Cooking for one (Mark Three)

caronc

Good evening everyone,

Sounds as though CFOers have had tiring days, children never seem to bother with the heat until they get overtired and tetchy;).
No choc ices here and I could fair go a dark chocolate one:), I do have some ice lollies LO from when the boys were here but they aren't tempting me.
It has been marginally cooler here today, helped by quite a stiff breeze so I got quite a bit done in the garden. Annoyingly as a) I thought I was in the shade, b) I must have missed a bit when putting on sunscreen and c) the back of my top must have slipped when I was bent over potting, I have a strip of sun burn:o:o. Nothing too drastic but I bet it is hot and itchy in bed tonight.:mad: I'll plaster it with aloe vera and it will be high necked tops for me for a few days.
Lunch was a repeat of yesterday of crackers & camembert, pea pods and flat peaches. My chicken crown is cooked so I've just some spuds and veggies to cook which I'll do in the microwave for ease. After my efforts this afternoon I was tempted to crack open my new seaweed gin but as I have an open bottle of red wine have opted for a glass of that instead as it won't keep for much longer:D.

caronc

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've actually "never cooked for anybody but me". I can think of a couple of minor exceptions. e.g. aged about 16 I cooked sausages/rice and then a chocolate/banana blancmange with a biscuit base for a bf in my mum's kitchen.

I've also cooked one Xmas dinner for parents/1 sibling, which I did in under 1 hour after I got back from the pub (I was determined to go to a pub on Xmas morning as so many people seemed to do that and our family weren't pub people) .... and so I engineered it that I'd be allowed to go if I cooked the Xmas dinner... I phoned them from the pub as I was leaving to say "turn the oven on I'm on my way".

That was using an M&S foil tray of turkey breast and then just all the other stuff, which I peeled etc before I went out. I was about 40ish.

I also was responsible for 1 item for Xmas dinner when it was just 2 siblings and 1 BIL about a decade ago... the Yorkshire.

Oh and I also knocked up some mince/veg in gravy for mum and made her mashed spuds, but that hardly counts....

Apart from the above .... I've only ever cooked just for me.

But that's why you've got cooking CFO quantities down a fine art. Until the boys left home I had only ever CFOed sporadically even when I lived in London I had a flatmate and we mainly used to take turns to cook. I learned to cook for 5 or more folk while I was growing up and still find it easier to cook for a family than just for me. I'm getting there but it's still a struggle at times not to fall into making huge quantities of food. I do still sometimes like to make a good few portions of something as to me some of my favourites don't scale down well which is fine but I don't to cook portions for the masses every day.

Brambling

Farway not surprised you're shattered I live about 30 miles from wisley and the temperature read 31 at lunchtime :eek:

Too hot to do much today I popped to the pet store to replace the scratching post for the boss, the last one has been well used by my two previous cats but there are only so many times you can rewind rope and stick it back down. Most of them now seem too light weight and will be pulled across the room but I found a heavier one and had a voucher for £5 off. So far he's ignored it :cool:but it should hopefully save my laundry basket!

When I CFO I often cook enough for LOs or to make another meal, i tend not to eat a lot of bread so need to think lunches, it's not always a complete LO meal sometimes it's cooking extra potatoes or rice to add to a salad. My problem is when I'm cooking for more than two i often end up with far too much food, my sisters and I all do it we blame my mum :rotfl: unexpected visitors could arrive and my mum would stretch the meal to feed them and no one was allowed to leave her table hungry . I once made a cassoulet for six of us and sent my sister home with enough to feed four the next night with veg :cool: and dessert :rotfl:

Lunch was a smoked mackerel salad, I cooked proper food for dinner and made Nasi Goreng minus the egg as I forgot to get some and wasn't going back out, there's enough LO for lunch tomorrow.

caronc

Brambling wrote: »

My problem is when I'm cooking for more than two i often end up with far too much food, my sisters and I all do it we blame my mum :rotfl: unexpected visitors could arrive and my mum would stretch the meal to feed them and no one was allowed to leave her table hungry . I once made a cassoulet for six of us and sent my sister home with enough to feed four the next night with veg :cool: and dessert :rotfl:

Snap - when I learned to cook it was never certain how many might be round the table, my Dad worked in the fishing industry and there were frequently (mainly in the winter) stranded at port fishermen who ended up coming for meals so things were stretched or made in enough quantities for "spare" just in case.

