WHAT DID WE HAVE FOR TEA?

[Stanley]

Stew for dinner and a bacon butty with olives for tea. Today will be more cold weather grub!

[Stanley]

Frozen stew for dinner, bacon and egg butty for tea. I was watching an advert for the microwave-ready meals presented by Ronnie Corbett and wondered how the cost and quality compared with my diet.

[Tripps]

This seems to be typical -

http://www.wiltshirefarmfoods.com/froze ... hicken_178

I reckon I could do better for about £1.50 easily, but I'd have to eat it several times to get best value from the fresh chicken.
However it may suit some people who don't want to shop and cook.

[Wendyf]

I've just started ordering meals from Wiltshire Farm Foods for my mum, who can't cook for herself anymore. They are a great improvement on the M&S ready meals she has been having. She has their Mini meals, which are just the right size for her.

[Stanley]

David, I agree, and yes the downside is that we have to be prepared to eat the same thing more than once to make it worthwhile cooking it, thank God for the freezer! Wendy, I can see how, in cases like your mother, they are a good thing. Sort of commercialised Meals on Wheels!
Got my bits at Stewart's yesterday and once more Kath had a loaf that was almost out of date and gave it to me so yesterday's meals were two chicken butties. Half a cooked chicken for £1.90, free bread plus the cost of condiments. Cheap grub! Today will be similar but different goodies.

[Stanley]

Yesterday was two butties made with the remainder of the chicken and some beef loaf. I got some vacuum packed bacon ribs on Friday and went Blumethal on them. I injected Worcestershire Sauce into the pack and left it in the fridge for a couple of days. Last night I popped them into a casserole with some olive oil and a touch of Tabasco and let them cook very slowly all night in the small oven. This morning I poured off the gravy and separated the fat from it, took the meat off the bones and popped it in a pan with the gravy and a tin of beans. By the time these have heated and married together they will be good tasty butty filling for today.

[Marilyn]

Had two punnets of cherry tomatoes that needed using, so made a Vegetarian Pasta Sauce, which son and I enjoyed for dinner. I shall finish it off for lunch tomorrow.

[Stanley]

The jrked bs and beans made a good filling. So good I had it as sauce on spaghetti for tea. One helping left...

[Stanley]

Burger and egg butty for dinner. The last of the jerked rib and beans with Basmati rice for tea. (It had not suffered by keeping for two days, lovely stuff!)

[Moh]

Can't make my mind up between steak & kidney pie & pork steaks.

[Stanley]

Cold enough for a frozen stew for dinner. While the stove is lit I make my tomato relish in a pan instead of under the grill. I blitzed two onions and a bunch of tomatoes with vinegar, olive oil, Worcestershire sauce, a small can of tomato concentrate, garlic powder, a dash of Tabasco and brown sugar. Then slowly cooked it on the stove for two hours. The long slow cooking takes all the bitterness out of the toms. I had some of this on a cheese butty for tea and it was lovely. I've put a loaf in and will take a view of today's menu later. I think it will be hot stew for dinner again!

[Moh]

We had the steak & kidney pie on Tuesday and the pork steaks in a white wine sauce last night. Tonight is lamb chops, chips & garden peas.

[Stanley]

I shan't be able to chew again till early July so soft butties and stews till then! Had a frozen stew for dinner yesterday and a grated cheese and tomato relish butty with added olives for tea. Butchers today so Ill be after trotters for stock and things like pressed or potted beef for butties. I can feel a big lamb stew coming on because I have the dark lamb that Stewart sold me the other week.

[rossylass]

Visiting my son and his wife in London. They have a box of veg delivered every week and had a glut of leeks and potatoes so made soup and some soda bread, which is so easy that even I can manage it without it turning out like a stone.

[Marilyn]

I love Leek and Potato Soup. Yum.
Funny how you revert to not bothering when the other half is sick in hospital...I had a very small packet of Salt and Vinegar Crisps for dinner. Couldn't even be bothered making a buttie out of them. First night I have not had a proper meal though, so don't jump down my throat. It is just that son went out for dinner and it was just me to satiate, and I wasn't hungry.

[Moh]

Home made fish & chips tonight.

[Stanley]

Last of the soup from the freezer for dinner. Started a new lamb stew by boiling two trotters and a bunch of the dark chops. When they had cooked I took the remains of the trotters and the lamb bones and fat out and loaded the big pan and the stock with the meat, small potatoes, leeks, onions celery and carrot. After simmering gently for about four hours, added frozen peas and left it to mature for today. Tea was Haslet butties with olives. Because of the cold weather the stove was lit so no leccy burned!
07:30. Just realised I forgot to put garlic in the stew. I have three bulbs and that's the next job as soon as I have written this. Fiddly job and I hate it but it has to be done!

[Marilyn]

Doesn't need Garlic!
Son had a skinful of Garlic last night when he went out for dinner and he has been stinking out the house today. Most unpleasant. I've got all the doors open...
People don't realise just how offensive it can be. I have Greek neighbours who love to cook their garlic marinated BBQs a couple of nights a week...smell comes over the fence and straight in my back door. Absolutely putrid.

[PanBiker]

You need to eat some yourself Maz, that will end all your problems. Chopped up in a nice salad would do.

[Marilyn]

No thanks...I'd rather lick a cow pat...

[PanBiker]

It's a lot better for you than a cow pat but hey ho, each to their own. I have an interesting tale about a fresh(ish) cow pat and an egg but I'll relate that somewhere else. It's a distant memory from when I was a lad.

[Wendyf]

Doesn't need Garlic!
Son had a skinful of Garlic last night when he went out for dinner and he has been stinking out the house today. Most unpleasant. I've got all the doors open...
People don't realise just how offensive it can be. I have Greek neighbours who love to cook their garlic marinated BBQs a couple of nights a week...smell comes over the fence and straight in my back door. Absolutely putrid.

Well! Don't tell anyone, but I think we may have just discovered why Maz is up and around when we are all tucked up in bed....if she starts talking about arriving in Whitby...or the nice wooden box bed she sleeps in.....get those silver bullets polished and chew more fresh garlic!!

[Marilyn]

That would explain why I feel a bit "long in the tooth" some days...
And I am very familiar with Whitby...lovely place...especially for someone who likes to walk wonky little streets and move among the locals.
( I do have a wooden bed...)

[Stanley]

Good job pics don't have embedded smells then.... Here's the lamb stew after two days slow simmering on the stove. Amazing how so much flavour converts into suggars with long cooking. Three full bulbs of garlic in here and I can't small a thing. Will freeze some this morning....
Stwed pressed beef butty for dinner, lamb stew for tea yesterday. No cooking today!

[EileenDavid]

I'm with you Wendy on the Garlic they even put it on the sliced roast beef you can find here, plus pork and everything else. Last night we had a take away from the supposed retired Parisian Chef they have on site. Always give it a try but won't be going again. Eileen