the only bad thing was it was sort of windy and i had to make sure i didn't get splashed by oblivious cars driving across puddles. it was warm enough for shorts, and i wore a thin uniqlo black pullover. no hat, but i had gloves. it'd been so long, the last time i ran i was still using my pixel 3XL phone, so my wireless earbuds hadn't even been paired to the new pixel 7.
i stepped out of the house by 10:50am. it was chilly enough that if i wanted to stay heated i had to run, so that's what i did. by the time i made it 2 blocks, i was already feeling pretty warm. because i have hair i didn't really need a hat, but gloves were important. whenever i took them off to snap a photo, i could feel my hands getting cold. my legs were cold on the surface but as long as i was running, circulation kept them warm. because it was so cold i barely sweat, and was dry by the time i got back home.
there were other runners, wearing various quantities of clothing. it's interesting seeing other people's strategy in dealing with the cold. i saw a girl running in nothing but a tank top and running shorts, and a guy wearing a full sweat suit ensemble with thick gloves and hat. some people wore shorts like i did with a long-sleeve pullover, while others wore sweat pants with just a t-shirt.
walking back home, i saw a glass jar with a plastic lid something had tossed into some ground ivy. i didn't pick it up, i thought it might be some fancy pesticide treatment. but when i got home and looked up the distinctive red key logo on the lid, turns out it's from happy valley, a cannabis dispensary with locations in east boston and gloucester. i wonder if somebody dropped it on accident, doesn't look like the sort of thing one would just throw away. i'm tempted to go back tomorrow and see if it's still there.
i got home by 11:50am, exactly an hour later, and took a shower.
i went out again around 1:30pm, this time to the somerville target to pick up a 4.5qt crockpot.1 the online price was $25, but phrased in such a way that it felt like maybe it might be more expensive buying it directly from the store. but i went down anyway, just to see for myself. they said they had 2 in stock.
i haven't been down in that direction since they completed their multi-year construction. now there were dedicated bike lanes down the whole length of somerville avenue which made for much easier (and safer) travels. unfortunately they didn't have the 4.5qt crockpot i was looking for. they had a few others but they were either larger (6qt) or had fancy digital controls i didn't need. plus i saw the price and it costs $27 to buy it in store. so what i ended up doing was ordering it online for a pickup later today or tomorrow. they still might have a few in the back storage. if by tonight i don't hear back from them (target guarantees a 6 hour pickup when ordering online), i'll cancel the order and get it from the watertown target, where supposedly they have a few in stock.
i didn't have lunch yet, so a part of my plan was to get something from burger king2 across the street. i had a coupon for 2 whopper juniors and 2 medium fries for just $5. business was good, both in-store and drive-thru. i ended up waiting nearly 15 minutes before i got my order. i placed it inside an insulated grocery bag and returned home.
since i was passing by market basket, i decided to stop and get a few things, particularly another carton of half and half for my clam chowder recipe which i'll either make this weekend or next week. 2pm wasn't a busy time at market basket, i rarely see the place so calm.
getting back on the bike, i thought to myself, "why does my legs hurt so much?" then i remember i went running this morning, that's why! i hope it won't be too bad tomorrow, i plan on riding down to boston for my usual chinatown and haymarket visits.
i ate when i got back home, finished both the double fries and junior whoppers. i don't know if i felt regret when i ate my last burger bite, but i did feel like all the hard work i did today from running was sort of in vain. but i definitely wasn't running just so i could have a cheat day, that was a total coincidence.
target contacted me around 3pm, said the 4.5qt was no longer available for pickup from the somerville store. they gave me 3 options: pick it up from a different store, ship it for free3, or cancel the order. i was going to choose a different store when i noticed the free shipping option, so i picked that instead. due to arrive at my parents' place sunday.
around 5pm i started making some jiuniang. back in the winter of 2020-2021, i made a new batch every week, trying to figure out the perfect recipe where i can consistently make sweet jiu niang. i found angel brand "rice leaven" made the sweetest jiuniang, and heating them under the low temperature yogurt setting of the instant pot made a less sweet but more alcohol jiuniang. but the best way to sweetness is slow fermentation in a warm spot. anyway, the last time i made jiuniang was march 2021 (experimenting with long grain sweet rice), and i don't think i've made any since.
i had a leftover bag of red plum brand short grain sweet rice, weighing 2.8 lbs. measuring out the rice came to 6 cups exactly. in the past i've always cooked the sweet rice 2 cups at a time in the instant pot, but i've always wanted to try a larger amount. so i decided to use up the whole bag - all 6 cups - adding 6 cups of water. i didn't bother rinsing, i just mixed the rice and water by hand then set it inside the instant pot on rice cook (low pressure 12 minutes).
i'd never cooked that much rice before in the instant pot, and i was worried maybe the rice would expand and overflow the pot. when the rice was finally down cooking, i was relieved there was no overflow. the rice looked fine from the top, but i noticed an off smell. when i started fluffing the rice, that's when i noticed the bottom had scorched.4 so this is why maybe it's better to cook only 2 cups of sweet rice at a time, to prevent scorching. i read online that some people also cook their rice using the pot in pot method with a trivet; that might also work, but i don't think i could find another smaller pot that could hold 6 cups of rice. but the lesson learned is cook less rice in the future to prevent scorching.
i don't think the jiuniang yeast cares if there's a little bit of scorching, so i mixed everything together, normal sweet rice with scorched rice. next step was to cool the rice down (below 80 degrees) so i added cold tap water into the pot, draining it in a colander several times, before putting everything back into the pot (after i cleaned off the burnt bits).
there was just too much to work with, so i added the rice to my large stainless steel mixing bowl. to that i added a whole 8g packet of angel rice leaven. a single packet is enough for 5lbs. of sweet rice, but because this is expired leaven, i decided to use up the entire packet. i mixed everything together before scooping the rice into 6 1-quart glass jars.
i put the jiuniang jars into a box wrapped with towels and put the whole thing in my bathroom (the warmest room in the house) so it can slow ferment for the next 3 days before it's ready to eat.
for dinner i made a ham sandwich, this time with honey mustard. i ate while watching the celtics game against the knicks. having lost their previous two games in florida (orlando, miami), celtics were due for a win tonight. it was an exciting game, and celtics looked like they were going to lose it, before tying the game to send it into overtime. unfortunately they lost even though the first few minutes it looked like they'd win.
1 we currently use a 3qt crockpot at the cafe to keep our tea eggs warm. it's only large enough to hold 20 tea eggs, so we can only make 20 eggs at a time. with a 4.5qt crockpot, we can hold 30 tea eggs, which means we don't have to make them as much, saving us valuable time. my mother is totally against it, said it's a waste of space. but i saw the specs for the 4.5qt crockpot and it's only a little bit bigger. like many things i've purposed, i'm hoping once she sees the difference, she'll come around. bear in mind that before i got the 3qt crockpot, we were using a 2qt crockpot. we basically had make tea eggs every single day.
2 what i wouldn't give for some mcdonalds! my favorite is their regular hamburger, every time i have one, it takes me back to the very first time i had mcdonalds on the waltham-lexington border in the early 80's. the last time i had mcdonalds was back in february, when i went to the central square art store to pick up some rubber cement. i had the 20 piece chicken mcnuggets (not sure why i didn't get a hamburger as well). i think i'm overdue for another visit.
3 target doesn't offer free online shipping unless you spend over $35. but they offered it this time as a sort of apology.
4 this "scorching" is not actually burnt, more like crispified. in some cuisines it's consider a good thing, so i don't think it'll affect the jiuniang.