Cooking for one (Mark Three)

[Deleted User]

up at dawn, I think it was the birds again. Just had sardines, mashed with apple cider vinegar, on toast. I don`t know about food for later but am thinking salad (what else) and added tinned beans. I still have some cherries and cold stewed rhubarb, yoghurt. All decent food, so no cooking, except maybe some runners, which I think I still have in the fridge. Me planting just 3 runners was a good idea, I have enough but not overwhelming


I drew my new allotment on paper last night. I am going to take every one of my link a bord bed edges, you cannot buy them any more and have decided that yes I will be putting them in view of my west facing conservatory as it is the best place. 9 x beds plus a strip for properly supported summer raspberries, they were far the easiest to look after in the old days, 2 ben conan and a rhubarb or 2. I am still going to have to get help in because I want a big area of gravel for my 8 blueberry plants, 6 are already in large pots. I was going to get help from a designer but changed my mind. The front can remain pretty but the back will be an old fashioned useful area. I think the beds and decent sized paths will take about 32 x 32 feet.


It is going to be interesting converting flat neat lawn to beds (again) much use will be made of ground cover for paths, upturned turves in beds, lots of added composts and covering, I hope by winter. I think I can do one bed a day, when the ground is damp again

PasturesNew

I had thought of car booting... but it'll get hot too soon and then I'll have queuing traffic to contend with everywhere.... so I'm now thinking "buggah it".

I've plenty of food in the house... no idea what I'll ieat.

Yesterday I scoffed 2 veggie samosas and the pizza I bought.

Farway

Up early, bit too hot for sleeping.
Breakfast of porridge, my redcurrant gloop, honey & HM yoghurt

Today is down the seafront, however I've now found out about a squillion others will be down there, a charity run hogging the common & esplanade,cafes and the parking spots. Bum

If plans were not already made I'd leave it, glutton for hot punishment. At least I can still feel entitled to wear my England baseball cap

Lunch, goodness knows with all the cafes heaving

One for the foodie growers on here, anyone hear GQT n Friday? Near the end, James Wong was advocating growing, outside in the gound, avocado tree from a stone

Although it will never fruit in this country, and will be cut back by frosts, which may be good thing because they can grow over 60 feet tall. The point is you can eat the leaves, seems they are posh and expensive gourmet grub.

I'm going to give it a go, I've grown from the pip before but never put the tree outside. I'm guessing start stone now, grow indoors until next summer, plant out, sit back while looking up just how the leaves are used. They always looked tough so I assume not in salads

moneyistooshorttomention

Looks like I'll be looking up Gardeners Question Time - errrm...is that a tv programme? and, if so, which channel?

I know I've seen various clips on growing an avocado from the stone and got the general idea we can only think of growing a few feet high ornamental indoor plant from it. But I'm willing to be proved wrong on that. Think I shall google avocado leaves and see what info. comes up.

I know one can use fig tree leaves - and, from memory, it's down to putting one or two in some milk one simmers up to use in a recipe and the leaves are supposed to add a sorta coconut type flavour. That's an idea I've mentally saved up to try at some point

Not deeming it a good idea to add much heat to the kitchen (by cooking) in this weather. So I'm tossing-up and trying out a couple of "more ideas - than recipes" I came across on YouTube.

1. Making a sauce from steamed cauliflower, nooch (nutritional yeast), plant milk, flavourings and "blitz" (Honestly a lot of the current bloggers and myself would be a bit lost without our Vitamix mega-power blenders and being able to just have a single recipe instruction that just says "Blitz" :rotfl:.)

She chucked in frozen peas and some mushrooms (presumably cooked - she's a bit ditsy and didnt say...:cool:) and using as a sauce with pasta or rice or whatever.

2. Also thinking it's worth trying her burrito bowl - cooked rice and black beans re-heated a couple of minutes in pan. Then it's bowl food - along with salad greens, hummus, avocado, seeds.

Time to get the slowcooker going (in this weather) to cook up some rice for myself when I get back from supermarket visit.

