We all know that Hemet Nesingwary is a hunter par excellénce. He’ll kill any game alive, in the jungles of Stranglethorn Vale, the meadows of Nagrand, or the rainforest of Sholazar – and when he’s done killing a beast, he’ll skin and cook it too, for good measure. Surprisingly, Hemet’s actually a pretty good cook, given that he spends most of his time hunting. Then again, his cooking tool of choice is the spit, and that doesn’t require as much skill as it does patience and tolerance for a singed beard.

Mrs. Una Nesingwary, as you can probably imagine, eats a lot of meat, especially now that her son, Hemet Jr., has taken over operations in Stranglethorn. It’s always a bit of a relief when she sees Hemet off at the Deeprun Tram, helps Hemet Jr. get his bags onto the gryphon at the Great Forge, and settles back in at their little apartment in the Hall of Explorers for a nice night of not having to explain to anyone why she doesn’t want thirds of Elekk Steak, Medium Rare, with a side of Giraffe Bacon.

Her friends call the dish she cooks that first night after the Hemets have left on their months-long excursions “Hemet’s Departure” (she was cooking it long before Hemet Jr. was born); she just calls it “my secret recipe”, largely because neither Hemet has any idea that the meat they’re sending back is going directly into the freezer at Amberstill Ranch.


Hemet’s Departure

Ingredients:

  • 4 packages of ramen noodles, one packet for each serving you want to make plus one. This recipe assumes three servings
  • 3 spice packets from the ramen; one packet of spices per serving. You’ll end up with one packet left over
  • 2 large broccoli crowns, chopped into individual florets. A floret larger than 1″ should be chopped in half
  • 2 pounds of tofu, chopped into 1/4″ cubes
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 4 tbsp soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp peanut butter
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 6 1/4c water
  • 1 tbsp brown sugar

Directions:

  1. Combine the peanut butter, 2 tbsp of soy sauce, the garlic, 1/4c of the water, and the brown sugar in a microwave-safe bowl. Mix as well as you can (a plunging beater works well) and microwave for 1 minute on high. Once this is in the microwave you can forget about it until later in the recipe.
  2. Using a crab hammer, a rolling pin, or something else that makes a satisfying thunk when you whack it against a counter (do not use a knife handle!), crumble the ramen while it is still in the package. Don’t reduce it to dust, just make sure that it’s not long strands. You want little noodle bits for this.
  3. Boil the water.
  4. You probably thought I was joking.
  5. While the water is coming to a boil, heat a wok or large skillet over medium heat. Add the olive oil and half the remaining soy sauce. When the oil begins to sizzle, add the drained, chopped tofu. Stir constantly.
  6. When the water boils, add the ramen but not the spice packets and cook for three minutes.
  7. When there’s about a minute left on the ramen, add the broccoli to the skillet. Continue stirring.
  8. Drain the ramen in a collander with fine holes. Add the ramen, the ramen spice, and the remaining soy sauce to the skillet and combine with the tofu and broccoli.
  9. Remove the peanut sauce from the microwave and stir well, for about 30 seconds. Then add it to the skillet and mix it in.
  10. Cook the contents of the skillet for another 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly.
  11. Remove from heat and serve immediately.

Hi!

If you’re like me, you’re wondering, “what happened to Nourish!? I adored that blog, and I wanted to give the authors lots of money and millions of hits a day, but they haven’t updated for two weeks!”

(Okay, that middle part might be wishful thinking.)

And it’s true. We haven’t updated since June 17, which in Internet terms is like not updating since 1984. We do have awfully good reasons, though, I promise. I’ve been moving house and dealing with illness, Pix has been on a much-needed and well-earned vacation, and Anea answers to no man so we really have no idea what she’s been up to even though we keep asking. (This is like the Witch-King of Angmar, so I bet we could get her to talk by getting one of our female friends to ask, but Cadistra won’t help would have helped but we assumed she was too busy with her comic that you all should be reading, and Jezriyah’s been distracted by her new boyfriend.) Also, we prefer to post recipes with pictures, and because of all of this vacationing in Bora Bora and visiting the doctor every third day and answering to no man, we really haven’t done a whole lot of cooking recently, so we haven’t had anything to take pictures of.

Not to worry, though! We’ll be back in action very soon. Here’s a preview:

3. Boil the water.

Isn’t that exciting? I can’t wait!

Until next time,
Your friendly neighborhood Cheferman
Chris

Perfect for shapeshift form nourishment.

Perfect for shapeshift form nourishment.

Pix’s Note: I do apologize for the horrible, horrible pun, but I’m allowed to be goofy. Also, the cooking directions will look intimidating, but it’s really very simple, I promise. Give them a good read-through before you make it, and you’ll do great!

