Nephalem, you should stay a while and listen to this latest recipe!

After much planning and thinking, I’m ready to go on my next culinary adventure in Sanctuary with a brand new series called “Sanctuary Sliders”. My goal is to create sliders representing regions, monsters, and residents of Sanctuary.

It’ll be a very ambitious project, but I think I’m geared up enough to do it! If you wanna pass a few pieces of gold my way to support this project and the blog, please visit my Patreon.

We’re starting series off with where it all begins in Diablo III — New Tristram!

I’ve gone and gathered the best ingredients I could for these special sliders:

• Mushrooms, arugula, tomatoes and onions from the Forlorn Farm…
• Beef sourced from only the finest place that totally is Not the Cow Level…
• Ale from the lovely Slaughtered Calf Inn…
• And local goat cheese acquired from the goat…men? Um…Yeah…

Well, let’s get cooking!

UNIT COMPOSITION

1. salt
2. pepper
3. 2 tablespoons of worcestershire
4. 3 tablespoons of olive oil
5. 2 cups of ale
6. 5 cloves of garlic, chopped
7. 1 cup of mushrooms, sliced
8. 1 small red onion, sliced
9. 1 steak tomato, sliced
10. chevre goat cheese
11. 2 cups of arugula
12. 6 small ciabatta rolls
13. 2 lbs of lean ground beef (I used 94/6)

BUILD ORDER

Prep time for this recipe is about 20 minutes. Cook time is about 35 minutes. This will make about 6 sliders.

OPENING

1. Set a pan on high heat.
2. Add in 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
3. Saute your onions and mushrooms for about 2 minutes.
4. Reduce the heat to medium.
5. Add in 1/2 cup of your ale. Allow the ale to cook out for about 3 minutes.
6. Remove the vegetables the pan and set aside.
7. Using a damp towel, wipe away any charred vegetable bits.

MID GAME

1. In a large bowl, combine your ground beef with your worcestershire sauce and chopped garlic.
2. Add in salt and pepper.
3. Add in your remaining ale and stir it into the mix.
   
4. Begin shaping the meat into burger patties. Use a spoon to help portion out the meat. You’ll want to take about 2 spoonfuls of meat. Roll that into a ball and firmly press it flat with your hands.
5. Continue doing this until you have 6 large patties. Remember, these patties will shrink during cooking!

LATE GAME

1. Set a pan on high heat and add 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
2. Once it’s come up to heat, add in 3 – 4 patties (depending on the size of your pan).
3. Let them cook on one side for about 5 minutes. Flip and cook the other side for 5 minutes. The ale will bubble out of the meat at this time. Once done, remove them from the heat and set aside.
   
4. While the patties are cooking, place the ciabatta rolls in the oven at 350° for about 2-3 minutes to toast them. Remove them from the oven and cut them open.
5. Begin building your sliders! Spread the goat cheese on top of the burger patty so it melts. Add your caramelized onions and mushrooms over the goat cheese. You can place the remaining vegetables how ever you’d like.
   
6. Eat!

NEPHALEM, gg wp!

Now you can sit back, relax and an enjoy a good book with your sliders. You may even want to consider staying a while and listening… ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

The incredible Meru also took some gorgeous photos for your enjoyment. <3 Feast your eyes on the following food porn:

drool

These sliders will keep your tummy happy while you battle the onslaught of demons!

I hope you’ve enjoyed the first installment of this multi-part recipe series. Stay tuned for the next Sanctuary Sliders! See you around, Nephalem!

When I found out the Butcher was stomping his way into the Nexus, I was over joyed. Thankfully, the wait is over and you can now enjoy everyone’s favorite meat-crazed demon in Heroes of the Storm!

What a fitting mount! Let’s hope Billie doesn’t end up grilled after this game...

He’s one of the most memorable bosses from the Diablo series, and when I first started playing Diablo III, I thought the Act I fight against him was pretty awesome.

You basically run the risk of being completely engulfed in flames if you can’t kill him before his enrage timer.

Toasty!

You would think that since he’s always surrounded by fire, he’d be pretty good at barbecuing. Do you think they have BBQ competitions in Sanctuary and the Burning Hells? Hmmm…

Anyway, since I don’t have a BBQ grill, I decided to create a different type of meaty treat. It’s a spicy little meatloaf full of FRESH MEAT! VEGETABLES BAD. MEAT GOOD!

