Mend Pet

I’m not going to read another post from my Google Reader that has any combination of the words “Ulduar” and “nerf” in the title.  And I certainly won’t dare to venture onto any sort of forums at a time like this.

Have you ever heard the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears? For some, the porridge is too hot, for some, too cold.  And then for others it’s juuuust right.

So you’ve managed to clear through 9 bosses already. /cheer! Good on ya! I’m happy for you and your raid.  But I don’t need to hear that obviously Ulduar is too easy because you’ve accomplished this.

Still haven’t been able to get Razorscale or Ignis down? That sucks, I hope you can pinpoint the issues and get through it.  But I don’t need to hear how obviously Ulduar is too hard.

Blizzard is continually balancing these fights. It’s only been out for just 2 weeks, and maybe they didn’t do as much testing as they should have.  Maybe having only the best guilds being the ones who really test boss fights isn’t the best idea, because when things seem just right for them, it won’t be the same for <Goldie ‘locks> when they venture in with raiders who have only experienced WotLK raids in their history.

I’ve had my own issues with Ulduar, and I’ve blogged about them.  But I’m not blaming anything on Blizzard or Ulduar – our guild is out of practise and we’ve never had to coordinate with this particular group combination before.  So much of our raid has changed since our BC raiding days, it’s taking a lot of time to learn the playstyles, strengths, weaknesses and limits of our fellow raiders.

Other guilds are still playing with the same people they’ve played with since vanilla raiding days, and some guilds just have a great group synergy.  These are all factors that influence how enjoyable and successful your raiding experience will be, a much bigger influence than reducing the damage some lightning bolt does could ever be.

So I ask of you, please stop calling out nerf, whether you are for or against it.  Be proud of your group for the strides you’ve made with the content as it is available to us, or work hard to improve yourself so that you can make those strides that you have yet to make.

The Secret Agent Cat posted her submission up on her blog a few weeks ago, so instead of copying it all out here, I’ll just write up my little review and send you over to her for the details!

Dwarven Mild by Tigerfeet

Tigerfeet was quite excited about this contest, and I must say I found her recipe the most interesting!  I’ve never thought of making my own cheese… and this recipe was quite simple.  I tried it out, and it turned out to be a little more work than I was expecting!  But it was still fun.  The consistency was… interesting.  I don’t want to say what I thought it reminded me of, because that’d just gross people out.  I forgot to add the salt at first, but once I added it, it was quite tasty!  Reminded me of something, but I can’t really put my finger on it.  It was a lot like cream cheese though.  Went nicely with crackers!

I wish there were tips on how to hang the cloth over the bowl.  I used oodles of tape (and 2 bowls) so that the cloth wouldn’t fall in!

Also, while Tigerfeet’s suggestion of adding honey to make it sweet sounds great, do NOT try it with maple syrup.  It wasn’t pleasant.

Go check out her recipe!

It’s pretty simple and customizable.  Both the beer and the BBQ sauce are Canadian, so you’ll have to substitute your own favourites if you’re not from the Great North!

Beer Basted Boar Ribs

Makes about 2 servings, feel free to scale it up to satisfy your Orcish hunger.

Ingredients:

• ~900g (~2 lbs) of Crag Boar Ribs
• 6-pack of Rhapsody Malt*
• 1.5 cups of Goblin Rocket Fuel**
• Pinch of Mild Spices***
• Pinch of Refined Deeprock Salt

Directions:

1. Cut ribs into individual sections of 1 or 2 ribs. At the same time bring a large pot of water to boil.
2. Add salt and spices to the boiling water, and then boil the ribs for about 20 minutes in the seasoned water. Drain.
3. Pre-heat the broiler while the ribs cool for a few minutes.
4. Put the ribs on a baking sheet (I’d recommend covering it with tin foil) and brush the ribs lightly on both sides with some of the Goblin Rocket Fuel. (be careful with the Rocket Fuel if you’ve got a gas stove! Masks are recommended.)
5. Broil the ribs for about 8 mins on each side.
6. Put the ribs in a slow cooker. Add the remaining Rocket Fuel and one bottle of beer. Cook on high for 3-3.5 hrs.
7. Have a good time drinking the remaining 5 bottles of beer while you enjoy your ribs!

