Stormwind Baked Mac and Cheese

Growing up in my house meant several things would happen through out the year for a meal. Apple dumplings, potato soup and homemade baked macaroni and cheese. My dad used to tell us when he was going to make it and by the time dinner rolled around we were salivating like crazy in anticipation for the meal to come.

This recipe is simple and surprising fulfilling.  While it's not my father's, it is still really tasty, and my own version of this classic dish.

This is also very popular at the school house and orphanages all over Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdom. 

You will need:

1 lb elbow noodles
1 16 oz block sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1 8oz block colby jack cheese, shredded
1/4 c. milk
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400ºF. Grease a shallow baking dish. I recommend a 9 x 12 glass baking dish

Cook noodles in lightly salted water until tender. Drain.

Mix the milk, sharp cheddar and the noodles in pot until well coated and all cheese is melted. Carefully dump noodles into baking dish and sprinkle colby jack on the top. Add salt and pepper.

Bake for 30 minutes until edges are golden brown. Remove and let cool about five minutes before serving.

I like to put mine under the broiler for a few minutes and let the cheese get nice and crispy on top. The more cooked without being burned, the happier I am.

This is not burned. This is just the way I like it.

Mushroom Infused Meatloaf

Dalaran is one of my favorite places to game/rp. I love doing the cooking missions within the city. Here is mushroom infused meatloaf that you can make yourself. Warning, your house will fill with delicious meaty mushroom smells.  It was very moist and went well with mashed baby red potatoes and green sweet peas.

2 lbs lean ground beef
1/2 lb. fresh mushrooms, minced
1 large button mushroom, sliced
3/4 c. fresh bread crumbs
1/2 c. minced onion
1/2 c. steak sauce
1 packet lipton mushroom soup mix
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Mix all listen ingredients in a large bowl, except for the sliced mushroom. Form into a loaf in a shallow baking dish. Gently press mushroom slices into top of the loaf.

Brush lightly with olive oil. This will keep them from drying out.

Place in oven for 1.5 hours.

Remove from oven and let rest for 10 minutes. While waiting you can make pan dripping gravy which goes wonderfully with the meat loaf.

Ingredients for Gravy

Pan dripping from meatloaf
2 tbsp cornstarch
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 c. hot water

In a pot over low heat, blend all ingredients. Adding cornstarch in a little a time. It will thicken as you stir.

Gnome and Goblin Ear Gnuggets

The other night I made teriyaki chicken and had some left over chicken. It was enough to make a bunch of large chicken nuggets. They weren't quite strips. When I fried them up they reminded me of Gnome and Goblin ears.

Ingredients

2 large chicken breasts, cut in half then in slices
1 c. flour
1 packet of hidden valley ranch dip seasoning
Vegetable oil
3 large eggs
2 tbsp milk

Put flour on a plate and mix with the ranch dip seasoning until blended.

Heat oil. Set to medium heat and watch so it doesn't burn. Burning oil = bad.

Take eggs, crack into bowl, mix in milk until a pale yellow

Dump chicken into bowl and stir with fork until coated well. Then take chicken piece by piece and drop it into the flour. Spoon flour over all sides of chicken. Using another fork or tongs, pick the chicken up and set into oil.

You will want to watch the chicken very carefully. Turn it once the coating is a nice golden brown. It will take about seven minutes to cook on both sides. Take chicken from frying pan and drain excess oil on paper towels.

Tada!

Dress-up Chef Tip: Place a sheet of aluminum foil under the paper towel to make less of a mess cleaning up the grease. Also... let oil cool before dumping into anything, especially plastic colanders. See picture below. Yes you may laugh. I did.

Dalaran Brownies

It was after I made these brownies that I realized they weren't actually Dalaran brownies. Seeing that Dalaran brownies are indeed brown. These ones are not. So we shall call them a variation of Dalaran brownies and hybrid of the brownies and red velvet cupcakes.

To make the brownie:

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/4 oz tablespoons red food coloring
1 tbsp water

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a square cake pan.

