Hooray, it’s Valentine’s Day!

To celebrate, Bad Respawn hand crafted these incredible Hearthstone-themed Valentine’s Day e-cards:

Of course, I tried to make some myself…

OK, so I definitely do not have a future in e-card writing or making… BUT, that’s OK because Valentine’s Day is also about FOOD and food is definitely my forte!

Need some ideas for a sweet treat for your sweet heart? Well, you’ve come to the right place!

Need a treat for the Hearthstone-addict in your life? Why not make them a fresh batch of Hearthscones?

What about for your favorite Nephalem? Try out these Diablo III-themed heart of sin cakes
Now, I know what you’re thinking… What if my sweetheart is a StarCraft player? Don’t worry — I got you!

For the Protoss out there, try out this force field sticky rice.

For the Zerg in your life, try out drunken infestors! Or, if they’re a big fan of breakfast:

Try out infestation pit toast!

Looking for something a bit more toasty for your Terran? How about hellion crème brûlée?

Or give them a chocolatey treat with terranmisu!

If your sweetheart is more of a LoL player, why not trap their heart with caitlyn’s yordel snap trap cupcakes?

Or, you can just make them delicious chocolate pancakes. Aww yeah! And if you want to go a bit colder…

Try out this boozy brownie checkerboard ice cream cake!

Have a happy Valentine’s Day, everyone! May your day be full of sweet sweet treats.

During the past weekend, the boyfriend and I made the ~7 hour long drive from chilly San Francisco to sunny Anaheim for BlizzCon 2013! It was a tiring drive, but we immediately felt rejuvenated when we saw the convention center. We arrived the following morning at around 8:00 AM, checked into our hotel, and rushed to the convention center to pick up our tickets and swag.

By the time we got to the main entrance of the convention center, there was a massive Horde of people! OK, really, there was a hoard, but I couldn’t pass up making that silly pun considering how much Horde representation amassed outside. But don’t worry, the Alliance was there in full force too.

Cosplayers were showing off their amazing creations inside and outside of the convention hall. Of course, many photographers flocked to take pictures of their lovely costumes. Unfortunately, I neglected to get some of the names of these talented cosplayers — so if you know who they are, please let me know. I’d like to give credit where credit is due!

Just your friendly neighborhood Tuskarr (Tusky the Traveling Tuskarr by Aerlyn’s Cosplay)

Just chillin’ in front of the fountain, waitin’ for quests.

Diablo hangs out with Imperius, Auriel, and Tyrael (who seems to have gotten a weapon upgrade!)

There were a ton more cosplayers, but I didn’t have a chance to snag their photos!

When the clock struck 11:00 AM on Friday morning, it was all time to pile up at the main stage to enjoy the opening ceremony. Thousands of people were seated in the main hall, with thousands more standing in the back. Everyone seemed to have that same look in their eye — the sort of sparkle that you see when someone realizes that the moment they’ve been waiting for is finally upon them.

Just a small portion of the enormous crowd.

It was very obvious that the entire room was holding back their excitement. And then, it happened. The lights dimmed and a voice boomed over the speaker — Welcome to BlizzCon 2013. A proud roar erupted from the crowd, followed by clapping and cheers.

When the trailers for the upcoming games came about, the crowd became even more chaotic and ecstatic. It was all so unreal. All these tens of thousands of people converging in this building for just video games? But it’s just not about the games, it’s about the community too and that’s what’s so great about it.

Don’t mind me… I’m just a gigantic orc on a wolf. 

After emerging from the main hall, we flocked towards the Diablo III Reaper of Souls area. Of course I was super hyped to play a demo of the upcoming expansion. I will admit I am super biased and ran towards the PC version first. The PlayStation 4 version looks beautiful, but I think I will sticking with my little Demon Hunter on PC. BUT IT’S REALLY TEMPTING TO GET BOTH, OK?

I played a little Adventure Mode and incredibly seamless. I like that you can go to any way point without having to return to your character selection screen and switch between acts. The upcoming Bounty system will also give out extra bonuses (and even legendaries) for completing simple tasks like killing X amount of a certain type of demon. I didn’t even notice I was doing a bounty because I was busy KILLING ALL THE THINGS BECAUSE THAT’S YOU DO IN DIABLO!

Wow Tyrael, you’re looking good. Do you like, uh, work out?

