Cooking for one (Mark Three)

PasturesNew

Spud's a dud... I finally decided "go on, just grab it and nuke it... get rid of it by eating it, you've been staring at it long enough" ..... picked up the bag, reached in and it had a soggy/dripping end, with a few tablespoons of wet potato goo in the bag.  So that was annoyingly binned. Bag said 11 August.... so I've been putting off eating it for ages.  Truth is, I found those spuds too small to be worth walking down 30 stairs to nuke   

Had a slice of cheesecake instead. 

caronc

Good evening everyone, 
Yikes PN, 50 mins for 4 sausages! Is it perhaps a Fahrenheit oven rather than Celsius? 
Sounds sensible to bin the soup Brambling I would have too. 
The sun broke through late afternoon just in time for my sis to pop round for a cuppa and a catch up. We decided to sit in the garden which was lovely but thick cardis were required as it was far from warm. 
My son and his mates walked the Old Man of Storr this morning, unfortunately it was drizzling so the views weren't great but the sun came out as they were coming back down and they got a few half decent photos. 

 

Brambling

Added bonus of my lamb and pearl barley was it contained dumplings- which I now remember adding when I cooked the lamb shanks 🙂

PasturesNew

Cooked breakfast this morning.  Freeing up space to be able to buy a box of burgers. 
I had one of yesterday's sausages, 3 hash browns and 3 scrambled eggs.  

My plan is to go to 1celand for a box of burgers and Mr T for a lasagne.  But it's not critical today, just desirable.... 

Farway

PasturesNew said:

Cooked breakfast this morning.  Freeing up space to be able to buy a box of burgers. 
I had one of yesterday's sausages, 3 hash browns and 3 scrambled eggs.  

Having to retype this, clicked wrong button & lost the first posting

That breakfast sounds good, I fancied something like that because I was up earlier than usual, but stuck with the overnight soaked porridge

With my earlier start I managed to get out & pick my pears.

No idea of variety, mis labelled, but they are large red ones and follow usual pear traits of hard then go rotten overnight

If I CBA poaching them would be the way to use them, they'd look very decorative with the red skins

At last I got round to stewing my windfall apples, lobbed a windfall pear & some snail nibbled figs in the pot while at it

Now I have a large pot of stewed fruit which I'll probably portion up & freeze because I've loads of food a round right now & don't need a crumble to add to the pile bounty

Lunch will very likely be another sausage sarnie

Dinner, cheesey baked spud, mine are OK so far, and with the new season ones now in the shops the PN yukky type should not be a problem at least until New year

With the spud it'll be couple of boiled eggs & salad

I love blue cheese dressing that's available at salad bars and I've some blue cheese LO I may try & make a BC dressing,

There are simple recipes around using ingredients normal folk have knocking around and not requiring a trip to W8rose

Good luck with the early start Brambling, at least the weather is not too wonderful to make a trip to the coast a must this weekend

caronc

Good morning everyone, 
Yummy sounding breakfast PN, I could just eat that even though I've not long finished some toast & cottage cheese.
It's lovely sunny morning here though not that warm, nothing a cardi wouldn't sort though! A lot of my bedding plants are looking past their best so time to start gradually putting the garden to bed for the winter.
BLT wrap for lunch and chicken wings with roast veg for dinner tonight.

PasturesNew

Lunch today was a sausage sandwich and the last portion of cheesecake. 

I grabbed the sausage, brown sauce and cheesecake from the fridge and brought them up to my room, so I sliced the sausage here and built the sandwich (just bread, brown sauce and sausage, no marg) ... then ate the cheesecake out of its foil container as it was the last bit. 

My food/methods are mostly planned around spending the least time possible in the shared kitchen, in case somebody else is doing something there, or if it turns into piccadilly circus during my time there.  If others won't socially distance and you're in a space they think nothing of reaching over you, round you, above you and being super close as it never occurs to them to ask how long you'll be and wait 1-2 minutes.... when they don't care and can just reach over you for a plate, round you for the toaster, over your other shoulder for the microwave... because they're 6' and you're not.

Grabbable food is the way. Quick, nuke, in/out, grab and go.  I keep plates/bowls/cutlery and liquid/sponge/teatowels here.  So thought is also given to "most easily washed up in a miniature sink", plasticware being preferred.  I keep ready meal dishes, so always got plenty of plasticware to nuke/eat from/wash up easily. 

Farway

A first for me, made the blue cheese salad dressing and it is excellent.

Made enough to jar up in the 'fridge for another time, should keep a few days at least

And expanding the repertoire, I may bake some of my fresh picked pears, looks quite easy, tin foil, sugar & cinnamon  plus a bit of time are all that's needed

I'll give it a day or two for the pears to start ripening

caronc

Good evening everyone, 
Glad the BC dressing worked out well Farway, it's one of my favourites and if you have spare pears gorgeous over a pear and walnut  salad with croutons or and crispy cubed potatoes. 
My arm looks as though I've put it in a sack full of angry cats after I stumbled earlier while picking brambles. It's very throbby but I got another decent bowlful . I thought this might be my final picking but I might get a few more yet, they've been brilliant this year and I must have about 4kgs in the freezer. Plenty for bramble gin and winter crumbles plus some to spare so I'm toying with making bramble vinegar if I cba as it's a bit of a faff. 
It's been on the chilly side all day even in the sunshine. Autumn is definitely on it's way! It must be the same in Skye as my son shared a photo of them enjoying lunch from the Oyster Shed and they were all very well wrapped up!  I did a wee bit outdoors before heading inside to warm up and spend a few hours catching up on my voluntary admin.  Jerk spiced chicken wings, courgette, sweet potato and corn cobette are in the oven and telly and a glass of red beckon .

Brambling

Ouch re the arm Caronc, as a child I came off my bike into my dad's roses , freshly manured  I remembered getting told off as I shouldn't have been cycling up the path 🙄 and my mum getting the needle out as I had hands full of thorns  and muttering about lock jaw!

pear and chocolate cake or pudding Farway and I also second the pear, walnut salad with blue cheese dressing 

Hair duty cut, he's put his prices up quite a bit since lockdown 😐 my glasses now have new left lens and I felt a idiot walking around in sunglasses when it was grey and drizzling   I popped into the shop my nephew works and he didn't recognise me, a combination of a mask, big sunglasses and straight hair (the curls will be back first wash 😁) 

I'm nearly organised for tomorrow, my packing will include courgettes, patty pans and tomatoes  not sure what day I'll be back as I have two weeks off work but will only be in Dorset for about a week, his lordship is not amused as he's seen the suitcase but my nephew cat sitting will be his reward 🙀

lunch was a bacon, Brie and mango chutney toasted sandwich at the garden centre with my sister to catch up before I go.  I haven't had dinner yet, I'm just about to cook a quick mushroom omelette