Hot Nerd Girl

Category: Cooking/Recipes

  • Thirsty Games – The Hunger Games Drinking Game

    Note from HNG: Hey Nerds and Nerdettes, your favorite virtual drinking buddy is back!  You may remember Vivian’s fantastic Firefly Drinking Game post (or not, depending on how drunk you got while playing it) and this time she’s created a Hunger Games Drinking Game that will make you Rue the day you didn’t drink while reading it (what? too soon?)  So without further ado, heeeeeeere’s Vivian!

    Hey there! Guest Nerd Girl Vivian again. Since you were all so incredibly supportive of my last admission of addiction, I thought I’d share another one with you. And that is… books. Books are great. Books are underappreciated. And books are sexy. There’s a vicious cycle that I’ve been caught in for many, many years. It goes something like this:

    Step 1: Fall in love with a book.

    Step 2: Find out a movie is being made based on said book, and get very excited.

    Step 3: Be disappointed with the movie.

    In case of sequels, repeat.

    And so it was with The Hunger Games. I was a little late to this party, and I didn’t start the first book until just a few months ago. But I made up for my tardiness with unabashed, obnoxiously vocal adoration. I was that person who worked “that’s like when Katniss…” into every conversation. If woman and young adult literature could wed, I would ask these books to be mine forever. And we would honeymoon in District 7.

    I was so devoted to the books that I resisted watching the movie trailers or clips, or looking at the casting choices, until I’d finished the series. (I had the same strategy for the Harry Potter movies, which only lasted through about four of them before I caved.) I just didn’t want anyone else’s images in my head, and I also didn’t want to be disappointed. But then, immediately after finishing the third book, I did watch the trailer, and… daaaaammmn. It was so beautiful. And thrilling. I don’t think I exhaled through the whole thing. And my expectations for the movie shot sky high. To be fair, I was not actually disappointed by the film. I loved it. I had issues with it, but when a movie focuses on a girl whose major personality trait is her inability to outwardly express her thoughts and feelings, a lot of the book’s magic will inevitably be lost, and I accept that. Overall, the movie served as a sort of Cliffs Notes companion to a book I can’t get enough of. So I enjoyed every minute of it. (Well, almost every minute. I found Cinna’s scenes maddeningly boring and those damn CGI mutts were doomed to suck. Also, “enjoyed” is a really strange word to use when describing a movie about kid killing.)

    So this one-trick capitol-engineered pony is back, with a new literary drinking game for all of you who love these books like I do, and for those who just want an excuse to drink alone. Cause why should drinking games be reserved for movies? Answer: they shouldn’t. I suppose that this could feasibly be played with the film, but as a friend of mine so harshly put it “the alcohol intake would be just as watered down as the emotional impact of the movie.” Zing. So, really, enjoy a book. And a beer. Let your young adult fiction flag fly. (Note: This game is specifically based on the first book. I don’t think it would carry over to the other two very well. Or prove me wrong.)

    Let the First Annual Thirsty Games begin! And may the odds be ever in your favor!

    Drink when:

    Katniss fires an arrow. This seemed like the logical place to start. Drink twice if she misses her target.

    Drink.

    Anyone uses the words “Girl on Fire.”

    Anyone climbs a tree.

    There’s a lot of time spent hanging out in trees. Maybe next time, bring a book. And a beer.

    Katniss has a foodgasm. Suzanne Collins spends whole pages describing those meals, and it’s one of my favorite things about the book that really couldn’t be adequately conveyed in the film.

    Katniss expresses naïve statements about not understanding her feelings for Peeta or Gale. Oh, the wonderful romantic confusion of young love triangles… whilst trapped in an arena of death, broadcast to an entire nation. Sure, not an easy situation; but still, that girl is as dense as District 12 bread.

    She mentions her mother’s depression. Cause, ya know, just drink away those my-husband-was-killed-in-a-mining-accident-and-now-my-daughters-and-I-are-going-to-starve blues.

    Katniss (or anyone, if you’re going all out) incurs bodily injury (but doesn’t die).

    Drink twice for emotional injury described as physical pain. Katniss is so emotionally closed off that feeling feelings gives her chest pain and makes her throat close up. That’s my kind of girl.

