Annals of Sunday Afternoons: Reading and Cooking

I love Sunday afternoons, particularly lazy ones that are sunny.  It's also a little sad as as the sun sets because I immediately begin to realize  that my next few hours will lead me to a sleep which requires me to get out of bed the next morning and get back to work. 

Sunny afternoon, with my Kindle...

On the occasions where I can afford some down time on sundays without leaving the house I am usually wrapped up in cooking a meal I've never made before and playing video games or reading.  There is nothing quite like the pleasure of relaxing with a book while the sun pours over me.  It just makes me happy.





Sundays also afford time to think about what to eat and buy for the week.  This morning I had a hankering for comfort food and that usually means I'm in the mood for some type of pasta or potato dish.  Inspired by a recipe that Rachel Ray once made on her show I went to the store, bought some ingredients, and started to cook it without once looking at any type of recipe.  I have to say, after eating it, I did a damn fine job.  In fact, without sounding too egotistical, it was some of the best lasagna I've ever eaten.  I kind of made it up as I went along but I thought I would share.  Please note that the measurements are not at all exact.

AJ's Lazy Eggplant Lasagna

1 onion
2 large cloves of garlic
1 medium eggplant
1 tsp Fresh Oregeno
1/2 tsp Thyme
2-3 tomatos
1.5 TBS tomato paste
Lasagna pasta thingys
Ricotta cheese
Bechemel Sauce
Parm Cheese
Veggie Broth and/or water
S&P

1. Use a big pot.  Oil it.  Cut up Onion, toss in, let it get soft, few minutes.  Toss in minced garlic.  Let get fragrant.  Slice and cube up Eggplant.  And in. Let the eggplant cook a few minutes till the outsides start to get a little brown and soft.  Add about 1/2 tsp thyme and 1 tsp fresh oregeno.  Add a pinch of salt to pull out moisture in onions 
• At this point boil some water in another pot
2. As the onions and garlic and eggplant start to cook and get slightly browned to the pan add a touch (1/4 cup or less) of veggie stock or water (I make my own veggie stock but any store bought should work fine). Adding water will deglaze your pot, but you don't want too much because you don't want your sauce runny. Turn heat down from high medium to medium.
3. Add the tomatoes...the water from the tomatoes will cook out so make sure this is done before adding next step liquid
4. Add about 1/2 cup water and some tomato paste.   Cover your pot and let the flavors combine.  Add 1/2 tsp kosher salt.  Continue covered  until your eggplant is nice and tender -- basically test until you get the consistency of the eggplant you want to be eating in your lasagna.
5. Meanwhile, get your lasagna pasta thingys and break them up with your hands so they are about 1/2 inch - size is irrelevant, they can be all different sizes.  Dump into boiling water, cook until almost done.
6. By now your eggplant sauce should be done.  Just check to make sure the sauce isn't too thin - it should resemble a red sauce that isn't as thick as a marinara but should be a lot more composed than water.  Maybe a little thinner than a curry sauce if that makes sense.  
7. Drain pasta and add to the eggplant pot.  you can add a little starch water too if your sauce is too thick.
8. Now plop the entire pot into a casserole dish!
9. Top with Ricotta dollops (i literally just scooped them out and put pats all over the top of the dish.  I also added some thyme and oregeno to the ricotta and mixed it up but that is completely optional.)
10. Pour Bechemel sauce over the dish
11. Sprinkle with parmesean and put in 425 degree oven until top gets a little brown.  Then enjoy!

See how 3 pieces are gone?  That was all me.

AJ's Bechemel Sauce

I love behcemel so I make it all the time.  here is my failproof/easy method:

 Make a rue.  ALWAYS use equal parts flour and butter.  For this particular recipe use:

• 3 Tablespoons Butter melt in pan
• Add 3 Tablespoons Flour.  Whisk and let cook until you smell a nutty smell (not flour smell)
• Add 1.5 cups milk, whisking in slowly.  Let thicken.  Add 1/4-1/2 cup milk.  Let thicken
• Add 1/2 tsp salt, black pepper, pinch of nutmeg
• DONE!  Pour over your dish.

Butter Beans Redeux

I had originally posted a Butter Bean recipe of mine here

However, i made them again last night and I didn't have sage so instead I added butter and thyme.  It was heavy.  In a flash of inspiration I added some lemon zest.  This was by far the best thing I've ever done!  Bright, fresh, light tasting butter beans.  Try it, well worth it.

what my Bioware romances say about me

Warning:  Minor character (no plot) spoiler info for the following games:  Mass Effect 1, Mass Effect 2, Jade Empire, Dragon Age Origins, Dragon Age 2.

