Cooking for one (Mark Three)

caronc

Good evening everyone,
Glad you enjoyed your F&C PN:)
It's been wild and very wet here this afternoon, I was going to do a bin run but decided it can wait until tomorrow.
Yapped on the phone for over an hour with my elder son - think the world was put to rights at least twice :rotfl: and had another separate chat with his fianc!e on how it had went yesterday. They are off for a "posh" meal tonight to celebrate though it won't be a late one as my son is working tomorrow and needs to catch a train very early.
I had the last of the cheese pudding for lunch but it was still tasty but had gone a tad stodgy. I think next time I'll half the recipe.:)
Mince and tatties from the freezer tonight with sprouts and carrots.

Brambling

Thanks for the rhubarb tip Farway I've noticed that they don't do a lot of watering in our local Wilko

Caronc my air fryer is a Vonshef i brought it on sale when Tesco Direct were closing. I probably don't use it as much as I could but I find it very useful. It has a basket and not a paddle and as I said to Farway I wouldn't get one with just a trivet which some of the cheap ones have

I walked up to town again lunchtime to make the most of the dry weather before the rain starts again tomorrow, i don't mind that it was cold enough for frost this morning as it wasn't raining . I picked up four books in a charity shop for £2 three from authors I like and one a new author for me which should keep me occupied for a little while and will get passed on to my sisters once finished

Lunch was the last of the stuffed vegetables today it was half each of pepper, tomato and mushroom I've really enjoyed then and the added goats cheese made them really tasty

I had no fish fingers which I fancied thanks to Farway so dinner was a breaded cod fillet sandwich with a small spinach salad, the fish was cooked in the air fryer

Wednesday2000

I went totally off my healthy eating yesterday. I had some chips from the chip shop and then pizza!

I just had three leftover slices of pizza for breakfast. I'm going to freeze the rest for another day!

I'm just having some green tea now.

I think I will go and look around the charity shops today.:) My husband has an optician appointment at 4 so I will go out this morning.

PasturesNew

All I ate yesterday was the fish/chips, didn't need anything else.

Drizzley here today.

Must do my tax return today .... and I will try to not leave the house until it's done... then I might wander out for food.

If I could do it early enough, I could treat myself to a meatless carvery, but I'll drag my feet over it all no doubt ... and end up treating myself to that carvery tomorrow

I am feeling a distinct shortage of sweeties... so some sweeties will no doubt be bought today/tomorrow.

caronc

Good morning everyone

Brambling wrote: »

Caronc my air fryer is a Vonshef i brought it on sale when Tesco Direct were closing. I probably don't use it as much as I could but I find it very useful. It has a basket and not a paddle and as I said to Farway I wouldn't get one with just a trivet which some of the cheap ones have

Thanks Brambling
I think sweeties would be well deserved for getting your tax return done PN:cool:

Wet and windy here again today but not as dire as yesterday as there are some gaps between the rain & hail! Doesn't seen quite as cold either:). I made the most of a rain gap to do a bin run and top up the indoor log supply.
My sis was on the phone first thing - her heating has died again.:( I think it might be cheaper in the long run to replace the boiler so she's going have a think about that.
Lunch will be soup and a sarnie and it's pasta of some description for dinner tonight.

PasturesNew

caronc wrote: »

I think it might be cheaper in the long run to replace the boiler so she's going have a think about that.

The funny thing is a boiler should be a simple thing.

Many people have a simple gas fire on the living room wall, you wander over, turn it on, on it comes. All people don't often/always have problems with gas fires and have to replace them every 10 years.

A boiler is the same: gas in, jets/flame....
Then there's a simple pump to pump water in a pipe past the flames to heat up.
Then there's a simple timer.

So why on earth do boilers give so much trouble?

It's all that electronic stuff....

I bet if we all had a boiler that simply worked for 50+ years, like gas fires do ... and we had to manually turn it on, we'd not mind at all.

Tax Return Status: Logged on OK, that's always a good start. Got the figures. Done the figures for the year. Now need to sit on it for a bit... then I need to log into my Paypal and download the figures.... go through that and cross check.

Then I'll sit on it for a bit and fill the form in.

If I were to crack on and do it now it could be done/submitted in the next hour... but I won't. I'll doss about and think about it ... have a rest, make a coffee. etc.

EDIT: All done on the tax return front, submitted. The less you do, the quicker/easier it becomes

Mine's easy... I just have to go through my bank statements and spot where I've received money - and where I've spent it. Jot those on a spreadsheet. It's usually roughly about 20 items in total.

