even though i didn't have to go to the cafe early today, i still got there around 10:45am. my mother was surprised, said business was slow on this week before christmas, that i could've came in much later. i went over to my sister's place to reinstall the eufy webcam, 
after i tested one at the cafe that was broken yesterday but worked fine today. my sister was in the backyard, trying to coax esmei to come back inside. turns out the problem was a router issue: some devices could get online while others were shut out. i fixed it by rebooting the router.
business at the cafe was about the same as yesterday. busy around lunchtime, slow the rest of the day. my aunt showed up expectedly, normally she comes on fridays. looking at google maps i saw that my 2nd aunt was in chinatown, so my mother called her to ask her to buy some baby bokchoi (saving me a trip to chinatown). my father left for the doctor's in the afternoon for a possible hernia. he came back and made an appointment to see a surgeon in february (earliest appointment available). it's only been 5-days since i bought those hachiya persimmons and they'd already turned soft. i thought maybe i'd need to wait a month or longer. my mother tried one, said it was supersweet, and i ate one as well. they're good enough that i'm tempted to return to haymarket on friday and get some more.
my sister took esmei to the vet today to get her rabies shot. i saw esmei in the car before they left, 
quietly looking out the windshield, no idea she'd be getting a shot. i saw esmei again when they came back, no change in demeanor. my sister said esmei seems to be unaffected by needles and was very well behaved at the vet. she even sat down immediately and pawed and when she noticed the doctor was about to give her a treat.
i was given the a-okay to go home around 4:30pm. i got back by 5pm.
| new england clam chowder (3-6 serving) | |
|
6 russet potatoes (2 lbs.) peeled, diced 2 cans chopped clams 1 onion, chopped 1 tsp salt 2 tsp pepper |
2 cans whole baby clams 2 cups light cream 1/2 package bacon, chopped 2 tbsp corn starch oyster crackers |
| boil medium-low potatoes 3 minutes, drain and cool (30 minutes). add chopped clams, onion, salt & pepper and marinate for 1 hour or overnight. separate clam juice from whole baby clams. add juice to chowder then simmer medium-low 5 minutes until potatoes done. cook bacon until rendered then add to chowder. add whole clams and light cream. simmer 5 minutes or until chowder is fully cooked. serve with oyster crackers. | |
i didn't continue finishing my clam chowder recipe until 8:30pm. while cooking half a package of bacon, i simmered the marinated clam potatoes along with the clam juice (1 cup) from 2 10 oz. cans of whole baby clams. once the bacon was cooked, i dumped everything - bacon and grease - into the clam chowder. once the chowder came to a slow simmer, i added the whole clams plus 16 oz. of light cream. i also added 2 tbsp of corn starch to thicken the soup but it probably wasn't necessary given the amount of potato starch. once the chowder heated up to a simmer, it was ready to eat.
the chowder employed an interesting technique and i like the simplicity of the recipe despite taking two days to make. however the potatoes didn't taste any different. the chowder was clammier, but only because i added more than double the usual amount of clams (2 cans of chopped clams, 2 cans of whole baby clams). the was super hardy and i had a huge bowl that was probably 3 portions. i felt full the rest of the night.
tonight was the second half of back-to-back games, celtics versus the kings. i'd forgotten about the kings but remember watching them in the playoffs last season and i really like them, they're a good team. we were without horford tonight, and jayson tatum was out due to a sprain ankle. maybe the celtics were angry about what happened last night, but after the first quarter, they dominated. at one point it was a three-point shoot out from both teams. a great game to watch, celtics won 144-119, with 5 players with 20+ points. i just hope porzingis is okay, looks like he rolled his ankle at one point.