Cooking for one (Mark Three)

caronc

Good evening everyone, 
Any beach walks here today would definitely be on the soggy and wind swept side! However there was a brief break in the rain and I nipped to the veg patch as I knew there were beans needing picking. Voila a large mixing bowl full of green, runner & broad beans plus the last of the peas and three courgettes.   I'm having some of the beans & peas with my bangers & mash shortly and the rest have been prepped and popped in the freezer.  I also picked around 1/2kg of brambles to add to my stash, they are tailing off but I think I'll get good few more yet, they've been really prolific this year.  I did get somewhat "midged" while I was picking them so have a less than love bunch of itchy welts on my arms and a couple on my face, I should have known better than to furtle amongst a briar patch in such damp conditions!
Meal plan for my CFO spell has been done plus a provisional one for next week so I could finalise my Tesco order for tomorrow.
My son arrived ok in Skye after a 6 hour drive, there's a smashing view from where they are staying it just needs some sunshine. He was in charge of catering tonight so headed off with HM aubergine curry, dal and some bought naan and "ping" rice sachets. Enough to feed an army or hollow-legged lads who no doubt had eaten their packed lunches before they were passed Glasgow lol 

Brambling

I hope you missed the worst of the rain PN I saw they had flooding in Burton Bradstock which I know is further west than you but very close to where I going on Sunday (we're up on a hill  ) I made the decision to go down to Dorset, I was dithering about going but I know my BIL wouldn't go if he didn't feel safe and most of our walking is done away from the beaches.  Other than my sis and BIL who's caravan it is I wouldn't be visiting family this time. His lordship will be happy as my nephew is cat sitting and he's the only male my cat likes and the only other person he will sit on, they adore each other 🙄

My new freezer is rapidly filling up with garden stuff, and I added patty pans, more courgettes, courgette and leek soup, runner beans, large spring onions (white bulbs) and not from the garden  7 ice cream scoops of root veg mash (carrot, swede, parsnip, turnip and celeriac).  I will probably make a pasta sauce with the tomatoes as I don't think I'll eat them all raw and freeze it 

lunch was a portion of the soup.  Dinner was pan fried lambs liver, root veg mash and courgette chips

edit - seeing family pictures on FB from Wimborne PN it looks like you weren't that far from localised flooding 🙂

Farway

No surprise that my runners blew over again, I think they are doomed, especially with even more rain due later  

PasturesNew said:

I bought 8 sausages, thinking "I'll oven bake those"... but really not feeling like getting round to it at all.  

I've taken to oven cooking sausages lately.

I tried the Air Fryer which works fine but then left with yukky greasy mess.

The gas grill also works well, except when the fat spits & catches fire, not recommend

Frying pan splatters everywhere. Not nuked them but I assume they would also splatter the inside of the nuker unless covered

In the oven they still spit and seep fat but it's contained to the tray, which in my case is lobbed into the dishwasher once fat wiped off

Brambling, a brave lady heading West on a Bank Holiday. My the Force be with you

And surprising how quickly  a second freezer tops up once you have one it's a boon at times

Lunch, Think I'll repeat yesterday with cheese & salady sarnie

Dinner will also be a repeat, but this time I'll use the other variety of sausages, oven cooked of course, with HM AF chips & fried eggs

Still not 100% "right" with food after my tum spell earlier in the week. Silver lining is over 5 lbs lost, which is probably just fluid but it's a consolation anyway

I may be making an apple & fig crumble this weekend if I get the ooomph

Wednesday2000

I made roasted chickpeas for breakfast today. 

caronc

Good afternoon everyone, 
Enjoy your trip to Dorset Brambling.
Hope your tum settles Farway.
Dry here today but overcast and far from warm, it's supposed to be a chilly weekend so my indoor log stack has been replenished. If it's going to be 7C this evening it will be needed.
Tesco delivery has been delivered and put away - no subs this week . 
Ham and cottage cheese salad followed by grapes for lunch. For dinner I'm making a cheats "Po'boy" - spicy breaded prawns, romaine lettuce, tomatoes and not-quite-remoulade dressing in a crusty roll. A few oven chips may well be popped in the AF with the prawns.

