General Chat

As you know, we went to a Toby carvery on Thursday and spent £24 for three meals and I doggy bagged mine

My nut roast wellington was my lunch the next day and I made the rest into soup with what I had hanging about in the fridge, that did another five meals.

The soup went through a sieve so what is left will be rissoled today with the left over bits of bread and an onion some of the huge drift of sage that is taking over the garden and a ducks egg from the pineapple woman.

Roll on Christmas, the day we don't eat leftovers!

I didn't make rissoles after all but did manage to turn it into fifteen sausages.

We had four for tea tonight and the others are going to be sausage rolls for the lunch box.

wont be any left over for Christmas!!!

That is when we start again.

I admire you Sharron and all those meals.

In the US, our favourite restaurant is a chain called The Cheescake Factory

The portions are enormous and being American, a main meal works out at less than £10 pp
On our first ever visit, we noticed the families around us.
A family of 4 ordered 4 meals but ate only two between them.
They then asked for the uneaten meals to be put in a box.


On my last visit in Sept, I ordered chicken tenders with a baked potato.
I knew that I could never eat it all
I ate the potato and had the chicken put in a doggy bag .
10 large strips of breaded chicken breast were removed from the plate and placed in the bag .
We shared it the next day

Now that pig swill is illegal the food would only go to land-fill and restaurants give enormous portions anyway.

I know they didn't this time but I do become incredibly greedy at any place I can fill my own plate.

As a special treat we went to Home Bargains on Sunday (I know how to enjoy myself!) and I thought I was buying a really interesting looking jar of mixed pickles. When I tried them they were red hot and I hate chilli so I took them round to a neighbour I know to have an asbestos mouth.

As I opened the front door I found a big bag of pears that had been left on the step.

I sometimes buy a small hot roast to take away. They always put heaps of meat in, plus 2 pieces of roast potato, 1 of pumpkin and 1 of kumara, and a big spoonful of peas/carrots. When I get home I put half of it on a plate and the rest in the frige for the following night. I might add a small tomato, or a couple of slices of tinned beetroot if I am extra hungry. But it is quite a good buy, since I don't have to cook when I get home from work, and I reheat it the next night in the microwave.

there is one place where we sometimes go on a Friday night .................. they have a lovely chicken stir fry


I cannot eat it all, and so ask for it to be bagged


many times, what I take home has been enough for 2 lunches :-)

Tinned beetroot? There's and idea.


Is it like pickled beetroot because I wouldn't have a couple of pieces of that. I would have most, if not all, of the jar.

What is kumara?

the closest description I can give you of kumara is that it is a native B+NZ root vegetable, close to yam or sweet potato


It was traditionally roasted by the Maoris in a pit fire


It's delicious done that way, or any other way :-) .....................


I have tried to replicate it here at home by using a yam roasted in the oven.

It was more than OK, but not as good as kumara

Kumara, or sweet potato, comes in 3 colours - white (or rather pale cream), red, or yellow. I usually buy the red variety, but I am not sure why I haven't tried the other two.

I have given up gardening, too much trouble with the wild life here, so I buy the tinned beetroot, although I could just buy the beetroot in a vege shop and cook it up myself, but I am getting lazy in my old age. It is boiled till tender, the skin removed, sliced up and put in a mixture of vinegar and the juice from cooking. I think the tinned stuff is the same. It tastes that way. I transfer the contents of the tin to a glass jar and only use a few slices at a time. It lasts quite a while in the fridge.

As I have got older,I find that I can't eat the meals I used to,so regularly ask for a doggie bag....don't like waste.

Huia,...the way that you describe for cooking beet root are exactly the way my mother used to do it...and you have to be careful not to pierce the skins or else the colour will bleed.
I have done it this way,but tend to buy the vacuum packs now that are not pickled.
Getting lazy,but living alone ,only have myself to please...did make a big batch of Parsnip and carrot soup which I have put in batches in the freezer...seems to suit my stomach!

Tonight we went out for a family meal and it was delicious.
One daughter had ordered sweet potato fries with her main.
The restaurant only opened 2 weeks ago and the staff were really attentive.

When the mains arrived, the young waitress placed the sweet potato fries on the table but accidently dropped the main dish on floor.
As it fell, a small amount of food from another of our meals went to join it.
The poor girl was so apologetic, promiising to replace all the meals.
We told not her not to worry, accidents happen, and she need bring one new main to replace the dropped one.
It came within minutes.

The poor wee girl was almost in tears and kept apologising... then it was the head waiter's turn to apologise, followed by the manager!
The apologies were getting out of hand.
The manager saw my daughter slip off to the loo and came back to the table.

He was worried that somehow, her dress had been stained!

10 minutes later, another replacement arrived... a new meal for the one that only lost a couple of chips and and a few veggies.

Our bill arrived.
They had not charged for either of the two plates that landed on floor ( or the replacements) and took a further £20 off as.... another apology!

The final bill came to less than half of what it should have been but, OH paid it adding a normal tip

On the way out, I spotted him slipping a £20 note into the hand of the girl who had dropped the dishes .
He's good that way!

that was nice of your OH!