When we finished our RoS demos, we walked over to the Heroes of the Storm demo. The wait for the game was incredibly short, but as more peoples’ curiosity peaked, the wait times for the game increased. I chose to play as Valla the Demon Hunter because I’m biased and because someone else chose Nova. The boyfriend, keeping up with the theme, chose Tyrael. As a team, we basically rocked top lane. However, the game did end in a draw because we ran out of time before we could kill the enemy base. I did have a lot of fun playing and both teams were very friendly with each other. We exchanged GG brofists. Hooray good sportsmanship!

I had fun playing Heroes of the Storm. I have some experience playing games of that genre, so the controls for Heroes of the Storm were not very difficult to grasp. However, the build we were playing was considered an alpha build, so there’s likely to be a TON of changes before this game is even closed to open beta.

At that point, I don’t know if I can properly assess Heroes of the Storm. It’s not a finished game, and it wouldn’t be fair to say it’s good or bad until you sit down and play at least a beta product. For it’s current state, it is definitely a good time killer. Will it be a LoL killer? I don’t know yet.

During the talks, the devs made it obvious that they did not want to call Heroes of the Storm a “moba”, a term coined by Riot. They definitely want to make that solid distinction that Heroes of the Storm was not your run-of-the-mill moba, but rather, it was a “hero brawler”.

Hi Illidan!

A few years ago, watching other people play games competitively was a completely new concept to me. My boyfriend introduced me to the StarCraft II competitive scene and I quickly got hooked. And now, almost three years later, I find myself swooning over the StarCraft II pros who roll onto the stage like rockstars. But it’s just not StarCraft II, I’ve grown to admire other celebrities that have sprung up from Diablo III and now Hearthstone (though many are former celebrities from other games).

I was incredibly excited to watch both the Hearthstone Inn Keeper’s Invitational tournament and the StarCraft II WCS, so I planned my days around those two events.

For those who follow me on Twitter and Facebook, I’m sure you all know about my crippling addiction to Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. Imagine my excitement when it was announced that Hearthstone would be coming to iPhone later next year. All I could think of was all the places I could be playing Hearthstone… On the train, on the plane, in the rain…

I got my Hearthstone fix by playing in the community tournament and going 3-0 with a pre-made priest deck. Not too shabby, right? I really wish I could play with my constructed rogue deck though!

When we finished messing around in the community arena, we watched the part of the Ro8 for the Inn Keeper’s Invitational at the Hearthstone area. I had originally guessed that Day9 would make it to the semi-finals, but unfortunately, he went 1-3 against Reckful. However, I was excited to hear that the Mayor of Value Town, Trump, made it on and was expected to play against Artosis. Dang, what a match!

We ended day 1 of BlizzCon by playing the demo for the new WoW expansion. I have never played WoW in my life, but I am familiar with MMOs (most of the MMOs I played were just copies of WoW anyway…). Who knows? Maybe I’ll start a WoW account when the next expansion comes out since I won’t have to worry about all the content I missed since vanilla. Maybe.

The following day was the start of the Inn Keeper’s Invitational semi-finals with Artosis vs Trump and Kripparrian vs Reckful. We met up with fellow CSL admin/graphic designer, Elliot, and one of his guildmates from WoW. Luckily, we had pretty prime seats and we could clearly see the tension building on stage. To make things more exciting, I brought glow sticks (of course I would do this)! Hooray! So we all quietly glowed as we watched everyone battle to the death on stage.

Artosis explains his strategies during the matches.

The finals match between Artosis and Kripparrian was pretty nail bitingly close. In the final tie-breaker match, Artosis had three minions on the board — one of which was a Leper Gnome. The Leper Gnome is a 1 mana cost 2/1 (2 attack, 1 heath) card that deals 2 damage to the enemy hero when he is killed/destroyed. At this point of the game, Kripparrian only had 2 health. If he killed the Leper Gnome, he would die, if he didn’t kill the Leper Gnome, he would die to the 2 damage. That basically sealed his fate and he ended up using Blizzard, a card which deals 2 damage to all enemy minions and freezes them, in order to end the game.

Smugtosis with Zeriyah and Soe

Though there are already a few Hearthstone tournaments online, such as the Managrind tournament, it was nice to see a tournament on a grand stage. Hearthstone is still in closed beta, so I’m sure that once the game is released (preferably with spectator mode), the tournament scene will begin to flourish.

