WHAT DID WE HAVE FOR TEA?

[Stanley]

Half a bowl of chips and sausage, onion and beans for dinner. One thin slice of bread folded over a filling of the sausage for tea. One helping of the sausage left. I popped a ham hock on the stove to simmer slowly as I watched TV last night and when I went to bed I wrapped it in a fluffy towel. It is still hot this morning. Will de-bone it and separate the fat and skin and it will make some good ham butties. Very cheap way of getting ham.....

[Stanley]

I had the last of the sausage onion and beans for dinner with chips, just half a bowl full. For tea I had two thin slices of bread with beetroot and ham. Lovely meat.....

[Stanley]

Yesterday’s dinner was two very thin slices of bread with Chopped ham from the shank and grated Cheddar cheese. Come teatime I fancied onions and so did something I haven't done for years. I followed mother's old recipe and fried a finely chopped onion in butter for a few seconds and then added water and cooked it down until almost all the water was driven off. You have to stand over it stirring constantly towards the end or it sticks to the pan. I had two very thin slices of bread left so they got a coat of the onions and chopped ham as well. Very tasty! Two helpings of the ham left.... Cheap meat!

[Stanley]

I chopped the ham up and put it in with a tin of beans. Dinner and tea were easy, half the ham and beans with two fried eggs on top. Two half bowls full so no excess. It was tasty and finished off the ham nicely. Amazing how far that ham hock went!

[Stanley]

Butcher's day so two favourites. Steak pudding and peas for dinner, meat pie and peas for tea with some gravy pinched off Jack's dog meat for the week. I got two small pieces of well-hung rump steak from Kath and sat there watching TV with a lovely smell of steak and onions in the sir as it slowly braised. It's sat in the fridge now covered with foil in the dish it was cooked in.... It will be slowly improving even now.

[Marilyn]

And no leafy greens in sight for quite a while Stanley...
You know I will pop up from time to time to remind you of that...I lurk in the fruit and veg aisle ( in spirit form) and whisper over your shoulder...but you haven't been listening, have you?
Your braised beef will taste even better with some Baby Spinach thrown through it.

[Moh]

Same as last week - jerseys, bacon & eggs.

[Stanley]

Dinner was two very small haslet butties and tea was a small steamed cauliflower with a few peas and some onion gravy off the steak.

[LizG]

Slow cooked ox cheek with mashed potatoes, carrots and onions.

[Moh]

Roast lamb, roast potatoes, cauliflower, asparagus (I love asparagus!) and gravy - with mint sauce added to gravy.

[Stanley]

Does it make your pee smell of asparagus Moh?
Two very small braised steak and onions butties for dinner and tea. I fancied a chicken so I pot roasted a fat little chook on the stove last night. Lots of gravy came off it and I used that and the onions I had sat it on to make stuffing with some very expensive Shropshire Spice Company spiced sage and onion stuffing. It tastes better than the chicken! Must put a loaf in now......

[Moh]

Not that I have noticed.

[Marilyn]

Really Moh?
I notice it within 20 mins of eating Asparagus...
I've always thought it is so quick, it would be a great vehicle for delivering antibiotics to the bladder, if they could find a way to attach antibiotics to Asparagus.

[Stanley]

It happens quickly with me as well Maz..... Good point about the ABs!
Small chicken and stuffing butties for dinner and tea. Lovely! And the chicken was so well cooked it falls off the bone.... Pot roasting is such a good way of cooking, nothing lost, all the flavour is either in the meat or the gravy and because I used the remains in the pan to make the stuffing I have it all. (and Salmonella free....)

[Marilyn]

I had a bowl of cooked potato in the fridge, left overfrom making Crispy Potato Skins last night, so I made Potato Gnocchi for the first time this afternoon. Have to say, they were quite delicious.

[Stanley]

I like left-overs Maz. They always taste better after resting for a while!
Small chicken and stuffing butty for dinner and just for a change I chipped two small potatoes and had them with stuffing and chicken for tea. I realised my helpings were growing again... I shall have to correct this!

[Moh]

Meat balls in tomato sauce with oven chips.

[Stanley]

Half a chicken and stuffing butty for dinner and a two egg omelet with chicken and stuffing for tea. That chicken is lasting well!

[Marilyn]

I think it's time that Chicken went in the bin, Stanley. You cooked it last Sunday!

I've made tiny Chilli Meatballs this afternoon, to stir through Pasta with Tomato/Vegetable Sauce. The sauce has been building nicely in the slow cooker all day. I shall cook the Penne Pasta later, throw the sauce on and stir the meatballs through...top with a bit of grated cheese and some (raw) finely sliced fresh button mushrooms.
The tiny meatballs contain Thai Chilli and Hot & Spicy Oregano from my "allotment".

[Moh]

Toad in the hole with croquet potatoes & peas.

[Tripps]

"You cooked it last Sunday!"

It'll just be maturing nicely - I do it regularly. A full roast chicken is a lot for one.

[Marilyn]

I remember some English neighbours (new to our land and climate) cooking a Christmas Turkey. She placed the bird back in the cold oven later that afternoon complaining there wasn't room for it in the fridge, it having been left uncovered for hours.I told her it was unwise to place it back in the oven, given our overnight Summer temperatures, but she just looked at me as if I had two heads, and nodded sagely.
Should have seen her face the next day when it was crawling with maggots!
If something I've cooked remains in the fridge uneaten, it gets binned on the third day. House rules! Chicken gets binned after 48 hours. You just can't take chances with Chicken.
I was struck by the amount of advertising for anti-diahorrea medication whilst travelling in UK, some that has a fairly rapid action after being swallowed. Having diarrhoea is NOT normal. These ads made it sound acceptable to be suffering it.
( I found the ads for bladder leakage alarming too...aimed at normalising it...just put up with it and buy these products! That is not a normal state of health either. Something more that expecting and accepting such a disturbing problem needs to be done about it. I would be horrified if I had a leaky bladder...)

[Stanley]

The chicken was fine Maz! It shows how well I cooked it, how clean I keep my kitchen and that my fridge is running at the right temperature (under 3C). I had half a chicken and stuffing butty for dinner and the remainder was augmented with half a tin of beans, heated thoroughly and I had it with two small chipped potatoes. Slightly too big a helping but I wanted the fridge clear for Butcher's day today. I admit that even for me it was lasting a long time but as David says, when you live on your own you get used to food lasting longer than what many people would consider as 'normal' but I do not need any medication for any of the consequences you mentioned so I must be doing something right! It also shows that the chicken had been treated correctly at the butcher's and must have been well-reared, that has a bearing on keeping as well.

[Tripps]

Speaking of food longevity -

I found recently a kitchen drawer would not close, and suspected a plastic shopping bag had got behind it somehow. I got someone more agile than me to resolve it. The culprit was - a full packet of Mexican bread wraps! They looked in fair condition.

Being me - I checked the 'best before' date. It was March 2009. That's six months before I moved here. So they were over 6 years old. I couldn't resist pulling a bit off one and tasting it. It tasted very salty - which probably accounts for them surviving.

[Marilyn]

....silent shriek as Maz clutches her hair by the roots...