You Shall Not Pass!

insert colon joke here

Tres Dippos Facil

Three easy dips! Lots of football on right now with the playoffs in full swing and all. So with all of that football comes lots of excuses to have lots of people over to watch said games, and lots of excuses to eat horribly unhealthy food. Mind you, you don't have to like sports to have an excuse to whip up some quick and easy dips however. Maybe it's a Stargate marathon, or just game night around the table. Whatever the case, try one of these next time.

Cheesy Chorizo Dip
Ingredients:

• Chorizo (Mexican sausage)
• a box of Mexican style Velveeta cheese
• a can of Rotel (hot)

Directions:

• cut up the Velveeta into one inch cubes, either half the box for a small amount, the whole box for a huge amount
• fry up the Chorizo, two sausages for half a box (above) or four for the full box, drain
• put the Chorizo and the can of Rotel into a crock pot with the cubed Velveeta, a sauce pan on the stove will work if you don't have a crock pot
  
• cook it for a few hours in the crock pot, mixing occasionally, and you're good to go, if you're using the saucepan, just don't leave it unnattended

That's it, and you're good to go. Even the prep time, if you can call it that, is minimal. This one is tasty, and one of my favorites. If you don't like spicy stuff, switch the Rotel to regular. Good with tortilla chips, corn chips, and the like.


Bean Ole Dip
Ingredients:

• one can of refried beans
• one small onion
• a block of cheese

Directions:

• dice the onion
• shred the cheese
• put everything in a pot and cook it

Yeah, it's that easy. This one is neat because it can change quite a bit just depending on the cheese you put in it. Cheddar, Monterrey Jack, even Swiss, it's all good and every time makes for a different dip. If you're not a big onion fan, maybe try half of a diced one, me, I put in the whole thing. This one is good with tortilla chips and the like, but you can also dip flour tortillas in it, or even spread as a burrito filling.


Hidden Valley Dip Dip
Ingredients:

• one packet dip mix
• one 16oz container of sour cream

Directions:

• put them in a bowl and mix together

I saved the easiest, and most non-original, for last! This one is a delicious no-brainer, costs next to nothing, and is stupidly easy to fix. If you can chill it for a couple of hours beforehand, even better. All of these reasons make it a perfect game table dip too, heck, you can even make it at the game table! Good with pretty much anything you can buy in the chips section of the store, not to mention veggies like carrots, cauliflower, and broccoli.

LEGO Thursday: You're Eating People! Lego People!

Tuxedo-equipped Minifig Groom's Cake


Last summer fellow gaming buddy Bi3cuit, longtime resident artist around these parts, got married. Being the AFoL that he is, there was Lego baking to be had at the reception. He saved the head for a game night a week later. I ate the eyeball.

We Must Get it from Somewhere

"This burger captures the scent of a Bavarian meadow after a fresh winter snow. Inspired by the German people who invented the Hamburger outside of Hamburg, Germany. Mushrooms are collected by manly fairies in the upper Alp valleys. The tomato was hand grown using fertile techniques of hand patted manure. Note the glimmer of crystalline fields covered in dew drops. Therefore the perfect burger." Love, dad

This isn't my burger, and it's not my flavor text (ha, get it, "flavor text") but it's not far from me genetically. It's funny because when I got this email from my Dad titled "Burger Wars" earlier today I had to laugh. It looks like one of my burger pics (for those keeping score here and here) and the text certainly sounds like my usual self, it basically could be one of my own random blog posts...without any editing either.

So it got me thinking as to what it is we do here gaming-wise. Often we reminisce about what games we first started playing, but why did we play them? Dungeons and Dragons was forbidden in many childhood households in the 1980's, so kids rebelled and played it at friends' houses. On the the flipside there were a lot of parents out there who encouraged it (yes, reading, writing, and imagination might actually be good for a ten year old).

I don't know, as I'm pushing forty I guess I'm still recognizing how much all the moms and dads, aunts and uncles, grandparents and the like influence us more than we realize. As for the burgers themselves above, I can only surmise the following since the email lacked any meat to it (ha, I'm on fire today!). It looks like Swiss cheese generously melted over a heaping mound of sauteed mushrooms and served up on an onion roll. If this is indeed the first salvo in a "Burger War" then it was pretty good one.

