Revolution July 20, 2011
Posted by D in WoW.Tags: alts
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I really haven’t played much since 4.2 came out, but last night I discovered that you can change the order in which your characters are displayed. Old news to everyone else, I’m sure; but OMG for me! But now the question is…do my old faithful alts who have fallen from favor deserve to be supplanted by the flavor of the month?
Almost cruel May 29, 2011
Posted by D in Random.Tags: cookies
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That’s how one of my employees described my cookies. “Almost cruel.” That rates up there in the Top 3 food compliments I’ve ever gotten, right up with a tenderloin roast being described as “beautiful food” and my chicken being the only one cooked as perfectly as a friend’s dad’s chicken.
Two batters enter...
A couple of months ago, a friend from out of town was staying over, and I guess I must’ve started nesting or something. I decided to bake cookies. Since then, I’ve been refining and tweaking the recipe. Add ginger. Diversify and cut the fat a little. Add cashews. Load up on spices.
Here’s the most current version:
Almost Cruel Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies With Cashews
1/2 c shortening
1/3 c butter (I’ve been using salted)
3/4 c white sugar
3/4 c brown sugar
2 eggs
2 t vanilla
1 t cinnamon (heaping)
1 t ground ginger (heaping)
dash nutmeg
1 1/2 c flour
1 t baking soda
dash salt
2 c oats
250 g chocolate chips (about 1 1/2 c)
125 g roasted, salted cashew pieces (about 1 c)
Cream shortening, butter, and sugars. Mix in eggs and vanilla.
Stir cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, flour, baking soda, and salt together. Add to wet ingredients.
Stir in oats. Add chocolate chips and cashew pieces.
Drop onto cookie sheet (about 30-35 g per cookie). Bake at 350 for 12 minutes.
I added the vanilla to the base recipe because I don’t understand why you’d bake anything without vanilla. The cinnamon and nutmeg were meant to combine with the oats to give an earthiness to the cookie. Is that the right way of phrasing it? I’d never make it as a foodie. Anyway, I’m most proud of the ginger, which I added on a whim once. It adds a bit of heat and makes the cookie linger just a bit on your tongue. I think the cashews have a nice mellow flavor that doesn’t dominate the cookie, and besides I like cashews more than almonds or walnuts. A common first response to the cookie is “oh, I don’t like nuts” but then they end up trying one anyway after everyone around them is having mouth orgasms. Then they’re all “I REALLY LIKE THE CASHEWS!” Um…that’s a nut. Anyhoo.
I’m curious what would happen if I ground a portion of the oats. My dad does that with his cookies. I do like some chunkiness, so I don’t think I’d grind all of them. I’m wary of going all butter, because I’m usually too impatient to refrigerate the dough, and my ultimate cookie isn’t a wafer-thin collection of particles held together by a greasy blot of batter. Not that that’s bad, but it just seems like a lot of cookies go that route. I love me some butter, but it’s not what I want to be the primary taste in my cookie.
It’s been fun to tinker with the recipe to the point where I honestly believe it’s mine. Of course, it’s entirely possible that everyone does this and Ina Garten shows up at my door screaming, “Bitch stole my look!”
Southern comfort May 27, 2011
Posted by D in Random.Tags: biscuit
2 comments
I finally made a good from-scratch biscuit! I’ve never liked Bisquik; I can always detect that aftertaste. I think “flat” is the best word I can use to describe the aftertaste. Do you know what I’m talking about? Is there a proper description for the Bisquik tang?
Anyway, so I finally found something that worked for me. And it wasn’t one of those restaurant-sized recipes where you have to bake it in five batches. It was just enough for a meal plus some leftovers. I was so excited about it, I texted Xeo.
me: I finally made a perfectly fluffy/flaky biscuit. Now I just need to figure out how to make a white gravy, then I can be a southern girl like all y’all.
x: roflmao
x: I just made mediterranean ass.
Yeah, that’s right. It always comes back to ass.
Anyhoo, because Xeo requested it, here it is. Nothing groundbreaking, but it’s my ticket to belle-dom!
