Legend of Zelda – Page 3

Wednesday’s Are Now Poll Days

June 7, 2017by Teri MaeLeave a Comment

Let’s be honest with each other. After I posted my first recipe I had no idea which one to tackle next. I knew crepes were first and that was it. The next recipe was the result of a conversation that went like this:

“Here is a list of 8 ideas I could make next, [insert husbands name here]. Which should I do?”

“Ummmm… the Mushroom Risotto looks good. Do that one”

“Okay. But that’s the hardest on this arbitrarily determined list… I guess we can work with that”

But my very good friend Ishto (his reddit handle. Is that what it’s called? A handle?) posted my last recipe to reddit and I GOT A REQUEST!! It made me very, very happy. But it also made me decide that hey, why don’t you, the *cross my fingers* loyal readers get a say in what I make next? So Wednesday’s are now poll days. I’ll list 4 new recipe options that I feel like making for the next post, it’ll be open for 1 day, and you get to decide what I make. I’ll make the poll available on twitter as well as here on this blog. The winner will be the next recipe on Tuesday! Sound good? I think so.

However, this week’s option has already been decided by Arealtossup. He commented on reddit that he would love to see Creamy Heart Soup. So I’m going to make it for him… somehow… (I know I also got a request from bobpuller but sorry, bobpuller, monster cake is definitely going to be a Halloween special!). But I still thought, hey, we should do a poll to start us off. So feel free to take it and lets find out which letter of the alphabet (or number, if you’re one those people who think multiple choice questions are numeric) people like the most. I’m sure we can tell a lot about your personality by your letter choice…

Recipes

Mushroom Risotto

June 6, 2017June 13, 2017by Teri MaeLeave a Comment

I tried making risotto once. It did not turn out. So why did I decide to tackle something that was this intimidating this early on? Come on, guys. It’s obvious. I’m a gamer and gamer’s do not give up and do not take the easy road when it comes to conquering a difficult challenge. How many of you have come across a puzzle that was difficult and said to yourself “Nah. It’s too hard. I’ll just pretend like this side quest doesn’t exist and that’ll be just fine”? The answer is none of you. Guys, we are the ones who stick with it to the end. The completionists. The puzzle-solving-it’s-2-AM-because-once-more-will-do-the-trick kind of people. And that’s why I attempted this terrifying food so early on. Why not chalk up the win from the get-go? And with this recipe I found it was definitely worth it.

Mushroom Risotto

A few pointers before we begin:

Risotto should never be made in a regular pan. A heavy-bottom pot or enameled cast-iron pan are really the best. They keep a hot temperature that isn’t easily changed by adding liquids.
I cannot say this strongly enough: once you start stirring your rice you can. not. stop. If you stop the rice will burn to the bottom, human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!
You must use Italian rice. It has a special type of starch that allows the rice to stick together, unlike any other kind of rice. The best (according to one author) are: Arborio, Vialone Nano, and Carnaroli. I use Arborio, myself
Musrooms are versatile but you definitely want some with flavor. I used portobellini’s for this recipe but other options could be portabella’s, porcini, or shiitakes.

Now that the rules are over with, we start with the prep work. Once you start cooking your Risotto you can’t, and I do mean that (see warning above), stop stirring it. So keep everything nice and handy and ready to throw in the pot. Start with getting your diluted vegetable broth simmering. It needs to stay at a slow simmer the entire time you make your risotto. Then fine dice onion, large dice mushrooms and get them soaking, grate Parmesan cheese, cut 2 tablespoons butter and separate into 1 tablespoon pats, measure out your vegetable oil, and ready your salt and pepper.

Heat up your nice, heavy pan and add the oil and butter. Cook the onion until it’s nice and tender and get ready for the fun/exciting/scary/hot part: the rice.

Add all the rice, stir it around until every grain is coated in the butter mixture, and start adding your broth 1/2 cup at a time. I found that using a ladle was perfect for this. It was easy to keep in my left hand while my right stirred like crazy to keep the risotto from sticking. I made sure my set up was broth on the left, risotto on the right. But feel free to switch it up! We don’t discriminate against lefty’s here.

Stir and scrape the bottom of the pan until all the liquid has been absorbed and then add a second ladleful of broth. Keep stirring and keep repeating until it’s been 10 minutes. At this point, when you would add more broth, instead add the mushrooms and soak water. When that liquid is evaporated and absorbed add more broth. Continue until the rice is tender but still has a bite. Some like it crunchy in the center. Mine was definitely not crunchy but you don’t want it soft. It’ll go mushy if your rice isn’t still al dente.

Add Parmesan cheese because it’s delicious, correct for salt and pepper, and enjoy while it’s hot!