Bunker Buster Burgers

Maybe I should change the name to belt busting burgers! These are not for the health-conscience, nor the feint of heart (literally), but they are delicious and as I tell my daughter, they make a great "sometimes" food. Like last time, I'll try to make this recipe easy to follow and even easier to execute.

Bunker Buster Burgers:

1. You're making burgers, so get some ground beef, ground chuck, or what have you. Don't go too lean, a little fat content in there goes a long way in the flavor department.
2. You're going to want some good Mozzarella cheese, the thick-sliced stuff like you get at the deli counter.
3. For veggies I went with onion, jalapeño peppers, and tomatoes. This can vary according to your own tastes.
4. An odd ingredient you don't normally see would be sliced pepperoni, a small package of these goes a long way.
5. Finally, gourmet burgers like this don't get slapped on a bun, while you're in the bakery/deli area getting your cheese, get some Ciabatta rolls too.

Let's get it all together:

1. Make your burger patties, I took a pound of ground beef and split it into thirds. For making patties I use an egg and a little Worcester sauce and just patty them up by hand.
2. Dice up the selected veggies you've picked out. How much? See below.
3. Also dice up the pepperoni, for quantity just make it equal parts with each veggies type. This will form a topping for each burger, so just eyeball it.
4. If your rolls aren't slice, do that now as well.
5. I'm assuming you've got ice somewhere, just make sure you've got half a glass full on hand for the cooking.
   

Let's cook 'em up:

1. First things first, sauté the diced veggies and pepperoni in olive oil. Set aside.
2. Warm up the oven to 350ºF degrees, you'll toast the rolls in here.
3. Get a large skillet with lid, big enough to cook all of your burgers at once and start pan frying them. This is no exact science, but I like to cook the first side a little longer (4-5 minutes) than the other side (2 minutes).
4. After the two minutes on the back side is done spoon on generous helpings of the saute´mixture on top of each burger, the more the merrier.
5. Next, cover the mixture with one thick slice or two thin slices of Mozzarella.
6. Immediately drop in a handful of ice into the frying pan and quickly cover with the lid. Caution: You've got hot grease that spatters with water, add these ice cubes carefully and cover quickly.
7. The ice in the covered pan creates a lot of steam, this trick will melt that thick cheese while locking in all the juiciness and flavor.
8. While everything is melting, toast the rolls in the oven.
9. After a minute or so, the rolls and the burgers should both be ready, serve and enjoy!

Even though a 'sometimes' food, I've cooked these up twice for company, and yeah they're a bit messy but they get very positive reviews. I usually cook burgers on a grill, so the pan frying is a big change up, but for this style burger I don't see it any other way. I try to connect these recipes to gaming, really I do, but I can't see how here. They're a bit too involved to whip out for game night, and they're not exactly appetizers or finger food. The clever title will have to be their only saving grace. Hey, it's no coincidence I posted this on a Saturday, and you probably have most of these ingredients already on hand, what are you waiting for?

Last of the 2011 Garden

It was a rather wet, rainy, and overall dreary mid-October day but I trudged down to the garden to see what I had in store. Since tearing my calf muscle, trips up and down the back stairs to the garden have been infrequent (though I'm healing just fine).

It's kind of a mess down there, no weeding has been done and I could tell far too much was left on the vine longer than it should've been. But just like in Jurassic Park, nature will find a way, and there was all kinds of good stuff waiting. Nothing like the photo above to remind you why you garden in the first place.


I'm trying something new this year. I had mentioned it earlier but here are the first pics of the winter crop; broccoli and Brussels sprouts. I don't know if its the same rabbits who ate my strawberries eating these, or the leaves just fell off, but I'm not holding my breath to see how they'll turn out. Hopefully they too will find a way, we'll see.


Finally are those dang mutated, illegally-smuggled squash plants. These four are the last of their kind, most of the others were given away. I stuck my foot in there for scale.

Well, as the title suggests, this is probably the last of the garden posting this year. This could change depending on the winter stuff, but the days grow short and the night cold so juicy tomatoes and peppers are coming to an end.

