Hi there! I’m Wolf of Wolf’s Den. For this Challenge, I chose a popular pan-Southern classic called Brunswick Stew.

Recipe and requirements can be found here.

I decided that with a few alterations this would make a good thing to feed to the geeks (and thus why last weeks geek post was filler). One of my geeks doesn't eat red meat (except for VERY rare occasions) and so I skipped most of the meats and just went with chicken, specifically boneless, skinless, chicken thighs. What can I say, I'm lazy. I also used the second recipe in the link, as again, I'm lazy.

I've gotta say I was really surprised by how tasty this turned out. I mean, it's stew, so what's not to like but it ended up being super flavorful and a real treat to eat. I've never put corn in a stew before and I think I may have to do it more often because it added a really excellent new flavoring and textural elements. The geeks also seemed to enjoy it and I know the leftovers got gobbled up pretty quickly.

If I ever do manage to get my hands on some rabbit meat (waaaaaant) I may have to redo this the long way and with all the different meats. I'm interested to see how the different meaty flavors interact.

Here it is along with my character sheet for Fulvia.

This weeks Cooking for the Geeks will be postponed until after the 14th of April as I used my Daring Cooks recipe to feed the nerdy brethren.

Instead, have some pictures of our character "minis"

( NERDS! )

No pictures again this week but I did make some tasty chow. I asked the gamers what types of things they'd be most interested in eating and the first response I got was for lasagna. I've never actually made lasagna before (despite making everything that goes into it) so I decided that it sounded like a good idea.

In an attempt to make something that everyone in the group could eat and that would be moderately healthy I did a modified version of my usual red sauce using turkey and less veg then I normally use. I also decided to make it with whole wheat pasta since I didn't figure anyone would really notice the textural difference in this case. I don't really feel too bad about not getting pictures as you can pretty much imagine what it looks like.

Turkey Lasagna

1 lb ground turkey
30 oz. tomato sauce
1 medium onoin
3-4 gloves of garlic
1 can diced italian style tomatos (what? I'm lazy)
dried oregano and basil, to taste
2-3 dried bay leaves
garlic powder, to taste

kosher salt
12-13 whole wheat lasagna noodles
2 cups light or nonfat ricotta cheese
1 cup part skim mozzarella
1 cup grated parmesan
ground nutmeg, to taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
dried basil and oregano, to taste

The day before game I made the sauce. It's pretty simple really, just chop up the onion and toss it and the smashed and peeled garlic (with some olive oil) into a large saucepan that's been set over medium heat. Give the onions a bit of a sweat for a few minutes then add the turkey meat. Once the turkey is browned add the tomato sauce, diced tomatos, and herbs and garlic powder and let simmer for about 30-45 minutes. You can cook it for longer if you want but I just wanted to get it done enough to put in the fridge for the next day.

Come said next day, put a big pot of salted water on to boil. While waiting for the water to get hot mix together, in a medium bowl, the ricotta cheese, nutmet, basil, oregano, salt and pepper. Also, remove the sauce from the fridge and reheat on another burner. Once the water boils start cooking 3-6 noodles at a time. The whole wheat noodles I used took about 10 minutes to cook, but check the instructions on the packaging of your pasta for a better time estimate. Once a batch of noodles are cooked remove them from the water (I used tongs) and place them on a piece of foil to cool off a tiny bit.

Take your 9x13" pan and put down a thin layer of sauce followed by a single layer of noodles. Top this with more sauce, then dollops of the ricotta mixture followed by a sprinkling of the mozzarella and parmesan cheese. Continue to layer the noodles, sauce, and cheese mixture 3 more times and then top with the last of the sauce and mozzarella and parmesan cheeses.

Cover the lasagna in foil and bake in a 350 degree oven for 35-40 minutes. Uncover and bake until golden, about 5-10 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes before cutting.


I served the lasagna with a light salad of mixed greens on the side and everybody seemed very happy with the food. If I'd been making this for just me the sauce would have had bell peppers, mushrooms, and wine in it but alas, my geeks are picky/allergic so those were omitted. I don't know if lasagna is something I'd make all the time as it is a bit labor and dish intensive but then, so are a lot of the things I make for the geeks and so far this lasagna is one of the biggest hits.

The 2010 March Daring Baker’s challenge was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate Shavings. She chose Orange Tian as the challenge for this month, a dessert based on a recipe from Alain Ducasse’s Cooking School in Paris.

Recipe and requirements can be found here.



