Recipe: Nam's Cheddar Garlic Bread

I've been baking bread for a few years now, and I've baked this about half a dozen times in the past couple of months for holiday events. I've gotten enough feedback on it and requests for the recipe that at this point, I decided to document it and share it with everyone. So here is my recipe...

Ingredients

• 3 cups all purpose white flour
• 1 1/4 cup warm water
• 3 tsp white sugar
• 2 1/4 tsp dry active yeast
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp butter (unsalted)
• about 1 lb sharp cheddar (or extra sharp, your choice)
• about 10 cloves of garlic (extra large cloves can count as 2 cloves)
• black pepper

Prep

• shred the pound of cheddar cheese (large shreds are fine)
• finely chop and crush the cloves of garlic (garlic press works very well here; chopping gets them small, crushing them gets all the garlic juices out for flavor infusion)
• melt the 2 tbsp of butter in the microwave (30 seconds should be more than enough time)
• bread pan with some oil or melted butter lining the inside to prevent sticking along the edges

Quick Summarized Process (for experienced bakers)

1. make bread dough with the flour, water, sugar, yeast, butter, and salt
2. let rise for a bit
3. roll out dough thinly and liberally add black pepper, garlic, and cheese on top
4. roll the dough tightly (folding as necessary to get back into the bread pan)
5. let rise for longer
6. bake in oven until done (375° F for 35 mins)
7. cool on cooling rack before slicing up and serving

Detailed Process (to duplicate my recipe exactly)

1. combine the water and white sugar in a measuring cup and stir well
2. add yeast to the sugar water and stir until thoroughly mixed; this will give the yeast a head start prior to adding it to the dough
3. in a large mixing bowl, combine the flour with the salt and stir; if you have a stand mixer, using it with a dough kneading hook is ideal for this, otherwise a large bowl and rubber spatula should suffice
4. slowly stir in the butter and water/sugar/yeast mixture into the flour/salt; once everything is combined, knead the dough vigorously; once again, if you have a stand mixer, this will very thoroughly knead everything into a slightly firm dough (if it is too sticky, consider adding more flour; if it is too firm, consider adding a little bit more water)
5. once the dough's texture feels good, place it in the bread pan and cover with clear plastic wrap
6. First Rising: place the bread pan in a warm place (sunny window sill works great, secondarily, an over with just the light turned on works fine for this too); you will want to let it rise for a little bit just to make the dough fluffy- 30 minutes if in the oven with the light on, if you're leaving it in the sun keep an eye on it and when it has risen 50% greater, that's probably enough (this can happen in as little as 10 minutes in the sun)
7. lightly flour a large surface and roll the dough out onto it using a rolling pin or large wooden cooking roller; repeatedly flatten and flip the dough until very flat (I prefer about 1.25 cm in thickness, as anything less is too thin to contain the ingredient filling and anything thicker leaves too much space for bread and no filling)
8. liberally apply the garlic and black pepper on top until evenly distributed across the dough (including the very edges, which sometimes gets overlooked for covering with flavor)
9. liberally apply about 90% of the cheddar cheese on top, and then carefully (and slowly) use the roller to push the cheese INTO the flattened dough (this is why the dough needed to be a little thicker than 1 cm); once again, also pay attention to the edges and make sure there is cheese covering most; the remaining 10% of the cheese will be used to top the bread for a little crispy flavor
10. re-oil or re-butter the bread pan (as some of it may have been removed from the first rising)
11. roll the dough into a tight swirled log and place it into the bread pan, be careful not to get too tight as it could rip the dough if you are not careful (you may end up with a log being too long for the bread pan, if this is the case, simply fold in the the two edges until it will fit into the bread pan, making sure that the center of the log is the center of bread pan and the folded ends are at the bottom)
12. Second Rising: cover the bread pan with plastic wrap again and place it in the warm place to rise; you will probably wait longer this time, as the final risen size should be slightly smaller than however large you want the loaf to be)
13. once the second rising is complete, pre-heat the oven to 375° F
14. feel free to top the loaf with the remaining cheese if crunchy cheese top is desired
15. bake the loaf at 375° F for about 35 minutes
16. remove the loaf from the oven and the pan and allow to cool on a cooling rack before slicing up with a bread knife and serving

