From the way all of the articles about Edwards endorsing Obama have been written, and the way that Obama’s website already pictures very well put together, official looking pictures with the two of them together smiling, I am pretty certain we are seeing an Obama-Edwards ticket. Anyone hoping for Obama-Clinton… well, there’s a chance of it, but Obama said long ago it wouldn’t happen (though Clinton had said she would consider Clinton-Obama).
The next in my series of lore stories is up on EQ2 Players!
So as a vegetarian, I need to get creative with food. Fortunately, I’m one of those people who can poke through my cupboard and usually come up with something on the fly. Sometimes, though, what I come up with is better than others. This one I did tonight and wanted to record for my own purposes, but thought, “Hey if I blog it, I can share.” It’s definitely not something I’d make very often, as it’s far from healthy eating, but it’s a good treat every once and awhile.
I don’t know what to call it… maybe, “Parmesan Lover’s Macaroni”.
Ingredients
1 can cream of mushroom soup (I used healthy request Fat Free)
Approx. 1/2 c ricotta cheese (I used skim)
Approx. 1/2 c shredded Parmesan cheese
1 1/3 c mozarella cheese (again, I used part-skim)
Chopped mushrooms and white onion (as desired, I used about 7 large mushrooms and 1/4 of a medium white onion)
2 cloves garlic, chopped fine
2-3 c dried pasta
Approx. 2 Tbls olive oil
Salt and Pepper to Taste
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
1. Coat the bottom of a frying pan with olive oil, add water so the overall level is about 1/2 inch of liquid. Add the chopped garlic and let it simmer for a few minutes. Add mushrooms and onions and let simmer until thoroughly cooked. Drain any excess fluid, add cream of mushroom soup (meat eaters could probably substitute cream of chicken), cook together on medium heat for about 4-5 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, bring your favorite pasta to boil in salted water. I used bow-tie pasta, but macaroni, ravioli, tortelli, etc could probably all work. Cook until tender, drain.
3. In a 9×13 pan, mix together the noodles and mushroom sauce with pepper to taste. Distribute the ricotta across the top of the mixture and sprinkle about half the Parmesan across the top. Mix it all together so you have a decent amount of ricotta and Parmesan throughout.
4. Top with mozarella until there is a decent layer. Sprinkle the rest of the Parmesan on top. Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes or until everything is melted.
All of the amounts are definite approximates as I didn’t keep track of how much I was using, but I am sure if you look at it and it looks like too much or too little (I was being conservative with my estimates, so you might want to go up from my numbers).
A very well written article (I’d go so far as to call it a creative non-fiction piece) about a game called ZT Online, which toes, and then crosses, the line from MMO to Online Gambling.
http://www.danwei.org/electronic_games/gambling_your_life_away_in_zt.php
‘Nuff said.
A great interview about the up and coming adaptation of “The Hobbit” with director Guillermo del Toro (Peter Jackson is producing, not directing, this time around).
http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2008/04/25/28747-guillermo-del-toro-chats-with-torn-about-the-hobbit-films/
For me, highlights include them clarifying the “two movies” issue. The events of “The Hobbit” are going to be contained in the first movie. The second movie is going to be a bridge, covering the 50 years between the Hobbit and LotR. AND finding out that they are going to rely less on purely CGI characters and insist that everything be animatronics enhanced by CGI. That makes me really happy. I am not a fan of mixing pure CGI with real world. I prefer things to be built and then enhanced. But this is especially true for creatures. So that makes me really, really happy.
We decided to take our dogs to the Ocean Beach dog beach for the first time today. It was so much fun! I wasn’t sure what to anticipate, but it’s actually a really lovely beach. You come in from a bike path and down through some scrub land (or at least we did from where we parked) and then cross a pretty huge expanse of nice sand (which was super hot with it being 86 at the beach today). From there, you hit a sort of little inlet/river that’s perfect for playing with the dogs. It’s not affected by the waves, so it’s perfect for tossing out a ball or Frisbee or what have you and letting the dogs swim out to get it. You can walk down along there for a bit and eventually reach the ocean proper, but most people with dogs tended to stay back in the more sheltered area.
This was the girls’ first big trip out and on a leash. They’ve been on leashes for minor things before — going to Vittin and Michael’s for ear check ups and going to the pet store for rabies and our few failed attempts to take them on walks (after today, I think they’ll be better for walks) — but this was more major. Zillah has been out a couple of times more than Elphie, so she was showing off to Elphie that it wasn’t so bad, but Elphie was pretty freaked out by it at first, tugging and pulling and I had to pick her up and carry her a few times.
It was also their first experience being around strange dogs. Vittin had Michael have a whole menagerie (something like 6 adult dogs plus the four puppies), so they aren’t unused to being around other dogs, but those dogs were also there when they were born, so they were never unused to them. They seemed to really enjoy playing with the other dogs, though. They gradually got better about being on a leash and going in the water. By a little bit in, Elphie actually jumped in and started swimming (or trying) for a little. After that it was back to wading, but they progressively got more comfortable with the water.
After that we took them to a dog wash in OB and got them all cleaned up. They were needing baths anyway, so them getting all sandy was a good excuse. The only thing that really freaked them out that they never got over was bikes and skateboards. They were not OK with them when we were going down the bike path, and then as we were sitting outside the dog wash, they were freaked out by passing wheeled vehicles there too. They’re probably going to take more getting used to.
They were super well behaved, though. They jumped on a couple of people, but certainly not everyone we passed. They only ever barked at another dog once, and I have no clue why that particular dog set them off. Other than that, they were friendly and appropriately calm (excited from having fun but not totally wacked out) and just sort of taking it all in. All of the other dogs were really well behaved as well, and it was relatively free of dog mess, so it seems most owners are responsible. I was impressed. Being there reminded me of all the other breeds I’d like to get at some point in my life — huskey, chow chow, pug, hound, etc. Also, I think it’s funny how much dog people automatically get along when they’re out with their dogs. We interacted with a bunch of different people. I encouraged mom to bring one or the pair of them there by herself some time and chat with some of the solo gray foxes that were there.
I meant to bring a camera but forgot. Oh well, next time!
Anyway, dog beach gets A++ from me.
My Shard of Hate lore story was reposted on our site:
Fan Faire, Las Vegas, August 14-17. Woo Vegas! 
The third and final piece of the Flight of the Mudskipper is up.
http://eq2players.station.sony.com/news_archive_content.vm?id=1648§ion=News&locale=en_US
