The Role Playing Public Radio Forums
General Category => General Chaos => : Kamen January 19, 2014, 03:09:46 PM
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Ah, tabletop gaming, getting together with your friends and rolling dice to slay monsters, tell stories, and have a good time! But what is a good time without some snacks to chow on and and beverages to wash 'em down? What does everybody like to nosh and sip while they, as Ross so eloquently put it once, facilitate battles between imaginary elfs? Anything from simple snacks to full blown meals, sodas and juices to beers and whiskey are all invited. Also, if you have recipes or suggestions feel free to share! I know my hunger is never truly sated and new tastes are welcome!
Personally, my group tends to grab a few pizzas or a boat-load of Chinese food before we get into the nights adventure. We also usually have some sort of chips, with or without dip, or cookies, but those usually come later in the night. In the past I've made whoopie pies and chocolate cake that have turned out pretty good, if not a little messy. My latest plan is to cook up some pierogies and see how they go over.
Drinks range from water, Mountain Dew, and Coke, to alcoholic beverages like ciders (usually Woodchuck, but Strongbow and Angry Orchard have shown up before), Kraken Rum, and usually whatever bourbon or scotch I decide to pick up. I'm a fan of Jura scotch and Wild Turkey bourbon, though I've acquired some Booker's True Barrel bourbon and Pendelton Canadian Whiskey that are both pretty good. Beer does have its place at the table, but it really depends on who shows up that night for the quality. We've gone from borderline water like Natty Light to more substantial stuff like Blue Moon and Shock Top to craft stuff like Rogue and Dragon's Milk.
That's about all I got for now, but I'm sure I'll come up with more!
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The age of my group is closer to 40 than it is 30 and that with other factors means we only play once a month if we are lucky and I like to entertain and so I try to cook something. Two games ago we did a Sunday morning game and we did breakfast which was fun but normally it is a hearty soup/stew. The wife and I just took the plunge on sous vide so we are playing with that and I think the next game I am going to do a sous vide roast.
So how I have managed to live this long with out owning a BBQ but have been eyeing a few different ones and if I pull the trigger on that I suspect we will go through a round of grill all the things.
From the drinking front people tend to bring something they like but we always have beer. I also am a cocktail geek so mix drinks for people (simple things like old fashions or negronis, not tiki drinks) if they want and there is neat scotch, rum, or tequila.
My current favorites scotchs -
Sprintbank 10 Year
Ardbeg Galileo
Glendronach 15 year
My current favorite rums:
El Dorado 15 year
Mount Gay XO
The nice thing is being a bit older people know there limit so I don't have a problem serving hard alcohol since people don't tend to get shitty.
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I have two groups. In one we do bring whatever we want to drink and snack and sweets to share. Then order food from a delivery service when it is time to eat. Usually italian. It is pretty much gluttony.
With the other groups we change venues and whereever we will play the host will cook something and then we each split the cost. We drink lots of tea during those games, provided by the host usually or bring whatever we want to drink. Usually some kind of soda.
Not too big of a fan of drinking and gaming and neither are my groups. Sometimes someone opens a beer but I keep the drunk gaming to special ocassions.
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I don't want to give the impression that we pound drinks and play games. Most people have a beer of two of maybe a cocktail of neat pour of something. That with food over the course of a four hour gaming session means most people don't really get more than slightly buzzed.
Not that there has not been a board gaming session or two where those rules went out the window. A buddy has hosted weekend board gaming marathons and when you are staying the night people tend to give them selves license to act a bit different.
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It use to be that I would get together with my pals and down pizzas' and sodas while we played our D&D sessions. Now the group is split up into two groups and I am with a new batch of pals. The venue has changed from pizza joint to Gamer Bar where if things start to become to outlandish I can order a beer or two and keep up with the crazy things my friends think of doing.
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drink: goat's blood
food: congealed goat's blood
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I'll admit that my palate is a midwestern one, so when it comes to food during the game I will inevitably choose the unhealthy option. Deep fried, fatty, salty whatever; mostly chips with the occasional dip, mixed nuts, hard candies, etc. If there's a meal to be had, we try to eat before the game; nothing interrupts the recording worse than a doorbell in the middle because someone ordered a pizza. ^_^
As for drinks, I like rum. I think you all know I like rum. I generally have a rum and coke at the game, maybe two, or one Sailor's Curse (which is rum mixed with rum and more rum, on the rocks to break it up a little.)
