Today has been OH's birthday

February 01, 2021

Today has been OH's birthday

It has been a quiet day. I was up reasonably early as OH was awaiting a delivery of a parcel so technically I was not free to do anything, although OH had a couple of outside appointments. Fortunately for me his parcel came early and so I was able to potter about with doing some of the stuff I wanted to do rather than what I needed to do.

Needless to say he got a full English Breakfast this morning as well.

I think himself has had a lovely quiet day. Daughter in law called with a pressie for him and she had also made some home made Eccles cakes and they were delicious. I had only had bought Eccles cakes before and had not been terribly impressed but I might have to have a go at these myself. They were lovely.

I nipped to the shop to get some salad stuff to have with the birthday tea and one or two other bits as OH decided he did not fancy chips, so I re-arranged the menu slightly.

OH then went out with her ladyship and also called at his daughter's to pick up his pressie from there. Whilst he was out I started sorting out what I was going to cook for his tea and it is quite a bit different to what I had anticipated it would be.

I cooked home made onion rings.

I cut my onion thickly (I only used one large onion, then in a separate dish I made an egg and flour batter, which was reasonably thick, and in a another dish I had some flour.

I then dipped the onion rings into flour and the into the thick batter and then fried it in oil about an inch deep in a frying pan. I did not have the temperature really hot as I did not want the onion to overcook and the new cooker is a bit pokey on heat. I got to the colour I wanted and then turned over. Second side seemed to cook a lot quicker than the first. Once cooked and to the colour I wanted I then popped them in a bowl on some kitchen paper and then popped on a very low heat in the small oven to keep warm.

Onion ready for chopping and the batter mix.

A tub filled with flour.

The onion sliced and then I just segregated the rings

Frying the onion in about an inch of oil in a frying pan, turning frequently so that they do not burn until the right colour is achieved.

The finished Onion rings put aside in a bowl in the oven to keep warm..

I only prepared one onion and the bowl was full.

The reason why I went to the trouble of making them myself is that I like onion rings, but I do not like the bought ones. I shall make these again.

I also like to up the anti with the meals we have every so often and I like to change things up. So instead of having fried onions I did the onion rings, boiled potatoes instead of chips.

I then boiled the potatoes and when they were cooked they went into the oven also.

Here are the two Rib Eye steaks we had. They are not particularly big, but still too much for me to eat so OH often finishes it off for me. OH likes his Rare (Blue) I like mine medium.

I also fried a packet of small button mushrooms. I chopped the stalks off to the base of the mushroom and then put the stalks and the mushroom tops in the pan to fry. They have a lovely nutty flavour.

I also fried some vine tomatoes keeping them on the stalk and with the tops in. I gently fried them in oil and butter and then added a little crushed garlic.

The steaks cooking on their second side.

Once the steaks were cooked on both sides and to our individual liking, I then washed the mixed salad leaf, drained it and arranged it on the plate. I grated carrot, cut celery, added Coleslaw to the plate. I then dished up the boiled potatoes, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms and the home made onion rings.

His Plate