Showing posts with label simple. Show all posts
Showing posts with label simple. Show all posts

Thursday, April 28, 2022

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which It Is A Transition Week
So I am Discombobulated


Oh boy do I get thrown off easily. I usually do my shopping (for cheap snacks and drinks) on Wednesdays, but yesterday it was pouring like a tap during Happy Hour in a dive bar in Poughkeepsie, so I stayed inside all day, hilariously tired (seriously I could not keep my eyes open for more than 20 minutes at a time), and ridiculously cozy (pajamas all the way, babies).

This meant that I had to go outside today, and today was, as the memes say, heckin wimdy. Gusts of like 35mph at time windy, in fact (that's 56,3kph!)

But I went out! In a tank top and a sweatshirt! And I was fine! Because I only walked to the nearby uphill-both-ways shops I go to on the reg and back, which is about a 1 mile round trip lol.

That only took me about a half hour total, I'm pretty sure, and when I got back, I cracked open a lime Jarritos and a bag of locally sourced potato chips (sour cream & onion!) and got to painting!

"Dream Bunny"; Watercolor and Micron; 2022


I'm really happy with how this little experiment turned out! I didn't draw anything, just started laying down little dabs of color with those brush pens I got a while back, then blending them out instantly with a clean water brush. I chose the colors at random using a number generator between 1 and 24 (which is how many colors there are in the set). I might try this again with my other sets and other animals!

A Dream Menagerie sounds nice, these days, doesn't it?

So that's this week's art!

I would chat some more, but I'm actually working pretty hard on the crochet projects I have right now, so I should probably get back to those...

Even though I really want to try to paint more dream animals...

;)

Go Enjoy Something, guys!
FC

Sunday, March 29, 2020

Survival Sunday 314: Dalgona Dreams

In Which I Try That Viral Coffee Everyone Raved About

If you know me, you know I like deep bitter and sweet flavors. I'm all about that bright, citrus sweetness, don't get me wrong - orange juice is still the bizzomb for breakfast out - but when I'm home, I wake up with a 2:1 ratio of hot cocoa to coffee. My partner calls it my morning gruel. I've brainwashed them into liking it. Apologies.

Regardless, this means I've got the ingredients on-hand for a viral drink sensation that's sweeping the internet.

Dalgona Coffee, or whipped coffee, is everywhere on the internet right now. I cannot escape it. It has completely saturated YouTube and Twitter, and I cannot blink without seeing a caramel-colored whip in a cup somewhere. It drove me completely to the brink, and I eventually just said...

Alright, where is my tiny whisk and some sugar?!

Because despite its complicated appearance, it's actually the easiest thing in the world to make, gives you a fantastic caffeine and sugar high, and gives you a workout. Also, there's milk involved.

You need four things:

  • 2 Tablespoons instant coffee powder (I use NescafĂ© Taster's Choice House Blend, but pick your poison preference)
  • 2 Tablespoons sugar
  • 2 Tablespoons hot water
  • A glass of milk


I have no idea if sugar substitutes would work for this. I'm gonna guess honey wouldn't work. Regardless, you'll also need a bowl, a whisk, and something to get the Dalgona out of the bowl with.

That tiny whisk in the above pic? Too small. Get you something bigger than that.

What you want to do is pour the dry ingredients into a bowl - not too big or it won't whip well, but not so small that it just goes flying when you start to whisk. That's a large cereal bowl.

Once your sugar and coffee are together, dump in your two Tablespoons of hot water and immediately start whisking. Just... beat the tar out of this mixture. Obviously, you can use whatever mechanical means you usually use for whipping cream for this, but I only had my biceps and a whisk. My poor, poor biceps.

Because this whip job is a long one. It's gonna look like coffee soup and smell like someone tipped over a Tim Hortons, but keep going. Whip it like it's the 1600s and it took an apple from your yard. Whip it like it's your hair at a metal concert. Whip it like you want it to call you daddy... uh... that got weird.

Eventually, it will start to look whippy. This is good.

