Buck buck buck

So my wife and toddler have decided to team up and make sure i know how dumb it is to try to make this blog. But i am determined to prevail.

Tonight's dinner is roasted chicken and st kielbasa stuffing . Yum yum.

The keys to making an awesome chicken are good sea soning and letting the bird rest once it's done. That second point can't be stressed enough. Resting makes sure the chicken is nice and juicy. 

To get the skin crispy you'll want to make sure to dry off the chicken and then coat it with some sort of oil. Tonight I used a stick of butter. This is also when you do the seasoning. It's ok to go a bit heavy on the salt here, it will only help make the skin crispier.

Ignore my dirty stove.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. We put the chicken in for 45 minutes. After the 45 minutes are up lower the heat to 375 and bake until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 180 degrees.   Once the chicken is dead take it out of the oven and let it rest for about 15 agonizing minutes.

Chocolate Facepunch

I have a cookie swap at work tomorrow.  That isn't very much time to make a ton of cookies.  I started out tonight trying to make short bread.  To say that the the results were underwhelming would be an understatement.  I am no in the process of trying a new cookie.  If it works out well I will name it Chocolate Facepunch.

Full disclosure.  This is based off of a recipe for chocolate chip cookies found here.

Here is the recipe after my modifications.

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups butter
1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 5.9 ounce package instant chocolate pudding mix
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 teaspoons black spiced rum (I used Kraken)
2 cups dark chocolate chips
2 cups white chocolate chips
1 1/3 cups chocolate heath pieces

The instructions are for assembling and baking are the same as the original recipe.  For the sake of simplicity I will list them again.  

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour and baking soda, set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips and heath. Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Edges should be golden brown.

The results? Delicious!!!!!!  I just had Rich come over to taste test them.  He concurred.  The Babysaur agreed too. 

In The Beginning

I've decided to start this blog to keep track of not only the Dungeons and Dragons game I am participating in, but also any interesting recipes i use while feeding the party.  We have decided that it is far cheaper just to make food for everyone each week.  I am more than happy to oblige by preparing tasty noms for the crowd. My ultimate goal is to start preparing dishes inspired by medieval recipes.  I say inspired because Dungeons and Dragons is a fantasy setting and there are many ingredients available in that setting that weren't available in ye old Europe.  Even Tolkien's Middle Earth had many plants from the new world.

I am also using this blog to keep track of the progress of our party through out the campaign.  I feel every adventuring party should have someone chronicling their efforts.  Even if you are just running boxed adventures, the shenanigans of the adventurers deserves to be recognized.