Home today. Sort of. Woke up early to catch the water before it ran out for maintenance shutoff and had a ham and spinach and mustard sandwich on sourdough. Planned to spend the day outside somehow but wound up staying in until 12:30 or 1. I realized the water came back on around that same time and headed out to the nearby Starbucks. The young woman at the register was very kind. I didn't even know you could have your coffee in the store and skip the 25 cent fee, so the small blonde roast coffee for only $2.95 felt and tasted like a great deal. It was cozy in the store but also somewhat noisier than I expected from the constant espresso drinks. I think Peet's was quieter but more expensive. Edited SotC 3.0 a little bit and headed out to the Felton branch library. Unfortunately I couldn't be there for very long since my stomach started rumbling and I got so embarrassed in such a quiet place. I headed back home, read Alex's short and sweet response ("Hey I understand completely. No worries, it was a nice moment.") and unwound for an hour and worked on dinner around 5:30. Impatient, I didn't get my 12 inch stainless steel pan hot enough so the chicken actually stuck to the pan for the first time. I managed to protect the fond but making the pasta puttanesca sauce was another challenge. Somehow I had to work quickly to brown the anchovies and give time to sweat out the onions/olives/capers and protect my microplaned garlic (I genuinely think mincing is better at this point), all while keeping the pan hot enough to cook everything in a timely manner. Has it really just been this long since I've made pasta puttanesca? The ziti didn't fare as well either. I natural released in the Instant Pot so it softened past al dente. Actually quite good when you first combine the pasta and sauce but leftovers may be too mushy. Ah well. At least the pasta was well seasoned. Maybe a bit too well. It was more salty than I thought. It must've been the extra olives I added in. Next time I'll be sure to simmer the sauce for longer to dissolve the salt from the olives and capers through the sauce. I added a bit of Worcestershire sauce at the end which really rounded out the flavors. Interestingly I wasn't craving chicken as much as I thought so I only had one piece and saved the other two for the two servings of leftovers. Still I enjoyed it. Sent a photo and caption to mom, per usual. Cleaned up and unwound at the computer. Chatted with Donna a little bit around 9:50.
"[Growing up] is hard and nobody understands." // https://www.homestuck.com/story/2391