In a small bowl, combine cocoa powder, red food coloring, 1 teaspoon vanilla and water to create a paste.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. This will look very dry before it looks "whipped"

Add the eggs one at a time, then add remaining teaspoon of vanilla. Use a hand mixer on medium speed, add in red-cocoa paste. Beat until batter is completely red. Add more coloring if desired

Add flour and salt, mixing until just combined.

Spread in the pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Let cool completely before frosting.

Butter-cream Frosting


1/4 cup butter, softened
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk

Blend all ingredients in a bowl until smooth.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1/4 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon butter, softened
1/4 cup sifted confectioners' sugar
1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract

This recipe is still a work in progress, as it's updated I will repost. I decorated mine with chocolate curls from unsweetened bakers chocolate. Just for show, I don't recommend eating them.

Broiled Dragon Feast

A recipe borrowed and adapted from The Gamer's Fridge. It really enjoyed it making it but not nearly a much as I loved eating it. I served my Broiled Dragon Feast with homemade garlic and herb mashed potatoes and steamed carrots.

1 pre-sliced ham
2 tbsp brown sugar, packed
Hickory Liquid Smoke
2 tbsp honey
hot sauce
1/4 c hot water

Preheat oven to 325ºF.
Line a baking dish with the ham slices. Brush with liquid smoke.
Dissolve sugar in hot water and pour over ham, then drizzle with honey. Sprinkle hot sauce over ham slices, do not worry if all the pieces do not have hot sauce on them. This is what makes part of this dish fun to eat.
Place in oven for 25 minutes, switch to oven to broil setting or place in broiler. You will need to watch the meat carefully so that it doesn't burn. Around five minutes should be long enough to give the meat a nice caramel color.
Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes.

Homemade Garlic and Herb Mashed Potatoes

5 medium potatoes washed and diced. (peeling optional)
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp of house blend herbs (See curiously tasty omelet)
2 tbsp butter
1/4 c of milk
salt and pepper to taste

Boil potatoes until fork tender. Mash with a potato masher or fork. Add in butter and milk, mash a little more. You can use a hand mixer if you want creamier and smoother potatoes. Toss in herbs and garlic powder and stir until well combined.

My favorite part about this meal is each bite was flavored different. Sometimes sweet, sometimes smokey and every once in a while there would be a burst of hot from the sauce. It was amazing.

Curiously Tasty Omelet

Some days you wake up and the hunger isn't really there but when it is, its more of a OH MY GOD FEED ME HUMAN BEFORE I--*Murloc angry growl.* I woke up feeling like that today. I knew I wanted eggs and cheese but that wasn't enough. My husband and one of our friends had just gotten home from night school and I knew they would be hungry too. What to make, what to make?

It was about the third angry murloc growl that I gave in and went to go forage in the kitchen for food. Specifically eggs.

 After rummaging through my fridge I discovered:

1/2 dozen eggs
4 cheese shredded blend
1/2 lb breakfast sausage
1 red pepper (you will only need half
1/4 c. chopped onions
2 tbsp milk
2 tsp Curious house blend of herbs (This means you may use what you would like. Though recipe will follow at the bottom.)
Tasty ketchup and steak sauce mixture (recipe follows)

Huzzah! I would have food for sure. But what to make still that I could cook all of this all at once and we could eat it together?

This is when I remembered I had a cake pan. I had used disposable ones for the Chocolate Celebration Cake. Finally, I knew what I was going to do. I was going to make an omelet, but not just any omelet, it had to be WoW inspired. Going to wowhead I type omelet in the search bar and decided that the Curiously Tasty Omelet would be my safest bet.

Preheat your oven to 350ºF. Grease cake pan with non-stick spray. (Those Goblins think of everything!)
Take sausage, crumble and partially cook in a frying pan. Let cool.
Crack six eggs into a bowl along with the milk and whisk them until they are a pale yellow. From there you want to add the onions and peppers and pour into the cake pan.
Once the sausage is cooled enough spoon into the egg mix. Sprinkle with herbs. Top with cheese and place in oven for 30-35 minutes until eggs have no jiggle left.
Remove from oven and let rest for two minutes then serve with the ketchup steak sauce. Enjoy.

