i finally set out by 10am. temperature was in the upper 40's, i wore shorts and a long-sleeved turtleneck. i listened to 'bugs need heroes' podcast on spotify. i listened to two episodes but decided i don't like it, too chatty, not enough actual info. coming back from my run i switched to the 'sad oligarch' podcast. the run took a little longer than normal because i could stopping and photographing all the pretty flowers i saw, especially the kwanzan cherries, which looked like pink cotton candy. redbuds were also blooming, as well as crabapples. lilacs need a week or more, while azaleas and some rhododendrons are putting on a show as well.
the run itself was uneventful. i ran a steady rate, no cramps, could've gone faster and longer but didn't want to strain myself, this being my 2nd run after my winter hiatus. i got so hot after the run i stripped off my long-sleeve, but put it back on a few minutes later when i started feeling cold.
i got back home by 11:15am. after a shower, i heated up a spicy jamaican beef patty for lunch. i had to decide next what i wanted to do. go work in the community garden? but the day was overcast and a little cold, not the most pleasant gardening weather. instead i decided to go to belmont. i took the motorcycle and got there by 1:20pm.
the most important thing i needed to do was redig the bamboo moat. the moat is important because it allows us to spot any escaping rhizomes and prune them before they escape. it's dirty and sweaty work, and afterwards my shoes and jeans were covered in dirt dust. i spent about 1-1/2 hours in belmont before finally leaving by 2:40pm.
back at home i went to star market to pick up some more lamb chops on sale. i was also in search of frozen pizza, but the one that i wanted was all sold out (screamin' sicilian spremus maximus pizza). coming out of the supermarket, i bumped into jeff and we chatted briefly. he told me warehouse space are in high demand these days. he also said kids these days aren't into alcohol or drugs, not sure what they're into. close to my house, i bumped into susan and we chatted for a while. she gave me an update on dennis, still recovering from his broken collar bone (two places) and hip fracture (3 places).
it was getting late and i wasn't in the mood to work with more dirt by going to the community garden. i'm going to hold off until a nicer day comes along.
my mother called me, said my 2nd aunt needed to renew her passport. my aunt sent me a copy of her passport and i used it to fill out a renewal form. i also filled out a form for my 2nd uncle to replace his permanent resident card that has a typographical error on it.
sheri the upstairs tenant showed up today. i think she was here last night as well, but only to take the visitor's parking permit, because i noticed she drove here today in a big SUV. i didn't see her face, only saw the back of somebody going upstairs. apparently she's a stomper, because i can tell where she was upstairs from the sounds of her heavy footsteps. not sure how long she was here because by the afternoon she was gone again.
by days end, the only thing i did today that i wasn't able to do on a typical day was to go running in the morning (for an hour) and do some belmont backyard yardwork (for another hour). the one thing i forgot to do was take my motorcycle to the bike shop for an annual inspection. i've got until the end of the month, so i can do it next week, no rush.
in the early evening i finally got around to making another batch of hot sauce. i started by setting up my softbox lights, which i dismantled when i had that one roommate for a week back in early april.
the hot sauce i made 2 weeks ago was a fermented variety, using hot peppers and garlic that i fermented first for a few weeks. the sauce was spicy but also vinegary, like if you took spicy banana pepper rings and made a hot sauce out of that. it tasted very similar to indonesian sambal oelek. not a sauce that like, but has a very pretty vibrant red color, fermentation must've helped preserve the colors.
this new hot sauce recipe i was trying out i found from a minute long chinese youtube video. it uses two different blends of hot peppers along with garlic. the only other ingredients are oil, salt, and sugar. the recipe also calls for sichuan peppercorn but i decided not to add that. the recipe uses 700g of peppers but i only had 470g, so i scaled back the garlic and oil accordingly: anaheim peppers 400g, thai chili peppers 70g, garlic 90g (2 garlic cloves), 270g of sunflower oil, 1-1/2 tbsp of salt, 1-1/2 tbsp of sugar, dash of chinese cooking wine.
a lot of classic chinese hot sauces involve cooking the chopped peppers in oil (oil-based hot sauce). after reducing the peppers and garlic in the mini food processor, i added them to the oil. on medium heat i simmered and reduced the pepper and garlic mash until it started to look more sauce than just chopped peppers. i tasted the mash, it was spicy, but also sweet because the oil seemed to have slightly caramelized the peppers. i reduced it for about 20 minutes before adding the sugar and salt and cooking wine. i then left it to reduce on low heat for another 10 minutes. i tasted it again, the salt brings out the flavor, but the sugar adds an additional complexity. i might've added too much sugar, because it tasted like a sweet hot sauce. also anaheim peppers are actually not that hot, less spicy than jalapeños, and i don't think jalapeños are all that hot. it was as if i made a hot sauce using sweet bell peppers, and the hot itself had a bell pepper taste.
afterwards i scooped the hot sauce into 2 jars. i'm curious to see what my mother has to say about it. i don't particularly like the sauce, and i think it's because i didn't actually use hot peppers. i thought maybe the thai chili peppers would make it spicier, but i used old frozen ones, and when i processed them, there was nothing left but seeds and skin. maybe if i used fresh thai chili peppers that might make a difference. still, it was interesting to make, even if the hot sauce itself wasn't that good. i might try again if i can source some more decent hot peppers, like later in the summer, if not from the markets then maybe homegrown.
game 5 between the heat and the celtics was tonight. miami had no answers to what boston was dishing. this was the expected outcome between a 1st seed and 8th seed, especially a heat team that had no jimmy butler. boston was without porzingis but that didn't matter. the final score was 84-118. boston lead by 37 points at one time and even into the final minutes the bench players were not letting up, adding to the lead. this was also mike gorman's final announced game, as the NBA uses national broadcasters after the first round of the playoffs.
i heated up a brick of lasagna in the microwave during halftime and ate while watching the second half. microwave takes about 20 minutes total to heat up while if i warmed it the traditional way in the oven it'd take 60 minutes. ever since i replaced the oven igniter, i've yet to actually use the oven. maybe i can bake some blueberry muffins one of the days, gives me a good excuse to use the oven.