LF Gravy, PST
2 c flour
4 t baking powder
3 t sugar
1/2 t salt
1/2 c shortening
1 egg
2/3 c milk
In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Cut in shortening until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Beat egg with milk; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Turn onto a well-floured surface; knead 20 times. Roll to 3/4-in. thickness; cut with a floured 2-1/2-in. biscuit cutter. Place on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake at 450 degrees F for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm.
What what (…) May 26, 2011
Posted by D in Random.Tags: da:o, rift
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I’m still around! Barely.
My characters are kind of grounded at the moment. I just don’t have any drive to log into WoW. I’ve tried a couple free trial periods of Rift, and I’ve liked it. It’s almost too much choice, though. And the races don’t really feel different at all. I mean, WoW racials were always somewhat imba, but at least a night elf felt different from a dwarf. With Rift, it all feels the same. Still, a nice diversion.
But the big thing is that I’ve fallen in love. With Alistair. I am, of course, talking video-game-wise; so don’t be texting all up in Mr. Hubby’s grill axing him wassupwidat. I capitalized on a big sale and bought Dragon Age: Origins/Awakening.
I knew that that the game had some homo content (thanks to That’s Gay) but I didn’t realize that it would be so upfront. Like, within 5 minutes of creating my human noble I was totally cruising this son of a minor lord. wtf is this, Dragon Age: Adam4Adam?
So anyway, naturally I tried to put the moves on Alistair. And nothing worked! Then I found out it required an addon. DONE AND DONE. Now I feel a little dirty. And a little degraded, since the addon just makes Alistair perceive you as a girl, not fall in love with a guy. Sigh. I guess that’s realistic. But the avatar + the voice = hottness. Sigh.
So yeah. Off I go to, uh, kill the dragon.
All together now January 3, 2011
Posted by D in Uncategorized.3 comments
I decided to ring in the new year by dinging four of my toons to 85. I got them all to within one quest turn-in of 85, then went from one to the next in semi-quick succession. If only the turn-ins had been in an inn. It was fun though, even if I did have to wait 20 seconds to camp.
So now I have four 85s! Not that that really means much. Leveling is insanely easy nowadays, which is quite the opposite of what I’m hearing about dungeons. I still haven’t done any expansion dungeons…someday.
Next up: the three stragglers…who were actually my first three 80s I think. The noob army marches forward!
Practice makes perfect December 13, 2010
Posted by D in WoW.add a comment
I never really have any foreknowledge of expansions (see recent Runecloth debacle) because I don’t do alpha/beta/ptr stuff — aside from that one stupid time I tried it and people were camping the spawn points and slaughtering you as you logged in…have I mentioned how much I hate PvP? I feel like I have the right to hate PvP based on my time in EQ1 on a Free-for-all PvP server. Anyhoo. So I go into these expansions mostly blind, because I want to be dazzled by the shiny new content. The only problem is, I don’t know what’s important ahead of time, so I make decisions that I kind of regret four alts later.
With TBC, I rushed my main druid through Hellfire and Zangarmarsh not knowing who or what was going on, or which dungeons I could or should do. So I didn’t do the little things, like saving up those uncatalogued plant species until after the normal repeatable quests end. I suppose that in the end it all worked out and I got Cenarion Expedition up to exalted, but it could’ve been a lot easier if only I’d known.
With WotLK, I had more alts ready to start the new content, so I spread them out between the starting zones and worked my way through more slowly and deliberately. But then I ran into another problem — I didn’t know who I wanted them to be. I’m sure there are therapists who specialize in this (“So what I’m hearing you say is that you don’t want the responsibility of tanking, but you feel obligated to do it just because you can?”). So my druid maintained 4 sets of PvE outfits at all times — boomkin, healy, bear, cat. My paladin was like, “Imma be a healadin all the way to 80!” My rogue was all, “Swords…no, fists! No wait, maces! Aaaagh!” So I spent a lot of time (and bankspace) changing things and planning for future changes. Hence the 18 stacks of dense stone. You know, just in case, cuz that shit’s rare!
