i never left the house today. i didn't get a chance to do any AFBHS work, but i was busy playing with code, so at least i was being constructive and learning something. now that i've fixed the loading issue,1 the next thing i want to tackle is to reinstate the comment section but with a simple captcha tag to prevent spamming. i also want to figure out a better way to present my photos, like maybe dynamically sorting them into a table so i don't have to do all that manually (like i've been doing the past 13 years).
eli from next step living called me in the late morning to set up a time to add insulation into my walls. there was actually an appointment for tomorrow (someone cancelled at the last minute), but i haven't even cleaned out the basement yet. that meant the next available time wasn't until may. fortunately i had the pick of the whole month and settled on may 1st. supposedly it takes an entire day to insulate a house but my place is so small, hopefully it won't take that long.
i soaked 2 cups of mixed beans overnight. around 5:00 i started making the soup. i began early because it takes an additional few hours of simmering for the soup to be ready. since the bulk of the ingredient was beans, i didn't need any additional protein, but i added some bacon anyway. and by some i mean a whole package of bacon, because it's such an ordeal to cook it, i thought might as well cook it all, regardless if i use it or not. today wasn't that cold outside (50°) so i didn't waste too much heating running an exhaust fan from the window. i cooked the bacon in a big pot to prevent oil from splattering everywhere, and i also used a mesh splatter guard.
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while the bacon was cooking, i chopped up half an onion, two stalks of celery, and some garlic. after the bacon was done (let them dry off on some paper towels), i poured out most of the bacon fat, saving just enough to sautee the chopped vegetable ingredients. i also chopped up the bacon on the side (used a little more than half, saving the rest of a rainy day). i added the bacon bits into the pot, along with 4 cups of water and a bouillon cube. i also added a health dose of pepper powder. and for a health kick, i sprinkled about a cup of frozen kale. recipes called for anywhere from 1-3 hours of additional simmering, but the beans were ready after 30 minutes (maybe because i started soaking them since early yesterday), and after a full hour i turned off the heat. the soup was ready just like that, but a lot of recipes called for the additional of crushed tomatoes so i added a can, even though i'm not a big tomato fan.
the soup was okay, a lot of different ingredients, but i don't think it transcended any level of ultimate deliciousness. it was hearty, nutritious, and after a big bowl of the stuff, i wasn't hungry the rest of the night.
1 let's face it: my weblog was not designed for phone browsing. in the past, when you arrived at my site, it would load all the images, despite that most of the images were at the bottom of the screen, unseen. true, those were only thumbnails, but sometimes there can be a lot of them (in the hundreds), which could eat up 30-40MB of data easily from just a single visit. but now that the images load only when necessary (when you start scrolling to see more content), visitors can visit my site on their phone without fear of maxing out their data.