Cooking for one (Mark Three)

PasturesNew

Somebody had a Chinese.... somebody had a Chinese .... guess who had a Chinese....

Well, it's been weeks/months of talking about it - but today I finally stopped and picked up a Chinese.

I've seen a house I like and was doing one of those "drive past/round the area at different times of day/night" things - trouble is it's a 40 mile round trip

So, I got there about 7pm and had a double drive round, then parked up and walked around the local public feature, which probably amounts to half a mile... then I did another drive round near/past the house and left the area to come home at about 8pm, pulling over about 6 miles from the Chinese and placing my order so I could just walk in and collect.

The trouble with that drive round malarky is you can only do it so many times in a big diesel car before curtains start twitching as they think you're casing the road Being female/older it's easier to get away with it though than if I were, say, a 25-45 year old male. Old ladies driving round = poor love's lost her way; Blokes driving round = what's he trying to nick?

S/S Chicken balls (more like monster goujons) and I got their plain chow mein. I've eaten half and the other half's in the fridge for tomorrow. They used to give a big bag of prawn crackers free, but, today, I got two Fortune Cookies, which I don't see the point of/don't like. £8.30 anyway, so not too shabby on the basis I don't buy many, it's for two days and it was a "treat" to myself for having done the 40 mile round trip.

Earlier today I had two crumpets for breakfast and cheese & beans on toast for lunch.

thrifty-hayley

PasturesNew wrote: »

S/S Chicken balls (more like monster goujons) and I got their plain chow mein. I've eaten half and the other half's in the fridge for tomorrow. They used to give a big bag of prawn crackers free, but, today, I got two Fortune Cookies, which I don't see the point of/don't like. £8.30 anyway, so not too shabby on the basis I don't buy many, it's for two days and it was a "treat" to myself for having done the 40 mile round trip.

Earlier today I had two crumpets for breakfast and cheese & beans on toast for lunch.

Your post has just made me feel really hungry lol. £8.30 isn't bad at all for a treat. Most important question, what did your fortune say? Good luck in the future?

Brambling

Hi Thrifty-Hayley :wave: welcome to CFO land

PN was this the house you put in an offer or another one? Glad the Chinese was better than the recent Indian

I haven't CFO today lunch was a cheese scone at the garden centre, I didn't need anything but went with my sister for compost and we had a snack.

I fed my sister and both my nephews for dinner, my eldest nephew was a last minute attendee I cooked Chinese, Asian inspired salmon with rice, stir fry vegetables, Singapore noodles with onions and bean sprouts. Youngest nephew provided lemon drizzle cake for afters and I provided a mixture of berries to balance it out

Whilst I was in the kitchen I made a rice pudding (to use milk) in the pressure cooker, than I made beef cheek ragu in it, using YS meat from the freezer my nephew took home a portion so a little less to fit in the freeze as one cheek makes four portions :cool:

Farway

Last night's dinner finished up as bacon sarnie + brown sauce, followed by last of the cherry pie:o
Porridge as usual breakfast

Bit dull out but beats rain I suppose for those on a Bank Holiday

Brambling wrote: »

I haven't CFO today lunch was a cheese scone at the garden centre, I didn't need anything but went with my sister for compost and we had a snack.

I'm in your footsteps today, garden centre cafe with family, but this is on country estate, so maze + model railway etc for the children
I was wondering what to have as snack, now I've an pinched idea

It also has a Farm Shop so an thick & tasty ethical FR pork chop may follow me home

PN, sounds like you need to check out the Chinese takeaways in potential new pasture. We used to live in road with a Chinese TA at bottom of road, this was in the 70s so it was a bit more exotic then, and very handy at times

Dinner, no idea, depends how the day turns out

Wednesday2000

I had a bowl of cereal for breakfast.

thrifty-hayley

Morning all

My picnic plans are looking a bit iffy, currently forecast for blustery showers... So do I make a picnic anyway, seeing as I've bought the stuff and eat it in the car if we have to, or do I give it up and go to a little cafe instead? Decisions decisions...

Having toast for breakfast from the 10p loaf I got yesterday, lunch and tea, who knows? Depends on how the day works out.

PasturesNew

thrifty-hayley wrote: »

Most important question, what did your fortune say? Good luck in the future?

It was rubbish. Living alone sometimes has miniscule bonuses - e.g. those prawn crackers was a standard/large sized bag they'd hand out to anybody (couples, families) with every order... so that was a gain As for the fortune cookies, they'd tossed two into the bag

I've eaten them both now, this one in front of me says "Your luck will completely change today. Lucky Numbers 23, 5, 7, 3, 37, 31."

As I don't believe in a pre-printed slip of paper determining my future, I won't rush out to buy a lottery ticket.

PasturesNew

thrifty-hayley wrote: »

Morning all

My picnic plans are looking a bit iffy, currently forecast for blustery showers... So do I make a picnic anyway, seeing as I've bought the stuff and eat it in the car if we have to, or do I give it up and go to a little cafe instead? Decisions decisions...

Having toast for breakfast from the 10p loaf I got yesterday, lunch and tea, who knows? Depends on how the day works out.

Make it, take it. Then you have options.
Once made it can always then go in your fridge for later/tomorrow if you do choose other food while out.

PasturesNew

Brambling wrote: »

PN was this the house you put in an offer

Yes, the offer one... but, driving over to the area had that sinking stomach "am I wasting my time" feeling as the offer's not even been accepted. I could still end up not being able to buy in that area at all and ending up 15 miles in another direction

There's little choice with a smaller budget... and more competition. Also, one's in the dark ... is mine the only offer on their table? Or are there better offers? Are the better offers more money, or in a better position (cash now position)? The sellers would prefer a cash/now lower offer probably as their chain collapsed a few days before exchange. On the other hand, they could feel that they're prepared to wait a bit longer for a bit more (my offer) as my chain's "in progress". Or, somebody could've swept straight in and offered their original higher asking price "if you take it off the market immediately".

It's like a game of poker, without even knowing how many players are sitting down.

The bottom line is that to do the trip costs £6... if I'm not going to get the house I'd rather have not spent the money on driving out/around for 2 hours loitering, when I could just use it for a local treat without the 'mild anxiety and feeling of hopelessness' that comes with it

I've already worked out what's going in each room and which meals to try at local pubs and which clubs to join

Farway wrote: »

PN, sounds like you need to check out the Chinese takeaways in potential new pasture. We used to live in road with a Chinese TA at bottom of road, this was in the 70s so it was a bit more exotic then, and very handy at times

Already done a bit of that, on previous trips for other houses viewed in the area. Tried one local chippy, spotted 1-2 others. Spotted 3-4 chinese. Spotted 2 indians.

It's a well serviced/well transport-connected area. This area is "closer to the main town" than any other (2ndary-preferred) areas I could buy in ... anywhere else I could afford/that's not grim wouldn't give me the same access/services.

Farway

Back home, lunch in the garden centre with family, change of plan from the scone, ham ploughman's, excellent, the only off thing was prepacked pot of Bran5ton, small chunk stuff, didn't taste like the B'tone I knew of old. Maybe it's me and memories of "fings aint wot they used to be"

No pork chops in the farm shop, bit sparse in there TBH, probably sold loads over the BH weekend, not to worry it was only going to be an opportunistic buy anyway

Dinner, back to bacon butty after the large lunch