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Excuse me while I catch myself watching “Gal and Dino.” Wtf.

I keep forgetting that I don’t like Swiss cheese all that much.

I’ll happily eat a turkey and Swiss sandwich, but it’s not an enjoyable cheese.

An enjoyable cheese is a cheese you would eat on some crackers. Or eat with some rice. Or cut up into cubes to munch on.

When I was a kid, a Lunchable was a real treat to me. I only got them like a handful of times throughout my whole childhood, and every single time it was like I’d been given a special treat.

Honestly, I didn’t really like pairing my Lunchable with a class field trip. I would have rather enjoyed special food on a regular day so that I could more closely focus on munching on those crackers with meat, with cheese, and with a blob of Dijon mustard.

I was such a big fan of those round pieces of lunch meat. I don’t think I’ve found the exact same thing outside of a Lunchable.

And if I have come across the same thing, I haven’t recognized the flavor because those Lunchables from yesteryear have the flavor of nostalgia.

They were simple trays of crackers, cheese, meat, a single-serving of mustard, a napkin, and an Andes mint.

I didn’t need a Capri Sun in my Lunchable. I preferred the cracker meals and the Andes mint always brought me joy.

I have a particular fondness for Andes mints. They were the after dinner candy our favorite diner would give out when we paid the bill.

That restaurant is a core memory for me.

I made some congee for the first time.

I remember my mom feeding me something like it as a toddler, and even then I didn’t like it.

The flavor of the rice is made different. Like, I can eat a bowl of white rice. I can eat a bowl of white rice with water. But cooking the white rice to mush in the water? Nope.

The texture and the flavor, it’s not my favorite.

I tried some congee plain, and it was really not for me, even with side dishes added to every mouthful. The jellified rice and the thick, oozy rice water don’t bring me any fond feelings.

I did put some sesame oil and fish bouillon in a small amount, and that was very tasty. The consistency still isn’t my favorite, but I could see eating a bowl of flavored congee for an emergency meal.

There was a bit of rice leftover from dinner and I didn’t want to put it in the fridge or throw it away. So I added some water and set the rice cooker to the Oatmeal function.

I think that even if I myself don’t like the consistency, I can see turning the leftover spoonfuls of rice into dog food.

Leftover rice, a few shreds of leftover meat, some water or broth, then let it cook on the oatmeal setting.

It seems like a good way to get a senior aged dog to eat enough food and water. They could just lick it up.

I could see adding a cracked egg and stirring it in; some pieces of carrot, broccoli, peas, squash; meat bones that can later be fished out after they release their flavor; and/or cooked fish skin and bones that will disintegrate for added calcium.

Plain congee is not my favorite.

But having tasted it, I could see eating it if I was hungry and unable to get different food.

I like oatmeal. Though I don’t really see oatmeal as a "dinner" food, though there are plenty of recipes out there for "savory oatmeal."

A big canister of rolled oats or quick oats can be used to…

• make oatmeal
• make muffins
• make bread
• ground up as replacement flour
• make oat milk
• make granola
• make cookies
• crumbled up and used in meatloaf or meatballs in place of wheat bread crumbs
• ground up and added to the liquid used in a smoothie
• make dog biscuits

Rice, oatmeal, flour, self-rising flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, honey, vanilla extract, salt…

I saw someone mention that mixing equal parts self-rising flour and plain greek yogurt will give you a dough that can be used to make donuts. You could just mix the flour and granola together, and fry/air fry the donuts as rings or balls. Then roll the cooked donuts in powdered sugar or cinnamon and sugar or dip them in a chocolate or maple glaze.

Or you can mix the self-rising flour and greek yogurt and add different donut-type ingredients to your dough like…

• cinnamon and sugar
• vanilla extract
• chopped/grated pieces of apple or pear
• cocoa
• lemon juice and lemon zest
• lemon and poppy seeds
• blueberries–dried, frozen, fresh
• maple syrup

I have the Dash Mini-Donut maker–which I always forget I have–so I might just make some donuts tomorrow.

Even without a donut maker, making donuts can be really easy. And it’s inexpensive.

You just have to accept that nothing you make at home is going to taste as mouthwatering as a greasy grocery store donut you eat directly from the grocery bag while putting on your seatbelt after climbing into the car.

That sense that you’re doing something wrong, but you went out and gathered supplies so now you deserve a little treat.

The flavor of an earned donut is so much different from picking a day old dried donut out of a pink box someone left at work.

So as long as you accept that nothing you make at home is going to taste exactly the same as what you can buy… Making donuts is a fun thing to do at home. If you screw it up, you can change up your recipe next time. You can experiment and work through to make a donut you think is good, and for the same cost as a dozen store bought donuts you can get the ingredients to make three or four batches.

I’ve even bought one of those microwave donut makers before. I didn’t like that it’s made out of some kind of hard plastic, and my donuts came out more steamed than donut-y, but I like that the idea of the technology exists. Maybe if it was glass or ceramic and it fully enclosed the donuts rather than being a half-tray, it would have had better results.

So maybe somewhere out there is The Perfect Microwave Donut Maker.

I have a Dash Mini-Donut Maker so I’m not desperate for a microwave pan. But if I were traveling around the country and staying at different motels that have microwaves in the room, a microwave donut maker would be a nice little gadget to have on the go.

And all this babble is to say that I’m thinking about making some donuts.

And I’m not very fond of plain congee.

And maybe I’ll look to see if there are recipes for donuts using leftover rice. The congee had a well-stirred yogurt consistency to it. So maybe there are congee donut recipes out there. And with the addition of some chia seeds, I could make a donut that has a full serving of fiber.

