Jenn Dolari @dolari@driveinsaturday.org

The only two things I will actually go to McDonald's for:

Wonder what this is all about....

Sitting here thinking. Thinking about sitting here, thinking.

Oh, hey. Starscream finally transitioned. Good for her.

https://www.kotobukiya.co.jp/en/product/detail/p4934054052141/

This Week's Fancy Pants Meal: Doner Kebabs

I've been sitting on this recipe for a while, as it was one I got via a snack site, versus one I'd planned for. I figured this was a good week to try it, since I was only cooking for four days instead of six, and it was mostly spices.

I should not have sat on it so long. This is amazing.

# Doner Kebabs

Universal Yums

0.25 cup plain yogurt
1.0 tbsp black pepper
2.0 tsp nutmeg
2.0 tsp paprika
1.0 tsp coriander
1.0 tsp cinnamon
1.0 tsp cloves
1.0 tsp cumin
1.0 tsp salt
0.25 tsp cardamom
3.0 tbsp tomato paste
4.0 cloves garlic (minced)
1.0 tsp cumin
0.5 tsp cayenne pepper
2.0 pounds chicken thigh
0.5 tsp smoked paprika
salt (to taste)
pepper (to taste)
1.0 whole lemon (juice and zest only)

1 - Make the marinade by combining the yogurt,tomato paste, lemon zest, lemon juice, garlic, and spices in a large mixing bowl.
2 - Pat the chicken dry and season well with salt and pepper on each side.
3 - Toss in the marinade, then cover and refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight.
4 - Thread the whole chicken thighs onto skewers, pushing the meat together tightly. Repeat until all the chicken is skewered.
5 - Place the skewers in a broiler pan and cook under the broiler for 15 minutes until the surface is golden and slightly charred.
6 - Remove the skewers from the broiler.
7 - Flip the skewers over and brush with the pan drippings, then return to the broiler for another 15 minutes or until fully cooked.
8 - Remove the skewers from the broiler and allow to rest for 5 to 10 minutes.
9 - Carve the chicken off the skewer off the skewers and enjoy over pita, salad or rice.

#thisweeksmeals #cooking

This Week's Bread: Angel Biscuits (take two)

Tried the recipe again, this time with double the salt. Also accidentally overdosed on the buttermilk, so I made it into a double recipe of eight instead of four.

I also did chill the dough in the fridge for a few hours. It really did add a lot of flakiness to the biscuit. It's not more of a rolll-type biscuit instead of a biscuit-like roll.

The extra salt helped a lot, but the bread on its own still tastes a bit bland. A pat of butter makes for a good roll, though, and I can imagine using it to soak up some gravy would make the rolls taste amazing.

# Angel Biscuits

Fredericksburg Home Kitchen Cook Book
(The book says this makes 72 small biscuits)

5.0 cups flour
0.75 cup shortening
1.0 tsp baking soda
2.0 tsp salt
3.0 tsp baking powder
3.0 tbsp sugar
2.25 tsp yeast
0.5 cup lukewarm water
2.0 cups buttermilk

1 - Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm water.
2 - Sift the dry ingredients together.
3 - Cut in shortening until mixed thoroughly.
4 - Add buttermilk and dissolved yeast.
5 - Work together with a large spoon until all the flour is moistened.
6 - Cover bowl and put in refridgerator. Dough will keep for several weeks in refridgerator. If not refridgerating, allow dough to rise for an hour.
7 - When ready to use take out as much dough as needed, roll 1/2 inch thick and cut.
8 - Bake at 400F on greased cookie sheet 12 minutes, or until browned.

#thisweeksmeals #cooking #baking

This....MEANS something.

One of these things is not like the other, one of these things just isn't the same....

I really wanted fruit empanadas Thursday, but my empanada place closed early. Had to get the next best thing.

SAVE SOME FOR THE REST OF US

This Week's Bread: Angel Biscuits

Another "Schoolkid's Mom Recipe" that's more intuition than instruction.

It calls for putting the dough in the fridge, and then taking it our "when it's ready to use." I was ready right then, so I used it. What I should have done was let it rise for an hour, instead of just using it then. So if you fridge it overnight, great. If not, might want to wait an hour so the yeast can rise the dough.

It's actually a really nice Not-Actually-A-Biscuit-Not-Actually-A-Roll bread. The recipe could use a bit more salt (I'm doubling it next time), but otherwise, you get a light flaky roll that smells and tastes like a biscuit. I REALLY like them.

This recipe makes 6 dozen biscuits according to the recipe.

