Jenn Dolari @dolari@driveinsaturday.org

This Week's Meals (1/3): Koshari

Oh, my goodness, this took three hours to cook and is essentially making four individual meals into one big individual meal. Thast tomato sauce was TASTY though. I can never get crisp onion strings, though. They're always just this side of burned, but never crispy.

This is a very complicated recipe. Read it carefully before trying:

# Koshari

Street Fighter: The Official Street Food Cookbook
12.0 servings

2.0 whole yellow onions (sliced thin) (onion rings)
3.0 tbsp flour
1.0 tbsp salt (onion rings)
0.25 cup vegetable oil (onion rings)
1.0 tbsp vegetable oil (tomato sauce)
1.0 stick cinnamon
1.0 whole bay leaf
0.5 whole yellow onion (chopped) (tomato sauce)
5.0 cloves garlic (minced)
2.0 cups tomato sauce
2.0 tsp cumin (tomato sauce)
2.0 tsp coriander (tomato sauce)
1.0 tsp cayenne pepper
1.0 tsp paprika (tomato sauce)
2.0 tsp salt (tomato sauce)
1.0 tsp black pepper
1.0 cup basmati rice
1.0 tbsp unsalted butter
0.25 whole yellow onion (diced) (rice)
45.0 grams vermicelli
2.0 cups vegetable broth
1.0 tsp cumin (rice)
1.0 tsp coriander (rice)
0.5 tsp chili powder
0.5 tsp paprika (rice)
1.0 tsp salt (rice)
0.5 cups lentils
2.0 cups elbow macaroni
15.0 ounces garbanzo beans
1.5 cups water (lentils)
2.0 cups water (macaroni)
0.0625 tsp salt (macaroni)

Prepare the Rice
1 - Place the rice in a bowl, and cover with water. Let sit for 1 hour.

Crispy Onions:

2 - Toss the sliced onions in flour and salt.
3 - Place a large pan over medium heat.
4 - Add the canola oil and let it heat for about 1 minute.
5 - Cook the onions until crisp, 20 to 30 minutes.

Tomato Sauce:
6 - Place the canola oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat.
7 - Add the cinnamon stick and bay leaf. Allow to toast for about 1 minute.
8 - Add the onion and garlic, and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.
9 - Add the sauce and spices.
10 - Reduce the heat, and simmer for 15 minutes.

Serving prep
11 - In a saucepan, add lentils and water. Bring to a boil.
12 - Boil the lentils intil tender, aboput 15-20 minutes.
13 - In a seperate saucepan, add water for the macaroni and a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil.
14 - Add elbow macaroni and allow saucepan to return to a boil. Stir occasionally
15 - Cook for 7-8 minutes or until tender.
16 - drain both lentils and macaroni, set aside.

Rice:
11 - Drain the rice, and set aside.
12 - Place the butter in a saucepan over medium heat until melted.
13 - Add the onion, and cook until translucent.
14 - Add the vermicelli, and toast for about 1 minute.
15 - Add the rice, and cook until slightly toasted, about 3 minutes.
16 - Add the vegetable broth, cumin, coriander, chili powder, paprika, and salt.
17 - Bring to a boil, and then reduce the heat to low.
18 - Cover, and cook until the rice has cooked through, about 10 minutes.

Serving:
19 - Place a generous portion of rice on a plate.
20 - Top with lentils, macaroni, chick-peas, tomato sauce, and crispy Onions.

#thisweeksmeals #cooking

My air filter hates or when I cook. It's one of the few times the air quality light on it goes red.

Forgot to pick up some garbonzo beans on my last grocery trip, so I 'm going out for some. It just dawned on me that I've bought more garbonzo beans in the last two weeks than I hav in my entire life before (which was zero).

I dunno what's going on at the local supermarket, but last week I bought a jar of mayonaisse that I realized was over three months expired, and now when chopping my ginger and garlic, I noticed they were both molded over inside.

Guys, my money is tight, I can't keep buying what's ending up as expired foods.

Perhaps the height of laziness is using Remote Desktop to log into your laptop, which is just out of arm's reach, because you don't want to get out of the chair.

::cracks knuckles::

Gonna be cooking all day, aren't I?

Tonight's Max Headroom is "Security System."

I remember watching this when it aired. The next day my English teacher talked about this, and specifically this scene. He predicted that if nothing changed, we'd have this kind of nightmare in ten years. That would have been 1997.

It's 2023. We're not there yet. But damn, we are close.

It wasn't too much later that that same English teacher sat us down and taught us about propaganda techniques as it applied to commercials of all thing. All the tricks and tropes on how not to be swayed into being Happy Little Consumers and how to be critical thinkers.

I like to think he helped us out into being slightly smarter than we would have been had we not had an hour of "what to look out for."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=KaSJGmJzTn4

Tonight's Star Trek: TNG was "Remember Me."

I love this episode. One of my favorites of what the writer's called "Wierd Shit" episodes.

Trek has a habit of creating human answers to sci-fi problems, or sci-fi answers to human problems. This one is a rarity for Trek: A Sci-Fi answer to a Sci-Fi problem. How do you explain Warp Bubbles to a viewer who doesn't know what that is? How do explain that equasions and metaphysics fix the issue? Thankfully, it's done well and with a lot of imagery to match the technobabble.

But the real meat of the story is Beverly Crusher trying to figure out the mystery of the missing people on the ship, the missing stars in the sky, then missing pieces of the ship, as well as questioning the sanity of people around her, and her own sanity. And Gates McFadden is AMAZING in this. I really wish she got to more episodes to sink her teeth into.

Found a way to not just put the antenna outside, but also the upconverter and even the USB Stick outside, and trail the USB cable inside where I could listen. This let the antenna get full signal, and let me stay warm in the living room.

Picked up Radio Marti out of Greenville, North Carolina as clear as if it was broadcasting from next door.

Saw some activity on the CB bands today. I think it was a jammer, too. Everytime someone would key up, another key would blast over it, with what I think was a CB line from Smokey and the Bandit, which just repeated every time someone keyed up.

Quick Question for my Mortal Kombat II friends out there. When the game came out, do you remember a revision where Shao Khan WASN'T at the top of the mountain?

Some video of MK2 Version 0.1 was just recently released, and not having Khan at the top reminded me that the first version I saw didn't have Khan at the top of the mountain. However, the first version I've seen available on MAME (1.1) has Khan at the very top.

Did I just imagine that?

Thoughts Before Bed:

Its funny how when you start making last ditch plans for the far future, the immediate future actually opens up for you.

Music Before Bed:

This has been running through my head all night, along with memories of Steph and I listening to this shortly after I told her my feminine name was "Jennifer." It's very haunting, and never fails to remind me of that night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3d00qhrgQE

Today's Dr. Who is "Dalek."

Still the best looking version of the tin plated pepper pots in 60 years of history.