Cooking for one (Mark Three)

Wednesday2000

I've had a soya milkshake and a bowl of HM lentil soup. It really filled me up.:)

PasturesNew

caronc wrote: »

Last night I ended up cooking potato croquettes rather than oven chips, mainly just to use up a lurking bag.

They're a funny old thing.... I really should like them as I love mash and spuds ... and I love breaded things. But I've always found them to be unsatisfying, quite mushy. I'd choose/eat them in many eating scenarios, but have never felt compelled to buy or make any.

Many years ago I had access to a works' canteen - and they did monster sized croquettes, the size of a small fist, they were lovely.

It's overcast here today, with a tiny amount of rain. Air show still flying though.

I'm keeping an occasional eye on the inbound hurricane in Florida as I have a 2nd cousin down there on the coast and her town name's currently on the "yes it's coming" list... most years they miss her area. I was her bridesmaid in '67, she married an American and moved there.

Farway

Lunchtime ploughman's was fine, had bit of space left so sampled some of the freshly stewed apples, which were also fine, and this time I'd not overdone the stewing sugar


Dull & drips of rain now, ex PN's I suspect.

Dinner, decided it's cheesy beans on toast with couple of fried eggs, however I've not yet fully inspected the stale bread in fridge so could be beyond redemption if green has turned it into Hulk's bread


PN, I'm also on Hurricane watch, colleague is attending her son's wedding over there, Orlando area. Should make for "interesting" photographs

caronc

Good evening everyone,
I take odd notions for potato croquettes PN, hence the lurking bag in the freezer, I get what you mean though about the texture though as the mash is so smooth. I also have a few more rustic cheese & onion ones frozen, the mash in them is much less mushy. When my kids were small I used to make HM ones with "Golden Mash" aka potato & swede and they worked really well. My favourite though is the Spanish ones made with bechamel instead of mash. A good few years ago after a holiday in Spain I decided to have a go a making them and found a promising looking recipe. All went well until I tried to shape them what nightmare:eek:, got there eventually but they were very oddly shaped. It was only afterwards that I realised I had mixed up two steps and should have popped the mix in the freezer until almost frozen then shape/bread then chill in the fridge not the other way round as I did.:o:o I decided after that it was one I would leave to the professionals:rotfl::rotfl:.
This afternoon I diced one of the heads of celery and two largish carrots that were going past their best, both are now in the freezer though as I suspected I had to use the "holding shelf" as they wouldn't fit in the veg drawer and shelf. Parts of my freezers are now pretty full but other shelves have plenty of space if I need it for homegrown veg, passatta etc. The two chicken carcasses are in the fridge to defrost which has freed up quite a bit of space, I'll slow cook them over night tomorrow for stock and soup meat.
The weather has calmed a bit though it's still pretty windy, it's certainly warmer and drier than it was earlier. I've actually shed layers as the day went on as while still supposed to get chilly overnight I'll not need to light the stove:).

I've a change of plan for dinner tonight, I need to roast tomatoes as I have lot of very ripe red ones that will go bad if not used sooner rather than later. As I'm putting the oven on I decided to swap round the meals on my plan and keep the steak for another time. Tonight dinner is a portion HM asparagus tart with roasted yellow plum toms, a flat mushroom and the LO croquettes.

PasturesNew

Farway wrote: »

PN, I'm also on Hurricane watch, colleague is attending her son's wedding over there, Orlando area. Should make for "interesting" photographs

Pensacola for me. If you look at ventusky.com it shows you precisely/live and easily where Dorian is right now. Then, go through the days to see... it moves VERY slowly! I just checked, it doesn't at the moment appear to hit Orlando, it appears to go directly North on Monday evening... but these things do change and you can't be sure until the last few hours where it's going.

Today I did a breakfast of toasted bread roll topped with beans/scrambled eggs.

I've had a bar of chocolate... that's all gone now. Scoffed the last of the kit-kats.

For tea I re-heated a portion of the sausage/meatball casserole made yesterday, I then made some mash and squashed it down into a dish (for shape) and topped that with cheese. Nuked the spud/cheese and used a frying spatula to shovel it on top of the meatball casserole. CBA to put it in the oven just to brown the top.
That was nice enough. One more portion of the meatballs to go.

PasturesNew

caronc wrote: »

My favourite though is the Spanish ones made with bechamel instead of mash. A good few years ago after a holiday in Spain I decided to have a go a making them and found a promising looking recipe. All went well until I tried to shape them what nightmare:eek:, got there eventually but they were very oddly shaped. It was only afterwards that I realised I had mixed up two steps and should have popped the mix in the freezer until almost frozen then shape/bread then chill in the fridge not the other way round as I did.:o:o I decided after that it was one I would leave to the professionals

I've got a saying "there are no points for presentation".

A lot of things look nice, if you're choosing them from a menu. But, to make them for yourself it's a lot of faffing about when a lot of the additional instructions/steps could be omitted to obtain almost the same end result.

I spent ages once making mum a nice cottage pie. Mince, mash - then did that in a dish, into the oven to brown .... she ate it the same as if I'd just shovelled mince and mash on her plate.

Ditto my sausage pie tonight... could have layered the sausage meatballs into a dish, topped with mash, topped with cheese, into the oven to brown.... or, nuke it all and pile it on the plate like I did with less washing up, fewer steps and less time

No points....

caronc

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've got a saying "there are no points for presentation".

Absolutely especially when CFO but in the croquettes case it was the faff getting them to the point where I could cook them rather than the presentation that put me off:cool:. Years ago on New Years day my kids & sis decided to have a spur of the moment competition to see who could produce the best presented starter plate with what we were having. It was a laugh ( I was staying firmly out of the way - glass in hand:rotfl::rotfl:)but my the mess made, my kitchen look like it had exploded. :eek::eek: (They did clear up though). Still tasted the same though;). That said if I am cooking for others on special occasions I do make a bit more effort in the presentation stakes but nothing too cheffy.:)

Farway

Bright & sunny again, I may even mow the grass later today, it's shooting up since the recent rain

Last night's beans on toast worked ok, not too much green to cut off the brad, only ooopsy was I forgot to add the cheese I'd grated, discovered it on the kitchen top later:o

Breakfast porridge had diced own fresh apple stirred in instead of banana, added a teaspoon of honey for touch of sweetness

Made a quick ready mix loaf in the Panny, again mix is near use by date. This one is wholemeal, I'd forgotten I'd bought that type

Lunch will be using two of the forgotten, the grated cheese + wholemeal bread in a sarnie

Dinner, has to be use up LO, the half YS pie needs to go today, probably have frozen chips with it just for convenience

The stewed apple is now in fridge so that'll keep me nibbling for a few days should I fancy something a bit extra

PasturesNew

Farway wrote: »

Last night's beans on toast worked ok, not too much green to cut off the brad, only ooopsy was I forgot to add the cheese I'd grated, discovered it on the kitchen top later:o

Living the dream

Farway

PasturesNew wrote: »

Living the dream

Presentation, last night's beans on toast;)
https://i.redd.it/hgnnxci78rv11.png


And ultimate pseuds corner stuff
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/nov/24/how-to-eat-beans-on-toast