Cooking for one (Mark Three)

Brambling

Wednesday2000 wrote: »

:grouphug: It's so sad to lose animal friends.:( I have lost quite a few.

My cat had very good blood results luckily, his thyroid is back to normal now.:)

Glad the cats blood test results were good Wednesday. 2017 was a bad year as I lost two cats one in February the other August and found myself catless for the first time in 30 years, I did take my vets advise and waited 6 months before rescuing himself from cat protection . Living alone I missed having the company although I didn't miss any visitors they bring in and let go :cool:

Fire_Fox

Thanks Farway and Caronc. Yes I have done very well recently.

Half musing on what to do with the YS sea bream whilst chatting to the ex/ friend on the telephone. I invariably spice up and pan fry fish fillets but that murders a whole fish. Thought a baking paper parcel would be closest to foolproof .... but I haven't any fresh herbs on the windowsill nor any lemon peel left in the freezer ....

However I do have open jars of green olive tapenade and chermoula paste in the fridge, plus lemon pepper and a bulb of smoked garlic. :j Unsurprisingly I am 'reinventing the wheel'!

Cracked open a couple of North African cookbooks to learn that roasted chermoula bream with potatoes and olives is "a classic Moroccan dish" (John Gregory-Smith). Another version using whole sea bass from Yotam Ottolenghi.

I had started on a Middle Eastern tomato salad - salted the cherry tomatoes and vinegared the red onion - but they can easily be diverted to this fish dish. Rang ex/ friend back and he is bringing a bag of the YS Jersey potatoes back down to me tomorrow.

Has all reinforced my bad habit of overstocking ingredients, sauces and pastes. Such a pity I cannot cook as well as I can shop! :rotfl:

Wednesday2000 and Brambling: [STRIKE]Glad you have found space in your hearts and homes for more feline friends.[/STRIKE] Glad some felines have found space in their lives and on their furniture for you as housekeeper/ hot water bottle/ personal shopper/ chauffeur/ social secretary/ devoted slave.

Farway

'morning, quick check in before I trundle off to dentist check up


Porridge breakfast of course
Still rain off & on


Because of my operation on Monday I need to get a bit of extra food put by as I think I'm going to limited in what I can do for a while afterwards [hernia op].

I have a freezer full of MFO stuff that I stocked up before Christmas in anticipation, so it's more in way of fresh stuff, like extra milk

Wednesday2000

I'm having cheese and crackers again with sparkling water.

I fancy pasta today so I'm going to turn the last of the red lentil soup into a pasta sauce instead.

Brambling wrote: »

Glad the cats blood test results were good Wednesday. 2017 was a bad year as I lost two cats one in February the other August and found myself catless for the first time in 30 years, I did take my vets advise and waited 6 months before rescuing himself from cat protection . Living alone I missed having the company although I didn't miss any visitors they bring in and let go :cool:

I lost 2 cats in 2017 too, 3 months apart.:(

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Wednesday2000 and Brambling: [STRIKE]Glad you have found space in your hearts and homes for more feline friends.[/STRIKE] Glad some felines have found space in their lives and on their furniture for you as housekeeper/ hot water bottle/ personal shopper/ chauffeur/ social secretary/ devoted slave.

:rotfl:

PasturesNew

Wednesday2000 wrote: »

Have you actually found a new place and sold yours now?:)

caronc wrote: »

How excitig PN Have you found your new home yet?

Sold, yes, in as far as one's sold any house when there's a small chain that needs surveys/mortgages.

Found, not yet. But that's not a big issue. Ideally I'd move from one to the other, but it's not critical, it'd just be a shame if I couldn't.

Got to see another later today.

I've done so much constant research in recent months that I'll only view something that I've really thought about. I've nailed what's actually important and what compromises would be made.

The house today has just a couple of compromises wavering on the line of "ah, I don't know about that bit".

Although it's 3 beds, it's actually no larger than my current 2 bed. It's also of an age where it could probably do with a rewire and maybe the boiler's on its last legs.

But I view houses as functional objects.... what could be changed that's within my skillset/ability and budget. e.g. paint the walls, yes; reconfigure the layout, no. I don't mind "dated but clean/livable". The one to see is "dated but clean/livable"

Does it have the bits?
Garage: No. Conservatory: No. Room for them? Yes.
Close to where I initially said I wanted to be: Yes.
Kitchen annoying layout? No.
Sunny garden? Kind of... not all day, but workable. It's more usable and visible sun than what I've currently got, when available.
Crime: hmm... needs further investigation.

caronc

Good morning everyone,
How exciting PN - fingers crossed you find your new home soon:).
Fire Fox if you are planning to cook the whole fish just check it's been gutted, they aren't always as I found out after I bunged one on SO straight in the freezer when I got it. They are easy enough to gut/clean and is best done asap!

