Jenn Dolari @dolari@driveinsaturday.org

This is the "I Helped With This" portion of my memory shelf. There's going to be something new here soon.

Can't talk about it yet, but it's my second paid writing job. ❤

When making ramen, do not get these pouches confused.

Been a good month for wierd aerial phenomenon. First the aurora, and now sun halos.

Friday I noticed the left and right sun dogs, which is seen a few times up here. But I've never seen one above the sun, which is fairly rare.

Everytime I see the blur on a Sensitive Content image, all I see is a closeup of the cover to Whitley Streiber's "Communion."

Checking out Duvall Days Festival 2024. Seeing friends, meeting folks, eating food my doctor says I shouldn't.

@socketwench -

So, after three years of health issues, life changes, and a lot of "okay, maybe I'll have time tomorrow...."

Comics are coming this weekend.

This Week's Fancy Pants Meal: Texas Chili

I'm genuinely surprised at how simple this recipe is, since it leans heavily on the chili powder as well as how much of this is fat versus water. Takes a while to make, though, almost 2 1/2 hours for me although most of it is just simmering to stew the meat. It's very good, though, if you want a hearty stick-to-your-ribs stew. Mine needed a dash of salt but otherwise was pretty darned good.

I am now officially a San Antonio Chili Queen (Claimant in Exile).

I wasn't able to find tallow locally, and didn't want to drive into town to a meat market, so I substiuted more lard for the tallow. Also, I used some generic Chili powder istead of Gebhardt's since it's what I had in the pantry. Might be why it didn't seem as hot as Max's did on his YouTube video....

# Texas Chili

Tasting History with Max Miller
5.0 servings

2.0 pounds boneless chuck beef
2.0 tsp salt
0.25 cup tallow
2.0 tbsp lard
1.0 cup onion (minced)
3.0 cups water (hot)
3.0 tbsp chili powder
2.0 tbsp garlic (minced)

1 - Chop the meat into small cubes, about 1/2 inch.
2 - Mix the beef and the tallow together, then add the salt and mix.
3 - Melt the lard in a pot over medium heat and add the onions. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring so they don’t burn.
4 - Add the meat mixture and cook, turning the meat frequently. Once all the meat has some color, continue to cook stirring every few minutes.
5 - Once the juices have cooked off and the meat is left frying in the fat, add the hot water. Make sure the water is very hot, almost boiling.
6 - Add the chili powder and garlic and stir until everything is mixed well.
7 - Bring the pot to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer with the lid off for 1 to 1 ½ hours. The time will depend on the heat and the cut of meat you’re using. Mine took an hour for the meat to get nice and tender. You shouldn’t have to add any more water, but keep an eye on it because if the water all boils away, the chili will burn.
8 - After the chili has simmered and the meat is tender, serve it forth and transport yourself back to the plazas of San Antonio when the Chili Queens reigned.

Makes 5 servings at ~400 calories
Calories 425
Total Fat 22g
Total Carbohydrate 6g
Protein 6g

#thisweeksmeals #cooking #TastingHistory

This Week's Bread: Globi

I've always had an interest in ancient cooking particularly Roman cooking. One of my fave omlettes is an ancient Roman recipe (eggs with honey and pepper!) But recently I've come to find out that the book I had been using for decades was inaccurate when it came to recipes with cheese.

This week's bread comes from Max Miller's Tasting History book, and is a recipe that's also in my other book, Mark Grant's Roman Cookery. And it shows the innacuracy of Grant's book: The recipes are roughly the same except Miller's book uses Ricotta Cheese. Grant's uses Cheddar.

I picked up Grant's book before the internet got big, so it was my only source for adapted Roman recipes so I didn't know any better...but the flavors with Cheddar were odd. Later, after more adaptions became available, I learned the roman cheese was more like ricotta or cottage cheese. Which is what Max Miller's recipe for Globi uses.

Anyways, Globi is pretty good. A little weak in the flavor department, coming across as a sweet version of a hush puppy. Makes for a nice little snack, but might be too mild for out tastes. It's not authentic, but dusting this with powdered sugar would be fantastic.