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Oh Ross, you horrible monster. :P
Thanks for sharing everybody! Definitely seeing some stuff I'll have to try.
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drink: goat's blood
food: congealed goat's blood
[/quote
But son, it is only Tuesday.
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I have two groups.
One only gets together sporadically, and we play marathons, like 8 hours or more. Usually we take a break in between to eat. Although there have been one or two times where meal time coincided with a meal in game, which works out, eating and role playing is strangely fun.
As for drinking, it's usually light across the group. Everyone there enjoys drinking but tend to keep it confined to 1-4 beers throughout the day.
My other group meets Thursday nights and we almost always get pizza. About half the group drinks, one of which catches crap for drinking nearly an entire large bottle of wine to himself.
The Thursday game is a little less serious though due to the sheer amount of people all trying to play.
On average we have 7 players at the table and the group actual size is 9 players 1 gm which is nigh impossible.
We make it work to the best of our abilities but battles generally take entire sessions to complete.
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I'm going to resurrect this thread and hijack it for my own purposes! So I'm trying something new today and cooking with tripe: the meat was cheap as shit and the one time I've had cow stomach I liked the weird taste. Who else here has seen something utterly strange at their local supermarket and decided they had to do something with it? Experimentation is the soul of cooking after all!
I'm making a soup with the stuff: a simple onion, tomato and chile affair with some added spices. I'll tell you all how it tastes when I'm done! If it's good, I may make it for my next game night.
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Being pretty high on offal in general it is somewhat sheepishly that I confess I on the fence with regards to tripe. I have enjoyed it in the past but also have really not enjoyed it as well. Given this ambivalence I have many other cooking unicorns to pursue so I personally have never cooked it although I still will occasionally order it to see if my tastes have changed.
If you end up liking tripe you might give this a whirl. Had it a few times in restaurants and it is one of the few tripe dishes I have always enjoyed.
http://www.seriouseats.com/2012/04/the-nasty-bits-trippa-alla-romana.html (http://www.seriouseats.com/2012/04/the-nasty-bits-trippa-alla-romana.html)
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I'm going to resurrect this thread and hijack it for my own purposes!
Go right ahead! I figured this is just a general topic so it's all good!
While not venturing into the unusual edibles, I have been experimenting with cooking lately and just fried up some Japanese-style croquettes! They're beef and potato with some onion and panko crumbs on the outside.
(http://i.imgur.com/BhqukZM.jpg)
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So I made the soup: it's a little lighter than I expected, but tasty. Next time, I think I'll add potato to the equation and up the amount of chile in it.
(http://imgur.com/bgGWFpq.jpg)
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I'm going to resurrect this thread and hijack it for my own purposes!
While not venturing into the unusual edibles, I have been experimenting with cooking lately and just fried up some Japanese-style croquettes! They're beef and potato with some onion and panko crumbs on the outside.
(http://i..com/BhqukZM.jpg)
What are you using as a binder? Been thinking about some salt for croquettes for a bit now and I might just have to get off my butt and get moving on that project.
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I'm going to resurrect this thread and hijack it for my own purposes!
While not venturing into the unusual edibles, I have been experimenting with cooking lately and just fried up some Japanese-style croquettes! They're beef and potato with some onion and panko crumbs on the outside.
(http://i..com/BhqukZM.jpg)
What are you using as a binder? Been thinking about some salt for croquettes for a bit now and I might just have to get off my butt and get moving on that project.
This is the recipe I used:http://justonecookbook.com/recipes/moms-korokke-croquette/ (http://justonecookbook.com/recipes/moms-korokke-croquette/)
Mixing the potato and beef together and letting it cool some seems to keep everything fairly together. Then some flour, egg, and breading before dropping 'em into the oil.
