Happy Thanksgiving (a table for two)

There’s only just my sister and her husband now that their only child is a full-grown adult and living her best life on the mainland. So not all American tables this thanksgiving are groaning with food.

Friday's galette (?)

Galettes refer to the catch-all term for a pastry base, topped with either sweet or savoury fillings with the edges roughly folded in to create a gorgeous, rustic-looking bake.

But is still a galette if you used store-bought flaky pastry or did a square one instead of the more traditional round one with the roughly folded edges?

Who cares? Again, saw it on TikTok and had this craving for caramelised onions- the pastry base was just incidental. There was a bag of white onions at a reduced price of $2.50 and four sheets of ready-to-cook pastry was $6. Sam hates onions and I remembered that there were two pieces of leftover chicken kransky sausages in the fridge and what came to mind immediately was a version of chicken-cranberry pizza. We had some leftover strawberry jam which I mixed with some ready-made chili-lime and to soften this combo, dollops of leftover sour cream.

Brush with egg-yolk and put into the oven using fan bake for about 20 minutes.

Capsicum sauce

Finally, $1 capsicums, yay!! From a high of $4.50 per piece, summer is the inflation-buster we all need.

I don’t particularly like capsicums- in my mouth, I can feel the soft inner flesh separating from the plasticky outer skin- though I tolerate them in stir-fries and such. I also don’t eat pasta a lot; if I wanted carbs, I’ll just do rice thank you very much.

But I saw someone on TikTok making a red-pepper (aka capsicum) sauce for pasta and then I got a supermarket alert for specials ($1 capsicums!) so I thought that it was meant to be.

The good thing about this sauce is that you don’t need a whole lot of ingredients (and the costs do add up). It’s basically 3 large capsicums and the rest of the ingredients are stuff you may already have at home like garlic, shallots (if you don’t have these it’s fine), butter and chicken cubes. Cheese which is normally horrendously expensive was on special so I got a block of good parmesan.

You simply char the capsicums so that you can peel off the nasty, plasticky outer skin and I realised that I couldn’t really do it as pictured below, using the electric cooktop. So I ended up putting it in the oven using grill. So once you’ve peeled the skin off and taken out the seeds. sauté them in a pan with a bit of olive oil and butter, a chicken cube and diced garlic (shallots if you have them) for about 10 minutes. Blitz the whole thing in a food-processor- it didn’t even need water or a thickening agent; the puree is the perfect consistency. And the flavour- sweet, creamy with a hint of spice and tang. I admit adding two tablespoons of sour cream, but it didn’t really need it, nor the parmesan if I’m being honest.

I’m thinking of buying a whole bag of $1 capsicums now, prepping them ready for blitzing and stored in the freezer.

Tuesday

Got my Twitter account restored. I’ve been contacting Twitter support for months with ZERO response until Elon Musk came in and in less than 30 seconds, was able to login with a new confirmed email address. The guy’s a TWAT, but he must be doing something right, like firing incompetent, sanctimonious Twitter staff who can’t even solve simple technical issues.

Friday cravings

Because I don’t have a family of my own, I realised that I didn’t need to enforce some of the rules or traditions that we had growing up. So yes, I can eat a whole bag of expensive shrimp (we had to share because there was only so much to go around). I can eat in bed, or in front of the television (rarely now because I don’t watch ‘normal’ TV anymore). Cake for dinner (why not?). Or a can of mackerel with eggs and rice for dinner when it’s normally for breakfast.

Normally, we would saute diced garlic, onions and tomatoes before adding in the fish, but I skipped that part for less oil. A dash of tamarind powder into the broth made for a good sour contrast with the rich oiliness of the fish.

Happy, nostalgic eating on a rainy Friday.

Part of the weekend (in images)

The week that was (in images + a video)

The new Ipad Pro with M2 chip

I had my doubts. There’s already something wrong with the new iPhone 14’s camera system and its video format is confusing and tedious to work with.

But I’ve been wanting to upgrade from my (old) five year old 10.5 inch iPad Pro for so long, that it was a foregone conclusion; I was going to buy one no matter what though I was trying not to grimace at the thought of two very expensive lemons.

When I finally got it and set it up, I just had one regret; I wish I stuck with my original choice of an all-white combo- a silver variant and a white Magic keyboard. I had been dissuaded by Sam telling me horror stories of his work colleagues toting less than pristine all-white iPad combos. Apparently, stains are difficult to remove.

I sort of teach tech for work and deal with user experience issues, but I’m never one to be super conscientious about reading and following instructions to the letter. I just let intuition do its job - yup, just zoom, swipe, tap - and if it works, then the device or website works. Maybe the new iPadOS 16 is amazing, who knows. That, or the fact that I never did anything much really with my old 10.5 iPad Pro. But you have to consider that five years in tech time is literally a lifetime; a lot can change and I’m glad that I sort of waited. I’m not sure if it’s the right analogy, but I think that updating your devices is similar to managing your Kiwisaver. Best practice is to stick with a specific fund instead of shifting it to a more conservative or safer one when you’re hit by losses due to the ever fluctuating markets; by doing so, you’re simply cementing your losses.

While we get the advantage of leaks, it’s never really certain what you’ll get. But after waiting for five years before I upgraded, I got a way better and bigger screen (from LCD to mini LED), a faster chip, and an operating system that almost replicates the work-flow you have on your laptop. The leap in capability is just phenomenal. if you have last year’s model, you’re not gaining anything dramatically new and spending another NZ$2,299 for a chip change is a waste of money- unless of course, you have money to burn.

Bag of bones

When we visited the Pokeno Butcher shop last weekend, I got a pair of split beef marrow bones for $13. At the Asian shop the other day, I picked up a $5 pack of beef bones- so it’s literally a meal from bones.

Other ingredients
Diced garlic and ginger
spring onion for garnish
flavour packet of sinigang and pinapaitan
cabbage and spinach

Method
Saute the garlic and ginger in a pan and put into slow-cooker. Sear the beef bones on the pan where you just browned the garlic and ginger. Slow-cook for about 6 hours. When done, separate from the bones and set-aside. Add two cups of water to the slow-cooker broth, season with the sinigang and pinapaitan to desired flavour (I prefer it to be sharply acidic and bitter), add the beef chunks and let simmer for 30 minutes. Steam the cabbage and spinach separately. Season bone marrow with pepper and garlic salt and grill on high for 15 to minutes. Assemble as below. Garnish with spring onions and garlic chips.

Saturday (in images)

What happened in the world today? DON’T CARE- to each his own.I have chores to do and things to learn.