Cooking for one (Mark Three)

PasturesNew

I've been up since 6.30am pottering about doing small and inconsequential "jobs" of tidying/cleaning around the house and even gave the grass a bit of a going over... as I've 2 potential buyers calling in later.

Nearly there now.

You really have to go out of your way to get the house "ready" that is different to how you usually live and leave things arranged, piled, waiting, sorting... I can't leave the washing up loitering/in soak until there's enough ... I have to do it all... and not just do it, but dry it and put it away, then put the plate drainer away, then wipe down the whole draining board, then take the bowl I use and pop it in the shed

Lunch today was the final 2 sausage rolls in the pack.

I might .... treat myself to an indian takeaway tonight, just because I can - and I've not had them for so long it's nice to be able to buy one, even if it isn't "the best ever", but simply "that's good enough to be bought again". If I do, that'd be the 3rd in 3 weeks

Farway

Hope the potential buyers were impressed PN, and good luck with the takeaways, I know you've spent yonks trying to find one "that's good enough to be bought again"


I don't buy them, the curry ones are too spicey for me, anf the Chinese ones I always think "blow that I can get one from Marks or W/rose for half that price"


Lunch finished up as grilled cheese on stale bread toast, with some of the LO Christmas offer piccalilli


Beef stew now out of fridge, ready to reheat on the hob, with fresh dumplings bunged in
Crumble, all items ready to whiz and adorn the stewed rhubarb, not located my custard yet, could be yoghurt substitute


Scrumped some of next doors Concorde pears, they are now dropping off the tree, so may as well drop a bit earlier into my hands:D Not fully ripe yet but soon will be


Tried in vain to photograph a spider in it's web, with fly. Nice out of focus shots, be ideal for News showing children in playground:o
I'll have another bash later using my phone camera instead of a "real one"

PasturesNew

Farway wrote: »

.... good luck with the takeaways, I know you've spent yonks trying to find one "that's good enough to be bought again"


I don't buy them, the curry ones are too spicey for me, anf the Chinese ones I always think "blow that I can get one from Marks or W/rose for half that price"

Supermarkets can't do indian or chinese just like the takeaways. It used to be that chinese was cheap, but a sweet/sour chicken balls with one side dish of rice or noodles, is nigh on £9 now!

Indian used to cost more. An indian for me will now typically cost £7.

I've found a FAB Chinese for doing S/S chicken - but their rice/noodles aren't up to scratch, that's definitely a case of pre-buying the sides at a supermarket as they're "just as bad" as the proper Chinese one... and I CBA to start trying to order half a Chinese from one shop and the other half from another to select the items they do best

Indian .... and supermarkets ..... never come close to "the real thing". What I see when I look in the supermarkets, too, is that £/Kg it appears to probably be cheaper to actually buy an indian that's made fresh. Supermarket portions are much tinier than takeaway portions.

Re viewers: You can never tell when somebody comes and sees it as "ideal" ... or even somebody who is just fed up to the back teeth with seeing houses and so just goes "It'll do, I'll have it", which is what I did when I bought this

I would say: They've been/gone.... two expected, no feedback from the agent yet to let me know if none, one, or two viewed. Doors were open, but that could just be the agent having a nosey around as this agent hadn't seen it before. ... he's seen it in the past, when I bought it, but not this time.

PasturesNew

I think it's definitely got to be an indian... I'm all "jumpy" from today's events.... so an indian would go down a treat

Didn't like their naan bread though ... so might pop into a supermarket and pick up a cheap one there... might as well pay 50p for something "so so" as £2.30

Had an agent call, one of the viewers likes it a lot - but has one to sell (3-4 miles away); hers has had a lot of viewings this weekend though...

So it might be that old chestnut "first to view will buy". Stranger things have happened at sea and I am at the seaside.

EDIT: Back. Popped into Lidl for naan bread - and spotted they do a bombay spuds which was marked "new" at £1.29. I like a bombay spud, so I got that and the naan (plain). £1.29 + 49p (for two naans).

Indian tried to stiff me as they didn't deduct the 10% for collection, but I pointed it out £7.16 instead of £7.95.

Bombay Spuds: Avoid. Not a good one.
Plain Naan: Very passable.

Still got half of everything left for tomorrow.

Farway

PasturesNew wrote: »

Bombay Spuds: Avoid. Not a good one.
Plain Naan: Very passable.

Still got half of everything left for tomorrow.

Nice to know about the spuds PN, not that I buy much oriental style food any way, or much in the way of prepared spud stuff except chips.
I was looking and wondering about trying Iceland's offer this week, spud waffles, decided to give them a miss as spud waffles are nothing I crave or long for. I'd eat them if they appeared on my plate of course

I don't mind that s/m take aways are nothing like the real thing, they suit my taste, unlike the real, authentic Chinese they used to sell in Wanchai on the way back to the ship, gross:eek:

Yesterday's rhubarb crumble was as nice as hoped, and I found the tin of custard to go with it. Plenty of both left for more puds
The LO stew plus dumplings was ideal, as usual the stew improved after a night in the fridge

Breakfast of usual porridge, with chopped apple again.