Curious house blend herbs
1 tbsp thyme, rosemary, mint, sage, basil, oregano.
Mix until combined. Place in air tight container.

Ketchup-Steak sauce
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup A1 steak sauce
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Whisk until well blended

Redridge Goulash

It's gotten cold, finally. So I decided to browse through the list of recipes on Wowhead to find something that was filling and warm. What better way than soup or stew or even some goulash. There are many different ways to make goulash. It's a hearty dish that will warm you up. This version is a inspired by the Redridge Mountains.

What you'll need:


2 pounds lean ground beef
1 pound ground sausage
2 large onions, chopped
3 cups water
1 24oz jar tomato sauce
1 6oz can tomato paste
2 15oz cans diced tomatoes
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
3 bay leaves
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp hot sauce (more or less depending on taste.)
1 tbsp Cajun seasoning
1 tablespoon seasoned salt
2 cups dried elbow macaroni

In a large skillet, brown the meats until no pink remains and drain.
Add tomato paste, sauce, diced tomato, peppers, onions, seasoning and water to a large pot. Mix together and place on medium-low heat.
Once it comes to a slow boil, add the meat and noodles. Lower heat to a simmer and cook 2-3 hours, stirring every 30 minutes until noodles are tender.
Sauce will thicken up when removed from heat. Serve in a bowl and top with fresh Parmesan cheese.

Note: Do not turn on high heat, unless you intend on serving it immediately after. This will burn and burn rather easily. I learned this lesson the hard way. While the dish still looked amazingly tasty, once it was burned it tasted horrible. 

Preparation and Organization Are Key

When it comes to preparation, I'm usually the last person to look to for any sort of organization. When I clean anything other than the kitchen my mind forgets to categorize where I've placed things and thus they are labeled lost. I grew up with both of my parents threatening to throw away all of my toys if I didn't clean my room. It got to a point after so many years, they began to ignore it. I would just close my door.

It wasn't that my room was filthy with garbage and other things that would make a real life Monsters Inc. There was the rare occasion I had what my mother cutely labeled as 'science projects.' But nothing more than a glass I'd forgotten to take to the kitchen. For the most part my room was an organized mess. In a messy room, I knew where everything was. I knew if someone had been in my room or if they had taken something. I had enough room to walk from the door to my bed, to my dresser or to my bookshelf.

Now that I'm old, the clutter seems to irritate me a lot more. I can completely understand and relate to my mother's plight with me to clean my room. Of course my room to this day is still relatively messy and unorganized, but my kitchen is never messy longer than 24 hours. I've tried cleaning as I'm going in the kitchen but I never mastered that skill. I am getting better at it though. In my kitchen I know where everything is, what drawer you need to go to find skewers or where exactly the garlic press in located.

My counters are clean and sanitized before and after I handle food, especially meats. The reasoning for this is because I don't want to have people end up being sick because of improper handling of food. Especially my six year old. Though I'm eighty-five percent sure this child is immune to most things, diseases, girl cooties, listening, kryptonite, so on and so forth.

However I am prepared when it comes to him, as well as I can be. When we go on trips I make sure he has snacks and something to occupy him while I'm driving. I make his appointments as needed and he reminds me everyday that he has school the next day, even when he doesn't. He helps me be a responsible parent. There is the rare day that neither of us know what is going on, those are usually very bad days.

What does this have to do with cooking and cosplay? Well food prep is the big on here. But for crafting cosplay, organization comes with making sure that you have everything where you find it, safely located so things don't get messed up, and that you have everything you need or at least a list of everything you will need. Doing this will make working leather, or handling expanding foam or even sewing that much easier.

In closing, even if you are OCD about tidiness, or just and organized mess like me, small things in your life need to be organized and prepared to avoid careless mistakes.

