atolnon | Entries tagged with food

The goals I've got were spawned, in part, from a series of pretty innoucuous culinary faliures - some chicken that came out of the oven pretty fucking raw (which still surprises me, actually, since there's no reason it should have. I'm still thinking on it.), watery hummus, and a complete disaster of a tahnini-based dressing. All of this stuff was bad enough that it was basically thrown out, even after trying to salvage it. I do okay for the most part, but it was bas enough and close enough together that these fuckups really had me questioning if I really had even the most rudimentary knowledge of cooking.

So I thought, well, as long as I'm having an existential crises, I might as well learn something from it. If I'm concerned about basic cookery, let's get to some real basics and build up from there, right? I wrote about that already, but I decided to start with the tomato sauce since it is, frankly, the easiest. Or, at least, the easiest to find all the ingrediants I needed, which is good enough. I tried to find a really basic recipe, but one that was still a little different from the shit I was pulling before - all it asked for was a pound of whole tomatoes, a little salt, 5 tablespoons of butter, and an onion. It was barely a recipe - more of a method and an exhortation to practice patience. At the end, it was still a little chunkier than I wanted, so I hit it with an immersion blender to smooth that shit out (Kay's idea, actually), and it was actually terrific. Could not have gone better and actually went a lot better than I'd hoped.

Complete success. Very nice.

The meatballs were way more complicated. I know my way around meatballs pretty well, actually, and thought about going super basic with them, but they were actually something of a secondary objective and I felt I could be more elaborate. So, I went with recipe from Martha Stewart, and I feel like I understand the basic principles. The beef I got was the best I could find - grass fed, whatever - but the fat content wasn't exactly right. I felt like the egg and panko I was adding as a binder would probably be enough to make up for that and I was already adding ricotta as part of the recipe - I'm honestly not sure if they could have come out much better. They were moist enough in the center for sure, so... I dunno. I guess it doesn't really matter if it's 5% one way or the other on fat, frankly.

The pasta was a bust, though - I'm glad I had dry backup pasta. I just... lost control over the eggs in the well of the flour in a complete and total fashion, and I'd never made it before. I think it was a mistake to halve the recipe, and it was probably a mistake to try to make fresh pasta for the first time at the same time I was making scratch meatballs (and I'll never go back to frozen - ever, even before this. There isn't a comparison, and I'd rather go meatless) and making a sauce in this way for the first time. You know, I got too ambitious.

So -
Primary Goal: Tomato Sauce - Achieved
Secondary Goal: Use Sauce - Achieved
Secondary Goal: Make Fresh Pasta - Failed
Tertiary Goal: Meatballs - Achieved

Still looks pretty good, to me. I'll get the pasta another time.

Right now, I've got my trial batch of home-made mustard in the fridge, chilling. (Illing.) I've made condiments before - mustards, a sweet chili ketchup, mayo a few times. But, nothing really systematic - either the result of a one shot requirement where I needed mustard and only had some powder, or some kind of elaborate recipe I don't have a good grasp of the practicals on. If the mustard turns out, then I'll never really need to buy mustard again, because it's easy as hell to make. So, we'll see.

Tags:

food

( Whining )

Anyhow, I made dinner last night. A friend came in from the airport and had dinner with us on the way back to southern Illinois where she's residing. Italian herb roasted potatoes and brussel sprouts with shallots and bacon. It was terrific. I don't want to heap praise on myself, because potatoes are dead simple and the thick cut bacon from the farmer's market is local and makes anything taste excellent. Bacon - and I was over the bacon-on-everything nerd fetish way before it even started - but bacon is basically like a cheat code for cooks. It's high-fat, which makes a dry burger suddenly taste good anyhow. It's smokey and adds that umami taste to pretty much anything you make. I don't like to over-use it because it's not exactly great for you, but we bought it for a GISHWHES thing and there's no sense in letting a bounty like that go to waste. Besides, brussel sprouts and bacon are pretty much the perfect classic combo. It went over really well, and I was super pleased with how much everyone enjoyed it.

