I’ll admit that I am a horrible fisher in World of Warcraft. Since I started so incredibly late, my fishing skills are insanely sub-par. I basically can only catch the dinky little fish. However, on the rare occasion when I can catch a normal sized fish, it’s pretty exciting.

AWW YEAH, NOW I ONLY HAVE TO CATCH 9 MORE OF THESE INSTEAD OF 19 MORE SO I CAN COMPLETE THIS GARRISON DAILY! 

I’ve been trying to simultaneously level up my fishing and cooking, so I’ve been spending a lot of time sitting in my garrison next to a roaring fire.

When I first stared cooking in WoW, I thought that Sturgeon Stew looked amazing and I had to recreate it somehow. So, I did some research and looked around at my local grocery stores for a fish that would vaguely replicate the appearance of the actual in-game item.

However, I honestly didn’t expect that I would find sturgeon at my local grocery store…

But lo and behold, there it was! STURGEON!

If you can’t find sturgeon, you can substitute another fish such as swordfish or cod.

Since the Sturgeon Stew in game has a reddish broth, I decided to create a tomato-based soup. This is similar to a bourdeto, which is basically a Greek fish stew similar to the Italian cioppino.

Let’s get cooking!

UNIT COMPOSITION

1. salt
2. pepper
3. 1 teaspoon of olive oil
4. 1 cup of white wine
5. 2 cups of fish stock
6. 2 bay leaves
7. 1/2 onion, roughly chopped
8. 5 sprigs of basil, roughly sliced
9. 5 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
10. 4 red potatoes, quartered
11. 2 tomatoes, roughly chopped
12. 1/3 lb of dandelion greens
13. 1 1/2 lbs of sturgeon, deboned

BUILD ORDER

Prep time for this dish is roughly 30 minutes. Cook time is about 45 minutes. This makes about 4 servings.

OPENING

1. Set a large pot to high heat.
2. Once the pot is up to temperature, add in your olive oil and sautee your garlic and onions.
3. Reduce to medium heat and add in your tomatoes and basil.
4. Stir the ingredients gently and allow the vegetables to sweat.

MID GAME

1. Add in your white wine and fish stock.
2. Add in your bay leaf and stir.
3. Season the soup with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Add in your chopped potatoes.
5. Let this cook for about 30 minutes.

LATE GAME

1. After about 30 minutes, or until the potatoes are soft, add in your sturgeon.
2. Gently ladle liquid over the sturgeon.
3. Add in your dandelion greens.
4. Cover the pot with a lid and cook for ~15 more minutes.
5. Remove your 2 bay leaves.
6. Eat!

So my goal was to try to make the stew look exactly like the in-game item. I think I got pretty close?

I didn’t actually serve the dish like that though. I’M A LIAR! I cut the sturgeon into more manageable pieces:

GG WP!

I’m sure if you sit there and eat this sturgeon stew for at least 10 seconds, you’ll gain some sort of haste buff… or at least, you’ll feel well fed for a while.

Rejoice, Nephalem, because Patch 2.0.1 is here! Huzzah!

There were many, many, many things that were added and changed in Patch 2.0.1. One of the shinier changes was the addition of a new brand of object to the map — the Pool of Reflection.

The Pool of Reflection will give you an added bonus pool of EXP that will last until you DIE! So try not to die, or all that glorious additional EXP goes to waste. Noooo.

I have died several times while holding bonus EXP, and each time was much more painful than the last. I should probably stop standing in front of Demon Forges. Hmmm.

Every time I approach a Pool of Reflection, I always wonder what the pool would taste like when consumed. Would it be earthy? Would it be garlicy? When your hero drinks it, do they ever ponder what wine would pair best with it?

Well, I think I’ve figured out what the Pool of Reflection could taste like… Parsnips and turmeric!

This healthy vegetarian dish will keep you alert for your many, many Diablo adventures! You can make this dish vegan too!

