Jenn Dolari @dolari@driveinsaturday.org

This Week's Meals (1/4): Luby's Dinner Rolls (Yeast Rolls Redux)

If at first you don't succeed, burn the recipe and go find another.

This one came from my Luby's cookbook and while it's still a little crumblier than I like my yeast rolls (I like the roll tops brown and thinly crusted, and the bread to be super moist and a little stringily pull apart), it is absolutely a Very Good Yeast roll. If anything, this is a lot less "biscuit" like yesterday's rolls and more "rustic homemade recipe" version of a yeast roll.

A few days ago, I listened to a podcast where there was a discussion about "Why do you need cookbooks when you have The Internet?" And this is a good example why. The original recipe I had was from the Internet. Granted, it was from a foodie site, but it was just off the net. I don't know how often it's tested, how often they repeated the process and dialed it in. Have they been tested for scalability? And unless they're a big name, I don't know who made it and if their tastes coincide with mine.

In a cookbook, especially the ones from restaurants, they're constantly repeated, usually scalable, and have been dialed in for however long the restaurant is open.

In the end, cookbooks are good things. And while websites are good (I've made some great recipes from websites), I'll always pick books over websites just for reliability.

Speaking of scalability, I might have a more "yeast roll" experience if I make the full 18-roll recipe on the muffin tins as the recipe mention....
# Luby's Dinner Rolls

Luby's Recipes & Memories
18.0 rolls

1.3333333333333333 cups warm water
2.0 tbsp active dry yeast
0.5 cup sugar
3.0 whole eggs
4.0 tbsp butter (melted)
0.3333333333333333 cup nonfat dry milk
1.0 tsp salt
5.0 cups all-purpose flour
vegetable oil (as needed)

1 - In the bowl of an electric mixer, blend water, yeast and sugar. Set aside 5 minutes to allow yeast
mixture to become frothy.
2 - Add eggs and butter.
3 - Using the dough hook of the electric mixer, beat on medium speed until blended.
4 - Add dry milk and salt. Mix well.
5 - Add flour, one cup at a time, mixing until dough begins to pull away from sides of bowl.
6 - Leaving dough in bowl, lightly grease top of dough ball with oil.
7 - Cover loosely and let rise in a warm place 1 hour or until doubled in size.
8 - Lightly grease a muffin pan.
9 - Punch dough down and divide it evenly into the number of portions you want.
10 - Gently roll each piece into a ball and place one ball into each muffin cup.
11 - Let rise in a warm place 1 hour or until rolls have doubled in size.
12 - Preheat oven to 350°F.
13 - Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.

#thisweeksmeals #cooking

Okay. SEVEN Doctors Appointments down, one to go (thankfully virtual visit), three to set up eventually....

This Week's Meals (1/3): It Was Supposed To Be Yeast Rolls But Somehow They Became Southern Biscuits.

So, big old dumb me forgot I HAVE a recipe for yeast rolls in my Luby's cook book and instead went online for one. That was probably my first mistake.

The second one was making the dough, I could not get it to "dial in" to a correct dough. It was either too sticky, or too dry and I couldn't get that middle ground. Eventually, I just had to say "good enough" and continue. I'm not sure if I overcooked the bread or if the dough was not good, but these are not the fluffy light yeast rolls I'd hoped for.

But they're NOT BAD.

They're not yeast rolls. They're biscuits. A nice lightly crunchy bread shell with a fluffy soft interior. So I'm not calling it a failure. But it's not what I was expecting. But they're still pretty good. Needs a little salt to be a real southern biscuit, though.

Probably won't post the recipe as it didn't come out right - but if you want it, let me know.

#thisweeksmeals #cooking

Two years on Mastodon and only NOW am I getting the scam profiles.

Waiting for the scam messages before reporting....

Taking the occasion of the Wii U/3DS eShop lockdown to take my old Wii and "secure my purchases" there. If you thought navigating the 3DS shop was bad, imagine downloading all your old games after ten years on the Wii Shop Channel.

SO. MANY. BUTTON PRESSES.

Just a heads up. Not only are the Nintendo eShops for Wii U and 3DS shutting down next week, but the Nintendo DSi apps that were ported over to 3DS will be gone as well. So don't forget to grab those exclusives as well.

Looking like this week's menu is gonna be Spaghetti all’Assassina, Yeast Rolls, Salisbury Steak and Orange Chicken Parmesan.

Ended up stealing the Spaghetti from Pasta Grammar and Orange Chicken Parmesan from Mythical Kitchen and was craving the Salisbury Steaks and Yeast Rolls, so just went with that instead of seeking out two more online recipes.

My last paycheck is Wednesday, though, so I think this is kinda the last hurrah of Big Awesome Cooking until the job situation gets better or my finances start to balance out a bit.

What do you have in less than a 15-minute walk from where you live?

❌ Work
✅ Clinic
✅ School
✅* Supermarket
✅* Pharmacy
✅ Library
✅ Park
✅ Bar
✅ Corner Store
✅ Gym/Sports Center
❌ Cinema

A few weeks ago, my online riffing group, Drive In Saturday, screened the anime Dragon Half, AND THAT CLOSING CREDIT MUSIC HAS BEEN STUCK IN MY HEAD EVER SINCE.

And then I looked at the translated lyrics AND NOW THOSE ARE STUCK IN MY HEAD AS WELL.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YLRnq4BjO8

Tonight's TNG was "The Wounded."

I love Rosalind Chao's Keiko O'Brien. She's such a sharper more intense character than the easy going and laid back O'Brien, and the dynamic really works for them as a happily, if occasionally antagonistic married couple.

I'm actually one degree of separation from her in real life. She was on the set of The Big Brawl, which my dad was the camera truck driver for the shoot. Which technically makes me one degree of separation from Jackie Chan now that I think about it. He said she was actually really nice and sweet, but wasn't on the shoot for very long.

Also in this episode, I noticed The Two Datas sitting together! Sitting at one of the forward stations is Guy Vardaman (bottom left), who often doubled for Brent Spiner as Data, as well as was in the background quite a bit. AND was also the inspiration for Guy Fleegman in Galaxy Quest, the character who wasn't important enough for a name.

No more doctor's appointments, some better financial news, house is decluttered, dishes are wahing and laundry is waiting for tomorrow.

First time in about two weeks I feel I can relax.

Watching Muppets Take Manhattan when I came across this fine actress. I forgot Gates McFadden did a lot of choreography work with them. Dancing Doctor indeed. :)

First day of the year with all the windows open!

So, all these Doctor's appointments? Other than The Big One, they could all have been EMails or TeleHelp.

...oh boy...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCbuRA_D3KU

Five Doctors Appointments Down, one to go. Three to schedule, but that's now officially on hold until ::waves at everything::

Something Leonard Nimoy was very particular about was how his Vulcan ears were portrayed. Specifically that they had a gentle front point on the tips. But another thing about his ears were that they were glued back along his head.

When he first got fitted for the ears for The Motion Picture, Fred Phillips forgot he had to pin his ears back and, as described in the Making Of book, he looked like a "gremlin." Easily fixed though.

But that's something I'm noticing with the new new Trek series Vulcans. They don't pin their ears back. And everytime I see that, I think about that gremlin line in the book. :)

Four medical appointments down, one to go, three to try and schedule before March (doubtful).

I got my official diagnosis of delayed sleep phase disorder. Which doesn't mean much, but at least I finally have it now.