Survival Sunday 16

Picture this: You're planning to have people over. You don't want spaghetti or burgers. It's cooler outside than it has been in a while. You're craving something spicy.

Chili seems to be the answer!

But how do you make a chili? Doesn't chili take a long time? Isn't it hard?

It's not hard. It is time-consuming.

It's amazing.

Z & I have been craving chili for a long while now. We both like beans, we both like spice, we both like chili. Bam. Chili time!

Here's what I used in the chili:

• 1/2 package ground beef (You can use more or less - the meat isn't 100% necessary)
• 3 cans of beans (we used White Cannolinis, Dark Red Kidney, and Black beans)
• 4 chipotles in adobo sauce
• 1.5 serano peppers (that's what we had on-hand)
• 1/2 poblano pepper, seeded
• 1 Hungarian Wax pepper
• 1 Aloha bell pepper
• 1 can chopped green chilies
• 1 can diced tomato
• 1 can tomato sauce
• 1 large, sweet onion
• 3 scallions, snipped
• bacon bits
• 1 heaping tablespoon gochujang
• 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
• bone broth
• soy sauce
• peanut oil
• smoked paprika
• brown sugar
• red pepper flakes
• ground mustard
• cocoa powder
• instant coffee
• Mexican hot chocolate

Not every ingredient is here, and there are a few things that I didn't use out here...

I'm pretty sure I've missed some stuff in these ingredients. It was hectic and I didn't photograph everything... oops. Also, a lot of these pictures will be blurry as heck because I was cooking up a storm and couldn't photograph everything! Yargh!

Z & I aren't 100% keen on beefy chili (that's more of a thing for my dad, who hates beans in his chili...), so I only used half a package of meat and froze the rest. What follows is approximately how I made the chili:

1) Take a heaping spoonful of the gochujang (a spicy Korean chili paste) and a spoonful of hoisin sauce and start frying them up in some peanut oil. Why peanut oil? It's what I had on-hand and I like the flavor. If you're allergic, obviously don't use it!

That's our hoisin on top of my gochujang

That's some good, good stuff.

Mine has become about the same consistency as fruit leather, which meant that it was harder to incorporate.

2) While that's sizzling away, grab your meat and put it in the same pan. We want the flavors to mingle!

Pro Tip: If your beef is frozen, actually thaw it out before you pop it in the pan.
My bad.

Do not adjust your television set. I cannot photograph things.

3) When all of the meat is browned and the sauces are basically incorporated into the meat, carefully dump everything into a crock pot. We're using a big (and I mean BIG slow-cooker here). Try to leave as much oil/fat behind in the pan as possible, because we'll need it for the onion in a second. Do not turn the crock pot on yet. Just cover it with a lid and continue with the rest of your ingredients.

4) Chop half your onion and start frying it in the same pan you just used. Don't clean out the pan. We want that delightful flavor to get stuck in the onion. This onion is likely going to fall apart in the chili as it cooks, so don't be too concerned about uniformity, perfect cooking, etc. It'll all go in the pot when you like how it looks.

By the time this was finished cooking, it was basically orange.

5) The other half of the onion should also be chopped up, but this onion will be dumped into your crock pot raw. We want some texture, after all. Also, keep the lid on the crockpot when you're not adding stuff.

By now the kitchen was really smelling good.
That's my excuse.

6) Time to chop up your peppers! I only managed to photograph the fresh ones, since I actually forgot about my frozen poblano and seranos. They were frozen because I got them a couple weeks ago and couldn't let them rot. I had to defrost them in 10 second bursts in the microwave. It took me 20 seconds to get both soft enough to cut easily with my freshly-sharpened knife. Also, with how big the poblano was (maybe 6 inches long?!) I only needed half. By the end, my hands and eyes smarted from all the capsaicin in the air. Dump all the chopped peppers into your crock pot and replace the lid. Yes, the chipotles are slimy. Yes, they burn. They all burn. Except the bell pepper.

That's my blurry Aloha pepper - kinda citrusy in flavor.
Very nice to look at in our chili when it was all cooked!

This is a Hungarian Wax pepper.
I don't know why I took this picture.

This is a chopped Hungarian Wax pepper.