This weekend lead up to one of the largest eSports events in history: the StarCraft II World Champion Series Grand Finals:

StarCraft II will always have a special place in my heart. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but StarCraft II was my first Blizzard game. Yeah, I know, I’m a tad bit late. I quickly became  involved in StarCraft II and the community and soon joined forces with the Collegiate StarLeague and met some amazing people from around the country.

I never thought I would attend a huge StarCraft II tournament. I’ve attended an IPL event before, but that was a rather small scale tournament compared to this.

Maru prepares for his next match.

The last day of BlizzCon was the WCS finals, I was flaunting a Terran shirt. Surely, either Maru or Bomber were going to make it to the finals, right? NOPE. PROTOSS AND ZERG ONLY. I was a little sad, but it’s OK, I found another Terran supporter (with the same shirt) and we bro-fisted. We terrans gotta stay together. 

I had a chance to meet up with a few other CSL admins during the WCS finals, such as Duran “Xeris” Parsi and Daniil “CheeseHeadLogic” Pauley. The area was packed, but Daniil was nice enough to save us a few seats.

The brothers, Sean “Day[9]” Plott and Nick “Tasteless” Plott, prepare to cast. 

Before the finals between Jaedong and sOs, we were being showered with gifts from the WCS staff. T-shirts, thunder sticks, and WCS card packs were being thrown left and right towards a sea of raised hands that were hoping to catch a souvenir or two. I was able to snag a shirt, but convention t-shirts are always a miss for me. I’m a very tiny person, so it’s very rare that I manage to get a coveted XS or S shirt. This time was no different — I managed to catch an XL “I <3 SC” shirt.

I passed the shirt along to Daniil, and I guess good karma paid off because a few moments later, Elliot caught a medium-sized Kerrigan shirt and passed it to my boyfriend. It all worked out!

When the finals began, everyone in the crowd was cheering for Jaedong. I really wanted Jaedong to win — he’s one of the few Zergs I cheer for. Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out that way and sOs dominated. sOs had pretty flawless play, and Jaedong just couldn’t keep up with it. When Protoss gets to the ball of death stage, it’s terrifying.

Your 2013 WCS champion.

The trophy is super heavy.

When I finally brushed off all the confetti from the WCS finals, I wandered over to the community corner to speak with some of the Diablo III community managers. There, I was met with Vaeflare, Lylirra, and Nevalistis. They, as well as the other CMs chillin at the booth, were all super sweet and tolerated my incredible nerd freak out moments. Ahhhh I’m at Blizzcon this is overwhelming what is going on help. 

But then, suddenly, a wild Wyatt Cheng appeared and he was soon swarmed by folks from r/Diablo, BlizzPro, and other community sites. Even TwitchTV Moldran was there to listen to Wyatt’s stories. We kind of enclosed Wyatt in a circle of Diablo III nerdiness — NO ESCAPE! It was great listening to his design philosophies for things such as damage output, survivability, and certain skills.

Eventually, the circle had to end because security made us leave since it was 10:00 PM. ahhh welp. 

There’s a few pictures floating around of Story Time with Wyatt Cheng. I forgot to take any because I’m lame. Please also excuse my awkwardness in some of the photos. My swag was greatly decreased due to the lack of sleep. (images from r/Diablo btw)

I managed to catch up with Wyatt a little bit and we talked about food. So yes, a Reapers of Soul recipe will be coming soon.

When we finally returned to our hotel after BlizzCon, it was time to finally rest. There were after parties happening, but neither my boyfriend nor I were really up for partying. So we busted out our laptops, ordered room service, and played Hearthstone until it was time to pass out.

Yes, we both paid $10 for internet to play Hearthstone. That’s a portobello mushroom burger at the Sheraton. I also forgot to eat most of it because I was playing Arena.

Overall, I had a blast at my first BlizzCon! I had a chance to meet some friends that I’ve only known from online and I got to play some exciting new games.

I’ve been to many many gaming conventions before, such as PAX East, E3 and GDC, but BlizzCon is unlike any other gaming event I’ve ever attended. It’s two days of non-stop action and honestly, I was surprisingly overwhelmed by it all. I expected BlizzCon to be much less organized than it actually was — I expected there to be periods of lull, but there was always something to do. There were always games to play, people to meet, developers to speak with, cosplay to admire, games to watch, and things to buy. Honestly, the lines for food were significantly longer than the lines to play the games.

Each playable game had hundreds of computers lined up and ready for demos. It was all shockingly efficient!

