The Weekend

 I'm getting way too involved in reading and making decisions on my old emails - what to keep and what to toss.  Some of them are easy to toss, like the ones involving household things and finances or the ones that just break my heart - all Mike's worry about whether he would find work in his field for 5 more years.  If he could only have known how nicely it would work out.....  I do want to save some of the worrying ones, because they all fit together in the story of those years of our lives.  

I'm at the point now (2008 and 2009) of communicating with so many people, and life was getting to be more fun.  Emily's graduation and then Emily and Ryan's wedding.  There were so many fun and crazy emails regarding that.  We also were trying to handle our parents getting old and becoming sick and finally dying or living in a nursing home through those years.  Like I said, just a slice of life with sadness and worry but with a good bit of fun and silliness.  

It's addicting, that reading one email after the other, and I'm going to have to not get obsessed.  On one hand, it brings back so many good memories of Mike and then at the same time makes me miss him more.  

I did have a good distraction with the air fryer.  I had cleared off a section of my already too small countertop, so when it arrived, I didn't panic, but I was having concerns about it fitting in the space.

This was a little more reassuring.

It's about the same size as the mixer that was there before.  I hid the toaster in the pantry because we hardly ever use that and slid the mixer over toward the refrigerator.  Those things in the middle will probably be changed around, but I like to have the cutting boards and recipe notebook in that spot.

It was just a relief that it fit nicely with plenty of vent room behind it.

I gave it a test run yesterday afternoon, and it did work out okay.  I can see there is a learning curve.  It would probably have been better if I had read the instructions more thoroughly, but it was okay.

I was a little disappointed that I didn't get the kind with the removable basket, so when you have meat or foods with juices, you can lift out the basket and leave the juices.  

I don't think it will be a real problem though.  I've ordered some silicone-tipped tongs, and it's no big deal to lift out pieces one by one.

With things like zucchini or Brussels sprouts, I would probably like having a rack like this (which is optional on mine), although the amount of oil used in veggies is just a spritz of olive oil.

As it is, the food goes on this removable crisper, and any drippings fall down below.  It wasn't a problem yesterday.

It comes out easily for washing.

I question my common sense in taking this appliance on its maiden voyage with a food that I never cook.  I can't remember the last time I fried shrimp - decades ago, if then.  But I had a big bag of frozen shrimp in the freezer that we usually boil,  and it was handy.  And sounded better than zucchini slices!

It was way more work than I like to spend on cooking:  Thawing, removing the shells, dipping in flour, dipping in egg, dipping in Panko crumbs. 

 But once I placed them in the basket, chose the temperature and time, I was done cooking.  

It was just a matter of pausing the cooking and shaking the basket halfway through the 10-minute cooking cycle.  I changed it to 9 minutes on the second batch.

And they turned out very nice.

Tender and done on the inside and crispy on the outside.

So I guess I'll keep it.

Emily saw the pictures and immediately decided they had to have one and wanted to borrow mine for wings yesterday.

After further consideration, they decided to get rid of their old Instant Pot and get the new version that has an air fryer with it, because they do use the Instant Pot a lot, and this would save room on their countertop.  For big-time cooks!

It's a silly thing, a new appliance, but I think right now I need a distraction, something to keep me from staying too much inside my head and worrying.  I hope I will put it to good use.  

Edit:  I had one zucchini, and I popped it in with some olive oil spray, salt, pepper, and grated parmesan.  It's not pretty, but Elise and I kind of fought over it!  Yum.

So next time, half the time without the parmesan and then add it with maybe an extra minute for crispness.  I still like it better than putting it in the oven and checking every few minutes for overcooking.

Debby has sent me this recipe:  Pumpkin Cream Cheese Swirls, and after my pumpkin bread fail of last week, I'm going to try these along with some pumpkin chocolate chip mini muffins for the apartment office.  

That should get this pumpkin spice cooking need out of my system for a year.  I'll do some banana bread and maybe zucchini break if I have anyone I need to give them to.

I'm getting my oven thermostat checked tomorrow if that's possible to find out why my breads are not getting completely done in the middle.  

At the end of a rainy and dreary day, I had a little sunshine in the form of a visit from all the Win-Bins.  They showed up at the bottom of my stairs with homemade soup and cornbread.  Next to their happy presence and all the smiles and giggles from the girls, that was the best thing that happened all day.

She actually found fresh okra in Safeway in a bag underneath the "exotic foods" section of the produce department.  That's my next thing to try in the new toy.

I wish I had taken some pictures of the girls jumping up and down and smiling and making me so happy with their little masks on.  I gave them the mermaid and cats I had sewn, and they were thrilled with them.  Emily sent me pictures later.  You just never know what's going to please kids.

They're just growing up while my head is turned.  It's funny seeing Katherine wearing Graysen's hand-me-downs.  That little plaid skirt was always one of my favorites.

These two are having no trouble with the cooler weather.  They're hinting very strongly for a fire, I think.