Cooking for one (Mark Three)

meg72

PasturesNew wrote: »

I think there's a lot of over-emotional bull put round about workhouses.... it will depend on the individuals running it and the general location and area. Where my lot lived/died the workhouse seemed quite a "good place" to find yourself. And many had special Christmas dinners and treats. Most seemed to have meat and plum pudding.

Many people in the Workhouse were funded by relatives. e.g. if your mum was in there and you were, say, a lad of 18+ and working, they'd expect you to pay for your mum's keep. So, in the main, a lot of people were self-funded, and a lot of Workhouse managers were good people.

A random entry plucked purely at random, for Derby in 1905 says "The inmates of the Workhouse had their usual dinner on Christmas Day, comprising beef, pork, rabbits, plum pudding, and most of them beer tea and they had plum cake. The smokers were given pipes, tobacco and oranges. The women had tea....."

Or, similarly, Newcastle in 1862
"The inmates of the Alnwick Union Workhouse were regaled with roast beef and plum pudding, New Years day, at the expense of a few of the guardians and tradesmen of Alnwick, through the exertions of Mr Young, the master"[/QUOTE

As you say depends on area, my lot lived and died in the inner city of Birmingham, the workhouse was not a good place to be. It was to be dreaded, if you had any relatives or friends that could fund you they would not have let you go in, bless if it had been a good place to be they would have been clamouring to get in themselves.

caronc

A "postcode lottery" on services seems to be far from a new thing...

Dinner ended up being a quick spinach & ricotta stuffed pasta from the freezer with kale, garlic, peas and mozzarella:)

PasturesNew

meg72 wrote: »

As you say depends on area, my lot lived and died in the inner city of Birmingham, the workhouse was not a good place to be. It was to be dreaded, if you had any relatives or friends that could fund you they would not have let you go in, bless if it had been a good place to be they would have been clamouring to get in themselves.

The idea was that if you had nothing, no home, no work, you went there and worked for your keep while trying to get a job on the outside. Once you had a job on the outside you kept paying rent/keep at the workhouse until you were back on your feet and could move out into a room somewhere. For those with families that usually meant the bloke going out to work each day until he could take his whole family out.

My gt-gt-granny didn't like this idea .... she liked the idea of dumping all the kids on the doorstep and doing a runner .... trouble was, she wasn't that smart at getting away and she was in jail twice for it

PasturesNew

I did a quick shop run. Got some bread rolls, baked beans, bar of chocolate (well it IS the weekend!) and some sausage rolls. They aren't the sausage rolls from the correct shop, but I was in their competitor's shop and I thought "they're right there .... so grab them or go to the extra effort of additionally going to the other shop and praying they have some in stock this time" ... so I got the competitor's ones instead, which weren't as good last time ... but they were there and the "proper shop" has failed to have any stock the last 2x I've looked, so I seized the moment.

Brambling

Due to a sleepless night (no reason just couldn't sleep) I was glad to see the end of the day it was a struggle at times to keep my eyes open

I was tired and feeling very cold when I got home, and my sit with a cup of tea as I though about dinner turned into a hour and half nap the cat woke me sitting on the remote. I was sitting in dark with the tv blaring and a dead arm and leg at least I'm no longer cold I don't usually nap so I'm feeling a little out of sorts hopefully It won't affect my sleep tonight

So lunch was a cheese salad roll and dinner a bowl of cereal I wasn't really hungry but didn't want to wake up hungry in the night.

moneyonmymindsam

Hi :j

I've been eating really well the last week so pleased about that.

Today was Spicy potato wedges from the freezer - surprisingly nice along with 2 burgers.:D

Currently on a cupboard and freezer use up when my weekend visitors leave me on Sunday. Think I have a least a weeks worth of use ups.

Need to go on the teabag hunt tomorrow as can't seem to find any decent ones at a reasonable price at the moment due to my strict budget but I do drink a lot of tea each week.

Thanks to PN I now have the sausage roll urge

Also just wanted to say thank you to all on the thread, I have been eating better and on budget thanks to helpful hints and seeing what others are eating plus I really love the anything goes style :beer:


Hope your weekend is good

Sam x

PasturesNew

moneyonmymindsam wrote: »

Thanks to PN I now have the sausage roll urge

You're welcome

moneyonmymindsam wrote: »

Also just wanted to say thank you to all on the thread, I have been eating better and on budget thanks to helpful hints and seeing what others are eating plus I really love the anything goes style

Increasingly these days there are an increasing number of "bullies" and "holier than thou" types over-eager to butt in and point out that one's eating everything wrong, doing it wrong, they're so ideal and perfect themselves. Lots of odd and faddy diets .... but at the end of the day it's us, alone, who have to actually get something onto that plate with the pennies in the purse and motivation in our heads.

I say: eating anything is a step up from anorexia, so any food is a "win" and one shouldn't be food-bullied by faceless people who we don't care about

For me ... I struggle with food on every level and even my bizarre scoffings are better than they used to be as I am making more effort in the last 2-3 years.

If anybody disagrees with my food choices and really cares, then why don't they buy the food, turn up and cook it for me every meal, every day

A fridge with sausage rolls in it is a happy fridge

[Deleted User]

oh good, I just remembered that I have a chunk of sausagemeat and some puff pastry in the freezer, yay, sausage rolls tomorrow

Heck I was tired and that made me cold yesterday afternoon, I went to bed for a nap and to warm up, it worked but I still started a heavy dreamy sleep in the chair at 9, I had taken my one-off cbd oil at 6 and it obviously relaxed my brain, so it stopped being busy. I was in my night things so went to bed and woke at 7, minus the hip ache that had been keeping me wakeful at night.

I need to be outside today, get more fresh air, will be taking a sharpener and some oil to the allotment, I will make sure my tools and push mower are tip top. Nothing else to do up there, did it all yesterday but it is nice up there, quiet and plenty of birds

Food will be fine, had porridge, later berries/stewed apple /nuts and yoghurt. Will boil a couple of eggs for more protein soon. Lunch has to be stir fry veg, I pack a good assortment in and soften with sherry and soy sauce, Has to be fish with it and probably sardines. I have blackcurrant pie and chocolate. Small tin of baked beans on toast for last meal

PasturesNew

I sliced up the bread rolls I bought yesterday and stuck them in the freezer (they are dated today).... breakfast was half a bread roll topped with 2 scrambled eggs and 1/3 tin of beans, splash of HP and a coffee.

Wednesday2000

I had a toasted roll with marmite and a cup of tea.

I'm going to make a pizza later as I have a GF base and some Quorn smoky bacon strips and some vegan mozzarella. Yummy!