BBQ Sauce + Beer = BFF!

You can use a BBQ instead of the broiler and/or the oven at 375 instead of the slow cooker. But I work with what I’ve got And I love my slow cooker!

*Rhapsody Malt: I’d also recommend your favourite Porter or Stout, I used John Sleeman’s Fine Porter.

**Goblin Rocket Fuel: Bull’s-Eye Guiness BBQ Sauce is great  (official BBQ sauce of the Calgary Stampede!)  Feel free to use your favourite BBQ sauce… preferably one with an alcoholic touch (Bourbon, maybe?)

***Mild Spices: some crushed red pepper and black pepper would do well, but feel feel free to ramp it up to Hot Spices if you need an extra kick.

Unemployed has always had a thing for food.  We talk about it, we watch Top Chef, we post our favourite recipes, we discuss the raw milk debate and I am frequently asked to explain the concept of milk in bags.

A few weeks ago, I announced to Unemployed that we’d be holding a cooking contest.  The idea was this: Create a meal/food/drink based on in-game items and recipes.  An example I gave was the recipes featured by WoW Insider’s World of Warcrafts such as Kibler’s Bits.

I decided to make the prizes extra appealing… instead of just some non-combat pets and nice little things like that, I figured since this required extra effort, I’d include extra special prizes.

1st Place: A 60-day game time card

2nd Place: 1000 gold

Runners up: A week’s supply of raid consumables (of their choosing):

• 9x Flasks
• 20x Buff Food
• 5x Health or Mana Potions
• 1 stack of reagents (arrows, candles, dust, ankhs, etc)
• 150g for repairs

Everyone was given 3 weeks to design and submit their recipe.  After the submission period was over, the entire guild was given 1 week to vote on their favourite recipe.  The results were:

1. Layniana’s Warsong Victory Northern Stew
2. Brajana’s Beer Basted Boar Ribs
3. Tigerfeet’s Dwarven Mild
   Guinesa’s Delicious Chocolate Cake
   Pilsner’s Fish Feast

With permission of the recipe creators, I am going to post each recipe here on Mend Pet, and I’ll update this page with links to each recipe.  Please feel free to test them out and let me know what you think!

Disclaimer: This post was accurate as of patch 3.1.1.

I love world/holiday events.  I find them quite enjoyable, I love the excitment and the cute and fun special things you can get.

Noblegarden is no exception!  I spent most of the afternoon yesterday becoming Brajana the Noble.

Yes, I have heard plenty of reasons to hate this event.  “It’s sexist!”  say some.  “I am offended by bunny-ears!” say others.  “Everyone is camping all the egg spawn points!” say the rest.

But I take it much lighter to heart.  I don’t even want to get into the sexist argument, because it’s a bit silly.  As for the eggs… I had so much fun picking up eggs!  I found a couple good camping spots, but I also mixed in some plain Egg Rushing around trying to find some.  Here are  my recommended Horde camping spots:

Falconwing Square – around the fountain.  There are about 6 spawn points in the fountain, and you can sit in 1 spot and reach about 3 at a time.  There are also some that spawn around the benches outside of the fountain.

Bloodhoof Village – behind the small tent furthest to the south.  From here you can see the two eggs that spawn on the each side of the tent as well as the one that spawns on top of the cooking grill (most people don’t see it since it’s above the ground).

In fact, I had SO much fun searching for eggs that I went on my newly-created level 8 Gnome Rogue and proceeded to collect about 50 eggs just for the quests and for the fun of it.  Lots of nice hiding spots in Kharanos!

If you are having problems and getting frustrated trying to collect eggs, here’s my recommendation:  JUST WAIT.  This event will last for a WEEK.  Do you think there will be as many people doing it on Wednesday or Thursday?  No way!  You’ll have the place practically to yourself.

I even had fun doing the Un’goro achievement – and I didn’t ‘cheat’ by bringing a friend and using the branch.  I ran all the way from Caverns of Time as a little bunny.  It was an adventure, and I felt a bit like Frogger, trying to weave around the raptors!

OH! And one nice thing is you can put bunny ears on yourself.  You know what that means?  I didn’t have to go searching for a female Troll!

I hope everyone who is participating in the event is having fun!