Standing joke for the day being - how can one tell someone that eats this way - the amount of avocadoes, chickpeas, bananas, porridge oats, quinoa and spinach we get through:rotfl:

caronc

Good morning everyone,
Interesting re the avocado leaves, I'll be planting the stone the next time I have one!:)
kittie - lucky you get to plan a new growing space:)
The bbq last night was really good and apart from a little salad & some bread there are no LOs;), I sampled the seaweed gin and really liked it.:D Definitely one if you like savoury rather than sweet tastes. I must get some more elderflower tonic as that worked really well with it.
Apart from cleaning out the bbq, I'm not sure what my plans are. My son is going fishing but just catch & release so no fishy dinner tonight. Weather looks as though it's going to be another hot and sticky one. It did get chilly late on yesterday and it rained for all of 5 secs just after 11pm, when we felt the spots I hoped we might get a decent shower overnight but it never came to anything.

moneyistooshorttomention

Re avocado leaves - done a bit of googling and I wouldnt be using them myself.

https://www.cooksinfo.com/avocado-leaves

So, I'm wondering if James Wong was specific about different types of avocado leaf?? I suspect we'd be growing the wrong sort in this country - ie the toxic sort - if we tried it.

Add that they said the "correct" sort taste rather of liquorice or aniseed - and I wouldnt like the taste anyway personally.

Thinks - coulda just saved two members of our thread from poisoning themselves there......

caronc

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Re avocado leaves - done a bit of googling and I wouldnt be using them myself.

www.cooksinfo.com/avocado-leaves

So, I'm wondering if James Wong was specific about different types of avocado leaf?? I suspect we'd be growing the wrong sort in this country - ie the toxic sort - if we tried it.

Add that they said the "correct" sort taste rather of liquorice or aniseed - and I wouldnt like the taste anyway personally.

Thinks - coulda just saved two members of our thread from poisoning themselves there......

Cheers MTSTM , I'm not a liquorice fan either and certainly don't want to poison myself:eek:

[Deleted User]

I went to the allotment to pick some things and came back 2 hours later. Thought I might as well remove lots of structural things for the new allotment. Garage is getting very full. Needless to say I was very hot and very skin damp so had a shower and washed my hair, just shows how efficient is the body-cooling mechanism


Veggies very lightly cooked, baby carrots, runners, courgette and salad stuff ready, beetroot, lettuce, onion soaking in vinegar, tomato, cucumber and I think I fancy feta with that and the LO sardines. I will be full, might just have room for a piece of healthy chocolate


Plot neighbour has asked me to water her plot while she is on a 3 week holiday, definitely taking the michael, I may give a couple of essentials a drop of water from time to time but quite honestly it is hard enough keeping up with my own. Cheek of it, not like it is a couple of plants. Some people have no empathy, I mean she knows that I will be moving, on my own

Wednesday2000

:wave: Hello again.

I had two slices of toast for breakfast. I can't remember if I said this on here but I tried to give up gluten for a while but realised that I can eat organic bread so I order fruit, veg and bread from Abel & Cole now. It's so much nicer than that horrible gluten free bread, haha.

I also had a banana and a big handful of unsalted, mixed nuts.

I am going to have boiled new potatoes and salad for lunch with lemon and olive oil dressing. Too hot to cook properly.

Brambling wrote: »

Lack of sleep is getting to me now so a quiet afternoon pottering doing not a lot really :cool: I know we shouldn't complain but I'm not made for the heat, a fair skinned English Rose carrying too much weight :rotfl:

Same here, I hate this very hot weather!:D

PasturesNew

I had a samosa for breakfast (quicker/easier than toasting a slice of bread).

Later on I did a boiled egg and made an egg/tomato sandwich and I grated cheese and made a cheese/tomato sandwich. I put them in a sandwich box in the fridge.

Later on I grabbed the sandwich box and ate most of those... just one one half sandwich left..... now for some chocolate covered peanuts.

Weather feels like it's on the turn. It's gone a bit overcast, a bit breezy and a bit "ominous feeling".

Curtains shut since first thing, patio doors open, front door open for through draught - and it's 83°F/28°C inside.