Cooking for one (Mark Three)

Brambling

PasturesNew wrote: »

And a horrible, horrible mistake. I picked up a bar of milk chocolate.... at home I couldn't remember unpacking it .... I must have left it in the basket as it wasn't on the receipt That's twice I've done that with a bar of chocolate lately.

It could have been worst PN you could have paid for it and left it in the shop

You've also reminded me I have no crumpets in the freezer

PasturesNew

Brambling wrote: »

You've also reminded me I have no crumpets in the freezer

I've managed to hit that "half price sticker" moment twice in the last 7-10 days, so I'm now the proud owner of 2 packs

Not sure what happened, but I went into my bedroom just now while in a distracted mood .... and didn't open the door widely enough and banged my shin on the corner of the bed. It bl00dy hurts... I want to cry ... and I'll have a nasty cut/bruise there now for 2-3 weeks That's the second time I've done that.

I have a belly full of pie though. The £3 pie was reduced to half price - and, as it was reduced by so much, I'd portioned it into three parts (usually I do four)... and for tea I had steak/claret pie, chips and beans. I've already frozen the other two thirds.

caronc

Brambling wrote: »

And those same people are the ones that think we have kitchen fairies :cool:

You're making me fill guilty Caronc I just opened the bed and hid clothes in there, most of which currently doesn't fit

Money hope you're tongue's not too sore from biting on it, hopefully you're not like me, i can only hold my tongue for so long and then out it gushes :rotfl:

Weather the last couple of days has varied from sunshine to torrential rain to hail :eek: typical British weather really :rotfl:

Lunch was the fore mention salad with quiche and dinner was kedgeree made with smoke cod. Smoke fish always reminds me of my mum who insisted it wasn't smoked if it wasn't bright yellow and when we were kids had it most Fridays, poached in milk sprinkled with sarsons malt vinegar served with thin cut white bread and butter. It was probably one of the few times she cooked a separate meal for herself

Tbh - most of it has been "work stuff" so relatively painless;)
As for dyed smoked fish- luckily my Dad worked in the fishing industry so we didn't have to suffer the bright yellow stuff....:D

PasturesNew wrote: »

Not sure what happened, but I went into my bedroom just now while in a distracted mood .... and didn't open the door widely enough and banged my shin on the corner of the bed. It bl00dy hurts... I want to cry ... and I'll have a nasty cut/bruise there now for 2-3 weeks That's the second time I've done that.

Ouch PN, as some one who is permanently bumped, scraped and bruised, all I can recommend are arnica cream, ice and a bl00dy good swear....

PasturesNew

caronc wrote: »

.... arnica cream, ice and a bl00dy good swear....

First one, I'm googling, never heard of it.
Second one, I don't have/make that as it's so rarely of any use.
Third one, did that

Wet/cold here this morning, bit of a bugg4h as I'd switched my mind to "summer food setting", hence buying the s0ddin' lettuce leaves yesterday .... I'll make a couple of "picnic loaf" type things, with individual bread rolls, in a bit, to use up some of those leaves, but the bags aren't small are they! I'd thought "I can shove lettuce into every bread roll I eat in the coming days", but it's more pie weather really.

Arnica: Having googled it, I see that the DM (who are global leading experts in all matters medical) say it's nonsense and just a placebo.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-160090/Does-Arnica-really-work.html

moneyistooshorttomention

caronc wrote: »

Oh MTSTM I think I'll add some spinach to my tom sauce, you've given me a notion for it:)

I've come to the conclusion all round that probably the quickest/easiest way to use spinach is to just wilt it down in a sauce (by chucking it in in the last few minutes). Soups and stews would also be possible.

Saves time and effort cooking it separately imo.

***********

BRAMBLING - I'm not good at "biting my tongue". I do get a bit uptight when I see people are "living in a bubble" particular to this area. It's a cue for things sometimes going a bit awry when they try to get me to agree to "in a bubble thinking".

There's people I can have a conversation with and heave a sigh of relief afterwards at having had a normal "think in a countrywide way" type discussion. Others where it's neutral - and that's fine. But there's A Few......and I feel a great longing to get out a pack of pins and !!!!! that bubble...

*************

Re a pack of ice - I've never had such a thing in yet. But many years back I read the hint about using a pack of frozen peas. Well I've usually got that in and quite a variety of packs of frozen berries...so one of them gets used if need be.

wort

Pn- hope your leg is ok.
Money- Some people can't abide change of any sort, in a bubble or otherwise!! Hope you can convince them.
Brambling- my mum cooked smoked haddock in milk (finneyaddy ), I loved it not with vinegar though, not had that for ages it's the smell that lingers forever and it's not cheap anymore!!
Just had toast , and I've made a piri piri chicken salad on gf seeded bread and will take a yogurt for lunch, I will pick up fruit in work.
Dgson here tonight, I will pick him up on way home, so chicken dopiaza with rice for tea.

Overcast here at the moment, with a fine rain ,weird because nowhere seems wet!!!!
Off for another cuppa before I go.

moneyistooshorttomention

Wort - by now I don't try and convince them. I leave them to it and my focus is on "keeping those A Few" off my back. The "trying to change people" bit is what those A Few are trying to do to me - you can imagine that's going down like a lead balloon with me and the sparks fly wnen I get fed-up with being told how to talk/how to think/etc.

The phrase that puts my back straight up is "You should....." or words along those lines...

