u/Chocko23

We had soup for supper! I'll share the recipe, but just know that you can modify this however you want! Sub ingredients, leave stuff out, add some herbs, or do whatever is cheap and convenient.

- 4-6oz bacon, diced

- 4-6oz smoked sausage, cut into half-moons

- 1 smoked turkey neck (wings or legs are fine)

- 1/2 head of cabbage, core removed and roughly chopped

- 5 potatoes, cut into ~1" cubes

- 6 carrots, cut into roughly the same size

- 4oz mushrooms, cut into 3/8" pieces

- 2-3 cloves of garlic, roughly minced

- 1/4c flour

- 3qts chicken stock or water (or any stock, really)

- salt, pepper, chicken bouillon, garlic powder, etc. as desired

I started by browning my bacon, setting aside, then browning the sausage, setting aside and finally, browning the turkey neck and setting aside. There should be plenty of grease left at this point, so make a roux with the flour and cook until a light peanutbutter color. After that has cooked a little bit, add your onions and sweat them down until softened, then the garlic for just a minute or two. Add in your stock or water *slowly*, stirring to ensure it is smooth before adding more. Put your bacon and turkey neck in, cover and bring to a simmer for about 30 minutes. Season as desired at this point.

After about 30 minutes, add your sausage, cabbage, potatoes, carrots and mushrooms and simmer for another 15 minutes, or until everything is tender. Check again for seasoning and serve with toasted bread (we had a garlic rosemary loaf).

Now my thoughts on this: it was great! Everyone enjoyed it thoroughly and bowls were emptied. I used some leftover bacon that I had from a few days ago, and about half of a 12oz smoked sausage link that I need for another meal later in the week. I've had a turkey neck in my freezer for awhile and decided I'd use it, so that went in, too. I had planned on using cabbage, potatoes and carrots, so those were really the only items that I bought for this meal **but** the carrots will also be used for snacks or other meals and I'll use a couple of potatoes for supper tomorrow. I had considered mushrooms but didn't want to buy any for tonight, but I do need some later in the week and they only had a large container, so it was an easy addition. It made *at least* 8 servings (maybe closer to 10-12, but everyone had an appetite tonight) and should keep well in the fridge for a few days, or in the freezer for several months.

I would also consider using thyme, rosemary, or sage, but any herbs you have would be great. You could make this with just water, water and bouillon powder, or homemade stock. I did 50/50, but added some bouillon (I had half of a carton in the fridge from a few days ago and I have several in the pantry that will need used soon). I think this would also be really good with some ham (hocks or diced "steaks"), parsnips, rutabaga, turnips, or whatever other root vegetables you have available. It's hard to screw up a soup!

Happy cooking to everyone in the week ahead!

Forged "mystery" dice. The bag had torn open so my lgs had them inside the case. I thought they were pretty cool and my wife likes purple so I bought them for her.

What are you all rolling today?

Admittedly not my best work...this one was tough! Lots of small details here, and the stance, fireball and staff didn't do me any favors for cleanly painting his legs, inside his cloak, etc.

(This is actually a dragonborn sorcerer, but I'll be playing a wizard and the fireball is cool).

Everything is homemade. :)

Chicken: 2 jitomate, 6 guajillo, 2 pasilla, 1 ancho and a couple of arbol, with about 1/4 white onion, 2 cloves of garlic and some seasoning. 3 boiled and shredded breasts in the sauce once blended and strained.

With a margarita on the side - Corazon reposado.

You all can probably guess what my players will be encountering.....my Hymhgo D20 is finally going to get some proper use with this Chessex set! Now I just need to find a green set and a nice D20 for the green dragon they'll be running into...

And some goblins that I finished (I had previously posted the dude in the center, but thought I'd throw him in the pic, too).

Ready for tomorrow!

I was a bit busy tonight. I painted this gelatinous cube with speed paints, but they didn't blend quite how I had hoped. I'll worry about fixing it later. I found the doors and thought that I can use that to lure my players into the cube, so I had to pick them up.

The same thing happened with the chests and the mimic; I think I can have my players find the chest in an empty room (too easy, right?), just to find that it is a mimic. Upon beating it, there will be treasure!

The last two items I painted were the basilisk and the gold pile from the red dragon wyrmling (which I'll have to paint another night).

The final picture is the figures that were in the Underdark Expedition box that I bought today. There is a dhergoloth, hook horror, giant centipede and a fire snake. I'll be looking into how to include those in our campaign, too.

That's all for tonight!

It took awhile. I'm gonna have to just go buy some cards...we have the starter set, but which card set would you recommend as a good first addition?

I can already see that this hobby is going to be a problem (financially! 😂)...

Here's the goblin I painted tonight! Now my dwarf has someone to fight, and the other goblins aren't far behind! But...it'll take a couple days before I get to them, so he has time, I guess.

