Jenn Dolari @dolari@driveinsaturday.org

The new job is having a gourmet popcorn lunch. So I'm bringing out the big guns.

I have moon cakes! I haven't had a moon cake since high school.

Which means I'm probably done digesting that last moon cake. They're... dense.

Breakfast with the fam.

This Week's Meals: Curried Beef Stew

I'm not the biggest fan of Far Wastern curry dishes, as I prefer the more spicy savry dishes to the sweeter ones you find in China and Japan. But this is a nice middle ground, serving an excellent curry flavor, without it being too sweet, or too spicy. And your kitchen smells great as it cooks.

Mine needed a touch more salt but otherwise, awesome.

Title: Curried Beef Stew
Yield: 4 servings
Cooking Time: 35 minutes
Category: Entree
Cuisine: Asian/Chinese
Source: Personal Trainer: Cooking

---
Ingredients
---
1 5/16 pounds flank steak
1 tbsp cooking oil
2 medium onions
1 1/2 small green peppers
3/4 small red pepper
3 cloves garlic
2 tbsp cooking oil
2 tbsp curry powder
2 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
2/3 cups milk
2 tbsp potato starch
3 tbsp water
5 cups chicken stock

---
Instructions
---

1 - First, peel the onion.
2 - Chop the peeled onion into uneven equally sized pieces.
3 - Remove the stems and seeds from the red and green bell pappers.
4 - Chop the red and green peppers into uneven bite-sized pieces.
5 - Next, peel the garlic.
6 - Thinky slice the peeled garlic.
7 - Cut the beef into 1/4"-think slices.
8 - Put the potato starch in the small bowl and dissolve it in the
water.
9 - Heat 1/3 of the cooking oil in the frying pan over moderate heat.
10 - Put the beed in the frying pan and cook until both sides are
browned.
11 - Once the beef is browned, remove it from the frying pan and
transfer it to a dish.
12 - Put the onion and peppers in the same frying pan and saute them.
13 - Once the vegetables are fully coated in oil, turn off the heat
and transfer them to the other dish.
14 - Put the remaining cooking oil into the same frying pan and place
it over low heat.
15 - Add the garlic and saute until fragrant.
16 - Next, add the curry powder and saute until fragrant.
17 - Now add the Chinese chicken stock.
18 - Mix in the salt and sugar, while bringing the stock to a boil
over moderate heat.
20 - Return the beef to the frying pan.
21 - Once the stock come to a strong boil, reduce to low heat, cover
with the lid, and simmer for ten minutes.
22 - Return the sauteed vegetables to the pan and then add the milk.
23 - Bring to a boil over moderate heat, and simmer until the
vegetables become soft.
24 - Stir the starch mixture thoroughly. Gradually add it to the
curry, stirring with a ladle to thicken the sauce.
25 - Transfer the curry to serving dishes. It's ready to eat!

---
Notes
---

Makes 4 servings at ~533 calories per meal.
Calories 530
Total Fat 23g
Total Carbohydrates 30g
Protein 41g

#thisweeksmeals #cooking

Might be time to break out the air filter. Dense smoke coming in the morning.

When you need to pray while you eat pizza....

Last Week's Meals: Ginger Pork

This was absolutely fantastic. A nice sweet glaze with salty pork, it just worked great. Well, it would have been great if I'd let the glaze reduce a lot more. I suck at judging when a sauce is ready. It was too liquidy. Still, it was tasty!

Title: Ginger Pork
Yield: 3 servings
Cooking Time: 25 minutes
Category: Entree
Cuisine: Asian/Japanese
Rating: 5/5 stars
Source: Personal Trainer: Cooking

---
Ingredients
---
18 oz pork loin
1 tbsp cooking oil
4 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp sake
1 2/3 tbsp ginger juice
12 leaves butter lettuce
6 wedges tomatoes

---
Instructions
---

1 - Peel off the green lettuce leaves, wash them, and then dry off the
water with paper towels.
2 - Put the soy sauce in a deep dish.
3 - Add the mirin and sugar to the soy sauce.
4 - Next add the sake and the ginger juice, then mix.
5 - Using the tip of the kitchen knife, make incisions in the pork to
cut through the fat and into the lean meat.
6 - Soak the pork in the sauce for 5 minutes, occasionally turning it
over.
7 - Heat the cooking oil in the frying pan over moderate heat.
8 - Dry the pork off with paper towels, then saute it in the pan until
browned on the underside.
9 - Turn the pork over and cook the other side in the same way.
10 - Transfer the cooked pork to a dish.
11 - Quickly clean the frying pan, then heat the sauce left in the
deep dish over high heat.
12 - Bring to a brief boil, then reduce to low heat.
13 - Return the pork to the frying pan, coat it with the sauce, then
turn off the heat.
14 - Place some green lettuce leaves on serving dishes, then place the
pork on top and add a wedge of tomator. It's ready to eat!

---
Notes
---

Makes 2 servings at ~50g carbs per meal.

Calories 523
Total Fat 28g
Total Carbohydrates 47g
Protein 19g

#thisweeksmeals #cooking

Oh hey. Some fan art from @electropict ! Don't get a lot of that these days!

Well, there is one thing that these insane medication prices are helping with.