# Globi

Tasting History with Max Miller
6.0 servings of 4 balls

1.0 cup ricotta cheese
1.0 cup spelt flour
1.0 tbsp spelt flour
canola oil (for frying)
0.3333333333333333 cup honey
poppy seeds

1 - Mix the ricotta and flour in a bowl until it becomes a dough.
2 - Form the dough into 1 inch balls
3 - Heat the oil in a pot to 350°F (175°C).
4 - Fry the balls a couple at a time for 60 to 90 seconds.
5 - Turn them every 10 to 15 seconds to make sure they’re cooking evenly
6 - At 60 seconds, take one out to check its color. You want them to be a nice deep golden brown.
7 - When they’re done, set them on a wire rack to drain over some paper towel. Repeat the process until all the globi are fried.
8 - Once all the globi have been fried, heat the honey just until it thins a bit.
9 - Dip the globi into the honey and coat them evenly, then sprinkle them with poppy seeds.

Yields 6 servings of 4 balls at ~37.5g carbs per serving
Calories 232
Total Fat 5g
Total Carbohydrates 38g
Protein 9g

#thisweeksmeals #cooking #tastinghistory

They're here...THEY'RE HERE!

My house smells GOOD.

This morning I got it in my head to make a waffle breakfast sandwich. Using Belgian Waffles. And I made it.

When I finished making it it, I realized...I created a breakfast monstrosity. I believed myself a modern aged god, and created a breakfast from my own thoughts. I have flown too close to the sun, and feasted literally on my own hubris. I AM DAMNED FOR ALL TIME.

I got through a third of that sandwich before my stomach was all "No. I'm done. Thank you. For the rest of the day. Maybe the week.

It sits...in the fridge. Watching. Plotting. Always plotting.

DO NOT LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE BREAKFAST SANDWICH LEST YOU GO MAD.

...this is why cheat day is so dangerous...

The last few days for me...

...dammit, now I want pancakes.

Confidential to The Locals:

Is this any different from living down the street from North Bend?

Since I didn't realize the 25th anniversary of my name change was the 20th until the 21st, I'm celebrating today!

Low blood sugar, AND a few carbs to spare? Time to break open the reserve chocolate....

You know, my birthday is coming up....

[Thoughts Before Bed]

I watched Ready Player One as this Sunday Night's movie. Fun movie, full of pop culture references.

But the thing that really sang with me was it's depiction of The Oasis. They could have basically called this "Second Life: The Motion Picture."

The Oasis, and Second Life, is a world where you can be whatever you like, do whatever you want, and fix many of the problems of life you can't fix in the real world. It was FAR more exciting than the real Second Life, but when Art3mis says, "You only know what I want you to know...you only see what I want you to see...this isn't my real body...or my real face" I felt that in my bones.

I've lived seventeen years in Second Life. And a few months in Resonite. In Resonite I look like Zelda. In Second Life, I'm a young anime-looking brunette. Both allow me the peace of mind that wherever I go in those worlds, I'm ignored because my looks are so...conventional, compared to real life.

I really wish, however, Second Life would embrace virtual reality. My time in Resonite has been as life-changing as Second Life was seventeen years ago. I wish they'd make the move into VR, as that world would actually be better than Resonite I think. Second Life is a WORLD. Resonite is walled-in-garden environments. Both are good. But I prefer the world over a set of unlinked gardens.

This Week's Fancy Pants Meal: Hamloaf

I'm not a fan of meatloaf. Just doesn't taste good to me. But ham loaf? Something about using ham makes it better on every level. And Dean's hamloaf is some of the best hamloaf I ever had.

I have one of his mom's cookbooks and found a hamloaf recipe in it, hoping it would be the same, I decided to make it. It's not, but this recipe is pretty good.

Dean's had a sugary glaze and not a tomato one, and as far I know, no fruit. Seeing mango in a recipe from Central Pennsylvania, in the late 60s, was surprising. It adds a nice subtle sweetness to the hamloaf. Not the sugary glaze of Dean's, but still really good.

Still, it's a recipe from a mom somewhere, and comes with the usual caveats of the writer assuming you know how to put everything together (it never mentions to peel the mango, and to "cook until done." I've updated the recipe a bit to make sure it's more complete.

# Ham Loaf

Sure Cures for Hunger

1.5 pounds smoked ham (ground)
1.5 pounds ham (ground)
2.0 whole eggs
1.0 whole mango (chopped) (peeled)
None None parsley
1.5 cups bread crumbs
10.75 oz tomato soup (canned)

1 - Mix together the ground pork, eggs, mango, parsley, bread crumbs and 1/2 of the tomato soup.
2 - Form into loaf inside a bread pan.
3 - Baste with other half of tomato.
4 - Bake at 350F until the internal temperature of the loaf hits 160F.

Yields 5 servings at ~37.5 g carbs per serving.
Calories 496
Total Fat 12g
Total Carbohydrate 40g
Protein 53g

#cooking #thisweeksmeals