Cooking for one (Mark Three)

Farway

meg72 wrote: »

The Roast beef was excellent, best I`ve had for a long time, so tender and tasty. Hope you get one tomorrow. I did the full roast, potatoes,, carrots, parsnip, Yorkshires and had mashed potato , steamed cabbage, broccoli and the first of my homegrown runners
a real piggy job. Love the sound of your trifle.

Nice to hear about the beef, maybe some left when I go in, but not expecting it TBH.
I have a plan B to buy some fish if not, not had Iceland fish before so I'll try & remember to take my specs along to peer at the small print, last time I bought fish without peering at label [from Asda] it turned out to be Vietnamese catfish, AKA river cobbler, basa, or sometimes just it's Latin moniker Pangasius just to disguise it from the unwary


On the fish front, my genuine cod fillet, from Iceland, the country, was excellent. I'm trying the trifle once the main meal settles

meg72

Farway wrote: »

Nice to hear about the beef, maybe some left when I go in, but not expecting it TBH.
I have a plan B to buy some fish if not, not had Iceland fish before so I'll try & remember to take my specs along to peer at the small print, last time I bought fish without peering at label [from Asda] it turned out to be Vietnamese catfish, AKA river cobbler, basa, or sometimes just it's Latin moniker Pangasius just to disguise it from the unwary


On the fish front, my genuine cod fillet, from Iceland, the country, was excellent. I'm trying the trifle once the main meal settles

Fingers crossed that they have one left for you. I`m hoping my Iceland will have some as have just promised my neighbour I will bring her one if I can.


I popped round to ask her if she could use some Runner beans and was quite shocked when she told me Ohhhhhh yes please, they are so expensive. 5.20kg in Asda apparently. Just checked on line and yes they are and if you buy ready sliced its a whopping £7.19. Yet frozen are only 1.20 kg, . Cant get my head around Why that would be?


I buy the fish in Iceland and have not been disappointed.

caronc

Glad your beef was good Meg, I find SM "roasting" beef joints fairly hit or miss, mainly because it's hard to work out what cut you're getting and IMHO some of the cuts sold as suitable for roasting such as silverside, topside etc. can be tricky to get just right and can be tough. Great for pot roasting/slow cooking but don't for me always hit the mark for cooking rare. Lovely when they do though!:)
MTSTM - 4 glasses at lunchtime, I'd be completely befuddled. Anymore than a glass during the day knocks me for six so I'd be in my bed by now:eek:.
Farway, I'm the same when it comes to whitefish, if it's any help Tesco's frozen bags of white fish are Alaskan Pollock and usually pretty decent, in fact I'm having a fillet tomorrow. https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/299598237


I've had a lazy afternoon interspersed with tackling some ironing, a job I hate but it was really needing doing. I've also had a noodle through the fridge, sorted out my next grocery order and came up with a provisional meal plan for this week which hopefully will give me a bit more variety than recently and some prepped stuff for the freezer.:)
Thoughts so far are:-

• Pork chop, carrots, broad & runner beans, mash & gravy
• Pollock baked with chorizo, peppers, courgette, spring onions & tomato with a baked spud
• Butternut squash & black bean chilli with sour cream, cheese & tortilla chips
• Mushroom, courgette & chard pasta
• Yoghurt marinated spiced lamb shoulder with, green beans in tom sauce, raita and greek pitta or rice
• Chicken, haggis and peppercorn sauce pice with veg & either new spuds or HM wedges

Apart from Wednesday when my Dad is coming over and I've promised to make Salad Nicoise, lunches will be the usual mix of salads, sarnies etc.

meg72

caronc wrote: »

Glad your beef was good Meg, I find SM "roasting" beef joints fairly hit or miss, mainly because it's hard to work out what cut you're getting and IMHO some of the cuts sold as suitable for roasting such as silverside, topside etc. can be tricky to get just right and can be tough. Great for pot roasting/slow cooking but don't for me always hit the mark for cooking rare. Lovely when they do though!:)
MTSTM - 4 glasses at lunchtime, I'd be completely befuddled. Anymore than a glass during the day knocks me for six so I'd be in my bed by now:eek:.
Farway, I'm the same when it comes to whitefish, if it's any help Tesco's frozen bags of white fish are Alaskan Pollock and usually pretty decent, in fact I'm having a fillet tomorrow. https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/299598237