These burn. You can vaguely see the green chiles next to it.

The smears up above the seranos are just adobo sauce.
The seranos are frozen solid in this shot.

7) Time for beans! Open your cans and dump them straight into the crock pot. No draining. Just dump them in. Same with the diced tomatoes.

You can kinda see the poblano and seranos here!

8) Time for the tomato sauce, too. Dump it in. Chili is the original dump dinner.

9) Add some bone broth. I used beef bone broth. Yum.

Just dump it in.

I was gearing up for the rest of the weirder ingredients, I think...

10) Here's where things start to get... weird. You're going to start adding things like garlic powder, yeah, but also a splash of soy sauce, some brown sugar, some cocoa powder, a heaping tablespoon of the Mexican hot chocolate mix, a sprinkle of dried ground mustard. You want to get some baseline of flavors in here besides the wet ingredients. I forgot chili powder in mine. You can add yours.

This is also where I added about a teaspoon of instant coffee, but you do not have to do this. I like it. It adds bite and buzz.

Obviously, this isn't all I added. I only remembered the cocoa powder later, after all.

This stuff is amazing. Spicy, decadent madness.

Honestly, my favorite paprika is smoked paprika.

Oh yeah, also snip your scallions into the pot now.

11) Throw that lid back on and start cooking on high. Check it every now and then by stirring the chili and tasting it. If it's too acidic, add more cocoa powder and/or brown sugar. If it's too sweet, add something like a vinegar (any kind of vinegar would work). Trust your tastebuds. If it's not spicy enough, add more spicy things. If it's too spicy, you can fix that later with dairy products added to your bowl. Yum.

I left this running from about 11AM to about 6PM.
You can do yours longer or shorter.
It all depends on how long you have to wait for dinner.

12) If you're like me and love bread products, go ahead and make some rolls right before you eat. I don't suggest making them if it's really humid out, though. These ones came out small and hard even though I followed the directions 100%. Meh.

I still ate half of them because I'm a glutton.

13) Finally, serve your chili in bowls with some cheese and sour cream - the dairy will absolutely help cut the heat and bring out the darker and richer flavors.

Delicious.

I made this on Wednesday, and I still have leftovers.

By the way, I'm not doing a Spice this week.

That's because I'm giving you a BONUS RECIPE!

That's right! I had so much freaking chili that I had to use some of it up the next night in something I think you'll like:

Chili Dip.

Sadly, I have no pictures, but it's literally a 3 ingredient recipe, so don't worry.

Your ingredients are:

• Leftover chili (or chili from a can, either way works)
• Cream cheese (brick form works best)
• Shredded cheese to cover

1) Leave your cream cheese bricks out to soften. I used 2 because that's the size pan I used (one of those disposable square ones for brownies). Preheat your oven to 350℉

2) When you feel like your cream cheese is soft enough, plop them into the bottom of your baking pan/dish and squish them down so they cover the whole bottom of the pan with no gaps. This is your base. You want it solid and full. And delicious.

3) Spread out a nice thick layer of your leftover chili out over the top of your cream cheese layer. You can make this as thick or thin as you like, depending on your pan's depth.

4) Cover the top of the chili with a layer of shredded cheese. Bam. Done.

5) Bake the whole thing at 350℉ until the cheese on top is melted. If you need to wait for someone to show up, leave it in the oven, but turn the heat off. It should stay warm enough for a few hours!

6) Eat with tortilla chips, Fritos, etc. Everything is better with chili dip.

That's all from me this week, folks.

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Saturday Casual Gaming 16: 5 Days a Stranger

Game: 5 Days A Stranger
Creator: Ben Croshaw
Platform: PC (Fullyramblematic.com)
Type(s): Adventure, Horror

I'm not going to do this often, but this is a game I haven't actually played. I saw Lucahjin play it on YouTube a couple years ago, and I fell deeply in love with the game, but I'm far too much a coward to actually play it.

That's right, guys, this is a spooky game!

The plot is thus: A gentleman-thief called Trilby breaks into a manor where there has been a suicide recently, and so he believes the house to be empty and ripe for the pickings. Once inside, however, he becomes trapped with a small group of others and the group is thrown into something like an And Then There Were None situation. I won't spoil the ending for you, but it's fantastic.