    Drink when Haymitch drinks. Drink twice when he vomits.

    Here’s the big one: Drink for each tribute projected in the sky. That first night is a doozy!

    And, just for funsies, some themed drinks!

    The Capitol

    1 part Goldschlager

    2 parts Sprite

    1 dash grenadine

    serve in a highball or martini glass, rimmed with pink/green/some unnaturally artificially colored sugar

    Girl on Fire

    3/4 shot of Amaretto (almond liqueur)

    Top off with Barcardi 151.

    Light the shot on fire. (Yes, light it on fire. Be careful, please.)

    Drop the shot in a half-filled pint glass of beer, and down the whole thing.

    The Haymitch

    Gin.

    Enjoy!

  • Best Nerdy Cakes Ever

    How did I manage to get in this predicament?!

    I’m not gonna lie, I’m more of a pie girl than a cake girl…Mmmmmm…rhubarb….but one thing that cake has going for it that pie doesn’t is it’s artistic possibilities.  Seriously, you can do ANYTHING with cake.  As a Food Network afficianado I know this for a fact.

    A friend recently sent me a photo of a Clone Trooper cake made by her friend Loriann at Ah, How Sweet bakery and it got me thinking about what other awesomely nerdy cakes might be out there.  The following cakes were made by Loriann: Pink Laptop, Steve Jobs Apple, Pac-Man, Starry Night, Clone Trooper, and Jack Skellington.  All of the rest I found via Google so if it’s your cake and you want credit for it, hit me up and I’ll be happy to oblige.  In an attempt to save some space (there were just too many that I loved!) I clumped some of them together.

    So grab your R2D2 eggs and your whisk and get ready to see some kick ass cakes!

    Let’s start with my favorite franchise, shall we?  That would be Star Trek  for any first time visitors. Here are a couple of nice insignia cakes:

    Oh no! The Klingons and the Borg!

    Phew! Our heroes are here to save the day.

    And then, of course, there’s this:

    Not creepy at all Data, not creepy at all…

    On to Star Wars.  We’ve got these familiar faces:

    And these:

    You want to see some Doctor Who? Ok fine:

    If you’re as big a fan as I am of the “Vincent and the Doctor” episode, this one is for you (add a little “For Amy” text on the cake for some extra credit):

    Nothing says “I do” like a nice Aliens wedding cake:

    This would be the ultimate birthday cake for my friend (and uber Ghostbusters fan) Hayden:

    How about we switch gears and look at some fantasy cakes.  Here’s one for the Lord of the Rings fans:

    And one for the Harry Potter crowd:

    And an epic tribute to Dungeons and Dragons:

    Are you a gamer?  Here you go:

    Or if you’re really old school:

    Or if you’re really REALLY old school:

    If you’re just into math and technology in general:

    But what about us comic book fans?  It’s ok, I got you covered.  Here’s all your favorite heroes in one delectable creation:

     

    And my personal favorite:

    I really missed the giant alien squid in the movie version of Watchmen but they definitely nailed this guy:

    Whether you’re a Walking Dead  fan or just like zombies (that would NOT be me) this wedding cake is for you:

    Nightmare Before Christmas is ridiculously awesome and also full of undead dead characters:

    If you’re a child of the 80’s like me then you’ll love these.  This Bumblebee cake is from the Michael bay movies but I couldn’t find a great Bumblebee cake from the cartoon and this one is pretty awesome so I’m rolling with it (hee hee, get it?):

    Heroes in a half shell!  Turtle power!

    And so ends are cake odyssey.  I hope that you’ve enjoyed the trip as much as I have.  I’d like to end it on this classy note:

    You're welcome.

  • Cooking with Hot Nerd Girl: Klingon Blood Wine

    Bottoms up!

    Nothing says “party” like a large punch bowl full of fresh blood wine.