And, to make sure this isn't a total waste, let me tell you how to make the potatoes because like I said, they're dead easy and they make you look like a better cook than maybe you are! (I'm not saying anything about you, mind, I'm just saying if you can't cook you'll still look like you can!)

First, pre-heat your oven to something like 450. People will tell you different temperatures, but it doesn't honestly matter all that much. They're supposed to be fork-tender and the skin should be crispy, and that's how you know. Just cook them until that's what's going on.

Cut up your potatoes - any number of potatoes that are going to fit in a pan that can go in the oven, preferably without too much potato not touching the pan. Try to keep them no more than, like, I guess an inch thick. And don't fucking skin the potatoes, you know? There's a lot of nutrients in the skin, and it crisps up and tastes fucking great. Someone might be like, "Oh, yeah, peel the potatoes." That person is a liar.

The kind of potatoes you use doesn't really matter. Sure, it'll effect the taste, obviously. Yukon's are a little waxy and they've got a thin skin. Red's are quite waxy, indeed, and I like to use them for a lot of stuff people tell you to use other potatoes for. I love red potatoes, though. Russets are mealy and, in my opinion, when they crisp up, they've got the best skin. It's like, kind of crunchy and the texture differs a lot from the rest of the potato. Russets are my favorite for this, actually, but we used Yukon Gold because that's what we had. Don't go out and buy different potatoes for this - this is the kind of thing you do when you don't have anything else around anyhow and want to give someone a decent meal (or you're too lazy, like me, to run to the store!).

Spices, people. Don't be afraid of herbs and spices. It's not a trick! Just pile them on there. I used just one of those Italian Herbs mixes you get in the store. It was on sale. You can literally use anything. Everything tastes good with potatoes. Italian herbs, salt, cracked black pepper, garlic powder, (don't use fresh garlic, actually! It'll burn up way before your potatoes are done. Waste of perfectly delicious garlic.) onion powder, and paprika. I think I put some turmeric on there because it turns everything yellow and I cheat because people in my house seem to love that yellow color on food. It does add to taste, though. I just coat the whole thing until it's literally covered in herbs, pour a bunch of olive oil on it (yeah, a bunch. Do it until it's covered. I didn't measure it, and you don't have to either.) Mess it around some, mix it up. Put more herbs on. Mess it up again, kind of try to make sure most of it is touching the bottom of the pan.

Put it in the oven for about 15-ish minutes, I guess. Pop it out, turn the potatoes over or, if you're me, just shake them up some. Put it in for 10-15 minutes and check the skin and tenderness. They're probably done. Let 'em cool for a bit and serve them. If you're broke, they're a great main. If you're rolling in dough, or are serving beef or something, they're an excellent side. If you've got, like, a stew or a really hearty soup that's done (and I mean done, like, it's done cooking. You don't want to put these potatoes in a cooking soup, you'll mess them up), you can put these in the bowl that the soup's being served in.

They're good. You'll look good when you serve them. Enjoy your ill-deserved accolades!

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One of my favorite things, no fucking lie, is putting together something to eat on the spur of the moment and it coming out delicious.

There aren't a lot of culinary skill sets that I actually possess. I can read a cookbook and extrapolate a bit from an existing recipe, but I'm still in the training stage of most cookery. I'm practicing! But I don't exactly expect to open a restaurant, so I guess there's no hurry. One of the things I've gotten a little bit of practice in is probably stir-frying, though. For me, it's easy because it's so basic. You get a big ass pan or wok really, really hot, put some high-temperature oil into it, and then cook stuff really, really fast.

There's a knack to a lot of it that I haven't gotten 100% down yet; it's all trial and error for me, but today I put together something pretty tasty.

Kay had already eaten and I was trying to figure out something to whip up. I mean, I'm cooking for one and lately we've been buying as close to all whole food as we can, which means that even when I want something quick I usually have to make it from base ingredients. This is great for taste and health, but it can be pretty bad for time.

I took a ground beef patty we'd frozen and put it in a good quality plastic bag. I thawed it until it was soft, but left it in the bag and turned the heat up gently until it turned a little gray. That means it got up to temperature, but I knew it wasn't cooked through. I set it, bag in, into a bowl of water to hit room temperature.

