Cooking for one (Mark Three)

pattypan4

I was busy this morning, assembled a keter storage box single handed, assembled 4 good raised beds from greenfingers, assembled a plant stand for outside and started my new hotbin going. I have decided to give up my allotment next spring and transfer as many plants as I can and all my tools and plant covers, so I needed another storage bin here. Sounds a lot but I enjoyed doing it. Now I am sleepy and my early dinner is cooking, I too am having lamb, a chump chop plus several veggies as my fridge is again overflowing. Got a visitor tomorrow, vegan but he is cooking, after he has set up one of my bikes and stashed a carpet roll high in the garage. I am glad of the rain, so are my plants

Farway

Change of dinner plan, stopped raining so popped out & picked some French beans, enough for dinner, so it's lamb plus those, carrots, one LO parsnip, boiled new spuds & LO celery heart


I'll just slather the veg in butter once cooked, should grease my arteries well

caronc

Farway wrote: »

No, turning into PIA, the grass fed beef I'm after is sold out again, both breeds, I started on my order with other stuff, left it thinking I'd check another day to see if beef is back only to find my "basket" empties overnight so I need to start again:mad:

How frustrating , though at least you have some lovely lamb to compensate .


Good evening everyone,
Today started as warm & sunny but it been raining for most of the afternoon and we have a weather warning for thunder & lightening and heavy rain overnight. Certainly my balance and tinnitus are complaining about something this evening so hopefully that's the cause.
My meeting with the Estate Agent went well and my Dad's flat should be on the market the week after next. Apart from that and tackling some ironing I've not done lots today but it still seems to have flown in!
Last night's FR pork chop was lovely but overshadowed by the spankingly fresh garden veg, I had forgotten how gorgeous a big pile of newly picked and lightly cooked green veg is:D.
Breakfast today was toast with the last of a tub of cheese spread and sliced tomatoes, lunch was a quick grab when I got home after 2pm of crackers & cheese, cucumber sticks, radishes and cherries. Dinner tonight is chicken thighs marinating in a spicy yoghurt mix with roast veg. I'm not quite sure what all is in the marinade as it was spare that my son had made that I froze. From the look/ smell there's cumin, fresh chilli, paprika, lemon, garlic, mint and no doubt oregano & thyme. It smells lovely anyway. He made chicken skewers to take to a "stag" do which included a bbq so I didn't get to try any at the time.
As the weather looks lousy on Sunday and I've no plans I intend to bake a SD loaf as not made one for a few weeks and my bought bread will be more or less finished by then, I'll get my starter revived tonight to get the ball rolling and I'll get it properly underway tomorrow before proving it overnight. I also must go through the fridge and put together a vague meal plan as I've just been winging it this week. I might also make a big pan of tomato sauce to freeze in CFO portions, I find it handy for lots of things but have exhausted my freezer stash . The basil plant could do with another hair cut so another batch of pesto could probably do with being whizzed up.

PasturesNew

NOTE: Tomorrow's Weekend Deal at L1dl is bags of grated cheddar. I hope to remember/bother to get that as I'm down to my final 2"x1" piece of the last lot I also hope they have it in as last time I went for blocks of cheese I was first through the door, first to the back of the store and had to hunt - and they only had FOUR packs, which I shared with a man who was also looking for them.

Today I went on a special trip out for sweeties
I've been scoffing my way through a bag of chocs this afternoon.

It's rained here all day. I did nearly get some sausage rolls on the way back from the sweeties run, but my road is a turning about 50 metres before the sausage roll shop and I CBA, in the rain, to drive past my road, to get the sausage rolls, then to turn back out onto the main road across the traffic and nip back into my road again....

I cooked spaghetti earlier and served a portion of chilli with it.

EDIT Sat Morning: Not sure I can face going for cheese now... I ate a whole bag of chocs yesterday/last night and I'm feeling groggy this morning My oomph left...
On the other hand, I know if I don't try/go I'll hate myself.
I'd like a bath before I go .... maybe if I skip that and go without just to get cheese (and sausage rolls?) I might manage it.

