subgeek's Journal: old school and new school gaming. and peanut butter.

old school

i hear there are some people here in the circle that play diablo ii. i received the diablo ii battle chest for christmas from my friend bill. i think he may be trying to ease me in to wanting to play WoW. now that i mention that, i think a couple of players of diablo ii here may have moved on to something more addictive. diablo ii is a gateway drug.

anyway, if any of you folks want to game it up, i can be reached at subgeek at gmail. once in a while you can catch me on aim as halbergeek. i don't turn aim on very often.

new school

i hit the after christmas/store going out of business sales and also picked up vampire the masquerade: bloodlines and f.e.a.r. for myself. i'm a decent way into vampire and can see that it's lacking some polish, but it's still fun enough for me to keep on playing. my character is pretty ugly so has a hard time luring victims away to feed. i have to keep buying blood from the freaky dude who works the night shift at the blood bank. i keep looking over at f.e.a.r. and being tempted to fire it up, but i've already got enough games going for the time being.

peanut butter

i crafted some particularly fine peanut butter. i gave everyone in my family and in madith's family a little jar of my home made peanut butter. i made a gallon of it all together. getting really good reviews. so here's how to do it. get a pound of good quality unsalted dry roasted peanuts. i have been using bulk peanuts from whole foods. put them into a food processor. add half a teaspoon of salt. i know you got unsalted peanuts for this, but there would be way more salt if you did it that way. add a dash of cayenne pepper. don't worry, the end product does not taste peppery or spicy at all. it just adds a little extra that like the salt, you wouldn't notice unless it was missing. put the cover on the food processor and let it fly. you can leave it on a lower setting if you want until everything is well chopped. after you turn it up, it might seem like nothing is happening. if you're patient, everything will start mixing again. let it go until all of the peanut butter is mixing in a sort of wave around the spindle. on my food processor, i then wait until the wave smooths out and the blade speed goes up a little (i can tell from the sound). now add three tablespoons of honey. i use the alton brown method of one squeeze of the honey bottle being equal to a teaspoon, so that's 9 squeezes. also add two tablespoons of peanut oil. when it looks all mixed up, you can finally turn the food processor off. this should yield just about the right amount to fill a 16 oz jar. if there's any left over you can just eat it. it will be a little runny at this stage because it will be warm from having been in the food processor for so long. if you don't keep it in the fridge, eventually oil will start to separate back out, if that happens, just mix it back up.

more food related babble

i got so much cooking stuff for christmas. it's awesome. the knife sharpener is nice. once i got the feel of it i was able to restore my henckels nearly to their original sharpness. i got one of those ultra whip adjustable measuring cups, a micro plane grater/zester, a santoku knife (kitchen aid), and a shimomura japanese style cleaver with the cool lamanated steel blade. i got way more stuff then i expected. even an apron, so i don't have to continue putting oil stains on my shirts with my sloppiness.

i also got an ice cream maker for christmas, which is awesome. i found a recipe for green tea ice cream, which i'm going to alter to make rooibos ice cream. if it turns out well, i'll share that recipe. first i have to get off my ass to the north market to get some loose rooibos tea. may not be for a while. i already made dark chocolate ice cream, which is super rich, but it was basically just the standard chocolate ice cream recipe using dutch process cocoa powder instead of melting unsweetened baking chocolate bars. i know it's a dairy product so it's not really dark chocolate, but it is as dark as dark chocolate instead of being the lighter milk chocolate color of standard chocolate ice cream. and it's more chocolatey and richer. good stuff. enough babbling about food for now.

happy late new year to you all.

ooh, icecream

[sparky4]

will definitely watch for the green tea and rooibis recipes after you have made some. What type of icecream maker do you use ?

Re:ooh, icecream

[subgeek]

in laws got me a cuisinart ice-20. it's not quiet, but it works really well.

Yum.

[Some Woman]

My roommate gave me a food processor for Christmas. I've never used one before. In fact, I've never even seen one in person. I'm excited to actually be able to properly make blended soups and pesto now. And also...peanut butter! :^)

notes from the afflicted

[blinder]

yes. d2 is a gateway drug to wow. don't let anyone tell you different. oh sure, it all started simple enough for me. last year in fact. a quiet christmas in boston... a dragon staring intently at a computer screen, watching these little characters run around in strange lands, womping on each other. "huh, interesting," i thought... and started to play. keep in mind, i generally don't like pc games. i was a console gamer. i like my silly little cartoons and adventures.

i tried d2, and wasn't hooked. i bought a

Re:notes from the afflicted

[subgeek]

i don't have time to be playing wow. i played the beta and determined that one. i'm sure it's even better now. my friend bill has two level 60 charachters and another one somewhere in the 50s. i'm amazed he even answers the phone any more.

i'm tired.