I hope I have the opportunity to attend BlizzCon 2014. I’ll remember to take more pictures and organize my meet-up schedule better next time.

We didn’t check out Blink-182 from the main stage because we were too busy preventing Wyatt Cheng from escaping listening to Wyatt Cheng’s stories. Thankfully, there’s lots of giant monitors to watch throughout the convention hall!

The next morning, we checked out and prepared for our next adventure: a tour of Blizzard HQ!

A few months ago, Vaeflare reached out to me about a possible tour of Blizzard HQ. Of course I accepted it. We decided that if time permitted, a tour on the Sunday after BlizzCon would probably work best.

The Sunday after Blizzcon, we packed all of our belongings and checked out of our hotel. Since it was so early, we decided to head to the Irvine Spectrum to kill time before our Blizzard HQ tour.

By kill time, I mean we just found a place with Wi-Fi and played Hearthstone. ahhhhh can’t stop, won’t stop. 

Serious business. 

After a few games, it was time to head over to Blizzard HQ. After getting approved by security, we were greeted by Vaeflare and her friends in the visitor parking lot.

GREETINGS.

The first thing we saw was the cafeteria where Blizzard employees get to purchase delicious snacks. Of course, since it was Sunday (and right after BlizzCon), it was closed. The entire campus was pretty empty since everyone was recovering from BlizzCon, but, there were still some people in their offices getting work done.

We didn’t tour any of the development areas since they were all behind closed doors (and for good reason too — don’t want to ruin any surprises), but there was still a lot of interesting stuff to admire.

During our tour, we also checked out the Blizzard Academy where Blizzard employees get to work on their art in their free time. There’s classes on Maya, sculpting, and other things. Artwork from these classes are displayed throughout the buildings.

We also had a chance to check out the Blizzard library. It’s a cool little room full of novels, instructional books, tabletop games, consoles and games. Yes, I said consoles AND games. The room felt very cozy, and I could see people losing hours upon hours playing D&D or Warhammer or something on the big table in the center of the room.

When we walked by Diablo III development offices and I got to see how cool their card reader is! It’s Diablo’s head and the eyes are lit by the card scanner, so I guess if you work in that department, you can smack Diablo in the face every time you need to get into the office. I wish I could have that as my doorbell, but I don’t think my apartment managers would be too pleased about me changing my doorbell to Diablo’s face. I’m pretty sure that my void my deposit too… Hmm.

The long hallways were covered with familiar faces like Jim Raynor, the Butcher, and Illidan Stormwind.

I would probably hang this in my house.

There were even storyboard concepts from the original World of Warcraft trailer, and original sketches of Kerrigan from the first StarCraft artfully scribbled on crinkled and worn paper hung proudly in the halls. Even original concept sketches from Chris Metzen himself decorated the walls.

Some of the areas we toured were still covered in Halloween decorations:

Ok, I’m not entirely sure if the Murloc hat is a Halloween costume or if it’s his regular outfit. 

There was another Thrall I saw with a championship wrestling belt and a sweet sombrero. I can always appreciate a sweet sombrero.

Vaeflare also informed us that there was a Thrall who was sporting a Nicolas Cage mask somewhere in the facility… Thankfully, we didn’t see it on our tour, but it sounds like that would be awful and terrifying. I don’t want more nightmares!

Since most of the statues (Kerrigan, Tyrael, Illidan, Raynor, etc.) were still at BlizzCon, they had stand-ins back at the office.

Wow Kerrigan, you uh, you look, different.

Nova was chillin’ out in the main lobby too:

We finished our tour in the main lobby where you can check out the theater or look at the constructed StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm display. I didn’t manage to take many photos of that because my phone was completely dead (/sadtrombone), but I can assure you, it was pretty damn cool.

There were development videos of maps and of the HotS trailer and tons of lore, including Kerrigan’s history.

One of the cutest things I saw was this big album of fan letters sitting in the waiting area of the lobby. I popped it open and glanced through all of the letters, drawings, and wedding invites sent to Blizzard over the years. There were crayon drawings for proposed “StarCraft 3″ units and peoples’ WoW characters, all were extremely adorable. I even a school report where the sender created a poll at his school to find out what types of games people played. The sender even sent in pie-charts and data to back up his report. It was all freaking adorable.

I enjoyed touring the Blizzard campus and checking out where some of my favorite games are developed and tested. So I must give a gigantic thank you to Vaeflare for taking the time to give us a tour. It was a lot of fun and I hope one day I can come back to see all the other cool stuff in the office.