I washed some kale with their stems and chopped them really roughly, then dried them. Then I chopped some mushrooms and scallions and put 'em in a bowl. I figured, "what the hell, right?" and finely chopped a little ginger and a few cloves of garlic too, and set them with the onions. Now that I had all the greens chopped and off the board, I brought the hamburger and chopped it roughly into squares and put it into a dish with soy sauce, mirin, cumin seeds, chili flakes, ground pepper, kosher salt, stir-fry oil (which is just oil infused with ginger, garlic, and sesame) and sesame seed oil, and I just let it sit for a little while.

When I decided to get cooking, I put some grapeseed oil into the wok. It's more expensive than other oils, but it's got a clean taste and the cooking temp is high, so that makes it good for wok temperatures. I put that bad boy on Max (we've got a gas stove) and waited for it to get ripping hot. Not always so nice during the summer... Also, as a totally unrelated side-note, never cook fish sauce in a room with poor ventilation. It smells like hot garbage, which it kind of technically is. Just take my word for it.

I threw the meat in and cooked it quick, then put it in a separate dish to wait. I quickly tossed the kale and mushrooms in, tossed them around a little bit, dropped some soy sauce and a little water in, and put a circular metal pizza dish on top to trap the moisture. I only had the dish on for about 30 seconds when I removed it. The kale took on the steamed look I hoped and I rapidly tossed the meat back in, then followed that with the garlic, ginger, and onions.

I always do that stuff last these days - onions wilt so easy and garlic burns at low temperatures, so to keep the taste and color vibrant, I do that bit at the very end. All you need to do is fold it in, and that's the whole meal pretty much.

It used to be that I'd throw it all in at the same time, and it tasted okay, but the little differences add up. The taste was really good and it even looked really pretty. I felt really good, because it was all on the spur of the moment with no planning, and it really made me feel accomplished - like all the times I'd practiced or learned little alterations is worth it. I guess I'm posting this here because no matter what people say about posting what you've eaten on Facebook, this makes me proud and I like to share flavors. If I can't cook for others, I can at least share what I did.

Tags:

food,
life

If you're in your pajamas at 11:30 in the morning and your unemployed, you feel lazy. If you're in your pajamas at 11:30 in the morning and you start work at the beginning of January, you feel like you're on vacation. Vacation on a budget, since I'm broke until my first paycheck.

Actually, things are looking a little up financially which is good because we've been stressed for quite a while. Katie's come back from New York bringing me gifts because Katie is awesome, and I've got stuff from Muji and Momofuku's food magazine and it's great. A surprising amount of stuff I adore comes right out of NYC - including Katie, now that I think about it.

Let me tell you how excited I am to go grocery shopping.

I really am, because living off of cans in the pantry is the pits. There's little less fun then looking in the cupboard and wondering if canned goods suddenly become tasty if you mix enough of them together. We inexplicably have a million of them. I've tasted how we'd live if the apocalypse hit and let me tell you that it's sustaining but awfully dull after the first few days. I'm looking in recipe books and thinking, "Hey, now that we're sure we won't starve to death, what can we eat that won't make me regret taking this soul-killing job." The future looks like bacon, everyone. Just so you know.

Ok, whatever. Anyway, because I haven't provided anything fun to read for a little while, I'll gift you with a recipe. No, it's not one of mine; I'm not that malicious. Momofuku is the series of restaurants run by David Chang, whose book I'm in love with and whose joint Katie frequented on the trip to New York.* Chang, along with staff and other chefs and food writers, release a quarterly magazine of considerable heft named "Lucky Peach", which is Momofuku in English, pretty much. I'd be perfectly happy to extol the virtues of the magazine, but in it is a recipe for surprisingly straight forward corn cookies - the sleeper hit at their dessert bar.

