2 quarts vegtable, chicken stock or any mix of.
6 sticks of celery, chopped
6 carrots, chopped
1/4 fennel root, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 package fresh dill, chopped stalks and all
1/2 package of noodles (of choice)
1 chicken, cooked and pulled apart
1 teaspoon canola oil
Salt and pepper to taste.

In a large pot combine oil, onions, garlic and saute until sweaty and then add celery, carrots and fennel. Again, cook until veg begins to sweat. Add in stock, chicken and bring to a simmer. Once simmering, turn the heat down to low and let simmer for an hour or two. Bring salty water for pasta to a boil and add in noodles. Cook them to al dente, then strain water and add to the soup. Add in the dill before serving.

I find these Ancient Roman recipes every so often. Some have worked blissfully well, this one, well not so much…

1 can anchovies
2 herring fillets or 1/2 cup matjes herring
4 cloves minced garlic
1 cup minced parsley
1 cup chopped fennel
1 cup white wine
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons capers

Heat oil in a pan over medium high heat. Add in garlic and fennel. Sweat for a moment and then add anchovies and herring. Just keep adding things… really. it’s not like anyone is going to try this. I served mine with penne. It just didn’t turn out. It wasn’t good but it wasn’t horrid. It just was.

I think I’ve numbed my brain since July. The world hasn’t stopped long enough for me to catch my breath, take a look around and reevaluate a few important things. Luckily, nothing truly needed reevaluation and the things that did, wound up having the same answers as they did before the deadly busy month of July.

Weddings, nor bedbugs, Blue Skies or camping can hold me back any longer. I have returned!

And with little bits of culinary informations! And some gaming…

The Summer of Canning!

I have rediscovered a prior love of canning with my friend Sue. I’ve found that in Ontario there’s pick your own berry farms and other wonderful sources of fresh local produce. This amazes me. I’ve always had access to an abundance of local agriculture, but not in the sense of picking your own. (Unless I was orchard raiding. But that’s not entirely legal and not something I practice any longer.)

Needless to say I am prepared for a Zombie apocolypse now. So long as I can live off of jams, jellies and pickles. The recipes that were used are simple and found on the box of Bernardin pectin products. For my personal taste I’ve found that I prefer the low sugar pectin. Fruit is sweet enough and its natural flavours should not be hidden.

Bernardin Home Canning Recipes.

We made Strawberry Jam, Blueberry/Raspberry Jam, Red Currant/Jalepeno Jelly, a wonderful Jalepeno/Basil/Garlic Jelly and finally, Garlic Dill Pickles.

World of Warcraft!

How can I not talk about WoW?

At Blizzcon, Blizzard announced plans for the new expansion. Many of the plans seem like a grab at used straws with the idea to basically destroy the original continents. Personally, I think it’s a mistake. In the meantime, I’m perfectly happy to run around on my little mage who is now playing with an Arcane talent spec. I think I might go back to Fire once she’s done questing in Dustwallow Marsh.

TABLES!

Still writing my Star Wars game… no news.

The Culinary Adventures!

There really hasn’t been too many Culinary adventures this month. Just some old recipes that have been living in my head. One of the leaders of my guild in World of Warcraft is the father of 5 boys and who has asked me on many occasions to write my recipes down for him. So, I’ve been doing exactly that. Slowly. But, it’s been happening.

Beirocks

2lbs Ground Beef
2lbs Ground Pork
2 Onions, chopped
1 head of Cabbage, chopped
3 tablespoons ground black pepper
2 teaspoons salt

Brown the beef and pork together in a large pan or pot. Add in the onions, cabbage and spices and cook together until the veg is sweaty, not translucient. Set aside and let cool. Or cover and put in the fridge for up to a week before using.

For the dough, you will have to make in batches. My recommendation is to have one ready to sit aside and rise while making the beirocks with the other.

2 packages of yeast
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups of flour (all purpose – I prefer unbleached.)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup softened butter
1/2 cup water

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Set in warm place. Add warm milk, butter and salt; let stand for 10 minutes with yeast mixture in it. Add flour and sugar. Cover and set aside in a sunny spot for 1 hour.

Roll out dough and cut into large circles. Put 1/4 cup meat mixture in center of dough. Pinch closed. Bake until browned, approximately 20 minutes, at 375 degrees.

