Jenn Dolari @dolari@driveinsaturday.org

This Week's Meals (2/4): Klobásník (aka Pigs in a Blanket)

If at first you don't succeed, get a better recipe. And now that I can make Salibury Steak, Pigs in a Blanket AND Cinnamon Rolls, I can make all the stuff I remember from the old Locke Hill Elementary School cafeteria. :D

So I melded this recipe together from the kolache recipe to make the dough, and then the "construction" instructions from the recipe I tried last week.

The good news: The kolache dough works WAAAY better. The down side? Might be too sweet for a savory pastry. But we'll find out in the morning when I have the first one! I do like sweet-and-salty, hopefully it's not overpowering. If so, I might pull back on the sugar or the honey-butter topping.

# Klobásník

Multiple
5.0 Klobásník

0.25 cup milk (scalded)
0.25 cup sugar
0.5 tsp salt
0.25 tsp mace
0.25 whole lemon rind
0.75 package yeast
0.25 cup water (dough)
1.0 whole egg (beaten)
0.25 cup salted butter (melted)
1.6666666666666665 cups flour
2.5 slices American Cheese
5.0 whole sausages (hot dog sized)
0.5 tsp water (egg wash)
1.0 whole egg (egg wash)
1.0 tbsp unsalted butter (honey butter)
1.0 tbsp honey

1 - Combine milk, sugar, salt, mace and lemon rind. Cool to lukewarm.
2 - Stir yeast into warm water; let stand 5 minutes.
3 - Add to milk mixture. Stir in eggs and margarine and enough flour to make a soft dough.
4 - Knead on lightly floured board until smooth and elastic.
5 - Cover, let rise in warm place until double in bulk.
6 - Punch down, cover and let rise for 30 minutes.
7 - While dough is still rising, add the sausages to a large skillet and cook until warmed through, turning while they cook to ensure all sides are lightly seared.
remove the dough to a work surface lightly sprinkled with flour.
8 - Cut the dough into equal amounts (depending on the amount you are making).
9 - Ignore this step. It's a duplicate step from melding the two recipes together. :D
10 - Prepare a large baking sheet with a silicone mat or sprayed with non stick cooking spray. Set aside.
11 - Working with one piece of dough at a time, press the dough into a larger square shape, large enough to cover one of your sausages on one side..
12 - Place a half slice of cheese on one side, then the sausage.
13 - Roll the dough and pinch together where it meets.
14 - Place on the prepared baking sheet with the seam side down.
15 - Continue until all the klobásník are prepared.
16 - Place the klobásník on the baking sheet with approximately 1/2 to 1 inch of space in between, they rise while they bake, but it’s ok if they run into each other.
17 - Cover and let rise for an additional 45 minutes.
18 - While rising, preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
19 - Remove the cover from the klobásník
20 - Prepare the egg wash by beating the egg with the water. Brush this over the top of the dough.
21 - Bake for 14-15 minutes until the tops are golden. Turn the baking sheet during the middle of baking if needed for even browning.
22 - Remove from the oven, combine the melted butter and honey, and brush this on top of the Kklobásník while they are still hot.
23 - Let cool for several minutes, then serve warm.

#cooking #thisweeksmeals

Aww yeah.

Moving the speakers away from the TV to try and get a little more separation from the front left and front right. But as usual the wierd fireplace not just ruins the Feng Shui of the living room, but keeps me from moving the speakers too much farther out without unbalancing the left and right sound...

Still, a LITTLE better is still better.

This Week's Meals (1/4): Pho

Mmmmmmmmmm...dangerous that I know how to make this, so now I can have it whenever I want. The recipe calls for lemon juice, but I tend to use lime.

