to want to 'pass it on'?

[MrsWembley]

So, following on from a thread about the price of Gregg's sausage rolls and BOGOFs, which has turned into a barney about how easy/difficult it is to cook/learn to cook on a budget, I, feeling very sad about the world in general and my small corner in particular, have decided, in the spirit of Jamie and someone else whom I can't remember right now (might have been Kevin Spacey), to pass on any cooking skill I might have to anyone living in/working in/passing through the Bristol area.

Seriously, if it's all I can do right now to make life a little better for someone/anyone, then bring it on!

Now, what do you lot have to offer, ?

Don't use a potato masher to mash them, use an electric hand held (£4 at Tesco) whisk. They are less lumpy, it takes less effort.

Buy a sack of spuds for less than a tenner from your local veg shop and they will last you weeks. Your family will never be hungry with a sack of spuds.

Go to Lidl for your spuds, washed and £2.60 a sack

onions at your local Turkish supermarket, 50p a sack ...3 months later, still ploughing through them!

Good good, all advice is good advice.

Now, has anybody got time to offer to share skills?

Learn to make a white sauce. Make suet your friend.

I love gardening ...I'll fiddle with your herbacious borders if you .......paint my ceilings!

poaching eggs
use only very fresh eggs
bring small pan of water to boil
reduce to simmer and add few drops vinger
stir water to make a whirlpool
drop egg into centre of whirlpool
cook until set [about 3-4 mins]
lift out with slotted spoon
put on piece of spare/old bread to drain
transfer to toast
season and eat
:)

Do you know, part of me was thinking, I'll teach someone to cook if they'll dig my allotment, but I thought it might be too much...

No no no, this will not die, keep it going!!!!

Plan your meals, lunches, breakfasts and snacks for a month! Make a shopping list and stick to it. Buy bogof if the stuff you NEED that month is on offer (ensure its a offer) buy it. Buy half price meats if it's big cut in half and pop in the freezer.

But are we reaching anybody? Are the people who need this information actually reading?

Keep bumping, keep it going!

Don't buy a garlic crusher - it's just a PITA to clean. All you need is a good sharp knife to slice garlic cloves. Also garlic burns really easily so add it to the pan after the onions have been cooking for a bit.

For bolognese, the authentic way is to slow cook a small amount of mince in shit loads of tomato sauce (made by cooking onions, garlic & carrot - all cut v small - then adding 2-3 tins of tomatoes). Firstly brown the mince, then remove from pan & cook all the onions etc. then add mince to sauce & simmer over low heat (stirring occasionally) until its all thick (cab take around an hr). Then add seasoning. Always add seasoning at end of sauces or soups as the flavour will concentrate on cooking & you will find you don't need as much salt as you think you did.

Buy cheap whole tinned toms (essential waitrose have the most tom to sauce ratio) & roughly chop them by stabbing a long sharp knife in the tin. I know people who waste money buying chopped toms with herbs etc in - complete waste of money

And another bump!

Mrs Wembley I'd be up for that!
Do you have any good veggie dishes that don't invlove mushroom or goats cheese?

Easiest and most delicious dish ever:

Heat oven
Chop onion
Chop sage
Fry in pan with butter
Toss chunks of stewing steak in seasoned flour
Add to pan
Brown
Add tom puree (good dollop)
Stir
Add half bottle red wine
Add 500ml beef stock
Stir
Transfer to casserole dish
Add packet diced butternet squash
Add packet new potatoes
Stir
Slam in oven
Go on MN for 3 hours
Take out of oven
Open lid
Shove some rosemary and crushed garlic it
Serve with crusty bread
Bask in adulation of those you feed

Second easiest and most delicous dish ever:

Chop onion
Chop streaky bacon
Fry in pan in butter
Add chunks of chicken
Brown
Add sliced mushrooms
Cook for a bit
Add 1 tin of cream of asparagus soup
Add 250 ml chicken stock
Add 2 tbsp caraway seeds
Add 1 tin asparagus
Cook on low heat for about 45 mins till chicken cooked through
Enjoy with crusty bread

Also, Beed Strog for slatterns

Buy strips sandwich steak. Slice
Slice mushrooms
Fry both in pan with butter
Add paprika
Pour in carton sour cream
Fry about 5 mins
Serve with rice

Beef, not "Beed"

Convince dp that cooking is their job and not yours.

Clearly I am probably the person most in need of this thread.

However I am 95% sure my lack of cooking skills are pure laziness. I can cook warm frozen stuff better than dh can, he always burns it. I am sure he doesn't boil eggs properly. And I actually attempt to follow recipes rather than glance over it, decide I know better and then insist it was supposed to turn out that way...

Veggie one, no goats cheese:

Heat oven. 180
Take red peppers
Blanch
Slice in half remove seeds
Make packet of instant cous cous
Cut peppers in half
Fill to 3/4 line with cous cous
Season
Grate a bit of cheese on top
Crack egg and place in pepper
Bake in oven for about 20 mins

For delicious soup. Eat chicken or two. Boil all the bones up (simmer about 2 hours for chicken bones, barely simmering). Put a handful of rice in, cook. Mix equal parts lemons and eggs. Add to soup (DO NOT BOIL). Stir until thickened. You are making this, very vaguely.

You can add, chicken pieces, garlic, left overs...

It is awesome.

I am SEVERELY domestically challenged :o but bugger can I cook. Make everything from scratch including bread,bacon,sausages corned beef etc.LOVE to cook makes me happy I can then proceed to happily ignore the rest of the domestic stuff :o

Ds2 is at catering school and Ive passed on my love of cooking and lots of tips to at least 1 of my kids

Easy white sauce for me is:

1. melt a 2cm cube of butter
2. add 1 tbs flour
3. slowly add 1/2 pint of milk

To make mac and cheese
4) for cheese sauce add bits on their last leg from your fridge
5) if you can be arsed add to cook macaroni, top with cheese and bake.

Super easy and luffly brunch:

• Line a muffin tray with naice ham
• add an egg, dollop of cream and pepper
• bake for ten mins

I come from a long line of women with zero cooking skills.

My nan made the same meal for my grandad every single day for over 30 years. And she still managed to either burn or drop part of it on a regular basis.

My mum's masterpiece was cheesecake. I thought she was an amazing cook until I learned her secret was to buy a packet mix cheesecake and then chuck a tin of blackcurrants on top.

My sister set fire to herself twice while cooking mince (she was unharmed).

According to dh I have no attention span (so things tend to burn a lot).

I'm very jealous of people who like cooking and are good at it.

Thanks Catgirl

Buy cheap whole tinned toms (essential waitrose have the most tom to sauce ratio) & roughly chop them by stabbing a long sharp knife in the tin

I use kitchen scissors to chop them up in the tin. Alternatively lidl does choped toms or pasata for 35p.

Plan your meals, lunches, breakfasts and snacks for a month
For a MONTH? Where is the fun and spontaneity in that? Suppose of you're on a really tight budget, but still. A MONTH?

*poaching eggs

drop egg into centre of whirlpool*

No no no, you don't need to bother with that faff. Just get it boiling nicely, then turn heat right down so hardly any bubbles and plop the eggs in. Lid on, 2 mins for perfect totally runny yellow poached eggs.