Cooking for one (Mark Three)

Farway

Last night's salmon fillet was fine, back to "normal" taste so I can only surmise the previous day's was a blip, possibly the tail end they found on the packing plant floor behind the slicing machine when the cleaners moved in for the night:D

And I'm now on full flow of own grown toms with my salad, this morning I noticed my one & only beefsteak one is ripening [Brandywine]. First time that variety has succeed with me, fingers crossed

Dull day again, with porridge breakfast again.
It'll be a part baked baguette for lunch, the pack is getting near date & I've used up the YS rolls now and CBA to measure out for a loaf in the Panny

I've taken a YS Morries"value" cottage pie out to defrost for dinner. I've had them before, they fall into the OK for a quid but great at YS 50p range
Probably nuke some peas to go with, or mixed veg if I can find them in the freezer jumble

Brambling, hope you feel better soon, especially as it's Dorset this Bank Holiday Sunday, just in time for the Great Steam fair;)

pattypan4 wrote: »

plain salted crisps from the old days, I can`t remember the name, with salt in a blue twist, nothing better and they were proper substantial, not airy fairy paper thin

Farway, I think you have a fig plant, advice needed please. I have a good size container and a south wall. Is the wall just for the extra heat and what type of fig and compost is best? Is it worth growing a fig plant?

Crisps I suspect you are referring to Smith's. I used to live near their factory, and everyone could smell when a new batch was on the go. Not an unpleasant smell

Fig, a wall is just for a bit of extra heat & shelter, a south wall sounds ideal spot.

Compost, best would be John Innes number 3, has long term nutrients plus being soil based will add stability to the plant, they can get huge if left alone
The plant itself is quite architectural and sort of exotic. I think MoneyTSM[late of this Parish], bought one partly for that reason

The recommended one is brown Turkey, but mine is Brunswick, from Wilko and Lidl. They grow quickly so no need to get a huge expensive one, even a small one will fruit within 3 years

Is it worth growing? Not sure on costings, bit like an apple tree, it pays year after year well past it's initial cost, plus sun warmed fresh figs are not everyday greengrocer items are they? Like your own peas popped & scoffed right off the vine, just can't be bought

caronc

Good morning,

Ready salted are by far my favourite crisp but I generally won't say no to other types if offered some but I'm not keen on C&O or things like cheese puffs. I remember when Smiths launched (or relaunched?) "Salt & shake", I was at primary school and we were all quite enamoured with the novelty of the wee bags of salt.:)

Wind, rain & sunny intervals are forecast for us today and so far the wind & rain are winning, though there is a very small patch of blue sky broken through so it's dry at the moment.
I'm still feeling pretty grotty with the cold and the wonky donkey was kicking during the night though seems to have settled back down now I'm up and about. I want pick some brambles as there are quite a lot ripe but apart from that will be aiming for a non-bendy day!
LOs and salad for lunch and pasta with garden veg and diced bacon for dinner tonight. I plan to cook a pan of spicy tomato & courgettes today to use some tomorrow. I find the flavours are better if I make it the day before. I usually have this with topped with halloumi but going for feta & poached egg this time. The halloumi is unopened and has a very long use by date, but I have a piece of feta currently floating in a tub of salted water so want to use it up over the next week or so.

Wednesday2000

((Hugs)) to the ill people.

I had some crackers with marg and Marmite this morning.

I'm going to make lentil pasta for lunch with peppers, sweetcorn, tomatoes and pesto.

[Deleted User]

L/o hm soup and toast for lunch, sweet and sour meatballs preped for tonight and will check on the last portion of cauli rice to use. Will check tomorrow on the last portion of the soup but if not really good will make some courgette soup as they are starting to multiply a little, not huge but home grown from 1 plant.