I've had a lazy afternoon interspersed with tackling some ironing, a job I hate but it was really needing doing. I've also had a noodle through the fridge, sorted out my next grocery order and came up with a provisional meal plan for this week which hopefully will give me a bit more variety than recently and some prepped stuff for the freezer.:)
Thoughts so far are:-

• Pork chop, carrots, broad & runner beans, mash & gravy
• Pollock baked with chorizo, peppers, courgette, spring onions & tomato with a baked spud
• Butternut squash & black bean chilli with sour cream, cheese & tortilla chips
• Mushroom, courgette & chard pasta
• Yoghurt marinated spiced lamb shoulder with, green beans in tom sauce, raita and greek pitta or rice
• Chicken, haggis and peppercorn sauce pice with veg & either new spuds or HM wedges

Apart from Wednesday when my Dad is coming over and I've promised to make Salad Nicoise, lunches will be the usual mix of salads, sarnies etc.[/QUOTE

Yes quite agree SM beef is hard to do rare but I cant do rare full stop, slightest bit of pink puts me right off, my lovely OH from oop North has to cook his own steak when he comes for the weekend. He says wipe its !!!, minutes in the pan and onto the plate. I say I like my meat dead not mortally wounded LOL.


Love your meal plan.

caronc

Thanks Meg, I'm in your OH's camp- superhot pan, slap it in, blink a couple of times, turn, blink again and rest on a plate for a few minutes to settle while I switch the smoke alarm off:rotfl:, though do enjoy well done beef in a pot roast with loads of onions and root veg cooked in with it and the wonderful gravy you get with it.

Brambling

caronc wrote: »

Thanks Meg, I'm in your OH's camp- superhot pan, slap it in, blink a couple of times, turn, blink again and rest on a plate for a few minutes to settle while I switch the smoke alarm off:rotfl:, though do enjoy well done beef in a pot roast with loads of onions and root veg cooked in with it and the wonderful gravy you get with it.

I'm another one who prefers my steak rare but not blue . Last time I cooked a joint of beef I invited a friend who likes it pink, not sure where my brain was when cooking it :cool: it was not just pink but it was mooing :eek: it was a case of taking the edges and cooking it again when using the LOs :rotfl:

Lunch turned out to be LO meatballs which I forgot about

Menu plan looks good Caronc i need to organise myself now that it's cooler although I have a couple of lunches and one dinner organised with LO

Money hope the coffee kicked in before replying to any emails :rotfl:

I combined a couple of recipes for my pork stroganoff and it was really nice, no brandy or white wine but I used a touch of vermouth which worked and mixed some half fat creme fraiche with a little cream (thanks to Caronc freezing cream tip) enough for LOs which is not surprising :cool: and relatively healthy as well

moneyistooshorttomention

Yep...I think the coffee did kick in Brambling:rotfl:. I think my replies were pretty logical....

'Right must package up all those fallen plums I stewed earlier today - there are rather a lot of them. Next thing being whether I've got enough room in the freezer for them all.

A loan of resident moggie for cat cuddles doesnt sound like a bad idea right now - but I settled for thick fleecy blanket wrapped round me - whilst watching latest installment of The Handmaids Tale. I really should stop watching that programme - it's so blimmin' bleak. I guess I'm thinking "There's gotta be a happy ending somewhere along the line in this....".

caronc

Good morning everyone,

After some really torrential rain overnight the sun is now shining though there are still a good few black clouds about so how long for remains to be seen. Forecast looks better for late afternoon so hopefully I can get some gardening bits done.
"Finance" morning for me as it's pay day, I'm hoping August is less spendy than July!
Boiled egg on toast for breakfast, corned beef salad sarnie for lunch and baked pollock tonight so not much needing prepped foodwise though I'll probably pressure cook the beans for tomorrow's chilli this evening.

caronc

Monthly "accounts" finally balanced:D suffice to say I will be living quietly in August!


I popped some rubbish to the wheelie bin and while I passing the veg patch noticed a few peas were ready, just a small handful but will go nicely with my lunch.:)

PasturesNew

One cheesecake eaten.

I've got a bread roll left (only 1 day out of date)... so I'll shove some cheese/tomato in that and wrap it up for the fridge for when I am able to feel like eating.

I've done last year's tax return.... total annual income appears to be <1/10th of the annual tax free allowance, so no tax to pay on that pittance! It barely made it to 4 figures this year.

I really must get a job.... an income...

I'd noticed my savings going down... and down ... because I'm living off them.