Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from September, 2018

Board Game Review: Fate of the Elder Gods

I picked up Fate of the Elder Gods from the friendly staff at Greater Than Games during a gaming convention visit. I've played the game on four or five different occasions since then and absolutely loved it each time. Let's start with the artwork. It's beautiful! Great detail on the figures, the board is well-designed, and the Elder God cards are lovely. Even the artwork contained in the rule book demonstrates an investment in time and the application of creativity and skill.    The components (thick cards, dice, Elder sign tokens, and various plastic figures) are sturdy and made to last.  The rule book is easy to understand. The only issue our play team bumped up against was that per the rule book, the control actions are supposed to be done after  the basic actions, but in at least one case the instructions contradict themselves and indicate it should be done before the basic actions.  A minor issue all things considered and one it should be easy to get

Book Review: The Pioneer woman Cooks

I'd been reading Ree Drummond's blog at thepioneerwoman.com for years before she breezed into Washington, D.C. one sunny afternoon on her book tour. My friend Danielle and I were delighted to stop by and meet her and when we did I picked up a copy of The Pioneer Woman Cooks . Jenni (left) and Danielle (right) with Ree (center). Several years have passed since then and while I've made a recipe or two from the book, I haven't really made her collection a focus of my menu. Recently that changed. My husband Christopher has been urging me to incorporate more comfort food into my menu planning and I guessed that Ree's recipes would be perfect along those lines. One afternoon I handed  The Pioneer Woman Cooks  to Christopher and asked him to tag a few recipes he'd like to see on our dinner table. He tagged 34. 😃😃😃 I've prepared about half of them over the past two months and nearly every one has been phenomenal, earning a family rating of 4/5 or 5/5 fork

Book Review: The Glorious Pasta of Italy

When it comes to cuisine, Marcella Hazan is my definitive guide for all things Italian, so it takes a pretty remarkable cookbook to earn a permanent space in my collection alongside her work. Domenica Machetti has written one of those cookbooks and it's titled The Glorious Pasta of Italy .  Comprised of 274 pages of well-researched and well-written recipes for making a variety of pasta, sauces, soups, and entrees, it has served as a valuable resource for exploring new flavors in my kitchen. I enjoyed Marchetti's fresh tomato sauce so much that I used it one summer recently as my basic recipe for transforming 125 pounds of farm fresh Roma tomatoes into canned pasta sauce for use all year long. The flavors remained bright and tangy even after canning. Another recipe I particularly enjoy is the orecchiette with creamy broccoli sauce. The ragu is rich and satisfying and because the broccoli is pureed it won over even the pickiest never-met-a-vegetable-I-liked eater in the family