    Blood Wine is the favorite alcoholic beverage of the Klingons, a race of warrior aliens from the planet Qo’noS.  Originally an enemy of the Federation, the Klingons have been allies for quite some time.  Just don’t ask them about how their foreheads went from being smooth to wrinkled…they don’t like to discuss it with outsiders.  Traditionally Klingon Blood Wine is about twice as potent as whiskey and can’t be tolerated by most humans.  Don’t worry, this recipe (from the Star Trek Cookbook) is pretty tame.  The base recipe is without alcohol but you just feel free to add as much vodka as you want.  I added some and it was delish.

    You could go out a buy a bottle of Blood Wine (I got mine at the now defunct Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas) but why do that when you can make your own?

    Yup, I've also got a bottle of Romulan Ale

    So, without further ado, here is how you make Klingon Blood Wine according to Neelix:

    [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0MxCxKOI4o]

    –

    Here’s the recipe excerpt from page 126 of the Star Trek Cookbook (sorry, they don’t use exact amounts for this recipe so just do it to taste):

    “Klingon Bloodwine is exactly what it says it is: fermented blood and sugar.  To make an excellent re-creation of Klingon Bloodwine, you can use straight up “Just Cranberry” from Knudsen sweetened to your own taste with Welch’s pure dark grape juice.  If you want to lighten the color of the cranberry juice just a bit, use Welch’s white grape juice.  Want it to have some nice floating red corpuscles?  Run fresh or frozen cranberries or red raspberries through your blender (or chop them if you’re like me and you don’t want to have to clean your blender) and add them to your juice.  That makes it fresh and sweet, the way Worf drinks it.”

    This is what happens when you drink too much of it

     Previous installments of Cooking with Hot Nerd Girl:

    Butterbeer

    Ambrosia

    Lembas Bread

  • Cooking with Hot Nerd Girl: Lembas Bread

    Everything looks better with pixels

    Well, I’m on vacation in New York with a wonky internet connection (hence the lovely pixelized pictures) but it seems I just can’t quit you guys. That’s right, it’s time for another installment of Cooking with Hot Nerd Girl!

    This time around I’m attempting to make Lembas Bread. 

    Key word: attempting.

    If you don’t know what Lembas Bread is then allow me to enlighten you.  It’s from The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. It’s made by the Elves and given to the Fellowship to feed them on their journey to Mordor.

    First, a disclaimer.

    When I first saw this recipe I got so excited that I only read the ingredients, not the directions.

    HUGE rookie mistake and yet ANOTHER reason why HNG = epic fail in the kitchen.

    At least I had fun while failing

    I wish now that I had tried the recipe on the website that shows you how to make the leaf wrappings because it fits my idea of Lembas Bread better and doesn’t require special machinery that no one but the Italian Grandma down the street could possibly have in their kitchen. Seriously? A pizzelle press? Give me a break. Plus, the recipe was missing steps.  Really, it was just a disaster waiting to happen.

    Anyhooters, here is my utterly ridiculous attempt to make Lembas Bread. Now where’s Tosh.0 so I can get my web redemption?

    *side note: keep watching after the credits, I added a little bonus clip at the end.

    [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8xSpsi0by8]

    –

    So all of you who suggested that I give baking a try…now you know why that’s probably not the best idea.

    Here’s the recipe from The Geeky Chef, but again, I suggest you try the other recipe first.  I think that I will try that other one just so that I can attempt to redeem myself.  I’ll let you know how that works out for me.

    Ingredients:
    3 eggs1 c. honey3 fruits of the Mallorn tree (kumquats)2 tsp. orange blossom or rose water (optional)

    3 oz. chopped almonds or macadamia nuts

    ¼ c. melted butter

    2 ¼ c. flour

    ½ tsp. salt

    Directions:

    Put the eggs, honey, kumquats, rose or orange flower water, and nuts in a food processor or blender. Blend on high for 2-4 minutes. Add 1 cup of the flour. Blend for a minute or two. Put mixture into a bowl and add the remaining flour and the salt. Whisk or stir until well blended. Bake lembas on a pizzelle or iron about 15 seconds each or until lightly brown. Cut into desired sized pieces. Wrap in a leaf and tie with a string!

    I smile whenever I'm plotting the demise of people who come up with stupid and incomplete recipes.

    Previous installments of Cooking with Hot Nerd Girl:

    Butterbeer

    Ambrosia

  • Cooking with Hot Nerd Girl: Ambrosia

    3 franchises represented in 1 photo. I love it.

