Sunday, January 15, 2017
Another gorgeous morning looking out from our home here in Winthrop. It’s 11º outside – practically shorts weather.
Today is a day of staying in and relaxing and studying. I’m working through Statistics & Probability and am having to re-study 4 modules. As part of my success plan (for failing the assessment twice), I’m having to keep detailed handwritten notes for each module, then complete comprehensive worksheets, and finally, meet with a course mentor after completing each module. This is a LOT of work and has taught me a lesson: never attempt taking a course’s assessment a second time unless you really know the material. This is a pain. 🙂
I’ve completed an introductory course on WordPress and I’m about to delve into an introductory course on HTML. I’ve decided that along with getting my BA in Business this year, I also want to learn HTML, a scripting language like PHP, a RDBMS (probably MySQL) and Java. If I still have time, I may try to learn some Ruby.
Today, I’d also like to tackle sewing a throw blanket, but I need to learn how to make bias binding and how to sew it onto the blanket’s edge. Thank God for YouTube.com!
Change in plan. I ended up deaconstructing my favorite toiletry bag that’s begun to tear and fray. I want to sew a couple new toiletry bags, one for myself, one for Tiago and perhaps a couple as gifts. I spent the better part of two-hours ripping all the stitches, ironing the pieces, and working on drafting a pattern.
Here’s the original:
Here’s the pieces broken down:
Here’s the pattern I drafted:
I want to use ticking that I will interface with some medium-weight canvas.
I still have laundry to iron tomorrow before I head back down to Moses Lake: I don’t know if I’ll have time to cut out the pattern and get it sewn, but I’ll try – I don’t want to go all week without a toiletry bag.
I plan on doing a more detailed blog entry on making this bag.
What’s for dinner? Tiago said we have some chicken that needs to be cooked. We still had two bags of curry base gravy in the freezer and I decided to make chicken tikka masala. If you’re not familiar with “base gravy”, it’s the foundation of a lot of Indian take-out recipes. Here’s the YouTube video I used to make mine:
Chicken Tikka Masala
INGREDIENTS
800g chicken pieces
2 onions coarsely
2 tomatoes coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 tablespoons garlic
1 tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 tablespoon coriander powder
1 tablespoon dried fenugreek leaves
2 tablespoons garam masala
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon palm sugar
2 tablespoons tomato paste
700ml heated base curry sauce
250ml double cream
1 tablespoon red food colouring powder (optional)
2 tablespoons butter
1 small bunch fresh chopped coriander
Salt and pepper to taste
Juice of one lemon
INSTRUCTIONS
Heat the oil in a large pan or wok over medium high heat
Add the garlic, chicken pieces, and the chopped onion and sautee.
Once the chicken is cooked, ad the base gravy.
When bubbling hot, add the cumin, turmeric, coriander powder, fenugreek leaves and garam masala.
Stir the spices around in and then add the tomato paste.
Allow the curry simmer for around 10 minutes.
Stir in the fresh coriander, season with salt and pepper and finish with a squeeze or two of lemon.
Serve over warm basmati rice.
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