Link’s Mushroom Risotto recipe:

- Hylian Rice
- Goat Butter
- Rock Salt
- Any Mushroom

Mushroom Risotto

Servings: 4
Time: 45 minutes, 18-25 minutes to cook
Difficulty: moderate
Print

Mushroom Risotto with Parmesan cheese from Breath of the Wild

Adapted from Essentials of Italina Cooking by Marcella Hazan

ingredients

5 total cups diluted vegetable broth, 2.5 cups broth + 2.5 cups water
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons onion, diced very fine
2 cups Arborio rice (or other Italian rice-see note above)
3 ounces Portabellini mushrooms (or other mushrooms-see note above), diced, soaking in 1/2 cup water
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Bring broth to a very slow, steady simmer on a burner near where you’ll be cooking the risotto.
Heat your heavy-bottom pan on medium-high heat and add 1 tablespoon of butter and the vegetable oil.
When the butter is melted add the onion and cook until it becomes translucent.
Add all the rice and stir quickly and thoroughly until the grains are well coated.
Add 1/2 cup of simmering broth and cook the rice, stirring constantly with a long wooden spoon or spatula until the liquid is gone. Make sure you wipe all the sides and bottom of the pan clean as you stir. You must never stop stirring and you must wipe the pot completely clean frequently or the rice will stick.
When there is no more liquid in the pot, add another 1/2 cup of broth and stir as described in step 5. Continue to add broth and stir in this manner.
When the rice has cooked for 10 minutes, add the mushrooms and water. Continue to stir until there is no more liquid.
Finish cooking the rice with broth, or, if you have no more broth, with water. Cook the rice until it is tender, but firm to the bite, with no more liquid remaining in the pot. This will take anywhere from 18-25 minutes total.
Off heat, add a few grindings of pepper, the remaining tablespoon of butter, and all the Parmesan cheese. Stir thoroughly until the cheese melts and clings to the rice. Taste and correct for salt. Transfer to a platter and serve promptly with additional grated cheese on the table.

Thursday Thoughts

A strong, female playable character in Legend of Zelda

June 1, 2017June 1, 2017by Teri Mae3 Comments

I wish more video games had strong female leads. Having said that, I’m definitely not one of those people who needs a strong female to take over every male role. In the immortal words of George R R Martin “To me being a feminist is about treating men and women the same” (Salter, The Telegraph, 2013). There should be, and needs to be, a balance. There are games that should be about male characters, and that’s okay! And there are games that should be about female characters, and that’s also okay!

What I don’t like is the trend of taking a male character, turning them into a female character, and calling it “good enough”. We don’t need yet another female who reminds us more of our brother than ourselves. What we need is a character who is a woman who was meant to be a woman. With that in mind, I don’t need Link to be a girl. I need Link to continue to be a boy (because he so obviously is) and I need a game from Zelda’s point of view.

Zelda is already the strong, intelligent, awesome female character we need in the Legend of Zelda series. She is brave, always fighting alongside Link, like she does as Sheik or Tetra. She is fleshed out, created as a person with thoughts, opinions, and struggles, as is so poignantly brought home in the memories of Link in Breath of the Wild. And, more importantly, she’s been there from the beginning. This is not some character Nintendo would create out of nothing to prove to the public that they, too, care about women. This would be a way for them to show that, from the beginning, they have cared about women. It would be a way to prove that, just because their main hero in this series is male, it doesn’t mean they had a completely chauvinistic point of view. I mean, these are the people who created Zelda’s Adventure, one of the few older games I have played from a female’s perspective!

And not only is Zelda already created, expanded, and real to the story, but she already has an amazing super power – the triforce of wisdom. How easy would it be to make more difficult, challenging puzzles focusing on the idea that Zelda has to use her triforce of wisdom to defeat them? Instead of the regularly-encountered boss, why not bosses with a big twist, requiring some serious forethought and skills to defeat them?

Don’t you guys agree that the absolute best remastered version of Ocarina of Time would be to include the original mode from Link’s point of view and a newly released mode from Zelda aka Sheik’s point of view? It’s not like she sat around doing nothing for 7 years while Link was sealed away! So what awesome shenanigans did she save Hyrule from? Or to have a new Skyward Sword utilizing her very particular role at the temples, with new maps, puzzles, and her own set of bosses?

So, in my opinion, we don’t need a new female, playable character in the Zelda series. We don’t even (in fact, please don’t!) need to make Link into a girl. Nintendo just needs to jump on the idea they’ve already started and use the amazing character they already have. Let’s make a new Legend of Zelda about Zelda.