Notes

• adding more salt to the dough doesn't add flavor, it just reduces yeast growth rate, thus affecting the speed at which the dough rises; be careful when trying to "add salt" to bread
• if you want more rise, try adding more sugar instead of more yeast, and let the dough rise longer; this may require you planning out more "waiting" activities throughout your cooking process (perfect time to do dishes or laundry)
• if you want to fill your bread with something else, replace the garlic, cheddar, and black pepper with other ingredients; I tried a pizza bread where I put in some monterey jack cheese and pepperoni, and it worked out perfectly

Two Player Tabletop Games for Gamers and Their (Non-Gamimg) Significant Others

I've been attending my local area Android Netrunner league where I've met several individuals around my age. Some of us are at various points in our life: dating our significant other, being engaged (me!), married without children, and married with children. We're all gaming men, but have trouble finding games that are simple enough to not scare off non-gamers, yet complex enough to keep us interested. I have personally been asked this question dozens of times, but now I think I'm just going to write a blog post for all to enjoy. Maybe someone else out there will also find this useful.

So, I have come up with a list of games that I think would be great for getting people started. This is a series of games that are all easily accessible, and hopefully will get people comfortable with the idea of playing games, so that it can pave the way for more advanced games.

Let's begin with a list of awesome 2-player games:

• Four in a Square
• Gobblet
• Gyges
• Inside (Gigamic)
• Lost Cities
• Pentago
• Pente
• Quarto
• Quorridor 

First let me mention that a large number of these games are abstract games. I consider a bunch of these to  be variations of "tic tac toe on crack". Four in a Square, Gobblet, Pentago, Pente, and Quarto are all games that I consider to be in this category. Quoridor, Inside, and Gyges are the most unique ones in the list. All simple enough to be learned, but Lost Cities is more involved. It's simple arithmetic scoring, but the game play has an element of statistical risk.

Tabletop games that support more than two players, but plays well with two players:

• Blokus
• Carcassone
• Forbidden Island
• Forbidden Desert

Carcassone is a tile-laying, point-gaining game that breeds many strategic possibilities, but is still simple enough for even the casual non-gamer to understand. Blokus a game that is basically like golf: lowest score wins. It is really a four player game of "get rid of all your tetris-like pieces", but plays two people just fine when each person plays as two colors each.

Forbidden Island and Forbidden Desert are both cooperative games, so if you get some people who refuse to play against you because you are too competitive, these provide an alternative to allow them to play with you against the game (I recommend these because they are simpler than Pandemic, which is also another great cooperative game). Unlike my recent pain-staking cooperative experience with Hanabi, these games are quite fun most of the time.

Other casual multi-player games to start people off:

• Dixit
• Kingsburg
• Settlers of Catan
• Survive: Escape from Atlantis
• Ticket to Ride

Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride are already well known Euro-games that are easy to learn and play. Getting ten points with settlements, cities, and cards is the object of Settlers, while getting the most points with trains routes is the object of Ticket to Ride. Kingsburg is a dice rolling "worker placement" game in which you try and get the most points by swaying advisors, getting resources, building buildings, and defending against winter monsters. Survive is an interesting game where islanders try and leave an island that is slowly sinking into an ocean, where they must get to safety... but only after they survive the onslaught of sharks, whales, and sea serpents. Dixit is a refreshing game somewhat similar to Apples to Apples or Cards Against Humanity, but the cards don't have words, they have pictures. The active player isn't a judge- they are tasked with coming up with a clue to mask their card that they threw in, but not from everyone.

I own and play all of these games, depending on the crowd I have over and the mood I want to set, we choose different games to play. We've gotten to the point where many of my friends enjoy playing games, and even ask to play specific ones!
Hope this helps!

Cooking Experiment: Cranberry Tomato Chicken

Random Inspiration

So I was inspired to try something new recently. I was just walking around Wegman's and buying juice, when it dawned on me: Cranberry juice.

