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today was a hot day, but without the humidity, it was actually kind of pleasant. there was even a cool gentle breeze. i made 3 separate bike runs: in the morning to the cafe to find a bigger box for frances' norwegian shipment; in the afternoon on a grocery run to get some ingredients for making mexican chicken soup for dinner (also to the indian store to pick up a jar of coriander chutney); and finally back to market basket because i forgot the can of chipotle peppers (star market did have them, but i should've walked to the brazilian supermarket nearby, they might be fully goya stocked).

turns out i didn't need the bigger box after all because i managed to fit everything into a simple cube box. most of it was clothes and they're easy to compact. i was all ready to ship it out but had the foresight to check the package listings one more time; that's when i realized i was still missing a pair of shoes. the shoes (plus an additional order of some bottles) will require the bigger box, unless i can fold the clothes even smaller.

i made some scrambled eggs with scallions and feta cheese and chorizo. originally it was supposed to be an omelette but i thought it'd be easier if i just mixed everything up. this was feta cheese that i accidentally bought back in april, and had been sitting in my parents' fridge for the past 3 months. it'd never been opened but was way past the expiration date. it looked okay though, no molds, and tasted fine. i washed it all down with a smoothie that had the additional ingredient of leftover garden raspberries.

is there a banana shortage i don't know about? because there was none at market basket. it wasn't even like the racks were bare; they were just gone, replaced by summer squashes (which are a poor substitute for bananas). maybe they put them somewhere else and i just didn't see them. i hate it when supermarkets move things around! i still haven't gotten over the fact that the nuts are now hidden by the ice creams.

nothing like slaving away in the kitchen on a hot day. i should've just had ice cream for dinner instead. mexican chicken soup is more of a winter dish. it's also kind of spicy, which makes me sweat even more. the original recipe calls for hominy, which to this day i have no idea where i can buy that. trader joe's? because i don't see it in my normal supermarkets. i use israeli pearl couscous instead, which isn't really couscous but actually just tiny pasta balls. they have a tendency to soak up the liquids so all my leftovers are more like hearty gumbo than soup. i also didn't get any cilantro, so i added some cilantro/coriander chutney instead. not really the same because the chutney has a tart flavor as well. so i basically made this israeli-mexican-indian soup for dinner. tasted pretty good, i had 2 bowls of it, with enough leftover for the rest of the week.