I spent a little rare down time visitng some old friend in the 1990s via VR. I'm up WAY later than I should be, on a three day holiday weekend, so I can spend a few minutes enjoying a quick fighting game here and there.

How it's feeling to be trans these days.

Last Week's Meals: Chicken Picatta

Sorry about getting this out late, but life is busy and tight on time.

Ever wondered what Lemon Chicken would taste like if it iwas salty and not sweet? Well, here you go. A lovely dish, and actually pretty easy to make. Buttery lemon flavored savory chicken.

Title: Chicken Piccata
Yield: 5 servings
Cooking Time: 40 minutes
Category: Entree
Cuisine: Italian
Rating: 4/5 stars
Source: America's Test Kitchen: Let's Get Cooking

---
Ingredients
---
1 whole shallot
1 clove garlic
1/2 large lemon
3 tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
32 ounces of boneless chicken thighs
salt
pepper
4 tbsp of vegetable oil
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp rinsed capers
2 tbsp minced fresh parsley

---
Instructions
---

1 - Use a paring knife to remove the peel.
2 - Mince the shallot into 1/8-inch or smaller pieces
3 - Next, mince the garlic. Use the side of a chef's knife to gently
crush the clove. The skin should slip right off.
4 - Once the garlic has been peeled, we like to use a garlic press to
mince it. A garlic press ensures that the pieces will be very fine.
5 - Trim the ends of the lemon hald, then slice crosswise into 1/4
-inch-thick half moons.
6 - Cut the butter into 3 pieces and chill until needed.
7 - Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to
200 degrees.
8 - Spread flour in a shallow dish.
9 - Pat the cutlets dry with paper towels, then season with salt and
pepper.
10 - Dredge through the flour to coat and shake off any excess.
11 - Heat half of the oil in a 12 inch skillet over medium-high heat
until just smoking.
12 - Add half of the cutlets until light golden brown on botrh sides,
about 4 minutes.
13 - Transfer to a plate and keep warm in the oven. Repeat with the
remaining cutlets.
14 - Add the shallot and garlic to the oil left in the skillet and
cook over medium heat until softened, about 2 minutes.
15 - Stir in the broth and lemon slices, scraping up browned buts, and
simmer until slightly syrupy and reduced, 8 minutes.
16 - Stir in the lemon juice, the capers, and any accumulated chicken
juice.
17 - Turn the heat to low and whisk in the butter, one piece at a
time.
18 - Off the heat, stir in the parsley and season with salt and pepper
to taste.
19 - Spoon the sauce over the chicken before serving. It's ready to
eat!

---
Notes
---

Makes 5 servings at ~533 calories per meal.
Calories 516
Total Fat 33g
Total Carbohydrates 14g
Protein 34g
Normally makes 4 servings.

#thisweeksmeals #cooking

I love how the flowers spring to life after a good rain.

So, while I may not have a new favorite Superman movie, I may have a new favorite Superman. <3

So I wanted to wait a few days before I announced this so, you know, made sure i didn't die or anything, but i ate an 11 year old MRE this weekend.

Still good, but, frankly, I don't like to eat these after about six years because they do do bad if not taken care of. This one was given to me by a friend and for some reason didn't have the date stamped on the bag. If I knew it was ten years old, I probably would have trashed it sight unseen. After opening it, though, everything seemed fine, so I tried it.

Back to slightly fresher MREs.

So, I was cleaning out the car a few days ago when I noticed that there was a match box on the floor. I have a few in the car but they're from MREs. I got a better look at it and, lo and behold, I had a collectors item. It was obviously in the package with the movie script, so I need to check my packages better for surprises.

Oh, mama.

Speak of the devil...

So, full disclosure: I have a credit in that last Roddenberry Archive video, under Special Thanks.

Normally, I don't like to toot my own horn, and wasn't going to really say anything about it, until I noticed that I'm just above Susan Sackett in the Special Thanks block.

Susan Sackett wrote "The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture." It was this book that I read in 1984, at the ripe old age of 10, that taught me there were Star Treks that didn't get made: The God Thing, Planet of the Titans, Star Trek (Phase) II.

That lead to years and years and years of accreting information about all those projects. Checking scripts at Sci Fi cons, finding scripts online, asking around for copies of rarities, reading books and exposes about those years (in fact, I'm about to go to the post office for a copy of a script with revisions I dont have!). It's 2025, I just turned 51. And all that work now helped create this short, as well as the ST:TMP Special Features, which I also have a credit on.

So, along with Michael Okuda and David C. Fein for those credits, a big heartfelt thank you to Susan Sackett. Happy to sit next to you in that little credits block. :)

Just cancelled my vacation plans. The $289 I just spent on TWO medications (TWO!) and the $150 I paid for a blood test wiped out everything I'd saved up for, as well as ate fairly deep into next week's groceries.

I paid $20 for these two meds on my last employer's insurance, and on Medicare when I was unemployed? $0.

I decided to check and see why and apparently my medical expenses for July was $1000, or about a quarter of my monthly income. Between that and rent, no wonder I can't make ends meet despite the pay bump.

I went from a trip to California, to a trip to the coast, to a trip to Leavenworth, to a trip to the couch, to a trip to the MRE stash all because of the cost of medical stuff.

Those of you with socialized medicine? Count your blessings.

...i also now need a vacation from my vacation planning...