Cooking for one (Mark Three)

caronc · 5 July 2018 at 8:38PM

Brambling wrote: »

We have a magic table in our work kitchen if you place biscuits, cake, sweets and during the growing season surplus veg it disappears :rotfl: it's great. In fact that reminds me I'm trying to be 'good' so the biscuits in the cupboard will find their way there tomorrow.

Yet another reason why I miss working as it was so handy for offloading surplus treats etc. (basically anything tbh):)
Very lucky with your YS sirloin on the bone:D

[Deleted User] · 6 July 2018 at 7:01AM

caronc, many of these leafy plants bolt in this heat, normal round lettuce, now in the compost. Good heat survivors are mazur lettuce, which grows huge but is really bunches of small lettuces on the short stem, mine are very good, very big and standing fine in the heat, it is a frise type lettuce. Also fordinghook giant chard, it doesn`t bolt and is lovely to cook. It isn`t giant in size, ebay for that and sow in situ, also good with an early autumn sowing.

I have no appetite with the heat, toast, cheese and cherries for breakfast, lunch will be salad with beans or nuts. LO rhubarb crumble will be binned. I need to dress now and quickly go pick raspberries. If the heat continues then I may well leave the other 4 blackcurrant bushes to the birds. Those bushes were strongly pruned in winter and again in late spring. If it gets cooler then I will go and pick, the berries will get very big this year

moneyistooshorttomention · 6 July 2018 at 7:23AM

That's me learning more gardening facts for the day then - ie days of continuous heat = vegetables bolting.

Next lesson will be how to get seeds to "work" I guess:cool: - none of them have worked. I got little seedlings showing on most of them - but they sorta drooped and died. Not quite sure what I did wrong there....

I've got two blackcurrant bushes and I have now duly pruned the one that had ripened so far and stripped the remaining berries from it - that's my freezer loaded then (despite all the ones I gave away). The other one is on the verge of ripening and I'll "prune as I pick" on that one. I'd have only planted the one if I'd known how prolific they'd be.

Down to just one rhubarb plant - but I've only picked a couple of stalks off it to date and I think that's still going to give me rather more than I want. Oh well - at least I've got some when I do want - so shall leave it be.

It's just a shame (from their pov) that a couple of my neighbours made like nfh - or they'd be obvious recipients for some of the fruit surplus. Still (assuming I stay in this house - ie if I can't afford to move) then I'm due for some new neighbours at some point whatever happens here. Fingers crossed they're nice. Now what I could really do with is a nice (modern of course) unattached man that's handy with DIY living nearby......(though "positive thinking" has seen me start a Pinterest board for houses I'd take a closer look at if I could - 18 of them up there on it - and I find they're basically between £300,000-£400,000....keep thinking positive LOL).

[Deleted User] · 6 July 2018 at 8:44AM

money, seedlings in pots need to be watered from the bottom and never soaked. They get damping off, if you look carefully you will see that weak patch at soil level. Once they are in the soil, water twice and then leave most things to grow their roots down strongly as they go in search of water. Mollycoddling is what kills plants

PasturesNew · 6 July 2018 at 8:54AM

I'm starving - but it's that age-old issue of starving -v- making an effort to find food in the kitchen.... so CBA.

It's hot here today. It's not been "as hot" for some days now, 75-78, rather than 78-83. It's not been so hot that I thought it worth watering the grass again

... but that's more about laziness than knowledge.

I did notice an article headline of some "expert" saying there's no need to water grass, but I never clicked to open/read it... as ... grass actually holds no interest for me. I only ever want to know what is the bare minimum for owning grass (cut it when it reaches your knee, water it every 40 years if there's a heatwave) ... and then aim for 10% below that target

caronc · 6 July 2018 at 9:25AM

kittie wrote: »

caronc, many of these leafy plants bolt in this heat, normal round lettuce, now in the compost. Good heat survivors are mazur lettuce, which grows huge but is really bunches of small lettuces on the short stem, mine are very good, very big and standing fine in the heat, it is a frise type lettuce. Also fordinghook giant chard, it doesn`t bolt and is lovely to cook. It isn`t giant in size, ebay for that and sow in situ, also good with an early autumn sowing.

Thanks kittie - my chard is ok just now thankfully so fingers crossed.

Good morning everyone,

Hot & sunny again here. I'm just off to tackle the jungle in the greenhouse. I may be gone some time..........;)

[Deleted User] · 6 July 2018 at 9:49AM

I just forced myself to eat my daily healthy 85% chocolate and will force myself to make a large very cold minty green juice, enough for 2 glasses and it will be a nice drink. I have no appetite in this weather, I may just have the nuts for lunch, the green juice will do all day plus the last bit of cooked beetroot, which I will eat as it is

Pity help a lot of oldies, the ones who don`t know how to order online and cannot go out because the heat would kill them. They need as much looking out for now as in icy weather

caronc · 6 July 2018 at 1:59PM

Phew it's hot in the greenhouse, I've had to abandon it until later!
Accidently ended up with a "soggy bottom" as I didn't realise the seat of my greenhouse stool was damp. I must have watered it

. Still easily rectified with a quick change of clothes and a bag over the seat:).
Lunch is a cheese & pickle sandwich, radishes and pea pods.

Farway · 6 July 2018 at 5:25PM

Kittie, beat me to it about "Damping off", sowing thinly also helps

Scorcher of a day, and right stinking PIA:(

Int o L's on way to volunteering, topped up, bought cheese, peaches, melon & Romaine lettuce on offer, plus milk

I must have had a premonition because I'd put a picnic cooling block in my bag, to keep cheese, milk etc cool while sat in boot in car park during my volunteering stint

Scabby car failed to start for homeward trip:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

Called out breakdown folk, kicking heels in office for 1.5 hours waiting for them, fair does, I was in a safe place, no dogs or kids in car

Anyway, seems it may be immobiliser problems, groan:(, I can see the noughts clicking up now. Then he was not able to recover car to garage, needed a low loading lorry
Kick heels in office for another hour

Garage busy, unable to do anything until Wednesday, which is inconvenient but not the end of my world

Taxi home, under a fiver, I could have limped down to bus stop, dragging my loaded shopping trolley, in the searing heat,and caught a free bus, but by then the s0ddits had clicked in, just wanted to get home & done with it

So, lunch, missed, dinner, certainly CBA to prepare or cook anything, looking like a part baked baguette, with the new cheese & lettuce inside

Luckily being in CFO land I have stuff in, so although confined to barracks there is not a problem with food or drink, and of course England will storm through the footie tomorrow

PS, planned watering has gone out the window, job for tomorrow morning now

flubberyzing · 6 July 2018 at 6:59PM

Evening all, it's been a long time since I last came and read your doings!

As a school teacher, we're nearing the end of term! Just shy of 2 weeks left. We've had sports day today, and it was a scorcher! Luckily, we just about managed to do the bulk of it in the shade!
I don't know about you lot, but this unbroken heat is getting a bit much now. It's been 3 straight weeks, and there's no sign it's letting up any time soon, according to the forecast! It's insanely hot at work as well, and hot kids are grumpy kids. And hot, grumpy kids, nearly at the end of term are the worst of them all!!

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Cooking for one (Mark Three)

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