I'm not *quite* as happy with how this one turned out, and most of that is due to going a little heavy on the wash. Oh well, I still think it looks okay. I might try to paint a dirty, ivory kind of color on the horns, though...I'm not really a fan of how the black looks, but I'm not messing with it tonight; I have a mimic to paint and I'll probably do some touchups at the same time later this week. Wish my wallet luck!

I love this one. Seared off some wagyu burgers, seasoned them with Two Step, sauteed some onions and bell peppers (thought I had celery, too, but...I was wrong...), then made a quick roux, added my stock, seasoned it and added the hamburgers back. Served over plain white rice with some mixed veggies. All done in the BSR no. 12. (Well, except the rice, and the veggies were microwaved...)

Just starting to adventure and painted my first miniature today for my character! I also picked up the chest props and a few other miniatures to paint, but haven't started yet.

Any tricks from the pros? I watched about a dozen videos before giving it my best shot.

Bonsoir!

- Merkur 41C

- Astra Blue (1)

- Omega 11137 24mm boar, ash handle

- Maggard Lilac soap & witch hazel splash

Short and sweet tonight. Blade was a little abrasive, but I think that is largely due to having used the last blade for nearly a dozen shaves, so switching to a fresh blade was a little jarring, however it did give good results, so I shan't complain. There was no sting from the splash, either, so I would call the shave a success!

The Omega brushes are quickly becoming my favorites, though I did struggle to produce a nice lather tonight...the soap wouldn't stay put in the bowl so I had to continuously fiddle with it and put it back where I needed it. Oh well...the soap and splash are both very nice, though, with a nice, gentle, lilac scent that I do like, and which my wife finds unobjectionable.

All said and done, I'd hardly say this was a shave worth writing home about, except that it was. It was very easy, very smooth, and left me with great results, but didn't drop my jaw. Simultaneously one of my better shaves in recent memory, but likely also one I will quickly forget. Maybe that's the old age getting the better of me. In any case, I am pleased, and quite ready for bed, so with that: goodnight!

But I couldn't resist (aka I forgot).

Chili cheese with raw white onions and onion rings on the side (not pictured). Damn, was that a good lunch!

We got to teach Carcassonne to some family! We must be good teachers because my 8 year old niece won, never having played the game before! Anyway, we had a good time and the phones stayed put away, so that's a win. :)

Memoir '44

Sword Beach. 6 June, 1944. I thought I had a good chance at defending my position from the bunkers, but the relentless barrage from the 13th and 18th Hussars proved to be too much. My forces were able to ward off the first waves of attack from the 3rd Division, but we failed to maintain position against the Shermans and the 1st Special Service Brigade...a galliant and commanding lead, lost in the final hours.

Guys. I may be addicted to this game! Send help! (And by help I mean expansions lol)

I bought this when it came out and haven't had a chance to play it. I was a little skeptical because it didn't seem that different from the original, with the exception of the artwork, but I took a chance because we really like TtR and I really like their artwork style. It's not too different, but has the addition of ferries and bonus cards (in lieu of longest train), the latter of which adds a different element to scoring at the end of the game. There's really not much more to review on this one, though. We did enjoy it, but it's not altogether that much different from the base. If you're a big fan then I'd say get it, but I suspect most people will pass due to the redundancy. One nice part is that this is a standalone version, so if you want to use it with some of the expansion maps, you are able to, or if you'd rather buy this version than the original, you needn't both copies. There are also two new colors (white & purple) for the trains, which was a nice surprise (my son fancies green so we pulled that from the original version), and the card art is a little different, too, if that matters to you.

Overall, I don't regret it, especially as much as we like and play TtR. Would I buy it again? Yeah, probably so lol. The better question is whether I'd recommend it to someone that likes TtR, but isn't big into expansions? No, probably not. But we *did* enjoy it, and it is a nice map with some fun new elements. :)

I hope you're all enjoying your Saturday!

I bought Memoir '44 this week and today my son and I have played "Pegasus Bridge" and "Sainte-Mère-Église" and we're absolutely loving this game! He has played the Allied forces and won Pegasus Bridge, while I got stuck with the Axis forces and won Sainte-Mère-Église, in large part due to some lucky rolls (using a dice tray) and some lucky hands. I think we'll wind up needing some expansions before long because I don't think it'll take us very long to get through the base scenarios!

As for gameplay, there is a bit of a learning curve, but it's really not too bad. A quick video on gameplay helps, and there are cards for the what to do on each turn, terrain restrictions and unit movements and attack details that you can set up by the board. The action cards fill in the rest of the details for your turn. Gameplay is around the 30-45 minutes as advertised, including setup time, and the age range of 8+ is probably pretty accurate; my son is a bit older than that, but he isn't struggling at all. Bonus: the box is decently well organized and I also love Days of Wonder artwork.

That leaves me with two questions:

1. Which expansions are your favorites? Which are best passed up?

2. Is Battle of Hoth the exact same game with a different livery? (Even if so, we're both Star Wars fans, so may still be worth getting).

TIA and have a great weekend!

I never thought I'd find this one! Could barely wait to get it home and crack it open.