Nobody Panic - Still Panicking: How to Make Dinner For One with Kate Young

Episode Date: October 17, 2025

Still Panicking: From dining out to eating in, food with friends or dinner alone, this week we look back at Stevie and Tessa's top mealtime tips.Foodie, chef, author of the Little Library cookbooks, Kate comes on to discuss how to make dinners for one joyful, varied and ultimately EASY. Tessa discovers that her Philadelphia cheese and pasta dish (eaten out of a pan) has merit. Kate's cookbooks including 'The Little Library Cookbook' are available to buy now. Head to kateyoungwrites.com/foodbooksFollow Kate on Instagram @kateyoungwritesThis episode was first released on 21 May 2024.Recorded and edited by Aniya Das for Plosive.Photos by Marco Vittur, jingle by David Dobson.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/nobodypanic. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello, I'm Carriad. I'm Sarah. And we are the Weirdo's Book Club podcast. We are doing a very special live show as part of the London Podcast Festival. The date is Thursday, 11th of September. The time is 7pm and our special guest is the brilliant Alan Davies. Tickets from kingsplace.com. Single ladies, it's coming to London.

True on Saturday, the 13th of September. At the London Podcast Festival. The rumours are true. Saturday the 13th of September. At King's Place. Oh, that sounds like a date to me, Harriet. dinner. But you're alone. Yes. Well then, that's that. I guess I won't eat. Goodbye. It's sleep for dinner again. Welcome to Noody Panic. I'm Stevie. I'm Tessa. And today we're joined in the studio by the

incredible author, chef, and now writer of her first ever novel. Oh, I think it's very horny. She's going to join us to talk about a to... It's what you say. I thought it's very horny. It's very horny. You're going to talk about a totally different topic about how to make dinner for one, which we are both very, very enthusiastic about learning because neither of us can do it. But first, I would like to tell everyone about your book. It's called Experienced. It's your very first

novel. It comes out on June the 6th, 2024, this year, so soon. This very soon. And has been described, it says it on the very back, the horniest, most romantic debut novel of 2024. Sold. Sold. Do you stand by it? Yes, of course. Yes, of course. I do have to.

Yes. I think contractually contractually. actually. That's what I was going for, yeah. Great. It's really, can I please. Tell us a bit about the book. So I spent six years

writing an incredibly sad gay novel about coming out in the past and about the war and about other horrible things. Doesn't sound very horny, no. Not very horny. Not very horny. Six years.

Six years. Wow. And just like in between other projects, not six years on the trot like every day going to. Sheffing and spacecraft. and then I gave it to my lovely agent and she was so charming and wonderful about it

but took me out for lunch and she was like, not this. She was just like, this is trying to be like 17 different things. Like maybe you could go in this direction or this direction, but it needs a lot of work and it would need this and it would need that. And I went home and I just went, well, I can never look at that again, obviously.

And so I'm going to try and write fiction once more, but I have to have the most amount of fun doing it. That's a great. And if I don't have fun, fun, then it was not worth it at all. Because at the end of it, I probably still won't get a publishing deal, but at least I will have had a good time. Wow. And so I just like kept imagining what would be the most fun scene to write. So the book was started because I was like, well, they're in a gay bar in Edinburgh on like a bachelorette night and they're dancing and then

Michelle Branches everywhere comes on and they snog. And I was like, great, perfect, that scene. And suddenly just started slotting in all these like pure fun scenes. So it is essentially about a woman who's in a relationship with a woman for the first time whose girlfriend goes, I think we should break up for three months so that you can go and get some more experience elsewhere so that you know that you actually want to be with me rather than just be a bit construct, essentially. And be in that first relationship with a woman and being like, well, this is the best thing ever. And obviously I'm in love with you and obviously this is it forever now. And so they go on a break for three months and Bet, who is the central character, goes out.

and goes on a bunch of dates and essentially is discovering bits of herself, figuring out what she likes, figuring out who she likes, and that is the premise of the book. Great premise. It's such an amazing, I mean, it's also an amazing book. It's got so many fun bits that happen on her big sexual odyssey. But it's such a gorgeous, like, we've got a clear time frame, we've got a clear quest. Let's go out of, meet some ladies. Like, it's gorgeous.

There's that one chapter in the middle that's just about the ball, war. Yeah, no, I kept that in because I thought that was really. great writing and I would have been mortified to lose it. But if you read to the end, you think, God, fuck me, that was excellent. What else has she got? Well, no novels yet, but a second novel. A second novel in the works. So hold your horses.

2026. While you wait, your back catalogue of the Little Library Cookbooks are out there, which are cookbooks, but inspired by food from literature. That is true. Just sort of the nicest thing you can possibly imagine. That's so good. There's the Little Library Cookbook. the little library cookbook, brackets Christmas.

Brackets Christmas. Brackets Christmas. Yeah. One about parties and one that takes you from like January to December and does a year of eating and reading. And if you aren't already like hard sold on Kate and how nice she is, you aren't already hard for that. Oh my God.