UNIT COMPOSITION

1. salt
2. pepper
3. 1 tablespoon of olive oil
4. 1 tablespoon of thyme
5. 1 1/2 tablespoons of turmeric
6. 3-4 whole cloves of garlic
7. 1 1/2 cups of butternut squash, cubed
8. 1/2 lb of parsnips, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
9. 2 1/2 cups of vegetable broth

BUILD ORDER

Prep time will take about 20 minutes. Cook time is roughly 1 hour. This will make 6-8 servings.

OPENING

1. Set your oven to 400° (~204° C)
2. Place your parsnips, garlic, and butternut squash in a baking dish (you can make a tiny dish out of tin foil like I did).
3. Season your vegetables with salt, pepper, and thyme.
4. Drizzle olive oil over the vegetables.
5. Roast for 45 – 50 minutes in the oven, or until the vegetables have become soft.

MID GAME

1. Transfer your vegetables to a pot.
2. Using a stand mixer, blend the vegetables until smooth. Slowly add in half of vegetable broth in order to make blending easier.

LATE GAME

1. Once your vegetables have become a smooth paste, place the pot over medium heat.
2. Add in your turmeric and stir to combine.
3. Add in your remaining vegetable broth and stir until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste.
4. Eat!

GG WP, Nephalem!

It’s been very cold recently, so this soup is perfect for warming you up during the chilly winter months. Cozy up, drink some soup, and gain some EXP!

See you in Sanctuary!

When I returned from E3 last week, I finally sat down and accomplished one of my greatest gaming achievements in a long time. With a lot of gracious help, I gained the last “ding” on my Demon Hunter. It felt pretty damn awesome.

It’s so awesome to not see exp bonuses from the “Mighty Blow”

That’s right — I’m officially Paragon 100. It was a long perilous road, which was made much longer by many many distractions. Some of those distractions rhyme with shmeddit. LOOK AT THIS GEM I FOUND.

I remember when I first bought Diablo III. I took three days off of work in preparation for an all-out grindfest (which was cut short because I really, really wanted to sleep). Initially I had pre-ordered the Collector’s Edition, but when I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to play at midnight release, I went ahead and purchased a second copy. That’s right, I bought an extra copy just to play at midnight. 

I even planned out meals for our Diablo III “launch party” in order to ensure optimum leveling time.

These pictures were taken with my phone, so the quality isn’t amazing. Chicken with taro and leek (left) and Kalua Pork (right).

We charged through normal and nightmare mode, and within a few days, we were nearing level 60. Killing Diablo through each mode was pretty darn satisfying. BOOM!

On May 18th 2012 (I only know the date because I posted my level 60 picture to Facebook. Yeah, I’m that nerdy), three days after launch, I finally hit 60. At that point, it was time to hop into Inferno and SUFFER. Inferno was so incredibly hard that my team couldn’t even handle Act I. Skip to many months and many patches later, Paragon levels and Monster Power gets released and the Diablo III world gets turned on its head. And so began my long hike to 100.

GETTING TO PARAGON 100 IS REALLY HARD IF YOU’RE SUPER LAZY LIKE ME. I took many breaks from Diablo leveling to play other games, work on my blog, relax, and create new recipes such as this one.

Wishful Essence is typically a crafting material used from disenchanting gear found in Hell difficulty. In this case, the powdery blacksmith material has been transformed into a delicious soup with BACON.

I won’t lie, I really enjoy bacon, but I try to moderate my bacon intake.

Awww yessss. 

But, since this recipe is so darn healthy, it’s definitely a good excuse to throw bacon into the mix. Mmm, bacon.

