i went to the porter square post office to ship out my pixel 6 for google trade-in. i meant to do it earlier, otherwise i'm stuck with paying for both the pixel 6 and pixel 7 on my next credit card statement, but never got around to it until now. after factory reseting the phone, i packaged it in the return label box, making sure i got a receipt in the process.
after the post office i rode down somerville avenue to market basket for some groceries. i decided to make chicken pot pie for dinner, seems like the last time i made it was almost 6 years ago. i ended up buying all the ingredients, the only thing i had in the house for the recipe was butter and flour. i returned home a bit before noontime.
i made a kielbasa egg bagel sandwich for lunch. since i had plenty of milk, i also made a matcha latte, the one this season. there was a period last winter season where i drank one every morning, but when i went searching, i couldn't find the recipe, and i couldn't remember how i made it. so i improvised. i warmed up about a 2/3 glass of whole milk in the microwave for one minute. i dissolved the matcha powder (about 1-1/2 tsp) in a small amount of hot water first, using my electric milk frother. i then poured the dissolved matcha into the hot milk. i didn't have regular honey so i added a teaspoon of hot honey.
around 3pm i started making my sichuan chili oil, after consulting various online recipes and youtube videos. here's my recipe:
| sichuan chili oil (4 half pint jars) | |
|
3 cups canola oil
3 tbsp sichuan peppercorn |
1 piece of ginger, crushed 5 garlic cloves, crushed 3 pieces of scallions 1/2 onion, chopped
1 cup sichuan pepper flakes 2 tbsp sesame, toasted |
| heat fresh ingredients in oil (to prevent splattering). once boiling, add dry ingredients and reduce to simmer at 225-250°F for 1 hour. meanwhile toast sesame seeds in dry pan until golden brown. scoop out ingredients from oil, continue to heat. add pepper flakes, salt, and sesame seeds to heat resistant bowl. once oil climbs to 300°, scoop out a bit to mix with pepper flakes to prevent scorching. pour the remaining oil through a sieve to catch any leftover spices. once chili oil is cool enough to touch, spoon into jars for storage. | |
i added the cardamon just because i had it. i wasn't going to add the coriander seeds but saw a recipe that had it so i decided to add it as well. i heated the fresh ingredients in the oil first, to prevent splattering. once it started boiling, i added the remaining dry spice ingredients, then lowered the temperature so it was simmering at 225°F (using an infrared thermometer to take the temperature). i left it simmering for an hour.
when i came back, i scooped out the vegetables and spices from the oil (as much as i could anyway), then left the oil to continue heating until it reached 300° and i could see a bit of smoke. i then poured about 1/3 of the oil into the chili peppers. i reach that if you "preheat" the peppers, it doesn't scorch. it did fizzle a little bit but not too much. i then poured the rest of the infused oil through a strainer to catch any remaining spice debris. the second pour it didn't fizzle anymore, even though the oil was still plenty hot. i was a little disappointed, if i make chili oil again, next time i'm just going to pour the whole pot of oil all at once to get the maximum fizzle.
i left the chili oil to cool, adding the sesame seeds i toasted earlier (i forgot to add it beforehand). after a few hours i came back and scooped the oil into half quart mason jars. there was just enough chili oil to fill 3 jars and almost a 4th jar. i tasted some of the leftover oil in the bowl. it was flavorful, but i won't know for certain until i use the chili oil, like a dipping sauce for dumplings. chili oil surprisingly enough is actually not that spicy, not compared to an actual hot sauce.
while i was making my sichuan chili oil, the world cup match between croatia and argentina was happening. when messi scored in a penalty kick at the 34 minute mark, argentina was in a good position to win. when i caught the game a few minutes later, argentina was up 2-0. when they went up 3-0 in the second half, the game was basically over by that point. croatia never did score a goal, as argentina advanced to the world cup finals on sunday. tomorrow it's morocco versus france. i'm rooting for morocco.
in the early evening i started doing the survey for the federal grant my parents signed up for back in 2021. the survey is due thursday. i'm sure not sure what expenses qualify, as they said nothing about operating cost. we upgraded some equipment last year, but i'm not sure if they qualify now. once i tallied up the numbers, we were still missing about a third of the expenses. i need to collect some more receipts and invoices to reach the grand total.
| chicken pot pie (3-6 servings) | |
|
1 lb. chicken breast (approx. 2 breasts), shredded 1 cup frozen vegetables 1 baking potato, peeled, cubed
5 tbsp butter |
1 can chicken broth 1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 tsp salt 2 readymade pie crusts |
| preheat oven to 425°F. boil chicken breast, frozen vegetables, and potato for 15 minutes. while that's happening, prepare the pie filling: melt 5 tbsp of butter with onion, then add flour to thicken. add broth and milk gradually to mixture, to keep hot. add salt and pepper to taste. drain boiled chicken and vegetables. remove chicken and shred. add chicken and vegetables to filling. pour filling into pie crust, cover with 2nd pie crust. poke holes on crust with fork. bake for 40 minutes. | |
around 7pm i started making my pot pie for dinner. it's actually a pretty easy recipe. i made the mistake of not reading my notes from the last time i made it, so the final result tasted a bit bland because i decided not to add the salt, figuring it was already plenty salty from the melted butter. next time, ADD SALT. it'd also be good to make smaller pot pies instead of one large one, because the interior is pretty gooey, not really designed to be eaten in slices.
my sister called me while i was making dinner. she never calls, so i immediately thought it was some emergency. turns out she was taking a covid self-test and it came up with two lines. the second line was very faint, and only appeared after several hours, and after she got the test wet. she took a different different that gave her a negative result. the reason why she was testing is because her upstairs tenants have contracted covid. i did manage to freak out my mother when i called to tell her my sister got covid. but after she saw the photo of the test strip, she said it wasn't a positive.
i watched the celtics-lakers game that started at 10pm. wrapping up their west coast trip, after soundly defeating the suns, the celtics then boston to two california teams - the warriors and clippers. would they lose to a third cali team tonight? for nearly 3 quarters boston dominated, and they seemed to have gotten their groove back. but starting at the end of the 3rd quarter, lakers slowly clawed their way back, then went on an epic run where they lead by 13 points. celtics then made a run of their own with minutes left in the 4th quarter to put the game into overtime. young legs then beat out old legs, as celtics scored enough to win. it was an awesome game and a good ending after 2 recent blowout loses.