Cooking for one (Mark Three)

Brambling

Very professional looking pasties Farway and I'm now thinking I have puff pasty in the fridge to use up 🤔

I cooked a small HM on yesterday whilst I was cooking the lamb so had that with the last of the salad bits and HM coleslaw for lunch.  Dinner was LO lamb and vegetables for another roast dinner 

threepenny_bit

Farway said:

I made the cheese & onion pasties yesterday, turned out quite well I thought for a first attempt, even went as far as an egg wash prior to baking

Should I ever repeat them I'll use more cheese & less mash in the filling, I never measured the amounts it was all by "looks about right"

ooh they look so good 

Farway

'morning all. No frost, snow or sun today, just dull and uninviting which is best avoided

I'm at last making some inroads into the excess XCFO stuff, not that I overbought but just under ate.

Must be the first in my life time I lost weight over the Christmas period, not complaining of course

Mostly due to Tier 4, no visiting & picking at tins of Roses etc

My super plan of beans on toast last night went wildly off course

First off I opened a tin of spaghetti in error [I blame Covid, my Specsavers appointment was cancelled ]

Then my LO crust had gone mouldy, not just a bit mouldy but penicillin mouldy , binned that

So it was tinned spag & fried eggs, plus one of my HM C & O pasties

Remembering how lacklustre the previous tinned spag was I did however improve the spag by adding a pinch of salt & a squirt of tom puree, which surprisingly made it taste like it always used to before the health nudges got to work improving it

Still in use up mode, lunch will now be BLT using PB baguette. The streaky was meant to be eaten last night's dinner but failed in the shambles

Dinner, not sure but HM AF chips will be in there, maybe with frozen breaded fish or more likely clear out the frozen M & S turkey Wellington thing from 2018

Probably nuke frozen peas to go with either of the above options

caronc

Good morning everyone,
Gorgeous looking pasties Farway 
Our Beef Wellington on the 1st was gorgeous- well worth the faff. 
Yesterday was a bitterly cold but gorgeous day. In the morning my elder son and DIL-to-be came over for brunch in the garden then after they left my sister popped by for a cuppa again in the garden. By the the time she left, although I had many layers on, I was chilled to the bone and actually felt quite unwell until I properly heated up a few hours later. My son made delicious HM pizza for dinner topped with serrano ham, red onion, red pepper and nuggets of various lurking cheeses. 
-6C at 8am this morning and it's not heated up much since then. I'm pooch sitting for a few hours as my sister has to attend to an urgent matter at work. My son will walk him at lunchtime but I'm not intending to venture out as it's very icy underfoot.
I've some of my butcher's order to portion up and I've defrosted a duck for dinner. I plan to confit the legs tomorrow in the sous vide, make pate and gravy with the giblets before roasting the crown for dinner. I'll make stock with the carcass. It's not huge bird but I intend to make the most of it as I seldom buy a whole one.
2021 seems to have got off to a bit of a foodie start - long may it continue that way.  

Brambling

I've duck envy Caronc 😁 I do miss just popping into W8itrose lunchtime as I would occasionally pick up their duck crowns when YS, so much better value than buying a couple of breasts. I think I have another YS leg in the freezer but they aren't my favourite 

checking the weather forecast it looks like the possibility for snow is reducing for us, down to a 40% chance on Tuesday with the temperature dropping to -3 Wednesday. I can live with no snow although it's not so bad when I don't have to drive to work. 

Lunch was a portion of tomato and veg soup with some cheese and crackers. Dinner was gammon, egg and chips 

Farway

Bin day today, post hols so slipped a bit.

I noticed a neighbour had a pasta roller present because the box was in my bin , along with a large flat cardboard box with a Petersfield address, goodness knows how that one travelled into my bin, maybe a visitor?

