Jenn Dolari @dolari@driveinsaturday.org

I get all the jokes now!

This Week's Bread: Struan Bread

So, after figuring out the problem with the yeast LAST time, I tried the struan bread again, and found ANOTHER problem. The recipe calls for INSTANT yeast. I don't use instant yeast, I use active dry yeast. I didn't know there was a difference, so I was just dumping my yeast into the ingredients like the recipe said.

This time, I bloomed the yeast in water first. I also did the first rise in an oven where I turned the heat on for two minutes, and when I took the bread out, IT FREAKING FILLED THE PAN FIRST TIME. :D

I punched it down, did a quick knead, reheated the oven and let it rise again. Again, it filled the bread pan. And then I baked it for twenty minutes. I couldn't get it to bake for some reason, and left it in for another ten miinutes. At thirty it was done.

I could tell it was WAAAAY better just taking it out of the pan. IT was bouncy, squeezable, and not dense at all. I cooled the bread down and cut it in half - and it's super moist, with Big Crumb. Very happy.

I'm not calling it mastered yet, mainly because I keep screwing up one thing, and that's an egg. I added an eggwash at the end of the recipe to make the sesame seeds stick. The problem? I keep reading my instructions and they say "Add all the ingredients to the mixing bowl." Annnnnd, I forget to read the next part: "Except the egg and sesame seeds." So I keep adding an egg where it's not supposed to be.

I think this is why the bread is INCREDIBLY moist. To the point that it almost seems like the dough is soggy. And I freaking keep doing it.

So this loaf will last me two weeks, so I 'll try it again then. Remind me to not add the freaking egg next time. :)

Timely.

There is one place I'd like to visit when I get back to Texas, and that's this spot. It was here, in 1995, I comitted to my transition. It was a rough night. It ended badly. But here is where it happened.

The picture on the left is from 2008, still looking much like it did that night. On the right, May 2023. The road I took to get there has pretty much been obliterated and exists only as a property line now. Thankfully, this segment of "Blind Bandit Creek Road" uses the old Kallison Lane road for it's path.

The woods on the right are protected as they're part of the Government Canyon State Park, but that old power line anchor is all that's left of the area as I remember it.

I should go out there before it's gone completely.

Today's Breakfast: Savory Dutch Baby

I don't normally cook on my cheat day, but I really REALLY wanted a Savory Dutch Baby, and gosh darn it, I was gonna have a Savory Dutch Baby.

# Savory Dutch Baby

Adam Ragusea

2.0 whole eggs (batter)
2.0 pinches salt (batter)
2.0 tsp sugar
0.6666666666666666 cups whole milk
butter
1.0 whole scallion
3.0 ounces salami
2.0 whole eggs (topping)
0.6666666666666666 cups flour
2.0 tbsp mascarpone
salt (to taste)
pepper (to taste)

1 - Preheat an oven to 425 with an oven safe skillet/casserole dish/pie pan inside.
2 - Whisk the eggs, salt and sugar in a bowl until frothy.
3 - Whisk in 2/3 cups flour until smooth.
4 - Whisk in the milk and marscapone.
5 - Let the batter sit for 20 minutes.
6 - Remove the skillet and grease the bottom and sides with a layer of butter (it'll immediately melt, which is fine).
7 - Add your batter and return the skillet to the oven. Cook for 15 minutes.
8 - While cooking, chop your scallions and salami.
9 - Break two eggs into a bowl and season with salt and pepper.
10 - After 15 minutes remove the dutch baby and allow to deflate a bit.
11 - Once it's flat enough for the ingredients add the salami, your eggs and cover with chopped scallions.
12 - Return to the oven for another 5 minutes, or until eggs are done to your liking.

#cooking #breakfast #thisweeksmeals

Tonight's Dr Who is The Runaway Bride.

Oh, my goodness, Catherine Tate's Donna is so so so so annoying in this episode. I remember when it was announced that she was going to be the Doctor's companion I rolled my eyes and figured we were in for a nightmare.

She ended up being the best companion of the new series.

Fixing an audio dropout in the VHS by putting a piece of the French audio back in for a split second.

Sometimes these English over-dubs take a little more work than just copying the audio over. It's just a hard cut, but this bootleg was missing the opening and closing which...well...makes for a bad hard-cut. But bad is better than nothing.

"Alright, boys, get your guns ready. The pumpkin heist is GO!"

I love Halloween. All the wierd candies come out of hiding.