# Chicken Pho Soup

Personal Trainer: Cooking

1.0 pound boneless chicken thigh
12.0 ounces rice noodles
2.5 quarts chicken stock
6.0 tbsp fish sauce
1.0 tbsp lemon juice
1.5 tsp sugar
6.5 oz bean sprouts
3.0 leaves red-leaf lettuce
9.0 sprigs cilantro
1.5 None green onion
3.0 None shallots
6.0 None lemon wedges

1 - Put water in a saucepan and warm it on the stove until it's lukewarm.
2 - Net put the rice noodles in the mixing bowl and add the lukewarm water.
3 - Leave the rice noodles to stand for about thirty minutes.
4 - Pour the chicken stock into a saucepan.
5 - Place the pan over the heat and bring the stock to a boil. Then add the chicken.
6 - When the stock returns to a boil, reduce to low heat and simmer for about 20 minutes without letting it boil.
7 - Turn off the heat, remove the pan from the stove and leave the chicken in the soup to cool.
8 - Drain the water off the noodles with the sieve.
9 - Put some water in a bowl and wash the bean sprouts.
10 - Remove the roots from the bean sprouts.
11 - Peel the shallots.
12 - Thinly slice the peeled shallots lengthwise.
13 - Remove and discard the roots of the green onions, then cut the green onions into thin rings.
14 - Slice the red lettuce leaves crosswise into 1/2 inch strips.
15 - Next, roughly chop the cilantro.
16 - Take out the chicken from the soup and cut it into 1/3 inch slices. Leave the soup as it is for now.
17 - Place the soup back on the stove and bring it to a boil.
18 - Add the fish sauce and the lemon juice to the soup.
19 - Next add the sugar, turn off the heat and remove the pan from the stove.
20 - Put plenty of water in a saucepan and bring it to a boil.
21 - Put the soaked noodles in the pan, and boil them for 30 seconds until soft.
22 - Drain off the water from the noodles with a sieve.
23 - Place the pan with the soup over moderate heat and bring the soup to a brief boil.
24 - Put individual portions of noodles unto serving bowls and pour the hot soup over them.
25 - Top the noodles wit the red lettuce, bean sprouts, chicken and shallot.
26 - Garnish with green onions, cilantro and a wedge of lemon.

#thisweeksmeals #cooking

That's one helluva bug.

BIG MOOD

Now that the Surround Sound is properly working, I took some time setting the speakers to really give me enveloping sound.

By default on pretty much everything I've watched/played, the speakers were FAR too "forward" for me, with the sound coming from the screen. The music often over powered the voice, and surround sound was pretty anemic.

Eventually I maxed out the subwoofer (Jenn like Big Boom), maxed out the rear speakers, set the center speaker, which carries most of the dialogue to default, and the left and right to negative 5 volume.

That gave me a nice surround sound finally, with the V'Ger "Wok" scenes REALLY feeling like I'm in the wok with them, with proper echoing and good rumbles instead of the sound coming almost completely from the front. The sound is still a little tinny from the regular speakers, but it's probably cause the speakers are kind of cheap.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go beat up on Ganon in Breath of the Wild in Surround Sound. :D

PIXELS AS BIG AS CATS

So...this signal is from World Christian Broadcasting, and was very listenable, playing some Arabic music. It's broadcasting out of Madagascar, and...TEN THOUSAND MILES AWAY. O_o;

Taking the dough instructions for the kolache and merging them with the instructions for the Pigs in a Blanket in the hopes the Kolache dough works better (which is how Weikel's makes them anyways)

I wrote yesterday. I drew today. Can I keep it up?

...seriously, can I? I hadn't worked on either comic in over a year. I just don't have the spoons anymore.

I did an art. First time since November 2021. O_o;

Really hopeful that this'll be something that finally gets produced...

I just finished ripping my DVD copy of Fail Safe to disk. This movie, man. This movie. This is one of the most engaging and stressful movies I've ever seen. As the movie goes on, every scene ends up just being a scene of deeper and deeper trauma of everyone involved and a terrible and unnecessary Catch-22.

I may not be able to pull off cosplay, but I know who can-tchya, Daaaarling!

Is this a threat? This sounds like a threat....

Snow! Started about 2AM. Night mode cameras rock.

Now THIS. This works.

This Week's Meals (1/4): Spicy Chinese Pork

All of this week's meals are recipes I've screwed up. But for the life of me, I can't remember what I screwed up. Still, it was good last time, should be better this time!

