Cooking for one (Mark Three)

caronc

Brambling wrote: »

I've booked my plane ticket Caronc i love fish and seafood and the food at your family gatherings always sound soooo good I cooked a chinese feast last year for my sisters birthday (2 of my sisters have birthdays 4 days apart) it was very nice if i say so myself although I'm slightly worried as one of my sisters brought me chop sticks and a steamer for Christmas as it was so nice and has arranged to come up this year for her birthday :cool: Have a great weekend with the boys and maybe you can get the gate fixed at the same time

Thanks Brambling, there's always room for another, just don't trust my offspring when it comes to board games:rotfl::rotfl:. We've always been a family that gets together for "gatherings" rather than going ou t(though we do sometimes and might on Sunday) , my parents started it and my sis & I kept it going. This weekend there will be seven of us, all adults now so we all chip in which keeps the costs down but gives us a decent budget.

Unfortunately the gate needs replacing rather than repair I'm afraid it was a DIY job when my ex built it 20 odd years ago and has been falling to bits for a few years and patched up. It doesn't owe anyone anything as it was made from spare wood from extending upstairs. Ask your sis to get you "Every Grain of Rice" for your birthday and then you'll consider it, my younger son asked for a copy as part of his Christmas (which sparked the New Year feast) and has used it loads ever since. A lot of the recipes are surprisingly simple but taste fab though you do need access to a Chinese supermarket if can get to one.

PasturesNew wrote: »

I had a quick look through my collection of nearly 5000 ideas.... and all those with this ingredient in my list are cakes and biscuits and puddings

I found: Gingerbread biscuits, slow cooker sticky ginger cake, fruity tea loaf, slow cooker ginger & cranberry tea loaf cake, self saucing ginger pudding and a flapjack recipe that also tosses some crystallised ginger into the mix.

So, not much help to you.

Mind you, my collection only contains things that I like the sound of.... they go in my collection if I want to be reminded of something, or if something catches my eye... they're all full recipes to be followed, but I use them simply as an ideas bucket of what I can do with XYZ ingredients.

To search I just had to type in crystal ginger and it showed me every recipe I've got that contains those words/part-words.

Goodness and I thought I had a lot of recipes though mine are in books so not so easy to find specific ingredients as yours.

Farway wrote: »

Back home after too much food
It tipped down on way to Plymouth, like driving under Niagara, but it had stopped by the evening

Monday dinner, liver, bacon & mash in pub on the Barbican- yummy. No room for Spotted d!ck & custard which was on the menu;)

Tuesday, full gut buster English breakfast
Cream tea on the Ho for late lunch
Dinner, super BLT with chips & salad, in same pub

Wednesday smaller breakfast, bacon & mushrooms
Lunch smaller cream tea
Dinner, Hunter's chicken & chips, same pub

Today, bacon, mushrooms & fried eggs breakfast
Yet another BLT for lunch on way home
Bought some HM chocolate & pear cake in the farm shop, plus treacle tart. TT scoffed with a cuppa when I got in

Also bought some Black Bomber & Dorset Blue Vinney cheese for next week:D

One YS purchase last evening, mooching in T*sco Express, mushrooms 28p pack, looked as good as new, so I've got them ready for an omelette later if I get peckish

Sounds like a lovely well-fed few days, I'm on mushroom omelette tonight too before a few days of rich food. My younger son was still at work when he phoned at 7pm:( so is travelling up tomorrow first thing.


Wednesday - I liked the plain Tofoo, it pressed well, held flavours and didn't fall to bits, so ticked all the boxes I was looking for.


whmf - I can't think of a single non-sweet use for crystallised ginger but might be a case of adding it to an otherwise lowish sugar biscuit or cake. I love it dipped in very dark chocolate:)

PasturesNew

Maybe the ginger could be used as part of a marinade for meat.... or to flavour a stir fry if you're the stir fry type.

Just "think of a dish that'd be all right with ginger and throw it in"

That's how I cook.