At Pax Last weekend I was sitting at a table with a few of my favorite gaming friends which were a mix of people I've known in real life for 15+ years and people I've met only a few times in real life but have known for awhile online.  The conversation turned to online gaming friends.  I'm a huge proponent of online gamer friends actually being more solid than some of my real life relationships because the behavior and the way you treat someone when you are anonymous says a lot more about you than when you are burdened by face to face and social network consequences.  This conversation got me to thinking about how I explore some of my character's motives and romances, a topic that bioware specializes in.  And when I started to really think through it I was suprised at what I walked away with figuring out.  Let's run down the line, shall we?

Jade Empire was really my first foray into bioware's formula of games and frankly I had no idea that you could romance anyone.  I was a little shocked at what people would say to me.  My inclination was to ignore it -  clearly a sign of my late bloomer status and my ongoing obliviousness of romantic interest. I felt a little let down after the game was over that I didn't have a "tent" visit before the big battle.  I guess lack of any encouragement, even before you might all die, makes for no love.

My options as I progressed became a little more telling.  Liara T'Soni was definitely the most interesting of characters on the Normandy.  Not only was she an Asari but she was blue.  And I love blue.  In addition she was a scientist, had deep emotional wells of insight and loved to self analyze and do psychological digging on Shepard.  She wasn't amazingly sexy, she had a face that was very androgynous (especially when compared to other Asari in the game) but to me  no one else really held a candle to what Liara could provide:  mysterious, exotic, intelligent....there was really no other choice.

My medivil times were a bit more strenuous in the ways of love.  While I was attracted to multiple characters, I really felt they all talked a lot - too much.  I didn't listen to what they were saying, I gave them gifts that they sort of hated, and I generally did just about everything wrong you could possibly do to woo a person.  This really set me back as I started to wonder...is it me?  Why doesn't anyone like me??  Even the easy bisexual elf wasn't that into me.  Really, what was it?   Does magic give off some stench?  It didn't help that I really thought Alistair was a cry baby warrior until I learned that he was in line for the throne (check AJ headcase moment there).  Yeah, that turned me around right quick.  However by the time I learned that it was too late.  Just when I thought I was getting somewhere I brought him to a bar with me, got a little bit drunk and ended up having a threesome with the elf and Isabella.  Whoops!  That really did happen by the way.  It was horrible.  One minute I'm flirting with the duelist, the next minute we are going to the room (no cancel out there) and then Alistair is commenting on my rather open libido.  Oh well.  The end for Alistair and me was surprisingly nice, even though I did force him to father a demon baby.  But I also saved his life so tit for tat in my opinion.

Over across the ocean in Kirkwall my options were about 100% better.  The characters were more fleshed out and my character actually spoke to them (instead of being a dumb mute in DA: Origins) which provided a much richer relationship bonding experience.  I really wavered between Fenris and Sebastian.  I gravitated toward Sebastian as an exiled prince but he was also really into his vow of celibacy and that was rather a turn off.  Fenris was exciting and difficult from the start.  Tattooed with Lyrium which always caused him pain, a former elven slave with a dark past, and the fact that he and I never saw eye to eye (his hatred of mages borders on extreme fanatic) which led to us arguing all the time...well this was clearly the only choice for me.  So here is what happened: things were going along at a pace akin to a meltdown and then all of sudden he has feelings for me.  Then we sleep together and he just leaves..leaves!  Doesn't want to talk about it...for THREE years!  Then his mage master shows up and we confront him and I will admit, I felt spurned, so I just told the master to just "take him."  That didn't really go over too well with Fenris.  On a mechanical game side it did achieve me 30 rivalry points with Fenris thereby getting me 25 achievement points for locking in a "Rivalry" companion.  And btw, what I have read on DA2's  "rival romances" - it seems to be the way to go.  I'm still not done with this game so I'll provide an update on how it all ends for the two of us another time.

And this of course leads to what I think my most endearing of all romances would have to be - albeit still with many faults:  Thane.  The assassin who can relive any experience at will...who is dying.  Who has lost his wife, and his son hates him.  No baggage there!  He has limited time (no committment really at all) but has a lot of solitary need.  He has pet names for Shepard ('Siha'), and he is incredibly sweet and kind.  But he is also self depreciating and one wrong word to him and he will walk away from the relationship likkity split.    This of course is only possible as Liara has become so emotionally tied up in her own vengeance that she barely has time to spend with you, so what is a girl to do?  Upon finding out about Thane, Liara says some very nasty things including, "I'm not the one chasing the ghost of a dying man's wife!"  I mean, seriously harsh.  More on this triangle when ME3 comes out.