UNIT COMPOSITION

1. salt
2. pepper
3. thyme
4. cumin
5. 2 leek stalks, chopped
6. 1/2 cup of white wine
7. 3/4 cup of silken tofu (6oz)
8. 1 cup of cauliflower, chopped
9. 2 cups of chicken stock
10. 1/2 lb bacon (if you’re like me, you’ll prob end up eating some of the bacon strips anyways… so compensate for that fact)
11. OPTIONAL: dill

BUILD ORDER

Total prep time for this dish is roughly about 20 minutes. Total cook time is about 45 minutes. This will make 4 servings.

Calories per serving: ~350 calories

OPENING

1. Fry your bacon on high heat. Season with cumin. When the bacon is cooked, immediately remove from the pan and place on a few paper towels in order to absorb the extra oil.
2. Once you’ve fried all your bacon, drain most of the oil from the pan (ideally, place it in a disposable can or cup because grease can clog your drain).
3. Saute your chopped leeks in the bacon fat for about 1 1/2 minutes, or until golden. Season with salt, pepper, and thyme.
4. Add in your white wine to your leeks. Let cook for about 2 minutes. Remove from heat when done.

MID GAME

1. Set a large pot on medium heat. Add in your chicken stock. Add in your cauliflower. Season with salt, pepper, and thyme.
2. Allow cauliflower to cook until soft (roughly 15 minutes).
3. Pour in the leeks and wine from other pan into the pot.
4. Stir to combine.

LATE GAME

1. Using a whisk or a fork, beat your silken tofu into smooth paste. Use the some broth from the soup to thin out the silken tofu and bring it to temperature.
2. Add the silken tofu to the soup.
3. Using a stick blender, blend the soup together.
4. Crumble 3/4 of your bacon and add it into the blended soup. Stir to combine. Reserve the remaining 1/4 as a garnish.
5. Pour desired amount of soup into a bowl. Garnish with crumbled bacon.
6. OPTIONAL: Sprinkle dill over the soup
7. Eat!

Ta-da! GG WP.

Unfortunately, you can’t use this soup to craft gear for Hell, but you can eat it while you farm in Diablo III. Also, bacon.

First thing’s first: I’m not the most experience League of Legends player out there. I literally have no idea what I’m doing. But, I’m learning slowly…

Figure 1.0: Winning

I play mainly ADC because it’s the easiest role for me. I’ve tried top and mid, but I definitely prefer ADC because I suck at top and mid because it suits my play style better.

With that being said, I’ve never actually played Teemo. I’ve played against many Teemos and they’ve all been thoroughly annoying. REALLY? DID YOU REALLY HAVE TO PUT A MUSHROOM THERE? Geez.

But, the most important thing is that I have his hat (the boyfriend acquired it from GDC ’13).
And that’s the reason why this week’s recipe is dedicated to that terrifying little Yordle.

UNIT COMPOSITION

1. salt
2. 1/2 tablespoon of grated ginger
3. 5 tablespoons of miso paste
4. 1/4 cup of wakame (dried seaweed), soaked in water
5. 1/2 cup of oyster mushrooms. sliced
6. 1/2 cup of shiitake mushrooms, sliced
7. 1/2 cup of enoki mushrooms, separated
8. 1/2 cup of firm tofu (~4oz), chopped into cubes
9. 6 cups of water

The ingredients in this recipe are fairly inexpensive (though this is relative to where you live). I believe it cost about $15 total.

Not only is it fairly inexpensive, but it’s also pretty easy to make. It’ll take you longer to complete a standard game in LoL than it would to prep and cook this recipe.

But please note, this recipe is very low calorie! I would suggest that this soup be used as a starter to an entree or a quick breakfast in the morning before the commute to work. This meal is little, just like Teemo.

BUILD ORDER

Total prep time takes about 10 minutes. Cook time is about 15 minutes. This will make 4 servings.

Calories per serving: ~110 calories

OPENING

1. Set your water to boil in a large pot.
2. When the water begins to simmer, ladle a few spoonfuls of hot water onto your miso paste. Gently mix your miso paste with the water until he miso paste has been combined with the water (there should be very few lumps). Add the miso mixture into your pot.
3. Add your grated ginger into the water.

