Cooking for one (Mark Three)

caronc

Good evening everyone,
Fingers crossed the move goes ahead PN, even if you never want to see another frozen chip by the time it comes!:)
Must be that time of year Farway, probably clearing the decks to start selling festive stuff.:eek: My order is placed and while I spent just over £50 I got loads for that and with 50% off it's really decent stuff for less than I would pay for standard ranges in the SM. I concentrated on slow cook stuff for over autumn/ winter (ox tail, ox cheek, braising steak, beef shin, pig cheeks, gammon shanks), restocked my FR pork chop supply and treated myself to some collar bacon, gammon steaks and a couple of rump steaks. :)Weight wise it came to just under 10kg overall, so a very economical per kilo price and I qualified for free delivery which I've booked for next Friday.:D I didn't get lamb or poultry as I have a fair bit of both in the freezer already. It's just as well I have sorted out the freezers so know it will fit, hopefully without too much juggling,;) my sis reckons if things go pear shaped after 31/10 she's moving in........
I didn't get much done this afternoon as my sis popped round for a hand with some paperwork which took ages, needless to say the ironing pile hasn't been touched! The weather turned foul again but thankfully tomorrow looks promising if not particularly sunny.:) Assuming it's dry my nephew is going to come with me to my Dad's to wash the windows while I put weedkiller down on the slabs and gravel.
Naan pizza won't take long to put together, I've defrosted a small tub of HM tom sauce so just need to chop some veg to top it with. I have grated mozzarella in the freezer. When my kids are home they quite often get pakora and the wee sauce tubs that come with it are just the right size to hold enough to top a CFO pizza so I've been making sure they don't get chucked in the recycling bin.

PasturesNew

caronc wrote: »

Naan pizza won't take long to put together, I've defrosted a small tub of HM tom sauce ....

I usually knock up a quick sauce on the fly. I have a tiny pot (ramekin sized) and I toss in there a tiny splash of oil, big squirt of ketchup, big helping of chilli powder .... after that often dried oregano. Give it all a stir and sit it to one side to let liquid soak into the dried herbs. It means I can make just enough, on the fly, without anything difficult to have in the house.

PasturesNew

Had the new meter a few hours and spotted the following:

PC and fridge/freezer = 1p/hour.
Mini oven = when "on" 25-26p/hour, but it clicks on/off every few minutes and when it's off and just the fan's running it's 2p/hour.
Nuker = 24p/hour.... or 1p for 2½ minutes.

caronc

PasturesNew wrote: »

Had the new meter a few hours and spotted the following:

PC and fridge/freezer = 1p/hour.
Mini oven = when "on" 25-26p/hour, but it clicks on/off every few minutes and when it's off and just the fan's running it's 2p/hour.
Nuker = 24p/hour.... or 1p for 2½ minutes.

When I first got mine I was fascinated by working out what the different things cost, really shows you what racks costs up on your bill.:eek:
Your quick pizza sauce sounds pretty like my go to if I don't have any HM tom sauce.:)

Brambling

caronc wrote: »

my sis reckons if things go pear shaped after 31/10 she's moving in........

My sis says the same . She reminds me she has a key which I can't have back as either her or my nephew takes care of his lordship when I'm away . Your meat order looks like my kind of order . And reminds me I have some w*itrose beef cheeks, short ribs, pig cheeks and pork osso bucco in the freezer picked up YS over the summer when people stop buying it.

PN good news about the house you obviously should have brought chips earlier :rotfl: I've avoided a smart meter so far, they've not been very proactive here. After one of my sisters had it fixed my BIL very nearly needed it medically removed followed a conversation on how much it cost to roast a dinner, she did say she was happy not to cook again

Lunch was a YS hot cross bun from M&S not sure why it was YS as it's dated 27th and some fruit. I went to friends for a roast chicken dinner which is more than I've eaten in a while, I didn't fancy chocolate birthday cake but my nephew didn't mind I tried a bite and it was lovely my youngest nephew is a great baker

My friend spent the evening nagging over my asthma she thinks I should go to the dr for steroids before I go away, I don't :cool: her son and his girlfriend were there and their dog didn't help which doesn't bode well as my sister has a jack russell :cool:

PasturesNew

Brambling wrote: »

I've avoided a smart meter so far, they've not been very proactive here. After one of my sisters had it fixed my BIL very nearly needed it medically removed followed a conversation on how much it cost to roast a dinner, she did say she was happy not to cook again

Few people are in touch with the cost of cooking, turning on that oven... so many times I've seen people "save money" and cook cheap food, and I think "cost of running that oven's more than the food cost".

