Jenn Dolari @dolari@driveinsaturday.org

This Week's Thanksgiving Dessert: Blueberry Banana Cream Pie

One of mom's specialities. Super easy to make, and very tasty. Had a wierd issue where my blender kind of refused to actually, you know, blend it all (it wouldn't mix the whipped topping...it just kinda stayed on top like oil and water no matter how I "pushed it down"). But after some stirring it all incorporated.

# Blueberry Banana Cream Pie

Mom
2.0 pies

2.0 whole deep dish pie shells
8.0 oz cream cheese
2.0 whole bananas
1.25 cups powdered sugar
18.0 oz whipped topping
21.0 oz blueberry pie filling

1 - Brown Pie Shells
2 - Blend cheese, bananas, sugar together until well blended.
3 - Add whipped topping gradually while continuing to blend.
4 - Pour the mixture into pie shells.
5 - Refrigerate at least two hours.
6 - Pour pie filling over pies before serving.

#thisweeksmeals #cooking #thanksgiving

That's a lot of blueberry pie filling.

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