up a small piece of topside beef, on offer and then YS to half price (and just CFO size) I’ll either have to cook it tonight or sqeeze it into the freezer :think:

Lunch was mixed grain (from a sachet) mixed with loads of diced veg and bacon, i was decluttering the fridge yesterday! Dinner will either be the beef roasted (probably not ) or crumbed chicken thighs cooked yesterday with airfried chips and veg (definitely the CBA option)

I’ve a large cauliflower in the fridge brought because they were all the same price so I grabbed the biggest one, it stares at me every time I open the fridge door and waves not so much the elephant in the room but the cauli in the fridge. I’m just not sure what I fancy with it now i've brought it and it's quite big, I should have brought that gammon and had cauliflower cheese with it :wall:

Farway

Lunch was the last of the soup & dinner is definitely down the ham, egg, chips and mushroom route Brambling.

It's turned even colder, forecast is hard frost tonight but I doubt it'll match Caron's brrrr
That's see of my dahlias & nasturtiums

There's a lovely sunset brewing, but b66er going out trying o photograph it:D

Wednesday2000 wrote: »

I watched the end of Jack Ryan. Wow, I really liked it. Have you watched it all Farway?
I would like to watch more shows like that.:T.

Yes, I'm on episode 3 or maybe 4 of series 2, but now High Castle's back I'm mixing & matching at the moment

Brambling, by coincidence I was thinking of cauli cheese soon, just need to find the right price / size cauli, loads when I don't need one.
Stollen, on my leave it until much later list or I'll need to buy another

PasturesNew

Breakfast: Sausages, hash browns, beans, scrambled eggs, splash of brown sauce. That's the end of those sausages.

Snacks: Final pack of crisps from the multipack, a kit-kat, quite a lot of fizzy jelly sweets.

Meal: Flatbread & 2 fishcakes (1cel4nd £1/10) with a splash of ketchup.

I'll no doubt continue to scoff jelly sweeties... might eat something in a flatbread later or might just decide CBA.

caronc

Good evening everyone,

Oh Wednesday I love cauliflower tempura and also pakora after cauli cheese it's my favourite way to have it.:)
As CFO I can struggle to get through a full cauli though do sometimes get one. I do like to keep a bag of the frozen stuff in the freezer as I find it is great for cauli cheese or soup. Though I find it less good for roasting etc. or as a plain veg.
You should have definitely have got that YS gammon Brambling;), I split a 2.25kg piece into two joints, three largeish steaks and a bag of diced gammon yesterday giving me lots of options with it. The joints are 3 portions(ish) worth each and the diced will make 4 portions at least of casserole or pie filling. Once you untie it and spread it out a bit you can easily see what bits will work best for different things IFYSWIM. I paid £11 for it on SO and will get at least 13 meals from it plus stock from poaching the joints which I'm more than happy with.:)

It never really got much above freezing here today and in shady bits the ice didn't melt at all. My sis popped round just before lunch and announced that the bottom of my garden was like an ice rink:eek: and I wasn't to venture down there so she did the bin run for me. As soon as the sun started to sink the frost came back down so it's going to be another cold one tonight. It's supposed to get a bit milder from tomorrow before rain comes in later in the week. It's early in the season for it to have been as icy here, November tends to be more wet & windy weather with lots of gales.

I've had the quiet day I promised myself and ended up falling asleep for a goodish part of the afternoon but the "wonky donkey" feels quieter so probably what I needed. My soup is half made, it can have a "think" overnight and I'll finish it tomorrow as I cba tonight.
Gammon, eggs, chips and mushrooms sound just the thing Farway so I think be following your lead and have similiar though will have the LO corn from last night with it and the "chips" will be waffles. A fried tomato may well sneak in.:)