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Cooking for one (Mark Two)

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  • Hollyharvey
    Hollyharvey Posts: 1,939 Forumite
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    Afternoon everyone

    I get where you are all coming from re the floor space of shops.
    It would be really useful for them to have that information on their web site.

    I've been out looking at food processors, mine went bang last night, so I need a new one. It needs to be compact to fit in my kitchen. I've decided on a Kenwood, and they had one left in the sale in Debenhams. I'm too tired to go back out so I hope that one is still there in the morning.

    I've had Greek yoghurt and berries for breakfast this morning, and a banana as I was going to be out for a while.

    Just come back and had a cheese salad sandwich. All that walking around has made me hungry.

    Dinner is going to incorporate a suggestion by farway yesterday that I cook extra veg and have bubble and squeak. That made me really crave bubble and squeak. I'm gong to have it with a gammon steak, mushrooms and a grilled tomato. I'm really looking forward to this, I haven't had gammon for a while :).
  • purpleybat
    purpleybat Posts: 477 Forumite
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    Wednesday2000 wrote: »
    Wow, that is cheap!:)


    I buy the wonky veg, I find it keeps really well and most of it isn't wonky at all.
    I must admit I was looking forward to some rude carrots :D
    they also do wonky apples which I find delicious
  • PasturesNew
    PasturesNew Posts: 70,698 Forumite
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    edited 3 October 2017 at 1:31PM
    poppystar wrote: »
    .... minus the swede as I'm too feeble these days to get into one
    No need to. Lob the whole thing into the microwave for 20 minutes.... then cut it in half and scoop it out soft. Literally remove it from your shopping bag, open the nuker door, put it in, close the door, twist the dial, press start.... walk away.... although it's good to put it on something as it produces a bit of goo.

    That's a long cooking time, so if you can manage to cut it in half first and put it "flesh side down" in a dish (to catch any dripping goo), then the cooking time is less and you're only cooking a small portion.

    I'm sure a slow cooker could be used too, in all honesty - lob the whole thing in, with water .... and wait 3-4 hours until a knife goes through the middle bit.... cutting it into chunks if you can manage it at all. You can always find somebody to cut one into half for you when you've bought it (knock on a neighbour's door with a knife), then wrap the two exposed ends in foil and it'll sit on the worktop for 1-2 weeks at least.
  • poppystar
    poppystar Posts: 1,292 Forumite
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    PasturesNew wrote: »
    No need to. Lob the whole thing into the microwave for 20 minutes.... then cut it in half and scoop it out soft. Literally remove it from your shopping bag, open the nuker door, put it in, close the door, twist the dial, press start.... walk away.... although it's good to put it on something as it produces a bit of goo.


    Are you sure it won't explode? - they already look a bit like cartoon bombs:D

    I've never nuked anything for that long either. Bit terrified quite frankly. Do you think it would work putting it in the oven whole too? Pretending it was a huge baked potato?

    Even cutting in half is beyond me these days:( My attempts totally amused the friends I was with last xmas as I offered to do the veg and was presented with a swede as well as the usual culprits. I had to be rescued and put on table laying duty:o
  • purpleybat
    purpleybat Posts: 477 Forumite
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    PasturesNew wrote: »
    No need to. Lob the whole thing into the microwave for 20 minutes.... then cut it in half and scoop it out soft. Literally remove it from your shopping bag, open the nuker door, put it in, close the door, twist the dial, press start.... walk away.... although it's good to put it on something as it produces a bit of goo.

    That's a long cooking time, so if you can manage to cut it in half first and put it "flesh side down" in a dish (to catch any dripping goo), then the cooking time is less and you're only cooking a small portion.


    You can always find somebody to cut one into half for you when you've bought it (knock on a neighbour's door with a knife), then wrap the two exposed ends in foil and it'll sit on the worktop for 1-2 weeks at least.


    I like this idea of zapping a swede, I might have to give it a try. thankyou for saying about the goo.


    if I knocked on my neighbours door with a big knife I think they may call the police! :D
  • Farway
    Farway Posts: 13,194 Forumite
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    poppystar wrote: »
    Are you sure it won't explode? - they already look a bit like cartoon bombs:D

    I've never nuked anything for that long either. Bit terrified quite frankly. Do you think it would work putting it in the oven whole too? Pretending it was a huge baked potato?

    I've never tried oven swede, not a big fan of the veg anyway, but I bet it would, try same as baked beetroot method. Wash, wrap in tin foil, bung in oven

    Reading not keen notes on HM soup has made up my mind on the [STRIKE]cauldron[/STRIKE] pot of bung it all in soup I made this week and now find most unappealing. It will be binned and lesson learnt. Not sure what has changed, I used to love them, maybe taste buds change as get older?