Basically, if I could tl;dr this entire post, I would just say I had an incredible time hanging out with people in Anaheim and playing video games. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

I HAVE THE SHINIEST MEAT BICYCLE.

Greetings, travelers! Today we’re going to dive into another Borderlands 2 recipe that features our lovable, meat-sleeve wearing, blood-thirsty, psychopath: Krieg!

What ‘chu looking at?

Krieg is just your average, everyday resident of Pandora. He enjoys sipping only the finest quality teas while curling up to a cozy book. Just kidding, he loves NIPPLE SALADS AND SCREAMING INTO YOUR SOUL. Nice guy, seriously.

In honor of Krieg, I’ve decided to recreate his class mod in MEAT!

Image from the Borderlands Wikia. 

There’s also some veggies and grain in there too because you can’t go slaughtering your enemies without enjoying a balanced meal.

UNIT COMPOSITION

1. salt
2. pepper
3. 2 teaspoons of olive oil
4. 1 tablespoon of worcestershire sauce
5. 3/4 cup of couscous
6. 3/4 lb of kale
7. 1 heirloom tomato
8. 1 1/2 lbs of ground bison

BUILD ORDER

Prep work will take about 10 minutes. Total cook time is roughly about 25 minutes. This makes 4 servings.

Calories per serving: ~480 calories

OPENING

1. Set two separate pots to boil — one for couscous and one for kale. For the couscous, you should have roughly 2 cups of water.
2. Add in your couscous to one pot of water. Season with salt and oil. Allow couscous to boil, continually stirring. Let cook for about 10 minutes. During this time, prepare your patties.
3. When the couscous is finished, fluff it with a fork.
4. While your couscous is cooking, add your kale into the other pot of water. Season with salt. Allow kale to cook for about 6 minutes.

MID GAME

1. Combine your worcestershire sauce and your ground bison. Mix until thoroughly combined.
2. Separate the ground bison into four sections. Take each of the sections, roll them into a ball, and flatten them each into patties. Press the patties firmly.
3. Set a skillet on high heat and add in half of your olive oil.
4. SALT THE WOUND Season the patties with salt and pepper.
5. Sear each side of the patty, and then reduce the heat to medium. Cook each side for about 5 minutes or until desired doneness.

LATE GAME

1. Begin to shape your Psycho Class Mod: place kale on a plate. Arrange the kale in a circle.
2. Place few scoops of couscous over the kale. Mold the couscous into a circle and make sure that the couscous circle is smaller than the kale circle.
3. Using a fork or a spoon, slowly mold the couscous into the shape of a saw blade.
4. Place a bison patty on top of the couscous saw blade.
5. Cut a slice of heirloom tomato and slowly carve a Vault symbol into the slice.
6. Place the vault symbol slide on the bison patty.
7. Eat!

GG, Psycho!

Now, if you’re still sane after making this meal, then GOOD FOR YOU! Get your meat-sleeves back on, light yourself on fire, and start rampaging back on Pandora. Well, figuratively speaking… Don’t actually do that, unless you are indeed Krieg.

This cake was made for a friend (and gaming industry colleague) who has been responsible for a few gaming-themed projects. His latest creation was my birthday cake– the Baneling cake:

You might have seen it floating around /r/StarCraft at some point.

Since he created a fancy cake for me, I decided to strike back and create my own cake. I knew I couldn’t compete in the realm of cake-based architecture, so I decided to just go with a simple semi-home made cake.

The idea was simple: put lots of sugar, alcohol, and chocolate in a pan and top it with ice cream.

The cake wasn’t as pretty as I would’ve hoped, but it still came out pretty delicious.

Let’s get baking!

UNIT COMPOSITION

1. pinch of salt
2. 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
3. 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
4. 1/2 cup of cocoa powder
5. 3/4 cup of dark chocolate chips
6. 1 cup of sugar
7. 1 cup of flour
8. 2 egg
9. 4 tablespoons of butter
10. 5 shots of Kahlua (7.5oz)
11. 3 shots of espresso
12. 1 pint of whipping cream
13. 2 quarts of coffee flavored ice cream
14. 2 quarts of vanilla flavored ice cream

If you have the time, homemade ice cream is much better than store-bought.

