It's proven to be a fairly productive last couple of days without any major casualties like getting locked out. I will have Colin call dentist(s) tomorrow morning. I will finish off the digitizing project and website tonight or at least before Monday. I have done a lot of pretty heavy duty cleaning especially in the kitchen/den area (where we spend most of our time). As for Europe planning and getting tickets - that's the one bit I think I might need to exempt. I'll focus on doing some heavy planning with Colin this weekend but I think it will be less stressful to not require having tickets by Monday. The point of the GTD list was to, well, get things done, but ultimately to relieve any stress that not doing those things would end up affecting November. I don't want to make hasty decisions and then have to clean up the mess later, such as if we end up needing to change the tickets (note: we aren't the only ones affected by our plans but nobody else has really got things figured out).
I can't remember what initially made me start a blog post just now, but so far it's boring. What else ...
Oh! So last night I made our usual Indian dinner. It always involves a lot of planning ahead, hopping around, and tons of dirty dishes. I don't know how often I make it - maybe once every two weeks or so? First, there's the basmati rice. I've actually forgotten it a couple times while thinking dinner was almost ready. It takes over 20 minutes to make so it's not fun to forget it. Then, there's the paneer masala, most of which is quite simple: a spice packet, milk, can of tomatoes, and the paneer. The paneer is the tricky part and it's been trial and error (lots of error actually) trying to have actual chunks instead of it melting and becoming invisible. We've tried making it from whole milk. We've tried sour cream. Then we realized farmer's cheese is about as close as you're going to find to paneer here. Some say it's one and the same but I have my doubts. Last night I cut it up into cubes and used paper towels to soak up the excess moisture. It worked much better but I don't think it's quite there yet. I also let the paneer masala cook for a bit too long so it was more pastier than goopier. Strangely, this seemed to subdue the spices.
Then there was the naan. Elusive but oh so yummy and, at least for me, necessary to complete a dish. Last time, I figured out how to make one actually turn out thin. But this time? I am so much closer to getting something like real naan. I had lots of bubbles! And they all turned out quite thin! I let every step take more than enough time and then I stored the balls of dough in the fridge for a couple of hours. They were big and poofy when I pulled them out. Interestingly, the upper layer (there were two layers of four balls each) was much easier to make thin. Next time, I won't stack them. Then the final touch? Roll them out a LOT. Roll it one way then straight back, pressing hard. Do it again and if they're still too thick, turn them 90 degrees and roll them sideways. If they keep trying to shrink, have gravity help out by holding them up by one edge. All in all, I was very happy that they turned out nicely.
Also, in case you were wondering how much time this all takes, it depends. I had prepared the dough and the paneer earlier. I don't know quite how long it takes to do that though. However, once it came time to cook, it took about half an hour. I have to work on the timing of things, such as not starting the panner masala right away. But from the time I put the rice on to boil to the time it was done, the rest of dinner was ready.
Now I'm all hungry thinking about the leftovers. Maybe we will eat dinner earlier than usual tonight ...
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