Jenn Boo-lari @dolari@driveinsaturday.org

For the first time since the pinched nerve happened, my kitchen is actually CLEAN. Like, all dishes done, counters cleaned, even the floor cleaned. Kinda.

I almost bought these as my "fancy glasses" when I moved into the apartment back in 2021. Cause I don't care what you say, they ARE The Fancy Glasses.

This Week's Fancy Pants Meal: Beef and Cucumber Stir-Fry

The original recipe didn't season the meat, which left it as tasting kind of bland until I salted it myself, so I added a step for salting the meal. Otherwise, I really like this. I'm a sucker for cooked-but-crisp veggies. The prep takes a while, but the cooking part is fairly quick.

# Beef and Cucumber Stir-Fry
Help! My Apartment has a Kitchen

0.75 pounds sirloin steak
2.0 tbsp honey
2.0 tbsp soy sauce
0.25 tsp chili powder
1.0 whole cucumber
1.0 whole red bell pepper
4.0 whole scallions
3.0 cloves garlic
2.0 tbsp vegetable oil
salt (to taste)
pepper (to taste)

1 - Slice the beef into strips 1/4 inch wide and 3 inches long, trimming away all the fat.
2 - Put in a bowl and mix with honey, soy sauce and chili powder. Set aside while preparing the vegetables.
3 - Peel the cucumber and slice lengthwise.
4 - Scrape out and discard the seeds.
5 - Cut into strips 1/4 inch wide and 2 inches long.
6 - Wash the red bell pepper and cut it in half.
7 - Remove and discard the stem and seeds.
8 - Slice the pepper into strips 1/4 inch wide and 2 inches long.
9 - Was the scallions.
10 - 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 1/4 inch pieces.
12 - Peel and finely chop the garlic. Set the vegetables aside.
13 - Heat half the oil in a wok or frying pan over high heat.
14 - Remove the steak strips from the bowl, keeping any remaining liquid (marinade) in the bowl, and add the steak to the wok.
15 - Stir fry for 1 minute; that is, stir continually with a large spoon or spatula so that the contents of the wok cook quickly on all sides.
16 - When the meat is no longer pink, return it to the bowl containing the marinade.
17 - Wipe out the wok so that any remaining honey doesn’t burn.
18 - Heat the remaining oil in the wok over high heat and stir-fry the cucumber, red bell pepper, scallions and garlic for about 2 minutes, or until the vegetables just begin to soften. They should stay fairly crisp.
19 - Quickly return the steak and any remaining marinade to the wok
20 - Season with salt and pepper to taste.
21 - Heat for 1 minute, or just until the steak gets hot and the liquid boils.

#thisweeksmeals #cooking

Today's Bread: Cinammon Rolls.
OMG THEY'RE AMAZING. I was worried cause of the power outage making me have to hand knead the dough and lack of counterspace making the rolls a bit thicker than they should be, but taste wise? OMFG they're GOOD.

This recipe has pecans, however, I tend to not use pecans. Feel free to add 'em if you like. The addition of marshmallow is surprising, but it works....

# Cinnamon Rolls
Luby's Recipes & Memories
24.0 rolls

1.3333333333333333 cups warm water
2.0 tablespoons active dry yeast
0.5 cup granulated sugar [rolls]
3.0 whole 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 - Brush butter over dough.
12 - In a small bowl, mix together sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle evenly over butter.
13 - Continue with pecans and marshmallows
14 - Roll dough up tightly, starting at long edge.
15 - Pinch dough to seal seam.
16 - Cut into portions
17 - Place, cut sides up, on baking sheets.
18 - Let rise in a warm place 1 hour.
19 - Preheat oven to 350°F
20 - Bake 20 to 22 minutes or until golden brown.

Icing:
21 - Whisk together the powdered sugar, the evaporated milk, the butter for the icing and vanilla extract until smooth and creamy.
22 - Spread over warm rolls

#thisweeksmeals #baking #cooking

The ultimate carbs on carbs: pierogi.

Well...between the power outage while mixing the dough, having to hand knead it, throw it in the fridge and hope it would rise slowly (it didn't), not having enough room to roll out the down FAR more thinly, these look...........okay.

They smell fantastic, though. I ate the two small end pieces and the bread came out really good, too, despite having almost no cinnamon/sugar/marshmallow in them. That's a good sign cause that means the others will be super flavorful.

Glaze tomorrow after they cool, then off to the LGBTQIA+ Holiday Potluck with them!

