Jenn Dolari @dolari@driveinsaturday.org

Feeling kinda down and lost today, and just now I looked outside and it's snowing. And I kinda needed that.

The chuckle when you're watching a guy on YouTube complain about this really bad nosebleed he had one time years ago, and every woman behind the camera is gently chuckling at his plight.

I gotta say, about Picard Season 3 - I'm talking about with friends, trying to figure out plot points and enjoying (and occasionally complaining) about the show, but always ready for next week.

That hasn't happened for me since the Deep Space 9 days....

https://www.newsweek.com/trans-daughter-school-bathroom-girls-iowa-1790146

Sadly, the Veto will likely be overridden.

https://news.yahoo.com/kentucky-governor-vetoes-sweeping-gop-145352766.html

Brain: "Hrm, how can I save money on groceries now that the paychecks have ended."
Heart: "You can make your own bread! You're already doing it, and kinda good at it, and you can make all SORTS of breads!"
Brain: "I like how you think!"
Heart: "Really?"
Brain: "No. Just this one time."

And now all the Wii U content I've bought has been redownloaded, reinstalled, and archived.

The eShop may be locking down, but it's not going away. I mean, I just redownloaded all my old Wii purchases, and as long as Nintendo uses the same backend infrastructure for their shops, I doubt they'll go away.

But securing your purchases is always a good idea. Just in case.

A bit of Texas German, once spoken all over the Texas Hill Country.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_dH403pqRU

https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/23/politics/florida-transgender-medical-ban-lawsuit/index.html

I worked at NOA for the entire life of the Wii U and I've never seen this error...

Just gotta let Yoshi's Woolly World finish up and let the backlog of old Virtual Console games download before continuing...

Is this is what it takes...KEEP DOING IT. ❤

https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/nebraska-lawmaker-3-weeks-filibuster-trans-bill-rcna75043

This Week's Meals (4/4): Spaghetti all’Assassina

According to Pasta Grammar, this doesn't mean "Assasin's Spaghetti" as much as it means "Killer Spaghetti." AND HO BOY DOES THIS LIVE UP TO THE NAME. This is the best spaghetti dish I've ever had.

What's neat about this dish is that you don't boil the spaghetti in water. You saute it in the sauce itself, making for an incredibly powerful tomato taste. Because of that, the pasta isn't like boiled spaghetti, but has this kind of al-dente chew to it and even a crispyness to some strands. But not "raw pasta" crispyness, but a "cooked" crispyness to it.

This is absolutely fantastic.

# Spaghetti all’Assassina

Pasta Grammar

1.125 cup pure tomato purée (avoid anything with added salt or flavor)
10.0 tbsp tomato paste
Salt (to taste)
4.0 tbsp olive oil (plus some extra for drizzling)
2.0 cloves garlic
Red chili pepper flakes (to taste)
7.0 oz spaghetti
3.0 cups water

1 - Fill a saucepan with the water.
2 - Add about 1/10th of tomato purée (save the rest for later) and the tomato paste and bring to a simmer.
3 - Salt the broth to taste.
4 - In a large, cast iron skillet, add the olive oil and a pinch of chili pepper flakes or fresh chili peppers to taste.
5 - Peel the garlic cloves. Add one whole into the pan; dice the other and add this as well.
6 - Heat the pan over high heat until the garlic sizzles.
7 - When it does, pour in the remaining tomato purée and quickly spread it to cover the pan evenly.
8 - Lay the spaghetti down in the center of the pan, and press it out as much as possible into a thin, even layer. The goal is to try and have as much of the spaghetti as possible in contact with the tomato sauce.
9 - Let the tomato sauce completely thicken and begin to burn (a little bit). The pasta touching the pan needs to acquire a some crispy caramelization.
10 - When it does, use a spatula to gently flip it so that the other side can crisp up a little bit as well. Remember that it’s actually the residue of the tomato sauce that’s “burning” so try to ensure that the pasta has an even coating of it. Completely dry pasta won’t crisp.
11 - When both sides are slightly burnt, add one ladleful of hot tomato broth into the pan. Let the liquid completely boil off; you’ll be left with more tomato residue.
12 - Once again, let the pasta sit untouched until the side touching the pan has gotten a little crispy again.
13 - At this point the spaghetti will have softened slightly. Stir the pasta around, flatten it down again, and add another ladle of broth.
14 - This process repeats until the pasta is cooked al dente to your taste. Add broth, let the liquid cook off, leave the pasta alone to crisp a little bit, stir it together, flatten it out, repeat.
15 - Once the pasta has cooked to your liking, let it crisp up at the end as much as you like. Serve immediately, topped with a drizzle of olive oil.