I didn't want one and hadn't looked into them. They're no good for me for saving money by knowing how much things cost to run as I'm already super tight on energy usage and it's just me so fully in control... and my combined gas/electric bill is about £40/month on the bog standard non contract (so 'expensive') BGas tariff.

I'd heard you can't switch suppliers if you have one... so I'd let it drift, avoided it, ignored it. But then this man turned up at the door (it was easier to fend off phone calls and ignore letters)... so I just said "yes", thinking "I might not be here anyway".

So then the date came round and it happened.

I had no idea what to expect. Little man turned up, he took meter readings, he turned on my gas appliances, then turned off the electricity and removed/changed the leccy meter. Then the leccy went back on. Then he removed/changed the gas meter (at that point there's a stink of gas for 30 seconds as there's an amount in the pipes/tubes. Then he checked my gas appliances again and that was it. He was here an hour in all. I don't know what I expected, I didn't know the actual meters were changed.

He said to me "This is the modern one where you can change suppliers", so I felt less bad about "stitching up the new owners by having it fitted".

Wednesday2000

I fancy pizza again today.:o:D

I've had toast and some yoghurt and I have some cherries to eat.

I didn't bother to make the carrot soup yesterday. I might just have some carrot sticks with the sriracha mayo I bought the other day. I love that stuff.

Probably will get another pizza later. I did get a small one, not medium though.:rotfl:

PasturesNew

Re the chips, I should mention, I plan to sell the fridge/freezer as everything's going into storage and there's no point paying to store a f/f. It cost me £200, I've had 5 years out of it, I found the freezer too small and the fridge too large. It might not fare well in storage and it's a "faff" to physically manage (not that I'll be touching it, of course, but it's still one more item that needs a bit of careful lifting).

So, if I do move, I have to eat all the food, defrost the freezer, clean it all, photograph it, put it up for sale, wait for a buyer, wait for them to collect.... it's not just a case of eating the food, then getting it loaded into a removals van

caronc

Good afternoon everyone,
I agree with your friend Brambling, a wee trip to the Drs might not be a bad idea!

PN -I'm very conscious of cooking costs and always factor them in if I'm costing a recipe. Must say though it doesn't put me off making stuff on a day to day basis, but it does make me mnidful of not switching the oven on to heat up and then getting sidetracked, I always set the timer alarm now . I know my fan oven costs 36p per hour on a high temp and a bit less if on lower temperatures.

It's dry and sunnyish here today, earlier I headed to my Dad's with my nephew and his gf. They washed all the windows and I put weedkiller on the slabs and hauled out past it nasturtiums. A definite case of many hands make light work as it only took us an hour. They've headed back home now to chill out before making dinner for my sis tonight. After lunch and my feet up for a bit I want to tackle my own weedy slabs as they've sprouted after all the recent rain.

The very OOD tinned artichokes were perfectly fine and made a tasty addition to my pizza. There's a lot left but I'll use them up over the next couple of days in lunchtime salads. I'm not sure about dinner tonight something easy with little prep appeals.

Farway

Good news at last on the house PN, fingers crossed. Another "good thing" given your area, holiday season is coming to an end so short term lets should be at more realistic prices soon

Good buys on the meat Caron, my fingers crossed next week. Trouble is my supplier seems very hit & miss, sometimes have item, sometimes not.. Bit annoying but I've not yet found a practical alternative for local ethical meat stuff
I'll bear in mind the winter SC items, good idea duly nicked

I've never been pestered about smart meters, but I use small suppliers who are not obliged to meet targets. Can't say I've ever taken cost of cooking into consideration. Maybe 'cos I use gas and don't cook a lot in oven the cost is minor when lumped in with the C heating

Into L's this morning, nothing needed as I bought that yesterday, no YS at all, only "need" was pickled onions for planned Ploughman's over the weekend, and even then I had to settle for the little cocktail ones, no alternative & s*d driving to town just for a jar of pickled onions

Picked some blackberries from near my garage, so B & apple crumble is go this weekend, probably tomorrow

Lunch was cheese & salad sarnie
Dinner, given the hot weather, is salad, today it's with boiled eggs, saw a bit in the W8rose mag, 6 minute boiled eggs,

I'll see how that works out, firm white & runnyish yolk I hope