Used to crank everything too until a stripped bolt taught me the hard way.

Wow, only $200 left and you're reading papers from Prague. That's some serious dedication. Most people would just give up and call it a day. Layer freezing sounds smart though, basically letting the model get its bearings before going all in. I tried something like that once and my GPU just sighed at me. Hope it works out for the charity.

Man that's the worst timing. I had my immersion blender die right as I was about to blend a big batch of soup for a catering job. My backup is always a regular blender, but it took forever and made a huge mess. For something like short ribs, I'd probably do exactly what you did, low and slow in the oven with some steam. Sometimes the old school way saves you.

Totally agree with @kim.sandra, my neighbor thought the same until I showed her my basic website.

Seems like a stretch...