# Angel Biscuits

Fredericksburg Home Kitchen Cook Book

5.0 cups flour
0.75 cup shortening
1.0 tsp baking soda
1.0 tsp salt
3.0 tsp baking powder
3.0 tbsp sugar
2.25 tsp yeast
0.5 cup lukewarm water
2.0 cups buttermilk

1 - Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm water.
2 - Sift the dry ingredients together.
3 - Cut in shortening until mixed thoroughly.
4 - Add buttermilk and dissolved yeast.
5 - Work together with a large spoon until all the flour is moistened.
6 - Cover bowl and put in refridgerator. Dough will keep for several weeks in refridgerator. If not refridgerating, allow dough to rise for an hour.
7 - When ready to use take out as much dough as needed, roll 1/2 inch thick and cut.
8 - Bake at 400F on greased cookie sheet 12 minutes, or until browned.

#thisweeksmeals #cooking #baking

This Week's Fancy Pants Meal: Wurst-Kohl Eintopf (Sausage-Cabbage Dish) (TAKE TWO!)

So the quartered potatoes weren't all that good as some of them didn't cook completely, and worse, the less cooked ones were made TERRIBLE by freezing, turning them into tubes of wierd rubbery-ness, making three of the six dishes horrible.

So I decided to try again, and this time chunk the potatoes, and that worked SO SO SO much better.

# Wurst-Kohl Eintopf (Sausage-Cabbage Dish)

Fredericksburg Home Kitchen Cook Book

1.0 medium head cabbage (cut into 8 wedges per head)
5.0 medium potatoes (peeled) (cut into chunks)
2.0 rings smoked sausage
3.0 slices bacon (diced)
3.0 tbsp onion (diced)
1.0 cup water
salt
pepper

1 - In a large saucepan cook bacon and onion until just brown.
2 - Add water.
3 - Arrange cabbage leaves in bottom of the pan. Season with salt and pepper.
4 - Top with potatoes. Season with salt and pepper.
5 - Place sausage on top, do not pierce.
6 - Cover tightly and simmer very slowly until sausage is done, about 40 minutes.

User Interface versus User Interaction

Fashion Plate #3A.

Jenn as a Lower Decks character, abandonned on a planet in the Delphi Ardu system as the new Portal guardian. Wether she likes it or not.

https://www.startrek.com/replicateyourself

Who knew my old pickup, Cheyenne, was a movie star? Here she is in her cameo role in The Straight Story. Maybe. I dunno what she was doing before she was mine. Could be her.

(Probably not)

When I first transitioned, Steph and Amy were my fashion consultants. Their goal (which may have not been my goal) was to keep me from being that girl who dressed up for lunch with the queen when all she had to do was grocery shop.

While I've kinda developed my own sense of style (frumpy- baggy-hide-it-all-couture), when I'd dress up for an occasion, I'd still send a pic to Steph to show her I dressed up. It was always encouraging, and despite being down on my looks, at least would pep me up a bit.

A post about "Fashion Plates" a kid's toy where you could swap out different outfits and heads to make new outfits you could then draw and fill in) got me thinking, though. What if I DID have the body I wanted, and I COULD dress how I wanted. Or, even, see what the clothes I'm wearing in this Y Chromosome Body would look like on X Chromosome Me?

Turns out it was easy to set up, And X Chromosome me looks cute even in my frumpy-ish outfits. And it's set up that I can overlay any clothes I want on the template, assuming I can draw it.

This is what I wore to last night's city council meeting.

While setting up a "Wrapround Wednesday" for the Comico Comics Celebration I came across Lancer/Yellow Dancer's debut episode.

Oh, Yellow. My first real in depth look at a gender bending character (even before Boy George, mainly because I thought they were a cis girl at the time).

I knew I was trans at the time, and while I didn't put the trans label on Yellow/Lancer, it was nice to see. Especially when we got to episode 71 which explains Yellow's origin as a survival tactic and the fact that Lancer lived as a woman (And enjoyed it) for some time.

That kind of positive influence was something I needed at the time I realized I'd literally just figured out I was trans, even if I didn't have the vocabulary for it.

This Week's Fancy Pants Meal: Wurst-Kohl Eintopf

This is a recipe that comes from a student's mom in the 1920s. While I love making food from personal recipes, they often completely leave out steps because "of COURSE you're going to know how to do X or Y."

Following the direction, this meal isn't bad. Just unweildy. Looking online for what "wurst-eintopf" should have looked like led me to believe that there was more chopping involved than just "quartering the potatoes." In fact, it should be cut into chunk as the potatoes on top don't get cooked.