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Thread Resurrection in 3 ... 2 ... 1
Anyone making anything 'wild and crazy' for thanksgiving? This year we are going to someones home so not doing any major cooking (making some stuffing) but in years passed my wife and I would host an orphans thanksgiving for all of our friends who could not make it home would come to our house. We always tried to have a few new dishes or odd ball sides to mix it up. One year we did an Indian thanksgiving with sides like aloo gobi and palak paneer.
Two years ago I also attended a Pies-giving where every dish was in a pie form. I fear it was the stop after our own hosted thanksgiving so was so full I could not properly do it justice but it was an epic concept that I may steal in the future.
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I'm doing a pre-Thanksgiving thing tonight with a bunch of friends, and I didn't have any particular recipe for stuffing to use; looking up recipes, I found one purported to be coined by Marilyn Monroe (http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1013344-marilyn-monroes-stuffing) of all people, so I made that. Gonna find out how it tastes in about 2 hours! It's a really weird recipe, too, calling for organ meat and ground beef.
I'm heading to my parents' house for Thanksgiving proper, so I'm not doing a lot of cooking, but I've decided to make smash-fried potatoes. Basically, you partially boil a potato (fingerlings work best, since they cook through fast) until they're just a little soft, then half-crush it with a potato smasher: just enough so it's flat, not enough to fall apart completely. Then, throw it in a large pan with about half a cup of olive oil and fry em up until they're golden on both sides. Looks super fancy, tastes great, and you can throw pretty much any kind of garnish on it to change the taste. It's a chameleon-like recipe.
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I've got a turkey breast roasting in the oven as I type and cranberry relish chilling in the fridge. There's mashed potatoes, green beans, and my David-is-cheating dressing (stovetop with sausage, onion, and celery thrown in; not from scratch, but it fakes it well enough.) The menu is fairly standard except for the pomegranate martini I am nursing along, Pom-cran juice mixed with vodka, shake or strain through ice.
I figure if I am doing all the cooking I get to sip a little drinky-poo
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I've got a turkey breast roasting in the oven as I type and cranberry relish chilling in the fridge.
I figure if I am doing all the cooking I get to sip a little drinky-poo
Never actually made cranberry relish. One of those things that I enjoy but never bothered making. Might have to give that a whirl. Any fav recipe?
Also the cooks perogative is to ease the work with a libation.
My post holiday plan is to try to make Char Sui at some point in the next to days.
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My relish is easy :-)
1 bag of cranberries, 1 apple (I prefer Fuji) 1 orange, and a cup of sugar (truvia for diabetics like me)
Put all of that in your food processor and pulse until it's ground to the right consistency. It tastes better chilled, so I like to put it in the fridge overnight; you can throw it in the freezer for a bit too. :-)
Got ahead on time, so I also made two batches of David-fudge. Dark chocolate & mint with almonds, and peanut butter & chocolate with banana chips (aka Elvis)
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Relish is easy and delicious. David ' s recipe sounds yummy.
I am the resident cocktail chef for holidays. This year's specialty: Pumpkin Spice Martinis
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My char siu ended up pretty decent (got a few tweaks I will make next time) but since we have the base for the filling my wife tried to make some bao. I was not around when she crimped them together but the were very tasty. Sort of a pain to make but if I make the bbq pork again I hope I can convince her to make a batch.
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B3vhHxSCYAAS2gw.jpg)
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Man do those look good!
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I got a frozen whole turkey on sale after Thanksgiving. I'm gonna save it until Christmas, and then spatchcock (http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/11/video-how-to-spatchcock-turkey-thanksgiving.html) that sucker.
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I got a frozen whole turkey on sale after Thanksgiving. I'm gonna save it until Christmas, and then spatchcock (http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/11/video-how-to-spatchcock-turkey-thanksgiving.html) that sucker.
Do it! I cooked a 14 pound turkey in less than an hour and a half that way. Ended up using Alton Brown's wet brine treatment due to time constraints, but would love to try his dry brine sometime.
Bee tee dubs, if you haven't do it before: when it comes to cutting out the spine, use heavy scissors or shears. It's some heavy work. Nothing like how that video portrays it.
