Cooking for one (Mark Three)

candygirl

Just had baked camembert, crunchy bread, celery n carrot sticks .The Morrison's camembert wasn't as good as my usual Aldi one
CARON, they kept taking pics of all us whities in Goa too

Brambling

Well the best laid plans etc ... new cat flap needs a square hole and old one has a round one 🙄 I didn't fit the last one as I had to replace the panel and the company did both and supplied the cat flap.  I'll take it back tomorrow and have a rethink, it might not be a problem for much longer as next door was telling me her dr thinks both her and her daughter are allergic to cats so they are sending him to visit her sister for a month to see if they get better and he'll have his op  ✂️  whilst there.  When we were talking he came running up the path towards her open front door with a bird, she seemed quite shocked especially as I shouted to shut her door or he'll take it in,  i told her to wait until he brings in live gifts and let them go indoors 🙀 she has a lot to learn about the little killers 😺

I fed my sister and nephew a lamb lamb roast dinner tonight and thanks to my hollow legged nephew other than a couple of spoons of veg nothing left other than the bone 😁 we then let him win at a couple of board games 😉. He has had to cancel a trip to Europe to do some conservation work and some travelling unfortunately he had handed his notice in at his work, it's not like he can currently travel to many other places in the world. 




 

PasturesNew

Just to let you know, I will be looking for somewhere else, to start after 1 June.  I'm paid to the end of June, so will be minimising my overlap/loss.  
The thing is... continuing to pay rent reduces what I can afford to pay for a house - and as I'm already often £10-20k short any £1k becomes critical as it could mean the difference between bagging one and moving in with £5 in my pocket left over, or missing out for the sake of £1k.  
Budget is tight... each penny less is critical. 

Farway

I've popped the Panny on and it's making a loaf now, seeing the panic buying news with flour etc vanishing I may eventually be reduced to surviving on biscuits

The birthday party went well, just crisps, nuts, sarnies, sausage rolls & cake. What else would a 13 year old & his granddad possibly need?

Breakfast usual porridge

Lunch, I had hoped my new loaf would be ready but due to waking up late events I have to endure one last use up stale bread cheese toastie

I've taken a pack of back bacon out to defrost and my thoughts are BLT sarnie made with fresh bread for dinner as realised the MFO RM standby use by is the 19th and fresh bread is far more appealing than a nuked MFO

Just heard news over 70s, like me, could be confined to barracks for ages, not sure how that will play out especially as according to pension age folk we should all be fit enough to carry on our scaffolding & jet pilot jobs at this age

caronc said:

 my younger son starts 24 hours of travelling/waiting at Dubai airport tomorrow evening and is working tomorrow before that, but had a great time sight seeing today well plastered in Factor 50! Both him and his boss are big guys and both fair skinned and my son a red head so not best suited to blistering sunshine! Compared to the petite Bangladeshi people they seem like giants and everywhere they went today local folk wanted to take their photo. Well seeing my son isn't camera shy  .

candygirl said:

CARON, they kept taking pics of all us whities in Goa too

I had same in Japan, I suspect due to my beard as well as comparative height

PN, thanks for the update

Wednesday2000

Yes, I just read that too Farway about the over 70s.

I had a leftover mini pizza for breakfast and then I just made roast potatoes, roast carrots, roast onions and veggie sausages with gravy and brown sauce. It was lovely. OMG, I could eat it again.

Farway

Manged a spot more buddlia pruning just in time, and now the rain has arrived.

Loaf done and cooling, all set for BLT sarnie dinner

PasturesNew

Strangely enough, I suspect I've got flour in storage.  When I was selling my house I deliberately ran down most foods as far as I can, but, come the final day I had a couple of bags of food.... so I popped them into storage.  I'd probably find I've a bag of each type in there (plain, SR).  I did spot a can of corned beef in the bag the other day when I went to storage, but I've no real idea what's in there to be honest.  There's probably custard, pasta, flour, half a dozen tins, stuffing ....  it's not worthwhile me spending time remembering to look/check and see what I do have in there to be honest.  There's not a lot.

Today I've had: a cup a soup, a naked noodle pot.  I'll have a few honey/nut cornflakes in a bit to finish off the box.  I've two new unopened boxes of those, so I might pick up another 1-2 tomorrow.  

Tomorrow I plan to go out for some bits:  honey/nut cornflakes, tinned peas, tinned fruit, flatbreads... and "something nice" whatever that is if I stumble across it.  

I am not bothered about the food situation as such... there's no actual shortage of any of it overall - and, to me, I don't get hung up on "meals".  So long as I have something edible to keep me alive I'm pretty happy as a rule.  Yes, choice is nice, variety is lovely, but, at the end of the day, so long as you have something you won't starve... 

I would like to be in a position where I could simply knock up a stew and dumplings ... eat it ... burp .... wash up .... but that'll come in time. 

