Still Cooking

This is a very poor picture of the back of the cooker.

I made DH's favourite pasta bake tonight. Normally it's 200g of uncooked pasta with a jar of Tesco pasta bake sauce plus half a jar of water, baked for 25 minutes then sprinkled with cheese and baked for another 20 minutes at 180C (350F, Gas 4, moderate). I knew that I had to reduce times and I was worried about the pasta not having enough time to absorb the water so I decided to briefly cook it first. I rinsed out a thermos with boiling water, added 200g of pasta, topped up with boiling water, screwed on the top and left it for around fifteen minutes. It looked like this.

The pasta was extremely well done. Then I stirred together with the sauce plus around a quarter of a jar or less of water in a baking dish and cooked it for 15 minutes at 160C, then sprinkled with cheese and cooked for a further ten minutes and DH said that it was amazing! So even when the oven is replaced, I think we'll carry on doing it this way. 

We made a claim on our insurance online yesterday and DH spoke to them today. He didn't get a sense that there was any issue with getting a replacement. I hope it goes well. We splashed out last time and got a cooker that cost £549. We got a good deal in the sale and I think we got discounts, but the general rule is that they replace like for like so it's the stove rather than how much we paid, which is just as well. The equivalent now is over £900. Prices have gone up so much, and when you see the contrast over six years, it's a shock. The gluten free pasta has gone back down, along with some food stuffs, but the handcream that I like from Tesco that was £1 maybe four years ago is now £1.80. 

Gladys is still bare.

Though other parts of the garden are sprouting, so I'll have to give her a good prune. The rose bush next to her looks very lively.

Writing stuff - Another instalment from Back to the White Hart is here. 

Hugs and good health to all.