MID GAME

1. Add in your soaked wakame.
2. Add in your all of your mushrooms.
   

LATE GAME

1. Add in your chopped tofu.
2. Add in your salt to taste.
3. Allow soup to cook for about 15 minutes.
4. Eat!

And that’s it. GG WP. This is a simple and healthy recipe, so enjoy it while you’re waiting for the rest of your team to load in ARAM.

You can even enjoy this soup for breakfast!

In an attempt to destroy the Locust and their home, the Hollow, the COG flooded their final stronghold. The once glorious and illustrious city of Jacinto sank beneath the waves and took the Hollow with it. The survivors took to the seas, traveling between safe refuges only to be quickly driven out by the Locusts. I’d like to assume that those traveling by sea managed to catch some fish and turn them into a big stew.

Fortunately, this ordeal happened on Sera and not Earth. No need to worry about scary old Locusts and Lambents here! On Earth, I can pleasantly sit in front of my Xbox and enjoy playing Gears of War while nibbling on some cioppino. Hopefully, no one will find an extremely viscous form of fuel that subsequently turns all those who are exposed to it into gigantic walking bombs. If that happens, I hope science is already has a working Hammer of Dawn ready to go. Take that, Locusts!

Since I’ve lived near San Francisco for a fair amount of my life, I’ve grown to enjoy the wonders of living near a gigantic ocean. More specifically: the seafood.To take advantage of all the delicious seafood in the area, I’ve decided to craft this San Francisco treat: cioppino!

And since this stew is incredibly red and Gears of War is a pretty brutally bloody game, maybe it’s fitting? Or maybe I just like Gears of War too much… Hmm… I wonder of the citizens of Jacinto managed to snag any delicious seafood before their city sank.

UNIT COMPOSITION 

Because I love cioppino so much, I decided to make a big batch. These are the ingredients I used to make a gigantic batch (about 6 servings), but if you’d like to make a smaller batch, please half the ingredient amounts and should end up with a smaller, more manageable batch.

1. salt 
2. pepper
3. 2 teaspoons of olive oil
4. 1/2 tablespoon of oregano
5. 1/2 tablespoon of thyme
6. 1/2 tablespoon of parsley
7. 4 cloves of garlic, minced
8. 2 bay leaves
9. 5 basil leaves, chopped
10. 1/2 yellow onion, diced
11. 1 cup of white wine
12. 3 cups of chicken broth (or fish broth)
13. 2 cans of tomato paste
14. 1 can of whole peeled tomatoes
15. 1 lb of shrimp, deveined
16. 1 lb of mussels, cleaned
17. 1 lb of clams, cleaned
18. 1 lb of squid, cut into rings
19. 1 lb of cod, cut into cubes

Additionally, you can add (or substitute) in scallops and crab.

You will need a large pot for this dish.

BUILD ORDER

Prep time will be about 15 minutes. Total cook time will be about 30 – 45 minutes. This recipe makes about 6 servings.

Calories per serving: ~400 calories

OPENING

1. Set a large pot on high heat. Add in your oil.
2. When the pot becomes hot, add in your diced onions and minced garlic. Saute until your onions become slightly translucent.
3. Add in your tomato paste and stir.
4. Add in your whole peeled tomatoes. Crush the tomatoes with a large spoon or spatula. You do not need to crush them into fine bits; you just want to break the tomatoes open.

 MID GAME

1. Add in your chicken broth and white wine.
2. Add in your salt and pepper to taste.
3. Add in your oregano, parsley, thyme, and half of your basil
4. Add in your bay leaves and stir.

LATE GAME

1. Reduce the heat to medium.
2. Add in all of your seafood. Be sure to stir the cioppino after each batch.
   
   
3. Cover the pot with a lid and cook for about 25 minutes, stirring occasionally. Your cioppino will be done once all of the mussels and clams open.
4. Remove bay leaves and any mussels or clams that did not open.
5. Ladle cioppino into a bowl.
6. Sprinkle chopped basil over the cioppino.
7. Eat!