PasturesNew

I think the main difference between CFO and cooking for others is that when you cook for others you make a "meal". CFO often just becomes "food" - and "food" is not "a meal", but just something to keep you going that's quick/easy and what you have/fancy.

"All that extra effort" is often not seen as worthwhile compared to the skimped version. e.g. why stand beside a grill and wait for cheese to grill on toast... when you could just have a cheese sandwich

A large part of making "a meal" is about "providing" and wanting to please your audience... to hear the congratulations of "that's lovely" ... etc. When it's just you there are no points for presentation, nor having to go out of your way to have all the correct sides etc or the correct presentation.

e.g. the difference between making mince/onions/veg in gravy served with mash ... -v- ... going the whole hog and then layering it in a further dish, topping with cheese/tomato and then browning it in the oven/under a grill. CFO doesn't require the extra dishes, time, effort if mince/onion/veg in gravy and mash performs pretty much the same job ... yes a proper cottage/shepherd's pie would be nice, but is it really worth all that extra time/waiting for? Most of the time, "no".

moneyistooshorttomention

There I'd disagree Pastures.

We all have spates of cba (more or less prolonged) and there are times when you just think "ingredients - eat as is - etc" but it does help to make the effort at least sometimes.

The "Because you're worth it" bit/give yourself a treat/look after yourself, even those times where it feels like The World isnt doing so/etc

Though I know one of my own motives is it adds a bit of a variety - and that's essential for someone with a low boredom threshold. To me personally I've been very used to "Just go out - and see what's happening. There'll likely be summat free on here, summat else free on there, etc, etc". In an area like I'm in now - t'aint so and it's one of the ways to add a bit of variety/interest into life in an area where one has to be more emotionally self-sufficient than has been usual.

PasturesNew

I guess if you're "interested in cooking", that's fine. I'm not. I've an interest in eating the end result - especially if it were just plonked in front of me ... but all that faffing about to cook something just leaves me cold.

I look at photos of nice looking food... then am happy to go off and cook beans on toast

Brambling

I think we're a mix of eat to live, live to eat on here (sorry brain not working yet to remember the correct quote ) I'm happy to admit to being cba at times and sometimes that time stretches out. But I enjoy to cook I find it relaxing and when I'm stressed I bake as the concentration of baking something complicated can take my mind off what's stressing me. When I was told I was being made redundant I came home and made bread, I then baked a lot of cakes etc until I found a new job, my nephews would put in requests :rotfl:

I enjoy looking for new recipes to try and CFO means I don't have to cater for anyone else's fussy tastes and I will admit to preferring a cottage pie as the mash soaks up the mince favour when cooking

But as I said we're all different

[Deleted User]

I used to be a fantastic cook, started cooking at 9, could de-rib, stuff and roll a lamb breast by 10 and cook a full meal for 9 people. All through life, made the wedding breakfast for 40, cloths on pasting tables, made my 3 tier wedding cake. Dinner parties, urgh. Did this for a total of 58 years

I like not having to cook all those meals any more and have gone into very simple cooking. I love the fresh taste of my organic veg and all I need do is add some organic protein of some sort. I still make my own bread, hardly ever make cake. I look for simple dishes like a plate of veg with pre-frozen rice or part roasted parsnips. I don`t find it boring at all.

I eat to live in that I give my body everything it needs to have energy and to repair itself because we all, constantly, get cells that mutate and harm and the immune system needs to be functioning well to deal with them

Cooking a full fancy meal for me is a waste of time and I would rather relax with some spinning or a book or allotment work

klew356

Such a nice weekend, rain this morning, pea soup here!
So went to morrisons yesterday it was heaving, shelves were not looking good. Ended up with pork and egg roll for a sandwich meat, not sure how I feel about that but will find out as I have made my sandwich up even though I am going home as gas man coming so will grab the sandwich and leave him to it. So in this sandwich is pea shoots instead of my usual rocket as again lettuce shelf bare. Got pork chops and mince for this week. Wonky rhubarb again and rhubarb flavoured yoghurts. I love rhubarb. Going to roast a load of veggies tonight too I haven’t cooked in a while as the weather has been so nice