Dry and sort of sunny, I should cut the grass but that may not happen
Staying in and filling in my tax return instead of mooching around shops, I only "need" milk but that's not urgent

Lunch, probably a cheese & salady sandwich. I bought Red Leicester cheese instead of plain old yellow mature cheddar. Not impressed, but it has to be used now I've got it

Dinner, salad is very likely, needs using before it turns to compost, plus I've LO roast chicken to go with it, an easy CFO meal with some frozen chips

flubberyzing

All this talk of takeaways...!
I've been wanting a chippy tea all week, but holding out for now. It's my birthday in a fortnight, so I'll treat myself to one during that week without any guilt! I also like a takeaway pizza, but that's no change from £20 really, which is madness! I have maybe one of those a year, if that. A chippy tea is every 2-3 months.
I like Indian meals, but I'd rather go to a restaurant. There's a lovely one in the next town that does a full-on feast on a Sunday for about 12 a head. Gorgeous!
I like Chinese also, but Chinese doesn't like me! There's some ingredient in it that upsets my stomach, so I now avoid it!

I'm good at avoiding takeaways - they barely ever cross my mind tbh. Although I know people who have 2 or 3 a week! Madness!

Breakfast this morning was a coffee and biccies… Naughty!
Lunch, I'll see what I fancy.
Dinner will be tuna pasta.

A good shop is due tomorrow. The cupboard is getting a bit sparse!

moneyistooshorttomention

flubberyzing wrote: »

I like Chinese also, but Chinese doesn't like me! There's some ingredient in it that upsets my stomach, so I now avoid it!

I'm good at avoiding takeaways - they barely ever cross my mind tbh. Although I know people who have 2 or 3 a week! Madness!

Am guessing it's probably monosodium glatamate that's the problem ingredient in Chinese cooking - so you're probably okay with Chinese food per se. However - NOT okay with food from the usual Chinese restaurant/takeaway.

I'm very good at avoiding takeaways - not that I had many at all before moving. Here - I've had precisely one since moving here - from a place recommended as the best one for takeaways here. I tried to finish it - as I was hungry - but it was pretty revolting and half of it went in the bin. So there's no temptation whatsoever to have any takeaways here - to see if any of the other places are better than the "best one":cool:

Farway

Lunch ended up with cheese & salady PB baguette instead of a sandwich, my bread is stale and the PB baguettes are BBE 18th, so two birds one brick

Dinner will be as planned, LO roast chicken salad + some frozen chips, with LO rhubarb crumble & custard later

Sun's out, nice & warm, not mowing the grass though. But I've completed the tax form which is one job less:j

flubberyzing wrote: »

All this talk of takeaways...!
I've been wanting a chippy tea all week, but holding out for now. It's my birthday in a fortnight, so I'll treat myself to one during that week without any guilt!


Dinner will be tuna pasta.

I've been thinking about a chippy meal for the last few weeks, I may succumb on Friday.

That day I've got my annual MOT with the Practice nurse, assuming I get the reasonably all clear, except overweight which I take as a given, I may just cross the road to the very handy chippy opposite the surgery;)


And now I fancy tuna pasta, not had that for ages


Update, my recently sown YS parsley seed has germinated.

I bought it the other week following Caron's praise & harvesting of fresh parsley
At least I know the seed is viable.

Brambling

I'm another fan of parsley are you growing it indoors Farway? I usually just grow it during the summer and then buy the supermarket pots during the winter.

I don't usually bother with takeaways just for me I will cook curry or Chinese, unfortunately the two takeaways I did use occasionally have both closed in the last couple of years

Quiet day today according to my sister I sound like I'm on 40 a day, so I've been pottering, I came back from holiday thanks to a couple of my sisters with a large bag of books so I've used my cough as a excuse to start on them :rotfl:

I made a couple of batches of soup this afternoon a spicy lentil and a kind of minestrone I took the skin from a couple of 'nice' sausages and made mini meatballs to add to the soup.

Brunch was bacon, eggs and beans and dinner was a couple stuffed chicken thighs, potato, celeriac and carrot Boulangere, runner beans and broccoli.

Flubberyzing/ Farway now I have tuna pasta on my mind, may have to rejig my meal plan for end of week

flubberyzing

Morning all!

The mornings are starting to feel darker now aren't they? When I get up at around 6:45, I'm having to put the hallway light on, which hasn't been needed in the mornings for yonks! The weather is fairly mild at ground level, but clearly it's howling a gale up in the clouds, because they're blasting along! I think it's just starting to drizzle now.

Went out to Lidl first thing, but they are clearly having delivery trouble, as the shelves were very sparse, and I couldn't get everything I wanted. Typically, a huge delivery lorry was pulling in just as I was leaving! I had to come home via Tesco to fill in the gaps. It's a good thing I had time on my hands, because a shopping job that would normally take about 45 mins, took just shy of an hour and 30 instead.

Lunch will be a sandwich, a wedge of cheese, and a banana.
Dinner will be spicy chicken goujons, potato croquettes and peas.

The croquettes were YS to 99p. Would never buy them full price, because they are just potato after all. But I do like them, and 99p was in my realm of reasonable.