So what do you guys think? Don’t be afraid to weigh in! I’d love to hear your opinions.

Recipes

Wildberry Crepes

May 30, 2017May 30, 2017by Teri Mae8 Comments

What seems like an eternity ago my husband and I went to Paris. This was easily one of the best experiences of my life and I brought back a serious love for french pastries. I set out determined to master every single one I had eaten. The easiest to master was the crepe. My high school french teacher taught me how to make his secret recipe, weaseled out of the corner crepe stand proprietor while he was living in France. I already had a lot of experience making them before my trip but I was able to perfect it after watching the way the locals made them. So when I accidentally made a crepe in Breath of the Wild I was so excited! Link could make crepes! It felt so cool to make something in the game that I love making in real life. This made the decision of which recipe to create first simple. It had to be the crepes that had brought me so much joy.

Hylian Wildberry Crepes:

The equipment for this recipe is pretty straight forward: a bowl for the batter, a whisk, measuring materials, a piping bag if you’re feeling fancy, and a frying pan or crepe pan. I make crepes so often it was worth every penny to buy a really amazing crepe pan. I use Le Creuset. I love their cast iron quality and the spatula and rateau (spreading) tools are perfect.

Crepes start with some forethought because they are best if there’s very little air in the batter. They make a smoother surface with no pockets or holes for the delicious insides to ooze out of. Eggs, milk, flour, and butter are whisked together until there are no lumps. This may take a minute or so. The flour can get really finicky when added to the egg mixture.

In order to get rid of all that pesky air a piece of plastic wrap is pressed down onto the surface of the batter, the bowl is given a few gentle shakes, and the entire thing is put in the refrigerator to rest for at least an hour. Since I usually make crepes for breakfast I make the batter the night before, that way they are fresh and ready for the morning.

Gently cutting in any butter that may have come out of solution is key! You didn’t let it sit for an hour just to ruin it now! Pans should be heated on medium low and butter should be added to the entire surface. Don’t skimp out on me now, we are making crepes not a salad! Add the first half cup of batter, spreading it by tilting a frying pan or using the rateau with a crepe pan. First crepes are a sacrifice to the Goddess: it’s meant to be made made and then promptly thrown away. If your sacrifice has been accepted you won’t need to butter your pan again.

Every crepe is an adventure. The amount of batter you add and your attention to spreading will produce different sizes and different shapes. The challenge is to get each one perfect. It’s definitely a super gut check challenge. Easier with pratice, the right elixers, and the right gear.

Only the best berries should be used, which usually means purchasing in-season. These wildberry crepes feature strawberries, the current berry-of-the-month. My favorite, however, are raspberries! Use whatever feels right. Wildberry is vague, allowing for some fantastic judgement calls. To make them a little syrupy dip the cut side of the berry into sugar and allow it to sit for a few minutes.

You can pipe or dollop the whipped cream. Honestly, after the pretty photo shoot was over, my husband and I stood over the crepe pan spooning on the cream and berries faster than I could make them.

Link’s Wildberry Crepe recipe:

- Fresh Milk
- Bird Egg
- Tabantha Wheat
- Cane Sugar
- Wildberry

Hylian Wildberry Crepes

Servings: 6-8 crepes
Time: 45 minutes
Difficulty: easy
Print

Crepes with berries and whipped cream from Breath of the Wild

Crepes

3 eggs
1 cup milk, any percentage will do
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup flour, sifted
3-4 tablespoons butter, melted

Filling

24-32 small strawberries, 3-4 per crepe
1 cup whipping creme or heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup sugar plus a few pinches for dusting berries

Directions

Whisk together eggs and milk until smooth. Slowly add sifted flour and salt and whisk until combined. Add butter and continue whisking until the batter is smooth with no flour lumps.
Gently press a piece of plastic wrap down into the bowl to rest on top of the batter and cover it entirely. Refrigerate and allow to rest for at least one hour.
While the batter is refrigerating prepare the berries and whipped cream.
Cut strawberries in half and lightly cover the cut side in sugar. Allow to sit at room temperature for a few minutes to produce a little syrupy goodness.
Whipping cream can be made three ways: a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, a blender, or a bowl and hand mixer with a whisk attachment. For any of these options add the whipping cream to the blender or bowl and whisk on high. Slowly add the sugar and continue whisking until stiff peaks form and the cream becomes shiny.
When the batter is ready gently peel back the plastic wrap. It is perfectly normal for some batter to stick to the wrap. In fact, if it doesn’t, you may not have pressed the plastic down enough. Some butter may have separated at this point. Using a knife or spoon gently cut and turn the batter until uniform.
Heat pan on medium low until hot. Add butter to cover the surface of the pan. Add 1/2 cup batter to the pan and twist or spread using a rateau until the batter covers the bottom of the pan. Allow to sit for about 1 minute until the bottom sets up. Flip the crepe and cook about 1 minute more until lightly browned. Throw this first crepe away. It usually has too much butter to taste really good.
Continue adding 1/2 – 2/3 cup batter at a time to the pan without re-greasing the pan and follow step 7 for cooking instructions.
Remove from pan and immediately pipe or spoon on whipped cream and strawberries. Crepes are best enjoyed hot but are still delicious cold. They do not store well so make and enjoy all your crepes that day!

