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What’s your favorite thing to cook?

Besides pasta, I enjoyed making D.O.Ts whenever I was in the mood for a quick snack, especially when I was growing up.

D.O.Ts stands for Deliberately Overheated Tortillas and are easy to make. All you need is a flour tortilla and some shredded cheese. After sprinkling the cheese on the tortilla, just let it cook in the microwave for about two minutes and lo and behold, you’ve got your D.O.T.

I’ve done some experimenting with the different varieties of cheese and found that cheddar works the best. I don’t want to just melt the cheese, I want to overheat it enough so the cheese becomes cooked and crunchy. Parmesan cheese also works well.

Blue cheese also works but that comes with a price. When melted it will stink up your kitchen and won’t look very appetizing when melted, but it still has good flavor.

Bon appetit.

Write about your first computer.

My very first computer was a Texas Instruments TI-99/4A Home Computer. Although simple by today’s standards, back during its heyday during the 1980’s, it was as good as home computers got.

Many of the programs for the TI-99/4A came on cartridges that easily slid into the console. We had cartridges for educational games, taking care of the family finances and of course playing games.

My favorite games were Parsec and Tunnels of Doom. I also enjoyed Car Wars, which my younger sister loved playing as well. My mother enjoyed text adventure games similar to Zork that wouldn’t arrive until years later.

I had the most fun with TI-BASIC. It was very easy to create my own programs that played music using three-part harmonies, while other programs allowed me to create graphics. I even created a program that changed the onscreen font to one of my own. With the speech synthesizer module, I could also make programs that talked.

In order to save my programs I used a cassette player that was hooked up to the computer. I remember the process of saving and loading programs from cassettes was very time-consuming. Loading the programs from cassette was especially frustrating as the volume of the playback had to be just right so the computer could understand the bizarre clicks, beeps and screech sounds that made up the program as stored on cassette.

I still enjoy reliving those magical days when the TI-99/4A was king. There is a free emulator for Windows desktops called Classic99 that includes ROM images of some of its popular games including Tunnels of Doom, Parsec and Car Wars. It’s still under active development so it’s worth checking in from time to time as Classic99 continues to improve.

For Android devices there was an emulator called Droid99 but it ran poorly and has since disappeared from Google Play. Maybe someday that project will be revived and the emulator fined-tuned to perfection.

In the meantime, Parsec Reloaded is available for your enjoyment. It’s a fantastic remake of the classic space shooter that lets me relive my childhood all over again.

What are your family’s top 3 favorite meals?

I know this is an older prompt question but this post had been sitting among my unposted drafts a little too long. I’m working to finish as many of these drafts as I can before the end of the year so I can start the new year with a strong case of writer’s block.

3. Steak Night.

When I was growing up, Sunday night was always steak night. My father would light up the charcoal grill and cook a nice juicy steak cooked just right. Sunday nights also brings up memories of “The Standing Kitty”. Lady the cat and Max the miniature schnauzer waited patiently for us to finish eating as they knew they would get some leftover steak. We made Lady work for her share by holding a piece of steak high enough above her head so the only way to get it was to stand on her hind legs.

2. Cincinnati Chili.

When I first tried this zippy, almost chocolatey flavored variant of the common chili recipe, I loved it so much that I have requested it as my birthday dinner. My niece loves it too and wants it served as her birthday dinner too, so we have this tasty dish at least twice a year.

3. Grilled Margherita Pizza.

What began as an adventurous experiment became an entirely new reason for a family gathering. I would make the dough from scratch and after letting it rise, I divided it into four pieces that would become four pizzas.

One at a time I put the flattened dough on the propane grill outside and as it cooked, I brushed on the olive oil, sprinkled on the basil and added slices of tomato and mozzarella cheese. Minutes later it was sliced and served piping hot and fresh. Everyone loved my grilled pizza and have since been asking me when I’ll be making it again.

Honorable Mention. Homemade bread.

When I was growing up, I had a talent for making bread. Once a week I would try a different recipe and it would often become my family’s bread supply at least for a few days. I’ve been trying to reignite that passion by finding bread recipes and stocking up on the ingredients but all I need is the time to make it.