After realizing I had laundry yet to do this morning, I was sucked into blogs related to cleaning, via Lifehacker and Realsimple. Naturally, this led to the acquisition of cleaning tools that we did not have on the premises. Of course the last logical step was an entire day spent cleaning. This was very depressing. Despite doing lots of windows (inside and out—with a squeegee!) and dusting/cleaning of various sorts, it became clear that there is so much more to do. For better or worse, I happened across this “periodic table of cleaning” originally from Real Simple. I don’t think any of those things have been done in the last year, suggesting I have a lot of work ahead of me.

Thanks to James Minor/Maior (depending on your point of view) and REG for coming over for dinner. It was an experimental stir-fry with teriyaki sauce, red habañero peppers, and other fresh ingredients that seemed to turn out pretty alright. We paired it with a Chardonnay and a 2007 Malvar from Velarde. Both white wines and both surprisingly good! It’s always exciting to find another white that’s potable, much less delicious. Dinner should be had with friends more often by me (What do you think 506q-ers: mihi est cum amicis saepius cenandum?) .

In scarier news, the skin above my vastus lateralis is still suffering from extremely diminished sensation; heat, cold, and pain register, but not much else. My hope is that this is the result of poorly executing the stretches the physical therapist assigned me. Anyhow, I’ll be seeing him again on Tuesday, and hopefully another doctor before that. For any who might be concerned: this in no way has affected my mobility, despite being unusual and terrifying. At least the stretches have helped with my lower back?

In unrelated news: Who would have thought that `miniature” was not related to the Latin `minor’ (smaller); it appears to come from `minium’ (red lead), and refer to coloring certain letters red in manuscripts. CRAZY!

Well tonight’s dinner might have been the spiciest thing I’ve ever eaten, and that was accidental.

It was pretty simple, since it was a stir-fry, but it was really good. I did go a little overboard and opted for peanut oil instead of the usual olive oil, mostly because the olive oil doesn’t play nice at super high temperatures. Anyway, that did lead to a subtle difference in taste.

I tried throwing minced garlic into the oil first and letting it brown, and that made the entire house smell awesome (apologies if this word is getting overused). Next came an assortment of sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and cracked peanuts. After letting them do their thing I added some thawed veggie burgers cut in slivers, and then a whole lot of frozen vegetables and some kung-pao sauce.

The kick came from the last thing to be added. I mixed some salt, soy sauce, and thai chilis. BE AWARE: thai chilis (at least when they’re red) may be very small, but their heat is like divine retribution. I admit, I was cocky and thought three wouldn’t be enough (which is the number called for to make 4 servings in a few recipes I found), and so opted for a fourth. HYBRIS! but the good kind.

I had some sake sitting around for the last couple weeks, and although I didn’t warm it, it was at room temperature, and matched the meal pretty nicely. I don’t know what any of the names mean, so I’ll just say that it was Horin Gekkeikan Sake, and pricey enough that I probably won’t get it again except for special occasions (it’s probably less than 12 oz, but more expensive than a good, cheap wine).

Of course there was some rice, too. Just texmati, unsalted and without any oil, but relatively sticky.

Well, I’ve missed noting a couple of experiments so far, and thought I would catch up on them, so as to not forget.

A few nights ago Shrita and I tried to recapture the magic that was the enchillada dinner Keith cooked up while he was visiting a month or so back. Due to my continuing discomfort with meats, we did a little innovating, that turned out alright. Instead of chicken we used portabella mushrooms, which smelled and tasted delicious, and even maintained a respectable consistency as well as their awesome mushroom flavor. A few mistakes that may have hurt the dish, which was still very tasty:

• I thought we had run out of chili powder when that was not the case, resulting in a too-mild flavor, in my opinion.
• I added the vegetable stock well after the rest of the sauce had been simmering for 5 to 10 min. There wasn’t anything that was specifically bad, but the sauce was not quite as great as it was before.

I think next time we may add spinach. You can never go wrong with spinach.

We paired the enchilladas with a 2006 Godello from Castelo de Papa. Supposedly this was supposed to be a good complement to spicy food, but it was very boring and hardly had any distinctiveness to it at all. I’m growing increasingly suspicious of white wines. Aside from a sample offered at the grocery store (2009 Chardonnay by Tapiz), I don’t think I’ve ever had one that would be worth revisiting. Last time we went with a Tempranillo, which was quite good (and obviously red), but I don’t remember the vinyard or the vintage.

Tonight’s meal coming up.

Ugh. Woke up this morning with something in my eye. I have no idea what it was, but it was persistent, and just came out about 10 min. ago. I don’t know if it’s just because one eye is more irritated than the other, or if I’m mostly relying on my astigmatic eye, but now I seem to be suffering from vertigo (having to type this post with my eyes closed). I’ll give this a little while to get better, but we shall see (I hope!).

UPDATE: Well, the vertigo’s gone, so aside from losing half a day, everything seems alright.