Monday, June 20, 2005

Batman builds a house for the needy at UIUC while watching anime and eating Dim Sum at Lu Lu's.

Batman Begins: BEST BATMAN MOVIE EVER. A Good movie? Eh.... it's pretty good :P It's obviously setting precedence for a sequel (durhur... "Begins") and it was pretty slow and needed to wrap up things quickly to avoid a movie that's way too long. Alas. But you really got to start worrying when you're thinking that you'd rather see a movie set up into 26 episodes ><

Habitat for Humanity: Good exercise. Learned some stuff. Did some good for decent people who deserve help who need a break. Got a warm fuzzy when being thanked by the lady getting the house... but was pretty damned tired afterwards. Would I do it again? Prob not. I'm a horrible bastard.

UIUC: Holy crap campus and campustown is shit loads better than it used to be. Damnit. Bully for my html skills.

Yakitate: Right now the anime that I anticipate the most for its next episode is Yakitate! Japan. How sad is that. I think I'm gonna try that bread recipe with Anna's rice cooker.

Dim Sum: Alas... crazy people who aren't used to eating funky chinese food and worry too much about prices... Cool people. Wrong lunch place to bring them to. Note to self: Stick to wings and beer.

Lu Lu's: The place where we had dim sum. QUALITY DIM SUM. Just don't go there with a group of five. You'll totally get shafted in the table wait and it'll be stuck in the corner where the waitresses can't see you. Will definitely go again if I can ever convince anyone else to go. They're supposed to have a lot of other good chinese dishes as well but you can tell it's trying to cater to the White folk with loads of pictures in the menu. A nice touch. They're supposed to have an "unwritten" menu that so many other places have as well.

Saturday, June 11, 2005

Cream of Mushroom Soup

Topic: Recipe
Cuisine: Continental

Modified from the recipe by Christopher Desens.

This recipes makes a LOT of soup so be prepared for leftovers or make this for at least 4 people.

4 oz Butter
4 oz Yellow Onion, chopped.
5 cups water
1 bouillon cube (chicken or vege)
6 oz Finely Shredding Smoked Gouda. Regular Gouda works just as well.
4 oz diced Celery. Sometimes grocery stores sell celery sticks at like the salad bar.
4 oz. flour
2 cups heavy cream.
1 clove Minced Garlic
1/2 cup Madeira. This wine is a pretty good wine for cooking. It has a sort of woody rustic flavor. Good with cheese too.
1-2 Tbsp Chopped Fresh Thyme. Must be fresh or else it just doesn't taste as good.
6 oz Shitake Mushrooms sliced. If you get the ones from the Asian grocery store you can use the stems too so long as you cut them pretty finely.
Some shitake mushrooms for garnish. Usually just the leftover shrooms you have from when you bought them packaged.

1 tspn Salt.
Cracked black Pepper.


The Shitakes and the Thyme can be replaced with Portobellos and Parsley. Of course it's not the same but it tastes just as good and it's a hell lot cheaper and easier to find. Fresh Shitakes are best bought at asian grocery stores. Other "specialty" grocery stores tend to have pretty lame ass shrooms that are pretty dried out. I'm sure the Asian ones were set in water before packaged but at least they're not all bruised and crap. The Asian grocery stores sell them for a lot cheaper too.

Melt Butter in a large pot on medium heat.
When the butter starts to bubble add the garlic, celery, onion, and shrooms. Season with salt and saute until cooked. No need to brown the onion unless you like it like that.
Sprinkle flour while mixing to make a roux. Stir for about 5 minutes to coat all the ingredients and the roux has a relatively dark brownish grey color.
Stir in the bouillon, madeira, and thyme.
Add the water and then gradually stir in the cheese. Finally, stir in the cream.
After the cheese and cream has been added, be careful not to boil the soup or you're get some skin on top or stuff stuck at the bottom. If you're worried about bacteria and crap, before adding the cheese and cream, bring the soup to a boil. Then turn the heat down to a simmer and add the rest.

Use a hand blender to blend well and simmer until the it's a thick smooth consistency.

Saute the leftover sliced shrooms with a pinch of salt to taste and garnish the soup with a couple slices. Of course with vege bouillon it's vegetarian and it actually works. Stupid vegetarians. Here's your damned soup.

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

Jade Empire

Jade Empire. Awesome game. But what's happened to games with clear saves? I must have played through MGS 5 times and FFVI two times. Do you know how freaking long FFVI is to REPLAY? That's cuz they had clear saves. Anyone want to play Jade Empire with ALL fighting styles maxed out? That would be pretty sweet. It would be a lot easier with a clear save. Add SOMETHING to make it cooler to play it again. Keep all your styles? Keep any style that was maxed out? SOMETHING. GRA. I'll prob play this again if the 360 gives faster load times.