We visited a friends’ house for a pulque and mead drink tasting, garden tour, and of course good food. The man of the house is a sushi chef, so we were treated to some yummy salmon carpaccio. It was fun to watch him effortlessly slice up the fish. Wow!
Our friends grow so many different kinds of vegetables, herbs, and fruit in their yard. It’s really amazing! And they have chickens too, so they can enjoy fresh eggs all the time. As a bonus, we got to see the new chicks they are raising. So cute!
Before making the curries, I cooked a huge batch of Indian onion masala in our Instant Pot, some of which was used in the potato and pea curry. We froze the rest of the onion masala which will be great for our future curries!
Most of the ingredients can be found in supermarkets or smaller Indian markets nearby so we had most of them in the house. The curry leaves were the hardest to find, Mariko said, and had to be ordered online. I had never seen them before, so those were interesting to use.
I love curry so much, and these two will only satisfy me for a short time. In fact, I’m already thinking about Thai curry! 😄
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/100 sec, ISO1600 “Chennai Express” Cedar Park, 2019
こんにちは。How’s it going?
Today I did a lot of work in the backyard, then relaxed in the afternoon and evening, indulging in three movies. Unicorn Store was just okay. It was amusing but really forgettable. I also watched a documentary called A Suitable Girl, which follows three young Indian women, and their arranged marriages, and the circumstances surrounding them. It was fascinating! I really liked it.
But the standout movie for me was the Bollywood blockbuster Chennai Express. I haven’t seen many Bollywood movies, so I cannot compare this to others, but I was thoroughly entertained. It was hilarious, and the costumes and scenery were beautiful! I loved the music and dancing… super! The story itself wasn’t very original, but everything else was great. I had a smile on my face the whole time. Recommended! (find it on Netflix)
Did you enjoy your senior year of high school? It’s hard to remember exact moments, but yes, I enjoyed it with my friends.
Did you have a senior trip (high school) and were you able to go on it. I don’t think I went on the senior trip.
Was graduating (from either high school or college/university) a big thing with your family or just another day? It was a big event with my family, but nothing over-the-top. I can’t really remember what we did, but if I had to guess, it involved nice dinner out.
What were you looking forward to the most after graduating from either high school or college/university? I didn’t have any long-term goals for my future. I just lived in the short-term.
Knowing what you know now, what advice would you give your graduating self? Just keep going.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/5, 1/100 sec, ISO640 “BBQ Grill” Cedar Park, 2019
こんにちは。how’s it going?
Today I had the day off from work (Good Friday holiday), so I worked on a little task at home, which was to declutter our deck and replace our old barbecue grill with a new one. We’ve enjoyed using our Char-Broil TRU Infrared grill ever since we bought it, but the hose to the propane tank seems to have developed a leak, and add that to the fact that the electric starter hasn’t worked for a while (and it’s a pain to light manually), we decided to get a new grill.
Grills don’t last too long in the harsh Texas climate so I decided to go with an inexpensive one this time, thinking I’ll replace it in about the same time I would replace a really nice one. That led me to look at the grills at Walmart, where I decided on the Expert Grill 3 Burner Gas Grill. It’s pretty much just a basic grill but has space for 17 burgers, and three burners so you don’t have to heat up the entire surface area. Our old grill had space for only seven burgers, and it was pretty cramped. The new grill, even though it’s not huge, seems so spacious! There’s a model with a small side burner instead of one of the shelves, but when we had a grill with that feature several years ago, I only used it once. As a bonus, the grill was just under $100 and I got a nice 5% cash-back through the excellent Rakuten Ebates program.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/50 sec, ISO3200 “What’s This?” Cedar Park, 2019
Assembly was pretty straightforward and took about an hour, but I ended up with one extra part that wasn’t in the printed manual. There was a newer manual online, however, that showed where to put that mystery support brace. After that, the grill was finished! I seasoned the grate with oil, then let it smoke for a bit, and it was ready for use.
Mariko bought some really nice steaks for the first meal prepared on the grill, and they came out great! Not perfect, since I overcooked the meat a tiny bit (must make sure to take them off 5 degrees earlier), but the quality of the meat was so good that they were still juicy and tender. Just plenty of salt and pepper was all that was needed for the flavorful steaks.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/5, 1/70 sec, ISO3200 “Thick Steaks” Cedar Park, 2019
It was a productive day, with many things thrown away from the deck. On my task list for tomorrow is to apply some waterproofing stain to the deck and we’ll be ready for summer!
またね～
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My camera & photos
I use a Fujifilm X-series camera for most of the photos on this site and my Instagram. Why not pick one up for yourself?
