Jenn Dolari @dolari@driveinsaturday.org

Happy 16th Rez Day to my Digital Self, Carrie Talaj.

Second Life is one of the few places I can be how I feel without fear of humiliation, abuse or mockery. I'm not exaggerating when I say it's likely saved my life on more than a few occasions.

#SecondLife

This Week's Meals (3/3): Luby's Brocolli Casserole

Of course, when I went shopping for ingredients, I completely forgot a small part of the casserole: Brocolli.

And I'm DONE with cooking this week. ::enjoys the last hour and a half of my four day weekend::

# Broccoli Casserole

Luby's Recipes & Memories
7.0 servings

0.5 cup butter
0.5 cup yellow onions (diced)
1.0 pound broccoli florets (frozen)
10.75 ounces cream of mushroom soup
1.0 cup white rice
1.0 cup water
1.0 teaspoon granulated garlic
1.0 teaspoon kosher salt
1.0 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
8.0 ounces Cheddar cheese (shredded)
4.0 broccoli florets (blanched)

1 - Boil rice and water in a closed pot on high heat.
2 - Once boiling, set heat to medium. Wait five minutes.
3 - Set heat to medium. Wait five minutes.
4 - Set heat to low. Wait five minutes.
5 - Take pot off heat. Wait at least five minutes.
6 - Preheat oven to 350°F.
7 - Melt butter in a large skillet over medium high heat.
8 - Add diced onions and cook about 3 minutes.
9 - Stir in frozen broccoli and cook until almost thawed.
10 - Add cream of mushroom soup, white rice, garlic, salt and black pepper, and bring to a simmer, stirring often.
11 - Remove from heat and add half of cheese. Fold together.
12 - Place mixture into a casserole dish, top with remaining cheese and bake in oven about 20 minutes or until cheese is browned and casserole is hot.
13 - Remove and let rest about 20 minutes before serving.
14 - Garnish with fresh blanched broccoli florets.

Hell yes, that's a five star recipe.

Someone earned a chip in her ear....

Dinner with the Washington Fam.

So I did the Luby's Bacon and Cheese Chopped Steak sight unseen from their recipe book (which doesn't have a picture). Apparently, there's is very long and thin compared to my burger-patty looking one.

Update: It did bring out one of the staff who asked some tech questions, which I answered. That's a huge plus right there.

Post.News is pretty frustrating as a lot of basic functions are broken for me, and it appears complaining about it brings out people who make me feel even less welcome.

Maybe it's not for me, Mr. Boobo. Maybe it's not.

This Week's Meals, Working Through The Insomnia Edition (2/3): Luby's Bacon & Cheese Steak

Are chopped steaks (AKA gussied up hamburger patties) a thing outside Texas? I know the Night Hawk restaurants in Austin had several different types (usually called Top Chop'd) as did Tip Top in San Antonio. Luby's has three types of Chopped Steaks.

I like them, but, really, they're just gussied up hamburger patties and outside of Salisbury Steaks, I've never seen them outside of Texas.

Also, after working with cheddar and pepper jack and parmesan cheeses, American cheese is just its own wierd thing....

# Bacon & Cheese Steak

Luby's Recipes & Memories
13.0 steaks

1.0 cup bacon (cooked) (chopped)
8.0 ounces American cheese (shredded)
0.5 cup sliced green onions
8.0 slices white bread (crust removed)
0.5 cup beef broth
1.0 tablespoon kosher salt
2.0 teaspoons black pepper
3.0 pounds ground beef chuck
2.0 whole eggs

1 - Mix bacon, American cheese and sliced green onions in a bowl. Set aside.
2 - Place white bread and beef broth in a large mixing bowl. Work together until bread has absorbed all of broth and is soft.
3 - Add salt, pepper, ground beef and eggs, then blend together using your hands. Chill mixture well.
4 - Divide meat mixture into portions.
5 - Work each portion into a firm ball, and place between 2 pieces of plastic wrap.
6 - Using your hands, flatten ball out into an oval.
7 - Refrigerate until ready to cook.
8 - Preheat oven to 350°F.
9 - In a large skillet on medium high heat, cook two or three steaks 3 minutes on each side.
10 - Remove and place on a foil-lined baking sheet.
11 - Distribute cheese mixture evenly among cooked steaks.
12 - Place steaks in oven about 2 minutes to melt cheese topping.