Barbequed Buzzard Wings and Drumsticks

It should come as no surprise that I love food.

Recently, I've grown fond of chicken wings and all the enjoyable mess that comes with them. Now I've taken up the challenge of making my own wings.

Using chicken wings and drum sticks I've decided to WoW inspire this recipe with my own sort of barbeque sauce marinade to make Barbequed Buzzard Wings. I mean really...what's a buzzard if only a giant chicken that can fly. :D

For the sauce/marinade

1 16oz bottle of plain (original) barbeque sauce. (I used Sweet Baby Ray's but any will do)
2 shots (3 oz) of Jack Daniels
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp zesty Italian dressing
2 tsp hot sauce (more or less depending on how spicy you want it.)
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp poultry seasoning
2 tsp of garlic powder

Mix in a bowl until everything is well combined. Taste it to make sure it's to your desired level of spicy.

Pour into bag with wings and drumsticks, close but be sure that the all the air is out and the meat is well covered. I had 6 drumsticks and 8 wings in a gallon size bag and they coated nicely.

Place in fridge for over night.

If you are lucky and you have a stove top grill, go ahead and cook these up in the house. Avoid all that icky cold weather or if you are really ambitious, light up outside grill and go for it. Cook on a medium-low heat until chicken is cooked thoroughly.

Warning! Consumption of undercooked chicken can lead to some nasty illnesses that could cause hospitalization. Remember NO PINK when it comes to chicken.

To bake these preheat your oven to 350ºF. Using tongs, remove the meat from the bag and place in a baking pan that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Place in oven for 35 to 40 minutes or until cooked thoroughly, (see above warning.)

Remove from oven and let rest for five minutes. Serve and enjoy. Don't forget the paper towels.

The Importance of References

No this isn't a post about those people you list on a job application who have known you your whole life. This is a post about the importance of having at least ONE picture in your crafting area to make sure that your prop or weapon is accurate.

This was a lesson hard learned for me.

I'm looking at about 12 hours of work to redo my parts of my staff because I didn't have a reference picture printed out and within visual range. My own fault but it doesn't stop me from being grumpy about it.

As stated in a previous post I am making a Journeyed Staff. Which when you look at it, looks rounded until you go into a top down view of the staff and see that it's really a diamond. Not a square diamond either, but a parallelogram diamond. *huff* There was my first reference faux pas. Easy fix (kinda) add more foam, carve and shape. Took about 3 hours because I caught it early on.

My newest faux pas I discovered while I was staring at my character last night during my gaming session. Turns out where I had glue pieces on to the staff, to be foamed and carved, had to be removed and thus pulling off some of the foam I already had carved down. Feh!

So last night I pulled the pieces off and refoamed the parts of the staff that needed to be fixed. Today I be recarving everything down again and hopefully achieve the correct shape.

I will also be going to the library and printing out several different angles of my staff so that I can accurately craft it. We shall see. Once I have my staff reset, I will have another update.

Blood, Sweat, Tears and Cats

Last night I started carving down my staff a little more. That resulted in a minor cut on my index finger that bled like crazy. It's more like a paper cut and caused me to swear quite a bit. I don't recommend -ever- cutting with the blade coming towards you, which is how I ended up cutting myself. In the process of carving, I noted that my cardboard pieces were curving. The only way I could figure out how to uncurve them was to carve it down and add more foam hoping the weight of the foam would reverse it.

This did not happen. So it's back to the carving board as it were. I'm still in the process of  figuring out how to reverse the curve. I'm hoping that breaking the foam and filling it with more foam will do this.

While I was letting the foam set, some of it had come out of the container, which is normal. My cat, Gaelic decided that she wanted to sleep on my table. Obviously, I don't want her up there while there is wet foam. So I shooed her away. She ended up brushing against the canister and getting foam on her tail. I spent five minutes chasing her around to try to get the foam off her. She wasn't having any of that.

