I got a ridiculous craving for donuts the other night, and while the craving wasn’t quite strong enough to convince me to make a midnight run to the 24-hour Dunkin’, it did inspire me to think of new ways to use my mini donut factory!  You can buy one yourself from Think Geek, or you can use a donut pan mold.

While I don’t think Kaylee and Jayne would be able to scrounge up enough butter and sugar on the outer planets to make donuts, I reckon that if they could, these are the donuts they would crave.  Kaylee’s donut of choice is obvious:  packed full of her favorite strawberries!  For the Hero of Canton, his donut is a tribute to Mudders Milk, and of course, contains a little alcohol!

Click below for a donut recipe from a former donut semi-professional!  Wait…oh…so working at Tim Horton’s for two years doesn’t make me a donut semi-professional?   I think that since both Jewel Staite and Nathan Fillion are from Canada, they might be with me on this one!

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Tags: beer, chocolate bock, donuts, firefly, jayne, jaynes mudders donuts, kaylee, kaylees strawberry donuts, Rachael, recipe, strawberries, the baker

Castles and Cooks is proud to introduce our first guest writer on the site – Bill O’Dell! A long time player of Magic, Bill loves what we’re doing here and offered up a new deck idea along with a corresponding recipe or two! Welcome Bill! – Jesse

Hi! My name is Bill. I’ve been an addict of Magic: The Gathering for 18 years now. I’ve tried to Cleanse myself of the habit, really I have. I’ve tried everything Brainwash, Lobotomy, Shock therapy, among many other tactics. But each time I feel a Call to the Wild, I must have a Natural Affinity for the game. I’ve been playing since around the time of the Ice Age – no, not the Ice Age that killed the dinosaurs! And I don’t think I can stop anytime soon.

At the same time, I have been Cultivating a love for fire – the hot & spicy kind. Don’t get me wrong, we’re not talking about the kind of chili fanatic who can’t feel his lips after eating. I’m talking about all the wonders of spicy cuisines that promote flavor and heat – Cajun, Mexican, Asian, you name it, I’ve probably tried it and tried to cook it! I’ve been cooking since my early teens and in restaurants, where I learned a thing or two for about a decade. Then I realized I liked to experiment with cooking more than feeding hundreds of people I didn’t know every night. So I took my expertise home and let the creative juices flow.

Combine those two addictions of Magic and spicy food, and a love of the written word, and that might be why you see my work here. I hope you enjoy my combos – both in the kitchen and in the playing field!

So the latest expansion from Magic: The Gathering’s Innistrad, Dark Ascension, has been out for awhile now. You’ve had time to digest the power of the new set … or have you? I believe that this set brings some much needed meat to the table for killer combos. For instance, Feed the Pack is meant to be abused in combo decks – and I’m here to serve one up to you! Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: beef, bill o'dell, decklist, guest writer, magic: the gathering, recipe, salsa

“Do you think we should share it with Treebeard?”

“Share it? No. No. Dead plant and all that. Don’t think he’d understand. Could be a distant relative.”

“I get it. Don’t be hasty.”

“Exactly. Bar-hrum.”

Though I’m certainly not suggesting you should smoke kale leaf with the above quotation, you definitely would not want to share kale chips with your ent friends.

This delightful snack is ridiculously healthy, and I swear it is a great substitute for potato chips.  I am saying this as a person who adores potato chips and generally hates vegetables.  Every time I make them my roommates think I’m making something far more unhealthy because they smell so good.

Kale Chips Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: chips, diet, kale, kale chips, Rachael, recipe, Recipes, snack, the cook, vegetables

The frost of winter was beginning to melt away, and all were merry for the union of Penema and Loreth.  Azel happily supped on the meaty stew as she watched the woodland elves dance beneath the glowing lanterns hanging from the trees.  Grey elves from the neighboring mountains stood solemnly on the peripheral.  ”Grey elves can keep their haughty smirks, but they don’t know the pleasures of a good soup,” Azel thought contently.

This soup has all the flavor of classic Italian wedding soup with much less carbs.