    Ref the floor area of shops. How about using Google maps in Streetview? Just grab the little yellow bloke & plonk him outside the shop. Quick peer around and that should give a fair idea of area in comparison to the nearby shops, frontage at least, assuming it is not a long narrow shop over 6 storeys

    The Jamaican bread pud, I have put a stone on just reading the recipe. It does sound lush

    Morries must have changed their tune on wonky veg, last time I looked it was only pennies less than the "good" stuff. New offer seems good value. I'll recheck next time I'm in

    Lunch was last of the pork pie, with mustard, fresh tomato and olives

    Dinner is a bit ??? At the moment it is clear out and use the last of the cheapo frozen bangers, with frozen chips, fried eggs & mushrooms from Lild offer this morning. But this is all subject to feeling like it come the prep time
    Eight out of ten owners who expressed a preference said their cats preferred other peoples gardens
  • PasturesNew
    PasturesNew Posts: 70,698 Forumite
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    edited 3 October 2017 at 2:47PM
    poppystar wrote: »
    Are you sure it won't explode? - they already look a bit like cartoon bombs:D

    I've never nuked anything for that long either. Bit terrified quite frankly. Do you think it would work putting it in the oven whole too? Pretending it was a huge baked potato?

    Even cutting in half is beyond me these days:( My attempts totally amused the friends I was with last xmas as I offered to do the veg and was presented with a swede as well as the usual culprits. I had to be rescued and put on table laying duty:o

    I understand totally where you're coming from. No it won't explode. I did mine for Xmas dinner last year like that, did it the day before and then stored it for quick nuking on the day. As they tend to be sold "per item" the greedy me always heads for the biggest one ... and I got a monster!

    But, if you're worried, stab it "to be sure" ... but it won't. As for scared/too long, I get that too.... in which case, just do it for 4-5 minutes and let it sit for a minute, repeat 4-5x. I do that as I think using it for too many minutes will make the whole thing go into meltdown, it's one of my fears.

    I bet the oven would work too. Again, shove a fork in it to be sure, wrap in foil to catch any goo.

    They are tough bugg4hs to cut safely :)
  • moneyistooshorttomention
    moneyistooshorttomention Posts: 17,940 Forumite
    Farway wrote: »

    Ref the floor area of shops. How about using Google maps in Streetview? Just grab the little yellow bloke & plonk him outside the shop. Quick peer around and that should give a fair idea of area in comparison to the nearby shops, frontage at least, assuming it is not a long narrow shop over 6 storeys

    Personally I use Streetview a lot to get a look at places and had done a virtual travel to the "tiny" chain store opened some distance from myself and friend and it wasnt really possible to tell the size looking at the front. I could see that it's a several-storey building (ie that looked promising) - but it's got a small footprint according to my disappointed friend that visited it after local friend told us it was "huge".

    Because people that have spent all their lives living here will possibly have a different definition about how to describe sizes compared to former city dwellers (like my friend and myself) then it's very difficult to work out. I've come to the conclusion the best I can do when asking local people the size of a place is to compare it to the largest places I can think of in a nearby bigger place that they might know and say "I'm used to a shop that's twice the size of so-and-so in nearer bigger town - so how does it compare to that?".

    I must admit the first time I looked up the new chain shop I'm thinking of I looked around their website for some time and then looked at the national website thinking I must have missed the bit at which they put the square footage of shop concerned and searching and searching for it. Until I came to the conclusion that no-one at the firm concerned seemed to have thought of it - and wondered how much I'd be paid to do their job instead of them...:cool:
  • moneyistooshorttomention
    moneyistooshorttomention Posts: 17,940 Forumite
    Back to thinking of food - and lunch today was home-made croissant (not by me) and coffee. Havent had time to think of more than that - as it's "one of those days" where my mother is "driving me nuts" in various phonecalls and am sorely tempted to take the phone off the hook for the rest of the day.

    She might take to ringing my brother and "driving him nuts" instead:cool:. It's beginning to sound like a very good idea to take my phone off the hook for the rest of the day then.....:cool:

    Dinner tonight will be the singles re-run Groundhog Day thing of the other portion of pasta and sauce from yesterday.
  • Farway
    Farway Posts: 13,194 Forumite
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    moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »
    I must admit the first time I looked up the new chain shop I'm thinking of I looked around their website for some time and then looked at the national website thinking I must have missed the bit at which they put the square footage of shop concerned and searching and searching for it. Until I came to the conclusion that no-one at the firm concerned seemed to have thought of it - and wondered how much I'd be paid to do their job instead of them...:cool:

    I suspect it may have been thought of but could stop some potential customers from going.

    Too small, avoid, too large, avoid [that would be me]

    Like pubs, families welcome, avoid or rush there depending on individual requirements
    Eight out of ten owners who expressed a preference said their cats preferred other peoples gardens
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