Cooking is an adventure. As long as you don’t make too much at one time, if you screw up a meal or two it doesn’t have to be a disaster. And at least you can prevent the boredom of eating oatmeal for 6 out of 10 meals.

~Harper Kingsley

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“Wrath of Becky” is on Netflix. It’s the sequel to the eponymous(?) “Becky.”

So because of that, I’mma make a list of some movies you might be interested in watching:

• Weapons (horror)
• It’s What’s Inside (bodyswap)
• Mayhem (ultraviolence)
• Talk to Me (supernatural horror)
• Becky (ultraviolence)
• Wrath of Becky (ultraviolence)
• Bodies Bodies Bodies (group paranoia)
• Perfect Days (introspective)
• The Monkey (supernatural horror)
• Companion (sci-fi horror)
• Trick r Treat (supernatural horror)

Depending on your taste in movies, you probably don’t want to just dive on in watching these movies. I know that some people don’t like horror and especially jump scares, so you might want to watch a trailer or something first.

---

“Becky” and “Wrath of Becky” are ultraviolence movies featuring a teenaged child in “Becky.” And she’s still a minor in “Wrath of Becky.”

It’s bad luck that the escaped Knotsy criminals broke out of prison to retrieve something that was at Becky’s family’s summer home. That at some point during the year when the family wasn’t around, dangerous criminals met up on their property and hid something in one of the structures. An area where children like to play. And that they had to retrieve it to complete their plans.

Becky and her family would never have faced such terribly dangerous people if members of the group those people belonged to hadn’t at some point been on their property. Doing stuff.

And you can kind of tell from the escaped criminals mien that they would have rather not had to deal with Becky or her family at all.

I don’t think most regular criminals want to involve non-participants into their dangerous crimes.

It’s much easier to break into a structure and get something if you don’t have to worry that there’s already people inside.

That said, he does not hesitate to order his men to do violence on Becky’s family.

He and his men are violent people. They have a mission and they’re not going to let anything stand in their way.

And of course they were going to kill Becky and her whole family the moment they showed up. It’s regretful, but they are escapees from maximum security federal criminals that killed the guards to escape. PLUS they are Knotsys that have a big ol’ tatertotplot to perform. Their boss is waiting for them to bring him the goods to make it all happen.

The second Becky found that thing, her family was an instant target.

Because even if those prisoners had never shown up at the summer house, whoever else that got sent would have to retrieve the item. Which could have meant them showing up at Becky’s regular house in the fall.

She could have come home from school to find her family dead.

And those guys would have been waiting for her, because she was the one to find it. And she was the one that took it.

I don’t think her father would give her up, but once they tortured him enough that they accepted he wasn’t the one to take it, then Becky would be the only one that could have.

Whoever hid that thing on the property was the one to kill people.

Like, all they had to do was hide it somewhere just off the property. They could have put it in a box and buried it.

But instead they hid it amongst stuff that obviously belonged to children.

That was cold blooded. And evidently a huge mistake when Becky starts going on her rampage.

I realize that “Becky” and “Wrath of Becky” aren’t for everyone. It is ultraviolence performed by a child in a believable way for a believable reason.

“Becky” kind of makes me think of “Where the Wild Things Are.” Becky is at the age of adventure and running through the woods “playing war.” Like, Peter Pan and skulking around and Calvin and Hobbes, all rolled into the personality of a child desperate to save her loved ones.

That she was arguing with her dad and she’d been acting out so much and basically screaming out as loud as she can “Dad, I am in emotional pain!” without ever saying the words, it is understandable that she would have big emotions.

She was grieving the loss of a loved one.

She became like Pippi Longstockings but with violence.

I don’t know. There was something about the cinematography in “Becky” that felt nostalgic. It reminded me of childhood, or of how childhood was presented to me in children’s media.

Like, they didn’t focus on it, but in Narnia those kids were killing people. Susan put arrows through so many enemies.

Cool to help out Aslan and all that, but he was basically calling forth child soldiers to do his bidding.

Children have gone to war many times.

There was even a Children’s Crusade where a bunch of them died on the way to the Crusades.

Becky was at that age where there’s an awareness that death should be avoided but also a sense that “Death can’t touch me! I’m the main character!” She did not hesitate to go out and fight, because she was already primed for a fight.

But yeah, at it’s base, “Becky” is the story of an unfortunate family dealing with the consequences of someone trespassing on their property.

Which is a crime, by the way. Or at least, it’s something you can call the police to complain about.

So all of the trouble that happened in the movie “Becky” could have been avoided if those Knotsys had not decided to break in and hide something on the family’s property.

Which means none of the stuff that happened in “Wrath of Becky” would have happened.

And some people might say that the events of “Becky” were “a necessary evil.” Because if she was not there in “Wrath of Becky,” she would have been safe at home with her dad and family. She might have dealt with her loss in a healthy way and made new connections and had a bright future of her own.

She was a smart kid. Clever and physically active; talented in ways of strategy.

Who knows what kind of life she could have lived. Whether the loss of that Might-Have-Been is more or less of a loss compared to the greater good she might have done in “Wrath of Becky.”

And we don’t know, but it’s something to wonder about.

“Becky” and “Wrath of Becky” might not be movies you will ever want to see. But they were somewhat satisfying “revenge” stories.

She was going full Boadicea.

~Harper Kingsley

https://paypal.me/harperkingsley.

https://patreon.com/harperkingsley.

https://ko-fi.com/harperwck.

https://amazon.com/shop/harperkingsley0.
https://www.harperkingsley.net/blog.
https://kimichee.com.

https://www.youtube.com/c/HarperKingsley.

https://harperkingsley.bsky.social.
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/HarperKingsley.