Like, that's all that. Sorry. Sliding off your chair with horn or any. I don't know about how nice Kate is. She arrived with a beautiful cake for a. everybody in the office, little slices of loaf wrapped in grease pepper and tied with an exquisite red and white little string.

You bloody love a string. I fucking love string. I fucking love string. Yeah. Fuck me. And we said, oh my God, where did you buy that? That's so beautiful. And she said, I made it. I made one for a slice forever on the office. I would be talking about that for 10 years. 10 years. And for you, said me gone. That's gone now. It's gone now. It's gone now into the ether.

She just placed on the table. That's a cake for everyone. Cake for four. Dinner for one. Dinner for one. Dinner for one. Nice. Because I said, do you want to come on and talk about your book and be so fun and nice and talk about chefing things or anything you want to talk about? And you were like, immediately, you were like, I want to do how to do dinner for one. I was like, absolutely. How did this come about? Where does this, this, this, this come from, this enthusiasm for dinner for one? So I suppose the way that this kind of links to the book is that I've been single for most of my life. And in my 20s, I thought that that was because I was picky and it's not. It's because I was gay and I was trying to date men. And so I'd go on a few dates with men and be like, yeah.

They're fine. That's a man. They're aesthetically pleasing and generally nice. I know lots of lovely men, but they just weren't worth sort of continuing romantic relationships with. And so I've done a lot of cooking for one. I've done cooking for one while I've lived with flatmates. I've done it in the years that I spent in a house when I was nannying after the kids would go to bed. And I've done it a lot since buying a flat in 2019. I now live on my own.

It's the dream. It's real nice. It's, it's like, you want to do the Tim Burton. The Tim Burton, Helenabon. I mean, they divorced then, of course. No, it didn't work, did it? Do you feel like you're in an or F-R novel every day, just being like, oh, I guess, I'm just a woman in the city? Well, so I don't live in the city.

I live in the country. I guess I'm a woman in the country. I'm a woman in the country. Great. So my, I'm going to throw this at you immediately. My issue, which I had last night, was when I was Stinifference, one? Yes.

I'm like, great. I'll bulk make. Yeah. Okay, good. Immediately, we are... I'm just trying to just listen, but no, instead of... You simply must interject at this point. I made...

I made an... I was like, well, I feel sick. And that is every time I make it dinner for. So you ate the whole... Yeah. So I made a lasagna for my friend and I was like, and I'll make a lasagna for the lady as well. Indeed.

I'm vegan and I needed vegan cheese. And I was like, I don't want to make a vegan one for my friend because that's... No one needs to resubjection. So, yes, made it, I was like, well, I can have this, and then I'll have it throughout the week. And I think it was like, it was like, this big. And I just kept going and I was like, I can't move. I've just eaten the whole thing.

Yes. And there's nothing wrong with that. But if you're consistently making dinner for five days and consistently eating five meals and one, that might hurt your stomach. You might just feel sick. You might just feel sick. So how do you do that? So I've had two major, like, lifestyles of cooking dinner on my own. Okay.

And one was when I worked in an office in a theatre. And one is as a freelancer who works from home. And they are worlds different experiences. Of course, because you've removed yourself from the source of the kitchen when you're at work. Yes. Whereas you've stayed there when you're at home. You stayed there when you're at home. But you also, when you're at work, you have to build in commuting time.

You have to build in the thing that you can't possibly start a recipe until 7 o'clock when you've commuted home and picked up ingredients on the way and done all of those things. much harder to cook an exciting meal every diet of the week if you are working in an office every day. Yeah, right. So it is bulk then. Well, so I used to do bulk in my 20s. So I did bulk and I'd take it for lunch and I'd eat it for dinner and I was so bored and I hated it. And the thing that I have come up with in like doing that and in hating it is bulk bits and not bulk meals. This is great. Bulk bits. Another inhale of breath for bulk bits. And so my like primary thing is that if I'm going to eat the same thing three days in a row, I'm going to be bored.

And particularly if I'm reheating something, I will actually, probably because I really enjoy it, eat the same noodle dish three nights in a row. I'll easily do that because I'll eat it on one night and be like, God, that was good. And I'll go back and bake it again the next night. Yeah, like from scratch, right? A recipe really works. There's something really great. There's a Hetty McKinnon recipe from a book called To Asia With Love. And it is a whole head of broccoli that you put in a pan and you cook until it's really charred.

And then you have noodles. And then there's a sauce that you make that's like tahini and crispy chili oil and water and a dash of soy sauce. And you just mix all of that together. I mean, that sounds great. It's so achievable. It's such like an accessible recipe. It has a bit of coriander on the top if you like and some spring onions. It's so good and I probably eat it two or three nights a week.

Yeah. Because it is just like it takes 15 minutes quite literally, which people say and is never actually true. It's delicious. It's so easy. And it's like I've eaten a whole head of broccoli and I feel like God. Yeah. That's a lot of greens. I feel great for the greens.

Okay. So that sort of thing, great, I will eat in a row. But if I have cooked something on Monday and I am reheating it on Friday, I am devastated by that. It's so depressing. It really is. And so instead of doing. that I started like putting stuff in my fridge and freezer that felt like a like shortcut to a dinner, but not a dinner in its entirety.