I grabbed a bottle and decided that I would use it for cooking later. A while ago, I was fascinated by a recipe that dictated the use of orange juice to flavor zucchini slices cooking in a pan.

Cut to now- where I'm in my kitchen and my girlfriend, Sarah, is asking me, "What do you want to do for dinner?" I decided then and there- I'm trying out my new idea.

The Process

Admittedly, I had no recipe. So I was just going to wing it as best as I could to make it taste not so horrible. All I had was a couple of guiding goals:

• put the taste of Cranberry into the chicken
• don't make it too sweet or tart

I realized also while writing this, I didn't exactly know what all of the cooking terminology was for the methods I had used. So I had to look it up!
I began by unconventionally quick braising the chicken in water to get it just to whiten slightly (without searing). Then emptied the pan prepared the Cranberry juice that I would eventually poach the chicken in. The amounts of each specific liquid used each time was purely arbitrary, but it was enough to cover the entire bottom of the pan without reducing to gunk during the cooking process. The idea was that I wanted to weaken the chicken flavor, and put in the Cranberry juice flavor. Heat is on very low, so I had time to figure out what to do next before putting the chicken back in.

I went ahead to put in some corn starch (in retrospect, it wasn't enough) to try and thicken the juice a little bit. Then I wanted to put in something fruity and flavorful that could go with the sweet Cranberry. So I chose something that we had lying around: Sweet Cherry Tomatoes. Chopped some up, and put them in the pan. If I could have a re-do button, I would have put in one less tomato.

After it sat in the pan for what seemed like an appropriate (arbitrarily determined timeframe of course), I put the chicken in. It poached for a while, until I felt like the insides were all cooked. At once point, I added some sugar, because I needed a way to hide the acidity of the sauce. I wasn't sure how to do this, but good old Google was kind enough to lend me the information.

The Results

Here's what they looked like in their "sauce" (if you could even call it a sauce):

Here's what it looked like with the rice and corn we had with it (corn was frozen and microwaved, rice was dry and rice-cooked in a rice cooker):


Post Analysis

Aside from the few unknowns (rather big ones like "how the heck is this going to taste?" and "what the heck am I doing?"), and the slight panic at reducing acidity, the dish itself came out very well.

• it came out looking very pretty; all soft, tender white chicken clearly covered with a pink~ish sauce
• the chicken was moist and cooked all the way through
• the chicken did indeed have a Cranberry juice taste
• amazingly, it was not too sweet, nor was the flavor lacking

My girlfriend was teasing me about not finishing it if it tasted horrible. To my surprised- she ended up eating the whole thing. I was quite proud of this experiment.

Android Netrunner: Introduction

What is Android Netrunner?

Android Netrunner from Fantasy Flight Games is a new and recent remake of an old Wizards of the Coast collectible card game called Netrunner. Originally designed by Richard Garfield himself (the creator of Magic the Gathering), this is a two player game that touts asymmetrical interaction in order to win. Basically what that means is: both sides have completely differing mechanics in order to achieve their own goals to win. The great appeal of this game to me is that the players have completely differing gameplay mechanics, but the axis of interaction is seemingly fair and balanced. Not only that, it makes so much sense in a flavorful way as to greatly support the theme and world in which this game takes place in.

World of Android Netrunner

The world of Android Netrunner takes place in a futuristic cyberpunk world. Paraphrasing from the instruction booklet:

It is the future. Enormous mega-corporations control the various aspects of humanity: food, entertainment, life choices, etc... through what is known as the network. Everyone is on the network, and the network is always moving, evolving and impossible to pinpoint or lockdown. The network is the backbone of civilization, and it is the only weakness that the corporations have. Whether it is the desire to express themselves, exploit for profit or expose the lies in the heart of the system: rogue individual specialists with the hardware resources and software talent all intersect with the motivating factor of digital independence from the network. These people are called Runners.

How I Got Started on This

So, the sole reason why I'm keen on this game- is because my gamer friend Jeremy. He is a huge fan of Netrunner, and has been a fan since the old days of Netrunner card game.

