Tuesdays and Alternative methods of cooking

I have noticed, that not a lot of people tend to post on a Tuesday. Maybe that is down to the blogs I am following which are all super, but it is my impression that a Tuesday night is the quiet night of the week.  Well we all need a night off.

It has been cold again today.  I managed to venture out for the eggs and managed to get them back to the house intact despite the best attempts of the wind to scupper me.

We have also had our French Onion Soup together with loads of Gruyere and our Spaghetti Bolognese which has also gone down a treat; in retrospect we have probably eaten too much.  Surprisingly we did not have pudding tonight.  Maybe tomorrow.  The warm food did us both good though.

OH and Missy are currently out for the count.  Will do them both good just chilling and relaxing.  

I am hoping the weather is going to be fine tomorrow as I am meeting up with a friend in town for a little while.  Going to put the world to rights over a piece of cake and a cup of coffee and try and keep each other on the straight and narrow.  Lets just say my friend has her work cut out with me!

A little while back I bought an induction plate from Aldi.  I had seen one in Lakeland as I had been considering obtaining one but at £90+ it was a little too rich in price for me though.  I don't believe in paying through the nose for something. 

Then quite by chance I found one in Aldi which cost me £30. At that price I took the view that if it worked for a while that was all well and good and if it did not then I was not losing a fortune. Not a make I know think it is Italian an Ambiano. Obtaining one at £30 now that I consider a result. I only wanted it as a spare just in case we needed it i.e. any problems with the gas cooker.  

Our cooker is supplied by the Landlord. However it is a gas cooker as we have no electrical cooker point in the kitchen. It will need replacing soon in any event and as I would hate to be caught on the hop without any kind of cooking facility, and as I have only recently bought a rotisserie cooker (a small one), I just needed the plate in case of emergencies.  Primarily to be able to boil some soup up or make a gravy or indeed use when I am preserving.  The more I thought about it the more reasons I found for buying one.  

My kitchen space is small and this plate will give me a little more flexibility.  I must say that for £30 it is extremely efficient and quick at boiling things up.  I was quite impressed as prior to this I had had reservations about induction hobs generally.

I am also a great believer in "not putting all your eggs in one basket" as it were and having alternative methods of achieving something.  Take the electric kettle for example.  I grew up with Rayburns and putting sturdy metal kettles on top of the range.  Then when we used to go camping the whistle kettle.  So I still keep one of these in.  You just never know when you will need things and perhaps it is being over-cautious but for me it works and it means I can get on with things as normal and feed and water us irrespective of what may be going on around us.  

I must admit here that I am absolutely useless with electrical things despite me being an Engineer's daughter. When I was first married the kettle blew whilst my then husband was at work.  Determined not to be the little woman and determined to have a go at sorting it out myself I followed the instructions in a book I had!  Lets just say I blew the kettle up three times and never did get to grips with it and then gave it up as a bad job.  I really do not like electrics.  They terrify me.

Anyway I digress.  In the past when the washing machine has failed I have set too and hand washed what we needed with the help of a boiling pot on the cooker.  I still boil my dishcloths in an old pan on top of the cooker and badly stained tea towels.  It is quicker to do them this way than in the washing machine.  My washing machine to me is as I said in my post yesterday the most important piece of equipment to me to keep everything clean.

By choice I would have an Aga/Rayburn solid fuel range for cooking and heating and then an electric cooker for the summer months.  I would also like a wood burner or two as well. That is not going to happen here.  The chimneys have not been maintained and I think the whole stack would have to have the metal liners in top to bottom, but in reality I think it would do this house good to have a heating system like that in it.  Me owning an Aga/Rayburn may only be "pie in the sky" and be a long way off, but it is good to have a plan as it were just in case.  We never know what is going to happen to us in this mortal coil or indeed what surprises are going to be thrown up.  So a little planning never hurt anyone.  We always need a Plan A, Plan B and I think a Plan C.

We also have the pizza oven and the barbecue outside as well so there are other options too.  Better prepared than never though.

I have a small piece of beef that needs roasting in the fridge.  Think we may well have that tomorrow evening done on the Rotisserie and then served with Yorkshire Pudding and veggies.  If it is as cold as it has been I think it will do us both good and then there will be left overs for the following day as well.  Might do Salmon fish cakes for Saturday night tea as it is a while since I have made these and I want to shake my menu up a little bit.

Right am off to sort out OH for tomorrow and make sure he has everything he needs.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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