TOOLS

• Springform baking pan (you can pick one up from Amazon for roughly ~$14 USD)

BUILD ORDER
Prep time is roughly 35 minutes. Cook time is about 30 minutes. Setting the ice cream layers takes about 5 – 10 minutes per ring, however, idle time is roughly 15 – 20 minutes between each ring. I recommend letting the cake freeze for at least an hour before frosting.This makes about 16 servings.

Calories per serving: ~620 calories

This recipe doesn’t require a lot of active time — it’s mostly a lot of time waiting between ice cream layers.

Recipe adapted from: Chocolate Coffee Ice Cream Cake on Food52

OPENING

1. Preheat oven to 350° F (~176° C).
2. Combine your flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking powder in a large bowl.
3. Add in the eggs, vanilla and 3/4 cups of sugar.
4. Add in the espresso and 3 shots of Kahlua. Stir to combine and make sure that there are no lumps in the batter.
5. Add in your chocolate chips and combine.
6. Pour batter mixture into your springform pan. (you may want to grease it with some butter)
7. Baked brownie for about 25 – 30 minutes, or until brownie is fully cooked (use a toothpick to pierce the brownie — if the toothpick is clean, then it’s done).
8. Allow brownie to cool in the fridge.

MID GAME

1. Once brownie has become cold, begin layering the ice cream.
2. Start with one 1 to 1 1/2 inch ring of vanilla ice cream on top of the brownie layer. Place cake back in the freezer and allow the vanilla ice cream to set.
3. Once the vanilla ice cream sets, mold another ring of coffee ice cream. Freeze and allow this ring to solidify.
4. Once the coffee ice cream sets, one more ring of vanilla.
5. Finally, fill in the remaining space with coffee ice cream:
   
6. Allow the entire cake to freeze, then repeat the same steps but with alternating colors (coffee, vanilla, coffee, vanilla this time). Let cake cool while you prep the whipped cream.

LATE GAME

1. In a large bowl, combine 1/4 cup of sugar and your whipping cream.
2. Whisk the whipping cream until
3. it reaches stiff peaks.
4. Fold in your remaining Kahlua.
5. Remove the springform pan from the cake.
6. Frost the cake with the whipping cream.
7. Eat!

GG WP!

Unfortunately, I was a little bit pressed for time, so I rushed some of the layers which resulted in a little bleeding between the squares. You gotta be super patient when making this kind of cake!

Additionally, you can decorate this cake. Feel free to make it as ridiculous as this:

I don’t know how to draw sloths. 

Be prepared to share this cake because it does make a lot of servings. Since this cake is heavy on the calories, be prepared for a serious food coma!

Over the weekend, I attended a BarCraft event at my friend’s home. We’ve had BarCraft events here before (with the occasional karaoke involved), but none of this caliber. Blizzard, being the awesome folks that they are, sent Ray some StarCraft swag to help with the festivities.

PRESENTS!! A GSL calendar, TONS of coasters, authenticators, stickers, and lanyards!

To prepare his bar for eSports, Ray put decorations honoring all of the international StarCraft teams.

Unlike Joeyray’s Bar on Mar Sara, Ray’s Bar in California does not stock Benson Cognek or Scotty Bolger’s Old No. 8, but there is a plethora of other fine spirits…

No shortage of refreshments here. 

In order to have a proper BarCraft, we had to have proper bar food and that was my job. I created a menu full of finger food that could be easily enjoyed with a beer-in-hand. Each race is proudly represented here in a very foodie fashion:

For Terran, I’ve created the Hellbat Sliders, turkey sliders with a spicy BBQ base and apple coleslaw. These hellbats won’t damage your economy.

For Zerg, I’ve created Swarm Host Bites, stuffed mushrooms with mozzarella cheese and Italian sausage. Warning, unlike in-game swarm hosts, these swarm host bites cause major splash damage!

Finally, for Protoss, I’ve created Tempest Croissants, prosciutto, spinach and mozzarella stuffed croissants. Let these croissants siege your taste buds.

These recipes are meant to be very simple and I will be taking some shortcuts in order to reduce the prep time and the ingredients list.