He told me that I would like this game, and over the course of 3 or 4 broken sessions, he finally taught me how to play the game. Since both sides are so different, it took me a few times of seeing both sides played before I really "got" it.

It leads up to a fateful day where he was hanging out with me while helping me with a spontaneous yard sale. We got bored towards the end of it and we decided to play a game of Netrunner. Needless to say, I was hooked after that. As and honorable mention of a milestone- it was the first time either of us had played Netrunner outside on a nice sunny day. It might have even been the first time I played any collectible card game outside.

Gameplay

Two players play against each other, one plays the role as the established Corporation trying to fulfill its own agendas, while the other player runs against the corporation and attempts to disrupt their agendas. Veterans will noticed that the gameplay mechanics are generally unchanged between the two versions, with minor (albeit good streamlined) changes.

As the Corporation, you use your established R&D (draw deck), Archives (discard pile) and HQ (hand) to help you setup remote servers, defend dataforts, and advance your agendas. If you gain 7 Agenda points through advancement- you win.

As the runner, all you need to do is access corporate agendas to get them. Access 7 Agenda points, and you win.
I barely got a chance to play the old game, but with the new remake, it allows for great strategy and deck building diversity , yet have focused themes with new cards called "Identities". They give you a specific Corporation or Runner to play as (instead of previous general Corporations and Runners).

I'll be a little obsessed about this for a while- as I've been playing against myself for a while. There is a slight element of deception on the part of the Corporation. So playing against myself isn't quite the best way to test my skills.

Going Forward
Jeremy came up with this crazy idea to start writing review articles of specific matchups. Whether we do written article reviews, video tutorials or a podcast... this will not be the last that you hear of Android Netrunner.

Healthy Eating: Homemade Vegetarian Mac and Cheese Steak Sub!

Healthy Eating and Why I'm Doing It...

So this year, I've been trying to eat healthier. Since... February?
As a general confession, I had a doctor appointment last year in the spring of 2011.
They ran a series of tests. Being only the 26 years old, I assumed I was completely healthy.

I went on, completely forgetting about it. Unsuspectingly, the results got back to me about 6 weeks later. I didn't have any horrible diseases or anything, but I did have one thing wrong with me. I had borderline high cholesterol. This was a grand epiphany that didn't change my life, but really got me all worried about myself. Both of my grandfathers passed away, and I believe their deaths were health related to cholesterol (not 100% certain). It wasn't until months later- February 2012 when I watched the movie Forks Over Knives. It convinced me to actually make changes to my diet, almost immediately and almost overnight. I can discuss this movie, but that's an entirely different topic altogether that I can go on at length. Basic rundown is: whether it's 100% true or not, it's way more convincing a movie argument than other food and health movies I've seen.


Motivation


Part of it was reduction of red meat consumption, and then other meat in general. I still have meat maybe about 3-6 times a week, but it's a lot less than the twice a day I was doing in college.
So I needed something else to turn my appetite to. Various types of meats are typically a large source of cholesterol, and there are other benefits to reducing meat in my diet. So I figured that would be the best and easiest way to attack my problem. It's been a slow process, but I now eat salads at least 4 times a week (where before, it was none). It was tough, but I learned later that I was going about it the wrong way.

Apparently you don't have to "cold turkey" away from eating meat to achieve my goal, but just replace it with non-meat "meaty" substitutes or make very good vegetarian dishes. It's not all salads and grains. It can be (and should be) better than that. I've had some great recipes that friends have made (ratatouille for example). But I am not as well versed in cooking vegetables as they are. As of late, I've been experimenting with meat substitutes such as Morningstar Meat Crumbles. Here is my latest concoction attempt with this.

Homemade Vegetarian Mac and Cheese Steak Sub

I don't have a recipe because I basically just winged it with what I had. But I do have a list of ingredients.