#thisweeksmeals #cooking

This Week's Meals (3/4): Salisbury Steak

The food you remember as being really fancy in elementary school.

# Easy Homemade Salisbury Steak Recipe

Belly Full
5.0 steaks

1.0 pound ground beef
0.25 cup panko breadcrumbs
1.0 large egg (beaten)
2.0 teaspoons ketchup (steaks)
1.0 teaspoon Dijon mustard
0.5 teaspoon dried oregano
1.0 teaspoon kosher salt
1.0 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2.0 tablespoons unsalted butter
2.0 tablespoons flour
1.5 cups beef stock
1.0 tablespoon ketchup (gravy)
1.0 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
0.5 teaspoon onion powder
6.0 ounces cremini mushrooms (sliced)
Salt (to taste)
pepper (to taste)

1 - In a large bowl, mix together the ground beef, breadcrumbs, egg, ketchup for the steaks, Dijon mustard, oregano, and kosher salt until combined.
2 - Shape the mixture into equal oval patties, about 3/4-inch thick.
3 - In a large nonstick skillet, warm the olive oil over medium-high heat
4 - Add the steaks and cook, about 3 minutes per side until they get a nice golden crust (reducing the heat if they're browning too much.)
5 -Transfer to a plate.
6 - Reduce the heat to medium and in the same skillet with the drippings, add butter.
7 - Once melted, add in the flour and whisk until combined and no lumps remain.
8 - Reduce heat to medium-low and pour in the beef stock, whisking well.
9 - Add in the ketchup for the gravy, Worcestershire, onion powder, whisking to combine.
10 - Add in the mushrooms, then simmer for about 5 minutes to thicken.
11 - Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
12 - Add the partially cooked steaks back to the skillet and nestle into the gravy
13 - Cover and cook another 10 minutes until cooked through (with an internal temperature of 160 degrees F.)
14 - Serve steaks over mashed potatoes with some of the mushroom gravy drizzled on top.

#thisweeksmeals #cooking

About time!

I just hope the folks who jump into this because it's now nibble realize this isn't really a game. It literally is a second life. The fun you have is the fun you create.

https://www.engadget.com/the-20-year-old-metaverse-game-second-life-is-getting-a-mobile-app-110254437.html

Something I miss about the Nintendo 3DS is, well, the 3D. I was probably the last person on the planet to play games on it in 3D.

I loved that its version of 3D was "A window into another world" and was less interested in "I'M GONNA POKE YOU IN THE EYE." One of the real missed marks were the 3D Classics. Nintendo took some of their old properties, adapted them to 3D, and it freshened them up a bit.

Very few games came out for 3D Classics (and even the last one was done JUST to sell alongside Kid Icarus Uprising), but Sega picked up the line and made amazing 3D versions of Sonic the Hedgehog and Altered Beast.

Sad that the 3D just didn't pan out as well as it could have - I was impressed by it, but was probably the only one.

All my DSi/3DS purchases downloaded to an SD Card, and that SD Card mirrored to a file in case it corrupts. I'm surprised with how loaded my 3DS is, it still fits in 32GB.