Bluefly's recent activity

  1. Comment on What are your go-to meals that you cook? in ~food

    Bluefly
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    Sycamore, I'm not sure how much of a beginner you are, but these were my go-to dishes when I was super intimidated by cooking and just starting out. All of these should easily be doable on a work...

    Sycamore, I'm not sure how much of a beginner you are, but these were my go-to dishes when I was super intimidated by cooking and just starting out. All of these should easily be doable on a work night:

    • Scrambled eggs with cheese. Scramble some eggs, then when it's almost done cooking, throw some grated cheese in the pan. Take off the heat and stir until the cheese starts to melt. Serve on a plate with some leafy greens with your favorite salad dressing. This could easily be modified to add some leftover chopped veggies or precooked meats you already have in the fridge. Just add them to the scramble a little earlier so they have time to heat up more. If you're feeling super fancy, make some toast and you can put the scramble on it while you eat.
    • Tuna fish sandwich. Take one can of tuna and put it in a bowl. Add some mayonnaise, cracked black pepper, and dried dill from the spice cabinet. Start mixing the tuna with the mayo/pepper/dill, and add more of the ingredients until it tastes good to you. If you have them, capers also taste good here. Serve on your favorite sliced bread with a pickle spear on the side. Salad is my favorite thing, so this is another meal I would just take some leafy greens and add dressing to.
    • Steamed veggies and dumplings. Note, you will need a steamer basket for this. Bring a pan of water to a boil. Choose your favorite green vegetable, and chop off the non-edible bits (frozen works fine here, and needs no prep work). Some veggies work particularly well for steaming, such as broccoli, broccolini, and bok choy. Place the basket with the veggies over the boiling water, and let sit for not more than two minutes (it'll need to be longer if the veggies were frozen). Remove the veggies from the basket, and dress with oyster sauce + some toasted sesame oil. In the steaming basket, now add your favorite frozen dumplings. Follow the steaming directions on the dumpling packaging. Eat the dumplings with your sauce of choice - I usually like to mix together black vinegar, soy sauce, chili oil, and a little bit of toasted sesame oil.

    Not really the healthiest thing, but it is an american classic and it's easy:

    • Boxed mac & cheese with hotdogs. Make the boxed mac & cheese per the box instructions. In a frying pan, cook the hotdog on medium heat until it's nicely browned on all sides. If you're feeling fancy, you can cutup the hotdogs when they're done cooking and add them to the mac & cheese. If you're lazy like me, you just serve it on the side of the mac & cheese with some ketchup+mustard. Oh yes, serve with leafy greens and your favorite salad dressing.

    And this recipe takes a long time to make and some effort, but it is easy and one of the first harder things I learned to cook. I definitely recommend making it on a weekend and a lot of it, because it freezes really well.

    • French onion soup. In the biggest pot you have, coat the bottom with some olive oil (butter is more traditional, but olive oil is easier for me). Then, chop up as many onions as you can stand and throw them into the pot until you either mostly fill up the pot or can't stand it anymore (minimum 3 onions at least). Don't worry about dicing them, rough chopping is fine here. Sprinkle some course or kosher salt on top of the onions, just a few pinches. Place the pot on the stove and turn it to medium. This next part can literally take an hour, but as the onions start to warm up, stir them every few minutes, enough so that the onions on the bottom are constantly changing places with onions on the top. The onions will significantly reduce in size and start to darken. When they reach a deep golden brown, pour on some dry white wine, enough to just cover the onions again. Wait until the wine has reduced by half, then pour in a bunch of beef broth, enough so that there's some space between the onions as they float in the broth. Add in a pinch of dried thyme, rosemary, and cracked black pepper (if you have fresh sprigs of the thyme/rosemary, that is even better). Bring the soup to a simmer, and let cook uncovered for 30 minutes. After that time, taste the soup and add more thyme/rosemary/pepper/salt to your own taste. While the soup is simmering, slice up an old french baguette and place on a baking tray. Slice up some gruyere cheese onto each bread slice (parmesan is acceptable if you don't have gruyere, it needs to be a hard, salty cheese). Turn up your oven to the highest heat setting and put on convection if that's an option. Place the baking tray with bread/cheese on the top rack and watch carefully, the bread should be toasted with the cheese melting after 2-3 minutes. Serve the soup with the toasted bread/cheese slices, and a side salad.
    1 vote

  2. Comment on What are your go-to meals that you cook? in ~food

    Bluefly
    Link Parent
    Ooh, yes, I love pan frying salmon. I also like serving with a caesar salad, as the lemon juice goes really well with it too. I just use pre-bagged greens and my favorite off the shelf dressing......

