I don’t often share my posts on Crisp Comics but I thought this one was particularly poignant.
If you’re a Rocket Raccoon fan, raise a ruckus!
http://crispcomics.com/marvel-cuts-rocket-raccoon-from-upcoming-guardians-of-the-galaxy-movie/
Oh noooooo!
Yeah, it has been forever. A few weeks ago I finally finished my six weeks of intensity.
Who knew that taking night classes four nights a week, doing long term substituting, and lesson planning would take so much out of you? Hubris. Oh yeah, I was sick the last week of subbing as well.
I came out of it pretty well, and I’ve been catching up on things. Cooking hasn’t been exactly high on the priority list sad to say, but I’m slowly getting back into the swing of things.
Actually I’ve been cooking, just nothing really new, and thus, not really worth blogging. I’ve been sticking to old reliables, like pizza. Well, not entirely true, I’ve made some orange syrup since my dad purchased a sodastream, and I’ve roasted some tofu.. ok, I’ve just been too busy to blog.
So, to get back to old reliables, I’ve made some bread again, just sticking to some of things I’ve picked up from Michael Ruhlman’s Ratio, and replacing some of the flour with whole wheat. And it actually worked!
At least 2/5ths of the flour used was white whole wheat flour. So that’s why I’m calling this “At Least Two Fifths Whole Wheat French Bread.” If someone has a better name I’m listening. Some people would actually just call this whole wheat French bread since there’s whole wheat in it, but I’m all about honesty here. Honestly and really long names.
Actually it may almost be one half whole wheat French bread, as you’ll see.
First of all, happy new years to all of you, and thanks for sticking with me.
Secondly, here’s an indoor s’more. Golden grahams done up in a Rice Krispies treat style, with chocolate.
With the food portion of the post done, thanks for coming again. I’m sure you all have noticed I have not been posting as much, so I thought I’d come and let you all know what’s going on.
It’s been a really busy 2013 for me, and the franticness actually began before Christmas in 2012. My grandmother passed away and that was a really hectic time. It got the family together in a hurry though, and I think we’re stronger for it, if a bit sad.
After the funeral there hasn’t been much time for rest. I thought I’d add a factoid that is directly relevant, in that my family is trying to eat more vegetarian, and so far we’ve been able to eat vegetarian every Sunday since then. Unfortunately with my time constraints and lack of practice, I have been unable to do this for the rest of the days of the week due to the following.
I’ve started the new year swinging with a long term sub position and two night classes plus a little bit extra. Sleep has been precious, and cooking up anything is quite a stretch to say the least.
Hopefully as I get into the swing of things, they will be getting easier, but for now, I just wanted all of you to know why things have been quiet here.
Hope you guys have more time to breathe than I do!
-Brian
Just taking the time to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Stay safe, eat some good food, and have a good time.
Best,
Brian
Sometimes you experiment in cooking, and the results are not so good. Other times, you experiment, and you make something fantastic. This is one of those latter examples.
For roughly a year now, I’ve been absolutely in love with the Moscow Mule. I discovered it in the Bartender manga and was entranced by the idea of ginger beer, having been used to ginger ale, which I do quite enjoy. The idea of an even more potent ginger beverage being used in a cocktail was quite appealing.
When I saw it on the menu at a classic bar, I had to order it immediately. I was quite impressed, and made it my drink of choice to make at home. But then I thought, what can I do to really make it my own?
I decided to bring the heat, and replaced the with habanero infused vodka. With the spiciness of the ginger beer and the slow burn of the peppered up vodka, I dubbed it the Molotov Mule.
So are you sold yet? Well you’ll need some habanero vodka, so let’s get to that part first.
There are various suggested manners to infusing spirits with peppers. Some people simply prick the skin of the peppers with toothpicks before submerging them whole in the booze. Others remove the seeds and halve them, others go full barrel and cut up the peppers and leave the seeds in.
By the way, this is Crystal Head Vodka, in case that wasn’t obvious enough. Super thanks to my friend Mike for gifting it to me. 750 mils of vodka is in there. For this application, one habanero pepper.
My take on it with my first batch of habanero infused vodka was to both be cautious yet be reckless at the same time. I discarded the seeds (because frankly there weren’t that many) and then I diced up the pepper pretty finely.
Slide it into your bottle of vodka, cap it, and maybe give it a good shake.
Let it sit for 2-3 days before straining out the pepper bits, and then funneling the vodka back in.
Now for the fun. Sorry for the darkness of the photos.
You will need, the habanero spiked vodka, some highball or Collins glasses, ginger beer, and some lemons or limes. I know limes are more appropriate, but when you have a lemon tree, I won’t fault you for being economical.
So don’t fault me either.
Add a shot of vodka (or two!) to each glass, and then squeeze in a side of your citrus, maybe a bit more if it is not particularly juicy.