Too big to be a slider. Too small to be a burger. Yeast roll as the bun!

Well, if I'm going to be out more, I should, well, be out more.

It's the Yellow Card fairy! She gives Yellow Cards to naughty soccer players.

Scientific notation like this actually confuses the hell out of my mathematically incapable brain. At least in long form, I have coping strategies.

I have no idea what 6.8x10^9 translates to. But 6,800,000,000 I know as 6 billion 800 million cause I can count the commas.

While I wished we could have moved from Jodie directly into Ncuti (or, frankly, just stayed with Jodie), I am glad to see Donna back with David Tennant. She's my fave companion of the new series, and those two were just amazing.

Thoughts Before Bed

This Week's Fancy Pants Meal: Lime Marinated Shrimp

Can't really recommend this one. It tastes really good, sure. But so much of the food ends up dumped out that it feels super wasteful. But still, if you want to make it, here's the recipe:

# Lime Marinated Shrimp

Celebrity Chefs Across America

1.0 whole shallot (minced)
2.0 cloves garlic (minced)
2.0 whole serrano chiles (stemmed) (seeded) (finely chopped)
4.0 whole scallions (thinly sliced)
0.5 cup cilantro (chopped)
0.5 cup parsley (chopped)
2.0 tbsp honey
0.5 cup water
0.25 teaspoon pepper
1.0 cup lime juice
0.25 tsp salt
0.5 cup olive oil
1.0 pound shrimp (peeled) (deveined)

1 - Place shrimp in a small bowl and refrigerate.
2 - Combine shallot, garlic, chiles, scallions, cilantro, parsley, honey, water and pepper in a medium mixing bowl.
3 - In a medium bowl, combine the lime juice and salt.
4 - Slowly whisk the olive oil into the lime juice/salt mixture.
5 - Add the lime mixture to the other ingredients.
6 - Pour marinade over shrimp and refrigerate for 1 hour before grilling.
7 - Light the grill.
8 - Remove the shrimp from the refridgerator and drain for five minutes before grilling.
9 - Thread 5 to 6 shrimp on wooden or metal kebab sticks.
10 - Make sure the grill is clean and hot.
11 - Place shrimp on the grill and cook approximately 2 to 3 minutes on each side.
12 - Serve immediately.

#cooking #thisweeksmeals

This Week's Bread: School Cafeteria Yeast Rolls (Third Try's the Charm)

I finally nailed down what I was getting wrong and it was a lot:

Scaling down to 15g carbs per roll was too small, and left me with yeast pebbles.

I've been activating my yeast in 95 degree water. That's great for some yeast, but I'm using Active Dry Yeast. I didn't realize there was a difference and that active dry yeast needed to be activated at 105 degrees. And boy did it activate. Hopefully this will translate to my constantly dense struan bread.

Finally, I let the dough rise in a warm oven each time and oh, boy, did it rise.

But finally, school cafeteria rolls like I remember!

# School Cafeteria Yeast Rolls

Plain Chicken
24 rolls

2.5 Tbsp yeast
0.75 cup warm water
6.5 cups bread flour
11.0 Tbsp instant non-fat dry milk powder
6.5 Tbsp sugar
1.0 Tbsp salt
6.5 Tbsp vegetable oil
1.25 cups water

1 - In a small bowl, combine yeast and warm water. Set aside.
2 - In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, combine flour, sugar, salt, and dry milk powder.
3 - Add vegetable oil and water. Mix on low for 3 minutes.
4 - Add yeast mixture and knead on medium speed for 8 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic.
5 - Loosely cover the bowl and let the dough rise in a warm spot until double in size, about 45 minutes.
6 - Punch dough down.
7 - Lightly spray a 9×13-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
8 - Divide the dough into balls and place in the prepared baking dish.
9 - Loosely cover the dish and let the dough rise in a warm spot until double in size, about 30 minutes.
10 - Preheat oven to 400ºF.
11 - Bake rolls for 15 to 20 minutes.
12 - Brush baked rolls with melted butter and enjoy!

#thisweeksmeals #baking #cooking

They're perfect. I did it! Another childhood fave recreated! 😃

I THINK THIS IS IT, Y'ALL! The tops look perfectly brown, the sides are perfectly crumbly, and even the bottoms look perfectly toasted. We might have finally got the yeast rolls down!

I'm not even upset that I burned my fingers by grabbing the 190 degree glass sides of the pan with my bare fingers!