Okay. Interesting. So an example would be, and this is going to sound a bit fancy and ridiculous, but braised celery. Jesus Christ. So it's like it's had two words that I've never heard together before. So I don't know what the word braised mean. No, I don't know what salaried is. Braised is really easy.

The phrase just means a slow cooking oil, like slow cook under oil. Okay. When you say under oil, how's it got under the oil? It's quite a lot of oil. Are we frying it in a pan? No. It's like slow, slow cook. So you're not fry, you don't ever hear a sizzle.

In a little saucepan on the lowest heat, you just like gently simmer away. You're not frying to a point that you're hearing it. Like 40 minutes. Jesus fucking Christ. I don't know. Anything could go for that long on the hob. This is the thing. So this is the thing where I'm like, I appreciate that this may not be everyone's idea of

like easy cooking. Because it's not 15 minutes. You can't stick a celery and boil from it. So it is just celery cut into batons, just in a pan, some onion, some garlic. You fry that in a bit of oil to start with. And then a tin of tomatoes and then some nice olive oil. And then you put the celery in with a little bit of water to top up so that it's sitting over the top of the celery.

And then you just leave it at the back of the hob. Wow. See, in my head, you had a saucepan of oil and celery in it. Me too. Genuinely. No, to be fair, I did explain it badly. No, that's great. But it is essentially like you have to add some flavour in otherwise.

When you're just having... It's under oil at the back. I was like, okay. It is under oil. Get him under oil at the back. But slow chips. I started that badly. No?

I've hopefully caught up with the flavour. Yes. Yes. Okay. But something like that is great on toast. Okay. Like with a boiled egg, if you're not vegan. It is great stirred through pasta.

Yes, of course. You're making like a base thing that you can create lots of things. Okay. It is great, like put with like courgettes that you've grilled. Oh, okay. It is great. It's like it's great stirred through. And well, maybe everyone has their own.

So I was just thinking then I was like pretty much every meal I have starts, the bases, garlic and onions and chopped tomatoes. Yes. And then I'll put like curry paste in it and it's a curry. Yeah. I'll put like mince in it and some red one. It's a bowl and a lot. And you can kind of like create.

Put some kidney beans. It's a chili. It's a chili. Oh my God. Yes. And so then actually, but I've never thought of it in that way. So I could bulk, my bulk bit could be doing a massive load of that. Sort of like a shit ragu for the start.

Yeah, totally. And then when I come back, I just add the seasoning and boil the rice. So all of my dinners could take 10 minutes. And it doesn't feel like it's the same dinner every night, crucially. Yes. The base is the shit ragu. The gravy. Yeah, exactly.

That's my personal one. Yours may be different. Do you have like a, do you have like a, do you have like, types of meals that you tend to have quite regularly. I'm such an incredibly poor cook, but then when I'm on my own, what do you eat when you're on your own? One mini egg, and then I go to bed. So no dinner because you've eaten through the day, or are you just constantly hungry?

Like, I would eat if somebody else had made it for me, but if it's me, I'm just like, oh, I don't want to go to all the fath, and then I have to watch everything. And then I'll just sit down, and it feels very like, sometimes when I'm on my own, I get a little bit, I'm in the movie, you know? Yeah. And so when you do anything that's a bit from the movies, showering, singing in the shower, you know, pouring glass of wine, I'm like a detective after a long day.

The camera's there. The camera's there, like, dancing, anything like that, you're like, oh, really saying a lot about my character, this bit, you know, this bit. So the cooking, that's a little bit, like, sitting down with the candle, I'm like, I hope the viewers are enjoying this, you know. So I'm not a very good cook and it feels like I waste doing it for myself. If I was very hungry, what I would make is pan pasta. It doesn't even make it to the bowl.

And it's just, it's Carbonara. It's not Carbonara. It's just Philadelphia cream cheese. Paster with cream cheese. And pasta with cream cheese. You've smashed dinner for what? I mean, that sounds fantastic. And peas.

Yeah, great. That's great. Because now there's green in there. Yeah, absolutely. This is the thing. My other thing was have frozen peas in your freezer. Frozen veg, man. Yeah.

Frozen veg is so good. Yeah. And it doesn't go off in the same way. that veg in your fridge does where if you are a person, because this is the difference, I think. So you don't live on your own. Right. I understand with my boyfriend. Yes.

Yes. And I think that there is a statistic that says that about half the meals in this country are eaten for one. Gosh. When somebody's on their own. And that's a lot. Yeah. And I also think that we have a terrible image of that in our heads.

About half the meals of all meals. Yeah. Wow. And that obviously like that probably is including lunch. that people go out and have on their own. You know, this is not dinners, this is meals, but there are a lot of single person households in this country, like a lot, particularly with an older population,

but also an increasing number of young people who are living on their own as well. And I think the image that we have of it is that it's quite sad. Yeah. That it's sad to cook and eat on your own. And if I was sadding every time I cook an ate on my own, I'd be sad like a lot of the times. I live on my own.