After about thirty minutes, I notice that she was acting funny and had something hanging from her mouth. Finally being able to scoop her up, I managed to pull the thing from her mouth. As it turned out, she was chewing on a piece of foam that she pulled off. I pulled the rest off her fur and let her loose. You would think that my cat would be grateful. Oh no, she shot me a dirty look as if it was my fault that she ended up with foam on her.

Ah, such are the ways of beasties.

I'm ninty-five percent sure that my cat is trying to steal and sabotage my work.

Gaelic is seen here trying to absorb my ideas and plans through this "sleep" method.

Herbed Baked Egg

My husband is in the Navy, and currently he is still doing schooling but they have so many students that the classroom hours are far from normal. Oftentimes I will find myself having a meal alone or doing things alone during the day because he's usually asleep.

Today is no different.

However, to amuse myself I made another WoW inspired recipe. Adapted from The Gamer's Fridge. This recipe can be adjusted to however many people there are for breakfast. Or in my case lunch.

Ingredients:

6 eggs
Butter or margarine
1/4 c.Thinly sliced or dice ham
Salt and Pepper to taste
1/4 c diced green pepper
1/8 tsp basil (for each)
6 pieces loaf bread of choice
shredded cheese

Preheat oven to 350º F.

Grease a muffin pan with spray or butter. I used cupcake wrappers because wildly enough I don't actually own a muffin tin. (This will be remedied.)

Cut the crust off the bread and place in the muffin tin. This will act like a pocket. Add ham and green pepper to the bottom, salt and pepper to taste.

Whisk the egg into submission and pour into the bread pocket. Sprinkle with basil and top with cheese.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until the egg doesn't jiggle anymore. Remove, cool for 5 minutes and enjoy.

I do have a picture of this, however I'm technologically impaired when it comes to getting them off my husband iPod. My phone seems to have disappeared magically. I'm sure the gnomes have stolen it. :)

Update: Picture. I figured out the iPod after it refused to send the picture to my email or my phone. Fancy that.

Crafting A Staff

I've been working on my very first cosplay weapon. I 'm having a a blast crafting and carving everything. Running around the Stormpeaks, I fell in love with several of the styles from that area, namely the robes and one staff in particular.

Journeyed Staff 

I decided that while I was inspired by Kamui from Kamui Cosplay and her staves, that I wanted to take a swing into the world of creating stuff myself. After watching her tutorials over and over and over again, I finally decided that come the holidays after I've hoarded all the cash I was going to get that I was going to get my supplies. And so I did.

The first thing I needed to do was get a template that I was going to use as a guide for my staff. Once I had it drawn on a piece of paper, I transferred it to a larger sturdier piece of cardboard. Cut it out and attached it to my staff. Which as it turned out was the handle of a broken swiffer sweeper.

Journeyed Staff

The template

Foam and foam and foam

Carve down to shape

Add more foam

Adding attachments via hot glue

More foam and more carving

 This isn't a tutorial on how to craft weapons. I use Kamui's website for all of my tutorials. Make sure you hit the subtitles. She does amazing work. I hope to have this half finished soon and I will post more pictures up as I progress along.

Following the staff, I've also been working on a set of pauldrons as well. Same basic idea of a template then foam, carving etc... My pauldrons are based off of the Frostwoven Shoulders. 

I have since carved these down and will post more pictures eventually assuming I don't pitch them in the bin for not cooperating. Since I've carved them down, I've also removed the spikes. It's easier to work without the pieces that stick off when it comes to shaping. I will be reattaching them later with hot glue.

Along the same lines but with less foam, I am also going to attempt to make a set of the Flowing Valkyrion Robes which are also from the Stormpeaks line of quests.

So far there aren't any progress pictures because I want to obtain a sewing machine and a dressform. All of which are highly expensive but will be gotten at one point of another. I also don't want to make a set a robes now with my current size because that just means I will have to double my efforts to make sure it fits in time for Blizzcon. Being a novice to the sewing world, alterations would be difficult to say the least.

