Saturday, December 17, 2022
Vacation day 8 of 30. Medium bowl of oatmeal with milk, roasted and unsalted slivered almonds, flax meal, cacao nibs, toasted unsweetened coconut flakes, blueberries; water. I made candy cane rice krispies treats. Instead of candy canes, however, which can be difficult to unwrap in bulk when they are individually shrinkwrapped (skintight), I used one pound of peppermint starlights, which were also individually shrinkwrapped but easier to open. Crushing them with a rolling pin and a gallon ziploc bag did not go well because it left small dents in the wooden rolling pin and because the starlights would not break easily and because when they did they would pierce the plastic, leaking starlight dust and creating a mess. I switched to the food processor method which was also not ideal because it created too much starlight dust while trying to eliminate all the whole candies. Pulsing for 2 to 4 seconds seemed to work better than pulsing for less than 2 seconds. Following the Kellogg's recipe, everything else went as expected. Next time I think it would be best to stick with the thinnest candy canes you can find that are easily unwrapped (e.g., in plastic pouches rather than skintight) and which can be broken by hand or chopped with a chef's knife. This would give the right balance of control over chunk size without taking more time than needed. Or, find crushed peppermint candy for baking, such as Brach's, Sarah's, or Atkinson's—but it's much more expensive. Midmorning snack: slice of warmed Bay Laurel Pound Cake, water. Later snack: an orange. Lunch at home with Patrick: leftovers from last night. Vacuumed. Arranged and succeeded at getting rid of extra paper and reusable bags. Today Patrick prepared more dishes for tomorrow's dinner: baked macaroni and cheese, chocolate bourbon pecan pie. Dinner at home with Patrick: delivery from Lemonade via Uber Eats: Patrick had a spicy ahi tuna poke bowl and a side of seasoned potato chips and a lavender elderflower lemonade. I had an ahi tuna poke bowl. Our poke bowls are different from the last time we remember. These bowls are shallower and were not as fresh. The avocado in mine was fully brown on the outside and bright green when I sliced it. They seemed hastily put together. We watched Reservation Dogs s1:e5 on Hulu Basic Plan. Today Patrick prepared sesame challah rolls, and after Res Dogs he did the braiding and the return to fridge for the second rising. We finished watching Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio: Handcarved Cinema on Netflix instant watch. Patrick went to bed. I washed more dishes. Today I learned (or possibly relearned) that macaroni doesn't always mean just elbow macaroni.