Chicken with olives in tomato sauce which cooked in my smart instant pot while I was at work (all I had to do was heat it up when we got home). Served with big Caesar salad and basmati rice.
Have been thinking about aloo paratha - flatbread stuffed with a spiced potato mixture. A while back, I came across a recipe that skips stuffing and mixes the flour directly into the potato (like gnocchi dough)… so much easier, but it tastes like a different dish.
Anyway, I decided to use up some of the accumulated sweet potatoes this way.
Pressure cooked a long one, then riced it and mixed in the spices, ginger, and a some zhoug (in lieu of cilantro and other things). Added chapati flour to form a pliable dough, divided it and let it rest (well, I made one and ate it - taste test 
).
I had just finished rolling out and griddling the rest when a friend called to ask if we could meet for dinner… so I packed up half of them for her and went out for Thai food 
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No vegetables needed for this night of , is it going to rain or snow. Loved this meatloaf . A recipe from the web . Tweaked of course. Mashed potatoes. Wine to drink.Cheers.
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Seems to be the week for us to have one bowl dinners. Penang curry with stuff I had on hand. Tasty! Homemade banana bread for dessert, posted on the baking thread.
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Continue to play with pasta making.
Using half soft wheat flour and half durum flour came out to be too hard. Also this tagliatelle was too thick too!
My second batch of spaghetti I used a 4:1 ratio, soft : hard flour, texture was better, but didn’t leave enough drying time on the rack, some stuck together! 
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Instant Pot “Alfredo” bow ties (jarred sauce), roasted salmon, steamed broccoli, and cucumber salad. Cooked for the niecelet and MIL. I miss home so much
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I feel you.
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I’m not sure if since having a kid my tolerance for other people’s b.s. has gone down, I’m less driven for others’ approval, or I’m just really stuck in my routine - but being out of our element really sucks. I’m constantly holding back an eye roll or biting my tongue.
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Well, I’m right there, but without the kid.
I’m attributing it to stage of life, being honest with myself, having better insight, and so on. In addition to waning tolerance for bs and hypocrisy.
But my reactions are controlled most of the time, which is why it’s such a relief to come home and shake it off.
And while I’m there, I seek out individual conversations with people I want to spend time with, switch the topic freely to something neutral (food, tv, books, weather), and allow myself to take a “break” (bathroom, walk, pick up a book or magazine, call someone I want to have a long chat with) when I need it.
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Ladies, try living on a crew bus during a festival, lol!
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That covers it pretty well.
Thanks for letting me vent 
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Friend of mine just had major surgery, returning home today
Thought I will make Congee for her
In China, rice congee is considered food for the unwell.
Her husband is a spicy eater but she does not like spicy food , neither is she adventurous in her eating. She did like my chili crisp. XO as well as my oyster sauce with scallops. ( I taught her how to make Chow Fan using those condiments)
Cooked rice in my rice cooker for porridge ( slow cooking mode) 6:1 ( water to kokuho red rice Use 3 cups of uncooked rice. I used around 4:1 for water initially, then when porridge was almost 75% cooked, I added broth to the rice, and added more as I kept it warm till my friend arrived home. Porridge absorbed water but the more broth, the tastier it is.
I added some star anise ( had to be very careful not to make it too strong, tiger lily buds as well as dried porcini mushroom in the water, smashed a piece of ginger.
Then when almost done, I add vegetable and duck bone broth, till rice became had the thick creamy consistency of porridge.
I grind chicken breast
Stir fried the chicken breast with Evoo, garlic, caramelized onion, ginger, added XO sauce, oyster sauce, rice wine, sesame oil. Shao Xing wine, Chinkiang vinegar, chili crisp, and chili with black bean sauce.
Added this ground chicken mixture to the cooked congee with half a tin of pickled sweet and sour mustard And 1/3 bottle of pickled bamboo shoots ( small amount as I am not sure if she will like it ), brought left over for her to add by herself if she wants more.
I kept the congee on warm till she arrived home from the hospital, run it over ( she lives 5 minutes away, added spring onions and fried scallions and fried shallots on top. )when I got to her place. FORGOT TO TAKE FINAL PICTURES.
I had a bowl for my lunch, it was excellent but I had to add more spices to mine based on my taste.
Would have been great if I had pork fu or pork sung for her to add to congee. ( dried pork ) I used to have a tub of each lying around when I do not feel like cooking and just eat it as such or add it to my rice. Pork Sung is more crystalline crunchy whereas Pork Fu is dryer and more fiberous.
Also would liked to have as side dish century eggs. Slated duck eggs or YuTiao ( Chinese crueler or doughnut sticks)
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That’s a labor of love!
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that is what friends are for. The pot would last her ( if she eats without sharing many days)
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Some of the new guys act like children until they get over the rockstar awe. A Wrangler’s job entails skills that might surprise you. They never stop surprising me. When I get off the road, back in my own digs it takes at least a week for me to shake it off…not to mention the grim. 
But god help me, I can’t imagine another trade. We live like family for weeks, sometimes months on end…and it can get tense.
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Dinner last night. One of our favorite eggplant preps that’s been in rotation the past 25 years. Eggplant, tofu and ground turkey in place of pork. Grabbed a jar of what I thought was a jar of Chinese Chile paste from the outside pantry. To my serendipitous amazement it was a brand of the crispy Chile sauce everyone’s talking about lately. I kept going back into the jar to fish out more peanuts or whatever they are. Also liked the crispy tofu or whatever it is.
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Not unusual for you to feel that way @ChristinaM! I have never considered family visits to be vacations, they are work of a sort, and everyone is off their usual routines, even the hosts. What I’ve done is lower my expectations way down, match my pace to the elders if visiting the older generation, and expect not great to bad food. Sometimes with that mind set, I have a much better time than I ever thought was possible.
This summer everyone’s least favorite couple (H’s family) is coming to visit us on their way up the Alcan Highway to Alaska, towing a small trailer. We’re going to put them on the RV pad with hookups we built for my parents, when they were younger and could still travel like that. Such a relief to have a separate place for these pesky in-laws (out-laws)?? SIL, on previous visits has been known to arise before anyone else and look all through my cabinets, drawers, China and antique collections. Seriously. Other misdeeds too, such as raiding the pantries and helping themselves to anything they want without asking. And don’t even ask if they ever contribute a bottle of wine or ANYTHING else. Ok, rant over, back to regular programming. 
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