And because The Butcher lives in such a sizzling place, I decided to add a little heat with some fresh jalapeño peppers. Of course, that is only Torment I level spice… If you wanna bump it up to Torment VI, add in some habañero. But if you want to go to Torment X, I suggest you try getting your hands on some crushed Ghost Chili Peppers and some Trinidad Scorpion Chilies.

UNIT COMPOSITION

1. salt
2. pepper
3. 1 teaspoon of olive oil
4. 1 tablespoon of cumin
5. 2 tablespoons of worcestershire sauce
6. 1/2 cup of ketchup
7. 1 egg
8. 5 cloves of garlic, diced
9. 1 cup of bread crumbs
10. 1 onion diced
11. 1 bell pepper, diced
12. 2 jalapeño peppers, diced
13. 1 lb of chorizo, casing removed
14. 1 lb of bacon
15. 1 lb of ground lean beef (I used 90/10)

BUILD ORDER

Prep time for this recipe is about 45 minutes. Total cook time is 1 hour 10 minutes. This makes about 5 servings.

OPENING

1. Set a pan on medium heat and add in your olive oil.
2. Sweat your diced onions and garlic.
3. Remove and set aside. You’ll want them to cool before adding them to your meat mixture.

MID GAME

1. In a bowl, combine your chorizo and ground beef.
2. Season lightly with your salt, pepper and cumin. Since the chorizo is already spiced, you don’t need to add that much more seasoning.
3. Add in your worcestershire sauce and ketchup. Stir to combine.
4. Add in your egg and bread crumbs. Stir to combine.
5. Add in your diced bell pepper and jalapeño peppers and stir. You may have to use your hands at this point to make sure the mixture is thoroughly combined.

LATE GAME

1. Preheat your oven to 350°.
2. Line a baking sheet with foil. Remember, this dish has chorizo AND bacon, so there will be a A LOT of fat and oils! Make sure your dish is properly lined to reduce clean-up!
3. Pour your meat mixture onto the baking sheet and form it into a loaf.
   
4. Now comes the fun part: create a bacon weave over your meatloaf! If you don’t want to create a bacon weave, you can wrap the bacon around the meatloaf in any way you’d like.
   
5. Place the meatloaf in the oven and cook for 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until the internal temperature hits 160°.
6. Let rest for 5 minutes.
7. Eat!

GG WP!

Now you’re ready to serve this meaty meal to your fellow Nephalems in Sanctuary or your team of Heroes in the Nexus! Just make sure you don’t let Tyrael get to this… You know how he is about eating.

“Being a mortal is very complicated”

Aww yes….FRESH MEAT.

See you in the Eternal Conflict!

A few weekends ago, Heroes of the Dorm tournament was broadcast live across the nation on ESPN2. This was a gigantic leap forward for eSports, especially for the collegiate scene. Despite all the praise and admiration, there are still doubts on whether or not eSports deserves a spot on cable TV. Some people just need a lot of convincing!

Considering my background, I assume you already know what my thoughts are on eSports and the Collegiate eSports scene. eSports4Lyfe.

However, the most important thing to take away is that Artosis sparked a brand new meme… GOING HAM ON THE CORE!

Though ASU could not snatch the win from UC Berkeley, they will be forever remembered as going HAM ON THE CORE.

In honor of monumental moment in eSports history, I present to you a delicious and pork-tastic treat: HAM on the core ham!

UNIT COMPOSITION 

1. salt
2. 3 tablespoons of apple butter
3. 1 cup of apple cider vinegar
4. 1 teaspoon of cloves
5. 1 teaspoon of mustard seeds
6. 2 teaspoons of cinnamon
7. 1 tablespoon of ginger, grated (I used a microplane for this)
8. 1/2 yellow onion, diced
9. 2 granny smith apples, cubed
10. 1 mango, cupped
11. 1 2lb smoked ham
12. OPTIONAL: 1/2 tablespoon of agave nectar

BUILD ORDER

This recipe takes about 30 minutes to prep. Total cook time is 45 minutes. This will make 4 servings.

OPENING

1. Pre-heat your oven to 365° F.
2. Add in 1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar to your apple butter. Stir to combine. Season with salt.
3. Baste the ham with the apple butter and vinegar mixture.
4. Roast in the oven for 45 minutes. During this time, prepare your mango chutney.

