Cooking for one (Mark Three)

moneyistooshorttomention

Farway wrote: »

Boys & their toys PN.. I've only been to a few, but you used get to mooch among the planes as well as see them performing, not so good now with terrorism, recent crashes & crowd safety. I went ages back to Greenham Common, probably passed Money on the way in:D. That was impressive but way before restrictions came in

You wouldnt have missed me somehow Farway if you had:rotfl:. I would have been the one that decided "It's blimmin' cold here - so better dance to keep warm" and we all duly kicked our heels up and danced. Back in my days as a political activist I never saw any reason why it shouldnt be fun too if possible...goodness knows there had to be some compensations for just how often I landed up being cold or scared or losing income I was due for one way or another....

I do like a bit of a dance me - and balance of a day went to feeling shattered earlier this week when I tried out a new-to-me form of dance. I decided it was quite promising and the people seemed friendly - so I'll be back there again:).

Made a bit of effort foodwise. I tried out another recipe from that vegan for 2 cookbook I recently bought. Quinoa gado-gado with peanut dipping sauce. Cue for various amendments to the sauce to make it "dippier" and I'll do twice as much as they say in future. But it was quite nice.

Must go and rinse some buckwheat groats again in a minute - as I'm experimenting with buckwheaties. That seems to be an American raw food recipe for a breakfast cereal. That being soak and sprout and then dehydrate. I've got as far as little sprouts are growing and I think I'll probably give it another days worth of rinsing at intervals and then shove them in my dehydrator to dehydrate. No idea how long one is supposed to do this for. Has anyone made buckwheaties? Because, if so, hints welcome.

I guess it's not that surprising that I'm on pretty chatty terms with the owner of the local health food store and they tend to make a point of telling me if they have anything "new" in - as they know I am frequently on the lookout for "summat I've not tried yet" and chances are I'll buy it if I haven't done so yet.

caronc

Good evening everyone,
I'll get a proper catch up tomorrow- a combination of my younger son being home and a rather yukky headache (thankfully now gone) have kept me off line today. Said son is just putting the finishing touches of dinner together - bbq ribs, HM wedges, corn on the cob and salad.:)

Brambling

So will we be getting photos of cowboy boots or dancing shoes Money seems to me to be a win win situation meeting people and exercise a friend dragged her husband to salsa and I think as much as the dance they love the people and socialising.

Sorry I've never tried buckwheaties I only use buck wheat for salads

I agree with you about takeaways for one PN there's usually a £10 min order for delivery and If you collect from town there's parking to consider, so I don't bother.

I met a friend for [STRIKE]gossip[/STRIKE] catch up and lunch today it's the friend I should have gone away with in June, her life has been a little hectic so this has been the first time we had a opportunity to meet up since. We let her husband join us for lunch after we had talked about him :rotfl: after all he had driven her so we could have cocktails with lunch the place we usually had lunch has changed their menu so lunch wasn't brilliant but their cocktails were :dance: I had walked from home to the station today . So just a chicken and bacon ciabatta for lunch, quite big but too dry and I really shouldn't have had the bread oh I did share some chips

Another CBA meal for dinner tonight, didn't want any more bread so made my self a couple of boiled eggs

PasturesNew

Brambling wrote: »

I agree with you about takeaways for one PN there's usually a £10 min order for delivery and If you collect from town there's parking to consider, so I don't bother.

Yes, it's not easy when you factor it all in. Where I live there's free parking close to/outside the takeaways I frequent. Others don't have parking, so I'd not go there.

What "those with more than one" don't appreciate is that you always have to go out and get your food... they can just have home delivery as it's free. And they say stuff like "order more, then freeze the leftovers" - er ... if I order one main and one side I'm already eating/freezing the leftovers (which are rarely as good as when fresh anyway).

Most CFOs order what they know they can reasonably eat - not a food overload.

e.g. for indian I'd "like" curry, rice + bhaji + naan + bombay spuds.

I order: curry, rice. Because all that other stuff is "surplus to requirements/don't need a whole portion". As I can only eat 2/3rds of a curry and rice it'd be just daft to order all that other stuff too. You can do it when with somebody else as you can say "I'll have a curry and rice - and shall we get a bombay spuds between us?" and you might be lucky and they might say yes once every 5 years or so..

Ordering for one is: bare minimum food that you know you can eat - go out and get it.