Not that it matters too much, plenty of room in a CFO bin and it is clean recycled items, not like chucking nappies in anyway, and I can't be too hypocritical because I put my empty glass into theirs

Off to a good start today, defrosted a pack of diced FR posh beef chunks overnight, part of my Christmas order, and fired up the slow cooker this morning

I now have a SC beef stew bubbling gently for dinner, I'll add dumplings later this afternoon

The weather is ideal for it, NE wind, dull, damp and gloomy out. 90% plus chance of rain

Lunch will be the other PB baguette with last of the XCFO streaky as BLT

Slowly eating through clearing the fridge now, soon be time to get back on line at Asda shopping at this rate, brown sauce is one item I need

caronc

Good morning everyone, 

Outside is an ice rink here this morning, we had a sleet shower late on yesterday which promptly froze. It's quite overcast just now but still bitterly cold so I'm not sure it will thaw before night fall. I'm not venturing out, my son can edge to the bin later.

It's still a public holiday here today, my son usually wouldn't get it but he had a day to be used up after it was cancelled before Christmas. We'll take the decorations down today and get his office set back up in the dining room.

Ducky dinner was delicious and the pate has been given the  thumbs up . The legs have been salted over night and I'll get them sorted out for the sous vide once I finish my  cuppa  . I'll slow cook the carcass overnight tonight for stock and our small duck will have served us very well.   

My son is in charge of catering tonight, he bought the Dan Toombs "The Curry Guy Bible" last week and is trying out the Chicken Handi recipe as we have everything needed to make it without a trip to the supermarket. I'm going to get a batch of ragu on the go, some for lasagne tomorrow and some to be frozen for spag bol etc. Between the curry and the ragu various lurking fridge bits will get used but tomorrow I want to give the fridge a good sort out and see exactly what's in there to be used up over coming days. 

Brambling

My first day back working since the 15th December so I wasn't happy when the alarm clock went off followed by his lordship sitting on my head.  At least it's a wet day so I've not missed much, luckily it's been a reasonability quiet day so I've been able to clear all but 50 of my emails and get some of the usual beginning of month / end of year work started. 

I see you have gone into full lockdown Caronc, I think we will join you when Boris does his TV announcement at 8pm, although I'm not sure what is difference between a T4 and lockdown unless it is schools closing.  My colleague had to pick up two of her children from primary school before lunch today as they said one of them was coughing although it's seems she's not coughed since she got home.  She was able to get a test done for them so is waiting for that.  

Lunch was another mug of soup with cheese and a couple of crackers - the last portion of soup has gone into the freezer.  Dinner will be something with the gammon, I'm thinking maybe Singapore noodles but will depend if i CBA to cook it later, 

Farway

Brambling said:

I see you have gone into full lockdown Caronc, I think we will join you when Boris does his TV announcement at 8pm, although I'm not sure what is difference between a T4 and lockdown unless it is schools closing. 

From what I read the difference is panic buying, shortage of loo rolls and no delivery slots available . I've not yet tried to start my on line Asda shop yet because there's no rush due to LO stuff, but I will have to by the weekend, or pop out for milk at least

One plus of CFO and last year's experience is a decent hoard emergency stock

Mt GP son in law tested positive yesterday, he had been jabbing all last week so probably where he caught it despite PPE etc.

The family is now isolating but it shows how it can spread and affect others because his practice group is now more or less isolating and not available to patients, putting pressure on others of course. It's New Forest area so not urban sprawls with cheek to jowl

So far he just has cough & temperature and all of them are fit as fleas without underlying problems so should be fine

Meals today are cobbled together LOs

Lunch LO C & O filling, fried Bubble & Squeak style, with a fried egg

Dinner, last two LO HM C & O pasties with HM AF chips and open a tin of beans, double checking the tin this time, beans not spaghetti

Weather, dull with a cold NE wind, a stay in save lives and keep warm day

caronc

Good morning everyone, 
I hope your SIL continues to do okay Farway.
We were pretty much in lockdown anyway in my area and I wasn't surprised by yesterday's announcement. Our local health board is at 96% capacity of it's COVID beds so fingers crossed the latest measures bring the numbers down.
My son is back to work and I'm just having a cuppa between tasks on very long "to do" list! That said anything not done today is, like me, not going anywhere if I don't get it all done. It's still sub zero and very icy out and I have no intention of going over the doorstep. 
The curry my son made yesterday was delicious it was like a korma meets butter chicken but lighter and spicier. There's a portion LO which we'll split for lunch along with crackers and pate. HM lasagne for dinner tonight, I prepped and par cooked the base ragu for it yesterday and it's now simmering away on the hob.