I think I just had used up all my energy in CG. 
Notifications
Clear all
Chinese cooking
So, as for another Troll Challenge: the Chinese cooking. Today, on veggie Tuesday, I made Chinese fried noodles with veggies (note: as I have celiac disease, I couldnΒ΄t take the original Chinese noodles, took glutenfree, low-carb noodles, made of chickpeas, instead):
Chinese Cooking - Harrier's Turn
It's nice that Primrose enjoyed her noodles, but now it was my turn. 
I planned to make some Orange Chicken, and I used some freshly squeezed juice for it too.
The chicken itself was simply cut into little pieces first...
...then breaded with cornstarch and flour...
...and fried.
Too bad I forgot to take a picture of the sauce on its own, which was cooking in a separate saucepan at the same time. It contained garlic, ginger, chili flakes, vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar, lemon juice, freshly squeezed orange juice, hoisin sauce and sweet chili sauce.
I just tossed the chicken in it when it was done. Ideally, I would have also included some green onions at that point. I forgot to buy any yesterday, didn't want to go to the store now just for them.
Here is the finished dish, served with rice.
Yes, I'm happy to announce that I liked my dish. 
I think I will keep that recipe around.
Feel free to have a look yourself.
This was a successful cooking challenge for both of us Trolls.
An air fryer is perfect for the chicken.
Mrs Vorpal made a Chinese-style dish last night β essentially a stir-fry with chicken and vegetables β in this case mostly broccoli, bok choy and bean sprouts.
She used oyster sauce though.
Originally posted by VorpalF2F
An air fryer is perfect for the chicken.
Yeah, not a bad idea. I might try it some time.
The Trolls are celebrating the birthday of our lovely grindette.
Meanwhile, we've been working on one final challenge to close off the year, which is to be revealed later today. It will also be the kind of challenge you can join yourself and play along, if you like. But more on that later.
For now, let's just wish Primrose all the best for one additional year full of joy, good health and trolling.
Thank you very much, guys!
Decided to celebrate a "low carb Birthday" :f_biggrin::f_ugly:, going to make a big meat loaf with eggs (delicious!) and got my first present: a wonderful, warm, mint-green tracksuit from my absolute favorite brand! ♠_love:
Originally posted by Primrose6789
got my first present: a wonderful, warm, mint-green tracksuit from my absolute favorite brand!
There are more to come in about a week. 
That is a very nice present already, though. I think I could use one of those myself.
I need it. ItΒ΄s pretty cold not only outside but also in the tennis halls inside. 
One more challenge to close off the year, and it will start right now.
You can say what you want about the Germans, but they do know how to celebrate Christmas. Many common customs and carols originated there, and another hugely popular practice which I heard has gained some traction abroad too, is, of course, the Christmas market.
No Christmas time in Germany is complete without one of those. And aside from the music, the atmosphere and the trinkets to buy, one extremely important aspect of it is obviously the food, and also the drinks. There is not much point in going to a Christmas market if you don't intend to sip on some mulled wine or munch on some crΓͺpes or a bratwurst.
This year, we will do our best to recreate our own little "Trollsmas Market" at home. We may not be able to emulate the whole experience with the lights, the music and the slightly drunk patrons, but we will do what we can to replicate all those popular dishes and beverages. You can feel free to play along and come up with your own recreations to also take part in our big Trollsmas Market - or you can play the part of the slightly drunk patron, if you prefer.
Our foods and beverages will be rated by ourselves on a three stars system. Our goal will be to get as many stars as possible for all the items on our list, to make our Trollsmas Market as competitive as it can get in relation to the real thing. The ratings are as follows:
0 Stars: Complete Fail
O Come, All Ye Faithful... and bring your food disposal bags. 
Whatever we came up with does not even come close to what we were trying to recreate. It's best to have either a bin or a banhauser with garbage guts ready. No one will let us join in any reindeer games with that kind of cooking - better try that again.
1 Star: Edible
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing: This dish is okay at best. It may come close enough to what we were trying to recreate that it at least deserves to be called by that name, but it's not a good version by any stretch. At least it will be safe from the bin, but we can do better.
2 Stars: Enjoyable
Joy to the World! The Trolls made an enjoyable dish. Maybe it's not good enough to make people come from all over the region and cue up in the cold weather to get their fill, but it is passable enough to make us Trolls honestly say that we like what we made. We can be happy with that kind of result.
3 Stars: Great!
Go, tell it on the Mountain: There will be no need to go to a Christmas Market this year, at least for this dish, because what the Trolls came up with is good enough to rival or even exceed the kind of quality you'd get at the real event. An outstanding success!
A list of dishes to recreate will be coming up shortly, and we'll be open for suggestions throughout our challenge, so feel free to let us know if you feel that we left out something important.