I have several more projects lined up to be crafted. Here are some plans. Along with these I will also be working on little messenger pouches with the Horde Emblem.

Sin'dorei jeweled headband

Cellophane Faery Wings

 This all being said, it's time for me to get back to carving and shaping of the staff and pauldrons. Keep a watch here for updates and more pictures as everything slowly comes together. :D

Chocolate + Cake + Celebration =

A Very delicious lie.

Today is my husbands birthday. So I decided that I wanted to make him a cake as well as one of his favorite meals for dinner.

Tonight we are having Manicotti and a Chocolate Celebration Cake.Which will be so delicious and moist.

I asked my husband what sort of filling he wanted for his cake, he decided strawberry so it's going to be a variation of the already delicious cake.

To make the cake:

Cake:
3 oz. semisweet chocolate
1 ½ c. hot brewed coffee
3 eggs, room temperature
¾ c. vegetable oil
1 ½ c. buttermilk
¾ tsp vanilla
3 c. sugar
2 ½ c. all purpose flour
1 ½ c. unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
¾ tsp baking powder
1 ¼ tsp salt

Filling:
1 (16 oz) bag frozen strawberries, thawed
¼ c. sugar
4 tbsp cornstarch

Frosting:
Betty, Duncan, Dough Boy, I'm lazy and prefer the pre-made confections to the homemade ones. I find them too sweet.

Preheat the oven to 350º F. Grease 8 inch baking pans. Set aside.


You will need several bowls for this recipe.

Medium: Combine chocolate and coffee and stir until all the chocolate is melted.

Large bowl: Beat the eggs three to five minutes then add all wet ingredients; oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and coffe-chocolate

Other large bowl: Dry goods here; sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix until combined evenly and everything is a nice tan-ish color.

Add the wet to the dry and mix until it's smooth. I know it will be tempting to lick the beaters, and it's something I've done as a kid with no repercussion, however, I do not recommend this due to the raw egg. 

Divide between three pans and bake between 55-60 minutes. Insert a tooth pick into center of each cake to see if it is done. A clean tooth pick means it's ready to be pulled, dirty and crumby means bake a little longer.

While you are waiting for the cake, now would  be a good time to start on the strawberry filling. Take the thawed berries and put them in a blender or a food processor. Puree until lumpy, but smooth. Add to a sauce pan, along with sugar and corn starch. Stir and stir and stir. The mixture will thicken up as it heats up.

Now once your cakes are done, leave them cool in the pans about five minutes before switching to a wire rack. Cool the cakes completely before frosting otherwise it will melt and you'll have soggy cake and frosting soup.

Once the cakes are cooled, take a long sharp knife and level out the tops of the cakes.

Go on. It's alright to eat the leftover pieces.

spoon some of the strawberry filling on the first layer and spread around until there is about an inch left, place second layer and repeat. Dirty ice the cake with a thin layer of frosting and then coat generously with the rest of the frosting.

Add curly or sparkler candles, light and enjoy the happy.

Recipe adapted/borrow from Baking Junkie. Thank you :)

 

Juicy Bear Burgers

In a recent post on my facebook, I stated that I going to make Juicy Bear Burgers for dinner. To which my father replied "Okay, what are bear burgers, Girly Girl?" The comment that followed was by my dear friend Ray; "Gourmet nerd food."

After reading this I could help but giggle.

But I did indeed make Juicy Bear Burgers. Though I've never had real bear, I've been told it's gamey. But for my recipe, I used ground beef and these burgers turned out to be so juicy and so delicious.

2lbs. ground beef
2 eggs
1 c. plain bread crumbs
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp hot sauce (more or less depending on tastes.)
1/8 c. finely chopped onion (I used rehydrated dried onion; below)
1/8 tsp salt and pepper
1/2 c. shredded cheddar cheese

To rehydrate dried onion use the same amount of  warm water, or more to each amount of onion. So for 1/8 cup of dried onion, use 1/8 c warm water. Drain the onions of the excess water.

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Press in to palm size patties. They should be thin as you will be placing one on top of another.

