This ENTIRELY LATE food-related post shows the result of a four-day period in which a traditional Christmas dinner was prepared, using recipes written by the renowned Delia Smith (except for the Christmas starter), plus a day before used to make another festive treat.  Over this period, a significant number of items had to be made, each one requiring a significant amount of time to prepare and cook – the longest time it took an item to be made was about five and a half hours.  With so many ingredients needed, it goes without question that this was the biggest challenge I had to face in 2009.

In fact, it was so big, it needed a schedule.  And a spreadsheet.

So, I’d like to present the results of the hard work I put into making this, starting with the turkey itself:

The turkey was stuffed with a traditional pork and sage stuffing, pictured below.  Putting it onto its serving dish was the hardest part of the process. Read more »

One can only resist those pesky birds for so long.

It’s no secret that this blog isn’t being updated as much as I’d like, with month-long gaps becoming more and more apparent.  With this in mind, I registered for a new twitter account so that any further gaps, no matter how long, won’t feel so empty.  You’ll find the latest tweets at the top of the sidebar on the left.

EDIT: Good lord this thing’s addictive.

Coming up: a traditional Christmas Dinner and a slightly atypical Japanese banquet.

First though, I thought I’d mention that I wanted to play some of my older games on the Wii, since I hadn’t sat down to play them in a long while.  In doing so I’ve ‘rediscovered’ Mario Kart Wii, a title that’s still going strong two years on, and one (I’m almost ashamed to admit) that I haven’t fully completed.

So, I figured that I should win any remaining GP cups I hadn’t attempted yet (probably due to the game’s fantastic online mode, as well as Uni work etc).  Almost unfortunately, the ones left were in the Mirror class.

Holy doody.  I mean I love Mario Kart to bits, but good lord, Mirror Mode.  The other classes aren’t as bad despite the game’s rubber band AI, but for whatever reason this AI becomes more apparent in Mirror Mode, often reaching levels of sadistic cruelty worthy of the AI Director him/her/itself.  Yes, Mirror Mode is to Mario Kart as Expert Mode is to Left 4 Dead.

…okay, for the most part, maybe I wouldn’t go that far – I’ve managed to win everything but the Special Cup, in which it seems like the AI gets turned up ANOTHER notch.  My only real obstacle in this cup is Rainbow Road, the place where you go when you die, according to the classic song.

Yeah, more like the place where you go TO die, no thanks to chance.  The track starts with a long drop, and here you’re completely vulnerable to the other cars banging into you, making you fall off the track, thus placing you at the top of the drop again.  From here on in, the game insists of giving you stars and mushrooms to use on some of the track’s most awkward areas – you’re going to ricochet off a barrier and fall off the track again.  From here you’ve magically lost your skills and bounce off the track simply by drifting.

You’re screwed.  You don’t have enough points to get the gold trophy by the end of the track.  You have to start the cup again.  Deal with it.

So, Mario Kart can be immensely harsh in this day and age, where there is a lack of difficult games on the Wii.  Nothing new, I suppose.  I just needed to get that off of my chest.  But one evening I’m going to get that gold trophy so I can finally join the ranks of people with licenses covered in little gold flags.

No, it doesn’t mean anything.  But getting that gold trophy is still going to feel rewarding.

Happy Belated New Year.

This recipe is a variation of a dish that’s usually served on the side, but it makes a tasty lunch on its own.

For this recipe you will need the following ingredients:

• 3 desertspoonfuls per serving of uncooked basmati rice, plus one for luck;
• As many peas as you wish, boiled or microwaved, depending on instructions;
• Likewise, as many prawns as you’d like (you can use frozen prawns and leave them to defrost);
• 2-3 large eggs, beaten;
• One clove of garlic, finely chopped;
• 1 tablespoon of oil for frying (I used Conola Oil, but Olive or Sesame is okay too);
• Soy sauce for seasoning.

You will also need:

• At least one pan to cook the rice (use another if you decide to boil peas, for example);
• One frying pan or wok;
• A bowl to whisk the eggs in;
• A whisk or fork;
• A wooden spatula.

Cook the rice following the instructions on the packet.  Use the time waiting for the rice to cook to prepare the other ingredients if you haven’t done so, and to skim off any foam off of the top of the boiling water (if the rice is being boiled as opposed to steamed).  When cooked, pour the rice into a seive and refresh under running cold water.  Lay it out on a baking tray to cool – you can fan the rice to cool it faster, but don’t leave it out for too long.

When the rice is cool, heat the oil in the frying pan.  Add the garlic and fry for thirty seconds.  Add the rice to the pan and fry for about five minutes.  Make sure to stir the rice with the spatula so it cooks evenly.

Pour the beaten eggs over the rice, continuing to stir so no major clumps are formed.  When the eggs are cooked, stir in the peas and the prawns until they have warmed through.  mix in soy sauce to taste, and serve.

The rice can be stored in the fridge for a day, and warmed up in the microwave.  Bon appetit!

I haven’t given up on the cooking this year, and I’m not going to start now.

A sweet main course prepared in this instance while following, and adapting to, this recipe.  In the picture above, it has been served with a Special-Fried rice.  The recipe to this side dish will be up soon.

I logged on this morning to find that I had received a grand total of 200 comments.  I then found out that the new 188 comments were all spam.  Russian spam.

Left 4 Dead 2 is a swell game, by the way.

Dead Center is cronologically the first of five campaigns in Left 4 Dead 2, and takes place during the day.  It begins on the ‘chocolate helicopter’ roof found in the leaked trailer/demo introduction video.  From there, the survivors need to fight they way through a small city and/or a small shopping complex, which includes a grocery, a gun shop and a toy store.  Maybe the shopping complex IS the mall.

In any case, the survivors will reach the mall’s main building.  Although a map of this building is provided in and around it, the AI Director 2.0 will block certain corridors in each playthrough.  As another example of how the mall is affected by such witchcraft, some of the escalators inside could be working (or not) as well.

In addition the mall contains a gauntlet crescendo in which at some point the survivors need to break through some shop windows.  A burglar alarm will sound as soon as the windows break, so they have to reach the alarm before they become overwhelmed.

Before/at the time of the outbreak the mall had a blue sports car (as driven by the well known Jimmy Gibbs Jr.) on display.  In Dead Center, this is the rescue vehicle – void of both driver and fuel.  It looks like the survivors will need to gather up fuel cans in a similar way to Scavenge Mode, and use them to fill the car – it would be interesting to see how this plays out.  Once they have enough fuel, they can use the car to escape the mall.  Eventually they’ll be blocked by abandoned vehicles on a highway, setting the scene for Dark Carnival.

There’s no word on what the Uncommon Common are in this campaign, but I suspect that they will be the fireproof Hazmat Zombies, who were first introduced at E3.  Also included in the campaign are, apparently, explosive ammunition and laser sights.  I don’t think these add-ons are exclusive to this campaign, but I believe this is their first appearance overall.

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!

Left 4 Dead 2 will unleash 10 million zombies via Steam on November 17th in the USA, and on November 18th in Europe.  This may sound bad for us European folk but there’s a plus side: I think the game gets unlocked at about 5 GMT that day.  By the time this game is unlocked in America, people living there would have to think about going to sleep.  Then we get to play it while they’re still sleeping, and probably clock in more gameplay time in the process – we get to have more L4D 2 action than America.  In short, Europe gets to roll.

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!

Sources: HLPortal (a German website which I have difficulty understanding) and the Steam Forums (which I have as much difficulty understanding).

The strangest thing about this is that it really exists.

Looks good.