Some Peppers...

Not a whole lot to report on the gardening front, here's a handful of peppers I picked the other day. Things aren't really cooling off even in mid-October, so my "fall crops" (broccoli and Brussels sprouts) are doing well and there's still tons of everything else which I don't see going anywhere until we get a few good morning of frost.

Stuffed Veggie Flautas

Here's a very quick, and very tasty dish I whipped up last week. I've gone easy on the ingredients and steps below because I was improvising along the way as it is, and you should too. Here you go, Mik's Stuffed Veggie Flautas, enjoy:

Stuffed Veggie Flautas:

1. Make some mashed potatoes, I like to add shredded pepper jack cheese, sour cream, and/or cream cheese. For this batch I used all three, set aside for later.
2. Get your favorite peppers and veggies from your garden (or the store). For this batch I used all my own garden goods; jalapeño, poblano, green peppers, and some hot banana peppers.
3. Cut these into thin strips and sauté with a little olive oil and some fresh garlic, set aside for later.
4. Get a couple of avocados (if you like them, but who doesn't?) and slice up into strips.
5. Get some oil warming up in a large skillet, I used six cups (which is a lot) of canola oil.

Now you're going to put it all together:

1. Get some small flour tortillas, six or eight inch diameter.
2. Get your assembly line ready with all of the above fixins.
3. Take a tortilla and spread a not-too thick, not-too thin layer of the mashed potatoes as a base.
4. Next take some strips of the sauteed veggies and lay them in a line in the middle of the tortilla.
5. Finally lay in a slice or two of the avocado.

Now it's time to cook them:

1. Fold in the edges of the tortilla fist and foremost.
2. Next, roll your tortilla tightly, like a fine cigar, the tighter the better.
3. Keep it held together with toothpicks.
4. Lay them in the heated canola oil, you're frying them, they'll cook fast so keep an eye on them, maybe a minute or two per side.

That's it, they're not the healthiest since they're fired, but you could fool yourself and say the veggies are in fact healthy. Serve up like mine in the photo at the top of this post and if you want to be really cool, slice them in the middle with a diagonal cut like the restaurants do. I garnished mine with some cheese, more avocados (because I can't get enough), and enchilada sauce. Cook these up for your next gaming session and impress your buddies. The smaller the tortillas the bigger batch they will make, which is more finger food for you and your friends.

July Veggie Haul

Following up on my mutant squash post the other day I thought I'd post a little inventory of the latest haul out of this year's garden. My tomatoes aren't doing very well, I've been having some trouble with my cages.

One of those mutant squashes broke free of its moorings up near the top of the deck. It crashed down, eight pounds times ten feet of falling damage and literally took out one cage, knocking it over and uprooting the tomato plant within.

Everything else is coming along quite well though, I've got plans for the poblano peppers, and it seems that once my 'maters come in (if they do) I've got more than enough for a few more rounds of Mount Doom salsa!


It was a nice feeling when my kitchen sink was filled to the brim with stuff I grew myself. This is really why I garden, I get to try new things, and I get to eat a lot of stuff I didn't have to buy at the store. Look at those bell peppers, they're huge!

If you've been around, you know this isn't just a gaming blog. Having said that I'll see if I can cross the streams however. I've had an idea of taking some of my produce and making some tabletop terrain out of it. Hmm, I don't know if it'll work.

Massive Mutant Squash

I had no idea what I had when I planted this stuff in the ground. Apparently it wasn't just a squash, but a giant Indian variety of squash from the Kerala region. This plant is probably not even properly registered with customs. You can't make this stuff up.


It's no gourd, that's a lot of edible veggies in there. That's my coffee maker in the background, and you can see the diameter of the squash itself is about that of the bottom of a pot of coffee. The largest of the two had to have weighed at least fifteen pounds. Maybe I just solved world hunger.

I cooked it, ate it raw, fried it, and pretty much whatever else you do with squash. It was decently good, I mean it was squash after all, when the last time you were excited about squash? I was happy with the growing process though, this thing really took off from day one. Here firstborn struggles to heft the mighty squash!