# Spicy Chinese Pork

Help! My Apartment has a Kitchen
2.0 servings

6.0 whole shiitake mushrooms
0.5 pound pork
2.0 tbsp soy sauce
1.0 tbsp water
4.0 tsp flour
0.5 tsp ground ginger
4.0 cloves garlic
1.0 medium onion
1.0 whole red bell pepper
2.0 whole scallions
2.0 tbsp vegetable oil
0.25 tsp red pepper flakes
2.0 tbsp vinegar
1.0 tsp sugar
4.0 ounces bamboo shoots

1 - Wash the fresh mushrooms and cut away and discard the bottom 1/4 inch of the stems.
2 - Slice the mushrooms thin and set aside.
3 - Cut the pork into thin slivers. Combine the soysauce, water, flour and ginger in a medium-size bowl and stir.
4 - Add the pork, stir and let marinate for 10 minutes.
5 - Peel and finely chop the garlic.
6 - Peel and thinly slice the onion.
7 - Wash the red bell pepper and cut it in half.
8 - Remove and discard the stem and seeds.
9 - Then slice the pepper into strips 1/4 inch wide and 2 inches long and set aside.
10 - Wash the scallions. Cut off the root tips and top 2 inches of the green ends and discard them.
11 - Cut the remaining white and green parts into 1/2 inch pieces. Set aside in a seperate dish.
12 - Heat half of the oil in a large wok or frying pan over high heat.
13 - Add the mushrooms, garlic, onion, red bell pepper and red pepper flakes and fry for about 2 minutes, stirring continuously.
14 - When the vegetables just begin to soften, transfer them to a plate.
15 - Heat the remaining half of the oil in the wok.
16 - Lift the pork from the marinade, add it to the wok and stir-fry for 3 minutes over high heat.
17 - Add the marinade from the bowl and bring to a boil. The mixture will thicken and have a slightly glossy sheen.
18 - Add the vinegar, sugar, bamboo shoots and scallions and cook, stirring for 1 minute.
19 - Return the rest of the vegetables to the mixture, heat through and serve.

This Week's Meals (1/4): Spicy Chinese Pork

All of this week's meals are recipes I've screwed up. But for the life of me, I can't remember what I screwed up. Still, it was good last time, should be better this time!

# Spicy Chinese Pork

Help! My Apartment has a Kitchen
2.0 servings

6.0 whole shiitake mushrooms
0.5 pound pork
2.0 tbsp soy sauce
1.0 tbsp water
4.0 tsp flour
0.5 tsp ground ginger
4.0 cloves garlic
1.0 medium onion
1.0 whole red bell pepper
2.0 whole scallions
2.0 tbsp vegetable oil
0.25 tsp red pepper flakes
2.0 tbsp vinegar
1.0 tsp sugar
4.0 ounces bamboo shoots

1 - Wash the fresh mushrooms and cut away and discard the bottom 1/4 inch of the stems.
2 - Slice the mushrooms thin and set aside.
3 - Cut the pork into thin slivers. Combine the soysauce, water, flour and ginger in a medium-size bowl and stir.
4 - Add the pork, stir and let marinate for 10 minutes.
5 - Peel and finely chop the garlic.
6 - Peel and thinly slice the onion.
7 - Wash the red bell pepper and cut it in half.
8 - Remove and discard the stem and seeds.
9 - Then slice the pepper into strips 1/4 inch wide and 2 inches long and set aside.
10 - Wash the scallions. Cut off the root tips and top 2 inches of the green ends and discard them.
11 - Cut the remaining white and green parts into 1/2 inch pieces. Set aside in a seperate dish.
12 - Heat half of the oil in a large wok or frying pan over high heat.
13 - Add the mushrooms, garlic, onion, red bell pepper and red pepper flakes and fry for about 2 minutes, stirring continuously.
14 - When the vegetables just begin to soften, transfer them to a plate.
15 - Heat the remaining half of the oil in the wok.
16 - Lift the pork from the marinade, add it to the wok and stir-fry for 3 minutes over high heat.
17 - Add the marinade from the bowl and bring to a boil. The mixture will thicken and have a slightly glossy sheen.
18 - Add the vinegar, sugar, bamboo shoots and scallions and cook, stirring for 1 minute.
19 - Return the rest of the vegetables to the mixture, heat through and serve.

#cooking #thisweeksmeals

Enjoying the "fire" on the coldest night of the Winter so far....