Jenn Dolari @dolari@driveinsaturday.org

Thoughts Before Bed

I created this Second Life Avatar almost ten years ago. I felt lost in Second Life, very much a ghost of my former self, and to take back that world, I fed into it. If I felt like a ghost, I would BE a ghost.

I haven't put on that avatar in a long time, mainly because in the last few years, I've not felt lost, not felt like I was haunting, didn't feel like a shell of my former self. And in fact, the new brunette avvie you see feels more like me now than I felt then.

But today I put it on, not because I felt lost, but because I wanted to explore, and she was always the avatar I used to "haunt the grid" and explore. And for once...she felt...like a happy avatar. Not haunting, not sad, not lost. Just an explorer who happened to be a ghost.

Her original purpose is gone, but maybe there's new purpose for her now.

#secondlife

This Week's Meals: Pueblo Barbecued Pork Roast

I gotta admit, as I cooked this, I became more and more skeptical of what I was going to end up with. And what I ended up with wasn't bad at all! Why was I skeptical? One of the ingredients for this pork roast is...chocolate.

Native Americans used chocolate very differently from how the rest of us in that it was usually used as a bittering flavor instead of a candy, and as I was cooking this, I figured it may actually be TOO bitter.

In the end, it ended up pretty good. The chocolate-bitter taste is there...a little more than I'd like, but not unpleasant. A little salt cut that bitterness a little while bringing out the pork flavor.

It's a messy dish to cook, but a good one. I'd make it again.

# Pueblo Barbecued Pork Roast

Spirit of the Harvest: North American Indian Cooking

0.25 cup lard
1.5 cups onions (chopped)
3.0 cloves garlic (minced)
4.0 whole dried juniper berries (crushed)
0.5 tsp corriander seed (crushed)
1.0 whole bay leaf
4.0 large tomatoes (quartered) (seeded)
1.25 cups water
0.6666666666666666 cups cider vinegar
0.3333333333333333 cup honey
1.0 tbsp ground chili
1.0 whole dried New Mexican red chili (crushed)
2.0 tsp salt
1.0 ounce unsweetened chocolate (grated)
5.0 pound pork rib roast

1 - Heat lard in a large heavy saucepan and saute onions over medium heat until soft.
2 - Add garlic, juniper berries, coriander seed, and bay leaf and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes longer.
3 - Add tomatoes, water, vinegar, honey, ground chili, crushed chili, and salt. Simmer, covered, for 30 minutes.
4 - Add chocolate and simmer, uncovered, for 20 to 30 minutes, until the sauce is fairly thick.
5 - Preheat the oven to 350° F.
6 - Place roast, fat side up, in a roasting pan and baste generously with sauce.
7 - Roast for about 3 hours, or until a meat thermometer inserted In the thickest part of roast (away from the bone) registers 175° F. Baste occasionally with sauce and pan drippings during roasting.
8 - Allow roast to sit for 10 minutes in a warm place before carving.
9 - Slice and spoon additional sauce over each serving.

14 servings at ~400 calories per serving.
Calories 391
Total Fat 20g
Total Carbohydrate 11g
Protien 33g

Normally serves 6 to 8

#cooking #thisweeksmeals

With the unintentional Chocolate-Strawberry bread in the fridge, it's firmed up and isn't bad. Still not what it's supposed to be, and with the addition of a little honey or sugar to sweeten it up (the chocolate made it a little bitter), quite good.

Still gonna redo it once I run out with proper hazelnut butter, though.

There's a distinct possibilitiy that this week's bread won't be the only thing that sucks. ::fingers crossed for a chocolate/tomato chili paste::

A rare failure when cooking.

I attempted to make Iroquois Strawberry Bread, but instead of hazelnut butter, I ended up getting "chocolate hazelnut butter" (basically nutella) I tried to make it anyways, but the bread never firmed up before the outside crusted up, and the chocolate delivered a bitter taste to what's supposed to be a sweet bread.

Boogers. I'll try again once I finish the bread (or end up throwing it out, it's far more bitter than I expected it to be).