EDIT 2: Well, I did go for the cheese. Queue of about 20 in front of me, then got aisle blocked by 2-3 staff with big pallets filling shelves and being generally dysfunctional.... but I got to the end and there was a scrum for cheese. Then somebody said "that's not the one" and the crowd disappeared. Then I spotted it - empty spot, dipped down and there were a couple of bags at the back, so I grabbed two bags. A bit later on I saw a woman from the scrum asking the staff where the cheese was and he said "it's on the lorry, being unloaded".

So, maybe when I go/there's none, it's because they're always behind with actually putting it out on the shelves.

I had no basket or anything.... I got two packs of cheese, then 1.5Kg of chips, then some fizzy pop and saw that the till had no queue, so I chose to just pay and go, rather than walk across the shop to get sausage rolls as by the time I got back to the till there'd have no doubt been a queue of 2-3 people will fully laden trolleys unloading. So no sausage rolls.

Farway

Thunder woke me up in the night, it tipped down which saves me a job of watering for a day or two

Breakfast usual porridge
Made a fresh batch of yoghurt, using my new temperature probe thingy which worked as it should. Always a worry on maiden outing, especially as it was only a cheapo

Lunch will be last of the YS bacon in a BLT sarnie

caronc wrote: »

Last night's FR pork chop was lovely but overshadowed by the spankingly fresh garden veg, I had forgotten how gorgeous a big pile of newly picked and lightly cooked green veg is.

Have to concur with this, last night's fresh French beans were so tasty, I cleared my plate which is a bit unusual sometimes because once I've cooked something I get fed up eating it

The lamb was excellent, still some left for tonight, along with LO boiled new spuds
I think I'll use them as a base for tonight's dinner, spud salad with more lamb

My vanished cash ISA documents arrived for me complete & send back to enable to view my own money on line again.
Five pages, plus two "rules" booklets, plus 1st class SAE. What a waste of paper, time & money just because I left my money in a bank untouched for two years, no wonder eco warriors complain about waste

End rant:D Today could be syrup cake day, checked and all ingredients are to hand, plus one "not too dirty when rinsed" ex yoghurt pan available. Extra plus dishwasher is getting full and ready for a bash tonight after dinner

caronc

Good morning everyone,

I've no idea if we got the forecasted thunder, if we did I slept through it! There was a lot of rain though and the garden is completely saturated. It's supposed to get sunny later so I'm hoping to get outdoors for a bit if it does.
I've chicken and few roast veg LO from last night, I'm still not 100% what all my son put in the marinade but it was really taste. I'll add the LOs to various salady bits for lunch. I'm not sure about dinner tonight I kind of fancy meatballs & spaghetti but not sure if I cba making tomato sauce today so might have a rethink on that.

[Deleted User]

Some mince and veg out of freezer and garden gone into SC, some will be removed later to change into something else, chilli, bol etc, the rest will do for a few days. Have added lentils to bulk out the meat so could turn into anything.

PasturesNew

I've just had an early lunch... 1 toasted bread crust, half a tin of beans and a heap of grated cheese that I bought 4 hours ago.

Filling, hot, tasty. Little washing up.

Farway

Caron one very nice Syrup loaf sampled, still warm. I made the greedy guts 2lb size, mainly 'cos I only have 2lb tins and CBA to try & divi it up

I think some ginger would go well in there, but being ex WW2 recipe no doubt that was not readily available

I've cobbled together a spud salad for tonight, added some frozen peas and same of sweetcorn

Sun's out now, quite warm out there, quick spin round garden, some of the dahlias have been bashed about but otherwise OK

PasturesNew

I got one of the portions of steak pie from the freezer and I made some mash, then stuck it in the fridge to nuke later with the pie.

The pie's cooking right now and as I stood beside the pie, with the mash, expecting to put it into the nuker, I thought "I'll have a bit of that". I've always loved cold mash ... and then I thought "why re-heat it? just have cold mash with hot pie/gravy".

So that's the plan.

Pie/mash will be served in about 10 minutes.

EDIT: Did that, utterly gorgeous