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In honor of the greatest news anchor of them all...
https://www.facebook.com/CIAchef/posts/10152433150401406 (https://www.facebook.com/CIAchef/posts/10152433150401406)
Turducken lasagna!
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I got a frozen whole turkey on sale after Thanksgiving. I'm gonna save it until Christmas, and then spatchcock (http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/11/video-how-to-spatchcock-turkey-thanksgiving.html) that sucker.
Do it! I cooked a 14 pound turkey in less than an hour and a half that way. Ended up using Alton Brown's wet brine treatment due to time constraints, but would love to try his dry brine sometime.
Bee tee dubs, if you haven't do it before: when it comes to cutting out the spine, use heavy scissors or shears. It's some heavy work. Nothing like how that video portrays it.
Yeah, this is gonna be a good reason to buy kitchen shears. Glad you had a positive experience with it!
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Do it! I cooked a 14 pound turkey in less than an hour and a half that way. Ended up using Alton Brown's wet brine treatment due to time constraints, but would love to try his dry brine sometime.
Bee tee dubs, if you haven't do it before: when it comes to cutting out the spine, use heavy scissors or shears. It's some heavy work. Nothing like how that video portrays it.
Yeah, this is gonna be a good reason to buy kitchen shears. Glad you had a positive experience with it!
Oddly enough poultry shears are on my x-mas list. Been making some stocks recently and hacking up chickens with a knife is something I make my wife do because I am no good at it. Hoping the shears make me a poultry dismembering god.
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And here's how my turkey came out!
(https://38.media.tumblr.com/0cb5ba432c920e2b52f99aee0b2096ea/tumblr_nhdfeaMjDd1tkn00io1_1280.jpg)
It was delicious.
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And here's how my turkey came out!
It was delicious.
Looks great. My wife is a skin fanatic so suspect she would like this method. How was the white and dark meat?
Also using napkin rings - fancy.
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Tim: all the meat turned out great. And yeah, I love skin more than anything.
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Made a pretty good soup last night using the bones from the prime rib we had for new years eve. Our local market had a good price on beef shank so picked up a pound of that to up the beef-e-ness. Roasted the rib bones and shank for 30 minutes. Turned everything then added some carrots, celery, and onions then roasted for 20 more minutes. Put it all in a stock pot and let it simmer away. Still ended up a bit thin as I was rushed for time so could only let it simmer for 4 hours because of poor planing on my part.
One of our house guests is allergic to nightshades so I could not use potatoes. Went for medley of other roots, parsnips, turnips, rutabaga, and carrots with some kale because I live in the Pacific Northwest and legally all meals must have kale but also to give it some greens. Finished it with some diced left over prime rib meat and people polished it off.
When I was making it I was thinking that soup made from left over holiday meals is one of my favorite things to make. Dead simple but it gives me an excuse to putter in the kitchen and people always think it was way harder than it was.
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Nice touch with the kale, Tim. I hope you made sure your soup was gluten free; I've heard that all the gluten in the Pacific Northwest is highly toxic.
The gravy I made for the turkey was basically the same as a soup, just thickened. I took the giblets, the neck, and the back (which I cut out for the spatchcocking), browned them up a bit in a pan, then threw them in a pot with some onions and veggies, poured some chicken bouillon over them, and let them cook for about as long as the turkey took to roast. Then I added all the incredible drippings from the turkey (or as much of them as I could refrain from just scraping off the pan and eating directly), cooked for a few more minutes, salted and peppered it a bit, strained out the chunks of bone and giblet, then added a bit of roux to thicken it up and let it reduce for about 20 more minutes. I was more proud of the gravy than of the turkey, actually, since it took a lot more work.
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Nice touch with the kale, Tim. I hope you made sure your soup was gluten free; I've heard that all the gluten in the Pacific Northwest is highly toxic.
The gravy I made for the turkey was basically the same as a soup, just thickened.
You don't even know. The gluten out here is hard core man. Will straight up cut you just for looking at it funny.
Gravy soup. My brain is saying 'YES' but by heart is saying 'oh god no please no more we barely are holding it together as is.'
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Haven't posted before, but I wanted to say thanks for the mention and the linked recipe on spatchcocking poultry.