    Remember when I told you that cooking was NOT one of my many talents?  Well, it’s about to become very obvious to you. 

    The Butterbeer recipe was the last one we shot so I had kind of gotten in to the swing of things by then (and had a few drinks…ahem).  Ambrosia, on the other hand, was the first video we shot and I was neither warmed nor liquored up yet.

    I don’t know what it is about cooking that causes all of my smarts to fly right out the window.  Give me the newest iphone and I’ve got it figured out within 10 minutes but put a blender in front of me and you’d think I’d just been handed a spaceship.  Actually….I take that back…I am absolutely positive that I could figure out the spaceship before I could figure out the blender.

    In my defense, the blender is my mothers and I’d never used it before.  I know, it’s a pathetic excuse but it’s the only one I’ve got so I’m exploiting it wholeheartedly.

    Not only did I not rehearse any of these recipes but, in some cases, I didn’t even read the directions beforehand, only the ingredients.

    Oops.

    What can I say? I like a little adventure in my life!

    On to Ambrosia!

    Ambrosia is a fancy shmancy alcoholic beverage from Battlestar Galactica that is known for being pretty potent. I like that it’s bright green, it reminds me of Ecto Cooler aka Slimer Juice.  But, you know, for adults.

    Mmmmm….green goo….

    So without further ado, this is how you make Ambrosia:

    [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A1ES6Jq87E]

    –

    Here’s the recipe (from The Geeky Chef):

    Ingredients

    6 oz Midori

    4 oz Blue Curacao

    2 oz lime juice

    Directions
    Add all ingredients to the Margaritaville Frozen Concoction Maker pitcher (or, in my case, a blender) and add ice as directed in the owners manual. Makes 36 oz. of delicious concoction. Garnish with a stemmed cherry and enjoy!

    I drank a lot of it. Gotta love liquid courage!

    PS – the next video will be of actual food, I promise!  Well…it would be actual food if I knew what I was doing…

  • Cooking with Hot Nerd Girl: Butterbeer

    Just remember, you've been warned!

    I don’t cook.

    Let me repeat.

    I. do. not. cook.

    I decided a while back that I should at least TRY to learn.  And if I was going to risk setting my kitchen on fire then I wanted to do it while making food that sounded appealing to me and what’s more appealing than food inspired by Star Trek? 

    Mmmmmm….Gagh…..

    So I got out my Star Trek cookbook and thumbed through all of the recipes until I found some I thought I could pull off.  I told a friend what I was doing and he suggested I film my attempts for posterity.

    Uff da.

    THEN I saw International House of Geek’s Thanksgiving post and the recipe for Lembas bread and decided to try recipes from several different franchises.  Really, I just wanted to try the Lembas bread. I explored The Geeky Chef and between the Star Trek cookbook, IHOG and Geeky Chef, I found 5 recipes to try. One entree, one bread, and three beverages. 

    I showed the rough edit of the first video to a family member and her first reaction was: “It’s obvious you don’t know what you’re doing.”

    It’s true.  I don’t.

    So feel free to laugh at my cluelessness in the kitchen.

    Up first, my new favorite Holiday beverage: Butterbeer! 

    (From Harry Potter, in case you didn’t know)

    [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYfAKaYWM94]

    –

    And here’s how to make it:

    Ingredients

    1/4 cup unsweetened condensed milk

    1/4 cup butterscotch topping

    2 tablespoons whipped butter, room temperature

    1 1/2 cups vanilla cream soda

    Directions
    Combine condensed milk, butterscotch topping, and butter in a glass heatproof measuring cup. Heat in microwave for 1 minute. Remove and stir until butter has melted and incorporated into mixture. Meanwhile heat cream soda in another heatproof measuring cup for 1 minute 30 seconds. Divide butterscotch mixture between 2 (10 to 12-ounce) mugs. Fill mugs with heated cream soda and stir thoroughly. Serve garnished with a cinnamon stick or an old-fashioned butterscotch candy stick.

    Enjoy!

    I sure did!

    Look for more Cooking with Hot Nerd Girl videos in the very near future!