• 1 box of macaroni shells
• 1/2 shredded block of Monterey Jack cheese
• 1/2 shredded block of Sharp Cheddar cheese
• green peppers (1 average sized one should be enough)
• 1 package of meat crumbles (I suppose you can use real ground beef instead for the meat version of this)
• salt
• black pepper
• sub roll(s)

I chopped the green peppers, made the pasta, cooked the meat crumbles (it's not real meat, but it needs to be warmed before consumption). I put in about half the peppers into the cooking pan with the "meat" and salted and peppered it (light on the salt, heavy on the black pepper). Mix in all the macaroni, cheese and "meat" mix together until thoroughly combined. Place a hearty amount of the mix into a sub roll... and consume.

The mix

The full sandwich

First bite (added extra peppers and some crushed red peppers too)

All done

Post Analysis

Overall, it was edible and fine. Admittedly, the sub itself wasn't that good. The mix by itself was actually better tasting than the addition of the sub roll. I surmise that this dish has several problems:

• Having both macaroni and a sub roll makes it too carby a dish
• Bread itself isn't flavorful and blocks the flavor from the overall taste from the mix
• typical Philly cheese steak subs are all greasy and dripping- so the bun absorbs the flavor
• next time I'd need to flavor the bread or somehow have it absorb more flavors
• The cheeses selected were good choice for taste, but not for texture
• didn't have the typical provolone flavor; expected, but not surprising
• didn't have any butter or cream mixed in, so it wasn't creamy or cheesy/melty
• No onions
• This one is a little selfish- Sarah and I aren't the biggest fans of onions, and I didn't want to chop any

On the upside:

• The mix tastes good by itself as a Mac 'n Cheese 'n "Beef" dish
• quick and easy to make
• much healthier than a real cheese steak sub
• got some creative food experimentation done

King Arthur and the Knights of Justice, "Power Ranger Effect" and Drinking Game

Introduction
King Arthur and the Knights of Justice (KAATKOJ) is an old 90's cartoon show whose premise is a unique one. It takes place in a sci-fi/fantasy feudal England in the time of King Arthur, and where the castle of Camelot, Merlin and his magic, Arthur and the Knights- are all real. King Arthur and his knights are encased in a glass cave by the evil sorceress Queen Morgana. Merlin is left to defend Camelot all by himself. He is perfectly capable of doing that, but he cannot keep it up for all hours of the day. He needs to free King Arthur and his knights, but how?

In comes the VERY science fiction part of it. Merlin searches all through eternity for a suitable "temporary replacement" for King Arthur and his knights, and conveniently finds a team of football players from the future (presumably college football players, based on context clues given throughout the series) who seem to "fit the bill" for playing heroes in feudal times- I don't know what Merlin was thinking! Let me warn you, this is a cheesy children's television show from the 90's.

The name of the football team: Knights
The name of the team captain: Arthur King
Yeah- I know how cheesy it is. I warned you.

They are tasked with collecting the Keys of Truth (12, one for each Knight of Justice). After they successfully collect them, they would be able to use them to free the real King Arthur and go home to their own time.

Amazin' Adventures
When I was little, I was introduced to this show while channel surfing for Saturday morning cartoons. Nowadays the only channel surfing you do is on youtube. There was this program called "Amazin' Adventures" which didn't have its own programming, but introduced various shows (all within the realm of action/sci-fi/fantasy). These shows included, but were not limited to "Mighty Max", "Street Sharks", "Around the World in Eighty Dreams", and Saban's "Gulliver's Travel."

I liked KAATKOJ. There was a lot of action, different knights with powers, and the show made me think (aspects of time traveling and logistics of magic). So, for a young child with an imagination, it was quite fun. I find that the Knights having different powers provide something similar to what I call the "Power Ranger Effect." This is the effect of popularity of a children's television show based on similar attributes or characteristics across characters or creatures of a show, but they behave in a consistent way within the universe it is set up in. Examples: Ronin Warriors with their elemental attributes and virtue associations. Pokémon with their type classifications and attacks. Power Rangers with their colors and their large mechs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with their colors and weapons. For some reason, kids REALLY love this sort of thing.