The game is the brainchild and creation of a man called Ben Croshaw. It's part of a series of adventure games. This one is called 5 Days a Stranger, and the other three games are 7 Days a Skeptic, Trilby's Notes, and 6 Days a Sacrifice. This guy is not just a good programmer (from what I can see, there weren't a whole lot of issues with trying to get puzzles to work), he's a great artist and writer as well. The games move slowly without being boring, and it's truly wonderful to see the old LucasArts/Sierra art style live on in a new generation.

One dude, guys. One man made this whole game, from what I understand.

Honestly, though, this game is creepy as heck, and if you want to get in on the story of a thief facing down an unstoppable evil in a mansion (or in space, because that's what happens in a later game... go with it), then you absolutely should.

If you're a genuine gamer and not a casual chicken like me, and you like horror games, adventure games, and you want to give this Ben Croshaw guy some attention, the page for 5 Days A Stranger is here.

Btw, Ben Croshaw's name may sound a bit familiar to you if, like me, you're a long-time denizen of the interwebs. That's because he is, in fact, Yahtzee from Zero Punctuation.

He also has novels!

I should mention that, since I'm a chicken, I've never actually played this game. In fact, I'd be too scared to. I left that up to the amazing Lucahjin and Hercrabbiness on YouTube/Twitch for that (I know I mentioned it earlier, but bear with me). The path to getting to this game was a weird one, because first I found Lucahjin, who suddenly appeared on a Minecraft Hardcore season via the PeanutButter Gamer's channel on YouTube. I was interested in the fact that the sausagefest that the Hardcore seasons had been up to this point had finally welcomed a woman in. And a funny one, too!

So I toddled on over to Lucah's Twitch and YouTube pages and saw the 5 Days a Stranger videos. I settled in to spook myself (I was having a mild obsession with scary things after watching Leviathan and loving it) and was delighted to see that the game was, in fact, every bit as awesome as I'd hoped.

I'm going to try to embed the video here, but if it's not in an aspect ratio you like, I'll also include the link so you don't have to watch it in a weird squished format or widescreen it.

Yeah. I'm not a fan of how this blog smooshes the videos, so here's the link.

Absolutely give it a watch - if you want to play the game on your own without spoilers, then stop after the first episode. Lucah is good about not spoiling the ending until the ending itself, so it's a fun watch.

I think that'll do it for me.

You may be wondering why I didn't post more screencaps - that's because I don't have any. They're all on Croshaw's website, and I'd rather you guys give him a peep :)

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Filmic Friday 16

So I wanted to write this while sitting on my couch, wrapped in blankets, but the cat had other ideas. She was very snuggly and lovey, but the second I had to get up to take care of something, she had hunkered down in my spot and hogged the thicker blankets. So I, being the person in charge, am now sitting in a recliner with a thinner fleece blanket and she, my charge, is in a tent made from a thick Patriots blanket with a thicker printed blanket with bears and trees on it as a nest. But I totally don't spoil her.

Regardless, it's time to talk about movies! And since I'm not a Teens In Trouble person, between our attempt to sit through Ed Wood's The Violent Years and our attempt to get through Laserblast, I'd rather talk about Laserblast.

Aw yis

I say attempts because I bowed out of The Violent Years pretty early (I just... I need way more than just Z & me to watch either Ed Wood's writing or a teens-in-trouble picture), and Z fell asleep partway through Laserblast. Between the two of us, there were maybe 1.25 MST3Ks watched. Maybe.

Film & Editing Friendo was not available, nor were our other two movie-watching friends, so we wound up watching an MST up in Z's room and snoozing.

Me, I could watch Laserblast 1000x, but Z needs to be in the mood and wasn't. Thus the nap. Z could watch Ed Wood movies forever, but I have to have backup support in the form of a larger audience, thus me begging off. I promised we'd watch it another time, though, and I meant it. Just... I wasn't in the mood last week.