Place cheese in center of a patty along with second patty on top. Seal the sides.

I grilled my burgers on stove top grill. You want to make sure the grill is nice and hot when you place the burgers on. Turn the heat to medium, cover and flip after 5 minutes. Continue to cook until desired doneness..

Set on a toasted bun with leafy lettuce, tomato and choice of condiments. Serve with pasta salad and choice of vegetable.

Pictured here with bacon ranch pasta salad and buttered corn with salt and pepper.

Dress-Up Chef?

Hi!
I'm Zodi and this is my blog.

Yeaaaah that's a little more than lame. So why is the blog called Dress-up Chef? Well because I'm just starting into the wonderful world of Cosplay. Recently, I've become addicted to MMOs. Liar. Okay so for the last sixteen or seventeen years I've been playing MMORPGs. For those that don't speak 1337, Nerd or Geek, that is Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. Still confused? You're hopeless and you'll never get it. Can't say, that too mean. Make a character, run adventures/quests/mission/dungeons, gain experience points and level up. Oooooh you mean like DnD. Yes. But bigger and with more free will then Sims

I decided that I wanted to take the clothing/armor from one game and make it real. Here's where Cosplay comes in, because this is what people all over the world do. They take items from a game and they craft it. A lot of times they wear their cosplay costumes to conventions all over the world. Mine just happens to be for Blizzcon 2012.

I've no idea what I'm doing, and just sort of going in blindly. I have some tutorials from Kamui and she's been a HUGE help when it comes to ideas and instructions on how to make things. So I pooled all my Christmas money this year and started buying all the things I would need to make my cosplay.

That list includes but is not limited to:

Expanding foam
masking tape
newspaper (Recycling is good!)
paper mache stuff
carving knives
cardboard boxes (recycling is really good!)
paint
paint brushes
feathers, fabric, fur
sewing machine and sewing accessories
sculpey and tools
storage
beads and findings
tools for all crafts

On top of all of this stuff, I also decided I wanted to make my own custom jewelry inspired by various games that I've played. Everything from World of Warcraft, to Neverwinter Nights 1 (Ya know... the good one.) Why I'm doing this is fairly simple (I'm bored); I enjoy crafting things. I enjoy feverishly carving foam knowing that one day it will be a gorgeous looking staff.

But Zodi...the site is called Dress-up Chef.

Yep! I also like cooking too and sometimes I make some really awesome meals that are inspired by World of Warcraft. However, I won't be limiting myself to just WoW inspired meals. I will have normal everyday meals too.

So with this all being said!

Welcome to Dress-up Chef, I will be your blogger, server, seamstress, and chef Zodi.

One day I'll have enough Dalaran cooking awards to get a chef hat. What am I talking about... I'm a tailor, I'll just make one!

Roasted Boar Meat

My very first and very own written World of Warcraft inspired recipe and my very first blog post! Today I will be covering a very simple recipe. Roasted Boar Meat.

You will need the following:

2 Center Cut Boneless Pork Chops
Country Herb Rub  (below)
1 tbsp of Garlic powder
2 tsp of extra virgin olive oil
1 med. Gala apple or preferred apple of choice.
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tsp lemon juice


Country Herb Blend:
1/8 tsp dried: thyme, rosemary, sage, oregano, basil, mint (optional)
1 tsp sea salt
Mix together

Preheat the over to 400º F (200º C) degrees.

Pat chops dried and brush with extra virgin olive oil. Rub the herb blend on both sides of the meat and sprinkle with garlic powder.

Core and slice apple. Arrange apple slices on top of chops. Cover and refrigerate for 10 minutes.

Put in oven for 20-25 minutes or until cooked thoroughly (no pink.)

While this roasts, prepare the sauce by mixing the honey, Dijon mustard and lemon juice until well incorporated.

Remove chops from oven and let rest for 5 minutes. Pour sauce over chops and serve.

Served with Garlic and Herb Vermicelli pasta and steamed broccoli