Weekly Round Up: A New Kitchen Gadget

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  This week the big adventure was that we got a new toy for the kitchen.

Eats

In general I'm anti gadget - until there is a reason to have the gadget.  It's not so much that I'm a curmudgeon as I am someone with limited kitchen space.

A few weeks ago we caught up with some friends, who raved about their potato ricer.  Their what?

A potato ricer is a thingamabob that you use in place of a potato masher.  Ya press the potatoes through the holes, resulting in the rice shape of the name.  I'd heard of a potato ricer before and had a general idea of what it was, but this was my first time hearing the claims that it is a superior way to make mashed potatoes.  I mean, the way that we make mashed potatoes is just fine, there's no need for improvement.

However, our dating anniversary was coming up, so we dropped $18 to see what the fuss was about.  I dunno what brand of ricer our friends have, and I can't say whether the one that I picked off of Amazon is better or worse, but if you're curious, this is what we got. 

On Sunday we put it to the test.

Criticism: it was way harder that I imagined to press the potatoes through the ricer.

Admiration: whoa!!!!  The ricer does give the potatoes a little extra oomph.  I feel like it might have something to do with smaller particles of potato being able to soak up more salt and butter.  It was worth the trouble to muscle the potatoes through the ricer.

Anyways, if you're looking for that special something to get your special someone, a potato ricer might just fit the bill.  It was too cold to grill, so we rounded out the meal with pan fried steak for me, chicken for him, and air fryer roasted frozen broccoli.

In other food news, it was Boy Scout Camp this weekend, and I was not about to roll the dice by trying to travel somewhere like I did for last year's January camp.  Doggo and I hunkered down for a single gals' weekend.

 

I lived large by making my single gal chili, which gave me a chance to try out another food tip via The Frugal Girl.  The difference between my single gal chili and my family gal chili is that family chili is chili mac (no chipotle chilis because even a small amount is too spicy for the Hubs, and when you're cooking for a crowd it really is a lot easier to add pasta to stretch the recipe).

The thing about chipotle chilis is that they come in cans, and most recipes only use a partial can, so you're left with the rest of the can to "do something" with - and "something" is usually park it in the fridge and throw it out a few months later.  Also it's a little high maintenance to scoop out the chilis and chop them up.  Kristen's technique is to blend up the entire can so that there is no chopping, and then to seal it up in another container, where it will keep for up to two months (which is the longest that a can of chipotle chilis has ever lasted in her house).

Anyways, I blended up the can in my Ninja and sealed up the leftovers.  I figure that if I still have this batch a month later, I'll add a Suzanne technique and freeze them up in small portions.  Or I might forget about them and throw them out a few months from now...TBD.

Workouts

I really don't have anything to say about my week day workouts besides "same old same old" - I alternate the 30/3/12 workout with a run-walk kinda deal.

And on weekends I do a route from the hiking challenge (100 miles on local trails divvied up into 20-ish routes ranging in distance between 3 and 7 miles).  It was above freezing with minimal wind on Saturday, so I was able to knock back a 4.5 mile route while Doggo was at Doggy Daycare.  I was a bit put out that this is a three day weekend but only one day was viable for hiking, but at least it was one day and not zero days so I will take it.

Watching

Doggo continues to watch us watch Seinfeld.

Reading

I think I'm wrapping up my reading slump!  I'm almost done with J is for Judgement by Sue Grafton.  The first half of the book was "this is a perfectly fine entry in the Alphabet series" and then the book said "hold my beer and watch this" and jumped up to an 11.  I'm very excited to finish it.  I've got my next title picked out and on my Kindle, which will be a non-Alphabet book.

Peace out!  How cold is it where you are?  So far our lowest has been 1 degree, but we've got a few days of colder stuff coming.  Do you celebrate your dating anniversary?  Who's used a potato ricer?