UNIT COMPOSITION: HELLBAT SLIDERS

For the Burgers

1. 1 tablespoon of olive oil
2. 1 lb of ground turkey
3. 8 mini hamburger buns

For the BBQ Sauce

1. salt
2. pepper
3. 2 teaspoons of liquid smoke
4. 1 tablespoon of worchershire sauce
5. 2 tablespoon of chiptole paste
6. 3 tablespoon of ketchup

For the apple coleslaw

1. salt
2. pepper
3. 2 teaspoons of granulated sugar
4. 2 tablespoons of white vinegar
5. 1/3 cup granny smith apple, sliced thinly
6. 1/3 cup of shredded cabbage
7. 1/3 cup of shredded red cabbage

(If you can find a ready made bag of shredded cabbage and red cabbage, I suggest getting that)

I recommend making the apple coleslaw and BBQ sauce ahead of time, especially if you plan on traveling to a friend’s house to make these. It will save you a ton of time and it’ll be easier for you to bring a container full of cole slaw or sauce instead of bringing each individual ingredient.

BUILD ORDER: HELLBAT SLIDERS

Prep time for this will take about 20 minutes. Cook time is roughly 12 minutes. This makes 4 servings.

Calories per servings: ~300 calories

1. Thoroughly combine your BBQ sauce ingredients (salt, pepper, liquid smoke, worchershire sauce, chiptole paste, ketchup) in a bowl.
2. Pour your 2/3 BBQ sauce over your ground turkey and stir the sauce through the turkey. Reserve the 1/3 of the BBQ sauce for the burgers.
3. Shape your ground turkey into small patties. You should create about 8 patties.
4. Set a pan on high heat and add your olive oil. When the pan becomes hot, place your patties in the pan. You may have to cook them in separate batches. Cook the patties for about 2 minutes on each side. Remove patties when done.
   
5. Place chopped apples and both shredded cabbages in a bowl.
6. In a small bowl, combine salt, pepper, vinegar, and sugar. Stir to combine to create the dressing.
7. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss to combine.
8. Place 1 patty on each of the burger buns (optional: place 1/2 teaspoon of BBQ  sauce over the patty) then top with some of the apple slaw.

UNIT COMPOSITION: SWARM HOST BITES

1. salt
2. pepper
3. 1 teaspoon of olive oil
4. 12 large mushrooms, stems removed
5. 1 Italian pork sausage, casing removed
6. 1/2 cup of marinara sauce
7. 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese, shredded

BUILD ORDER: SWARM HOST BITES

Prep time for this will take about 10 minutes. Cook time is roughly 15 minutes. This makes 4 servings.

Calories per serving: ~120 calories

1. Pre-heat an oven to 350° F (~176° C).
2. Add olive oil and heat a pan on high heat. Once the pan comes up to temperature, add in your sausage. Cook the ground sausage for about 6 minutes.
3. Dry the inside of your mushrooms with a paper towel. Season with salt and a little pepper.
   
4. Add in a spoonful of marinara sauce into each mushroom.
5. Add in a spoonful of ground sausage to each mushroom and top with shredded mozzarella cheese.
6. Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes or until the cheese has melted.

UNIT COMPOSITION: TEMPEST CROISSANTS

1. pepper
2. pre-made croissant dough (usually comes in a tube)
3. 8 slices of proscuitto
4. 1/4 cup of spinach
5. 8 slices of mozzarella
6. Butter

BUILD ORDER: TEMPEST CROISSANTS

Prep time will be about 20 minutes and cook time is about 18 minutes. This makes 4 servings.

Calories per serving: ~380 calories

1. Preheat your oven to 350° F (~176° C).
2. Unravel your croissant dough and separate the triangles.
3. Wrap 1 slice of prosciutto around mozzarella and a 2-3 leaves of spinach. Season with pepper.
   
4. Place your wrapped prosciutto on the bottom of the triangle (opposite the point).
5. Roll your dough towards the point of the triangle. Pinch the edges of the rolled croissant.
6. Grease a baking dish and place your croissants on the dish. Bake for about 18 minutes or until golden brown.

If you have a large enough oven, you should be able to cook the mushrooms and the croissants at the same time.

If you’re cooking for a large party, feel free to double or triple the ingredients in order to increase the serving sizes.

GG!

With WCS Season 2 finals coming up (August 23 – 25th) in Cologne, Germany, these BarCraft bites would be a perfect snack if you’re watching the action from home!

BONUS: SLUSH OF THE SWARM

It wouldn’t be a BarCraft without some sort of alcohol! Since it’s summer, we decided to create a very simple and refreshing drink — all you need is 3 ingredients: watermelon, ice, and coconut rum. Just throw 1 cup of crushed ice, 1 cup of watermelon, and 2 (or more…) shots of coconut rum into a blender and blend. This simple slush is great alcohol-free as well!

