Cooking for one (Mark Three)

Farway

caronc said:

Exciting news yesterday as my elder son and DIL-to-be had an offer accepted on a flat. It is in the area they wanted and is a three bed so ideal for their needs. It has been done up to a good standard and they hope to move in mid-January.

Great news there Caron, hopefully by then CV tiers or whatever will allow visiting rights

Brambling

Good news re the flat Caronc 

Farway can you half the gammon before cooking and freeze it? I'm jealous that you can book a blood test, we have to turn up and take a ticket like the deli counter in a SM and usually wait over a hour 

Not a lot to report for today, same old stuff   I'm  currently enjoying portrait artist of the year  I can't draw or paint to save my life but love watching them as well as the landscape series 

lunch was a burger with no bun but portobello mushrooms stuffed with a herb and garlic goats cheese (cooked last night whilst the oven was on).  Dinner was a portion of mushroom lasagna from the freezer, it's JOs mushroom cannelloni recipe with LO green veg

PasturesNew

Today's scoffathon has been: 
1 pouch rice, the lime/coriander one I bought from the OOD last Mar/April.  2 more of those to go I think. 
chips and 2 fishcakes.  That's the end of the chips and just 6 fishcakes remaining (bag of 30 originally). 

So .... I figure tomorrow really needs to be the day I go and do that shopping malarky.... or, at least get it started. 
1/ Fizzy pop from 1celand.  Loathe to pick up more fishcakes from there because I want chips from L1dl.... I don't like doing two different freezer shops in one trip.  On the other hand, I could get lamb/mint burgers from there.
2/ Off to L1dl, chips, bread, flatbreads, cheese, bananas, beans (probably).

Then I'll come home as I'll have a frozen item with me. 

If I do bother/manage to go out again it'll be: Tesc0 for a couple of frozen lasagnes, frozen cheesecake, maybe a 67p pizza, 2-3 rice puddings, 3-4 tins of peas and a couple of pilau rice pouches.  Crumpets might be mulled too, unless I've already grabbed or dismissed those in L1dl due to already having "use by" dates on a loaf and flatbreads. 

Houses, well, 'homes'.... just not happening.  Nothing's coming to market that's close to "that will just have to do". 

EDIT: Thursday morning 
I could be out, shopping for food/drinks.  I just CBA, can't face it.  
And that's how it goes... I get these great ideas, then, when it's time.... I've gone off the idea.   I really hate shopping, of any sort/for any reason.

Hopefully I'll suddenly make a rush for the door in a bit. 

Yesterday, in addition to a pouch rice and the chips/fishcakes, I had a midnight feast of a can of cold peas. 

Farway

Brambling said:

Farway can you half the gammon before cooking and freeze it? I'm jealous that you can book a blood test, we have to turn up and take a ticket like the deli counter in a SM and usually wait over a hour 

Good idea B, I sort of knew that but it had completely slipped my mind, like blood test dates

Blood test today, maybe it's just our local vampire service but it has been re organised, so now have to use Dr surgery who has mobile vampire flying in visiting, hence bookings to avoid cluttering the place up with blood patients and no doubt CV these days

Sunny out, meals will be decided once I'm back

PasturesNew

One that'll almost do has appeared on the market, £50k under max budget. 
Downers: It's right on a main road, parking is to the frontage, so you have to reverse into it from the main road; there's room for one, maybe two if the first one's smallish and parked right up against the living room window.   
The main sticking point is the choices they made.  There are two rooms on the ground floor, LR and kitchen.  LR is at the front, kitchen is at the back.  Ideally it'd be good to lounge in the LR and step out into the garden, there is a door to the garden, but no patio doors.... but it's the sizes. 
Living Room: 14' x 8'11".
Kitchen: 10' x 10'. 
So, for starters, it'd have been better if the rooms were swapped over and patio doors put to the back garden.... but the room sizes are wrong/small... it'd end up having a pokey 10'x10' living room.  So to make it better I'd want to swap those two over, put patio doors out the back and add on an extension to the rear room.  
And then... the bedrooms are small too. 
It's on the list, but I've no love for it. 
The more I look at it, the more walls want removing .... and a new/full width porch needs putting on the front, maybe... and it's all a faff isn't it  

caronc

Good morning everyone, 
Do you think you'll go for it PN? I'd swap the rooms round even if it did mean a small living room 10 by 10 is big enough for a sofa, TV and a couple of other bits and bobs and if you added a extension or conservatory that could be additional living space.
The kitchen tap is reconnected hurrah! Dust busting and oiling continues. Sausage, beans and oven chips for dinner.