I don't live on my own. and yet, because of just schedules and stuff, like, I tend to eat quite a lot sometimes. Like, there's definitely like two, three nights a week that I'm eating on my own. Yeah. But I thought that was a very interesting thing, Tessa, that you were like, you prefaced it with like, I'm not very good at it. Like, I don't really, like, and then you described a meal that was actually great. Well, I really was like, oh, you're both, you're going to say, like, you can't just. Of course you can.

That sounds great. Yeah, cream cheese pasta. Bulk making our bits. Our bits are personal to each person. And my other bits are like, I always have. pickles. So I love pickles. And pickles are so easy to make. They're all so easy to buy. Okay. But the thing I always have in my fridge's corgette pickle is my favorite kind of pickle. And all you need to do is boil together vinegar, sugar, salt and some spices and pour that over sliced

corsette. Oh, that's it. That's it. That's a pickle. The way that we have in our heads that pickling is, is that you have to like can it and boil it and it has to survive for a year and it has to do this. And like, That is one kind of pickling, but the other kind of pickling is, I'm going to eat this in the next two weeks or three weeks or whatever. And it will last for three weeks. And it's not. Right. Exactly. Because both vinegar and sugar and salt, all three of those prevent the growth of bacteria. So they are all preserving agents. And so if you haven't sealed it properly, it's not going to last for a year because stuff will climb in there and it will not go well long term. Right. If you've sealed it properly, a jam or a pickle or whatever can last for years and years, which is why all the things that are left at the end of a, you know, a dystopian novel. Right.

Right. Yeah. Cockroaches and pickles. Right. Because they are perfectly sealed and they're sort of able to last anything. But a one that's just regularly in your fridge in a topware or a box or whatever will last you for weeks. Great. And that's another thing where you're just like, oh, I am just having some toast with peanut butter. and suddenly if you put a load of cochette pickles on it, it's basically a dinner.

The in taking of breath on this episode. I know. Okay. And then my other one is like shredded pickled pickled cabbage. So just like shred up a whole cabbage and squeeze it together with lemon or lime or vinegar. So literally with your hands. So shred it up finely. Put it all in a bowl and then pour some acid onto it.

Okay. Big pinch of salt onto it. And then get your hands in there and squeeze it. And it will go from like hard, nothing is happening. Okay. To soft enough to eat. Ooh. And delicious.

And suddenly that, like a big pile of that on the side of like some rice and an egg is dinner. Of course. And that can just stay in the fridge. That's your bulk bit. Yeah, that's another bulk bit. Jesus. So it's just like a fridge full of like bits. And how long will my soft cabbage last me now?

How long will my soft cabbage last? I eat it fast, but it's always lasted like at least a week. A week. Great. Okay. Okay. And that's a whole cabbage. Yeah. Green cabbage, lemon acid. We're squeezing. We're squeezing. We're making. We're eating. Yeah, this is good. It's also delicious with like oregano put through it. Or like another dried herb. Something else. Delicious. Why is a hergano? A herb. Like basil. So, Italian. Oregono is often used in Italian foods. Also really good in Mexican food. So I most often use it when I'm making that sort of cabbage for tacos. Oh, shit. Okay. God. So that sort of cabbage, like a pile of.

of that on a quesadier that you make in five minutes after work is suddenly a meal. Well, this is the thing I was going to say like, yeah, examples of like just really, like your cheese through a pasta thing. A cassidia is a really good thing. Oh, so good. Because it's just tortilla frying pan cheese and then something that you want to put in it. Something you want to put in it. Maybe a bean, maybe a, yeah, exactly.

I've seen there refried beans and just cheese and then you just fold it over and you do that. And that's there. It takes literally four seconds. And you can get refried beans out of a can. Very nice. Yeah. Yeah. And they're fantastic.

And like, like. There are some really great brands of refribeen. Oh, yeah, you can be better than old Al Paso maybe. But all that old El Paso, grew up on it. It's fantastic. It is lovely. But yeah, it's that sort of thing. If you suddenly put some cabbage beside that, that's like a whole meal rather than a snack.

Gourmet. But with the dinner for one thing, do you feel that it's like, basically to try to get that balance between, don't feel sad, like, or just that, you're not worth it. Like, throwing just one little extra, like, spring onions on this. Programme Dex, just something that will make you feel like you're making some sort of effort without having the candle and you're being watched by the viewers. Yes. I also think that my version of that I do most often is opening a snack bag of crisps and putting them in a bowl.

Like in the TV, they always have a bowl. If I just have a bowl with some crisps in it, it's not me eating crisps out of a bag. Of course. It's me sitting down at the end of a workday and having a small bowl. well of crisps and a beer. Yeah. And I started that during the pandemic and I've not stopped. That's really elegant.