MID GAME

1. Set a pot on medium heat.
2. Add in your onions, apples, apple cider vinegar, cloves, ginger, cinnamon and mustard seeds.
3. Allow the chutney to cook for about 30 minutes.

LATE GAME

1. After 30 minutes, remove the  chutney from the heat.
2. Add in the cubed mango. Add in agave nectar if you want the chutney to be sweeter.
3. Remove the ham from the oven. Allow it to cool for about 5 minutes (the glaze will still be very hot).
4. Serve with the chutney.
5. Eat!

GG WP!

Now, at this point, you have a few plating options…

PUT A SLICE OF HAM ON SOME APPLE CORES. HAM ON THE CORE!

C’mon… You saw this coming…

Or rather, serve the ham like this:

 But realistically, the ham is served best on a platter with the chutney on the side:

Or, enjoy it with a few fellow heroes:

See you in the Nexus!

I’ve been wanting to make Gorgrond Chowder for a while… So I finally had a chance to sit down and hammer out the recipe. I wanted to do it right, so was a lot of research involved. There’s something very special about enjoying a creamy seafood soup in a toasty sour dough bread bowl on a chilly day.

It’s a hearty soup, and it has to be since Gorgrond is a pretty rough neighborhood.

GUYS…GUYS WE CAN TALK THIS OUT. MAYBE OVER A BOWL OF CHOWDER?

You could probably make this meal while doing runs of Blackrock! Just don’t die and upset just don’t upset your raid lead.

UNIT COMPOSITION

1. salt
2. 1 tablespoon of olive oil
3. 1 cup of water
4. 2 cups of fish stock
5. 3 cups of milk
6. 1/2 onion, chopped
7. 1/2 lb of carrots, chopped
8. 1/2 lb of celery, chopped
9. 1/2 lb of red potatoes
10. 1/2 lb of italian sausage
11. 1 lb of cod, chopped
12. OPTIONAL: 1/2 lb sour dough bread rounds
13. OPTIONAL: parsley

BUILD ORDER

Total prep time for this dish is about 20 minutes. Total cook time is about 35 minutes. This makes about 6 servings.

OPENING

1. Set a large pot on high heat. Add your tablespoon of olive oil.
2. Cook your Italian sausage until golden brown (roughly 5 – 7 minutes).
3. Remove from the pot and set aside.
4. Add in your chopped onions, celery, and carrots. This blend of ingredients is called a mirepoix.
   
5. Reduce the heat to medium and allow the mirepoix to sweat. Stir it occasionally to prevent it from burning.

MID GAME

1. Slice the Italian sausage and re-introduce it into the pot. Make sure you pour in any juices left over from the sausage.
2. Bring the heat back up to high.
3. Add in your fish stock, water and potatoes. Allow to cook for about 10 minutes or until the potatoes are soft.

LATE GAME

1. Add in your chopped cod.
2. Reduce the heat to medium and pour in your milk.
3. Allow the cod to cook for another 10 minutes, stirring often.
   
4. OPTIONAL: to make a bread bowl, cut off the top of the round of bread and scoop the insides out.
5. OPTIONAL: garnish with parsley
6. Eat!

GG WP!

Now, the bread bowl is totally optional. You can serve this chowder in a bowl if you’d like!

As always, I try to replicate the in-game appearance. Here’s what it looks like in-game:

And here’s how it turned out with the bread bowl:

Close, I think!

Yessss….

One of my favorite cuisines in the whole world is Thai food. There’s something so amazing about the flavors in each dish. It’s like a well orchestrated symphony of flavors that happens in every bite. So I was more than excited to try out Sungshin Ironpaw’s new take on a classic Thai dish.

We’re traveling to the beautiful Valley of the Four Winds for this week’s recipe: Green Curry Fish!

The continent of Pandaria is a vast area full of lovely places to camp out and start a fire for cooking.

For this rendition of the Pandarian Green Curry Fish, I decided to add in some extra veggies for that healthiness factor. The actual in-game recipe just calls for rice and golden carp, so I have definitely made some slight modifications for the real life version!

UNIT COMPOSITION

1. salt
2. 2 teaspoons of coconut oil
3. 1 teaspoon of agave nectar
4. 1 shallot, diced
5. 2 sprigs of basil
6. 1 cup of snow peas
7. juice of 1 lime
8. 3 tablespoons of fish sauce
9. 5 tablespoons of green curry paste
10. 1 can of coconut milk
11. 1 green bell pepper, sliced
12. 1 cup of rice
13. 1 whole 2lb tai snapper (pink sea bream)*, cleaned and fins removed

*You can substitute red snapper, sea bass, or any white, non-oily fish.

