Northeast Chinese II

Fried shrimp and crunchy peppers. So good. Salt an pepper shrimp, with a little kick.

 So good, it's worth ordering the chicken version, too. The red peppers aren't too spicy, but the crunch factor is awesome.

They're redoing their menus so when I went the printed sheets were stapled together and less dishes than in previous trips. But before this their menus were comically long. Even pared down it's still a lot of food. 

900 Central Ave, Albany, NY 12206

Sushi Tei

Some things never change, like Sushi Tei's $1 nigiri special for the entire month of July. Or ordering $50 of food for myself.

There was a special! Okonomiyaki! $7.95 for a pancake sized for two people (but easily shared between 4). This was very kewpie mayo heavy, and oh man the shrimpy bits were great. 

But let's get to the star of the show, the sushi:

Hello, gorgeous! Octopus, mackerel, white tuna/escolar, salmon, tuna, and a few rolls.

Oh, I also forgot to take a photo of the mini udon noodle soup I got ($6.95), which was fantastic as always. I think they're my favorite place for both sushi and udon noodle soups. 

Any way, go check them out - this is a great deal, and they're so nice there!

Cheesecake

First baked good in new apartment - cheesecake. Went from a consistent electric oven to a gas stove and range. Was worried I'd need to work on gauging my oven temperature, but was pleasantly surprised that my cheesecake came out spot on. Super creamy texture. 

I've discovered I like graham cracker crusts as long as they stay crunchy. So I basically double the butter and sugar any recipe calls for and bake the hell out of it in the oven until it looks nearly burnt. Then it stays crispy.

4 bricks of cream cheese
2 cups of sugar (1/2 per brick)
4 eggs (1 egg per brick)
splash of vanilla extract
hearty blop or two of sour cream

Bake at 325F until it looks giggly in the center but not too giggly. 

The hardest part is waiting until it's cold to eat. 

House to Apartment

Sold the house. Moved to an apartment. 

I pared down a lot of stuff in the months leading up to selling. House was on the market for a week before there was a buyer and I cannot imagine having to do that any longer. It was exhausting. The prep was intense, and single mom life is tidy, but not "house is show ready" spotless level of clean. 

In the run up to selling just about every annoying thing that could break needed a repair. I'm looking at you saddle valve on the ice maker. Grrr. Well, the house made the decision to flee leave quite easy in the end. Maintaining a house is easy as a single lady, but man, the timing is tough as a single parent to a baby/toddler.

Still, selling is stressful and the buyers kept me on my toes and didn't I didn't get the "all clear" from my attorney until one week before our deadline to either close or cancel the sale. What a week. And what great friends and family I have for helping me do it all in a week. 

By some other stroke of luck I wound up in a pretty cute apartment that was flexible with my "I'm probably selling my house but I don't know exactly when" timeline vagueness. Aside from the carpeting (ugh, carpeting) it's great. I've never lived on my own. It's really cool that I get to decide everything and where everything goes. Yeah, I've got the kiddo, but she's stuck with me and my decisions. I guess she does impact some decision making, because if it were just me I'd probably just live in some tiny studio, but hey, gotta give the kid some structure and sense of her own space, so a 2 bedroom in a nice neighborhood it is. Man, I sound like such an adult. Who am I?

Speaking of the kiddo, I was wondering how she'd take to the transition. She's still tiny, and she took to it really well - no real issue whatsoever. She loves running around the apartment, and the open kitchen makes a game of tag/peek-a-boo easy and fun.

And OMFG central air rocks. Haven't had that since I lived in the south. Woe betide my electric bill.