Hand washing

Posted on August 10, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bin, Clean, Cooking, cross contamination, Food, handwashing, Ill, Life, raw, stomach2 Comments

One thing that worries me is my hubby not washing his hands when he cooks. Even if the food is not raw I think he should clean his hands. I always do.

I can see possible cross contamination happening, but he, who trained as a scientist, doesn’t seem to believe in soap and water. That’s fine if I’m doing the cooking. He can keep his germs to himself. But not if he’s cooking for both of us.

Example, he put something in the bin, then picked up a plate, I thought NO. So asked him to wash his hands, he says I’m nagging! Now he’s gone off in a huff. He wants to cook, but I don’t want an upset tummy. It’s all about him being brought upon a farm I think. He doesn’t suffer from stomach problems. How do I get him to listen?

Wandering

Posted on August 6, 2023 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Cooking, crutches, Food, Hubby, Life, Memories, pennines, Time, Wales, Wandering, Yorkshire8 Comments

Wandering backwards and forwards on crutches to the bathroom and my armchair. I can’t help remembering when I was younger. We would set out on a cycle ride or a walk. We used to visit the North of Manchester, around the pennines. Into Wales and see spectacular mountains. Up to Yorkshire and around Ingleborough. Up steep slopes on our bikes then down one long winding valley that took us seven miles back down to our campsite (I was pleased with my map reading that day).

Being ill or injured is difficult. I can’t ignore it, but I guess I have to be a patient patient! But I want to do simple things like washing up. When I can support my weight I will, then cook, the eventually I will have to tidy up, hubby is trying, but he doesn’t quite get organisational ideas. Like putting shopping in the fridge safely! Or how to cook chicken when you have never done it in your life! Time heals I guess.

I wish I was out and about, that I could just stand at the sink and do the washing up. But I guess it’s less than five days since I pulled a ligament in my foot and about eight since the car door slammed into my other leg and cut a hole in it.

Foods ‘interesting’

Posted on August 4, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged ankle, Cooking, Eating, Food, Foot, Hubby, Injured, Learning, Microwave, Shopping, TimeLeave a comment

I can’t get in the kitchen to cook meals, my ankle won’t take my weight and I can’t stand to stir things. So my hubby has had to discover the microwave and things other than boiled eggs (which he can do). He assumed a frozen potato and a chilled cornish pastie would take the same time to heat in the microwave on the same plate….

I pointed out that he should look on the packaging. Tea is a bit bland and boring, but at least it’s safe. My hubby can’t hear the alarm on the cooker that tells you the food has been in for it’s cooking time…

But very kindly, a friend came and did some shopping for us. Hubby doesn’t always get things that are on the list. He substitutes things like natural yoghurt for fruit yoghurt (probably healthier) or will buy three bunches of grapes and five tins of tomatoes instead of one. It’s not wrong, but I don’t have the cupboard space. BUT he’s learning, making decisions, working things out. And I am truly thankful.

Toad in the hole from scratch

Posted on April 16, 2023April 16, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Batter, BBC Good housekeeping magazine, Broccoli, carrots, Cooking, Eggs, Evening meal, Flour, Food, from scratch, gravy, Milk, Oil, onions, Potatoes, Recipe, Sausages2 Comments

I followed BBC Good housekeeping magazines recipe for this. Vegetarians and vegans forgive me, you could use vegetarian sausages, but the batter needed eggs….

I used seven frozen sausages

2 eggs

1 small onion, sliced

Accompanying vegetables, potato, carrot and broccoli.

140 grams of self raising flour (I didn’t check which sort I needed)

Milk to add to the batter mix.

I oiled a dish and baked the sausages with some sliced onion for twenty minutes. In the meantime I put the flour in a bowl, made a dent in it and added the eggs stirring with a fork till it was all mixed together. Then I slowly poured in and mixed milk into the batter so it was like thick double cream.

I poured the batter over the part cooked sausages, and returned them to the oven on gas mark 8 because my cooker does not get very hot. I checked them over the next twenty minutes but I still managed to burn the batter a bit. I also think I should have added more milk so that it would have been moister. I chopped the vegetables up small so I boiled them on the hob for twenty minutes. Finally I added gravy granules to some of the vegetable water to pour over the meal.

I’ve never made this before, but it was something my mother made for our evening meals. I’m glad I tried. I will try and remember to make this again.

Winter stew

Posted on February 20, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bread, cabbage, carrots, Celery, Cookery, Cooking, Dinner, Food, Garlic, Onion, Potatoes, Recipe, sweet potato, Vegetables, Vegetarian?2 Comments

I just made a vegetarian stew for dinner. I could have made Staffordshire Lobby which is a beef based stew, lobbing all sorts of things into the pot. But I used a meat substitute, Quorn pieces.