Here's the list, to be updated with our ratings whenever we submit our cooking:
CrΓͺpes (standard) 
Variation: with chocolate
Variation: with booze
Mulled wine
Mini Donuts (standard)
Variation: with "Christmassy" flavoring
Waffles (standard)
Variation: with "Christmassy" flavoring
Churros
Lumumba (cocoa with rum)
Bratwurst and fries
Variation: Currywurst
Cinnamon stars
Cheese fondue
Reibekuchen (potato pancakes)
The list can be updated as often as we like in order to add some items. Once again, please do let us know if you have any ideas on what to add, and feel free to recreate any of those dishes at home, either by looking up recipes or by coming up with them yourselves, we are in this together.
Sunday HORSE Race
Our regular poker challenges will continue, of course. Tonight was the time for another HORSE race, though once again, it was not too eventful. Both of us were card dead throughout most of the game. It could have gone either way, but Prim did not get very lucky shoving AAxx in a desperate FLO8 spot, where her opponent struck gold on the turn.
PokerStars, $0.98 + $0.12 - Omaha H/L Limit (H.O.R.S.E.) - 300/600 - 7 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat
UTG: 9,017 (15 bb)
MP: 6,425 (11 bb)
MP+1: 7,353 (12 bb)
CO: 2,575 (4 bb)
BU: 5,850 (10 bb)
SB: 15,070 (25 bb)
BB (Prim): 1,545 (3 bb)
Pre-Flop: (900) Prim is BB with Aβ Aβ₯ Qβ£ Kβ¦
4 players fold, BTN raises to 1,200, 1 fold, Prim 3-bets to 1,545 (all-in), BTN calls 345
Flop: (3,390) 5β₯ Tβ₯ 3β£ (2 players, 1 all-in)
Turn: (3,390) 4β£ (2 players, 1 all-in)
River: (3,390) Tβ£ (2 players, 1 all-in)
Total pot: 3,390
Showdown:
BB (Prim) shows Aβ Aβ₯ Qβ£ Kβ¦ (HI: two pair, Aces and Tens)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 60%, Flop: 53%, Turn: 0%, River: 0%)
BU shows Kβ₯ Aβ£ 2β Jβ¦ (HI: a straight, Ace to Five; LO: 5-4-3-2-A)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 40%, Flop: 47%, Turn: 100%, River: 100%)
BU wins 3,390
I had a similar stack and didn't last much longer, I think I got out about 10 places short of ITM.
You get those kinds of days every once in a while. The rest of my session went poorly too. A win in our challenge is a very small consolation.
Originally posted by Harrier88
Here's the list, to be updated with our ratings whenever we submit our cooking:The list can be updated as often as we like in order to add some items. Once again, please do let us know if you have any ideas on what to add, and feel free to recreate any of those dishes at home, either by looking up recipes or by coming up with them yourselves, we are in this together.
Here at Vorpal Manor Christmas baking always includes shortbread and butter tarts. Neither of the recipes is what you'd call "traditional" but they are in our family. I'll get the correct recipes from Mrs Vorpal, and post them if you're interested.
You'll likely find several recipes for both online, but who knows how good they would be...
Originally posted by VorpalF2F
I'll get the correct recipes from Mrs Vorpal, and post them if you're interested.
Sure, definitely share them. I don't think I'll include them in the challenge, because that one is mostly about German-style Christmas market treats, but I love collecting recipes, especially if they have been approved by people I know.
.
Yes, I've been considering that one... I'm not sure if it's sold on Christmas markets very often, but it's definitely a popular Christmas treat. Not sure if I can handle it, but... worth a try. We most likely won't be able to get to every single item anyway.
I guess we can consider it a bonus item.
While we're still getting ready for some Christmas cooking, our old challenges and series will continue, including our Burgers Around The World - and this time, we're fixin' to visit the Lone Star State.
Obviously, the Texans know how to prepare some good burgers, and I'm aware that today's version is not a common way to do it there, but as I pointed out before, sometimes those burgers will just be inspired by some certain local dishes. And today, we went for the classic Southwestern combo of beef, beans & bacon.
Everything is bigger in Texas, so I made sure to pack 200 grams, which is close to half a pound, in one of those patties. Not all that big by Texas standards, maybe, and certainly not as big as a Brahma bull, but big enough so that they wouldn't fit in my frying pan anymore.
They do shrink down a little during the cooking process, so it's all good.
For toppings, we prepared some nice hot chili beans...
...and also some bacon, which was made in my air fryer so we could save up on some space yet again. Unfortunately, only two of my burners are still working, it seems... 
I should have used a whole package of bacon, though.
Anyway, time to git-R-done! The patties came out well that day.
...add some bacon...
...some chili beans...
...and finally some smokey chipotle barbecue sauce with roasted onions - even though the beans provided a good amount of "sauce" already.
Finished version:
Those were mighty fine! 
A good combination, though I had plenty of leftover beans to use up. At least it allowed me to take some extra bathroom breaks at work that day.
Primrose, however, thought those burgers were all hat and no cattle. Actually, she just called them "banhauser"...
For me, they still rank highly. Not sure if I would put them above Mexico in my list, I guess I would have to try them side by side... but yes, I reckon Texas wins.
New ranking:
1st Greece
2nd Germany
3rd Texas
4th Mexico
5th England
6th Hungary