California Cacioppo Marinara

3 28oz cans of Crushed Tomatoes
1 head minced garlic
1 onion, chopped
1 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
3 tablespoons dried oregano
1 tablespoon paprika, chilli powder, cayenne pepper or any combination
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup red wine or water, depending on taste
1 tablespon soy sauce or 1-3 ground anchovies
ground pepper to taste
15-30 FRESH basil leaves
A wooden spoon

Coat the bottom of a large pot in olive oil. Turn the heat to medium high and add in the onions and garlic. Stir them around with a wooden spoon until the onions begin to sweat. If using red wine, now would be the time to add it in, if not then just add the cans of tomatoes. Stir in a circle 8 figurine until simmering. Once simmering, turn down the heat to low. Add in everything except the fresh basil and let simmer 1-3 hours stirring occasionally. Before serving add in the fresh basil. To cut the basil, stack the leaves ontop of each other in order of height and then roll as if creating a joint. Then julienne.

Remember the circle 8 stirring motion with the wooden spoon. It makes all the difference.

My Popo’s Meatballs

1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground beef, pork, lamb, veal or any combination of.
2-6 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tablespoons dried oregano
1 teaspoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon worchestershire sauce
2 eggs
1 cup breadcrumbs
2 dashes cayenne pepper

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl with clean hands. Mix throughly. Once combined, roll meat into balls the size of your inner palm. Place on a foil or parchment lined pan and bake for 30-40 minutes at 350 degrees.

Rawr.

Roman Lamb!

This is an odd recipe, but it’s one of my favorite dishes.

1 leg of lamb, cubed
1/8 cup chopped kalamata olives
1 package of anchovies
1/8 cup minched parsley, fresh
2-5 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 cup flour
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon capers

In a mortar combine olives, garlic and anchovies mash together with the pestle and then set aside. In a bowl, toss the cubed and flour together and then remove the lamb. Heat a saute or frying pan over high heat and coat with olive oil. Add more if neccessary. Add in lamb once oil is shimmery and quickly fry. Drain off the oil once the flour os golden brown and any visible meat is brown. (Inside of the cube should be pink) Combine anchovy mixture, capers and fresh parsley. Serve hot.

I said I’d update every week. And I hate that intention!

But I’m swamped right now and until I get back into my apartment, I think that an update might be beyond my own capabilities. That said, I apologize and meander back to my somewhere overwhelmed corner of the world that includes work, bed bugs, ridding apartment of bed bugs and grocery lists that are longer than the state of California.

Have fun.

I’ve had weird dreams in the past. I’ve had those off the wall, lets never speak of them again dreams. Last night I had one of the strangest and most detailed ones I’ve had in awhile. I dreamt about surviving the Zombie Apocalypse with my friends. Well, some of my friends.

The scene began in Toronto (obviously.) With Bryan Comyn’s pounding at Bryan and I’s front door. It took us a moment to realize that he had made it into the building without security. And better than that, on him he had a rifle, a shot gun and a pick axe. Since it is my dream, I got the shotgun. He informs us that we need to go, now and the subway tunnels will be the best way to get out of the city. There’s a shotgun in my hand. I don’t need to ask why. I know that after years of preparation it is here.

In the beginning of our journey through the subway system, I think Bryan Comyn’s might be on to something. Until we saw them. Packs of **runners traveling the railway lines. I about killed Bryan Comyn’s then and there, throwing him to the runners so Bryan and I could escape. He’d make a good meal, eh?

The three of us bolt for the exit, the runners almost catching up to us on the stairs. Due to my height, I was lagging behind the two Sasquatches. Bryan Comyn’s informed Bryan that I was just a woman and he should throw me to the runners. Again, I almost killed Bryan Comyn’s. Instead, as I figured if we ran out of food we’d just eat him and survive, I ran that much faster.

(Because this was a dream…) When we made it up the stairs we were in Peterborough. The town had been ravaged and there were zombies everywhere. We found survivors holed up in Mind Over Matter. As well as the tales of what happened to our friends. Toby had found and stolen a tank in order to get Teegan and Sue out of the house and get them to safety. He tried to retrieve Saviour and Signy as well but Saviour had taken his life after killing Signy. He found Dave Jones and Marjolaine along with Zeeg and Ben, all armed with shot guns making their way downtown and corralled them into Mind Over Matter with Jayson, Ryan (the tattoo artist), John-Mark (Carl believed him to be a reliable food source in a time of need) and Carl.

