Cooking and FFXI!

[thistlechaser]

First, cooking! Amazingly, for the first time ever, I cooked something and it didn't suck! The sweet and sour sauce I was planning didn't come out 100% perfect, but it was interesting and good enough to eat. Next time I'll try a little less vinegar (I might have added a little too much this time, I thought I remembered you couldn't put it in metal, and the only measuring cup I had of the right size was metal, so I used my next smaller (plastic) one and estimated the difference), and a whole lot more cornstarch (it was hardly thicker than water, and I wanted it thick like... um, oh wow. I totally forgot to put the ketchup in. Heh! I wonder what sort of difference in taste that would have made.

There's so much of the sauce left! I wish I could figure out something to do with the rest... The oddest thing about it though: The taste made me think of meat with every bite! So strange! I kept looking down to make sure someone hadn't slipped steak onto my plate. :P I have no clue at all why it had such a meaty taste -- my tastebuds must be totally out of wack. Sugar, white vinegar, pineapple juice, soy sauce, and cornstarch. Nothing in that should taste meaty, I think...

Oh, and I almost bought white wine vinegar instead of just white vinegar. I couldn't find it without the "wine" in the name, and had no clue if there was a difference between them or not. Then I spotted a bottle!

---

FFXI: Eeee! Awwww! Baby chocobos are just too darned cute! They look up at you and waggle happily! Or they sit up and look at you! I took mine for a walk, and don't we make a funny pair? A cute little tiny baby bird and a guy dressed in black metal with a sword as big as he is. Hee!

I was hoping it was going to be born a girl, because I had the perfect girl-name picked out (Melody Dancing), but it turned out to be a boy, so I went with the porn star-esque:


We had two level one Besiegeds today, and the undead one was so so so much fun! We had a LS party, and kept taking advantage of each other when someone was charmed. (So happy PLDs have MP! I aspired so much! Heh heh heh!) One of the PLDs tried to get revenge for me stealing his MP, but he failed because he sucks!


Amusingly, I was attacking friends in LSs we work with. I hadn't even known he was here, then next thing I see:

Hee!

I had FIVE PC kills tonight! Woo!

Totally not my fault (done while I was charmed), which makes it "okay". :D I don't know what it is about PCs, but I almost always crit on them. Woo! Such a powerful feeling to kill people. Heh!

Aurian waiting to pounce on the first unsuspecting male to pass below her~.

And last but not least, I noticed that my wallpaper turned a year old yesterday! o.O I don't think I've ever used the same wallpaper for a whole year before! But the colors are so pretty and the hat looks so good with my armor! (Warning: Larger than usual screenshot.)

Edit: Oops, digging. I did it at lunchtime today, which was somewhat better. (Because ha ha, no one plays during EU primetime~! Joking, joking.) Not much better, but somewhat. Got two gold beastcoins, then had to go to a different zone to get my last 30 items. Bah.

Edit again, because apparently baby chocobos have melted my brains: Was a little worried about soloing four mobs at the same time (two BLMs, two PLDs) for the end of the Jaeger Mantle quest, but did just fine! Love my NPC so much, he's so handy! (level 63, set to the advanced healer mode. Prot4, haste, cure5? Yes, please! I was only ~100 HP down when he cure 5'ed me, but I guess it's the thought that counts. :P )

Comments

[quasilemur.livejournal.com]

Vinegar is a rich and complicated subject, dear to my heart. But the difference between white and white wine vinegar, as the name might suggest, is that white wine vinegar is made from white wine. White vinegar, depending on how cheap it is, might be made from a distilled spirit, but could just as easily be merely an acetic acid solution. White vinegar, at least in my opinion, really has no place in cooking, but makes a good cleaning agent.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Oh drat. I guess I should have gotten the white wine kind then! It was very very cheap, like 98 cents for the bottle. There were more expensive ones, but I didn't think price mattered. c.c

Maybe I'll buy the other kind before I make this again. The smell of the plain white kind was rather strong and nasty.

Vinegar is silly, but then wine is as well (blech, I drank it once, it was like rotten grape juice! Why why why drink that? You could drink non-rotten grape juice!), so I guess if I got wine vinegar, the two sillinesses might cancel each other out!

[gconnor.livejournal.com]

Good for you. You should really watch Good Eats whenever possible -- I'm not sure if you mentioned watching it before butI think everyone who enjoys food really should watch it. It's full of science and very practical tips... what I think I like best is that he tells you what parts you can skip, alter, or substitute and what parts are actually essential to the process.

Anyway... vinegars are made from a wide array of alcoholic drinks, by exposing them to special bacteria that turn alcohol into acid. White vinegar is made from grain alcohol so it's pretty neutral and tasteless, it's just there for the acid. Cider vinegar is a little more flavorful. Wine vinegars, I think, are a little more sour and pungent. There are also sake vinegars, sherry vinegars, etc.

have fun!

[southern-hell.livejournal.com]

I think it was meant to be without wine in this instance.

[southern-hell.livejournal.com]

And last but not least, I noticed that my wallpaper turned a year old yesterday! o.O I don't think I've ever used the same wallpaper for a whole year before!
Wow!!!!! I remember when you got that yagudo hat XD Time surely flies.

[quasilemur.livejournal.com]

Well, vinegar is sour wine, so it's double-rotten. And as we all know, two wrongs make a right. Vinegar is actually a subject quite as deep as wine itself; all vinegar is no more the same than is all wine. Different varieties have a great number of differing properties and flavors to add.

I second the AB recommendation; not only has he mentioned vinegar on occasion, he actually did an entire episode devoted entirely to it, which was quite good.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah! And now I never wear it, when I loved it so much back then. I don't think I've worn it once in the last six months. :P

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

It didn't say "wine", but hey, I can try that next time anyway! Might make it more interesting. :)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I love Alton Brown! Even just listening to him commenting on Iron Chef America is fun. I catch Good Eats when I can, which is less often than I'd like.

There are also sake vinegars, sherry vinegars, etc.

Heh! I saw more kinds than I knew existed when I went shopping for this one.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

And as we all know, two wrongs make a right.

That makes perfect sense~! I should have thought of it! Guess I'm going to be a vinegar fan from now on!

he actually did an entire episode devoted entirely to it, which was quite good.

Wow. A couple days ago I would have been surprised he could talk about it for a whole ep, but now I guess I can believe it!