Anyway, for Cataclysm I hoped to start anew. I sent my shaman into Vashj’ir to scout it out, and then I sent my warlock (gimpiest of my 80s) into Hyjal. My shaman really really struggled to get to the Shimmering Expanse. It seemed to take forever and I’m pretty sure I swam in a lot of circles. But my warlock blew through Hyjal and I really really enjoyed it. Then for good measure, he went and caught up with my shaman, and it didn’t even seem like it took all that long. So I think that’s going to be my itinerary for the alt crew. Hyjal first, then we’ll take it from there.
I think one reason I liked Hyjal was that it wasn’t just continually getting your ass handed to you and retreating, with people dying all around. My favorite NPC has been that Druid of the Talon who’s sitting on the fountain. You know the one with the leafy shoulders that say BADASS MOTHERFUCKER. Finally, someone who’s striking back and getting dirrty.
We’ve also started a worgen pair and a goblin pair. Naturally, I prefer the worgen and Mr. Hubby prefers the goblins. It’s like clockwork. Admittedly, the goblins are goofy and fun, but the storyline of the worgen really sold me. Still, I’m wondering if I missed the part that explains why the night elves decided, “hay gusy, lez go 2 gilneas kklol. i kno they haf a big wall and don wanna takl 2 ne1, but why not lol?” Seriously, if the Alliance was so strapped for allies, why didn’t they just sail to Gilneas to ask Genn “wtf dude?” Or have Jaina open up a portal, since apparently she can even port into Orgrimmar itself. So why, all the sudden, did the night elves decide to intervene? I mean, it’s not like the night elves have a great record about intervening and making world-altering decisions. Maybe I just haven’t gotten to the questline that explains that, I don’t know.
Speaking of sad storylines, how horrible was the Grimclaw quest? I’m not sure why I have such contempt for the Anaya quest (that guy needs to just get over it already, how did he make it into this xpac anyway?) but yet I find the Grimclaw quest so sad. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, start the Alliance Darkshore quests.
FNCCC9: From the archives December 7, 2010
Posted by D in Random.1 comment so far
So apparently I never actually published the last FNCCC that I did: Sunny Anderson. I cooked three Giada recipes and three Sunny recipes and had a bunch of people over for lunch. It was…a lot of dirty dishes.
Wait a sec, I didn’t upload pictures of all this? Oh hell. The Ginger Pear Tea was pretty good, though I don’t know why it was called a tea, since there was no tea in it. Oh, and grating the pears was bullshit. It was very flavorful, and perfect for a summer day (when we actually did this). I’d make it again if I could just puree the damned pears.
Due to the vegetarian-ness of some of my friends, I used tofu and tempeh in this instead of meat. Again, it was good. I think I overcooked the tempeh a little, or maybe it’s always that tough. But the veggieheads actually preferred the tempeh to the tofu. Weirdos. I’d definitely do this again. Just not when it’s only me and Mr. Hubby though. He tends to prefer foods that don’t require a lot of fuss. He’d probably be a good sport and make one lettuce wrap, and then just scoop a bunch of the filling onto his plate and eat it that way. And I would wince. So…for company I’d do it.
THIS. SERIOUSLY.
This was the best recipe of the day. It was so easy (hurray for Costco finally stocking pie crust!) and SO GOOD. I AM USING ALL CAPS TO DENOTE FOOD-MOANING. I would’ve never thought to give fig preserves a second look at the grocery store, but WOW. Pair it with a scoop of quality vanilla ice cream and ZOMG. DO IT. I’ve since made it again, and once again it elicited mass food-moanage. DELICIOUS. So when plums come in season again, stock up on pie crusts, fig preserves, and vanilla ice cream!
Sunny Anderson was a big hit, and while scanning through her recipes I found a bunch that I really would make. Unfortunately, this was the last hurrah for my FNCCC, because right after this our Burning Man preparation kicked into high gear, and then Deathwing done lost his damn mind.
