Cooking for one (Mark Three)

Brambling

caronc wrote: »

My Mum used to knit our mittens and then seew them onto a ribbon and thread them through your coat sleeves. Worked a treat at avoiding losing them but you could get in a right tangle is you weren't careful taking your coat on and off:rotfl:

PasturesNew wrote: »

...My mum used knicker elastic, not ribbon

On Friday I was trying to explain to an Indian colleague about mittens on elastic thread through the sleeves when she was complaining her children lose their gloves. I think she thought I was mad :rotfl: probably against H&S rules now :rotfl:

Wednesday2000

I got up about 4 so all I've had is a vegan cheese toastie. I went for a walk even though it's wet and miserable out there. I went out about 5 and it wasn't quite dark yet so the days are getting a bit lighter in the evening.

I want to have some fruit but I just brushed my teeth so that will have to wait.

caronc

Good evening everyone,
Knicker elastic would have made more sense for the mitts I think but my Mum always used ribbon- no idea why. She was a keen knitter and made lots of stuff for us and then later grandkids. I was taught as a child but didn't enjoy it and I think the last I attempted (and abandoned) was a pair of bootees when I was pregnant with my first:eek:. Memories of winter nights are definitely punctuated by the sound of her needles clicking while we watch TV. She did dress make as well but was less keen on that and consequently mainly left that to my Great Aunt who made lots of outfits for us. I can do basic repairs and alterations but never really enjoyed sewing.

Groceries are not long delivered and aparently it's snowing quite heavily just a few miles inland. Bitterly cold here but the skies are clear so doubt we'll get any. It's still blowing a gale though!

SunnyGirl

Evening all.

My God it's cold tonight :eek: The heating clicked off at about 8pm as always but I was pottering so didn't notice how cold it had got. Now I've come to bed it's freezing. Glad of my winter duvet and an extra blanket on top of that. I even have my very not alluring long sleeved nightie on :rotfl:

Faraway Did the dishwasher arrive and has it had its inaugural use yet? It struck me this afternoon that the lost sock incident has come in pairs with you and me (excuse the pun of pairs when discussing socks! I'm sure we agreed a lottery win next

Candygirl I used to have a Labrador who was obsessed with socks. You'd think she'd just stolen one but when you opened her mouth to remove the sock there'd be 4 or 5 down there :rotfl: Thanks for the tortilla pizza idea. I don't like pizza too thick or doughy so that's going on my menu.

Talking of food I dined on a tuna sandwich for lunch and a savoury mince with chips this evening. I felt too ropey to make anything else

Uni tomorrow and my bag is all packed with lecture slides printed off. I thought I'd done all the pre lecture work but luckily I scrolled down the page earlier and found another 2-3 hours work which I've spent this evening doing. It was interesting actually as we had to research, among other things, the overcrowding in prisons and the effect it has on inmates and staffs mental health.

Btw I was another child with mittens on elastic. I did it for my 3 when they were small too.

My toes have just about warmed up now that I've been in bed for a wee while.

PasturesNew

I turned the heating on for about 2 hours last night, then turned it right off. This morning the thermometer was showing 57°, so I've opened my window to air the room.... bit nippy out there Slight frost on cars. The sun's out, blue skies here.

I'm going to be buying a new kitchen gadget..... it's been a long time thinking about it (years), but I'm going for it. A pie maker It might be today, got to "work myself up to it" yet. It'll be a 2/deep one.

EDIT: Changed my mind. Decided it's not needed......

Farway

'Morning CFOers, I was up before crack of dawn, DW due day
I woke earlier & couldn't drop back of thinking about need to get up early, enriched my mind on the World Service, programme about shoes, sounds dull but I found it interesting

Early porridge breakfast, checked e mail, DW is on the way, ETA between 12 & 2. Wish I'd known they would send e mail with ETA then I could've checked in bed & had a bit extra kip:(

My Nan was the knitter, never did gloves or mitts, cardigans and horror & embarrassment of knitted & wet swimming cossie at Uxbridge pool:o
Cringing even now as I think about it, it was that experience that stopped me becoming an Olympic diver & cross Channel swimmer;)

Lunch likely to be fried egg sarnie, need it quick in case DW arrives mid bite

Dinner, no idea, could be rinse & repeat fish fingers?

PS, PN, kitchen gadgets, I need a veg peeler, my good one, all metal, slice your finger off one has run away with the sock, just the never worked properly safety one
Do pie makers cook it as well or just form a pie for you to bung in oven?

