Without the benefit of long trips to remind me to deal with ingredients lurking in the freezer, declared this week to be Tip-the-Freezer week. Tonight: pot pie with fresh pea pods, next in line for the wok. I previously prepared the pie filling in the wok
Category: Home Living
Annual Thumb Drive Ritual
Backed up all our files to an encrypted thumb drive which we’ll keep for ever. Files are backed up continuously, but I like to create a full snapshot of the data every now and then.
Adding Smarts to a Ceiling Fan
Added smarts to the ceiling fan over our bed. We can now control it from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection, solving a problem we didn’t have. More likely use cases include: control it by voice from bed, and turn it off automatically when when we leave our home.
Rice
Tonight I’m making one-pot comfort food: chicken and brown rice. I rarely stray from these three types of rice when cooking: sushi, Arborio, and short-grain brown.
Tax Time Together
Started entering data for our first joint tax return.
Thai Eggplant
This weekend I’m cooking with ingredients I’ve never used before. Today: Thai eggplant. Tomorrow: oxtail.
Gai Lan
Picked up gai lan, Chinese broccoli, from an Asian supermarket. My new favorite vegetable has a stronger, slightly more bitter taste than regular broccoli. We stir-fry the stalks for a while, then add the rest. We might include garlic, fresh ginger, sugar, shoyu, and fish sauce.
Paperless Valentine’s Day
Went paperless: pulled together photos from previous Valentine’s Days, including these cards from 2016, to display on our kitchen assistant.
The Last Incandescent Bulb
With a high of -4°F, stayed in, continued my home energy review. All our lights are LED… except this holdout in the clothes dryer. Decided to keep the 10 watt incandescent bulb because it’s only on for a few minutes per week. Besides, it lets me healthily embrace imperfection.
Three Weeks of Groceries
Stocked up at Wedge Co-op. We’ll be back for another cart-load in three weeks.