Farway

lunch baguette was filled with cheese and salad

wasting time hanging on [free] phone to clear money movement with the fraud department, grrr, can't cancel because account will be locked if i don't speak to someone:mad:


this was my first money shuffle today, between higher interest accounts. It's a conspiracy, or brexit;)

caronc

Good evening everyone,
Farway - fingers crossed re your ripening Brandywine. I've six (that I can spot) across two plants, all really good sized but only just beginning to turn paler green so a good bit to go yet. I can see a few King Crim, again a decent size but still dark green so I may end up ripening them indoors if they are still green in a few weeks. I'm amazed at the size of some of my Ailsa Craigs normally they are "standard" salad tom size but there's a load of ones that are whoppers, they're far from ripe though a couple are beginning to turn.:) So far it's mainly the cherry ones that are ripening and the Sungold & Black cherry are producing loads with the Santorini, Gardener's Delight and Ildi beginning to deliver. So far the only standard ones that have had any ripe are Stupice, Golden Sunrise and the mystery "not Indigo Rose" and I've had one solitary ripe Cream Sausage from my plum ones. My basket ones on the deck are lagging, no surprise with the recent wild weather but I've had a couple each of both the Balconi red & yellow so far.:)



It dried up for most of the afternoon and although the sun came out the wind was chilly. Cardi on I picked about 500g of brambles, a yellow courgette and a good few toms.:) After a lull I noticed that I've cue nearly ready with loads more coming. I did wonder if they had finished but were obviously just having a rest:cool:. There were lots more brambles ripe but to get them needed more bending than I was up for today. I'll have another go tomorrow once I get back from my Dad's as I want to air the place and tidy the garden as there is a viewer coming tomorrow evening. I'm hoping I feel more bendy but if not I'll load the meds and hope for the best. I thought my cold was diminishing as the day went on but it returned late afternoon so the vapour rub will be getting plastered on again tonight.

I'm debating buying a mouli as my favourite passatta making sieve which had a widish mesh has come to bits. I've had it for years and while I have other sieves they are a finer mesh so much harder work to rub through. Getting a "gadget" would hopefully mean I don't get the sore hands I end up with at this time of year but I do find the sieving strangely satisfying.:eek: I'll see how I get on with the finer mesh and decide from there as the larger moulis aren't that cheap and I don't want one of the wee ones that are great for baby food but too small for my purposes. Then of course I need to find somewhere to store it for most of the year :think:. (First world problem I know :rotfl:)



Half of the yellow courgette and the huge lurking round one are currently simmering in a spicy tomato sauce. The other half will go in tonights pasta. I'm aiming to make enough pasta to cover lunch tomorrow so lunch just needs a quick nuke when I get back home.
LOs made a tasty but insubstantial lunch so I was peckish late afternoon - a good excuse to use up the piece of brownie and remaining raspberries:D.

Brambling

Farway wrote: »

Brambling, hope you feel better soon, especially as it's Dorset this Bank Holiday Sunday, just in time for the Great Steam fair;)

Oh b*m hopefully as I plan to leave here at 7am and get there by 10am I should miss the worst of the traffic, I'm purposely not going on Saturday as well

My few tomato plants were meant to be cherry or baby plum but I seem to have brought a bush tomato with standard size tomatoes the first of which I picked today, they have taken a battering with the rain so I'm not expecting a great crop, I keep looking at the dogwood and brambles jungle at the bottom of the garden and thinking greenhouse, i would need a base put down first

I'm still only picking foodwise so no proper food today, i went out for OJ and picked up some half price magnums so I've had two of those maybe my appetite is coming back . I tried some emergency Hienz tomato soup but found I no longer like it too tinny, if I cba I think there may be a portion of ham and pea soup in the freezer, I should have done that audit :cool:

Wednesday2000

I had a bowl of rice crispies with almond milk for breakfast.

I've just done some laundry and need to pull up some weeds later.

I'm going to have pesto pasta again later.

PasturesNew

Nice and sunny, so it's laundry day - I try to get to the launderette by 7.50am, load up, set it running, then walk over the road for when 4ldi opens, quick dash round and back in time for the machine to stop. Got it a bit wrong this morning and arrived at the launderette at 8am, then managed to get everything into the machine only to realise that my twist of freezer bag containing the powder had also been chucked in, so had to lug it all out to find the powder

Nothing in the YS lines for me in 4ldi.... so I just emerged with a pack of crumpets, pack of sausages and pack of oven-bottom muffins. I'd gone in for the muffins/sausages, so that was job done. Sausage and egg rolls for lunch.

[Deleted User]

Didnt have the last of the cauli rice last night as was not sure of it so opened packet of savoury ricem will finish that off today with the alst of the soup. Getting a portion of h.m. crustless quiche out of freezer for tonight and will have with some spiralized home grown courgettes. Plan has curry and rice from freezer tomorrow then lunch out with dd for her b'day on Thurs.