We kind of drank a lot of these…

I had a lot of fun watching the WCS America finals — the games were very entertaining Even some of my friends who don’t particularly follow StarCraft were chanting for their new found favorite players!

Great StarCraft games, great food, and great friends. That’s how you hold a BarCraft. GG!

I will admit that I have been playing a lot less StarCraft than I would like. I wouldn’t say that I’m entirely out of the loop because I do watch streams and various tournaments. One of my friends was kind enough to host an MLG Anaheim viewing party — it’s like your own private Barcraft!

I volunteered to cook and I decided to make these burgers. There may have been significantly more Jack Daniel’s than usual though. Oh well!

Tournament play showcases some of the latest and greatest builds from the top players. However, I really only pay attention to the Terran builds.  GLORIOUS HELLBAT MASTER RACE.

Like many Terrans, I love the sweet smell of hellion-roasted drones on a fine afternoon. But, after seeing the offerings Blizzard has at this years San Diego Comic-con, I may have to reconsider my stance on Zerg abuse.

AWWW SO WIDDLE!

I’m not a big convention-goer, so I’ve never been to or had the desire to go to Comic-Con. I honestly don’t think I could handle the insanity that is Comic-Con. But for those awesome folk who are in San Diego right now, I salute you and your tenacity!

Speaking of awesome folk, a few of my friends from Geek Panda Apparel have offered to rescue me a cute little plush zergling of my own! Amazing, right?! The zergling plush pretty darn adorable. Look at that smile!

So maybe I’m developing a soft spot for the zerg, which is why this recipe is goes out to the Swarm.

UNIT COMPOSITION

1. salt
2. pepper
3. 2 tablespoons of oyster sauce
4. 3 tablespoons of olive oil
5. 2 stalks of green onion, sliced
6. 8 cloves of garlic, diced
7. 1/2 white onion, chopped
8. 1/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese
9. 1/4 cup of shiitake mushrooms, sliced
10. 1 cup of mung bean sprouts
11. 1/3 lb of ground pork
12. 1/3 lb of shrimp, shelled
13. 1/4 lb of squid
14. 1/2 lb of spaghetti noodles

BUILD ORDER

Total prep time is about 45 minutes. Total cook time is about 45 minutes. This will make 4 servings.

Calories per serving: ~460 calories

OPENING

1. Pre-heat your oven to 375° F (~191 C°).
2. Add salt, pepper, 1/3 of your green onions, and 1/4 of your chopped garlic to your ground pork.
3. Form the ground pork mixture into meatballs, roughly 2 inches in diameter.
4. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown.
5. While your meatballs are cooking, prepare the rest of the ingredients.

MID GAME

1. Boil your spaghetti in salted water.
2. Reserve 1 cup of salted pasta water and then strain the pasta when cooked.
3. Combine oyster sauce and the pasta water to create a sauce. Reserve for later.

LATE GAME

1. Pour 1 tablespoon of olive oil into a large wok (or skillet).
2. When oil becomes hot, add in your sliced mushrooms and garlic. Saute your mushrooms and garlic.
3. Add your shrimp and squid. Saute until cooked (roughly ~5 – 7 minutes).
4. Add in your meatballs (and any fat drippings from the baking dish) and mung bean sprouts into the wok. Stir to combine.
5. Add in your pasta. Drizzle the olive oil and oyster sauce mixture over the entire dish. Thoroughly toss the pasta to combine.
6. Remove from heat and serve with parmesan cheese and green onions.
7. Eat!

Ta-da, GG WP!

As I mentioned earlier, the guys at Geek Panda Apparel are down in San Diego for Comic-Con. Geek Panda Apparel is a group of my friends/former co-workers who’ve decided to wear their nerdiness with pride by developing a line of geek-culture inspired shirts.

They’re currently running a Kickstarter campaign to help get their project off the ground. If you donate at least $25, you’re guaranteed a shirt of your choosing and some other goodies (such as stickers). So if you’re feeling generous or just want a cool shirt, please donate to their Kickstarer campaign. <3

Cooking? Aww yeah, cooking.

This blog aims to be somewhat of a culinary journey through gaming. Game theme and game inspired recipes to tickle your taste buds and re-fuel your spirits. You can’t go raiding  and fragging on an empty stomach, now can you?

Let’s do this.