BUILD ORDER

Prep time for this is about 15 minutes. Total cook time is about 30 minutes for the curry and 45 minutes for the rice. This makes about 4 servings.

OPENING

1. Prepare your rice so that the rice will finish cooking by the time your curry is done.
2. Heat a large wok on high heat. Then, add in your coconut oil.
3. Once the wok comes up to temperature, saute your shallots. Let your shallots saute for about 1 minute. 
4. Then, add in your curry paste and fish sauce. Stir to combine and allow it to cook together for another minute.
5. Add your coconut milk three parts, stirring between each part to help the curry paste incorporate with the coconut milk.
6. At this point, try your curry and add salt and sweetener (agave in this case) to taste. When you’re happy with the taste, move on to the next steps!

MID GAME

1. Place your whole fish in the green curry.
2. Gently ladle sauce over the fish. Allow it to cook for about 5 minutes.
3. After 5 minutes, flip the fish over and cook for another 5 minutes.

LATE GAME

1. Squeeze your lime over the fish and add in your basil, peas and green pepper.
2. Continue to cook for another 2 minutes on medium heat.
3. Remove from the heat.
4. Place your fish curry on a large bowl for serving with your cooked rice.
5. Eat!

And you’re done. GG WP! Please be aware that because you are cooking a whole fish, there will still be bones present.

Typically, you can remove the meat from the bone in one fell swoop, but just be weary of bones

So my goal with this dish was to try to replicate the in-game food item. I think I got pretty close! What do you think?

Here it is again as a single serving:

Good luck in your adventures through Azeroth and beyond!

The Raven Lord demands tribute… in the form of tasty appetizers!

I have been playing a ton of Heroes of the Storm lately. I’ve been trying to climb the ladder to finally hit Rank 1. Recently, I have been fortunate enough snag Sylvanas in draft. AW YISS BANSHEE QUEEN.

I have no time for games!

I am totally loving Sylvanas’ play style. It’s an awesome feeling to be fighting someone and then throw out your “E” to teleport when the fight gets too rough.

One of the battlegrounds I enjoy playing is the Cursed Hollow. On this map, the goal is to collect three tributes for the malevolent Raven Lord. He’s totally a big jerk.

There’s usually a ton of fighting when these tributes pop up. And that’s what I absolutely love about this map — the team fights!

Hahaha, big head mode!

Since the Raven Lord demand tribute… We better start cooking!

UNIT COMPOSITION

1. salt
2. 2 tablespoons of butter
3. 4 – 5 cloves of garlic, grated
4. 1 egg, mixed
5. 1/3 cup of milk
6. 1/3 cup of shredded parmesan cheese
7. 1 lb of purple sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters

BUILD ORDER

Prep time for this dish takes about 30 minutes. Cook time takes 20 minutes for boiling the potatoes, and an additional 12 minutes for baking. This makes 4 servings (about 8 tributes).

OPENING

1. After peeling and cutting your sweet potatoes, place them in a pot of large water.
2. Bring that pot of water to boil and cook the sweet potatoes for about 20 minutes or until soft. Then drain the sweet potatoes and return them to the pot.
3. Add in your salt, cheese, butter, garlic and milk. Use a potato masher to combine the ingredients.
   
4. Transfer the mashed sweet potatoes to a bowl.
5. Add in your egg and stir to combine.

MID GAME

1. Place the sweet potato mixture in a piping bag.
2. Lay a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet.
3. Begin piping out the shape of the raven lord tributes. Start with an oval, and then a pointed tip for the beak.
   
4. Then, pipe out the wings.
   
5. Use a butter knife to smooth out the entire shape. Use the edge of the butter knife to create the eyes by gently pressing down at an angle.
6. Continue making the tributes until you run out of sweet potato mixture.

LATE GAME

1. Set your oven to 350° F.
2. Let your tributes bake for about 12 minutes. Remove and let cool.
3. Eat!

GG WP, Heroes!

Please note that eating three of these tributes will not cause the Raven Lord to curse your enemies. However, these are delicious and can satisfy a rumbling tummy. MY BELLY DEMANDS TRIBUTE.

By the way, I have set up a Patreon! I have been posting previews of upcoming blog post there, so if you’re interested, please check it out.