July 24, 2022: Winning And Dining?

[RoboAdmin]

July 24, 2022: Winning And Dining?

Read this article on the Illuminator.

[DeadParrot]

I have a place to deer hunt and have a lot of free range organic very low fat ground venison. Resulting game food ideas:
Stew - Brown meat before adding to the Instapot. Often add a couple of sliced brats or similar for 2nd meat. Add veggies and spices to suit. I use the default meat/stew setting.
Sloppy Joes - The venison isn't as messy as normal ground beef.
Chili - No special recipe, I just use one of the ready to go spice packets. It isn't a fire breathing contest.
Tacos - Again, I just use one of the taco meat spice packets. Can also be used with soft tortillas.

We have also done a layout of various sliced cold meats and bread with an array of condiments. Good for those days when the temps are on the high side of 100F and the AC is struggling.

[Worldwalker]

Hot dogs and beans -- cut up hot dogs, mix with canned baked beans (I'm partial to Bush's onion flavor), heat on stove or in microwave. Serve with corn chips; beans+corn seems to reduce the "musical fruit" effect. If you have time, further cutting the hot dog slices so they're almost bean-sized makes them stay on the chips or in the spoon better, which is handy when your eyes are somewhere other than on your hands.

Hot dogs in blankets -- slit hot dogs and insert a piece of cheese in the slit; I prefer really sharp cheddar. Wrap in crescent roll dough (low-fat if you can get it; the regular kind leaves grease spots) or fillo (that makes them tasty and very crispy, but it does leave more crumbs). Cook in air fryer if they fit (and you have one), oven otherwise, until bread component is done and lightly browned. Cutting them in half (or smaller) before cooking makes them into tasty finger food; serve with dip.

I think I'm missing the "healthy" part by a mile here. I'd better go find my bean porridge recipe.

Okay, here we go. This takes more work, but it is ridiculously good, and it's thick enough to behave better than soup at the gaming table. (if yours comes out insufficiently thick, make it the day before and leave it in the refrigerator overnight; it also gets better that way) My apologies to readers who use metric measurements; just approximate, nothing in this recipe is anywhere near precise.

1 package 17 bean soup mix
2 cans diced tomatoes
2 stalks celery
3 carrots (or equivalent in mini/sliced/leftover carrots)
2 medium onions (more works, too)
8 oz. frozen roasted corn (TJ's)
1 cup dry wild rice
2 32-ounce packs vegetable stock
1/2 tsp liquid smoke
1 tsp dry minced garlic
1 tsp Italian seasoning
2 bay leaves

You'll also need a frying pan, a big stock pot, and possibly a blender.

Soak the beans overnight, rinse, put in the stock pot. Dump in both boxes of stock. Start heating it.

I generally give the canned tomatoes a quick whir in the blender to make them into something halfway to tomato sauce. Crushed tomatoes would work, but I can't find them no-salt-added. Also dump in the pot. Yes, adding tomatoes while cooking the beans prevents their skins from breaking down because of the acidity. You want this; you want all those beans to retain their differences.

Sauté vegetables (carrots/onions/celery) until onions are translucent. In the pot with them too.

Next, add the rice and seasonings.

Simmer your pot full of almost-soup until the grains of rice are bursting.

Microwave the roasted corn to thaw it out and add that to the mix in the pot.

Cook until corn is heated through and it's beans, not soup.

Trader Joe's is a good, cheap source for a lot of the ingredients, and the only one I know of for the frozen roasted corn; if you've got a TJ's near you, use that corn.

This makes a huge amount, enough to feed a small gaming group for cheap. I'm pretty sure it's vegan, for those people who are concerned with that. You can keep it in the fridge for days and it only gets better. And relevant to this discussion, it's thick enough not to slosh about, so it's good for eating at the gaming table.

[Jarl Wilm]

Has anyone seen this book?

https://www.amazon.com/Snack-Hacks-D.../dp/0648283194

To be honest, I haven't read it myself, but I follow her on Facebook and saw her plugging the book when it came out. I mention it because it's the same topic.

[The Gorvil]

No, thanks. Watching gamers eat is really unpleasant.

[Worldwalker]

Originally Posted by The Gorvil

No, thanks. Watching gamers eat is really unpleasant.

I've never noticed that gamers eat any differently than anyone else.

[Christopher R. Rice]

So when my face to face group actually met face to face cooking and food was an essential part of the day. We'd eat a light breakfast, someone would get stuff for lunch, and then we'd mutually help prepare and cook dinner.

One of the things we really enjoyed was using an Instant Pot to make all manner of meals that are otherwise complex. For example, Filipino sinigang or adobo or even a Japanese curry. Instant pots do spaghetti/Sunday gravy pretty well too and they are FAST.

Charcuterie was also something we rather enjoyed along with a fruit platter.

Another thing we did (which I would do in an air fryer now) is oven "finger foods" like mozzarella sticks, pizza poppers, taquitos, etc. Those are filling and dippable and are excellent gamer fuel.