#thisweeksmeals

This Week's Meals (1/3): Luby's Baked Potato Soup.

Not pictured, sour cream (which I forgot to buy), yogurt (my substitute for sour cream...which was defrosting cause it was in the freezer) or green onions, cause I was freaking out about the sour cream and yogurt.

# Baked Potato Soup

Luby's Recipes & Memories
11.0 servings

0.5 cup bacon (raw) (chopped)
4.0 tablespoons butter
1.0 cup white onion (diced)
0.5 cup flour
0.0625 tsp dried thyme leaves
0.125 teaspoon nutmeg
1.0 cube chicken bouillon
10.0 cups chicken broth
8.0 cups potatoes (peeled) (diced)
1.0 whole bay leaf
1.0 cup heavy whipping cream
8.0 oz American cheese (shredded)
0.5 cup sour cream
2.0 teaspoons kosher salt
1.0 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2.0 large potatoes (baked) (peeled) (diced)
0.5 cup green onions (sliced)

1 - Place bacon and butter in a large saucepan and cook bacon over medium heat 8 to 10 minutes, until almost crisp. Stir often.
2 - Add white onions. Cook 3 minutes.
3 - Add flour and stir 1 minute.
4 - Blend in thyme, nutmeg, bouillon cube, chicken broth, diced raw potatoes and bay leaf.
5 - Bring to a simmer 15 minutes or until potatoes are well-cooked and soft.
6 - Carefully break up cooked potatoes in broth until smooth. This thickens soup and gives it body.
7 - Add heavy cream.
8 - Bring back to a simmer 2 minutes.
9 - Fold in American cheese, sour cream, salt, pepper and diced baked potatoes.
10 - Garnish with sliced green onions.

#thisweeksmeals

An unexpected snack while cooking one of next week's meals: Potato Skins!

Have some cartoons running while cooking next week's meals and this episode of Robotech is running. There's a scene where Rick and Lisa fall into the water, and it ruins Lisa's "cinnamon bun" hair style.

I always preferred Lisa's hair down, and I'm glad that when the story moves forward a few years her hair is a lot looser (there are scenes where she has the buns, but they're a lot less defined).

In the Macross DYRL movie, they did away with the cinnamon buns all together. I wish they'd used that character design from the beginning in Macross.

# Cinnamon Rolls

Luby's Recipes & Memories
16.0 rolls

1.3333333333333333 cups warm water
2.0 tablespoons active dry yeast
0.5 cup granulated sugar (rolls)
3.0 eggs
0.25 cup butter (melted) (rolls)
0.5 teaspoons butter (melted) (rolls)
0.3333333333333333 cup nonfat dry milk
0.5 teaspoon salt
5.0 cups all-purpose flour
vegetable oil (as needed)
0.25 cup butter (melted) (filling)
0.3333333333333333 cup granulated sugar (filling)
1.0 tablespoon ground cinnamon
0.5 cup chopped pecans
0.5 cup miniature marshmallows
1.0 pound powdered sugar
0.5 cup evaporated milk
2.0 tbsp butter (melted) (icing)
1.5 tsp butter (melted) (icing)
0.5 tsp vanilla extract

Rolls:

1 - In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine water, yeast and sugar.
2 - Set aside 5 minutes to allow yeast mixture to become frothy.
3 - Add eggs and butter.
4 - Using the dough hook of the electric mixer, beat on medium speed until well-blended.
5 - Add dry milk and salt. Mix well.
6 - Add flour, one cup at a time, mixing until dough begins to pull away from sides of bowl.
7 - Leaving dough in bowl, lightly grease top of dough ball with vegetable oil.
8 - Cover loosely and let rise in a warm place 1 hour or until doubled in size.
9 - Lightly grease two large baking sheets.
10 - Punch dough down and roll out on a lightly floured surface to form a rectangle.