    Ooh, yes, I love pan frying salmon. I also like serving with a caesar salad, as the lemon juice goes really well with it too. I just use pre-bagged greens and my favorite off the shelf dressing... or, I would if I could find that in the grocery store where I live. Have to make the dressing myself these days.

    1 vote

  3. Comment on What are your go-to meals that you cook? in ~food

    Bluefly
    Link Parent
    Seconding the 10 minute pad thai. I do a variant on that where I will scramble an egg first before I throw in the noodles, veggies and sauce. I'll also crush up some peanuts and throw those on top.

    Seconding the 10 minute pad thai. I do a variant on that where I will scramble an egg first before I throw in the noodles, veggies and sauce. I'll also crush up some peanuts and throw those on top.

    2 votes

  4. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    Bluefly
    Link Parent
    I'm really interested in playing this game, and your review definitely adds to it. I love a game with good exploration. Probably need to wait until next month though, given all the other games I'm...

    I'm really interested in playing this game, and your review definitely adds to it. I love a game with good exploration. Probably need to wait until next month though, given all the other games I'm playing

    1 vote

  5. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    Bluefly
    Link
    Been playing too many games lately, can barely keep them straight. So much good stuff releasing this month. Started the month playing Pokemon FireRed. Pokemon has long been one of my favorite...

    Been playing too many games lately, can barely keep them straight. So much good stuff releasing this month.

    Started the month playing Pokemon FireRed. Pokemon has long been one of my favorite series, though I admit that the newer games on the switch have been a disappointment for me aside from Arceus. The 3rd gen is also one of my favorites, mostly due to the robust rom hacking scene. That being said, it's been a while since I played vanilla FireRed, and wasn't really planning on getting it on the switch since it's just as easy to emulate, but my siblings suggested we all get a copy and play through the game together... so I caved. I'm kinda stalled right now due to some of the other games I've been playing, but I can't overstate how refreshing it has been playing through this game again. You can enter buildings! Talking to NPCs leads to some (not always) entertaining dialogue, and sometimes cool items. I've been reminded by how much I hate the forced exp share, and how much easier it is to get to know each of my team members as I rotate them around to level up lower leveled pokemon. And while the puzzles and exploration were never that difficult (much more so as a small child), there's actually a reason to do so again. Yes, I can get through Mt Moon without getting lost as an adult, but the side diversions are entertaining with often cool items hidden at the end. I missed the resource management too.

    Slay the Spire 2 was what knocked me off of FireRed. The first game is probably one of my most played games of all time, I'm not even sure how many hours since I own it on so many systems. I don't normally play early access games, since I get frustrated when I reach the end of the available content and want to continue. But I decided to give it a shot, since the game is already mostly complete from a feature standpoint. I know it needs further balancing and an Act 4, but so far it's been everything I could ever ask for. Its the first game but more. The two new characters are really fun, and I love the new cards they added for the old ones. The new bits of lore from the epochs are really fun, and the ancients are a fun improvement from the boss relics of the previous game. I can see myself coming back to this game for a long time, which is a good thing because this weekend I started playing...

    Monster Hunter Stories 3. Right now this is my favorite game on the list, and I already adore the previous two. Monster tamers are my favorite genre, and this game will go down as one of the best, I think. I've only reached the second area, but I can't stop exploring to find more rare monsties, fun fights, and habitat restoration. Nearly everything is an improvement on the first two games, especially the combat system and exploration. It even has a decent story, which wasn't something I particularly cared about, but is a nice bonus. I do have a few small things I would like to see improve - I wish that I could remove Ratha from the party (again), and I'm disappointed to see that there's still monsters that are not obtainable but still fightable in game (Tetsucabra when?). I would also like to be able to remove my companions from the party, as I think that's the purest form of the battle system. I do hear there's not much of a post game compared to the previous games, and I'm hoping that this will be updated by further title updates like capcom usually does. There's several monsters I would like to see added to the game if that's the case. But still, even if nothing changes, an early candidate for my game of the year.

    2 votes