Basically I put two small chopped potatoes, two small sliced carrots and half a sweet potato, peeled and sliced, into a pan and covered them in boiling water. I let them simmer for a few minutes, then chopped up a small red onion, chopped some slices off a cabbage (about a sixth of it) and two sticks of celery sliced up. Then I added half a pack of Quorn and a couple of teaspoons of Lazy Garlic. I let everything simmer for about twenty minutes. Then I added a couple of vegetable stock cubes. Let it cook for a few more minutes before serving with a hunk of brown bread and vegetable spread. I didn’t add salt, but if you do add it on top of the stew when you serve, that way it sits on the food and doesn’t get absorbed into it. That means you don’t eat too much salt. You can also add pepper at the end.

Prawn and Quorn curry

Posted on February 8, 2023February 8, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Cooking, Curry, Curry sauce, Food, Ingredients, Mushrooms, Onion, prawns, Quorn, Rice, spinach, Sweet peppersLeave a comment

A quick curry using vegetables and a small amount of Quorn pieces and prawns.

Ingredients.

One jar of curry sauce, chose your favourite. I got tikka massala. One onion, one sweet pepper, a handful of button mushrooms, a big handful of washed baby spinach, about a quarter of a bag of Quorn pieces and a small packet of kingprawns (or small prawns). A packet of microwaveable rice.

Method.

Defrost the Quorn in the microwave if you have one. Peel and chop the onion. Put in a frying pan in oil and start to fry. Roughly chop the pepper and add to the pan. Chop the mushrooms and add. Put the Quorn and prawns in. Finally stir in the baby spinach, add the packet of rice and pour the curry sauce over the mix. Cook on a low heat with a lid on for about twenty minutes. Make sure the curry is thoroughly cooked before serving.

Serves two or three as a main meal.

Chow-meined-up

Posted on January 3, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged chow-mein, Cookery, Cooking, Food, green lentils, green vegetables, pak-choi, red pepper, stir fryLeave a comment

I wanted to make Chow-mein and I had a packet of sauce. But my bean sprouts had gone soggy with having problems with my fridge. So I made something up.

I sliced some aubergine, red onion, broccoli, kale, pak-choi and red pepper and stir fried it all together. Then I added a tin of green lentils for carbs and cut up what was left of a roast chicken, mainly breast, then added the chow-mein sauce and cooked it for about fifteen minutes. I have no idea if this is the correct method but it tasted OK.

Using up pears

Posted on October 9, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged chopped pears, Cookery, Cooking, Custard, digestive biscuits, Food, Fruit, Pears, simmered, softened, TastyLeave a comment

I have lots of pears off our tree, they were hard but are slowly softening. But they have been bruised by falling off the tree and a couple went mouldy. They are tasty and quite sweet. What to do with them?

I cut off the bad bits then chopped up the pears into small pieces. Then I put them in a saucepan and added a little boiling water from the kettle. I added half a tablespoonful of splenda sweetner because it tastes like sugar. I put the pears on a low heat to simmer and soften. Then I made up some powdered custard with about three quarters of a pint of milk. In the meantime I was stirring and crushing the pears till they were soft and cooked. Finally I dished out the pears. I crumbled a couple of digestive biscuits over them to add texture and crunch. Lastly I ladeled the custard over the fruit and biscuits (a bit like a deconstructed pear crumble I think). The result was hot and tasty on a cool autumn afternoon.

Green peppers?

Posted on August 29, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Burleigh ware, Cooking, Curry, flames, Food, green pepper, peppers, Photo, ripe peppers, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trentLeave a comment

These were green when I put them in the fridge a week ago. Most of the pack still are, but these look like they have caught fire! I hope they won’t be too hot, I’ve incorporated them into a curry. The plate is Burleigh ware from Middleport pottery in Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire. The photo cheered me up because of the bright colours.

can anyone tell me?

Posted on August 20, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged alfornio, Cooking, Food, gas oven, Heat, King prawn, linguini, meatballs, Microwave, Question, ScienceLeave a comment

As an experiment I cooked a portion of meatballs alfornio in the oven ( gas mark 7, 35 minutes) and king prawn linguini (5 minutes in the microwave). Both were cooked at the same time but I put the microwave food in when the oven food was almost cooked, so they were both piping hot.

My question to the scientific minded out there is, which used the most energy? My guess is the gas oven cooked meal. But I don’t know? What is the ratio between the two? If I want to save money, which is the best? Answers please…..

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Cooking