Filling:
11 - Preheat oven to 350°F
12 - Brush butter over dough.
13 - In a small bowl, mix together sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle evenly over butter.
14 - Continue with pecans and marshmallows
15 - Roll dough up tightly, starting at long edge.
16 - Pinch dough to seal seam.
17 - Cut into portions
18 - Place, cut sides up, on baking sheets.
19 - Let rise in a warm place 1 hour.
20 - Bake 20 to 22 minutes or until golden brown.

Icing:
21 - Whisk together all ingredients until smooth and creamy.
22 - Spread over warm rolls

#thisweeksmeals

This Week's Meals: BONUS

There's a special place in my heart for one baked good. I judge bakeries based on it. And if I don't like the way you make it, I won't ever go back to your bakery.

Today, I made the thing. TODAY, I AM THE BAKER. TODAY, I'M THE GOD! I'M THE GOOoOOoOOOD!

I made...Cinnamon Rolls. Specifically, Luby's Cinnamon Rolls.

My oven nearly ruined them...they're supposed to bake at 350F, but my oven does it's own thing. After dialing in 350F (Which is 325F on my oven's dial), I popped in the rolls. I checked on them at fifteen minutes to find my oven running at 425F, and the rolls starting to over-brown. I think I got them out in time.

The glaze is something that I was really interested in. I don't know if it's a Texas thing, a Southern thing, or a Seattle thing, but up here in Seattle, cinnamon rolls are frosted with a cream cheese frosting. It's not bad, and in fact, quite good, but it's not what we use at home.

The Luby's recipe uses evaporated milk, butter and powdered sugar, and is just like I remember from the cinnamon rolls back home.

Oh, this could be super dangerous. SUPER dangerous.

Yule Log on Earth

Yule Log in Space

#SecondLife

That's quite the temperature rise....

So I began thinking....I can't use this in the living room. What if I moved it to the computer room instead of the 3x3 cube. It's more of a server rack looking thing, and would hold the PC, VCR and laser printer, so we'll throw it there. We'll use the 3x3 cube in the living room, and 2x2 cube in the bedroom.

And as I'm assembling the 3x3 cube, I'm realizing there's not enough room for the PC, VCR and some of the Video Game Shrine on top, so that wouldn't work either. And then I thought, maybe if I take the 2x4 shelving, and turn it on it's side, it's now 4x2 shelving, and suddenly I had enought room for everything.

SWEET.

But now I have that 3x3 cube, and no place for it. So I threw it against the back wall, and I'll hope I find something I can eventually use it for.

The moral of the story? Freaking measure everything before you buy from IKEA, or get ready to think super creatively.

So, about that computer shelving....

Since about November, I've been thinking of changing up the house a bit. The 2x2 cube I had in the office did a good job until I got a VCR that didn't fit in the cube, and the laser printer I got from my parents sure wasn't, so I ordered a 3x3 cube.

At the same time, I wanted to get rid of the TV tray I was using as a nightstand in the bedroom, and I figured the 2x2 cube would make for a great replacement.

THIRDLY, now that I also had a second VCR in the living room for encoding, and the PC was already just sitting on the ground, I figured getting some nice shelving for that would at least give me a place for the VCR and PC and it'd look nice.

Looking online at IKEA, I found a nice low shelf, and ordered it. What I got was MUCH larger than the pictures showed, and honestly, I think I got the wrong "structural supports" but the right number of shelfs. It ended up being MUCH bigger and wider than I expected.

Oh my goodness, moving the sectional to the left side that opens the living room up so so so much.

Here it comes....