PPS,[/B] Brambling My oven's gas so no problems just lighting up for 20 minutes, no need to wait while it warms up before bunging stuff in

caronc

Good morning everyone,

The one gadget that is creeping closer to the top of my "wish list" is a toastie maker. I had one for years and used it lots but decided when it died that I wouldn't replace it as it was mainly the kids that used it. I do miss a proper sealed edge, scalding in the middle toastie though.....
It was -6C when I got up just before 8 am and although it has warmed up a bit I doubt it's much above freezing. It was briefly lovely and sunny but it's clouding over now and we have sleet forecast for this afternoon turning into snow overnight. I'm well stocked up thankfully and have just replenished the log stack so if the weather is dire for a few days I can just hunker down:).
Egg mayo bagel for lunch with salad and probably a cupasoup. Pasta tonight - macaroni with peas, spinach & cheese. I'll take some beef mince out to defrost later as I fancy making a pan of savoury mince tomorrow.

PasturesNew

I removed a piece of frozen pastry from the freezer to defrost... now it's out I've no idea what to put in it. Got lots of ideas, but then it comes down to whether I can be bothered with all that faff.... it could be cheese/spud, cheese/onion/spud, cheese onion, sausage, sausage/onion, sausage/onion/beans, beans/cheese .... and that's before I start thinking of what else I've got!

EDIT: Went with cheese/onion .... which will be served with chips/beans. It's half way cooked now.

Well, that was nice enough, the cheese was tastier, it had nice onions in it, but was it worth the effort/cost?

It's more expensive than, say, simply waiting for a 2-pack of cheese slices to be marked down to half price and buying them I had more filling in than a shop bought one would have given me - and I COULD have made my own pastry to save more money ... but it was the faff too. First I bought the pastry (pre Xmas), then I cut the sheets and flattened them out and put them in the freezer, so that was "work done". Then I defrosted one part sheet.... added cheese and chopped onion, creating washing up + the inevitable few bits of cheese/onion dotted on the floor and worktop. Then I cooked it. Wiped all the worktops down, wiped the kitchen floor down, did the washing up (chopping mat, knife).

Cost-wise, I THINK it was a 1/4 of a sheet, so 21p. Cheese was about 30p. Bit of onion was about 4p.... so 55p to make one .... or, watching for red stickers, 25p each to buy some

Farway

Thanks PN on pie maker info, not something for me, I'd want one like a bread maker, bung stuff in and a hot pie pops out later;)
Think I'll stick with prowling for YS ones until someone designs a do it all in one hit jobby

Dish washer arrived about 1.30, I've unpacked & plumbed it in, and had an empty run to rinse / clean / leak check it before I use it in earnest tonight.
So far all well, but I did think for a moment I'd be stuck on my knees in the kitchen after I had fiddled around behind units putting the drain hose in. Managed to get upright again after a bit of faffing:j

Lunch was the egg sarnie

Dinner will be fish finger repeat

Then full scale Harbour Trials on the dishwasher with two days washing up to clean:o

SunnyGirl

PN You make me laugh reading your posts and ruminations on buying stuff and cooking it. Have you always been indecisive? I'm the other way and decide quickly and on occasion have repented at leisure as they say :rotfl::o

There was a hard and thick frost here too this morning and my windscreen was frozen inside as well as out :eek: Speaking to people at uni it seemed to be a common theme.

I actually had breakfast today for a change although I regretted it as it was 2 slices of toast from the uni caf! and at 30p a slice it wasn't worth the cost really.

Lunch was a ham sandwich and a yoghurt and dinner is going to be baked potato with beans and cheese I've got a beef casserole in the oven on low for tomorrow so will nuke the potatoes first then let them crisp up in the oven while it's on :money:

I did a small shop for fresh stuff on my way home at Lidl and must confess that a packet of their luxury cookies with white chocolate, blueberries and raspberries may have fell into the trolley. Also a tub of vanilla ice cream. And perhaps 2 tubs of Ben & Jerry's caramel chew chew which is my favourite flavour ;) I did also buy carrots, swede, cabbage, olives and yoghurts to balance it out. That's my excuse anyway......

I'm not a kitchen gadget person. When the kids were younger I had a great food processor, smoothie maker, toastie maker etc but as they've died I haven't replaced them. I have a stick blender as I make a lot of soups and a set of electric beaters. Otherwise its a knife, peeler, grater and woman power.

Keep warm everyone