Mainly About Supper!

At frugal times we need treats perhaps even more than normal, but need to be selective about what we make so that we can use up what we have on 'proper meals' rather than 'waste' them on treats. There are other things we can 'waste' without worring about needing them for other dishes, so yesterday decided that B would have a small Chocolate Bread and Butter Pudding for supper, but without the butter. A chocolately treat, and the precious butter kept to use another day.

Recently B had brought home a small loaf. This is always a mistake for they work out (by weight) dearer than a large one. So from today I am back to baking my own. Decided to spread three small slices with Nutella, first cutting off the crusts (these were bagged up and put in the freezer to later make fresh or dried breadcrumbs).


In the picture above you see my 'prep'. The three small slices of bread, the dish ((smaller than it looks), Nutella at the back, milk and egg for the custard, and a bowl of demerara sugar. The fork for beating the egg into the milk, the knife to remove the crusts, and the knife for spreading the nutella. The spoon in the sugar.

This next picture shows the crusts removed (these placed above the slices.seen at the top) and the bread spread with the Nutella.

Just to be different, rolled each slice up and placed them into the little dish (picture above). The dish looks wider than it is, it is about 6" long by 3" wide, a little 'one-person' lasagne dish.

The egg was beaten into just under a quarter pint of the milk, then poured over the bread, even this was too much, so a little left in the jug to cook in a very small dish to make an egg custard. The pudding eft to soak for half an hour (all day would have been better), then sugar sprinkled over the top and it was put in the oven (about 150C, 300F, gas 2) as I wanted it to be soft, more a souffle than crusty. For crusty it would have been baked at 180C, 350F, gas 4.

Three sausages were put into the oven to cook at the same time.

The picture above shows the dish before it was put into the oven. During cooking, the bread rose up beautifully and 'souffled', but dropped when taken out as I wanted to raise the heat to cook oven chips, this annoyed me as it collapsed before it could be photographed (the camera needed new batteries at that point)and did not look attractive enough to photograph. Anyway it needed more browning. So put it back when the chips were done (these cooked at 220C, turned the oven out and left the pud there for B to eat after supper.

Decided to give Beloved his favourite Cold Meat Platter for his evening meal. Not the full Monty as had no roast beef and did not wish to open a can of corned beef. Even so he had two slices of (bought) tongue, two slices of home-cooked ham, and several small slices of home-cooked turkey breast. Two cooked sausages, one sliced cooked (vacuum pack) beetroot, a small amount of lettuce and a few slices of red bell pepper. Served the oven chips in a heated metal bowl to keep them hot as long as possible. With his supper he had pickle, and mustard close by if he wanted it, also half a bottle of red wine.

Just thought you might to take a look at his supper. Was hoping to include some watercress and a tomato, but B had eaten all the watercress, and only one tomato left that I have plans for. We have only a little lettuce left in the fridge, but B doesn't really care for lettuce, so the 'salad' he was given was more a token offering.

Even after the above meal - this including the Bread Pudding (with cream poured over - and B said was enough for two), he still had a snack shortly after. Think this was a large bowl of ice-cream. As part of the time was spent at the computer, almost certainly he brought a snack in here as well. He usually does.