On our Sunday morning walk, we spotted furniture set up on the substructure of the 10th Avenue Bridge: unexpected, possibly art, and an expense for the city to remove. This afternoon, we relocated a watercolor from another room and adjusted the placement of these Craftsman pieces. Much like the morning’s installation, our arrangement is essentially decorative.
Category: Home Living
Testing the limits of AI in the Global Foods aisle
I wandered the aisles of Whole Foods seeking a jar of preserved lemons for a cod recipe Dwight found in Cook’s Illustrated. “A bit posh,” I thought, but played along. When I suggested he make them himself, it was clearly a bridge too far. A Google AI search identified the Global Foods aisle as a possibility, but the shelf was empty. Fortunately, a nearby stocker reached into the dark recesses of the shelf and pulled out the final jar.
Scenes from a Sunday morning walk
As planned, I crossed the Hennepin Avenue Bridge while Dwight continued to Plymouth Avenue; I’m not yet firing on all cylinders. Picked up peaches at Trader’s for a chicken dish Dwight’s planning. Emptied our almost empty mail box: flyers for County Attorney in the upcoming primary convey the importance of this role against a vindictive federal government.
Minimizing visits to Urgent Care
Arrived today: silicone food containers. Excruciating pain from a tiny shard of glass embedded in my foot from our old glass set brought me to Urgent Care twice. Although these containers are expensive, I don’t expect them to generate any Urgent Care copays. They’re oven-safe to 450°F, so I’ll just need to watch out for burns instead.
Eliminating trial and error with a dynamic breaker map
Mapped circuit breakers to outlets, appliances, and lights on a floor plan, then added a QR code to the breaker box linking to it. There are a few orphan outlets left to figure out, but adding them to the digital plan later means I won’t need to update the physical QR code.
The real thing
A bag of rice arrived today, grown in Niigata, Japan. Because Japan exports very little of its crop, I had to specially order it. In a traditional multi-course meal, plain rice is served just before dessert to be enjoyed entirely on its own. Adding soy sauce is considered rude. Having failed to replicate that perfect glossy texture and subtle flavor at home, I’m finally going to try cooking the real thing.
How I spent my afternoon
Came home to a tripped breaker cutting power to several lights and outlets, including the balcony. Workers had just applied a base finish to our balcony concrete that morning. The project manager was cooperative, and we agreed to wait until the finish dried. Armed with a multimeter and screwdriver I tried to isolate the problem, but no luck. Eventually, the problem resolved itself. Power washing must have penetrated the outdoor outlet, causing enough ground leakage to trip the modern AFCI breaker.
Reflections on sausage and cabbage
Dwight headed down to the weight room, which gave me an opportunity to cook up a surprise for dinner. For one week only, it’s Sausage Sunday (as opposed to Sausage Saturday). No surprises there: it’s a variation on a sausage and cabbage theme. Here it is, reflecting in a slow oven for about 2½ hours, hopefully undergoing a magical transformation.
Focaccia Friday
We subscribe to the bi-monthly Cook’s Illustrated from America’s Test Kitchen because we like its analytical approach to cooking. Recently, Dwight has vowed to try one new recipe per month from the magazine, something I strongly encourage. Already, his banana bread and biscotti are the best; today, it was the turn of focaccia, hopefully a new Friday tradition.
Building a pot of joy
Coastal Seafoods is probably the best seafood store in the Twin Cities, and it was conveniently on my walk home from my gig at the library this morning. Tonight’s menu: seafood stew with cod, halibut, peppers, onion, garlic, potatoes, tomatoes, saffron, coconut milk, squeezes of lime, and anything else I can think of to round it out.