Between the gathering of friends we heard horror stories of things that had happened to our other friends. Paul and Jana were holed up inside their apartment in Toronto with Drake. Doing well but barricaded. Jill came home from work with the virus and turned rather quickly before there was suspicion of there being a Zombie apocalypse. Toby told us that by the looks of it, she had made Doug a meal.

Greg, Kevin and Karen were barricaded inside Kevin’s home, apparently they were defending it quite well with their kung-fu. Chuck Norris would’ve been proud.

Once the stories were told we all piled in to the tank, wanting to find out what had become of the Ottawa folks and knowing that Allison’s home may be the best bet for our survival.

On our way to Ottawa we saw a very peculiar sight. A man with a chain saw, running at full speed towards a group of runners and cutting them all down before turning around and walking back in the direction of Ottawa. “It’s Johnni!” I exclaim and the tank comes to a halt.

Again, because it is a dream as soon as we climb out of the tank to gather up Johnni we’re in Allison’s driveway. Her house is boarded up and has bits of Doug’s Volkswagon over the windows. Other than the boardings, her house looks serene and undisturbed. She very quickly opens the door for us and welcomes us in with open arms.

From Allison, Amelia, Doug and Kim, we hear of the demise of Sara and Ira, Rob, Nick and many others. But we realize something, we’ve made it this far. And in the home of Allison, we survive the entire uprising. Even Zombies know not to fuck with a Force of Nature.

**This was the best dream ever. **

As a left handed gamer, I’ve had a few issues in the past with PC gaming. Mostly the configurations with using a keyboard and mouse. Throughout Anarchy Online and Star Wars Galaxies (not to mention Battlefield, KotoR and many others…) I crossed my arms at the wrists in order to use my directional keys and mouse. Really, I did. Then World of Warcraft came out. And for the first little while I found a new keyboard and mouse set up that was a tad easier to control without having to cross my arms thanks to the addition of many player made ingame modifications.

I knew overall how to play my classes and I did alright. But I was never good.

Elitest Jerks helped me to understand class mechanics.

Still, I wasn’t a good player. My reaction times were too slow because of the set up I had. And oh, I wanted to get into Burning Crusade raids. I dreamed of Illidan. Not in a dirty darknest way either. I wanted my little (then) Enhancement shaman to eat his heart.

A Priest I knew encouraged me to get a little contraption called a Belkin n52te Nostromo game pad. I ran out to the Best Buy near my apartment and picked one up. Within an hour it was set up and my reaction times were no longer an issue.

One of the first things that surprised me was that it was Mac compatible. The second was how simple it was to set up. Once I chose the keybindings it was ready to go. In addition to the bartender mod for World of Warcraft, it took maybe 10 minutes for me to be bashing things in the head with my fists of windfury.

After going through three builds of Shaman, I’m more addicted to my Nostromo than ever before. Don’t make me play without it. Please?

On a completely different note, I’m going to try to update every Tuesday and Thursday. That’s my goal. Stay tuned.

Get out of my fucking game PETA! Dammit…

**Resposting this here for portfolio reasons.

Transmetropolitan a comic by Warren Ellis

Once in awhile we read things or hear things, watch for a split second something complex and obnoxious. It takes us by force, sits up down for a chat and then goes into a rant that you expect from a cultist leader who will then hand you kool aid.

Transmetropolitan is in the kool aid and the heavy William Gibson influence that is definitely dreaming of electric sheep is the cult leader.

That also makes New York City into Waco Texas if I were to continue down this line of thought, but I’m not. Instead I’m tying us all down with some alien hybridized sub standard contraption and taking us on what is a trippy ride of futuristic anarchy, free form journalism, neurotransmitters and what is most likely going to stroke every aspect that’s been asleep in my brain since I last played Mechwarrior.

And no, there’s no direct correlation between Transmetropolitan and Mechwarrior.

With mismatched sunglasses that could possibly reflect two sides of a quirky, driven personality we meet Spider Jerusalem. Technically we meet him in a Grizzly Adams stage that is entirely unbecoming of a man such as himself. Intelligence. An anti-hero. And he’s tracking down a story.

In the introductory issues of Transmetropolitan we are introduced to transients. They’re sort of homeless. More to the point of the topic, they are a transient species more than the state in which they live. This counter-culture of people chooses to live between bodies; they are half alien, half human. And they’re pretty sure they sent out a memo, but just to remind you they want to secede. And have sex with your wife.

This story is to be the first we see of Spider Jerusalem, the first he tackles to refamiliarize himself with the city. How life has changed in the five years since he exiled himself to the mountains?

