Called the Acer repair centre on Monday because I did not receive the SMS from them that I was supposed to get before I go and retrieve my beloved. They told me the laptop was not ready for collection and that the engineer in charge of it will call me later that day.
At about 3pm he called and told me that the motherboard required a replacement and that my warranty was still valid till 30th of June, which happens to be this month. I asked him whether there will be any extra charges and he replied that there won't be any and I should not be worried about the replacement because specwise, I'm actually getting a free upgrade.
FREE UPGRADE!
UPGRADE!
FREEEEEEEEEEE!
WARRANTY EXPIRES AT THE END OF THIS MONTH!
FREEEEEEEEEEE!
IF SAME PROBLEM OCCURS WITHIN 90 DAYS OF DATE OF COLLECTION, NO EXTRA CHARGES WILL BE INCURRED!
FREEEEEEEEEEEE!
UPGRADE!!!!!
On a less positve note, I sprained my knee on Saturday. Have never heard of such a thing before, but apparently this phenomenon actually exists. I was very careful not to fling my left arm around to much to protect my still-healing shoulder, but who'd have thought that something else might happen?
Anyway it's getting better now. Still afraid of leaning on my right leg, but I dare to lock the knee now.
On the same day, I made the Cheddar Cheese Sauce I saw on this website. Wasn't too hard, and it didn't taste bad at all. Except that it lacked meat. I was planning to throw in some of the parma ham, but at the last minute decided that a few slices of parma ham alone was not enough.
So I took some sausages from the fridge, cut them into bite-sized pieces and baked them, then threw them into each plate of spiral pasta before pouring the sauce on them.
I bet Vic has never smelled roux before. Probably didn't even know what it is. Neither did I before my interest in cooking began. Roux is a thickening agent that European cuisines use. It is similar to the mixture of water and starch that Chinese cooking usually requires to create that thick gravy in many dishes. Their purposes are almost the same, the only difference being that roux also affects the flavour becuase it contains butter.
I was quite surprise when Vic said what I was cooking smelled good, since I was merely making roux then. Roux = Butter + Flour + Heat. That's all. At least it wasn't as lumpy as the first time I made it a few months back.
I find it much easier to make roux in larger batches. Mixing six tablespoons of flour into six tablespoons of liquid butter is way easier than mixing two tablespoons of each. There is less risk of the butter drying up before it was ready.
After the roux was made, the rest was easy. Just dump the milk in, stir till it becomes a smooth and thick mixture, then add cheddar. Voila! My old stash of cheddar is used up and I don't have to worry about their expiry dates anymore.
The Cheddar Cheese Sauce, good for pasta and veggies.
The finished product.
Bought all the herbs and extra virgin olive oil I will need for my next mission. Will do it some day, probably after another week or so. Now considering cooking something more Chinese. Maybe I will start with the easiest, like steamed meat or something.
No comments:
Post a Comment