Here are the ingredients :
225 g (2 sticks) room-temp butter. Better butter is better, but you can get away with whatever as long as it's not salted.
300 g (1 1/2 cups) sugar
1 egg
225 g (1 1/3 cups) all purpose flour
65 g (2/3 cup) freeze dried corn powder
45 g (1/4 cup) corn flour
3 g (3/4 t) baking powder
1.5 g (1/4 t) baking soda
6 g (1 1/2 t) kosher salt

mixer w/ paddle attachment
flat pan
2 1/4 oz ice cream scoop or whatever
probably a spatula I guess, right?
oven. what are you thinking baking without an oven. You crazy.

Ok, freeze dried corn powder. I guess you can get freeze dried corn online or whole foods or whatever. Maybe your grocer carries it, but it seems a little unlikely, maybe? Anyway, I guess you need it. It's better if it's not organic, I'm told, but nobody knows why. Anyway, you gotta grind it and if you don't have a spice grinder or a food processor (I don't) you can use a blender which is just a food processor in the shape of a super heavy margarita pourer, anyhow.

The least of your problems is probably not being able to find corn flour, but in the off chance you're caught off gaurd and don't have any, sub 40 g (1/4 cup) flour and 8 g (4 t) freeze-dried corn powder.

Anyway.

Combine butter and sugar in mixer fitted with paddle attachment on med-high for 2-3 minutes. It should be fluffy and pale yellow.
Scrape down sides with spatula.
At a lower speed, add your egg. Go for 8 minutes.
Speed to low, add the dry ingredients. Shouldn't mix any longer then 60 seconds. Just until stuff comes together.

Use an ice cream scoop to portion dough onto parchment on your sheet pan about 3 inches apart. Every other instruction is metric, except this, so deal. Wrap your shit tightly in plastic wrap and totes refrigerate for an hour at the least. They need to be cold. You have a serious concentration of butter in these cookies. Seriously, do not bake this at room temperature. This instruction is in caps, so I guess they mean business. Don't disappoint at this late hour by botching your cookies.

No more then one week. That is ridiculous. What are you thinking. These cookies are taking up room where beer** could be.

Ok, it's been some time. Pre-heat your oven to 350 before you remove your cookies. Then put your cookies in the oven for 18 minutes. If they're not browned just slightly on the periphery, give 'em another minute.

Actually that's it. I mean, you need to take them out, but otherwise, you're golden. Nom your foods.
They keep for about 5 days in the air. Like, in a container. If you put them in the freezer, they're good for a month. You've ostensibly baked these for someone else, but eat them all in one depraved fit and then bake some more for your ungrateful family members.

Speaking of depraved, it's time for BONUS RECIPE eXTREMEME EDITION

Whatever. There's so much fucking butter in these cookies that you can fry them like grilled cheese. In fact, perhaps you should give it a shot. They taste like butter, sugar, and corn so when nobody's looking and you're kind of drunk on schnapps, heat up your cast iron skillet or whatever you have. You're gonna make a sandwich.

A cookie sandwich.

Ingredients :
2 corn cookies. Ok, you have to have some of these left over from the above recipe. Take them out of the family pile. They won't know if you don't tell them.

2 slices of sharp cheddar cheese. Don't wuss out; the cookies are sweet, so you need sharpness.

some ham slices. Better ham is better, but ham is ham so whatever's left from Christmas dinner that you squirreled out in your messenger bag when your family wasn't looking is fine.***

Put ham, cheese on cookies. Cookies? Flat side down - they cook better that way. They should look all dark brown and seared on the bottom before flipping. You can scarf them sooner, but they arn't as good. Wait until the cheese is all oozy and you know you're gonna have to scrape it off the skillet. And then eat it when nobody is looking.

Who are you kidding. This is so undignified, you are not going to make it when anyone is around. Just don't burn your fingers.

nom nom

*Momofuku Noodle Bar, incidently.
** Or white wine. I'm not going to get on your case.
*** I'm assuming you don't have ham of your own. It occurs to me that they sell ham. Like, at the store. This is acceptable, but food acquired surreptitiously always tastes the best. Ask anyone who steals food from the kitchen before mom's done cooking.

Current Mood: chipper

Tags:

cooking,
food

I'm a little light-headed. No breakfast, early day, and coffee's the combination that enforces that. I bought breakfast for mornings to improve my eating habits, but I only had 15 minutes to get ready today, so it's a miracle that I'm even shaved and clean for work.