Now, the story of Laserblast is basically this: Some dweeb in the desert finds an alien laser cannon that possesses him and makes him go on a murderous rampage. That's it. There are awesome claymation aliens, hick sheriff's deputies, Eddie Deezen being a dingus, and Roddy McDowall. Also it's the 70s, so... lots of uncomfortable shirtlessness and bad plaid.

The lead character, Billy Duncan, is played by Kim Milford, who was apparently in a lot of stuff. He was a singer/songwriter in a band called "Moon", and he was in his 20s when he shot Laserblast. You may be wondering why I'm giving this guy the time of day. That's because it sucks that ten years after the bomb that was Laserblast, Kim Milford died of Heart Failure. Damn. I mean, this guy was on the original LA soundtrack for Rocky Horror Picture Show four years before this cinematic dumpster fire. Yikes. Considering how much... fuller... he seems in this movie, I have to wonder if maybe he was suffering from a heart condition before the surgery that ultimately ended his life?

Or maybe it was something else. It was the 1970s after all.

Regardless, Milford is doing his best with a pretty awful script, so I give him props for that.

See what I mean about inappropriate shirtlessness?

This MST has some punch, guys. It just keeps giving. From the bad, bad, bad makeup on Kim Milford to the "ready for some FOOTBALL!" callbacks throughout the film to the now-infamous "thunderbucket", it's just... it's really funny guys. I promise!

That can't have been comfortable. At all. 1970s contacts terrify me.

This man is absolutely ready for some FOOTBALL!

Now, as for the aliens, I'm going to show you the titular Laserblast(er) first, then the aliens, because the props department cared far less than the animators did.

That's it. That's the laser cannon he goes nuts with.

Even the aliens are offended that this weapon gets the title and not them.
Seriously, though, they're super expressive and the movement on them is pretty good.
Also, they're freaking adorable and I want one.

This cast is way too good for this movie, too. I don't like Eddie Deezen 90% of the time, and this movie has him being extra-obnoxious. Z just wants to steel his shirt, I'm pretty sure, since it's pretty nice.

I'm pretty sure he gets a red one later.
Just realized that's the Craft Services truck behind him, I'm pretty sure.

And then there's Roddy McDowall, who I adore, but is in a nothing role here as a doctor. Spoilers: don't get attached.

He's totally looking at the structure of the leg...
(someday we'll talk about that joke)

I'm not going to dig around for it, but perhaps my favorite part of the movie is where he blows up a Star Wars billboard. Someone honestly believed this 2.6 star movie was going to blow Star Wars out of the water.

They believed a movie about a dork in the desert blowing people up for stupid reasons with a stupid looking gun was going to dethrone the largest Sci-Fi epic of all time.

The believed Laserblast was comparable to Star Wars.

Oh Laserblast... never change.

I think that'll do it for me - I leave it to you to watch this movie, either with the MST3K over it (which is hilarious - seriously, the riffs are strong with this one) or on its own (which can be much harder). If you're curious, here's what the bluray cover looks like:

Oh man. The art on the alien blows.

I leave you with a parting shot of the expressive, shell-less turtles from outer space:

Awww, they're charmed by how stupid humans are.

Now, go Enjoy Something!
FC

Thursday Art Walk 16

Man, you'd think having the house to myself would mean I could post on time :| Nope.

Today I:

Did laundry
Fed birds
Fed a cat
Cleaned 2 litterboxes
Fried up some chicken and bacon for lunch tomorrow
Made chili dip that's sitting in my warm oven
Drank too much coffee

And this:

"Color Study 1"; permanent marker on legal paper; 2018

Man. You wouldn't think a couple extra inches of paper would make all the difference, but I assure you, it does!

Hopefully the chili dip came out alright :)

Gotta change over the towels into the dryer now.

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Wednesdaymania 16

So today I'm late because I'm making dinner. You'll see why it took forever on Sunday. Long story short, making chili is really easy, but it's also not easy at all. Especially when you're fudging it.

Today, though, is not Survival Sunday, so I'll save the reason my face hurts until then.

Today is Wednesdaymania!

That means that today I'm talking wrestling. Specifically, I'm going to talk about the show I'm going to in Lewiston, Maine in November.

I don't remember if I've mentioned it before, but Z has been kind enough to stand me a ticket to the joint ROH/NJPW show in Lewiston. It's going to be a Global Wars show, so there might actually be some big names there. I hope so.