It never can be what you expect.

Instead, we face an assault on the senses! Really… okay, so not really. But it’s a pretty assault of color and lines as brutal as Brock Lesner winning a UFC match and as tweakish as a cokehead trying to explain the intricacies of a free market Friedenist economy to a pothead. This is not what you’d expect anything to look like except maybe a leets hallucination when it comes to the panels. Then again it’s a leet and if you never played Anarchy Online I just lost the joke.

But for those of you who have played, you get it.

I want to make a pie from this story, really, I do!

Take the artwork, the inking, the words, the story and place it onto of building in the body of wiry journalist with an attitude problem not only has my mind become giddy excited but my libido has kicked into overdrive. This is hot.

Bring on the godless anarchy of a civilization in a technocratic decline.

And bring me the power of the written word unabashed by laws to tie it down.

Welcome to Transmetropolitan.

In a city as depraved as this one, it is oddly fitting that our journalistic revolutionary is one of the crankiest, obnoxious, intelligently stimulated, tattooed, vulgar and raw individuals to be thought up. I think his creation really came forward after an acid induced trip through flying monkeys at a strip clubs happy hour. Spider Jerusalem is both the hero and the anti-hero, he is his own antagonist and needs little help from his personal assistant, a former stripper, who at best calms the fits before the storm.

Why am I so reminded of Hunter S. Thompson?

I highly doubt that it has anything to do with Mr. Jerusalem’s obsession with a bowel disrupter.

I think it has more to do with the fact his wife won’t come out of cryonic freeze until he is dead.

Through the eyes of the future planned out for us in this cyberpunk apocalyptica we find that life in this version of New York, is just as convienient with push button ordering. And really, it is push button. In issue five we find Spider trying to learn and understand the culture that surrounds him by spending the day watching television. Which is in itself a modern constant. Whatever you wish to learn about a people you can find out about them by just watching television.

And find a commercial you like? Press a button on your remote and a customer service associate will be right with you to take that order and make sure a courier is dispatched to your position.

Large pie extra cheese. Please.

Shall we even touch on the mayhem of a call in television show?

Or shall we travel to the New Religious Movement Convention?

If you have any sense of morality that is not tempered by a sense of humor, this comic is neither for you nor for the weak of stomach. It is a drug in of itself. An addictive form of reading and watching as it the pages were moving themselves into a movie of proportions to which there is not a rating system.

And this fact may be why we’ve been given the character of Channon, a former stripper and the assistant to Spider Jerusalem. She acts as both the balance to his over the top nature and an instigator. Not as if Spider needs anything extra to instigate him, but training Channon as a journalist is definitely an excuse to further his shenanigans.

Unfortunately she can’t seem to keep him from making enemies. Then again with columns such as his own, how is he not making enemies?

We bounce between socio-political issues of a time yet to come and as with other comics they directly mirror those we see today in our society. From cultist leaders, to medical experiment, to the use of drugs or lack of and to the campaigns or corrupt politicians.

Questions of how to vote when you really are backing up the lesser of two evils rings too true in the minds eye of this American. Or even when do you start backing them up and begin to question?

Through the visionary eyes that Transmetropolitan tends to cater to we see the iconic idolization of those who have inspired us before falling and how in their deaths they become gods. Which is a very cynical way of looking at things but there is so much evidence to hold it up to the light. For instance, the rise of celebrity worship and the deification of political figures are something that we not only find in these pages but in the world around us today with things such as Obama Nation and Brad Pitt.

Trough a gamut of human emotion and tenacity to surreal mindsets brought on by states of mind foreign to those of us who have not delved into the depths of drug induced clairvoyance we see this story told of a modern day. Of Hunter S. Thompson living in the world of William Gibson.

Armed with a personal assistant and a former personal assistant turned bodyguard, there isn’t much that can stop Spider Jerusalem on his crusade for a brutal array of truth and justice in cyberpunk apocalyptical journalism.

In Transmetropolitan we see a plethora of social commentary that is on par with that written in “The Wire.” The series takes us beyond the normal moral questions of right and wrong and into vast grey areas that are often left untouched except in other great comics such as “The Watchmen” and the “Sin City” series. Transmetropolitan cannot be touched. It is an incredible epitaph to the world that we live in and the future we face. I owe Warren Ellis, Derek Robertson and Rodney Ramos my ovaries. This is amazing work.

I am in love with Spider Jerusalem.