And that’s all you need to do to create Jacinto seafood stew. GG WP!

If you’d like a little starch with your meal, I suggest getting some nice crispy bread. Sliced baguettes would be an awesome application. I’ve also seen cioppino served over spaghetti  much like seafood marinara. Whether you add a bready accessory or go au naturale, this cioppino will certainly be delicious. Om nom nom nom.

Now go power up those Lancers and get cooking in the kitchen!

Spending time watching TwitchTV streamers is a great way to learn about new games or get honest game reviews. Sure, you can read some journalist write a review on a fancy gaming news site, but I don’t think that is as immersive as watching someone actually play the game.  With that being said, let me introduce you to one of my favorite streamers of ALL TIME.

He’s a dapper fellow who goes by the name of Lethal Frag. His beard could probably take you in a fight; the darn thing is pretty impressive.

Figure 1.0: Dapper (image source: www.lethalfrag.com)

Lethal Frag is also the Boshy; a title that can only be obtained by beating one of the most difficult games ever: I wanna be the Boshy. lol you died. And yet, despite the extreme difficulty of this game, Lethal Frag retained his cool throughout the entire ordeal. He doesn’t ragequit or flip his table or throw his controller through the wall. He just chills, talks to his fans, jiggles his ferrets and dappers it up. He’s also a classically trained chef who teaches gamers how to cook on Saturdays. NOT BAD.

I decided to reach out to LethalFrag to see what kind of food he enjoys. He responded with “mostly rustic things that are not too fancy so the sky is the limit“. When I think rustic, I think stews since stews seem to have a very simple cooking method of throw everything into a pot and leave it alone.

Stew takes a while to cook because everything needs to break down; especially the big ol’ beef chunks. You can speed up the process by adding certain enzymes (such papain, an enzyme found in papaya fruit) to tenderize the beef, but honestly, I think that’s cheating. That’s like using the Konami code in cooking. up up down down left right left right a b …IS THE BEEF TENDER YET?

Naw man, we’re doing this old school. That beef is going to take a super long 2 hour bath. Get ready.

UNIT COMPOSITION

1. salt 
2. pepper
3. 1 teaspoon of oil
4. 1 tablespoon of cumin
5. 2 bay leaves
6. 2 tablespoons of worschershire sauce
7. 1 1/2 cup of dried barley
8. 6 cloves of garlic, chopped
9. 5 red potatoes, roughly chopped
10. 3 cups of beef broth
11. 1/2 lb of baby carrots (you can used chopped carrots if you want to make it prettier)
12. 1 can of kidney beans, strained
13. 1 can of peeled whole tomatoes, partially strained
14. 1 celery heart, chopped (save your celery leaves; they can be added to the stew for extra flavor)
15. 1 yellow onion, chopped
16. 2 lbs of stew meat

You will need a very large pot for this recipe. I used at 16 quart pot. Please note that this recipe makes 8 servings; so if you want to downsize it, just cut all the amounts in half.

BUILD ORDER

Total prep time for this dish should be about 45 minutes. Total cook time will be about 2 1/2 hours. This will make about 8 servings.

Calories per serving: ~530 calories

OPENING

1. Set a large pot on high heat. Add in half of your olive oil.
2. When the pot is hot, saute chopped garlic and onions.
3. Remove onions and garlic. Set aside.
4. Add remaining olive oil into the pot.
5. When oil becomes hot, add in your beef. Season beef with salt, pepper and cumin.
6. Add in your worschershire sauce. Allow the beef to brown on each side. When most of the beef has browned, reduce to the heat to medium.