That's really smart. It's a nice little... And I think to a degree, I did... I flirted. I flirted with that. Sure. I did. Until I had to be like,

I think you have a crisps problem. No, I... I think if you read my novel, you will understand. My only language is crisps. I would say, crisps come up so often, so quick. And like, is even when she first starts dating, she puts as her, like, her buyer of like the way of the way to

my heart is criss and then like they they there's so many bits from you of like really clarifying which crisps they're eating or which thing oh yeah there's so much crisp detail so i think i think i have a crisp problem and i think they're going in the bowl makes you be like gosh that's a lot of crisps and then when you can you actually see them and be like good lord so then when you finish the bowl you think that was a lot of crisps whereas when they're just coming out of the bag they're coming from nowhere they've gone what a shame what is it's it when they're We'll never know how many. We'll never know.

I can probably have another. Whereas when you've looked upon yourself, you've seen it in the bowl. There they are. You've gazed upon yourself. Yes, you've gazed upon yourself. You've had to reckon with it. And there they were in the bowl.

I find that with them, I was living alone for like a month. My partner went away for work. And it was in that period of time where girl dinner was that big trend of things. I wasn't even really on TikTok. People just kept going like, girl dinner.

I was like, what the fuck you're talking about? It really permeated into every. Just for like three days. I know. And then it became like, oh, look at like, I've got one carrot. You're like, okay, now we've gone into a weird sort of vibe. But like, it is all, that is what, but then the most annoying thing about it is that when I'm alone,

that is quite clearly what I do. And while I'm deciding what to eat, I'm just like, oh, I'll just put a little, a little picky tea, but just tea. And I'm like, I've eaten it all stood up by the fridge, like before I've made it. And now I've eaten too many of the ingredients to actually make for things. And then you had dinner.

And I'm full and I feel sick. And then I have dinner and I'm like, well, hang on, that was like two dinners, I suppose. But because it's bits, it doesn't feel satisfying like a meal. This is the thing. It's like a constant battle. I don't really know what I'm saying with it. It's more like, how can I make it bits feel like a meal?

That's what I'm asking. I think that's a really good question because you're so right. Like, there's a lot of meals that I have that are bits. Right. And that are sort of like, well, there's bits left over from other meals. Yes. There's bits that have gone back into the fridge that need to be used up. There's an awareness of like these things are not going to be nice if they're still here in three days.

And the food waste is making me feel guilty and weird. I hate food waste. And I didn't mean to. And now I'm back and I have to eat this food. And I think that like in terms of picky bits, it is hard to make that not feel like a school dinner or like a. Maybe it's about accepting that the picky bits will always feel like picky bits, but being like, this is my dinner. This is my dinner. But also I think there's a way of doing it to, I would, if I do it, I often make it into a rice bowl.

So I will make some rice And I will just put them around the rice bowl And suddenly it's a meal in a restaurant What is a picky bit if not a rice bowl? It's not a rice bowl, right? What are you putting a rice bowl? So just like, what do you mean? Does anything?

So like some rice? Like half a boiled egg. So some, basically. Some carrots and some hummus. Yeah. And then you go, well, I don't know, we've got some salad. And beside the rice. Sweet corn.

Yeah. Oh my God. At the end of a tin of sweet corn. And then I suppose if you've got, now I'm thinking about it, you've got any carb at all. Because, like, if you had bread, totally, if you've got a flat bread, you've suddenly got like... Got a thing and with dips.

Right, yeah. I think a carb is the key here. The carb is the key, because that's the thing that I've been doing wrong, where I've been like, there's an egg, there's like some dip, there's some carrots. I'm like, I don't know. That's not a meal. Put an egg on a carrot and dip it in something. I don't know.

That feels wrong. But actually, I've got bread and I haven't thought bread. Because you put anything on toast and then you're like, well, that feels fraudicosmorton. Yes. So, yeah, okay. Okay. The rice bowl. The rice bowl.

This genuinely feels. Or a grain bowl. Yeah. You can boil any sort of grain or whatever. What are you saying there? What is that? What do you mean? Boil a grain?

What are you saying? Like there's a, you know, a freaka or a... If you had quinoa, for example. The trickiest thing about cooking for one person is that supermarkets are not set up for it. Right. So, and I think that this is structural and societal and political and all of those things. But meat particularly is sold for families. It's sold in family-sized packs.

So, that's so weird, isn't it? Like, yeah. That you can't, I mean, they're when I was young. And I don't know about here because I didn't grow up here. But in Australia, you could go to the butcher in the supermarket and say, I'll have two of those sausages, please. And they would give you two sausages and you then have them in a bag and take them home. I'm surprised you can't do that.

I'm not, I don't eat meats. You can't do that. Do they say you have to have a family size of ours off the food? I think most supermarkets do not have the whole, they've got like a deli section now rather than a full butcher section. Oh, right. And mostly they are selling like big joints of meat. if they've got a butcher section.

I can't believe I missed. Right, we missed the end of that. And I didn't say goodbye. Yeah. And this is it. If there's a butcher on your way home, then obviously you can go into a butcher and still ask for that. I can't believe I didn't say goodbye to the butcher.

But yeah, we have farewelled that and you've missed it. I haven't thought about that since I was eight and you cued up and you got your little ticket and then you spoke to the butcher and you asked for the thing. Yep, flip, flip. Just for me, this is wild because I never did that. So you get a little ticket like a raffle. You get a little ticket and then they'd be like 64 and you go, yep, that's me.

