Cooking for one (Mark Three)

PasturesNew

Wednesday2000 wrote: »

It's boiling hot already!:eek:

I got the cucumber but not the mint.

It's hot here. Not "boiling", but certainly not far off. It's cooler at the coast by 1-2 degrees as a rule.

I've not had anything.... CBA to go out buying more food. I'll end up having to eat some spuds with beans and cheese.

If I can get to the half way point of the bag of spuds then I will feel more able to ease off them a bit.

I have so many meals I'd like to cook, but always seem to have a house of food that needs using up. Maybe after I move I can get on top of that.

I think the problem is that I look through my ideas book and dream up magical items. But I don't have 1-3 ingredients, then I forget it. What I should do is print out the recipe, mark the items I need to achieve it, then pin that in the kitchen as a permanent reminder... and maybe, after just 3-4 weeks have passed, it'll finally sink in and I'll remember to buy those missing ingredients and actually make whatever it was I fancied.

At the moment though, I need to concentrate of eating up the most of what I've got as I can, to minimise what needs moving on moving day (if/when that ever happens).

flubberyzing

It's hot in the sun here, and just pleasant in the shade.

I've just had a ham sandwich and some fruit, having just got home from a mooch round the retail park.
Popped into Waitrose to spend a £2 off a £10 spend, which was just low enough to tempt me in. Came out with a new toothbrush, some garlic granules, pasta sauce, some nice cartons of juice for next weeks packed lunches and some Fever Tree tonics. With the exception of the tonic, I could have got everything cheaper elsewhere, but it's "nice" have something a bit different for a change. And I took advantage of the "free" coffee. Even remembered to take my own cup.

Then went to the other retail park, got a few store cupboard bits from B&M, and found a box that'll do the job as an all-purpose jewellery box in Homesense.

My mash potato recipe is also very simple. I don't bother peeling the spuds usually, just give them a bit of a wash, and cut them up a bit.
Into a pan of cold water.
Bring the boil, then reduce to an enthusiastic simmer for at least 20 minutes.
Add a good sized knob of butter, and a generous sprinkling of garlic powder, then mash. If I'm feeling particularly naughty, I might add a small handful of grated cheese midway through mashing.

Farway

Another hot but cloudy day, finished off the last dregs of L's Greek honey yoghurt, it's lovely but checking ingredients I noted sugar in there as well. Not that sugar ingredient stops me buying stuff, more's the pity my belt groans:D

Still no PB baguettes in L's, or own brand English mustard, I did splash out on a measuring jug, the Pyrex one I have is so old the measurements have faded to a memory. Plus a spud peeler, which given recent remarks here may be a complete waste of £1.99.

But it has a bright red handle so should not vanish into the compost heap although that never stopped my trowel:(

Last night's slow cooked ham turned out super, I only bunged it in SC, nothing else added except splosh of water to prevent initial sticking

Lunch was ham & salad sarnie
Dinner will be ham + salad + chips

caronc wrote: »

It probably went right over her head it had more double-entrendes than a "Carry On" film :rotfl:(shan't mention the no doubt urban myth of her being outraged about small birds liking coconuts she heard on the radio on what turned out to be a gardening programme;))

The going over heads applied with Kenny Everett & his Cupid Stunt persona on Beeb, all in the best possible taste;)


PN, good idea with wheelie bins

Debran

.
I always have lots of fresh milk and also keep a couple of long-life cartons for emergencies.
However, this does not solve your problem. Well, years ago dried milk used to be cheaper than fresh (I don't think is is nowadays) so I used to buy it for use when cooking. I wonder if it would be useful for you to keep a drum in your cupboard/pantry for when you need to make a small quantity of sauce etc?

Yes, I know it's not going to help you to conjure up some milk today.

PasturesNew

Farway wrote: »

I did splash out on a measuring jug, the Pyrex one I have is so old the measurements have faded to a memory. Plus a spud peeler, which given recent remarks here may be a complete waste of £1.99.

I use jugs as cooking dishes in the nuker. Handy handle to get them out with Perfect size/shape for treacle puddings... I had one and then I thought I saw a smaller one and bought two of that, but got them home and realised I now had three the same size... so one's "packed away/for the future" and two are in the cupboard being used 3-4x a week.

I find spud peelers fine. I did once race my mum/86 at the time, frail and with dementia. I had the small/sharp knife, she had the peeler. I was 'racing' she wasn't. It was a tie breaker.

Farway wrote: »

But it has a bright red handle so should not vanish into the compost heap although that never stopped my trowel:(

Maybe you need to try a new technique.

My mum used to half fill a washing up bowl with water and scrub/peel them in there, then put the spuds into a collander. She'd then go out to the garden with the bowl of water/peelings and toss it on the garden in one corner.

I just peel mine over a piece of kitchen towel, then give it a tiny rinse under the tap. I'm therefore putting the knife down on the worktop and not with the peelings.

If you're the "bowl of water outside" sort, then put a collander in the sink and tip it all into there, you lose the water (which you might be saving for the garden), but you're only walking a collander outside and can easily paw through checking for a knife.

Farway wrote: »

PN, good idea with wheelie bins

I've been thinking about it more. It's a good idea, but could I benefit from it on this occasion and within the timeframe of when I'm actually packing. There are many great ideas, if all the ducks line up. But there's always a backdrop of "is it really financially worth it right now, or is it just best to go without anyway".

caronc

PasturesNew wrote: »

Ours is quite small, they have a section for stuff they can flog... usually it's old tat there though, nothing decent. I've heard the "decent" stuff gets whisked away pronto to another location 20 miles away and sold on Saturday mornings.