Like many daring baker challenges I was really excited about this challenge at first but as the month went on and I kept not having time or energy and stuff I kept getting less and less excited. A dessert like this requires a lot of time, effort, and skill. I've generally got time, but my energy is constantly low and my skill with making pretty food has always sucked.



I don't really have the tools to make a bunch of littles versions of this so I decided to make it family style. The major problem with this dessert, for me, ended up being a timing issue. I wanted to share it with someone, as it seems to silly to make a whole huge dessert for just myself, so I tried to make it so xiggy and I could share it. Unfortunately he had a series of late nights at work and it didn't work out. Instead it got forgotten about in my freezer overnight. We did take it out and attempt to thaw it enough to eat. It made it really easy to take pictures of, as you can see, however it never really recovered from it's long freezer ordeal and the texture just wasn't very good. Also, my dear assistant (my friend princess_ismya came over to help with some of the prep) and myself couldn't get the pate sablee to roll out thin without completely cracking and being a pain so the crust on the bottom was super thick and rock hard.

I get the distinct impression that this would be a totally awesome dessert if done properly, but I just couldn't pull it together for this one.

Wow, I was really horrible about getting this post up in a timely manner. Oh well. I blame business.

Last week for the geeks I made the Spring Vegetable Garbure from Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home cookbook.

It's essentially a big chunky vegetable stew. I ended up not using all the same ingredients and making a few small modifications but it was still super yummy and everybody seemed to enjoy it quite a bit.

( Here there be veg )

The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and Jess of Jessthebaker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf.

Recipe and requirements can be found here.

Aaaah, risotto. Another one of those foods that so many people are crazy about and I'm not. I have had one risotto in my entire life that I ever wanted to eat more of, and to be fair it was quite tasty, but more commonly I find risotto to be fairly uninteresting. I've had it in various restaurants, homemade by a few people, and now made by myself and generally speaking (with the one previous mentioned exception) I've found it to be nothing special. I realize that many of my readers now think I'm a terrible person. Well, that just means more for you.

But anyway, here's my quick rundown of making risotto.

( ricey mehness )

This one is gonna be short as I made something I've posted the recipe for already. I was planning on posting pictures this time as that post is lacking in photographic evidence but I completely spaced out and forgot to take pictures. I suck:(

Anyway, I made Rajmah again. This time I made it without the green chilis and with very little cayenne as a few of the gamers are sensitive to spice. For me it was pretty bland but everybody else seemed to like it.

Mmmmm Girl Scout Cookies!!!

This trip ended up with me in possession of a box of Lemon Chalet Cookies, Thin Mints, and Dulce de Leche cookies. I exercised enough restraint to keep from buying another box of Samoas. Girl Scouts make it kinda tough to not just gorge on sugar.

Tuesday nights are my weekly game nights. We're currently playing a variation on the D&D 3.5 system (for those of you that care) set in a fantastical empire very reminscient of Rome. A week or so ago I realized that most of the people in my gaming group are trying to eat healthier, but our usual gaming diet was NOT helping that in the slightest. People were also showing up late fairly often because of having to get food before the game. With those thoughts in mind I decided to start cooking meals for the group.

My first meal for the gamers was roasted chicken with mashed potatoes and peas. Not exactly the least calorie laden thing I could make but it was certainly more nutritious then chips and soda. I didn't take any pictures and because I've already covered roasted chicken on this blog and frankly I'm not a good enough photographer to make mashed potatoes look decent in a picture.

I did, however, make cake. See!



Okay, okay. So it's not the prettiest cake in the world but looks can be deceiving. It is, in my not so humble opinion, one of the tastiest cakes in the world. This is my family's brown sugar cake. At this point I don't think anybody remembers where the recipe originally came from but it's been made in my family since I was a kid and I love it sooooooo much. It's also super easy.

Brown Sugar Cake

1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cups milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a round 9" cake pan by cutting out a round piece of parchment paper the right size to cover the bottom of the pan and set in place. In one bowl mix together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl cream together sugar, butter, egg, and vanilla. Once this is well combined begin adding the flour a little bit at a time interspersed by small pours of milk until both the flour and milk are combined into the mix as well. Pour mixture into pan and bake for about 40 minutes until a toothpick stuck in the center of the cake comes out clean.

The cake is a a very dense, pound cake like thing. It is so rich and flavorful that frosting it would be a crime against tastebuds.

Woohoo, new theme and style to the lj. I finally bought a paid account for this one so I can have more userpics and a better custom theme and stuff like that, so hurray!