And you come over and you'd be like, I'll just have two of those sausages and two of those sausages. And he had a big counter in front of him and he just got the meat or whatever. Or you could say like, could I have 100 grams of that ham? Yeah, a hundred grams of the ham instead of whatever's coming in a pack of it. Right, exactly. In a decade. Sorry, so now is it that it's just that you've only got given what the aisle has. So I would say taken away the in the live butcher.

I would say that oftentimes there is still the option to have ham because, because there's still sometimes the deli section. And it depends on your seat market, though. Yeah, there's sometimes a person there flipping and doing the thing and measuring out cheese and ham and things like that. But I would say it's less common now with meat. Makes it harder, as you were saying, to make dinner for one. Yeah.

Well, and I think that it just means that you have to be a bit more organized or prepared or flexibly in how you do that. So this is the thing about being a freelancer is that I can make my little walkout in the day to get my coffee and two sausages from the butcher is a possible thing I can do because the butcher is still open. I have not missed those hours because of my commuting.

I have not had to figure out where to store meat on my lunch break at work. Oh my God. I forgot that stuff. Coming in and like, here she comes again. Here she comes again. Meat. Riddled with the stuff.

Yep. Sorry, who's put this on the second shelf? This is the communal shelf actually. So no live meat. Yeah. No live meat. Live meat. So yes.

So I think that it, obviously I am now in the privileged position of being able to go and shop in a butcher. But if I'm shopping in a supermarket, I will simply use half a pack, freeze half a pack, do all of those things. And it is fine to do that. But certainly, financially, the setup is the expectation is that you are cooking for more than one person. And we know that that's often not true. So it is, I just want to acknowledge the unfairness of that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's so psychological.

It's almost like how to make a dinner for one is like, I suppose. Here's six sausages. Yeah, they get great. I suppose I'm having just the sausage man now. There's a very funny tweet that I really liked which was like having two eggs. I like eggs, having three eggs. I'm the egg man. I really like. It is that though. Yeah. That's what it feels like. But the, so yeah, but it is like obviously practically, everyone sort of probably practically knows how to make a dinner for one. That's not actually the hurdle. Of course not. It's all psychological. I really like the bulk bits because that

sort of helps you with the psychological hurdle later on when you're like, well, I don't want to sit on Sunday just making a lasagna that I then eat every day. It gets slowly, it gets better and then it gets slowly worse. But having a thing being like, oh, great, what do I want? Well, I've already made the bulk of it. Yeah. It feels so much more doable. And also just I think, yeah, acknowledging that when you go to the supermarket, it might feel a bit overwhelming where you're like, sorry, do you have to buy an entire watermelon? I don't know why I went with watermelon. That's actually the one thing. you probably wouldn't eat for dinner. But like, actually my mom, she would have a melon and put cottage cheese in it and raisins.

It's like absolutely delicious. We used to have that as kids. Like things like that, which then she'd always go, oh, it's just a stupid. It's not a good meal. You're like, well, no, that's, I think you have to like back those meals. You have to back your cream cheese faster. And right, because then that will make you more likely to make it rather than be like, well, I don't know. I'm supposed to have this mini-eat.

I'm terrible cooking. I'm never good. Yeah. Oh, oh, I get to her. have my cream cheese pasta tonight. That's like because it's a legitimate meal. I think also like we're both saying about being like stocking the stuff. So like we've got a solid base to work from for like, oh, what shall I have today?

Rather than being like, what should I have today and open the fridge and be like nothing. Nothing. Never anything. And I have to shop today. I have to shop today and I have to begin the whole process. I mean like, I guess there's just one yakult. It's always one off yak on my fridge. And the amount of times I'm like, I guess it's the off yakult for me then, you know, and sleep for

that. Or takeaway. Or takeaway. Or takeaway. Which is never as good with one person because you're like, I can't have as many things as I would like. Yeah, of course.

It's so nice to order an Indian when you're like, there's five of us, I'm going to get to taste so many things. Yes, that's so true. No, for me, it's just financially crippling. You just do it anyway. I do all of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But then by day four, I'm bored.

Having a sort of easy relationship with stuff in the fridge that becomes dinner means that when you, I occasionally want to make a real effort when I'm cooking for myself. because I often make an effort when I'm cooking for other people. That feels like the effort thing. It's like somebody is coming for dinner. And I do this a lot because I cook a lot. So I know this sounds to people who maybe don't love to cook when other people come around.

You order delivery. I ordered delivery and then once made nachos and thought I was like a god of the world. And I bet everybody else did too. Yeah. They looked at the nachos. It's on brand. I've not had nachos in so long. This is so good.

Because I was a child. Yeah. And they enjoyed it, right? for people there. You've actually done proper meals. One time. Okay, right. So we are at the same. Then I had to like lie down by eight months. I was so stressed out to add.