Maybe after I have one more.

Update: I just realized! I've made stickybuns!

"Alright, let's get these cinnamon rolls started!"
:: power goes out ::
"Alright, let's get these pioneer cooking skills started!"

Remember when I said I worked on Third Party Half-Life stuff before release date? Lookie what I found in the archive. The discs passed around our company to create deathmatch levels....

I didn't realize it was like ten days before release date. But it was before the release date! :)

Wierd Stuff I Still Have Hanging Around, Exhibit 8378:

"The codename is Lonely...uh...Lovely Angel!" Found a Dirty Pair outfit in SL, and bought it immediately. Little embarassed by it....

...but only a little.

Current Mood:

Given my terrible early exposure to the Furry community in the 90s, I gotta say, they ended up being amazing allies in my later years.

(Art by Hellbreakfast)

Something I see when I look at my collection of Transformers is how incomplete and worn they are. And unlike a lot of collectors, I don't mind this. I don't need perfect toys, sealed mint in box. I like knowing that these toys were played with an enjoyed as a kid.

I remember some decades ago, when a friend visited my apartment with her son, he started playing with my Jetfire figure. She said "you probably shoudln't play with that." I said "No, it's quite alright. Just be gentle and don't break it."

Toys are meant for playing with and enjoying. Sometimes, enjoying them is keeping them in a box to look at admiringly. Sometimes, it's transforming all your guys into Devastator and flying him around the house.

Ah, the one thing I hate about collecting. Having to reshuffle a million little things so I can reorganize and dust.....

Spoilers for The Giggle, AND The 1984 Transformers Movie....

Today in The Further Adventures of Jenn:

Watching the Dirty Pair movie from 1987 right now, and there's something in this and other anime movies of the time I really love, that I wish we'd do here.

When a TV animated show gets made into a 2D movie (A rarity these days), they tend to just add a lot of airbrushing effects to kind of simulate 3D. Anime, instead, just upped the line detail and color detail and way more fluid animation. I'd way more like to see that over the faux 3D effect.

The only movie I remember doing this in the US was the Transformers movie.

I had Kei on the left drawn on one of my school book covers in the 90s, and no one noticed.

This Week's Meals: Hana-Wanna Meatballs.

This was actually pretty good! I'm not the biggest fan of meatballs beause they're essentially very tiny meatloaves, and that bready texture doesn't work with meat for me. But it's the sauce that saves this and makes it's something I'd absolutely make again.

There's a LOT of pineapple in this, but it and the vinegar give the sauce (and the meatballs) a very sweet and savory flavor that really works. I used crushed pineapple versus tidbits or chunks which made the sauce super thick, and made it part of the meal, versus just a gravy or glaze.

# Hana-Wanna Meatballs

From the Green Kitchen

1.25 pounds ground beef
0.75 tsp garlic powder [meatballs]
0.5 tsp black pepper
1.5 tsp salt [meatballs]
0.5 tsp ginger (grated)
1.0 whole egg (beaten)
0.6666666666666666 cup crackers (crushed)
0.3333333333333333 cup onion (finely chopped)
0.25 cup green pepper (finely chopped) [meatballs]
0.5 cup milk
2.0 tbsp shortening
2.0 tbsp cornstarch
0.5 cup brown sugar
0.25 tsp ground ginger
0.25 tsp garlic powder [sauce]
0.25 tsp salt [sauce]
0.3333333333333333 cup vinegar
1.5 tbsp soy sauce
1.0 cup water
20.0 oz pineapple tidbits
pineapple juice (from can)
0.3333333333333333 cup green pepper (finely chopped) [sauce]

Meatballs:
1 - In a bowl, mix the ground beef, garlic powder for the meatballs, black pepper, salt for the meatballs, ginger, egg, cracker crumbs, onion, green pepper for the meatballs and milk.
2 - Roll into 1 to 1 1/2 inch balls.
3 - Heat a large skillet at medium heat with the shortening and brown the meatballs. Remove to a platter.

Sauce
4 - In the same skillet, whisk the cornstarch, sugar, ground ginger, garlic powder for the sauce, salt for the sauce, vinegar, soy sauce, water and pineapple juice.
5 - Add the meatballs and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring constantly to keep the meatballs from sticking.
6 - Transfer to a crock pot and add pineapple chunks and green pepper.
7 - Cook on low for 4 to 6 hours, stirring occasionally.

#thisweeksmeals #cooking