Thursday Thoughts

Speedrunning and Distractions From It

May 25, 2017May 30, 2017by Teri Mae1 Comment

Once upon a time, during the Awesome Games Done Quick January event, my husband told me he watched someone speedrun Arkham City. First of all, I had no idea what AGDQ was. But more importantly, I had no idea what speedrunning was.

“What?! Speedrunning?” you say. “But, Teri Mae, speedrunning has been around forever. How could you possibly have not heard of it until January? And not just any January, but January of 2017?!” And maybe, you say to yourself, she’s just an exaggerator and she knew about it but had never looked into it. To that I respond no, I had literally never heard of speedrunning until exactly 6 months ago. How does a serious gamer go this long without knowing about something so integral and awesome as speedrunning, you may wonder? I’m not really a social media kind of girl. I wasn’t interested in Twitch and I was pretty limited to my online multi-player gaming. And by limited I mean sometimes, when my husband has to go do something, I’ll take over his Uncharted or Battlefront match. But other than that I stuck to what I knew and loved – Legend of Zelda and Mario.

But the idea of speedrunning opened up an entirely new and exciting vista of possibilities to me! I decided to see how fast I could play my very favorite, Ocarina of Time. After all, I thought, I am pretty good at Zelda games. I have every puzzle memorized and had, what I thought at the time, a pretty good algorithm for time management. So, without knowing anything about what actual speedrunning looks like, I timed myself playing it. Wanna know what my time was? 8 hours, 29 minutes, 57 seconds. I thought that was decent. With only one major mistake while beating Ganondorf I was impressed with myself and I bragged to the only person who really knew what was going on, my little brother. So he, in true little brother fashion, decided to break my heart and crush my soul.

He sent me a YouTube video of the twitch stream in which DannyB21892 makes his world record-breaking glitchless run. 3 hours something minutes (he has since broken that record so I’m unsure of the exact minutes). I was stunned when I saw the time. And then I started actually watching it. I had no idea how much effort and thought had gone into figuring out work-arounds, precise paths, and which items to skip and which were necessary. I learned that I was WAY out of my league. But it just made me that much more determined to learn speedrunning. To get into the muck and be the very best. Like no one ever was. Despite this new enthusiasm and wanting to dive in headfirst, I hesitated.

While I think it would be the coolest thing ever to beat every single glitchless OoT world record and be a serious contender to DannyB21892’s obvious dominance in that arena, I am nervous about playing my favorite game to the point where it becomes a bit passé. I still loved taking my time and pausing to hear the music. But the longer I think about it the more I realize that I don’t exactly enjoy wandering and exploring anymore. Maybe speedrunning is the next step to leveling up my game. And I still might do it. Just not right now… Because right when I had decided to make that commitment and jump in Breath of the Wild was released.

Now, I still maintain that OoT is my absolute favorite Zelda, but Breath of the Wild is stunning. I have had WAY more fun playing that game than I originally anticipated. I’ve always been a pretty thorough person so I explore every single new tower area 100% before I move on to the next one. And the only quests I leave undone are the ones that require me to go to an unexplored area. I’ve only been playing for about 210+ hours so I’ve only explored about 60% of the map. The thing that just keeps blowing me away is that I have 250 korok seeds. What am I missing that, having explored half the map, I don’t even have half the korok seeds possible? How does that even work? When the DLC releases the new mask am I really going to go back and re-explore every area to find them all? You bet I am. I even considered using the official guide to find them all but I’m an independent woman who wants to figure things out herself… while using perfectly legitimate add-ons like masks…

But back on topic. Where were we anyway? Oh, right! Breath of the Wild and why I won’t start speedrunning until much later in the year. Or maybe starting next year. It’s really hard to find time to do much of anything when all you want to do is bake and play Breath of the Wild. So will I be starting a speedrunning twitch? Definitely. Will it be soon? Definitely not. Will I probably start streaming Breath of the Wild and cooking tutorials for this blog? More than likely. Is that something people would be interested in? I sure hope so! Leave your comments below and let me know what you think.