Jenn Dolari @dolari@driveinsaturday.org

You know what I've never seen? "Night of the Lepus." I should fix that.

This Week's Fancy Pants Meal:

I actually got all my meals AND a bread made today. Gonna pay for it tomorrow, I think, but, it got done.

# Spaghetti Peperoncino

Personal Trainer: Cooking
13.0 servings

1.3125 pounds spaghetti
12.0 cloves garlic
6.0 whole red chili peppers
salt
3.0 tbsps olive oil (for finishing)
3.0 tsp parsley
0.6666666666666666 cups olive oil

1 - First, peel the garlic.
2 - Use a wooden spoon to crush the garlic.
3 - Remove the seeds from the red chilies.
4 - Pour the olive oil into the frying pan.
5 - Add the crushed garlic, and place the pan over moderate heat, tilting it slightly.
6 - When the garlic starts to steam and small bubbles appear, reduce to low heat.
7 - Gently sauté the garlic until it turns a golden brown.
8 - Tear the red chilies into small pieces, add them to the frying pan, and turn off the heat.
9 - Stir in the finely chopped Italian parsley and take the frying pan off the stove.
10 - Fill the saucepan with plenty of water and bring it to a boil.
11 - Add salt to the water, adding just under two teaspoons of salt for every quart of water you're boiling.
12 - Add the dried spaghetti, leaning it against the sides of the pan. Reduce to moderate heat.
13 - Keep the water at a gentle simmer, stirring occasionally. Refer to the cooking time given on the packaging of the spaghetti.
14 - Transfer 3/4 cups of the pasta water listed to the small bowl.
15 - To see if the spaghetti is ready, cut a piece with your thumbnail. If it's a little firm in the center, it's ready.
16 - Turn off the heat and use the sieve to drain off the water from the spaghetti.
17 - Put the frying pan with the garlic and chili in it back on the stove.
18 - Add a third of the pasta water you saved to the frying pan and heat over moderate heat.
19 - Move the pan back and forth a little on the stove so the oil and water mix fully.
20 - Add the rest of the cooking water you saved, half at a time. Mix it in while moving the pan back and forth.
21 - Add the spaghetti to the drying pan and stir it in briskly with the other ingredients.
22 - Season by stirring in salt to taste and turn off the heat.
23 - Drizzle some of the extra-virgn olive oil over the spaghetti.

#thisweeksmeals #cooking

This Week's Bread: Yeah it's the struan bread again. It's cheap and simple and good.

#cooking #thisweeksmeals

Jenn's "The Legend of Zelda" Rankings, now with Tears of the Kingdom!

Unlike Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom was pretty easy to place. IT was better than Breath of the Wild, so, it's higher than Breath of the Wild.

But is it better than Skyward Sword? I love Skyward Sword, because I was one of the few people who tolerated the motion controls and also the storyline kept me moving through the game. Tears of the Kingdom is Breath of The Wild, and while it's DLC origins show quite a bit (some of the side quests are pretty thin, the sky is sparse, and I finished the main story rarely venturing into the underground or crafting hardly anything special). The story itself is fantastic. The story more than makes up for the thinness of the game. Better than Skyward Sword.

That said, some of the sparsness of the game made me rethink some of my older rankings. Thinking of Ocarina of Time, I asked myself "Did I enjoy it more than Wind Waker? And the answer was "Yes. And on retrospect, it was better than Breath of the Wild." It's smaller than Breath of the Wild, but is packed with stuff to do that matters in the main quest compared to Windwaker and Breath of the Wild.

This also had me change my ranking for Phantom Hourglass and Four Swords. I moved Phantom Hourglass up to 17 and Four Swords down to 18, mainly because Phantom Hourglass HAS a story, and is more of a Zelda game than Four Swords, which is just a gem collecting game. Tears of the Kingdom got me thinking about the quest versus the busywork.

Twilight Princess is just a delight to play, my one major issue with it being the City in the Sky. And even thought it triggers my fear of falling something fierce, it's still fun. I've never felt the game boring or tedious, despite playing it four times.

The Good Ones:
1 - Twilight Princess
2 - Tears of the Kingdom (New)
3 - Skyward Sword
4 - Ocarina of Time (Up from 5)
5 - Breath of the Wild (Down from 4)
6 - Wind Waker
7 - Link to the Past
8 - Spirit Tracks
9 - Link's Awakening
10 - Adventure of Link
11 - Legend of Zelda
12 - Majora's Mask
13 - Oracle of Ages/Seasons
14 - Link Between Worlds
15 - Minish Cap

The Bad Ones:
16 - Four Swords Adventures
17 - Phantom Hourglass (Up from 18)
18 - Four Swords (Down from 17)
19 - Triforce Heroes

#Tearsofthekingdom

Thunderstorms are rare out here, but we got another round on Thursday. Nothing like the thunder boomers we get back home, but any thunderstorm is a good thunderstorm to me....

They're here. THEY'RE HERE.

This bag of Ranier Cherries did not last the night.

It is my life's one true wish to buy one of these fireworks cases and set it on fire.

Music Before Bed

https://youtu.be/5tZlu4wP4pw

Days off are supposed to be fun. Little fun to be had today. Maybe next week....

Caught in the crosshairs of Texas ban on transgender health care for kids

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJO0JI3vT2I

The thing that is killing me about this pinched nerve is that it's aggravated by sitting, and worse by typing, so I haven't done any writing, drawing or even just typing on social media. Even with the ice packs, it's still only a few more minutes before it all becomes painful.

It's really got me down, especially now that I'm done with Tears of the Kingdom. I'm restless and eager to DO something, but this pain won't let me do much of anything involving my left arm for more than a few minutes.

I wrote a lot of one of the books using my Sidekick 3. I do have a bluetooth keyboard, so I may be able to go that route cause I don't need to keep my arms up or even be sitting to use it.

If there's anything we can take away from the Twitter purchase and the submersible disaster it's "Being rich does not make you a genius."

WAT

https://trekmovie.com/2023/06/23/breaking-star-trek-prodigy-has-been-canceled/

Thoughts Before Bed:

"It doesn't matter."
"It doesn't?"
"THAT'S what matters."

If anyone's interested....

https://dolari.net/startrek/ld/index.html

About a year ago, I wrote a spec script for Star Trek: Lower Decks. While it was my entry into two Paramount writing competitions, I'd actually written it earlier.

It was also a trans story I wrote cause the trans community had really taken it on the chin, and animation would allow for a few possibilities live action couldn't do. I even did some research on it, asking my trans-man friends for advice on the flip-side of the trans coin. I think it's funny, and plays well with the characters, and would have made a good episode.

Not being WGA (I don't come close to qualifying for for membership) or represented, there was little to no chance of it ever being produced. And I'm glad it didn't because instead we got Ad Astra per Aspera, which basically takes on the whole "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy of the 1990s, as well as the plight of the LGBTQ community (and the many forms of discrimination out there still). It made the point better, and stronger and far more powerfully than my thirty minute comedy could have done it.

Thanks for that, folks at SNW. It didn't go unnoticed.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds? Thanks for that episode. We needed that. I needed that. Especially after these last few years.