Recent Acquisition
I recently obtained the entire series of this show, KAATKOJ, from Amazon. I wouldn't have even known it existed if I didn't exchange Child's Play Charity donations with my friend Duy (we do it as Christmas gifts, because gift exchanges aren't very easy across three time zones).

So, I buy it because it's the entire series and I have always wondered if the knights ever make it home... and I watch it all. There were 2 seasons of 13 episodes each were broken down into 3 DVDs, and even at the end of all those episodes, the series is unfortunately incomplete. Despite the terrible cheesiness and possibly low production values, I was genuinely sad about this discovery.

Drinking Game
Despite the conclusion of the series, I can't end on a depressing note. There are quite a bit of terrible and cheesy things about this show... and that is why it would make an awesome drinking game!

Basic Rules (simple to catch)
- Every time Arthur says "Excalibur, be my strength!"
- Every time the knights suit up from the round table
- Every time they find a Key of Truth
- Every time Arthur goes to do something bold and/or stupid by himself
- Every time Merlin mentions turning something into a toad
- Every time a character's voice doesn't sound like it did in the previous episode
- Every time someone makes a football reference on the field of battle
- BONUS: Chug when all the characters are chanting "Knights, knights, knights..."

Expert Rules (requires more brainpower while drinking)
- Every time you see text in a different font
- Every time there is a visual plot discontinuity (but Arthur's cape is currently ON him)
- Every time there is an editing mishap (no music during the transformation scene)
- Every time there is an illogical personality quirk (why does Arthur call his friend "Sir"?)
- Every time Arthur yells something illogical during the heat of battle

Barrels of Banana: Review of Donkey Kong Country Returns

Past Experience
I had never played the Donkey Kong Country games on SNES much before. The extent of my play experience was limited to playing either DKC 1 or 2 on a SNES on display at Sears when my mom would take me to the mall. It wasn't until I made it to college and discovered emulators before I really played more of the first DKC.

Obtaining the Game
When I first heard about the release of this game, I was at PAX Prime (2010) and I didn't think much of it. I wasn't sure that I would get it. It seemed fun, but I wasn't going to spend $50 on it. I didn't feel that much loyalty.

As of late, Toys R Us has become somewhat of a surprise game retailer. I always thought I would purchased from game stores- but as it turns out, Toys R Us usually has some ridiculous deals on video games. Probably in an attempt to get its video game sales up in order to compete with other retailers. Well, I was looking through the newspaper ads with my girlfriend the weekend before Black Friday and I discovered this deal. At Toys R Us, they were selling the DKC Returns game for retail ($50), but it would also include a free t-shirt AND strategy guide. That's probably a $90+ value for the price of the game. AWESOME. So I bought it.

Playing the Game
I began playing the game a few days later. It is your typical platformer and what I would expect from a DKC game. I never played DKC 3 so I can't really compare against that, but this game really felt nostalgic. I was playing the game on the Wii but it felt like the same old formula (with some minor differences). The gameplay was definitely an authentic throwback experience.

Review of the Game
Cut to 6 weeks later- I've probably logged somewhere around 25-30 hours into the game and I have beaten it. I haven't opened my strategy guide yet, so I did everything I did up until this point with just my sheer gaming ability.

You get much replayability from the game because of the mechanic of collecting the letters in KONG, as well as puzzle pieces. Each stage has about anywhere between 5-10 "hidden" puzzle pieces (some more hidden than others). There are the nostalgic minecart levels which prove just as challenging, if not moreso than the original DKC levels (time these jumps perfectly- or else start the level all over again). There are also rocket barrel levels (I think those are new, unless they were in DKC 3). Which are also pretty challenging and will provide control frustration. The one thing that I know is lacking were the water stages (which a friend of mine pointed out, and a different friend of my indicated that they were awkward anyway; I mean, c'mon, a monkey swimming in the water?).

Anywho, overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the gaming experience. It's a good game that isn't too difficult, but isn't too easy either. It's definitely worth investing some time to playing. It's also a must buy if you loved the original DKC games or are a perfectionist as there will be much replayability. I give this game a thumbs up- I feel like it's a high price point for a nostalgic game, but aren't you really playing for the hours of fun?