Jenn Dolari @dolari@driveinsaturday.org

It's going to get very cold. That means it's time. TIME FOR YETO'S SUPERB SOUP.

Looks like it'll be cold, but snowless. Still gonna grab groceries early Thursday, though - Any rain or snow that freezes later in the day is just gonna freeze solid and stick around until at least Wednesday.

[Thoughts Before Bed]

Pre-transition Jenn at 13: "Oooh, racy! I wonder if I can get away with drawing this on my school book covers."

Post-transition Jenn at 49: "If I sat that way, I'd lose all my feeling in my lower legs. YOU GIRLS ARE GONNA CRAMP YOUR CALVES SITTING THAT WAY."

I made iced tea that tastes EXACTLY my grandmother's iced tea.

I never really knew how she made it, but all I did this time was boil a teapot full of water with TEN teabags, pour the tea into a large one gallon pitcher which I then filled with water...but left the tea bags in to steep while it cooled.

Sucralose and lemon, and it tastes JUST like hers. I guess she left the tea to seep a REALLY long time.

Well, my power is out, my dinner is frozen and the microwave unusable. Time to actually use one of these for the reason I got them!

Tonights Sunday Night Movie

Cindy Morgan
1954-2023

I watch a lot of anime in my house, sometimes very late at night. Anime has a LOT of screaming, and I sometimes wonder if the neighbors can hear it.

And I really wonder what they think when they hear it at the same time my house lights turn red, and you can see that from the windows.

This Week's Fancy Pants Meal: Skillet Lasagna.

Not quite a lasagna, more of a Hamburger, Spaghetti Sauce casserole. The chicken breast slices don't really do anything lasagna like to this but does bring the carb count way down.

It's tasty though. I'd do it again, but without the expectation of it being lasagna like.

# Skillet Lasagna

Quick & Easy Ketogenic Cooking

1.0 pound ground beef
2.0 tsp sea salt
24.0 oz marinara sauce
4.0 slices roast chicken breast (deli slices)
1.0 cup mozzarella (shredded) (divided into portions)
1.0 tsp oregano

1 - In a 10-inch cast-iron skillet, brown the beef over medium-high heat, seasoning it with the salt, until cooked through, about 5 minutes, breaking up the meat with a spatula as it cooks.
2 - Add the marinara sauce and stir well to combine.
3 - Remove the sautéed beef to a bowl.
4 - Layer the sliced chicken breast on the bottom of the skillet.
5 - Top the chicken with a half of the shredded cheese.
6 - Scoop the beef on top of the deli meat to create an even layer.
7 - Top with the remaining half of cheese and sprinkle with the oregano.
8 - Cover and heat on low until the cheese is melted.

5 servings at ~400 calories per serving
Calories 430
Total Fat 23g
Total Carbohydrate 19g
Protein 25g

Yields 4 servings normally

#thisweeksmeals #cooking

While it may be for a female alien civilization at war with its men, I'm glad to see Lisa Hayes managed to find employment after that whole SDF-2 debacle on Earth.

It's looking more and more like we're getting into Yeto's Superb Soup temperatures. AND SNOW! FINALLY!

Comics are coming.

As part of my big backup, I decided to gather up all the hard drives sitting in my closet, sort them by how old they are, and then reshuffle all my backups so the oldest backups use the oldest drives. The old backups are good to have, but if I'm gonna lose one to a hardware issue, best it be an old drive.

I'm kinda glad I did it, because it turns out the drive that originally held my 2017-2019 backups went bad AFTER I pulled stuff off it. Originally, I encrypted that drive with BitLocker, and apparently removing BitLocker on the drive trashed the way the drive is set up. Any write access hung Windows, and Linux just wouldn't even find the drive. I couldn't fix the issue with a low-level format, so that drive is toast.

Secondly, I have a whole extra hard drive I didn't know about, which is 6TB of blank space. That's at least 4 years of future backups there, so I should be good until 2029 for new drives. :)

Also, I think it's hilarious that my 2006-2008 backups all fit on 250GB while 2018-2020 filled a 4TB drive.

The backup had the pre-crash copy of the Recipe Database! I'm saved! WOO!

Next time, delete the incremental backups AFTER the full backup!

Youtube, stop snooping on my Social Media history....

And here we go....

While I'm loving all the Steamboat Willie memes, each time I see this, I hear that little whistle tune in my head. It's been nonstop all day....

Spent the evening dancing the night away for New Year's Eve in #secondlife, as I've done most every New Year's for years.

Brought a friend along who needed a nice night out after a rough 2023. As someone also having a rough 2023, it was good to finally bid it goodbye.

This Week's Fancy Pants Meal: Lasagne de Fornel

DESSERT LASAGNA!

I've been wanting to try this since I heard about it, and finally decided to make it as my last meal of 2023 (And for the first week of 2024).

There's a mild sweetness in this, and the main falvor is the apples. I don't even taste the raisins or walnuts, and there're just hints of fig. Honestly, I was expecting a sweeter dish, but a light sprinkle of sugar/sucralose helped. Your mileage may vary.

Suggestion: For ease of cutting, I'd boil the heck out of the pasta, cause it will thicken up again in the oven and make portioning the lasagna a little rough.

# Lasagne da Fornel

Italy Magazine
6 Servings

10.0 whole dried white figs (thinly sliced)
0.5 cup white wine
1.0 cup golden raisins
1.0 cup walnuts (finely ground)
2.0 whole red delicious apples (grated)
12.0 tbsp butter (melted) [cooking]
butter [greasing]
1.0 pound lasagna pasta sheets (cut into 2.5 to 3 inch wide strips)
2.0 tbsp poppy seeds

1 - Preheat the oven to 350 F/180 C
2 - Generously butter a 9-inch oven-proof serving dish or baking pan butter.
3 - In a small saucepan combine the figs and wine and bring to a boil over high heat.
4 - Boil on high for a minute or two, then reduce the heat to low and simmer until all the wine is absorbed, about 2 minutes.
5 - In a bowl combine the figs, raisins, walnuts, grated apples and 1/3 of the melted butter.
6 - Cook the lasagna strips in boiling, salted water until al dente. Drain and toss with 1/3 of the butter and the poppy seeds.
7 - In the prepared pan, put down a single layer of lasagna strips haphazardly (do not arrange the noodles end to end—just put them in a flat layer).
8 - Spread with 1/3 of the fruit mixture. Repeat for 2 more layers.
9 - Top with a final layer of noodles and drizzle on the remaining melted butter.
10 - Bake about 20 minutes, until hot throughout.

#thisweeksmeals #cooking

Things my grandmother would never expect me to grind in her molcajete, number 5794:

I needed ground walnuts, I got ground walnuts!

So while I wait to see if this computer fails me AGAIN, here's what my Air Fryer Cheat Day Extravaganza consisted of.

With a Guest Appearance by some Add To Your Cheap Ramen ramen toppings that are genuinely really good!

And good news, my update is done, I can go to sleep!