my father made me a bagel and egg sandwich for lunch. i spread on some sweet sriracha sauce for extra flavor. he also pan-fried some sausages. i made another smoothie with the vitamix blender. my father told me yesterday why he always unplugs the blender; it's because there's no safety feature, and you could accidentally turn on the vitamix even with the container off. later in the day my father told me he was taking the vitamix to the cafe for making drinks, where it'd get more use than at home.
the thing we had to do today was move all the potted plants temporarily in our sunroom down to the basement grow room. it was easier to move them into the basement from outside than navigate the narrow steps inside the house. we repotted some of our jasmines back in may; the new containers give them more room to grow but they've become quite heavy. i never really learned how to lift with my legs so maybe my back will be feeling all that heavy lifting tomorrow.
we spent some time figuring out where to the place the plants in the sunroom and where the lights were. we moved the wheeled wire shelves away from the corners to provide more circulation. we managed to space out our plants a bit more, make it easier to spot if they start getting any pests. we also made sure they all had access to outlets. i discovered we didn't need the 7ft long surge protector i brought from my house, that we had enough coverage as is.
afterwards i filled two large buckets with rain water and added a tablespoon of mosquito bits to each. we will use this treated water to water the plants. this will kill off all the fungus gnats from the start, so we don't have to worry about them. the only other things we need to worry about will be aphids, mealybugs, and spider mites.
i returned home after dinner, left fairly early by 6pm. there was enough moisture in the air that my motorcycle was coated in a layer of wet dew. i wiped dry the seat before going to cambridge.
my smokeless contact digital foreman grill was finally arriving today via UPS. i tried waiting for it this morning but they deliver as late as 9pm so i didn't bother. a large box was waiting on my doorstep.
i knew it was big but it wasn't until i saw it for myself that i realized just how big it was. it sits 12" across, 14" deep, and 7" high. there's a big handle which takes up a chunk of space; i think they designed it like that so it can act like a sandwich press. it looks like an industrial strength flatbed image scanner. or with the handle, like a thick square briefcase. it's much bigger than my old foreman grill: my old grill could fit a single hamburger patty while the new grill could fit 4. it's also heavy, i don't know the actual weight, but it's not something you can just carry around with one hand.
when i was taking the grill out of the box i noticed a date stamp that seemed to read "2015". that didn't make any sense because i thought this contact smokeless grill came out just this year. maybe the stamp is "20/5" meaning it was manufactured back in may 2020. the first thing that popped out at me (literally) was the grease catcher that easily comes out, almost too easily, like there's nothing hold it in place (though i don't expect to be tilting the grill from side to side when i'm using it).
the grill plates come off. that's probably the most important feature, and if i got a grill that had removable grill plates i'd be pretty heavy, never mind all the other additional features. i was curious how the heating elements would be arranged without get grease all over it and it's well protected in special grooves underneath the bottom grill plate. the top plate doesn't need it as much, but there's a special track that matches the shape of the heating element for faster heat transfer.
i plugged it in just to play around with the digital touchscreen. it's more aesthetics than anything else, the screen itself does do all that much other than to set the temperature and timer. the temperature range isn't all that great either, from 325°F to 425°F at 25° increments, so really just 6 settings. does it matter all that much a 100° temperature difference? the buttons are very responsive though, and makes a futuristic beeping sound when you press them.
i also tried stowing it away with my other kitchen appliances. the smokeless grill is so large, it's the second largest appliance in my kitchen, after the microwave. even the toaster oven and bread machine seem smaller compared to the grill.
i've yet to use it, i'll put it to the test tomorrow, when i plan on cooking some bacon and organic turkey burgers. based on the size alone i'm tempted to return the thing, but let's use it first, see how it performs. i'm curious about the smokeless feature. i don't totally believe it because nothing can be truly smokeless, but we'll see.