Brambling

Nothing to add PN I think you just about covered it above

PasturesNew

Wet, wet, wet here this morning. Wet, grey skies. Rain. Not good.
Not car booting today!

So, instead, I dug out some mince I'd frozen months ago that was cluttering up the freezer - half defrosted it in the microwave (didn't actually have a microwave safe dish the right size/shape, so skimped the on the defrosting) .... and it was into the SC with a tin of chick peas, an onion and a nifty jar of cheap chilli sauce.

That's on now... so it'll be chilli/rice at some point.

I'd originally also got a tin of baked beans from the cupboard to add in, but as I've a small CFO SC (3.5 litres) I ran out of room in it, so couldn't add the beans. I can stir those in close to the end, when pot volume's not so critical.

Farway

Rain not yet arrived, due though.

Up a bit earlier, checking FB to see if DS + Family safely back from France, they were, long journey, usual tunnel delays it seems

Porridge etc for breakfast
I've taken one of my "on offer" Iceland salmon fillets out to defrost, so I can fry it. Last night's one ex Asda was nice, hoping tonight's is same
I'm trying to use salad up, because I'm down to Plymouth tomorrow and don't want to come back to a whiffy fridge

I'm sort of stuck in, the SMs don't open until 10, but if I go out I will be stuck "out" because there is a ginormous transformer, nearly 250 feet long and wide as 2 double deckers abreast, with attendant rolling road block making it's way up from the docks to a sub station near me. And my access lane and adjacent roads will be well & truly blocked for an hour or so while this thing goes by

Lunch will be last of the opened PB baguettes with BF ham & salad stuff

PasturesNew

Still nasty out there - it's a day when the only people going out are desperate to fetch something, or they're "going out to go indoors somewhere else".

Still raining here.... cold, wintry, windy, wet.

Chilli's coming along a treat. I won't bother adding the beans. There's a monster volume of food without that.

Probably will serve with basmati rice - else it'd mean using up the rest of the chips and I'd prefer to hold onto those.

Lunch will be when I fancy it. Chilli went on about 7ish, maybe 7.30 ish. High until 9ish.... so it'll be fine to eat any time after noonish.

It's all rather vague here .... you can tell when food's cooked by looking at it .... and it's just beef mince, so nothing to worry about food safety wise. It'll have had 5 hours by noonish.... tis enough.

caronc

Good morning everyone,

It's absolutely tipping it down here and I wouldn't be surprised if it thundered. My son has headed off so I'm back to CFO.
I've never bought a takeaway just for me in all the time I've been CFO, I've been tempted a few times to order a curry but I like all the bits you get in the meal deals for 2+ but equally don't want to have to deal with all the food that is in it when there is just me here so I've always talked myself out of it so far.
I live pretty near where the Scottish International Airshow is held, I've never actually been to it as I can see most of the flying displays from my deck which are the only bits that appeal to me.

Brambling - the courgette, filo & rice pie worked really well and would I reckon easily convert to smaller pies or even large triangles. My son & I had it on FRiday and I had some for lunch yesterday so I'll freeze what's left today.
No breakfast as I'm "saving myself" for a cooked brunch, I haven't yet decided what to have for dinner tonight. I need to sit and sort a meal plan out for the coming week.


Lots of tomatoes in my deck baskets are ripe or nearly ripe, my son took a bagful off with him but if they keep going at this rate I'll get a load roasted with garlic and oregano and get the first batch of passatta made and frozen.

moneyistooshorttomention

Yep...colder/wet/windy/etc here again.

So it's a cooking day today - I've been dehydrating my buckwheaties (ie sprouted buckwheat groats) and it didn't take as long as I thought (ie about 2 hours). So I might try them out later - with a cereal of them/fruit/etc.

Taken all the apples of another one of my trees - as I could see they'd been "got at" by bugs and thought I'd better save what I can. So - good bits removed and stewed up to be apple sauce.

I can see that I'm not going to get any apples to eat "as is" at all this year with the best will in the world. One tree was stripped by me and the apples were too yuk:eek: to even try to stew them. More to go - but I suspect they're also going to be apple sauce:(. Oh well - with what organic apples cost - "every little helps".

Better make myself some bread in a minute too - as it's getting a bit low. Already bought 2 loaves of bread this week - and the ones I buy are rather expensive - so gotta balance out a bit with home-made bread.