Farway

Another wet day.
Came home with doggy back from the the buffet yesterday, so had one day off from CFO. There's still a large lump of Dundee cake left for casual scoffing:j

Into town for usual Thursday mooch, with nil bargains found. Must have piggy problems in W8rose, the pig shelves, bacon, ham etc were empty, not that if affected me so counselling is not needed;)

Lunch was fried egg sarnie
Dinner, it'll be LO beef stew & LO dumplings, ideal manky weather for it

PN, the lunchtime F & C's offers are quite common round here, around £4ish, they were once marketed as OAP specials here, but now as Lunchtime specials, ideal size for one

I think the fish is a bit smaller, but as you found, all freshly cooked while you wait, at least it is if you're "early doors"

And now I may have to get some tomorrow:o, I have to go in GPs for blood results, and the chippy is opposite, could find me over there if the blighter's open

Gas boilers, as PN, it's the electronics, and safety stuff that goes. I had a replacement circuit board, £300, and then it was a pressure diaphragm leaking & causing pressure loss.. All easily replaced but labour is the stinger

caronc wrote: »

PN I was talking to my son at the weekend about getting an air fryer - Farway & Brambling what brand to you have? I don't want one with a paddle just a tray. Thanks.
Last of the cheese pudding for lunch and dinner will be a freezer rake, I've admin to do this afternoon so will want something quick to prep later.

The one I bought was this The 3.2L version, went for this one as it had removable basket, and OK for dishwasher & variable temperature plus a timer [30minutes] It was £47 on Amazon & took about 4 days to arrive despite being Prime.

I've not tried washing it yet, dirty dog:D, but looks easy enough

I've found the basket a bit tricky so I remove the whole drawer and go from there rather than have hot "stuff" on the floor

PasturesNew

One question re fryers...

If I open up a mini oven/toaster oven and peer at the inside top I can see exposed elements.

When it comes to air fryers and cleaning, are there any exposed elements in an air fryer.

I'm just wondering how hard "inside the big beast bit" is to clean over time, if one were the sort that tossed a lot of fatty foods in there.

Having never seen inside one with the drawer out, it's one thing I wanted to poke around in a shop for, to have a look.

I dislike exposed elements of any sort anywhere. They're so tricky to even contemplate cleaning without doing it wrong/using the wrong thing, never getting a good result.

NOTE: I do not have a dishwasher, have never had one, won't be getting one, so all drawer cleaning will be by hand, in a bowl of hot soapy water.

P.S. Another thing I added to my "do this in the AF" food list was: fried eggs. I'd not expect to do one more than 1-2x a year, but it's on the list.

PasturesNew

Farway wrote: »

...

From you link, I saw this photo, which petrified me...
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/S/aplus-media/sc/e6470d3c-0bbe-47fc-b392-82154a18d80a.__CR0,0,970,600_PT0_SX970_V1___.jpg

I'd never overfill the basket like that, it doesn't look reasonable/possible for it to fit into the slot, nor cook thoroughly.

Doesn't look "safe"....

If I did that with a chicken I'd expect it to jam, burn, be raw on the inside, create a lot of sticky mess that was hard to clean/remove and be an utter dismal outcome!

Or is it a case of "poor example" as the inner tray's actually been raised/fixed, which is a feature of how to get things out and, in reality, that actual chicken DID sit wholly within the basket during cooking - and was only "raised" for the photo?

Farway

PasturesNew wrote: »

One question re fryers...

When it comes to air fryers and cleaning, are there any exposed elements in an air fryer. If I open up a mini oven/toaster oven and peer at the inside top I can see exposed elements.

I'm just wondering how hard "inside the big beast bit" is to clean over time, if one were the sort that tossed a lot of fatty foods in there.

Having never seen inside one with the drawer out, it's one thing I wanted to poke around in a shop for, to have a look.

I dislike exposed elements of any sort anywhere. They're so tricky to even contemplate cleaning without doing it wrong/using the wrong thing, never getting a good result.

P.S. Another thing I added to my "do this in the AF" food list was: fried eggs. I'd not expect to do one more than 1-2x a year, but it's on the list.

I've just had a look inside mine. There is an exposed element, with fan blades above it. But this is not visible or accessible without removing drawer & deliberately tipping the machine backwards

If you tried hard you could stab them with knife or stick you fingers in, but you couldn't do it accidentally because it would require the drawer to be removed and machine tipped backwards about 45 degrees or more


In addition there is a safety interlock that removes power from fan + element when drawer is opened. If you tried hard you could shove your hand in & burn yourself when the hot drawer was removed


There is no way you could get a chicken in as the picture, it just wouldn't fit or the drawer close, it's just artistic licence, AKA as BS
I don't think you'd get a whole chicken in, unless it was very small, maybe get a pigeon in;)


Frying an egg in one? Guess it could be done using something like a shallow bowl for oil, there are slots in the base of the basket, for air circulation hence the need for a bowl / saucer for any oil, but I'd be wary of hot frying oil spilling / splashing as the drawer was opened. I'll stick with my frying pan, easier & quicker