I tried it with a chicken and while there was a little too much salt on the skin, the bird as a whole came out delicious and the leftover breast was a lot more tender than previous roast chickens I'd made. The wings came out perfect though - brown and crispy, which gave me an idea. After a small practice run for my usual gaming group, I am going to be salt-curing a bunch of chicken wings, then roasting them to crispy goodness and tossing them in buffalo sauce for the Super Bowl.
In the practice run, I just used some of the Serious Eats cure (kosher salt and baking powder) for a day, uncovered in the refrigerator, then baked them at 425 until they turned brown and crispy. (I think it was about 35 minutes in my oven, but I expect that would vary.) Much easier than frying a bunch of wings and still really, really delicious.
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Haven't posted before, but I wanted to say thanks for the mention and the linked recipe on spatchcocking poultry.
I tried it with a chicken and while there was a little too much salt on the skin, the bird as a whole came out delicious and the leftover breast was a lot more tender than previous roast chickens I'd made. The wings came out perfect though - brown and crispy, which gave me an idea. After a small practice run for my usual gaming group, I am going to be salt-curing a bunch of chicken wings, then roasting them to crispy goodness and tossing them in buffalo sauce for the Super Bowl.
In the practice run, I just used some of the Serious Eats cure (kosher salt and baking powder) for a day, uncovered in the refrigerator, then baked them at 425 until they turned brown and crispy. (I think it was about 35 minutes in my oven, but I expect that would vary.) Much easier than frying a bunch of wings and still really, really delicious.
That sounds amazing. Crispy chicken wings are close to my favorite food in the world.
Glad the spatchcocking turned out well for you!
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Tonight got a late start on ropa vieja, a cuban dish of braised beef from a recipe from Cooks Illustrated. Their magazine and cookbooks tend to be my go to because if you agree with their goals for a specific dish, which they clearly state, you tend to be able to produce. I have been with them long enough I am starting to see the cycles (how many more recipes do I need for the perfect BBQ chicken) but over all still good stuff.
What are other peoples go to cook books or cook book series.
I got a few other specialty ones I turn to but the cooks illustrated ones are the place I often start at.
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*snip*
What are other peoples go to cook books or cook book series.
I got a few other specialty ones I turn to but the cooks illustrated ones are the place I often start at.
I poke around a lot on the internet, looking for fun things, but if we're talking cookbooks, my go-to is usually Open Range (http://www.amazon.com/Open-Range-Steaks-Chops-Country-ebook/dp/B009PQ8V8I/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1425214600&sr=8-6&keywords=open+range). It's by a family friend, and the book's focus is on simple hearty meals: very Americana food. I'm a major carnivore, so the book also caters to me that way.
I'm also a huge fan of the Food FFS Tumblr (http://foodffs.tumblr.com/) just for the sheer variety of it: new recipe every hour, in all sorts of crazy directions. It gave me the inspiration to cook french onion soup, beef wellington, and homemade salted caramel mousse for my wife for Valentine's day. Also, gave me an awesome recipe for spicy pulled pork that always makes me look like a fancy cooking god, but is drop-dead simple.
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I poke around a lot on the internet, looking for fun things, but if we're talking cookbooks, my go-to is usually Open Range (http://www.amazon.com/Open-Range-Steaks-Chops-Country-ebook/dp/B009PQ8V8I/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1425214600&sr=8-6&keywords=open+range). It's by a family friend, and the book's focus is on simple hearty meals: very Americana food. I'm a major carnivore, so the book also caters to me that way.
I will have to check out Open Range.
For some reason I don't tend to use a lot of recipes from the web. I read a bit of Serious Eats but I am almost never compelled to make anything from it. Guess I am a stick in the mud. I have been tempted to rig up an ipad stand and try to cook from that as I understand many people do it but my hands always seem to be covered in something so wonder if it will just become filthy.
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I made the spatchcocked turkey myself last week. So good. Nobody was really hungry enough to eat turkey when we made it, so we just stood in the kitchen eating the skin. Now I'm wondering about doing a spatchcocked turkey on the grill, or smoking it...