Garden Update: Mid-June

Heya, it's Father's Day as I type this, though it's not going to post 'til about week later. That's the way I roll, I queue up posts and stuff yo. Anyway I was poking around in the garden today, keeping everything in order and had to snap some pics.

The garden's doing great, everything has not only bounced back since the hailstorm in April, but most of it is growing with a vengeance! There are a couple of plants that haven't really taken off, but everyone else is making up for it.

Strawberries are blooming...

First cucumber sighting...

Cayenne peppers are coming in...

Jalapeños, regular variety...

Jalapeño Gigantes, and they are already living up to their name...


I have good-sized hands, I can palm a regulation basketball (not bad for a short guy) and as you can see here, these are some seriously stout jalapeños. These are the gigante variety, and frankly I could've left them on the plant for a bit longer, but we're cooking burgers tonight and it would be nice to slice these up as toppings. First harvest of the season!

Hot Banana Peppers...

Red Bell Pepper (left) and Pablano Pepper (right)

My two tomato plants and squash on the far right...

My squash is freaking out of control! I have a high back deck too...

In fact, this is it growing through the underside of the deck!


These are my two "accidental" heirloom tomato plants. Last year I had 'maters growing up until November, most were scrawny by then and I just let them go. They fell to the dirt, rotted, and dried up, but they left their seeds behind and just like in Jurassic Park, life finds a way.

Here you can see last year's 'maters growing through the slats

The view of the garden from the top of the deck...

CabinCon V AAR

This might be the third time I deleted everything I've written and started over. But in a way that makes sense, you really can't pin down exactly what happens at one of our gaming cabins. There's lots of games (see below), lots of food (we eat like kings), and lots of different beverages which are sometimes indulged in excess. To sum it up succinctly; we had a blast and we'll be doing it again next year.


We weren't hurting on games, more tomorrow...


Just a sample of a Friday night plate: steak, potatoes, Greek salad...

A keg of Newcastle doesn't drink itself, reinforcements were called in!

It was with involuntary head shaking that I posted that last photo, which must mean it is past my time to go! Like I said, tomorrow I will have some pics of the games in action and other random tidbittedness. Until then, enjoy!

Mik's Moment of Zen, pt. 17

"The official cookie of the Shadow Over Innsmouth."

Updates Abound in Post #666

Another signpost and another "milestone" for the blog as this makes my 666th post at Mik's Minis! Wow, that seems like a lot! Sci-fi takes the lion's share of posts here with a whopping 259 tags with Fantasy at about a hundred posts behind in a fairly distant second place. It blew my mind so long ago when I had thirty something readers, so I don't even know what to think now. Thanks for all the support and y'all are the reason I try to keep it interesting and what drives me to keep writing.

I also realize that this post is going to kind of mark a turning point at Mik's Minis, and not in the same vein as Duck Sauce with his recent 'declaration to get things done' vows either. No, I do believe things are going to slow down around here, out of professional necessity if nothing else. Noted in my "big announcements" post (I'm not going to link to it, it's the one below this one) I have a new job, an "official" job, and as a first-year public school teacher my hands are going to be more than full. I went in today to look at my classroom and was equally exhilarated and terrified all at the same time! Mind you, I've been almost a post-a-day kind of guy, so I'm just saying that's going to slow down, nothing too terribly drastic.

Last weekend we held our "Bolterpalooza" event for my birthday. Basically we just played the Deathwatch introductory RPG adventure all day. It was a blast, good food, friends, and good drink. I've got photos lined up, I just haven't written it yet.


I've still got Flames of War pics I can't get off my phone too and I still can't find my tiny usb card reader thingie. I went to buy a new one, but it was $20 bucks! Forget that, I'll just keep looking here.

Now for our all-day Bolterpalooza my mom and daughter made me and the guys cupcakes. Not just any cupcakes as you can see, but Sleestak Cupcakes! Originally they were supposed to be aliens in little UFOs, but my daughter pointed out (all on her own) that the eyes were "wrong" and they should be Sleestaks instead. Once they put the green sprinkles on as scales, they were perfect! That's why when non-gamer friends of the family ask if I'm hoping for a boy this next time so I can 'geek out with him' I respond rather quickly I'm geeking out just fine with my girl already! Gender neutral geeking out is finally becoming more widespread fortunately.