I still spend (far too much) time accumulating AF recipes (well, photos) ... and it's definitely the way to go for me.  I'll buy one of those at some point, just not while I'm here as I can't use it and there's no point - you need to buy something, get it out of the box and use it soonest, even if it's just to check it works or not in case it needs refunding     I'm also collecting piemaker recipes.  I've finally decided (I think) that possibly a family sized piemaker would be the one for me.... again, a future purchase, not now.  PM would be after AF. 

Brambling

Farway said:

Just heard news over 70s, like me, could be confined to barracks for ages, not sure how that will play out 

As an asthmatic I'm waiting to see if I get locked in as well 😳. I can work from home so that's not a problem but I might flag with the boss tomorrow.  My neighbour has had a kidney transplant and tells me her company are telling her she shouldn't be at work, as is her husband although she's not listening to him but she doesn't think she will get a choice as far as her work is concerned 🙄. 

After returning the cat flap I popped into the garden centre (it's around the corner from home) as my sister reminded me they were selling off loads of plants for £3 something about the 'unprecedented rain' causing a surplus of plants in their Hampshire nurseries.  They all sale at 8.99 and above and were nice plants, I have gaps from when the gardener removed some old plants last year.  I've brought five and a couple of alpines which were a £1

lunch was a 'will buy again' pork and apple burger from the farm shop I have another in the freezer 🙂. I also took out a piece of feather steak so will stir fry that with veg and have with noodles for dinner.  When I cba I'll make something for the next few lunches just need to decide what 🤔

FYI - people panic buy in pet shops to, I've never known it so busy and that was as soon as it opened 🙀. The woman in front either had a lot of dogs or as she looked over 70 I'm assuming was stocking up 

Wednesday2000

Brambling said:

FYI - people panic buy in pet shops to, I've never known it so busy and that was as soon as it opened 🙀. The woman in front either had a lot of dogs or as she looked over 70 I'm assuming was stocking up 

This is actually something about the virus that worried me as my dogs and cats have a special diet. I have ordered extras this week.

I luckily have bought the flea and worm treatment in advance for the whole year already.

caronc

Good evening everyone, 
Day 2 of CFO and all is well lol  
Looks like a fab loaf for a BLT Farway  
Sounds as though you're stuck between a rock and a hard place PN 🤗, my fingers are crossed that you find somewhere you want to buy soon.
Glad you were able to return the cat flap Brambling, sounds as though kitty situation may resolve itself if the owners think they might be allergic.   My sister's puss and the neighbour's have been having "through the glass" wars on and off all day. It's both funny and wearing at the same time. Visiting puss nearly escaped today, he'd done the liquid cat thing and disappeared into a tiny nook in the kitchen so I thought he was in another part of the house when I went to empty the bin. Thankfully I caught him slithering out of it from the corner of my eye and disaster was averted much to his dismay .
I'm down to my last pack of dishwasher tablets so time to do an Asda order to restock those and other household items as Tesco no longer sell the cheap ones I like. I tend to buy 4-6 months worth at a time along with bin bags etc. I'd read that slots were hard to get and there was nothing available until this Thursday which I've booked. I must be wanting things that folk aren't panic buying as the things I wanted were available though it's just as well as I wasn't wanting loo roll or pasta!!! I then looked at Tesco and they were fully booked to next weekend so have booked a slot for the middle of the following week. The Asda my stuff comes from is dire so I wouldn't buy fresh stuff from there so will need a "normal" shop at some point. Yes I am buying a few extra bits but nothing excessive just one's of various store cupboard bits that I use anyway, if it's going to be hard to get deliveries I don't want to rely on others any more than I need to. I think us CFOers need to be mindful that if we get poorly or have to isolate ourselves do we need to be able to manage adequately. Thankfully I have the cash to do that, I feel anxious for those that can't though it's good to see the SMs are beginning to take a more joined up approach to restricting quantities of things folk can buy so hopefully some of the gaps on shelves will be filled. 
This afternoon I did the very satisfying job of tidying out my linen "cupboard" (actually a tall shelf in a wardrobe), it's something I'm usually a tad OCD about it being ordered but with revolving household numbers for a couple of months now it was a mess and a case of opening the door carefully so it didn't all topple out. Duvet covers and matching pillowcases are now folded together, flat sheets properly folded and stacked, fitted sheets beaten into semi-submission and "good" towels piled neatly. It's shame it's out of view as the rest of the house is a bit of a messy hole at the moment but at least I know it's tidy!!
Younger son is now at Dubai airport after a delayed flight a Dakha - lots of folk trying to get to various places before more borders close swamped things but as there is big gap between his flights the delay's not an issue. He's now perusing Duty Free......
Lunch was a ham salad sarnie with the last of the finally ripened plums (display until 5th Feb!!). Beef olives have been slow cooked with mushrooms & onions and the gravy just needs thickening - I'm having those with baby spuds, cabbage and carrots. Tomorrow  CFO ends again and I've smoked bacon ribs defrosting to make a pan of lentil soup in the morning for dinner in the evening for us . My sis will bring some fresh crusty bread to go with it. It's to fall below zero tonight and be windy and cold tomorrow so soup won't go wrong.