PasturesNew

caronc said:

Do you think you'll go for it PN? I'd swap the rooms round even if it did mean a small living room 10 by 10 is big enough for a sofa, TV and a couple of other bits and bobs and if you added a extension or conservatory that could be additional living space.

No.  Looking at it and researching the boundaries, there appears to be a sidegate to the back garden.... but when you read the details it's not mentioned; the boundary plan shows a dotted line in line with the house brickwork (gate outside of that) and aerial views show some kind of workshop or shanty-cabin beyond the bottom of the garden and that gate leads to a fenced walkway...... so that means somebody has access through that gate, going up the side of the garden to their place at the back for some reason (maybe the original owner when the plot was split, didn't want to let his workshop go).  But, that workshop, by existing, will always potentially become a new build, with many people up/down that side path/access (e.g. kids playing football there).  

Having said that, the whole gate/access/boundary is all a little contradictory when trying to finally work it out. But next door's rear garden is vast, = a huge building plot potential.

It's actual garden is small.  When compared to a new build sold 18 months ago 3-4 doors down it's poor value, small, with inadequate parking and that access up the side makes it a no no as it's got the potential to be turned into something I'd have never chosen.... 

... something else will turn up  

The living room of my last house was 11'x12 and my ideal size would be 14'x14' minimum.  My aunt sent me a large run (8'x5') and I'd like to be able to use that.... I couldn't open the living room door with it down at the last house, so never got to use it at all.  

When you look at the floorplan and work out where you'd need to walk you lose 3' of an already narrow room for starters. 

caronc

Ah well fingers crossed something more suitable comes on the market soon PN

PasturesNew

I finally made a dash to the shops.  Did well, but also didn't do well.  Still 'missing' some things from the top of the list, such as bread, margarine and fizzy pop - I also completely forgot to get rice pudding!.  I just did Mr T in the end and opted for their own brand chips rather than insisting on going to L1dl for their chips.  Of course, I will end up going to L1dl for the bread/marg I expect, but that's life.  

I'd defrosted/scraped/cleaned my little freezer this morning, pleased about that... it'd started a bit frosted up and a bit grubby but I'd always got stuff in there so there was always a reason to put it off. 

From Mr T today I bought, from memory: 

Flatbread, crumpets. 4x peas, 1x spagbol, 1x jam. 2x pilau rice pouch, 3x bananas, 6x doritos. 4x doughnuts. 

Chips, pizza, lasagne x2, cheesecake, 10 fishfingers. Garlic bread, cheese, quiche.

Spent £14. 

The doughnuts were a bit of a disappointment.... I thought they were a bag of 5, but they turned out to be 4.  80p for four.  They're not very sugary (fine), soft enough, jam's OK... but I do prefer Sainsbobs bags of doughnuts, they get a fluffier dough.

Farway

I know exactly what you mean by a mystery access PN, years back when looking there was similar, everyone able to walk through garden it seems and very cagey responses to my questions. Something will come along with the time you spend searching

Blood taken, no troubles, very quite in the surgery,

There may be lots wrong with lock downs & CV19 but my two recent medical visits have been very efficient with timed appointments and no lurkers allowed in the waiting rooms

I have an X-ray booked in a fortnight or so and wait to see how that turns out.

I'm hoping with CV it will not be the normal all turn up at 0930, check in & sit around with umpteen others for 4 hours while they work through that morning's list

Lunch was another cheesy salad sarnie

Dinner, need some healthy stuff, so it's baked spud, with cheesy LO beans filling, couple of HB eggs + salad