Paella Journeys

I’m making paella for dinner with Dwight’s sister, a reminder of shared experiences in Nerja, Spain. We enjoyed paella cooked over an open fire of burning pallets in a restaurant by the beach. I’ve just made the sofritos base (in the pan) which fills our home with wonderful aromas.

Gluten-Free, Lactose-Free, Calorie-Dense

Made cookies and cream froyo with lactose-free yogurt and gluten-free Oreos. It came out creamy, thanks to the yogurt, which I had strained through cheesecloth for a couple of hours. Sugar, salt (a pinch), vanilla essence, and a tablespoon of rum all lowered the freezing point.

Categorized as Cook

Decluttering Our Travel Tech

Emptied out our bulging travel tech box, Marie Kondo-style. Discarded half the contents, including earphones dating back to Continental Airlines and a GPS from 2001. Thanked the GPS for its service, but it was time to let it go. Retained the phone as a backup for solo travel.

When Tech Says “No”

I’ve now replaced all of our smoke detectors, including this one in the kitchen that also detects carbon monoxide. They’re connected to the Internet and Google Home, but I can’t silence false alarms with a voice command like “Hey Google, STFU” because UL standards disallow that.

A Noisy Welcome Home

A loudly beeping smoke detector greeted us when we arrived home. We had replaced the batteries in all our detectors in the past year, and they’re hardwired. We disconnected the offending detector and will replace all the detectors with ones that have ten-year rechargeable batteries.

Death of a Dial Tone

Our VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) adapter decided to brick itself, and no amount of coaxing could bring it back to life. It had saved us a bundle on phone calls over the past 11 years but it was time to order a new adapter.

Categorized as IT

A Taste of Summer

Tonight, we’re having sweet corn. Good local sweet corn has been in short supply this year because of the dry weather, but a friend picked up a supply at the farmers market and passed it on to me. We’ll cook all of it, and shuck what we don’t eat tonight for a salad or wrap another day.

Goodnight Minneapolis

Bedtime. I hadn’t taken my photo of the day yet, so here it is. Except when there’s a full moon, we keep the blinds half open. If I get up in the night I like to catch a glimpse of the city.

Mitigating Risk

Tethered the shelving I set up last week to a wall bracket screwed into a stud. The tether is designed to prevent furniture tipping over in an earthquake. We don’t have earthquakes, but if someone falls and grabs on, they won’t end up with the shelves on top of them.

Categorized as DIY

Sausage Saturday Shopping

On my bike ride, picked up the missing ingredients for Sausage Saturday: Ukrainian sausage from Kramarczuk’s, crusty bread from Surdyk’s, and over-packaged baby kale from Lunds and Byerlys.

Categorized as Cook