The coffee mixture, which, by the way, does not yet have any milk in it or near it, will start to lighten in color as it thickens in texture. Whip it til either your arms are screaming louder than the Devo song you now have stuck in your head or until it's at a consistency you find appealing - somewhere between foamy batter and whipped cream. I got mine to a loose whipped cream texture.

At this point, you get out your glass of milk and start carefully dolloping (or if you're smarter than me, piping with a pastry/icing bag!) your Dalgona into the cup.

I used half of this mixture in each of two cups and it was supremely overwhelming for my mother. It's sweet from all that sugar, but it's also mondo bitter - pure coffee goodness. If I'd had the presence of mind I'd have made chocolate milk to put this in, because it's insanely addictive and I think it would make a stupid-tasty mocha drink. It thickens the milk as you stir it in, and it's just... it's really good.

10/10, would whip the crap out of ingredients until my arms hurt again.

So in conclusion: This is one viral food trend that I not only understand now, but am actually a convert/advocate for it. If you have instant coffee and sugar and a kettle with water and some milk (or a milk substitute, I'm not cutting vegans or the dairy-challenged/allergic out of this fun), you should make some Dalgona.

It's probably going into the rotation for summer drinks, tbh.

Stay tuned for next week when I make 2/3 of a meal and then forget to take photos at the end (or they don't come out)!

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Saturday, November 23, 2019

Saturday Casual Gaming 247: Little Idle Monsters

In Which I Play A Fun Little Idle Game!

I was going to do a review of a nonograms game (it's an art game) this week, but the game is still unfolding and there's a shockingly deep story, so instead, I'll be telling you about a gem of a game called Little Idle Monsters from developer Junjo, who you may recall from earlier reviews I did of their Farm Rush and Farm Idle games!

A simple concept, yet still lots of fun!

So the basic story of  Little Idle Monsters is that you're the bad guy and you're summoning hordes of critters with your magic deck of cards to terrorize the townsfolk around you. You draw cards from your deck, building fear in the hearts of your enemies. Fear is your currency, here, and you use it for everything from building up your creature arsenal to building up the dread you cause to conning the deck into letting you pull multiple cards at once to training your monsters to cause mayhem and slaughter the uppity peasants.


All against an adorable SNES/Sega-style background!

The game is pretty simple to play - click on the deck to deal cards faster, click on highlighted buttons to purchase upgrades, click on the town button to raze the villages and outposts.


Which is really quite fun!

If you're looking for a way to release some frustration without causing real-world harm, definitely give this game a play on Kongregate or mobile, since it's available on the app store now!

So yeah, give this game a play, guys!

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Saturday, August 10, 2019

Saturday Casual Gaming 232: Unpuzzle

"Unpuzzle" by Kek Studios on Kongregate

When I was little, my dad would hand my sisters and I puzzle books by Dell or whoever and we'd go straight to town, scribbling in answers to logic problems and Sudoku to our little hearts' contents. We still use those books from time to time, even as adults! So thank you, dad, for a lifelong love of puzzle games.

While looking for a game to write about, I stumbled on Kek Studios on Kongregate, and they had what I was searching for: A logical, order-of-operations game called Unpuzzle.


It does what it says on the tin. You undo the puzzle!

With great, relaxing New Age-y music and a clean, minimalist style, Unpuzzle is chill and challenging at once. You are presented with a puzzle and you must swipe away each of the pieces. Some are locked with numbers indicating an amount of pieces you must first remove. Some are blocked in by the tabs and slots on the pieces themselves. Some are unidirectional (as indicated by blue chevrons), some are connected to one another via a blue design in the center, and some can even rotate! Finally, some can even teleport to other locations on the board!

If you're a logic-minded person, you probably already know where to start!
If not, let me get you started: it's the piece next to the one that can't move for 9 moves.

Talk about simple gameplay! This is definitely one of those "minutes to learn, lifetime to master" kind of puzzles, and I'm all about that. I understand there are also Apps on Android for Unpuzzle and its sequel, and I hope they're just as great as the online version! Kek Studios have been on Kongregate for three years (their anniversary was August 2) and all five of their games are simple yet complex and I love it.

Rock on, Kek Studios!

Go Enjoy Something!
FC