Cooking for one (Mark Three)

caronc

Yes didn't it look yummy Farway and easily scaled up or down. It's on my "to make" when the weather turns wintery.

PasturesNew

Farway said:

 

Did anyone watch JO programme this week, with the sausage & mash style pie?

I liked the look of that and looked a good 'un for a winter's day

I like the idea of making pie with mash, ticks all sorts of boxes. Bet mince or steak would be a nice option

No, so I googled it... that's how school dinners used to be, except without the base layer of spuds. 
Personally, I've always said, "there are no extra points for presentation".  As a CFO ... you might as well just cook mash/sausages and serve that and save time and washing up   

These things look good, in a large/family sized dish - and look better on the table for a family.... but half the time/work's gone into just presentation, which a CFO doesn't need   

Wednesday2000

PasturesNew said:

Farway said:

 

Did anyone watch JO programme this week, with the sausage & mash style pie?

I liked the look of that and looked a good 'un for a winter's day

I like the idea of making pie with mash, ticks all sorts of boxes. Bet mince or steak would be a nice option

No, so I googled it... that's how school dinners used to be, except without the base layer of spuds. 

Whenever I read school dinners I think back to the mashed potato that the dinner ladies scooped out with what looked like an ice cream scoop.

PasturesNew

Wednesday2000 said:

Whenever I read school dinners I think back to the mashed potato that the dinner ladies scooped out with what looked like an ice cream scoop.

My palate still happily sits in that zone.  LOVED school dinners.  Mum cooked basic foods (egg/chips, chicken roast on Sundays, stew/dumplings) and even did a few desserts (banana custard, Greens sponges steamed, bread/butter pudding).... but school dinners were where you got to eat things that weren't made at home and I loved them.  I was fed, say, 65-77, so the golden years of steamed puddings, flan, chips, sausage pie, sponge/pink custard .... loved them all.  School mash was nice and had little lumps in, I actually like lumpy mash to this day; their mash also was just basic mash... nothing fancy, so I'm quite happy just mashing spuds and adding a small dob of marg.   They also used to have a vegetable option that was thinly sliced carrots and thinly sliced swede cooked together, that was absolutely gorgeous, with gravy over it.  To this day, a good meal for me would be a plate of just mash, sliced carrots, sliced swede and gravy  

Wednesday2000

PasturesNew said:

Wednesday2000 said:

Whenever I read school dinners I think back to the mashed potato that the dinner ladies scooped out with what looked like an ice cream scoop.

  To this day, a good meal for me would be a plate of just mash, sliced carrots, sliced swede and gravy  

That is weird as I was thinking the same thing today. I used to do a nut roast every Sunday but the bit I enjoyed was the veg with gravy and the stuffing of course. I should start doing that again.

Brambling

I don't have fond memories of school dinners including the grey lumpy mash and semolina or tapioca  I wanted sandwiches like my friends but as I had free school dinners had to have them as well as the humiliation for a teenager of queuing for the tickets on a Monday morning. My first year at senior school they were building the new school around us so no kitchens, they transported the lunch from the school 4 or 5 miles away we would see it arrive at 10am so it really wasn't great by lunch time.

Quiet day work wise there are just two of us from the team working today and no long conference calls    So managed to get my washing done and out on the line we've worked until after 6 for months so I'm not feeling guilty and we plan to log off now as we don't get paid for the extra hours and we both want to enjoy the sun when we have it.  I have worked the rest of the day 

Lunch was a mystery box from the freezer which turned out to be vegetable chilli which I had with a AF jacket potato.  Not sure about dinner as it was very filling so if I'm hungry it will be something with eggs as I have a dozen in the fridge which need eating 

PasturesNew

Brambling said:

I don't have fond memories of school dinners 

I went to a lot of schools, so was lucky at many.  

I went to infants/juniors - fab dinners.  

Mum had an operation and I had to be dropped off at nan's and go to the school next to her house for 6-8 weeks, I don't remember their meals but I'd have remembered if they were bad. As nan's was next door (born 1905) it's possible I went home for lunch as that's what that generation did.

I moved house to a new school - fab dinners. 

The school split and opened up a new building, with a new canteen - great dinners.

I went to secondary school - fab dinners.

I changed secondary schools - brilliant dinners. 

 

gt568

Just ate some "super noodles", not very "super" in all honesty.

PasturesNew

gt568 said:

Just ate some "super noodles", not very "super" in all honesty.

I tried them many years ago and found them thick/gloopy and dense.  I have always preferred the cheapo versions as they're much less dense.  Just because something is a brand name it doesn't mean you have to like it more than pauper versions. 

Farway

Brambling said:

I don't have fond memories of school dinners including the grey lumpy mash and semolina or tapioca  I wanted sandwiches like my friends but as I had free school dinners had to have them as well as the humiliation for a teenager of queuing for the tickets on a Monday morning. My first year at senior school they were building the new school around us so no kitchens, they transported the lunch from the school 4 or 5 miles away we would see it arrive at 10am so it really wasn't great by lunch time.

Sounds very similar to my experiences. I wanted the cold toast & butter brought in by classmates.

I can still feel the humiliation of not having to take my dinner money to the teacher, being curtly  / sneeringly dismissed as "free" to the whole class as the names were ticked off instead of him just silently passing over my name. There where some rotten teachers around then so the few exceptions really stood out

Whatever school I was in the meals were rank, lumps in the mash were lumps of powder not bits of spuds [rationing]

Between them & my mother's cooking it's a wonder I got this far

However now are far better times for which I'm grateful, lock down or not is a mere inconvenience by comparison

Dull & windy, supposed to be warm but doesn't feel it

Lunch I'm going rash & back to corned beef & piccalilli sarnie, fancying making some sort of pie with CB but maybe not

Dinner, given weather I'm going use up & full on roast.

Steaming some LO cauli & cabbage, extremely wrinkled carrots. Frozen Aunty B roast spuds, and I'm defrosting a lump of LO roast beef

I'll check for fresh beans later, and pop them in if available

PS, PN, has to be sometimes pricier / branded is better but has to be tried just in case it's not