Cooking for one (Mark Three)

caronc

The spaghetti with cauli cheese sauce and crispy crumb was delicious. Much lighter than usual cheese sauce recipes but filling and tasty. Well worth the slight faffing. I halved the recipe and it gave two decent portions, I reckon the sauce would freeze okay or could be used as a soup base so pretty CFO friendly and 1/4 of the recipe could be made for one portion. The only changes I made were to add a dollop of  English mustard to the sauce and I used a bread roll from the freezer rather than sourdough for the crumb. I used frozen cauli so no had no leaves to add to the crumb mix but they were good without it.  I made the sauce and  crumb this afternoon and the sauce warmed through just fine while the pasta was cooking and saved managing timings. It was this recipe https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/cauliflower-recipes/cauliflower-cheese-pasta/
A definite 👍 in the Caronc household

Farway

Caron, thanks for trial of the cauli past from JO.

Liking the idea of making the sauce mix before the pasta because I'm terrible with timings

Now shall I? Shan't I?

I've just been watering the volunteer pots and popped over Co-op for an Iceberg, none, must be world shortage.

However the lovely cauli shelf was heaving, so I've a large fresh cauli now, which was destined as C Cheese but maybe not now

I was up early for no real reason, just failure to get back to sleep, hence early breakfast & out watering

Dull but mild morning

I still have some LO gammon to use up

Lunch is thus gammon sarnie

Dinner was going to be salad but see above, still no lettuce so it's TBA but the JO cauli pasta is a candidate

I may lob in the last bits of gammon depending what I have

caronc

Good morning everyone, 
Go on Farway, you know you want to 
Grey but dry (so far) here this morning, hopefully it stays that way as I want to do some tidying in the front garden. Sunday's trimming of the buddleia and willow has exposed a lot of debris needing cleared. 
My elder so returned  late yesterday evening from Greece so is now in quarantine, I'll get a catch up with him later by video as he was back to work first thing this morning.
HM soup again for lunch and it's another Thai green curry tonight - chicken, aubergine and broccoli this time. 

PasturesNew

Still nothing for sale that is "good enough". 

Currently considering: 
1/ A flat, in an area I bet is awash with nuisances and drugs dealers, leading into a rat run where the homeless hang out. Plus points: It has a private door/entrance and a sunny garden and sort of conservatory style porch in the garden. 
2/ A part of a semi detached house, with smallish rooms and poor layout on a road where nuisances are often hanging out being a nuisance.  Plus points: it has a new roof and parking in the sunny garden (but behind big gates that'd always need opening/closing).
Both are £290k, down from £300k yesterday .... neither is luring me into a viewing.

Farway

caronc said:

Good morning everyone, 
Go on Farway, you know you want to 
Grey but dry (so far) here this morning, hopefully it stays that way as I want to do some tidying in the front garden. Sunday's trimming of the buddleia and willow has exposed a lot of debris needing cleared. 
My elder so returned  late yesterday evening from Greece so is now in quarantine, I'll get a catch up with him later by video as he was back to work first thing this morning.
HM soup again for lunch and it's another Thai green curry tonight - chicken, aubergine and broccoli this time. 

Yep, done it, or at least prepped it & ready to go

The cauli green leaves were minimal & rubbish so no crispy topping for me

Sun's come out, it's really hot now with the sun

PN, at least prices are going down, I did see some places are increasing but that is M4 corridor with the City slickers moving out now they can work from home, sell their London cupboard and buy a country cottage once the farm labourer has been evicted

PasturesNew

Farway said:

 

PN, at least prices are going down, I did see some places are increasing but that is M4 corridor with the City slickers moving out now they can work from home, sell their London cupboard and buy a country cottage once the farm labourer has been evicted

Yes they are.... but moreso in the higher priced places.  I've spotted some I don't want that've reduced from £360k to £290k and similar £40-60k drops... but they were just overpriced and optimistic to start with. 

While a house on at £500 might drop to £425k, a £300k one is less likely to drop to £250k.  But, the thing is, what's for sale I don't want.... when I do see something I almost want they do tend to sell very fast, so I know I won't be able to sit and wait for a price drop when I see something I want.... trouble is, waiting for something I want  

Wednesday2000

I put up alerts on Rightmove for places near the coast. We may still move before the stamp duty holiday ends. I am getting so many alerts everyday. It seems like loads of people are selling.

I had a yummy breakfast of a toasted pitta bread with beans, avocado, salsa and salad.

Farway

Last night's JO style Cauli / pasta turned out fine, but very filling. I really should've only eaten half of it not 3/4

It would definitely benefit from a crunchy topping to give more texture & colour, mine looked a bit like a plate of lumpy wallpaper paste

Bit of a lie in this morning, catching up from yesterday's early morning no doubt

Due to late start I skipped breakfast, so lunch is the overnight soaked porridge breakfast

Dinner, at present a gammon sarnie will do but I may change my mind, plenty of stuff in the freezer now

caronc

Good morning everyone, 
Yes I think it needs a bit of crunch on top Farway, we thought crumbled crispy bacon bits would work well instead of the crumbs if that appeals? Yes it is filling but I didn't find it as stodgy on the tummy as traditional macaroni cheese.
Our thai curry last night worked well, I think I prefer it with chicken to prawns/pollock. I only had skin on/bone in thighs and rather than wasting the skin I made crispy chicken skin to have with it - naughty but very nice.
Haircut for me today and my lovely hairdresser is making an exception and coming to my house to do it. Her insurance insists that all customers have their hair washed which I can't manage in the salon. As it looks as though my area could be heading back into lockdown I'm so glad to be getting it done this week as it's not been properly cut since last year!!
Cullen skink for us tonight though I will wait until later to cook it so the house doesn't reek of smoked fish when she comes.

Farway

caronc said:

Good morning everyone, 
Yes I think it needs a bit of crunch on top Farway, we thought crumbled crispy bacon bits would work well instead of the crumbs if that appeals?

Sounds good to me.

I seem to recall on some pub [Harvester type]buffets there was bowl with bacon bits to sprinkle over salad, alongside the Blue Cheese dressing bowl I expect

The good old days