I'M EXCITED! CAN YOU TELL?!

They just released a partial card yesterday, but as we all know, cards are very, very subject to change.

Ring of Honor has announced the following:

Jay Lethal (ROH World Champion)

I wonder if he'll get in trouble for using Lethal Injection in Maine?
We don't have the Death Penalty, after all.

"The American Nightmare" Cody Rhodes & the Young Bucks (ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champs)

Yesplz.

The Briscoes (ROH World Tag Team Champs)

When they're on, they're great.
When they're talking, less-so.
When they're not on, they're... not great.

Punishment Martinez (ROH World TV Champ)

I haven't seen enough Punishment Martinez yet to form an opinion.
I dig his look, though.

Sumie Sakai (Women of Honor Champ)

This woman has been wrestling longer than some of her fellow wrestlers have been alive.
And she's still better than them.

"The Villain" Marty Scurll

I still think he should've won vs Okada, but the match was too incredible to hate on.
Also, I love him.

"Hangman" Adam Page

He's crazy.
Seriously.
Dude talks to his murder-boots.

Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian, and Scorpio Sky (SoCal Uncensored)

SCU! (scu)

Flip Gordon

Hey! He's booked!

Silas Young

I know literally nothing about this guy.
Yet.

Chris Sabin

Another guy I haven't seen enough of!
Also dig this guy's look.

Shane Taylor

Oh boy. Someone may die.
I know nothing about this guy, yet.
But he looks very intimidating!
Awesome.

Now, NJPW hasn't released their card, and I'm not sure if it's just a matter of waiting to see what the booking is like (if it's not a full house, then I don't know who they'll send - probably Taichi, knowing our luck) or if it's just travel issues (I mean, NJPW guys don't seem to do a whole lot of international travel once their journeyman days are done, I've noticed - maybe they need time to get passports/work visas hammered out?). All I can hope for is that they don't send us Taichi and that, if they send Bone Soldier, he doesn't get pissed at a wrestler and shoot on him (which is Wrestler-Carney for legitimately fighting).

I'm super excited, because all of these guys (with the exception of the Briscoes, who I've soured on over the last year or so) are A W E S O M E and I can't wait to see them.

I hope I can get a Marty Scurll shirt.

I hope I'm not too short to see them come out.

We're going to be close to the entrance ramp, so that shouldn't be too hard - I'll probably be looking slightly up, and most wrestlers are over 5'10". My miniature self should be fine. If not, I'll just sneak a pillow in and sit on it. #shortworldproblems

Regardless of matchups, if even half of these guys show up in Lewiston (Lewiston? Really?!) it'll be worth every penny of Z's incredibly hard-earned money.

The chili I'm making is supposed to be kind of my way of paying him back :P

That's all for me this week on Wrestling!

Go Enjoy Something!
FC


Links to where my pics are from:
Global Wars Banner was straight from ROH's site.
Lethal
Cody & The Young Bucks
The Briscoes
Punishment Martinez
Sumie Sakai
Marty Scurll
Adam Page

Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian, and Scorpio Sky

Flip Gordon
Silas Young
Chris Sabin
Shane Taylor

Talk About Tuesday 16

You never know how many clothes you own until you try to sort through them, I've found.

Also, my cat really misses my parents. And she's mad at me for not staying up until 4AM snuggling her.

I'm embarking on a journey of cleanliness, and it's not going too well, to be honest. I'm not very good at cleaning up and I have very, very limited space for the things I have. Most of the problem comes from the huge bags of tangled-up yarn I have, so I'll be getting rid of a lot of that over the next year or so. Trust me, it's going to take that long. If some of the yarn I'm using in projects ends up looking a little fuzzy or kinked, that's why - it came from the glob.

Aside from my overabundance of yarn, I have a huge stack of clothes that need mending/conversion. I've got a bunch of pants that have worn through in... embarrassing places, so I'm planning to either make bags from the legs or modify the pants themselves. Both are harder than they sound, since I am awful at sewing. I can put the buttons back on a shirt, sew up a hole in an armpit, or make a tear less obvious, but I am not a gifted tailor.