Yes best to get well stocked up with easy eats and fesh stuff Farway so you can rest up post op and heal properly.
Cold, grey and damp here. I have a letter to post but think I'll just need to resign myself to getting wet as every time I go to do it the rain comes on.
Groceries have been delivered and put away and my loaf is just about ready to bake.:)
I'm having a toasted bagel with cheese salad and a small mug of HM leek & tattie soup for lunch. I've not decided about tonight, there is plenty of savoury mince left but I'm not sure if I want it again. If not it will probably be a stirfry or (sort of) katsu curry.

Wednesday2000

I was about to start talking about Nandos and realised it was the wrong thread.:rotfl: I've only been to Nandos once but I thought it was quite nice for a chain restaurant.

I didn't have the lentil pasta yet as i remembered I did get a pitta bread and a snack pot of houmous out from the freezer last night. I had it with the last of the lettuce and a cup of green tea.

PasturesNew

Wednesday2000 wrote: »

I've only been to Nandos once but I thought it was quite nice for a chain restaurant.

I was with a group of online people who met for the first time in a major city about 12 years ago. All the others were lads, so it was a little raucous to say the least. We nearly got thrown off the bus getting there

The lads were very much of the opinion that the F word and the C word were everyday words.

We did get inside a Nandos... but somebody decided the place was full of "***kers (said in a loud voice) and they all leapt off the chairs to leave, so I shuffled away behind them. I was quite glad as the F and C words had also been used in there..... I was simply trying to get through the ordeal that is a "lads holiday away from home". All "banter", but, please lads, out of earshot of the great washed public! I spent most of that day mortified.... they were flashing/comparing each others' breasts in the pub we went to after we'd eaten elsewhere. *sighs*. They should've known better, they were aged 25-35 or so.

Brambling

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Wednesday2000 and Brambling: [STRIKE]Glad you have found space in your hearts and homes for more feline friends.[/STRIKE] Glad some felines have found space in their lives and on their furniture for you as housekeeper/ hot water bottle/ personal shopper/ chauffeur/ social secretary/ devoted slave.

You know what they say you own a dog the cat owns you :rotfl: mine decided to forgive me by sitting on my head early this morning, he seems most put out that I didn't want him to stay there.......... no snooze button on a furry alarm clock either

You've reminded me Firefox that I was going to make some tapenade, a job for the weekend I think, may need to look through my [STRIKE]addiction [/STRIKE]cookery books for ideas on what to serve with it

Not doing so great food wise today, I made overnight oats last night with grated apple and cinnamon however when eating it at work it seems in my haste late last night i didn't grab cinnamon :eek: lets just say ground corriander made for an interesting taste for breakfast _pale_ For lunch I took some meat ball soup out of the freezer and forgot i wasn't that keen on it and had added rice when freezing there is something in it i can't place the flavour which didn't work I ate half before deciding lifes too short and had banana and grapes instead, doesn't help that due to a meeting at 1.15pm which is due to last all afternoon i'm having a too early lunch

I took some salmon out of the freezer for dinner, currently not fancying it now so may cook it and have with egg in a salad for lunch tomorrow and do something like jacket potato. I've agreed to work late so it could be anything, hopefully something I can't mess up

Wednesday2000

PasturesNew wrote: »

I was with a group of online people who met for the first time in a major city about 12 years ago. All the others were lads, so it was a little raucous to say the least. We nearly got thrown off the bus getting there

The lads were very much of the opinion that the F word and the C word were everyday words.

We did get inside a Nandos... but somebody decided the place was full of "***kers (said in a loud voice) and they all leapt off the chairs to leave, so I shuffled away behind them. I was quite glad as the F and C words had also been used in there..... I was simply trying to get through the ordeal that is a "lads holiday away from home". All "banter", but, please lads, out of earshot of the great washed public! I spent most of that day mortified.... they were flashing/comparing each others' breasts in the pub we went to after we'd eaten elsewhere. *sighs*. They should've known better, they were aged 25-35 or so.

:eek:

I was at Nandos about 10 years ago and mostly with men but they were better behaved!:p