MID GAME

1. Add your canned tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, celery, onion and garlic to the pot. 
2. Pour your beef broth into the pot.
3. Add in your barley.
4. Add in your bay leaves. If you’ve saved your celery leaves, add those in as well.
5. Reduce heat to medium low. Cover pot with a lid and cook for 2 hours and 20 minutes. Occasionally stir in order to prevent the stew from burning.

   

Once you’ve made it to this part, it’s time to relax. Play a few games, watch some streams and just chill. Your house is about to smell amazing…

LATE GAME

1. Remove bay leaves (and celery leaves) from the stew.
2. Add in your kidney beans.
3. Cook the stew for 10 minutes.
4. Eat!

And that’s all you need. GG WP!

At the time I working on this blog, I was actually watching Lethal Frag’s cooking stream. He mentioned that he was going to make beef stew, so if you’re interested in watching a real professional create a legitimate beef stew, check his up coming Cooking with Frag episode next Saturday, 2/27 at 10 PM PST. Otherwise, catch up on his previous cooking and gaming shenanigans on his YouTube channel.

For Halloween this year, my team decided to show great office synergy by coordinating our costumes. We held a secret ballot to choose which theme to roll with for October 31st. And the winner by a land slide was Bomberman.

The theme was set and I was ready; ready to do very little to contribute to the actual theme… Luckily, our super star graphic designer / part time costume designer (?), pulled through and carried most of the weight of the project. His shoulders probably ache from toiling away on these costumes. However, the results were pretty badass:

Blue Bomberman don’t give a sh*t

While everyone else kept their papier-mâché heads intact, I was a bumbling idiot as usual and dropped mine on the floor. Luckily, the damage was minor and all-mighty duct tape came into play to help fix what my butter fingers could not. Thanks, duct tape.

The moral of the story is don’t give me nice fragile things because I’m clumsy.

With October over and gone, it’s time to buckle up for winter. When I think winter, I think of tons of blankets and soup. I don’t think of snow though because I’m from California and we don’t have an abundance of snow.

Soup is tasty, but let’s make it tastier by adding some meatbombs. Yes, meatbombs. We’re gonna roll like Bomberman and start throwing bombs into everything.

UNIT COMPOSITION

1. salt
2. pepper
3. 1 teaspoon of oregano
4. 1 tablespoon of worcestershire
5. 1 tablespoon of grated parmesan cheese
6. 1 teaspoon of olive oil
7. 1/2 cup of bread crumbs (whole wheat is optional)
8. 3 – 4 cloves of garlic (chopped)
9. 1 egg
10. 1/2 yellow onion
11. 1 sweet potato
12. 1/2 lb of kale
13. 1 1/2 lbs of ground beef
14. 1 quart of chicken broth
15. 1 cup of water

BUILD ORDER

Total prep time will be about ~30 minutes. Total cook time will be about 1 hour and 10 minutes. This recipe will serve 4- 6 people. 

OPENING

1. Skin the sweet potatoes with a peeler.
2. Chop sweet potatoes and kale.
3. Combine chicken broth and water in a pot and set to boil.
4. Season the broth with salt and pepper.
5. Place sweet potatoes and kale in the pot.
6. Reduce to medium and let simmer.

MID GAME

1. Preheat oven to 375° F (190° C).
2. Mince garlic and onion into fine pieces.
3. Place ground beef in a bowl.
4. Combine salt, pepper, oregano, parmesan, onion, worcestershire, and garlic with the ground beef.
5. Add in egg and bread crumbs.
6. Combine thoroughly.
7. With a table spoon, portion out the meat and shape into balls.
8. Place in a baking dish and drizzle olive oil over the meatballs.
9. Cook for 45 minutes or until golden.

LATE GAME

1. Remove meatballs from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes.
2. Place meatballs in the soup.
3. Remove from heat and serve.
4. Eat!

And now you’ve got tasty soup! GG WP.

Unfortunately, if you’re rocking a big ol’ Bomberman head, it’s going to be quite difficult to enjoy soup — especially ones that contain meatbombs.

Om nom nom nom…