I really like Serious Eats and their articles, but a lot of them fall in the same category as Alton Brown's recipes used to. That is, very fiddly and precise meals that will be amazing, but take a lot more time than a simpler version of the same dish. Though some of their articles are just generally helpful, like the one on how to get your hard and soft-boiled eggs just how you want.
I also really like the Mind of a Chef show on Netflix. First season is all kinds of stuff but keeps coming back to ramen. The thick, fatty soup, not Instant Noodles. Season 2 is mostly about old-fashioned Southern US cooking - I've learned a huge amount from it so far, including a really simple and tasty way to make chicken and buttermilk dumplings.
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So in the spirit of sharing quick, easy, delicious dishes I have to share tonight's meal.
Meatloaf consisting of 1lb ground beef, 1lb pork sausage, 3/4 cup of crushed-to-crumbs Ritz crackers, 3/4 cup water, 2 eggs, 1/3 cup ketchup, and garlic, onion, & paprika for flavor. Threw all that in that order into my Kitchenaid mixer, then it went into the meatloaf pan on top of 2 pieces of Texas toast (it absorbs the grease while it cooks)
Lipton Onion Soup potatoes (recipe on the box) and microwaved corn with a little butter to go with it. Prep time 15 minutes, cook time 1 hour.
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So in the spirit of sharing quick, easy, delicious dishes I have to share tonight's meal.
Meatloaf consisting of 1lb ground beef, 1lb pork sausage, 3/4 cup of crushed-to-crumbs Ritz crackers, 3/4 cup water, 2 eggs, 1/3 cup ketchup, and garlic, onion, & paprika for flavor. Threw all that in that order into my Kitchenaid mixer, then it went into the meatloaf pan on top of 2 pieces of Texas toast (it absorbs the grease while it cooks)
Lipton Onion Soup potatoes (recipe on the box) and microwaved corn with a little butter to go with it. Prep time 15 minutes, cook time 1 hour.
Sounds delicious! My wife makes a good meatloaf with a similarly simple recipe, but also with a whole bunch of chopped mushrooms. Plus she sticks a few whole mushrooms into the middle of the loaf, for a "surprise"!
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So in the spirit of sharing quick, easy, delicious dishes I have to share tonight's meal.
Meatloaf consisting of 1lb ground beef, 1lb pork sausage, 3/4 cup of crushed-to-crumbs Ritz crackers, 3/4 cup water, 2 eggs, 1/3 cup ketchup, and garlic, onion, & paprika for flavor. Threw all that in that order into my Kitchenaid mixer, then it went into the meatloaf pan on top of 2 pieces of Texas toast (it absorbs the grease while it cooks)
Sounds delicious! My wife makes a good meatloaf with a similarly simple recipe, but also with a whole bunch of chopped mushrooms. Plus she sticks a few whole mushrooms into the middle of the loaf, for a "surprise"!
I am a bit of a meatloaf snob I fear. Plenty of food I am fine with making simple or easy but with meatloaf I can get a little crazy. It is a sickness ok, like a legitimate condition.
The thing I almost always do is cook outside a loaf pan. I use a wire rack on a rimmed baking sheet. The Texas Toast idea is intriguing and I might have to try that at some point.
One simple thing my wife likes to make is a sausage in sauerkraut where the sauerkraut is cooked in the pan with diced apples and bacon. Dead easy and very tasty.
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If we're looking at quick and easy recipes, my go-to is orange miso chicken cutlets. just mix miso paste and orange marmalade together in equal parts, tenderize the cutlets, then rub the glaze on the chicken. Let them sit for half an hour, then saute on medium-high until they're cooked through. Super simple, great on an asian-style salad dressing.
I made beer braised pork belly last night, which was great, and just put the finishing touches on an oxtail soup that's been cooking overnight: it's so nice to wake up to a hearty soup.
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Quick and easy Shepherd's Pie. 2 lbs beef, brown gravy mix, peas, instant mashed potatoes, and a pie crust. Brown the beef, add the gravy, make 4 servings of the spuds. Layer the crust, beef, peas, and top with the potatoes.
I sometimes add onion, garlic, and/or mushrooms to the meat mix. The instant potatoes, I can add cheese or bacon to depending on mood. :-)