I had a meal that you've made and I lost my god-down mind. I acknowledge that I am coming from a place of like the privilege of knowing how to cook and liking to cook. So obviously I am speaking to people listening who are like, okay, sure, there are bits in the fridge, but what if I want something really nice? Yeah. And I'm speaking exclusively to those people at the moment. when I say I do a lot of like, I'm going to have one thing that I wouldn't cook for loads of people.

So I would never cook steak for multiple people. Okay. Because it's really hard to have everybody's steak in the right cooked level at the right time in the right pan. So when I am having a steak, it is my dinner for one. The perfect dinner for one. The perfect dinner for one is steak. And then it's secret private steak, which is very nice to have a secret steak. And steak is not that hard and you can buy hollandaise in a jar and you can like make it fancy or you can make it not fancy. like oven fries and a steak and a hollandaise from a jar is a fantastic meal.

Oh yeah. But also it's really nice to like put a steak on noodles and have a lovely soy dressing and like there's loads of varieties of steak. I love steak. Anyway. That's such a nice thing to be like, this is the thing I make that and I don't make it for other people. I don't make it for other people. And not because it's a shameful dish. No, no, no. But because I'm like, well, no. Actually, I like, I know how I like my steak cooked. I don't really want to be cooking other people's steak. I love to cook my own steak. And the other thing I do that with is clams

Which is my favourite food A spaghetti von Gle is my favourite dish That's great And clams are expensive Yeah, that's a lot of clams Right, and I'm never going to buy clams for six people coming for dinner Because that's like

The glass stealing on the clams is money, not the stomach Not the stomach, indeed The glass ceiling on the clams is the money Yeah And all that's holding us back here Is money Finance. Yes.

And so that is a thing I will make a fungloat on my own. Or I will have like, go and get really nice picked crab meat and I will have crab on toast. And so there's these like things that I will do that I will only do and it's just me eating on my own and that I rarely do for anybody else. Because it feels like my special thing that I do for me. I have one. Can I say me? Yes. It's not as good as clams. So when I realized that like it's to sell their broth in a carton. So I bought like five of them

And then when I I'm eating or eating alone I just have the broth and then noodles and then whatever veg is in the thing And sometimes in heck in it Picky bits It's delicious But it's all in one ball

Picky bits in one bowl I've made A noodle soup Did you get the Do you keep the broth in? You can keep it yeah Yeah Yeah

Like in a can in a pot It's in like an almost like a juice carton Oh nice I know what you mean Sealed yeah Like a little tetra back Yeah and you can also of course buy it from Ittsu but like they're in Tesco and it's it's really nice great oh okay yeah yeah a little

ramen because I always tried to do like myself like me so and it was always like this just tastes wrong it doesn't taste like the one in it too and it's like I'll just buy that one like fuck it and that's it and you're then most of the way to dinner and it will taste different every night yeah this is true like because you'll put different stuff in it so it's like the short cut has been just repeating you did like three in a row that it's like very good the first one was like that's charming And the second I was like, is she okay? And she's very moved by the life. He was in the fridge.

Just very moved by the idea of the whole experience. Because I'm so sorry, I interrupt you by whispering everything you were saying. But I think that's it. You know, it's just making it different enough, but having those staple things that are going to make, you know, are going to make cooking easier. Yeah. And sometimes you can buy those, which is the stock. Right. Which is this broth, you know, you don't have to raise salient.

You don't have to praise that. Also, if you're thinking like, oh, I can't get the it's a thing, you just get miso soup packets as well. That's really easy and nice and that can go with egg too. Definitely. And those will keep, those feel like cockroaches and the miso packets. They totally. I had one the other day that was in the bottom of my drawer and had definitely, technically, four years expired. It was still delicious.

Great. And if not, cleans you right out. Either way or win. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I'm going to really have a little rethink. Yeah, you can't. Thanks, I will.

Just like useful things you can keep in your friends. And this is the thing. There's no like definitive list because it's so taste dependent. And the joy of cooking for yourself is only your taste matters. You're not cooking for somebody else. You're not doing a thing where you're like, oh, I have to accommodate because that person I love is allergic to this or can't have this or whatever. You are in the meals you're cooking for yourself, only your opinion, only your taste, only your desire matters. There was just that famous book in the 70s wasn't that?

It was like microwave meals for Worming. meals for one. Yes. And it became this sort of shorthand for like the saddest possible existence. But actually like I, it's not. Read Laurie Colwyn instead. Read home cooking and read about cooking in your inner tiny New York flat instead. Yeah, that's a wonderful.

Yeah, that it's a cool empowering like what should I have? Yeah. What exactly do I want? No one can tell me anything. I'm an adult. Also, if you're on your own, you can make chocolate mug cake. Yes, you can. In the microwave, which is I went through about three years of having that every single

line. I had to pull back because it was like, I'm actually like, I've got it perfect. In fact, I haven't had in a while. But yeah, it's real, that's good. And then you can't make that for other people because they're like, what are you doing? Actually, you probably can.

You probably can. That would quite cool at the end of a dinner party. To bring out a mug for everyone. Oh, well, people would lose their minds. People would lose their minds. All right. A mud cake party. That's been upgraded.