Then top off with ginger beer, give it a quick swirl with a spoon, and enjoy.
I suppose if I was a real badass I could have garnished it with an habanero pepper. Ah well.
Potential geeky applications for the drink?
Any other ideas?
Recipes
Habanero infused vodka
Put pepper into the vodka bottle. Let sit for 2-3 days, then strain out pepper, and pour vodka back into bottle.
Molotov Mule
Before getting to the food business, I wanted to plug the JP DasBrew Kickstarter. It’s met it’s goal, but getting some more help is always welcome! Now back to business.
I visited good friend Jeremy (of Mighty Nightgaunt fame) last weekend, and made a variety of tasty treats to celebrate hanging out with him. I’ve been in the mood for something vegetarian lately because of my watching of Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s River Cottage Veg Every Day series, so it seemed like a great day to make some curry.
That and Essen23, my reddit Secret Santa, requested that I would make something Indian for the lunch week of 52 Weeks of Cooking. Well, better late than never. Unfortunately, the recipes from the book he bought me, while wonderful, involved lots of spices which I happened to have left at home, and I wasn’t going to buy duplicates, at least not from the supermarket. That gets expensive quick.
So I trolled my memory for a curry I’ve made a few times before, after learning the recipe from Addicted to Curry.
Yes, a manga about curry. It’s actually pretty good.
I omitted a number of ingredients such as fresh cilantro, and replaced the green chili peppers with some dried red ones I scooped up at the farmer’s market. The result was still quite delicious.
I served it up with some fresh naan, and everyone was happy.
I mentioned in an earlier post that I actually had the pleasure of performing my first “solo” catering gig, that is one where it was not part of some other promotion, and very much beyond simply cooking for friends, and as a bonus, it actually tied in pretty neatly with one of the purposes of this blog, that is being a cook for geeks.
I didn’t go too much into it last time, but I’ll rectify it with this post.
When my host, Steve, described the campaign, which placed a large focus on both human hegemony and an elven rebellion. While he wasn’t sure that I would be able to tie in the campaign content with the menu content, I think I did a pretty good matching up food to themes.
Between what I’d consider hearty human food and a slightly more exotic leanings from what I would surmise to be in elven cuisine I detailed the following menu (which admittedly pulls quite a bit from tried and true standards):
To provide an interesting finish, I thought that a slightly exotic twist on a straightforward dessert would really do the trick, and so I opted to make a strawberry sorbet, augmented with basil from my garden.
Had I known Steve was such an aficionado of spicy things I might have went with the white pepper variant instead! But then again for some reason the thought of basil in dessert seemed to mesh better with my perception of “elven” sensibilities.
Maybe I’m totally wrong there.
Well, it is the eve of Thanksgiving, so I thought it would be appropriate to share one way I like to work with my leftovers. Don’t get me wrong, I love turkey sandwiches as much as the next person (with leftover gravy, cranberry sauce, and stuffing too) but sometimes you want something warm and filling. These are actually pictures from last year that I’ve been holding onto for precisely this occasion.
It does take a bit of time to make this turkey soup, which calls on you to make stock from the bones of your roasted turkey. So you’ll want to get started early, and maybe have a piece of pie for breakfast, or make one of those leftover sandwiches to tide you over.
And yeah, a great way to use up those bones, and this approach to leftovers really appeals to my holistic approach to using ingredients and stuff in the kitchen.
This won’t precisely be a recipe, but more of guidelines really.
Man, I’ve really been stuck on soup lately haven’t I? Don’t worry, I’ll make other things soon.
This last weekend I had the pleasure of catering a Dungeons and Dragons Meet & Greet which happened to have a rather large portion of vegetarian adventurers. Among my other offerings, I knew I needed to have a really great soup as a bridge between the appetizers and the exciting mains.
Something simple, yet exciting. Enter Curried Lentil Soup. I looked for a base recipe to modify and epicurious definitely delivered with this one.
I upped the quantity of various items to serve a larger party, and replaced the chicken broth with vegetable broth. Had I more time I would have loved to have made my own veggie stock, but it was not meant to be. Still, absolutely no complaints about how this dish turned out.
At the request from the splendid and wonderful Tiffany Simmons, writer of the soon to be published +5 Food of Eating, I have boldly completed a quest on her behalf, testing a new recipe for some chocolate truffles!
These chocolate truffles are great for both geeky and nongeeky affairs. Why? Well it’s chocolate! And most people like chocolate. Unless you’re a supertaster perhaps, in which case other options need to be explored.
As for the straight gaming applications there are at least a few ways they could add immersion to a game. Given their origin they fit in quite well with settings placed in the late 19th or 20th century, or perhaps in a French inspired setting as well. Their rich sweetness lend themselves to the image of high society balls and intrigues. And the small but generous portions of chocolate truffles make fantastic dessert finger food.