i woke up early today, couldn't sleep anymore as i had things to do. but i laid in bed for another hour and finally got up around 8:30am. i left the house around 9:20am, rode the motorcycle to the cafe. it took a little longer than usual because of road construction and i had to make a detour. that turned out to be a good thing because i picked up some unwanted kitchenware on the curb: a vintage spice of life conrningware 8x8x1 3/4 inch casserole baking dish (missing the lid), OXO pepper grinder, and a pair of hammered stainless steel condiment dishes.

i started making the taiwanese paocai. of the 5 heads of taiwanese cabbage i bought, i only used the largest ones, saving the smallest one for my mother. even then that was still 21 lbs. of cabbage. after coring however, i was left with just 20 lbs. shredding the cabbage by hand took a long time, over half an hour. i salted it with 20 tbsp of salt, mixed it with one gloved hand, then left it to reduce. i also shredded about 2 cups worth of carrots using the mandolin, left it to reduce with a tbsp of salt.

my parents showed up after a waltham costco-market basket supply run. i was surprised, because my mother didn't want to go out. they bought 8x 30 crates of eggs, enough to last us probably 3 weeks since we still have some eggs in the fridge. while they were still there, i left to go run errands.

my first stop was the community garden to water my plants. i bumped into gail who was just about to leave. she was surprised to see me on a motorcycle, which got us talking about e-bikes and reckless riders. a few of my tomatoes have turned orange, but they're still a bit small, still golf-ball size. i don't think they're going to get any bigger.

i went to walgreens to pick my prescription. i thought it was just one, but turns out there were 3 things.

by the time i got back to the cafe, it was almost noontime. the cabbage had reduced enough. i emptied everything into a large strainer bowl and gave the reduced cabbage a quick rinse. i then manually hand-squeezed clumps of cabbage to remove any excess liquids before putting them into the large plastic mixing tub. i thought it was going to take a long time but about 15-20 minutes. once that was done, i combined the cabbage with the carrots and added additional ingredients: 9 cups of sugar, 9 cups of white vinegar, 4 chopped chili peppers, a tbsp of sichuan peppercorn. i then mixed everything with one hand while scooping out the paocai into quart-size containers. i ended up with 11 quarts of taiwanese paocai and a 16 oz. container of leftover pickling liquid to be used on our bento pickles.

i was finally done by 1pm and rode to belmont. my mother got me an italian sub from market basket but i wasn't hungry yet. instead i went outside to strategize with my father into assembling our refurbished picnic table. he was trying to figure out how to cut the 2 diagonal leg braces for the table legs. the this old house video showed us a way to measure the braces, but with our tools it was hard to cut any angles besides 90° and 45°. plus the legs weren't perpendicular to the table, which created additional complications.

my sister brought home esmei around that time. esmei had a bandaged front paw where she sustained a cut on her pad. my sister was indoors lecturing my father about renovations she wants done on her place and the apartment upstairs. i couldn't stand listening to her so i went back outside, with esmei following behind me. thankfully my sister eventually left.

i decided we should make trapezoid cuts for the leg braces (instead of a rhombus cut), 45° at each end. this was the easiest cut to make, and when both ends are flush against the table legs and table bottom, we know they're perfectly perpendicular. we made the cuts using the circular saw and a speed square as a guide. i'd hold the speed square while my father pushed up against it to make the angle cuts. with the two braces in hand, it was finally time to screw the picnic table together.

we started with the legs first. we put cardboard in between the table boards so they'd have space for drainage. we drilled in 2-1/2 inch deck screws. using the impact driver, the screws went in like butter once they found purchase. we had to redo one of the screws because it didn't properly attach to the table board and pushed it out. once that was done, we discovered we could loosen the carriage bolts and adjust the leg angles slightly before tightening them back up. we then went ahead and attached the other pair of table legs. once that was done (and the table legs adjusted to be as close to perpendicular as possible), it was time to attach the diagonal leg braces and the brace bar underneath the table. we didn't to one side, found it remarkably sturdy, then did it to the other side. my father tightened the carriage bolts some more before it was finally time to flip over the table.

i didn't think we'd be able to do it at first because the table seemed so heavy, but with two people it was definitely manageable. a few of the table boards were slightly curved, but the 2x4 boards underneath helped flatten them out (like braces). we didn't attach the seats yet, but put the boards where they're suppose to be. my father seemed very impressed now that the project was close to finished. the table seemed a little low at first, until we put bricks underneath the legs to raise the table by about 2 inches. only then did it feel like the proper height.