Natchos and then a mug cake. It's not bad is it? It's not bad. It's not bad. People just love being cooked for. Yeah. Like, nobody is judging you the way that you think they are. That's true.

No one is ever coming to do. dinner and being like, huh, she's not got clams. No one is thinking that. People are just like, oh my God, thank you so much for dinner. Thank you. That was so lovely. Yeah. It's just so nice not to have to cook yourself.

It's a nice episode about how great it is to cook for yourself. It's also sometimes really nice to go around someone else's house. Don't ever worry. People are, well, you are on TV sometimes, but you're on TV every time you eat. No, you can just eat. I've always like, no, I'm not actually. No, I know. I know exactly.

what you mean, I do the same thing. I'll just am out myself and be like, oh yes, this is the scene where I'm like, let's just fucking eat it. Just live. Just sometimes can't feel like so performative like taking, you know, doing those little bits. You're like, and you're like, okay. It is performative. I guess I'm doing this nice thing for myself making my special stick and my broth and my bits.

Yeah. And I'm wearing a silk dressing gown and what of it? And what of it? Fuck you of it. Yeah. Yes. Well, that was wonderful. I feel very inspired.

I do. I feel really, I feel really inspired. I thought it was going to be some very. I knew you were going to be lovely, and I thought it was going to be some extremely helpful. Like, if you do this, you can cut these corners. Like, this is how, you know, I thought there's going to be a lot of, like, bulk. Bulk. People who live alone get told to bulk cook a lot, and I hate it.

It makes me sad. Yeah. Bulk bits, I think, has changed my life. I'm going to think about that. A lot bit's not bulk meals. Yeah. Bulk bits, not buck milk. A big tray of even the best lasagna in the world is going to taste sad by day five.

It really is. Oh, yeah. The best lasagna you've ever made, you don't want it five days in a row. No, no, no, no. And then you're just walking home being like, lasagna again. Yeah. What's the point of the day? Yeah, what a depressing thought to be resent to your lasagna.

No. Oh, that's too short. Yeah, and I also thought you were going to say a lot about like meal planning or like knowing what you were going to have on this day. I'm quite bad at meal planning as well. You're bad. Because I don't do it because my, what I want, the joy of this is like what I feel like eating tonight. Well, that's exactly it. I thought you were going to tell us to do these things.

I was like, and I'll nod politely. Not politely. I'll be like, well done, Kate. I can't do it. But it's actually you're being like, clams. Yeah, that is true. Voble.

Boble. Bole. Rubble lettuce. Squeeze a cabbage. Squeeze a cabbage. Reader cabbage. Every rubber lattice. That would be terrible.

Squeeze a cabbage. Yeah. Get that acid on it. Oh, yeah. Get that acid on it. What was the amazing broccoli thing from the beginning? Oh, the Hetty McKinnon. So the book is called To Asia with Love.

and I will in fact I can send it to you and then that would be wonderful we'll put it in the link and we'll put a link to all Kate's books and sorry we'd ask a question about that whole head of broccoli have I boiled it first?

No, just straight in a hot pan with some oil and it just chars up as it is compact Oh sorry no cut it up into bits Cut it up Cut it into florets Like yeah cut it up and to bits

Burn one bit One bit of it's like Okay I can see what we went wrong Just put my head of broccoli on my on my noodles and it's not great. That's what I was going to do. It's so big. Sorry. Cut up the broccoli.

Yes. And then just into a pan dry. You're drying. A little bit of oil. A little bit of oil. I use sesame oil because it's delicious. Okay. And then it gives us a sort of Asian flair.

Well, and it is going with noodles that have. Famously. With the sauce that has the tahini and the chili oil and a bit of sesame oil and a bit of soy sauce. Wow. Thank you so much. I was so excited. This was so, so nice. Kate, thank you so much for being here.

If you would like more of Kate, and who wouldn't? Experience the book. The horniest book in town. I can't believe this is going to be the next month of my life. I don't think any other people are going to really zone in on it this much on your press talk. When I very quietly was like, I'll just write a book that's really fun. I never thought about having to have the sex scenes out there. Having to repeatedly explain the whole situation.

It's good. It's really fun. Nice to listen. It's a good book, guys. The horniest book in town is out on the 6th of June, 2024, this year. And Kate's other amazing work, the Little Library Cookbook Collection. Collection. Christmas. Parties. Year. The year. And the classic, the original. The OG. Are in any good bookshops. And there is also her amazing anthology collection with Ella Risbridger. It's chunky. It's chunky. It's a big, beautiful book. which is an anthology of a collection of their favorite writers and chefs and cookbook writers

writing about their favorite foods and there is poetry and pieces and fiction and nonfiction or bits. Fictions and nonfiction. Recipes, bits. That sounds excellent. Writing in any good bookstore. Yes, that's true. The sausages are in any good butchers. But, you know. The broccoli is already in your fridge.

The broccoli is in your fridge and you didn't know what to do with it. You could do this for dinner tonight. We're doing it. We're doing it. Thank you so, so much for coming in. you guys. And thank you for listening and we'll see you next week. Goodbye.