I've never bought crystallised ginger. I doubt I ever will.

Nothing against it, but I've come this far through life without needing it or having it

I LOVE ginger.... but there are only so many ingredients/items one can possibly buy/possess/store and get round to actually using.

PasturesNew

I've concentrated on scoffing treats and goodies today

Tomorrow I have to be somewhere, so I might take an assortment of filled rolls with me, to keep me out of the chippies. Or I might make that and leave it in the fridge for when I get back ..... or for the next day if I do end up getting a chinese.

Too much choice, that's the problem. Too much food and too much choice.

Brambling

caronc wrote: »

Thanks Brambling, there's always room for another, just don't trust my offspring when it comes to board games:rotfl::rotfl:. We've always been a family that gets together for "gatherings" rather than going ou t(though we do sometimes and might on Sunday) , my parents started it and my sis & I kept it going. This weekend there will be seven of us, all adults now so we all chip in which keeps the costs down but gives us a decent budget.

Ask your sis to get you "Every Grain of Rice" for your birthday and then you'll consider it, my younger son asked for a copy as part of his Christmas (which sparked the New Year feast) and has used it loads ever since. A lot of the recipes are surprisingly simple but taste fab though you do need access to a Chinese supermarket if can get to one

I have my own set of nephews who I don't trust at board games . You stand a chance at beating my youngest nephew the day he gets the game once he's played it a couple of times it's a rarity unless it's a game of chance :cool: my family sounds the same as yours and tend to gather at someone's house and all muck in to over cook and get out the games

I'll look up the book thanks I think the nearest Chinese supermarket is about a hour away but it is next to ikea

Glad you had a good trip Farway, I see you did some cream and scone sampling too :rotfl:

PN I'm surprised you're not on a sugar high after what you've eaten today :eek:

My mum loved crystallised ginger and was always stocked up birthday and Christmas as she was otherwise difficult to buy for. I hated it as a child but enjoy it now just to nibble on as a occasional treat

I was right in thinking I didn't need dinner tonight after a big lunch so I've just had some tomatoes, cucumber and seafood sticks to snack on

AndyCF

@Brambling: Cream scones reminds me of a holiday in Devon in the late 80's , where we had an excess of 'cream tea's' , they were lovely.

@PN The thought of 'something packed to scoff at' does sound sensible if you're out and about on your travels sorting things, moreso to avoid shop/snack nibbles. If its your 'house' stuff you've mentioned then hope all goes to plan with your day too.

Regarding prepacked nibbles: I think myself would probably be half happy if a small 'out snack box' contained a nice apple/bag of crisps or something similar/nice sandwich or cob and maybe a cheeky mini sausage roll or two perhaps a bar of choc as well! Must confess said cob would likely have a blob of meat paste of some variety in it rather than anything else.

Mentioning again lunch things, I did try a well known brand (there are at least two brands I think) of those minature meat snack nibble bits , usually live in a fridge but never was really that keen on them plus not really ideal to be living in a lunchbox I think, not sure on the latter part.

PasturesNew

Brambling wrote: »

PN I'm surprised you're not on a sugar high after what you've eaten today :eek:

I think it's all being used up in nervous energy.

It's now just over 3 weeks since my chain was complete and I made an appointment to sign my contract, which I did with much haste so as to not hold things up.

Jittery, twitchy, pacing....

pattypan4

PN, I empathise with that jittery pacing, its the most awful stressful time. I hope it is done today, I used to hate friday 5pm, another weekend of waiting in no mans land


I made a good soup yesterday, basically sweet potato with red pepper, red onion and celery. I also have some packets of oat groats, was going to use them for oat milk, which I now find is not to my liking. I soaked them and cooked like rice and added some to my soup, was yummy and nice on my stomach. Same today and during the day will eat an egg, some sardines and a few nuts. Quite a comforting bowl of food in fact and never left me craving for anything else

PasturesNew

pattypan4 wrote: »

I used to hate friday 5pm, another weekend of waiting in no mans land

Yes, against a backdrop of wondering if you'll get the call 10am Monday when you've just lost two solid days of sorting out!!