Man, there's a phrase that inspires confidence, I'm sure.

It's been kind of an interesting week for me. My PS3 is ordered and should find its way to my doorstop probably tomorrow. It's a 120 GB slim model, which means it's not backwards compatible, to my frustration. I'm in possession of a PS2 though, so aside from being irritating to have to use two machines when the hardware and software both exists to do it in one, my gaming shouldn't expect to find itself curtailed. My friends are excited about Rock Band. I'm excited about resuming Dead Space.

Abyssals is still going smoothly, but the game has reverted to something that is very close to our traditional model of play just for the moment. Our ST intentionally throws divisive moments at us then wonders why games become bogged down in in-character discussions, and at the end of this mini-arc, he said to expect it again. That's not really all that fun, so it's my hope that there's a clear option to stay working together.

Changeling had to be called a little early, on account of having to restructure the adventure. Neither the PCs nor the NPCs really knew what to expect, and a decisive collaberation between a friendly NPC and the players gave both sides a little breathing room. The priveteers haven't revealed themselves yet, and have decided to stay their hand to wait for a safer time. The court has been thrown into confusion by the PCs who first revealed a fake mole then rescued him. The game ended with the motley somewhere near Columbia, MO. standing in front of an unmarked radio tower and detecting an aggressive, industrial type hedge present locked somewhere inside at 3:30 AM.

Yesterday's dinner was fantastic, incidently. The weather turned nice later on in the day, and I'd bought sausages and steaks, so there was grilling and broccoli salad. After the game, wine and talking about dressing as the 9 Ringwraiths for next October's Archon.

Current Mood: content

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Work's been really dull, lately. Call volume is creeping down, ever so slowly, and my stress level is going down at about the same rate. I've been hurting my ratings lately, because I have to take a little bit of extra time after every call to not feel totally exhausted from what I feel is a deluge of password resets from people who failed to recognize the results of their last attempts and other miscellaneous stuff. There's a little burnout before the holidays, I guess.

So, I've been tired lately. I've been playing more video games, obviously. Fall and winter are seasons that make me turtle up a bit. It's another year sheltered from the shower of commercialism by two-hit combo of not working retail and not turning on my television. Instead, what I'm looking forward to is spending a little time with family and friends. I'm trying to think of a good holiday vegetable dish, and I'm thinking that maybe I could make a nice veggie pilaf for Thanksgiving or, at one point, I had a broccoli and cauliflower salad that had cranberries and sunflower seeds, with either a light and sweet mayo-based dressing or maybe a vinegar one.

Bah. Decisions.

Um. I don't know how other people feel about holiday gifts. I feel like the holiday season, as it gets into winter, is a good time to give friends small gifts since winter is always kind of a drag. It's nice to get something that kind of says 'hey, I've been paying attention and this reminds me of you', but I don't know how others feel about that. I like giving people gifts, but feel that it's sometimes awkward, and I don't know how others react to this kind of thing.

It's Wednesday, and I'm boring. Maybe I shouldn't have bothered this time but maybe you're the kind of person that finds talking about what to take to a Thanksgiving potluck to be interesting. I kind of do, so, I dunno. I mean, all of those tags were pre-existing.

Current Mood: sleepy

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I just realized I have my entire collection of Texhnolyze with me, which is really kind of a fluke. I think I watched the whole thing, but only technically, because there's a good chance I slept through most of it at the time since I watched it at a point where I was putting movies and shows on to go to sleep with. I must of packed it instead of the Ghost in the Shell: 2nd Gig, which I don't seem to have on hand. I'm excited about finally watching the whole thing.

I wonder if I can get someone to mail me my set of 2nd Gig, though.

Had dinner with Noe, Brent, and Val for Noe and Val's birthdays.
The Melting Pot is a nice place to eat, and I had a good time. The food was pretty tasty, but I'd heard it was overpriced, and I have to say that I agree. I said I had a good time, so no regrets, but I'm not likely to go back. At least I know what everyone's talking about, though.