I had a little birthday money, so I spent it on rulebooks. An important note here is I did NOT spend it on more miniatures! I could have, I could have very easily, but no, I showed some restraint. We all have boxes of unpainted minis anyway, right? So, I went with rulebooks, and I went with ones that have been on my mind for a while now.

I mentioned Malifaux some time ago, and looking back at that post, I'm surprised I've waited this long really. It's received enough positive word of mouth and solid reviews I have been curious, almost eager, to get to grips with it. Not to mention the figures look stunning, but I think I'll proxy a few games before I even think about those!

The next one is a relative newcomer in the, "Hmmm, I'd like to play that..." department, but it's near and dear to my interests and that's AE:Bounty. Again, word of mouth and preliminary reviews have me intrigued. It's sci-fi skirmish, but doesn't use points, focuses on small squad aliens, humans, and the like, and has lots of mini-campaign mechanics for the long run. The figs look great, but sheesh, not at those prices! Besides, I think I can kill two birds with one stone and play this in 15mm, accessing lots of great figs I already have.

Since Photobucket is completely failing me this evening, all I can do is tell you about the Strange Aeons game we played tonight. Not giving away too much, the pic at the left should be a big hint. Since Duck Sauce is taking the Deathwatch reins, I vowed to run a minimum of four linked Strange Aeons games. Tonight was just a warm-up, look for the reports soon, taking inspiration from the fine folks over at Geektactica.


All right, that's all I've got for now!

Weekend o' BrianCon

Well this last Saturday, July the 17th was our inaugural "Briancon". It was a bittersweet affair, and no, the photo above is not the con itself. Anybody who has been around has seen me mention my buddy Brian and his blog, Repple Depple. Well it was that Brian who was the focus, and the reason being is every gamer's lament...he's moving! Losing a regular member of any gaming group is always a bummer, especially now that we're all getting, ahem, older. It's one of those things that happens though, and although we're very happy for him and his family in their new venture, we're also incredibly bummed they're leaving.


We kicked off the festivities at ten in the morning with a rousing game of Field of Battle set in France, early World War II. I'll do up a separate post for each game we played of course, but let me just say I loved, loved, loved Field of Battle. As is the norm for the historical group, the table was huge, the minis were beautiful, the terrain was lavish...the works.


The game was broken up by an awesome lunch of grilled sausages, dips, and other great foods. Brian's wife was super cool and was in full-on "cook for gamers" mode allowing us to roll dice without a food care in the world. The one and only bonus of a family moving away is they don't want to take all the food with them, so they were cleaning out the cabinets, and what a better food-wreckin' crew than a gaggle of gamers?


Check Your 6! was next in the line up, and finally I got to play the "jet age". Having flown, err, played with just 1930's and 40's era planes, these jets were crazy. They were super fast, maneuverable, and had missiles (that never seemed to hit anything). The scenario took place in the 1970's between Egyptian and Libyan air forces.


To round out the day we played a large game of Pig Wars, with each of the six players fielding their own warband of Vikings or Irish, and havign their very own agendas. Even though everyone thought they knew what side they were on, special circumstances might have said otherwise. This was a very inspirational game and although I said I was "done" with project viking, I could see myself painting up "just a few" more guys to fill in some gaps in the collection. Also, Brian had some great terrain set up with a central palisade on a hill complete with stone cottages and a couple of fire pits.


Speaking of fire pits (ha, nice segue!) we had another scrumptious meal for dinner. Again Brian's wife was a dervish of the dish in the kitchen, taking care of all our gastrointestinal needs. Some leftover sausages from lunch made it into the fray along with grilled chicken, these great little shrimp/bacon/pepper thingies, beans, cole slaw, and kinds of other fixings. To round it all off, homemade key lime pie and peach cobbler with whipped cream provided the perfect, final send off.

All in all, it was a great day full of everything that makes this hobby great; gaming, food, and friends. Like I said, I took lots of pics of each of the games, so there will be more to come. If you live in or around the Winchester, VA area and looking for a game or know of any solid historical groups nearby let me know and I'll pass it along to Señor Repple Depple.