Most buyers will just need to arrange post redirection and book a removals.

I've got to: defrost, clean, advertise, sell, get rid of FF.
Contact charities to take away 2-3 pieces of furniture.
Dismantle the big ottoman bed. Pack everything, including getting enough/right boxes (couldn't have them in the house before as they'd take up too much room). Constantly looking at what's in each box and pondering how long before I see it again and if I need to keep any item/s with me or not. Constantly monitoring the size of the pile of boxes/furniture to try to guesstimate the minimum storage I can book.

Then the biggies: Identify/visit/book storage. Find man/van to take things to storage. Find somewhere to live temporarily (AirBNB, winter let, hotel, whatever).

Then try to work out and organise postal redirection etc for somebody who doesn't have a fixed abode. Find/buy/set up some mifi on the go broadband.

Final thing is a tip run. Tipping the nuker, kettle, toaster for starters (they've limped on, badly, for the past year).

So it's not a straight forward move.

And there's more to think about if I made a full list!

Oh - and while constantly monitoring the market for new houses onto the market so I can arrange viewings before they're sold.

AndyCF

Regarding tinernet , one of those USB 'mobile broadband' sticks is perfectly fine (and imo, a bit cheaper/better than the 'brick' things you can get) , I have one. It just has a normal GG sim in it, works 100% fine in my desktop.

Its not mega fast by any means however its fast enough to watch YouTube (not that I really want to) but the point here being I never ever pay more than £10 monthly if that much, its a PAYG thing anyway so if I run out or pennies run out ( ! ) then there's no danger of a pending bill! Just a thought for you to consider pehaps even as a temp measure. Only downside is some of the dongles themselves can be expensive, I think mine was about 25 3/4 years ago with a different 'provider' , unless you plan on using something like iPlayer or do lots of downloads its perfectly fine.


I tried to get rid of an old but perfect condition two seater a few years back but the local charity place were disintereseted as it did not have a fire label ? Hopefully not going to be a problem for you. Having said that some of the smaller 'second hand' shops will no doubt take it away for free if it comes to it, saves paying the council a small fortune too, even if its use is not going to a good cause it is out the way.

Storage seems expensive unless you book for at least 3 months, so it is around the two places we have here. I had great difficulty in estimating the space needed despite their 'calculator wizard' , I never actually had to buy or use it in the end though so I can't really comment further, sorry. I guess all I am saying really is 'two weeks' seems a bit expensive compared to 'two months' all in all, and the latter might not really be a waste of money as it gives you breathing space knowing you have xyz to pick up at some point but there's no mad rush to organise spaces for them in the new place. Maybe.

Can't really offer anything sensible to say on the other bits you list, well nothing worth posting that is either common sense or things you're bound to know already.


Regarding food bits, I have a strange notion today to buy one of those small (and there are two sizes of 'small' ones) famous brand pies. You know the ones that are in the 'not always easy to open' tins. The thing is I mean the microwave mini ones. They are plastic but with a removable metal lid. I do know that it says to put upside down on a plate before zapping (they are meant to be zapped) however I also am aware they ooze off the plate so a bowl is best, especially if like me you want to give it a few moments longer than recommended. Its the 400g one for 1.75 which seems quite reasonable. Shame its not the smaller 200g one actually as they would be a bit cheaper.

Those tinned meatballs in gravy, I had a thought here about perhaps making them into 'mini pies' as in wrapping them in pastry sheet (unsure of proper term sorry) and microwaving them however I do not think they would get enough time, so I may have to 'zap' the meatballs first then "wrap them hot" in pastry then finally zap them inside the pastry. I'm not sure if it this is a terrible idea or not. I'm just thinking I could make half a dozen 'mini meatball' pies that way.

candygirl

Am batch cooking today:Chana masala, spicy 3 bean chilli , n potato n leek soup:p
Trying to shift some more blubber, before my hols in 8 weeks :j