I skipped the tourny today, but I'll probably play a bunch of cards tomorrow. I don't know how that'll work. I head it was a barbeque card playing thing, so I'm not sure if I'm going to be outside or something. I pissed someone off with one of my decks last time when I played a counterspell, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that. I think I'll think about it for a while tonight.

Current Mood: pleased

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I got tired of just eating whatever, and decided I was in the mood for fried rice. Fried rice is a left-overs dish, like pad thai and minestrone soup, so I didn't really feel up to cooking up chicken just to put it in there. Instead, I walked down to the corner store (like a gas station store, but no gas) to see if they had coffee beans (they didn't). I picked up some canned coffee, a 12-pack of lager, and a can of oysters. My choices were salmon (which sounded good), Spam, vienna sausages, and oysters, so I thought I'd go with the latter.

I assumed we had vegetable oil and eggs. Poor assumption!

So, after futzing awhile, I decided I'd just substitute olive oil for vegetable (or my optimal choice, sesame), diced up some green onions and got the soy sauce and minced garlic. First of all, I've never had more trouble with a can in my life. It took several minutes of trying to get the oyster can open, and I lost all the juice, which was fine since the end product tasted enough of oysters as it was. The end result was plenty tasty, to my surprise (and pleasure) and the strong oyster taste was cut with the garlic and a lager from the store (which I chose over coffee for this purpose exactly).

Sesame oil, fried egg, and just a bit of ginger would have made this terrific. I'm super pleased with how it turned out, but it really was critical to use day-old rice. I still had trouble with clumping and actually had to break up some chunks of rice by hand, so if you want to do this at home, I added a little salt and make sure that the rice isn't fresh. Two days old is best, but I got by just fine.

Current Mood: pleased

Tags:

food

There are two servings per packet of Top Ramen.

Current Mood: amused

Tags:

food

I'm feeling supportive as I make my LJ rounds today. If I didn't post on yours, then I still hope things pan out well for you. It seems like the start of one of those weeks.

Woke up cold today. Looks like the heat spell has had its back broken, and cooler weather will prevail. I'm able to get up a little earlier everyday, and that's really heartening, and I've got kind of a busy day today. Bread for lunch, laundry, coffee, managing my FFXI account and now I'm strapping on the boots for a walk down to the supermarket so I can help Brent make yakisoba and I can stir fry beef and broccoli tonight. When I get back, it's sending the resume to a temp service so maybe I can get a bike or something while I'm up here. The hills are steep, but I bet it's great for my thighs and calves.

Taking photos on the walk there, and maybe an edit on the post later on about Exalted again. I really think only

brantai cares all that much, though. Maybe Viski, so I might just tell them instead. No reason to clutter up LJ with musings others arn't particularly interested in. OTOH, Sidereals are pretty neat...

Actually, the mechanical aspects are ok, and I like talking about them with other mechanic wonks, but I'd probably rather talk about the upcoming game, so you might get that instead. Helps me iron out my ideas anyhow.

EDIT: Less Sidereal, more exhaustion. That walk to the grocery is much, much longer then it looked. And that steep downhill incline became uphill on the way up! No fair!

And, of course, it decided to get hot just after I set out. I blew through my water both ways, so I think I'm just going to sit at my laptop and hibernate until Brent and Val get back. Ye gods.

Current Mood: chipper
Current Location: OTW to the market. Jiggidy jig.
Current Music: Garbage

Tags:

food

I had a good evening last night. Really unhealthy food, but hey, I was dying for something with chili on it for a long time. I don't know if you're been privy to this rant yet, but in short, if I order something with chili on it, chili needs to cover it. No lame cups of chili. Still, man, that chiliburger was massive. You know what that means.

Lunch tomorrow. Or, rather, today. I totally ate the rest of that burger, so it's healthy eating for the rest of the week right?

Oh snap. It's Friday. So let's reset that timer, shall we? ^_^
Still, I lost some muscle weight and gained some fat weight, so I shouldn't take that too far. Walking and various exercises should clear up some of the lost muscle weight. I'm not going to worry too much about having put on weight though. I'm more concerned about the sedentary lifestyle I'd been working on for several months. Activity is definitely increasing my energy level.