Lentil Italian Wedding Soup

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Tags: diet, lentil italian edding soup, lentils, Rachael, recipe, Recipes, Soup, the cook

In honor of the Hunger Games movie launching tomorrow, I was tasked with seeing if lightning can strike thrice after the massive success of our Harry Potter Sorting Shots and Harry Potter shots. So taking inspiration from the characters in the books and my liquor cabinet, I set out to make four drinks worthy of surviving the Hunger Games. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: girl on fire, haymitch, hunger games, katniss, mixologist, mockingjay, peeta, recipe

Peeta, Effie, and Haymitch are huddled around the table talking in hushed voices. That seems odd, but hunger wins out over curiosity and I load my plate with breakfast before I join them.

The stew’s made with tender chunks of lamb and dried plums today. Perfect on a bed of wild rice.

- The Hunger Games, page 113

In honor of The Hunger Games movie coming out this week, Castles and Cooks is making the most of it by bringing you some of the best recipes for both cooking and gaming from this post-apocalyptic trilogy. In the series, Katniss talks about eating this lamb and plum stew until getting sick, which we don’t recommend, but we do recommend having it for dinner!

This fruit-infused lamb dish looks like a curry at first glance but certainly doesn’t taste like it. A mix of fresh plums, dried plums and red wine give this dish a unique flavor unlike anything else we’ve ever tasted. We decided it would serve well with wild rice, but alternatives like potatoes or couscous would work just as well.

Word of advice when shopping, you probably won’t stumble across “dried plums” in your local supermarket, but you will be able to find dried prunes with ease! Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: cook, hunger games, lamb, plum, recipe, stew

Grok love treasure! Grok love food! Why not combine both? Om nom! Magical dish delicious for Grok! Grok go raid now.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been a fan of buying candy the day after a holiday ends. November 1st was always a fun time to run to the grocery store to see what plunders I could get and February 15th is up there too. So when Valentine’s Day ended, I did what I always do and went to see what clearanced confectioneries I could find and ended up getting some excess truffles.

But now when I buy candy, it often isn’t to just scarf down immediate. I try to find new ways to use them in my baking or other recipes. Hot chocolate made of melted Milky Ways and a touch of Bailey’s  is amazing by the way. Long ago, I made Milk Way stuffed cupcakes and they were a hit, so I figured why not do the same with truffles? And I mean chocolate truffles, don’t be weird.

These cupcakes don’t end up with a truffle center. As the cupcake bakes, the truffle melts and infuses the cupcake with additional chocolate. Then the bottom layer becomes a delicious base of chocolate.

I do have to say, I feel kind of bad posting this the day after Rachael wrote about the Slow Carb Diet.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: baker, chocolate, chocolate frosting, cupcake, frosting, recipe

Once a year, the elves in the forest north of the capital would come to the city to trade. Of all their prized trinkets and weapons, the local children (and many adults) knew that the true treasure was the treat known as buttersap. A smooth concoction of flavor that was unlike anything else, even Thaxus had to wait in queue to get his own tasty morsel before continuing his quest.

Growing up in Maine, it was always exciting in mid-February when the maple trees started getting tapped for sap to make maple syrup. And I mean, real maple syrup. Not that abomination “Pancake syrup” or whatever it’s getting called nowadays. With the sap running, it would mean soon there would be syrup! Of course, once you realize how much sap you need just to make a little bit of syrup, because it takes around 40 liters of sap just to make one liter of syrup, the allure dwindles. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: candy, candymancer, maple candy, maple syrup, recipe

During my years in college when I was baking constantly, I noticed I was rapidly using my vanilla extract supply. And when your weekly food budget could quickly become decimated by having to buy a new bottle, I once broke down and bought the wretched monstrosity known as Iminitation Vanilla Extract, which has about as much in common with the real thing as a handful of purple Gobstoppers does with a handful of grapes. So I finally reached the point where I said enough is enough and figured there must be a better way to get vanilla extract than paying far too much at the local grocery store and there is: make it yourself. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: baker, potion, recipe, vanilla extract