Hoarders: WoW December 6, 2010
Posted by D in Uncategorized.2 comments
If/when A&E decides to order a WoW episode for Hoarders, I hope to not be ambushed by a camera crew at my computer desk. I save everything, just in case, because apparently I don’t have the confidence in myself to be able to gather 60 Elemental Fires ever again. sigh. And I might need that Tin Ore in case I decide to plunge another alt into blacksmithing! And all of this stat food I made in the push to 450, surely I have an alt that can use it (even though I have the Well Fed buff maybe 10% of my playing time).
With Cataclysm set to launch tomorrow, I figured that it was a good/necessary opportunity to clear out the guild bank a bit. My shaman regularly has a total of 4-7 open slots. With the gems (what the hell am I going to do with a frickin Living Ruby nowadays?), the inks (by the way, thanks for nothing Miss “I don’t take Snowfall Inks Anymore” Ink Trader), and the three sets of gear (I can’t even imagine the clusterfuck my bags would be if I PvP’d too)…it doesn’t take long before I’m destroying grays and wishing Jeeves would follow me around all the time. That’s not really a great situation to take to a new expansion (with all new crap to collect!), so I set about consolidating and vendoring.
Now that the Cloth Quartermasters have been removed from the game, I guess we won’t need all of this Runecloth we’ve been stockpiling. It’s really too bad I never saw that the cloth-for-rep thing would be ending, because (1) we had a LOT of cloth for future characters, and (2) I still had characters who needed the rep. Oh well, the tabard thing is ok…now we just need a special keychain-like garment bag for tabards and it’ll be all good.
So I cleaned out our guild bank a bit. I even splurged and bought another tab. I decided we only needed one stack of such vanilla items as Core of Earth and Ichor of Undeath. Actually, we could probably just toss those stupid Ichors, but I like the idea of convenience should the outlandish need ever arise for 10 Ichors of Undeath.
I have a whole tab of enchanting mats. I’m thinking of transferring a character and taking those mats over to fuel another enchanter. I don’t really want more than one on Silver Hand. I’m not positive I want even that one, but I feel like I can’t really turn back at this point. I know, I know. People do it all the time and powerskill professions from 1 to max in a weekend, but that’s just not going to happen with me. Too many alt mouths to feed to concentrate resources like that.
Tonight I still have a little more work to do. I kind of wish I had all of my characters in one guild, instead of spread across four. Especially with Guild Advancement. In the coming days, I’ll probably consolidate to one guild + the bank mule guild…but with all of this decluttering I think I’ve had enough trauma for one week.
A whole new world October 16, 2010
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I just used flax seed and protein powder in waffles!
In other news, I’m adjusting to Patch 4.0 albeit very slowly. Retalenting, regemming, reforging…it’s like relearning the game. I’m not sure how I feel about the icons on your action bar lighting up when a special ability is ready. I guess that’s cool, but my fury warrior really feels like whack-a-mole now. It also feels like they ripped that off from LotRO (I’m sure it’s a common thing, but LotRO is fresh on my mind).
Anyway, back to the waffles. Flax seed substituted for the eggs and the oil, and I dumped a couple scoops of chocolate protein powder into the batter for good measure. It turned out pretty good! Of course, I proceeded to smother my waffle in maple syrup, but hey, it started out healthy.
I threw up a little in my mouth October 15, 2010
Posted by D in WoW.add a comment
Last weekend I decided to give LotRO a try, since it’s free to play. It’s interesting, and it’s free. That’s about all I can say about it. Between that and Jermichael Finley and Mark Clayton getting hurt and destroying my fantasy football team, I was so occupied that I had no clue that 4.0 dropped. I had to hear about it from someone who’s quit the game, haha.
So I logged on my druid. Looked at my glyphs. Why does my Thorns glyph reduce the cooldown? Then I cast Thorns. Then I threw up a little in my mouth.
I guess it all evens out, since it does some pretty decent damage per hit, but it’s still odd to not have that secondary buff/damage shield always active. I mean, even dating back to EQ it’s always been there. Ah well.
Now all I have to do is reforge my ass off. I really don’t think I need 26.95% hit.