Still, it is tasty, and it's up there with Really Good Food. I'd just chop the potatoes a little smaller, and while the recipe specifically calls for you not to cut the sausage, slicing into discs, wouldn't be a bad idea.

# Wurst-Kohl Eintopf (Sausage-Cabbage Dish)

Fredericksburg Home Kitchen Cook Book

1.0 medium head cabbage (cut into 8 wedges per head)
5.0 medium potatoes (peeled) (quartered)
2.0 rings smoked sausage
3.0 slices of bacon (diced)
3.0 tbsp onion (diced)
1.0 cup water
salt
pepper

1 - In a large saucepan cook bacon and onion until just brown.
2 - Add water.
3 - Arrange cabbage in bottom of the pan, top with potatoes.
4 - Season each layer lightly with salt and pepper.
5 - Place sausage on top, do not pierce.
6 - Cover tightly and simmer very slowly until sausage is done, about 40 minutes.
7 - Wilted cabbage requires more water.

#thisweeksmeals #cooking

This Week's Bread: Pan De Muerto (Second Try)

Okay, this looks ridiculous, but not nearly as ridiculous as my first attempt (which, frankly, looked like "breast loaf"). Not to mention the dough was so wet, the insides were raw while the outsides were this side of burned.

While this worked better, I still don't know how to make the decorations stay where they're supposed to instead of sliding off. The instructions of using an egg wash to attach the decorations didn't seem to fasten the dough well enough.

But the bread itself is very good, slightly sweet in that pan dulce way, and will be a good way to get back into making my own bread again. So I consider it a success. If not a total success

# Pan de Muerto (Remake)

Tasting History with Max Miller
4.0 loaves

500.0 grams of bread flour
14.0 grams dried yeast
2.0 whole eggs
5.0 whole yolks
130.0 grams sugar
113.0 grams butter
113.0 grams lard
2.0 tbsp orange blossom water
2.0 tsp orange zest
1.0 tsp anise seeds
1.0 tsp salt
1.0 whole egg (for decorations)

1 - Make a starter by mixing the dried yeast with 1/2 cup (120ml) lukewarm water and a half cup (60g) of the bread flour.
2 - Whisk together, cover and let sit for 30 minutes.
3 - Make the anise mixture by mixing the anise seeds with 90ml water and set it over a medium heat and simmer for 2 minutes.
4 - Strain out the seeds and let the water cool.
5 - Once the starter is ready, add it to the remaining flour along with the salt, sugar, orange zest, orange blossom water, cooled anise water, 2 eggs and 5 yolks.
6 - Mix together with the paddle of a stand mixer on low until combined
7 - Switch to a dough hook and knead on high for 10-12 minutes or until the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl.
8 - Reduce speed to low and add in the butter and/or lard 3 tablespoons at a time, fully incorporating it before adding more.
9 - Once fully incorporated, knead on medium high for 10 more minutes or until the dough has become nice and smooth.
10 - Set the dough in a lightly greased container, cover, and let it sit for 2 hours or until it's doubled in size.
11 - Turn it out onto a lightly greased surface, fold it over on itself, and return it to the container, covered, and let it rise in the refrigerator for 6-12 hours.
12 - Remove the dough and let it return to room temperature (about 1 hour)
13 - Remove 300g of dough for the decoration and divide the remaining dough into 4 equal pieces (this can also be 2 large loaves or 8 small loaves).
14 - Shape the large pieces into balls and place on a lined baking sheet, firmly pressing them down to create a flat top.
15 - Divide the 300g of dough into 4 pieces. Each piece should be made into a small ball about an inch across and the rest should be rolled into a rope about twice the length of the main loaves.
16 - Divide the "rope" into 4 pieces, shaping the middle to be slightly thinner than the ends to give the appearance of a bone.
17 - Whisk the remaining egg with a tablespoon of water and brush the mixture onto one side of each of the bones and ball to act as glue.
18 - Set 4 bones on each loaf in cross pattern then stick the dough ball on top pressing it down firmly.
19 - Cover the loaves and allow to rise for 90 minutes or until doubled in size.
20 - Brush the risen loaves with the remaining egg wash and bake at 350°F for 20 minutes.
21 - Remove from the oven and let cool completely.
22 - Whisk together 1 tablespoons of flour into 1/2 cup of water and set over low heat, stirring until it becomes a paste.
23 - Let it cool, stirring continuously, then brush it on the cooled loaves and dust with plenty of sugar.
24 - Wait 5 minutes, and dust with more sugar.

#thisweeksmeals #cooking #baking

"When God closes a Spirit Halloween, he opens a Hickory Farms."