I've learnt by now that an apparently innocent query shouldnt necessarily be taken "at face value" (as I was doing and answering the question they'd ostensibly asked me). By the time the same "innocent query" has come out umpteen times - one learns what it really means is "You should......". It's taking me a while to learn suitable phrases/fending-off techniques to deal with it.

Still - I suppose I've gone through Stage 1 - that I now recognise when "You should.." comments are going to come up most of the time. Now I've got to work on spotting them coming all the time and thinking of ways to deal with them - with probably the best approach being to change the subject (if I have to firmly say those exact words of "Change the Subject now please...." and then wandering off away from them if they keep going)...

I'll get it figured yet...:cool: Though I hope I don't have to drop my politeness/hearing people out (rather than interrupting them or glaring at them).

Thank goodness it is just A Few that seem to think they have permission from Holy Writ to try and change me to cram me into "the bubble".

[Deleted User]

arnica, the number one remedy for any trauma, including distant past traumas, however, never use arnica topically on an open wound

Oh heck, sounds as though you are doing your best to keep your head down money, such a shame when life is like that. When I do that then I end up muttering to myself in the house

Bitty food yesterday, not enough veggies but I have done a lot of driving around and am house hunting in serious mode, to be disappointed time after time. Thankfully we have RM and loads of online info like potential flood risk for a particular property. No wonder people either get fed up and stay put or get anything half decent. I got the full treatment from a new development saleswoman yesterday, meanwhile noticing the 3/4 size furniture and being blinded by bling. One viewing this afternoon 30 minutes away, looks only half promising, a divorce situation and I will already be thinking of house vibes

Started good with beans on toast and soon will have the yummy (to me) hemp/berry/cacao drink. Lunch will be (yipee) a pork steak with assorted veg, starter will be a bit of carrot soup. As always 85% chocolate afterwards. Last meal hm granola, I still have a full container left but next time will be ready to make gold cake at the same time, I hate wasting egg yolks. Tum is liking all those jumbo oats for last meal.

Out all day tomorrow, cooked breakfast to start. Packed lunch cheddar slice on hm bread and a box of leaves. Tea as usual, granola. I will be picking brains at my craft group tomorrow, areas good for me

caronc

Good morning everyone
PN - I hope your bumped shin is less painful this morning. I keep a face flannel in the freezer for using as a quick compress or as MTSTM says a bag of peas etc. can be used. I don't agree with the DM's view re arnica it's fab stuff though as kittie says not to be applied to an open wound:).
It's beautiful sunny morning here though very chilly. Once I've finished my cuppa and cleaned the bathroom I'm going to spend some time sorting out my greenhouse aka fighting with a pane that came loose over the winter!
Breakfast was the usual toast/fruit and lunch will be a repeat of yesterday's soup & salad. Tonight I'm for scampi & oven chips.
MTSTM, I buy bags of frozen spinach, I find it really handy for CFO

moneyistooshorttomention

kittie wrote: »

arnica, the number one remedy for any trauma, including distant past traumas, however, never use arnica topically on an open wound

Oh heck, sounds as though you are doing your best to keep your head down money, such a shame when life is like that. When I do that then I end up muttering to myself in the house

Bitty food yesterday, not enough veggies but I have done a lot of driving around and am house hunting in serious mode, to be disappointed time after time. Thankfully we have RM and loads of online info like potential flood risk for a particular property. No wonder people either get fed up and stay put or get anything half decent. I got the full treatment from a new development saleswoman yesterday, meanwhile noticing the 3/4 size furniture and being blinded by bling. One viewing this afternoon 30 minutes away, looks only half promising, a divorce situation and I will already be thinking of house vibes

I've started to keep a journal Kittie - who knows? One of these days there might be another fiction book on the market about living in a small town?:cool:

Re househunting - fingers crossed it's not much longer. House vibes - well I'm guessing you're someone that would be prepared to go in for "house cleansing"? You know - smudging/crystals/etc. I'm 50/50 on thinking that "works" - though I did on last house and have done it on this one (just wishes I could remember whereabout exactly I planted crystals in the garden:rotfl:) and have got distinct suspicion I might have been seen "walking the bounds" around my boundary protectively:rotfl: I've not heard any comments back through grapevine of an nfh sitting there thinking to themselves "What on earth is that English woman up to now?" - but who knows?

I have possibly mentioned on here before that I realised halfway round viewing one house (back in my home area) that there were some rather odd vibes going on. It may have been me feeling "dark" vibes in response to it being a dark area in the house - but I was quite well aware there seemed to some "dark" activities at play in my city. I wasnt going to concern myself unduly - because I'm sure it's everywhere throughout the country....

I still scan RightMove at intervals - well one needs to be "good to go" in case a premium bond win comes up you know:rotfl:. Ahem...and there were several houses there I liked the look of and would be viewing if I could - and most of them were around the £700,000 mark:(. About the cheapest I thought I'd "like" was £450,000. In other words even the cheapest is way out of the "what I can afford" range. There's a compromise in there with all of them - and it's just down to which compromise will be easiest to live with imo. The "top of list" house must be around 3-4 miles outside the city centre - and I decided I could live with that one (for the sake of being back in the city and 3-4 miles isnt that far when there's a decent bus service) and it's got enough in the way of "views" that maybe at least some of it wouldnt get built on in my lifetime.

Guess you've got a list of "compromises you could make if you had to" and what would make it worth having those compromises?