Anyhow, it was my first trip into the city, which was fun. I mean, there's a subtle difference between Seattle and St. Louis besides hills and trees, and it's heavily dependent on the area. The truth is, I like a lot of areas in downtown St. Louis and the like, but crossing the floating bridge but day and night was pretty.

I finally got around to ironing out Atol on the spreadsheet, spending the banked xp that I'd earned from games and the bump to MC 3. The results are really pretty stunning with just a few bumps. Still, I had a few things go from 3 to 4, and a level 3 Rote, so I'm going to need to ask around and do a little OOC legwork to make sure its kosher. Nothing seems off about it, and the only thing I did that might surprise anyone is totally forgoing the Fame merit at all, since part of the IC dialog I had last game revolved around how Atol was leaving on a musical pilgrimage of sorts because he couldn't get his sound right and his band never took off. (Several band members left, in game, so.)

I'm doing the NPCs for the Exalted game, and kind of like how straight-forward the Dragonblooded Charms are compared to Solar or, especially, Sidereal Charms. They have the smallest Essence pools, so over a long period, their Charms are designed to be as efficient as possible, so you see a lot of '1 Mote per X' costs in their Charm trees. Without looking harder at the overall mechanics, I think the DB book is one of the best and most flavorful.

After working with the Mage and Camarillia spreadsheets, though, I kind of wish someone had done the same thing for 1st Ed. Exalted but since there never was a LARP for Exalted, there's not a lot of call for it.

Current Mood: chipper
Current Music: Red Hot Chili Peppers

Tags:

It's, like, 5 am at work right now and I'm surprisingly famished. Usually I bring in a Hot Pocket or a sandwich to tide me over until I get home and, well, I'm always hungry when I get home but it's only an issue in the last half hour of work or so. But anyhow, here I am thinking deep thoughts about art, gaming, and experience points when my stomach rumbles. I realize I've read something about pierogi, which I've never heard of until last week and now they're cropping up in all kinds of shit I'm reading, and I'm thinking about how good they sound.

And that's how you know you're hungry, if the pangs in your stomach don't educate you properly.

Normally, there's all kinds of up-for-grabs shit in the fridge that I pass on. I've got this vaguely defined fear of eating stuff left in the fridge at work for reasons that range from 'is this still good?' and 'what if someone else has dibs?' to 'I don't want to wash a dish at work'*. When you're hungry though, it's surprising what you're willing to either rationalize or just blame on someone else. There was lasagna in there yesterday, but nothing today. Just my luck. Looks like I'm waiting until morning.

By the time I get home, I'm willing to eat anything, but lately eggs have been a huge favorite. I'm not sure what's gotten into me, but I guess just regular eggs have gotten boring though, so I've started mixing them with weird things. Two days ago, I wanted nothing more then eggs on steaming rice with japanese mayo and soysasuce. I settled for swapping the rice for bread, but it was surpringly excellent. Last morning, it was leftover salmon and eggs steamed in soysauce on toast.

I realized that since I've started midnights, my breakfasts when I cook have been consistantly odd. Like the time Taco Bell was closed (Because they don't open until 9.**) so I made some kind of weird random taco things, complete with a spontaniously created taco sauce because I refused to eat tacos sans sauce. I was, in fact, so enamored of my taco-creations that I took pictures of them with my camera phone. I haven't posted them on the net, or anything, but I've still got them. I don't know why.

So, food is this weird thing with me. But I really want weird polish dumplings now.

* Which I've learned is my job anyhow for some reason, so whatever.
** Look, I'm just not used to thinking about Taco Bell being closed.

Current Mood: hungry

Tags:

food,
moods

A Window, A Light...

...an autumn breeze, and a melancholic humor.

Food Update

TiTLJ - The Book : The Movie. (Also making great roast potatoes.)

On Making Dinner

Corn cookies. Seriously.

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I needed an Anime tag.

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On Ramen

Today

Mildly Pumped

[Food] Breakfast Eggs.

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