(Post 159 of 263)

I’m at the end of a much needed three-day staycation. Since I’m heading into a very full April, it was good to get caught up on chores.

Yesterday, Saturday, I had to be up and at ‘em by 9:00 because my cleaning fairy was coming by with a flete to pick up some furniture I was giving her. That done, I headed out to the Chuburna market for the sole purpose of having breakfast (my usual turkey salbutes with watermelon water). I was amused that I passed the Batmobile on my way!

I came in and gave the kitchen a good tidy, then decided it was a good day to make a batch of gyoza, Japanese dumplings. They are my favourite prepared food to have in the freezer. In Canada, I could get them surprisingly inexpensively at the supermarket, but here, the commercial brands aren’t great, even the ones at Costco. I was about to head out to the Asian Mart to get wonton wrappers when I realised I have ton of bread flour to use up, so I’d be better off making my own. I don’t like the results as much, they always end up very doughy, more like pierogies, but I also wasn’t in the mood to make a batch of 100 or so anyway, the way I do when I get the wrappers. The recipe for the homemade version only makes about 30.

So I instead got on Rappi and put in an order for the filler ingredients I was missing — pork, green onion, cabbage, ginger, fresh garlic. The slight premium to do a shop that way was worth it when you consider the time and expense of taking an Uber there and back. While someone else did my shopping, I got the dough prepped, kneaded, and resting.

The only disadvantage to doing a shop that way is you can’t leave notes about the produce. Had I ordered directly from Chedraui, I would have asked for half of a small cabbage, but I couldn’t specify that through the Rappi platform. So I was the proud recipient of a cabbage literally the size of my head!

I treated myself on Thursday to a brand new at used price food processor on the local buy-and-sell site, so I had the perfect tool to shred a ton of cabbage fast. I made enough for my recipe and then for coleslaw. That still left me half of the cabbage! I chopped it coarsely and popped it in the freezer, to be used as filler in chickpea flour omelettes.

I love oil and vinegar coleslaw soooooooo much.

As expected, my gyoza turned out super doughy, but still delicious! I usually make my own dipping sauce, but I had a sesame ginger commercial dressing in the fridge that I knew would be perfect with them. Yum, so good!

I still have enough for five meals waiting in the freezer. I freeze them like this on trays and then bag them. This way, they don’t stick together.

Baking is always ‘hard’ on my wooden counter, so I scrubbed it well and gave it a coating of mineral oil to return its shine. I’ve had this counter a year now and love prepping food on it.

Later Saturday, I got an email from a client asking me to name my price to read on Sunday a PDF proofreading job that would take about four hours. An excuse to spend half of Sunday upstairs on the mezzanine with Bonita and a huge pot of coffee and to earn a ridiculous amount of money for the effort?! Yes, please!

I slept super late this morning, Sunday, past 8:00, the first time in ages that I haven’t had to set an alarm. First order of business after playing with Bonita was to find and resolve the source of a leak in my laundry room, then put on some laundry. I’ve been so backed up on laundry between grey wet weather and the burglary. I think I will eventually cave and get a dryer to speed things up. When it’s super humid and grey, things just don’t dry, even in the house in front of fans! Anyway, I’m almost all caught up, finally.

About halfway through my work day, I came down to make a delicious brunch. The waffles are misshapen due to using an egg replacer and too much butter, but were delicious! The sausage is Argentinian-style chorizo sold by a gentleman who pedals around the neighbourhood on Wednesdays selling fresh cheeses and sausages out of a cooler. The orange juice is from a fellow on my walk home from Pilates who runs a small fruit stand out of his house and can be seen sitting in front of the house juicing impossibly delicious oranges all morning. I’ve been wanting to make waffles for ages to have as a post-workout evening treat, so I now have six waiting in the freezer.

After work, I did some pool maintenance — it’s ready to go but the water is still too unpleasantly cold to do more than just take a very quick dip. Still I’m keeping it on standby for when I really need it!