What a roadmap!  Bioware, providing gaming experiences and therapy all at once.

The bane of always moving

Hilarious conversation with British Airways representative when trying to retrieve my frequent flyer info:

"Address on the account for verification?"
"Somerville."
"Try again."
"Woburn."
"No, try again."
"Pennylvania?"
"No try again."
"hmmm.  Cambridge."
"Nope, try again."
"That's all I've got."
"...."
"Boston?"
"You got it!"

Timeless Adventures

Back when I was a wee little tyke of 15, some of the kids in my "enriched" class were talking about D&D and I was totally into the concept.  (I just watched the Big Bang Theory the other night and Sheldon is on the comp using an emulator to play Zork....I immediately went online to see if I could find it.  I couldn't).  But the cartoon and LotR and those comp games were just starting to ignite my imagination. I played some games with these teenage smarty pants D&D kids but they were at  demi god status and having dragon battles and I didn't know what the hell was going on. 

Around 16 I met Carl who actually taught...like literally taught me how to RP.  He also made me read the dragonlance chornicles which is by far the best thing anyone has ever made me do.  On a side  note, he also would rebuild MGB's which is the least geeky thing someone can have in the arsenal.

Carl and his MGB back in 1991.

 Carl was older than me, in college when I met him - and our short and whirlwind romance consisted of a few kisses, a few love letters and long drives in his MGB convertible.  He drew me Raistlin after my love of the character and to my horror my parents had it framed (I think they thought it incredibly romantic that he drew it for me and dropped it off with a red ribbon).  You might wonder why my parents were so ok with me dating a college boy which reminds me of the other part of the story - our parents were old friends and they used to joke that Carl and I had used the same crib and that somehow tied us together.  I think it was kind of messed up.


Teaching someone to play D&D is not easy.  The mechanics are overwhelming (this is also AD&D era, aka version 2.0 which is much harder to learn than 3.0 and 4.0) and the roleplaying itself is very hard to get used to.  Carl and his brother and my sister and me would sit around the Bussler table rolling dice.  We would say something and Carl would instruct us, "is that really what your boss ass warrior would think?"  It was hard at first and I felt very self concious.  After playing Carl would take me on a walk.  He would reset the stage for me from a scene from the Dragonlance chronicles.  "Carl, I'm so cold, let's go back..."  to which he'd say, "No, imagine you are Laurana and you have to get to the army before Kitiara...."  It sounds so stupid and childish now but in truth it was the foundation for everything I have for tabletop gaming since that time. 

This is all a long intro to say that Carl will be self publishing a pathfinder RPG supplement.  I am going to be picking this up, maybe it's something I can run.  Carl started me on a path of 20+ years of amazing friends, adventures, and memories.  The least I can do is buy his own creation.

http://www.timelessadventures.com/

Kinect Love

Okay, so I got a Kinect and yes I love it.   I could go on about all the cool things it does but the truth is it does a lot of cool things only moderately cool.  See, I'm not so much in love with the Kinect as it stands today as I am in love with the idea of the kinect.  It's like a really unhealthy relationship. 

However, this is not to say that it isn't an object of beauty (it looks really sharp by my TV) or that I only half like it when I'm playing it (I LOVE IT!  I feel like Tom Cruise in minority report!!!  Except being like Tom Cruise isn't that cool.  But you know what I mean).  But there is a slight delay on it and after the 3rd calibration of the system you are like...WTF just remember the play area, ok??  But overall I do love this thing, because what it is isn't so much a motion sensor as it is a leap forward in technology that is going to allow for all sorts of future technology right out of 2001 (which, btw, it is 2011 and we are super behind...thank you microsoft for getting people's asses in gear for better miracles of modern science in the years to come.)

Accessible motion sensor technology and voice/face recognition should have been done years ago.  Kinect makes it affordable and the gamer community will continue to hack and bypass it which will make the technology better for when we use it for products with security requirements.  That's why I love gamers and I love the gaming community.  We make better technology, just for fun.

In the meantime, I'm very happy I spent money on such a worthwhile leap forward.  One of the more shocking components of this product is that it takes pictures of you while you are doing stupid ass moves (which it knows you are doing because it's making you do it) and then shows it to you afterward.  I will not be posting those.  However, you can record living statues -- making your avatar do something and recording your voice.  That seems like a worthwhile sharing moment:

additional less deep thoughts

I just love tweeted Seth Green.