*1243 - homemade (healthier) potato chips

Amazing discovery.  One can make homemade potato chips in under ten minutes.

 

The amazing part is, these are not deep-fried but have a very similar texture.  Reduced mess, reduced calories, reduced reliance on excessive packaging and processed ickiness.  Equal yumminess, added customization, the only problem is that these go FAST.

Behold.  Microwaved potato chips.

Yes, microwaved.  I'm not a master of the microwave and would tend to choose oven/toaster over microwave whenever possible.  But I found this "recipe" and thought I would give it a shot.  It's not really a recipe, more of a set of instructions.

1. Grab a clean potato and slice it as thin as you possibly can.

2. Season with a drizzle of olive oil.  I also added fresh ground salt and pepper here.

3. Put a single layer on a plate.  Put in microwave on high for 2-3 min, turn over, and blast for 2-3 min more until just slightly browned (really depends on the microwave so just keep watching it).

4. Remove and let cool before eating because it continues to crisp up after it comes out of the microwave.

And that's really all there is to it.  Magical.

*1242 - swirls

D gave me the best Christmas present ever, it's going to be a tough one to beat.

My very own Kitchenaid :) :) :)

I've been baking an obnoxious amount of breads and sweets as a result but to D it's probably a win-win because he gets to enjoy the finished product too.

Themed baking last weekend: the swirl.

Cinnamon currant swirl wheat bread.

And blueberry/cranberry/lemon swirl cookies.




The trick to baking cookies for two is to freeze half of the raw cookie dough so you can have homemade, fresh baked cookies whenever you want.  Much better than baking a ton, having them go stale, and getting all jelat from trying to finish up so many of the same flavor.  Rationing them out is probably better for you too.

*1241 - poka in backyard

It's been a while since a Poka pic.  Here she is exploring our backyard, sniffing succulents:



Indoor cats tend to have a longer lifespan than outdoor cats so the choice was obvious for us to keep Poka indoors.  But we do like to let her out every once in a while under careful supervision so it stimulates her little brain as she explores a new environment and lets some energy out chasing insects and creepy crawlies.  It also turns out that she likes rolling in gravel and smearing her face in dirt.  For such an otherwise fastidiously clean animal, that seems rather odd.

*1240 - delivered

70+ slide report, from scratch, out the door.  Appendix soon to follow.  It is always hard to say but I might be alive again soon, fingers crossed.  And thank goodness I'm a data-loving dork because this would probably not have been worth it otherwise.

*1239 - caprese

This used to be one of my guilty late night pleasure in college--the classic caprese: fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, fresh chopped basil, olive oil, coarse salt, black pepper.

Fancy snack food, eh?

*1238 - nemo

Nemo is one of the reasons why I'm now in San Francisco.  Not to add to the misery that is on the other coast but I'm just not a winter type of girl.  (Exception: give me a snowboard and I might not complain as much.)

It's Chinese New Year and it's just as well that it has traditionally been nothing much more than an extended holiday for me and my family, given that we've got virtually no relatives with us in Singapore.  I haven't been home for CNY in five years anyway (holy moly that is a fifth of my lifetime).  And I must say that I have never been a fan of blaring shopping centre CNY music.

But still, occasions like this make me pause and consider how far away from my roots I have been drifting, on this side of the world worrying about the weirdass concepts of snow storms and filing taxes and nurturing Californian succulents and having no easy access to asian veggies besides baby bok choy and making friends in a city that isn't mine, a country that didn't grow up in the same way that I did.

It's really strange when I think about it.  It's been five years away from home.

*1237 - anime nerds

In approximately 4 days, D and I finished watching Steins;Gate.  Yes, there's a semicolon in the title; we think it indicates a pregnant pause between the two words when you say it out loud.