PasturesNew

Brambling said:

I hope you missed the worst of the rain PN I saw they had flooding  

Yes, lots of localised flooding.  For me, it's no worry because I'm renting.... if this place gets flooded, I just walk  
It's not like being a home owner when it comes to storms and floods. 
I watched it out of my window, could barely see the 50 yards to the end of the road. 
I'm on a hill, leading to a downhill footpath, that goes into the downhill path directly to the beach ..... I bet there were floods of water cascading in there and petrifying walkers..... not looked for any videos of it yet though. 

I'm sitting on a huge pile of "I'm all right Jack" at the moment.  No responsibilities for property.  I can see the drug dealers, but not worry; I can watch the floods and not fret.   Actually, a drugs dealer got caught in that shower, I saw him and his struggle to get to his dealer with his motorbike, I saw his abandonment of the last 50 yards, then his U turn in the road and taking shelter... before, finally, brushing himself down and going to get his collection  

PasturesNew

That cooking malarky.  My advice is: avoid at all costs. 

I had this strange notion that if I bought some sausages I could just pop them in the oven and bake them... my frying pan's in storage and I could use one here, but prefer to use "my things"... so, oven it was.  Should only take 20-25 minutes at 190.  It took 15 minutes for the oven to heat up.... then in they went and I twisted it up to 210 as it'd taken so long to heat up I thought it might be a bit of a sluggish beast.  Finally ..... 50 minutes later, I removed them from the oven.  They were cooked, but they weren't "browned, a nice deep brown" which is the whole point of "cooking" -v- nuking.  What a waste of time an energy (electrical and mine).  I cooked four.  The remaining four I'll nuke as per usual. 

As I was making a sausage toastie.... there was absolutely no difference to me in taste of the end product.  You only gain if you're going to put them on a plate, all nice and brown, then cut into them with a knife and enjoy the brownness of them on a plate.... if you're just going to slice them in half with brown sauce in a toastie, definitely nuke. 

I only did it because people would say "it's the best thing to do" -v- my usual route. 

15 + 50 minutes for four sausages = not worth it. 

Farway

I beg to differ on bangers PN, but I'm on gas which may be why

After this morning's post about bangers I decided I'd have a sausage sarnie instead of cheese

30 minutes Gas 6, flipped over half way During which time I was tip tapping away on keyboard

Not bothered about washing tray because I'll be cooking tow more later for dinner.

The timing works out perfectly with the HM AF chips using new season spuds, they also take 30 minutes

Just had "your" rain arrive PN, and Brambling, my DD is sat in traffic on her way home from Devon holiday, and the BH has only just started

PasturesNew

Going into the BH weekend food I've got that needs to be eaten now is: most of a loaf, 4 crumpets, most of a cucumber, 8 cherry tomatoes, a banana, 2 cooked sausages, 4 uncooked sausages, 1 hard boiled egg, 3 raw eggs, the final spud still of the 4-pack and 2 pieces of cheesecake.

... still always just having to eat things already bought that don't disappear in 1-2 days ....  

I don't really fancy most of that.

Brambling

I'm planning to leave here before 7am Sunday morning Farway in the hope of being down there by 10am, it's not forecast to be hot so I should hopefully be ahead of any traffic, last year I had problem even early on the the A27 where people were blocking the roundabout trying to get to the beach at West Wittering as there is limited carparking. 

We've had a couple of heavy downpours since lunch so I'm hoping that's it for today and the weekend as I have a hair appointment tomorrow and I then have to wander around town for a hour in sun glasses when the opticians replace the left lens in my glasses.  Unfortunately i didn't think to make an appointment to drop glasses off first before hair cut as I don't need them in the hair dressers     I'm really short sighted so can't wander with no glasses and don't really want to sit in a busy opticians for an hour.

I lay in bed this morning and remembered that I hadn't put the remaining soup in the fridge last night when I decanted and froze 3 portions, I decided against keeping as it is reasonably warm in my kitchen and had been out since yesterday lunch time (i pushed it to the back to cool)  So the plan to have soup for lunch was scraped and i had falafels in a wrap with salad (they cook from frozen in the AF)  Dinner is also not as planned the container was labelled steak and kidney which surprised me as I haven't made it for a quite a while but looking at it lunch time it appears to be lamb and pearl barley, which isn't a problem but .................. I have some courgettes of course and some runner beans to go with it.  It will be enjoyed but goodness knows where my brain was