cook: palak paneer and chicken curry and basmati rice

I've been basically cooking to have leftovers, so I don't have to struggle to get dinner out during the work week. On a lazy Sunday where I was super hung over, I cooked pots of South Asian dishes.                  

 

Hot, sweaty work, but my freezer is getting emptier and I'm starting to embrace a more minimalist lifestyle.

 

I've got Cecilia coming over for an Indian lunch. I've been eating hot fudge ice cream sundaes for dessert since I'm not drinking wine. Eventually I'd like to wean myself off so much sugar, but for now, dessert is to satiate the loss of wine though on Saturday, while cleaning my fridge of lumpia, I basically drank two bottles of wine with the neighbors. Gotta remember how AWFUL it feels on my body, so I can teetotal more. While Cecilia is here, I'll also open my boxes from Ooni. I'm guessing the smaller box that's been on my dining table is the pizza peel.

On my first week of summer vacation I've been on a Netflix and chill bender. Valeria, a series that is set in Madrid, is basically Sex and the City with some of the same exact tropes. Like Carrie Bradshaw, Valeria Ferria writes for a living in a major metropolis and turns during her woes to her four besties--Lola is the same nymphomaniac as Samantha Jones; Nerea is likewise a lawyer just like Miranda Hobbes but right from the start is a lesbian rather than evolving into her sexuality; and Carmen is very much a conventional romantic like Charlotte York. The romantic plotline doesn't deviate much from the Manhattan romance either in that Valeria pines for Victor, who like Mr. Big remains aloof unless it's for steamy hot sex but is emotionally unavailable for his lady love. The series ended after 3 seasons, and I hope it stays uncontinued because I like the resolution where Valeria is a grown-up and maturely chooses Bruno Aguilar, another writer who is the opposite of Victor, and yeah is kinda an Aidan Shaw.