I'm "a bit funny" about dirty things.... I'd prefer to buy a brand new wheelie bin if I were to ever do it.... which I probably won't as I have 1000 great ideas every day but only use one every 20 years

Ours is quite decent that way and there's no charge & the crates we got were clean obviously someone had just used them briefly before dumping:).

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've been wanting to make a Tuna Mornay for about two weeks now ....

Now there's something I've not heard of for years, in the early '80s my Mum had a phase of "Mornaying" various ingredients usually to have with a baked spud on a Saturday. Tuna, spam and corned beef seemed to appear regularly and sometimes tinned salmon. The sauce usually involved a tin of "cream of.." condensed soup with cheddar melted through. It was always tasty, though my Dad used to roll his eyes when she mentioned another new combo to try.


Good afternoon everyone,

Hello Debran, I really should make more used of dried milk in cooking as I've a tub in the cupboard unopened I bought for emergencies ages ago!
It's certainly not boiling here - it's wet, grey & chilly. It supposed to be better tomorrow so fingers crossed. Groceries arrived as ordered so there are plenty of supplies in for the kids coming. They won't be arriving until pretty late and will have had dinner so I'm CFO this evening. Dinner is a yet to be decided from the freezer. My "tuna neopolitan" sauce yielded 4 decent portions and could have stretched further, not bad for one tin of tuna:). Two have been eaten & two frozen having had it the past two nights nice as it is I really couldn't face it again. Lunch was a use up of the last of the pate and the remains of a little gem lettuce in a sarnie with cuc sticks, baby plum tomatoes and cherries.
I probably won't be around much for a few days so hope everyone has a good weekend.:)

caronc

Good evening everyone,
A bit of a manky evening here, I'm debating lighting the stove:eek:.
I've had a productive couple of hours, new covers I'd ordered for the kitchen chairs I spent most of last weekend cleaning up arrived and I got them fitted. My what a difference that has made, I'm so pleased definitely £12 well spent:D. I just got cheapies from ebay as I wasn't sure if the stretchy covers you pop over the chair seat insert would work but they do and they actually look much more expensive than they were. I may through time properly reupholster them but that is way down my list....... With these I can bung them in the wash if they get a spill on them:). That job didn't take long and I then tidied through my wardrobes and have filled a large bag to go to a charity shop. When I culled my clothes last year to get rid of work wear, I kept some stuff that was on the smarter side of smart/casual as I wasn't sure if I would use them. Needless to say 12+ months on none have been worn so time for them to go:). Next I replaced the pad on my ironing board with an artfully folded old duvet under the cover and did some ironing. Now I'm ready for a sit down and a Friday night tipple:cool:. Flubberyzing mentioning mash & gravy has given me a notion for either bangers & mash with onions, peas & gravy or bangers & oven chips with onions, peas & gravy. As I've no mash made I suspect oven chips may well win.:)

Brambling

Evening All :wave: and it's Friday :T :beer:

I know what you mean about a quiet weekend Flubberzing I had mine last weekend where I stayed home and pottered, I was even glad of the excuse that I was surrounded by paperwork to turn down the offer of a walk.

It's been a hot muggy day, at least the advantage of being at work is the air conditioning :rotfl: although it could be too warm to sleep well

Lunch was LO pork fillet and noodles from yesterday, even more :eek::eek: with chilli. Dinner was mussels, the kind in a bag with sauce with salad and air fried chips (too thick for frites ) I'm now trying to avoid anything else

Enjoy your weekend with the 'kids' Caronc.

PasturesNew

caronc wrote: »

I really should make more used of dried milk in cooking as I've a tub in the cupboard unopened I bought for emergencies ages ago!

And I've sporadically kept an eye out for it in shops for the last 4-5 years and not stumbled across it yet

Years ago, about 2007 say, Tesco used to sell one that was in a plastic bottle that looked like a milk bottle.... they stopped that and now it's more confusing to try to locate the right stuff in shops - especially as it's not stocked in all shops. Toss in the fact that the majority of my shopping is at L1dl and 4ldi who don't sell it at all it's just perpetually on the wish list, but I'm rarely in a position to be in a shop that does sell it AND remember to look AND make a decision I tend to think of the tubs as "too big", whereas that Tesco milk bottle shaped solution was quite a smallish amount and the "bottle" looked like about a pint of so. It just worked for me, for recognisability, size/shape of the plastic bottle, ease of use. I think I'm secretly hoping they'll reintroduce that style of packaging and I'll be sorted.

When I use the phrase Tuna Mornay I just mean tuna, pasta, bit of white sauce ... see if there's anything else that can be lobbed in like a lurking onion, or a few peas, or something.... ooh and some cheese of course.

Today I've had a hankering for making cannelloni. I've had that idea for about 10 years now and not yet got round to it It's still on the list as I don't have the ingredients

caronc

PasturesNew wrote: »

When I use the phrase Tuna Mornay I just mean tuna, pasta, bit of white sauce ... see if there's anything else that can be lobbed in like a lurking onion, or a few peas, or something.... ooh and some cheese of course.

That's what I think of it being as well though we mainly didn't have it with pasta - protein, white sauce of some description quite often sweetcorn and spring onions, cheese and either a baked spud, rice or new spuds. Pasta tended to be macaroni cheese or spag bol for a treat made "properly" :rotfl:a la Galloping Gourmet apparently :cool:
I think the milk you are thinking of was "St Ivel 5 pints" or SM versions (no doubt made by the same folk as they all disappeared) which sadly they discontinued. It was a handy size to stash. My mum used to sometimes dilute unsweetened evaporated milk if for any reason supplies were disrupted or we ran out of fresh stuff as we always had some of that in the cupboard as it was a frequent topping for tinned fruit etc. as a pud.