I wish I were - that'd be heckin' cool.

Currently, though, I'm resting on the couch and typing this up while wrapped in blankets and watching the gray sky threaten the supposed half an inch of rain we're supposed to get today. I'm running low on hot cocoa mix (don't pity me - I have a bunch of K-Cups around the house in various places that I just haven't bothered with yet), and I'm contemplating blowing another packet for extra heat.

It's nice though, not being boiling hot with all the windows open.

I missed how cozy closing all the windows and snuggling into a sweater and blankets was.

Aside from the cocoa conundrums and the resentment of a cat who misses my parents, the first full day without my folks here (they're on vacation) has been going pretty well! I like how quiet it is, (the Casual says as something outside rumbles - construction?) and the cold is comforting when you've curled up in blankets.

I'm kind of excited for the rest of the main week - I have the house to myself until Friday, apparently. I don't doubt that family will be by to do laundry or pick up things they've left here, but I'll be honest: I'm enjoying this feeling of being an adult!

As for my plans this week, I'm going to continue cleaning my room. I'm also going to hook up the big analog tv and the N64. Maybe I'll play some Kirby or Pokemon Snap? That should be fun! I'll also hook up the VCR so that maybe we can work our way through our collection of tapes. Ah - it begins. Someone's here. Laundry day for someone.

The cat's just happy someone besides me is here, I think.

Currently, I'm bouncing between David Herter's October Dark (a Halloween Story about stop motion animation, black magic, undead sorcerers, and Star Wars) and The West End Horror by Nicholas Meyer (a Sherlock Holmes pastiche that might involve Gilbert & Sullivan). Both are great books, though I'm always going to love October Dark more. It's my favorite book, to be perfectly honest.

As for cookery, I've gathered the ingredients for chili. It's going to be good, because it's hard to make bad chili. You have to keep tasting the spices, after all, to make it balanced. I made oatmeal for dinner last night and... man, it's hard to make it with milk. It was really good, though. I was left with a veritable butt-load of food to prepare and eat, though, so maybe I'll actually have something to show you guys on Sunday :P

I'm not 100% sure what to do next Monday. It's either going to be wristers (the fingerless glove things) or I'll start showing you guys how to make a blanket out of leftover yarn that we'll work on together as we finish other projects.

Wednesday is also kind of up in the air. We haven't watched much for wrestling lately (my bad, I get on these jags of watching Unsolved Mysteries and YouTube...), and I'm not really sure what to write about.

Thursday will be more marker art, I think. Though with no one to complain, it may actually be time to dig out my watercolors...

Friday will be another MST3K, since we didn't have movie night on Friday this past week. Not enough people. That's okay, I conned Z into watching one of my favorite MSTs. Z was trying to get me to watch The Violent Years, but I don't really enjoy the teens in trouble movies without more people to play off of. I find them incredibly tedious when it's just the two of us. Z wasn't able to stay awake through my choice, either, but Z needs the sleep more than I do.

Saturday is also up in the air - do I talk about the game I'm playing right now or an actual Falloween game? Because I can do either. Hm.

I think that does it for me this Tuesday. I'm going to probably grab an ibuprofen and put all my clothes away. Then I'll have to start figuring out where to put things in a room with almost no storage (except for the over-full cardboard boxes I've already got in the way).

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Fiber Monday 16

I finished the hat! Hooray!

I'm posting this so late because today was nearly a wash - between having to clean (which I'll be getting back to the second this is posted) and seeing my folks off on their five day vacation (they left at noon), I've been... busy.

Nonetheless, the hat is complete!

I did the single-crochet rounds in five-round bursts, except for the last bit, which was only 3 rounds and then the edging.

At first it looked kind of like a bowl or basket.

Definitely more hat-like here!

Seems big enough to me!

I slip stitched around the edge of the hat (that's 84 ss)

That's what a slip-stitch edge looks like. Also my knuckles.

Just in case you weren't 100% what a slip-stitch edge looks like when you look down on it.

And here it is hanging off of my laptop!

This was a lot of fun, guys!

How do wrist-warmers sound for next time? (Basically fingerless gloves)

Go Enjoy Something!
FC