it was nearly 4pm before we went back inside and split the italian sub for a late lunch.

we went back outside an hour later to admire the refurbished picnic table. it does look a little weird because we reused the old legs, which were stained at one point with a reddish brown stain/polyurethane treatment. we still don't know where to put it. i even suggested we put our plastic/metal lifetime picnic table back into storage and put the wooden picnic table underneath the maple tree. even though we used pressure treated wood, even though we already coated everything with water-based sealant, my father still wants to apply a coat of urethane. i gave him my blessing, my suggested using spar urethane with a satin finish. he coated the wooden swingset with glossy urethane last weekend and it looks forever wet and shiny. my father also suggested that we don't attach the seats, but instead screw on braces that lock into the seat brackets. that way we can remove the seats and make the table easier to lift and carry.

my mother once again made dinner: steamed egg and pork and a tofu & longhorn pepper stirfry. the peppers were from the backyard, and my mother didn't think they were hot, and finally tonight she found one that was super spicy. we tried the trade joe's peach bellini. i read it was the worst of the collection, but we found it pretty tasty, reminded me of mango if you didn't tell me otherwise.

i used the bathroom and took a shower after i got back home. i drank 3 cups of bigelow botanical cold water infusion ice tea.

i originally wasn't planning on it, but when i saw the watermelon sitting on my kitchen counter starting to rot, i finally decided to cut it up. this was already at 9:30pm. afterwards i started on my hot sauce with the hot peppers i got from haymarket two weekends ago (had to use them up before they went back).

i made this hot sauce back in may. there was still one jar left but my mother took it home so there's no homemade hot sauce at the cafe. i'm still trying to perfect my recipe but i'm getting close to nailing it down. what i thought was anaheim peppers were actuall fresno peppers, which are hotter (same hotness as jalapenos). the key is using a 3:1:1 ratio: 3 parts of fresno pepper (the bulk of the hot sauce), 1 part thai/cayenne chili peppers (where most of the hotness comes from, so don't have to use too much), and 1 part garlic (roughly 2 cloves for about a pound of fresno peppers). i bought a pound of fresno but after 2 weeks it'd shrank a little bit. after cutting off the stems and removing one bad pepper, i was left with 361g of fresno. i then figured out how much i needed of the remaining ingredients. i typically use fresh thai chili peppers (which are normally available at market basket), but i managed to buy some cayenne peppers from haymarket so used those instead. as for the oil portion, i'm using 3/4 the amount by weight of the fresno pepper, so in this case 270g of canola oil.

i processed the peppers and garlic. cayenne and the garlic could be processed one at a time, but the fresno took 3 turns of my little ninja food processor. if i was making a bigger batch, i might be tempted to use my heavy duty cuisinart food processor. the processed peppers were pretty pungent. i tried to pulverize them as much as possible, but once they get to a certain size, they don't make contact with the spinning blades anymore.

i started to heated up the oil on medium in my stainless steel pan. i didn't wait for the oil to get too hot because i didn't want a splatter incident, so i added the peppers and garlic once the oil looked like it was beginning to shimmer. i left the peppers and garlic simmering in the oil for 20 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent any scorching. at this stage there no particularly enticing fragrance. the hot sauce is still bland, but we're basically reducing to concentrate the flavors.

after 20 minutes was up, i added the remaining ingredients. instead of 3 tbsp of salt, i only added 2, figured i wanted to taste the sauce first before deciding to add anymore salt. the rest i followed the recipe from last time: 3 tbsp peppercorn oil, 2 tbsp of sugar, 2 tbsp of baijiu. this is when the sauce gets fragrant. i tasted it, 2 tbsp of salt is good enough. the peppercorn oil and baijiu adds liquid to the hot sauce, so it took a little while longer to get it reduced again. but as you stir and simmer, the hot sauce starts to smell better and better.

i finally turned off the burner and scooped the hot sauce into 2 8 oz. jars (formerly sesame paste jars) using a stainless steel canning funnel. once again there seems to be a lot of chili oil. i'll bring them to the cafe tomorrow for my mother to try.

before going to bed, i heard jeff returning to the apartment. i didn't check to see if he had his family with him, but it sounded like only one person.