Ingredients:

  • 2 teaspoons vegetable oil (can substitute canola if desired)
  • (optional) 1/2 teaspoon ginger, minced
  • 1 tablespoon garlic, chopped
  • 1/2 cup soy sauce
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
  • 1 cup vegetable oil for frying
  • 1 lb flank steak
  • 1/4 to 1/2 cup of corn starch
  • 1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
  • 2 large green onions

Directions:

  1. Suggestion: chop/mince/slice your vegetables before you start anything else. It will make it much easier in the long run, and you won’t be rushing to get them cut before they have to be added.
  2. Heat 2 teaspoons vegetable oil in a medium saucepan over med/low heat.
  3. Add garlic (and ginger if used) to the pan
  4. Add soy sauce and water to the pan before garlic scorches (if you can smell the garlic cooking, it’s almost scorching)
  5. Dissolve brown sugar in the sauce
  6. Raise heat to medium and boil sauce for 2-3 minutes or until the sauce thickens.
  7. Remove sauce from heat.
  8. Slice flank steak against the grain into 1/4″ thick bite-size slices – tilt the blade of the knife at about a 45° angle when slicing.
  9. Dip steak pieces into corn starch to apply a thin dusting to both sides of each piece of beef, and place them in a clean bowl.
  10. Let beef sit for 8-10 minutes to allow the corn starch to stick.
  11. Heat 1 cup of oil in a wok or large skillet until hot, but not smoking.
  12. Add beef to the oil and saute for two minutes, or until beef begins to darken on the edges. Remove with tongs or a slotted spoon and place on a paper towel-covered plate or bowl. Note: you don’t need a thorough cook since the beef will be going back on the heat later.
  13. If you will be using the same wok or skillet for cooking, pour out the oil (not down the drain!)
  14. Add meat to the wok/skillet, and allow to cook for 2-3 minutes.
  15. Add yellow onion and saute for one minute.
  16. Add sauce, cook for 2-3 minutes while stirring.
  17. Add green onions, cook for 1 minute while stirring (not too long – keeps the onions green and firm, not brownish and wilted)
  18. Remove beef and onions to a serving plate with a slotted spoon – leave excess sauce in the pan.
  19. Serve with rice or noodles.

Enjoy!

Shoveltusk sausage, Redridge potatoes, and Westfall greens.

Shoveltusk sausage, Redridge potatoes, and Westfall greens.

(Based on Shoveltusk Soup – World of Warcraft; original recipe from http://www.wacocityfarm.com/recipes.php)

Submitted by Padlock of the Scarlet Crusade server.

Prep Time: approx. 15 Minutes.
Cook Time: approx. 1 Hour.
Makes 4-5 servings.

 Ingredients:

  • 12 links spicy pork sausage, sliced
  • 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
  • 3/4 cup diced onion
  • 1 Tbsp. minced garlic
  • ½ can chicken broth
  • 4 cups water
  • 2 russet potatoes, halved and sliced
  • 2 cups sliced kale greens
  • 1 cup light cream

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).
2. Place sausage links on a baking sheet and bake 25 minutes, or until cooked through. Slice into 1/2 inch slices.
3. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Sauté onions until translucent; add garlic and cook 1 minute.
4. Stir in broth, water and potatoes; simmer 15 minutes.
5. Reduce heat to low and add sausage, kale and cream; simmer until heated through and serve.
 
Serve with Bacon Bits and/or Shredded Parmesan for extra taste.

“Nourish!, food blog. A blog, barely out of its infancy. Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world’s first* bionic blog. Nourish! will be that blog. Better than it was before. Better, stronger, faster.”

  1. In order to have more flexibility and control over the blog, we’ve moved to a full WordPress install. The new address is http://nourishmenu.thestorythusfar.com/ – but then, if you’re reading this you probably already know that.
  2. We have a Twitter account. It will be the world’s first* bionic Twitter account, fully integrated with this blog but capable of direct human interaction as well. You can find it at @NourishMenu.

This blog post will self-destruct in fifteen seconds**.

* May not be actual first.
** Post may not self-destruct.

Submitted by Anea of Holy Discipline

Ingredients:

Hellfire Veggies

  • 2.5 lbs of stew meat (we use this to feed four people – add or subtract as you need)
  • 1 medium-largish onion
  • 6 jalapeño peppers (chilis)
  • 6 roma tomatoes
  • corn tortillas (optional)

Directions:

  1. Chop your meat into smallish chunks
  2. Dice vegetables
    A note about chilis – even though I have indicated 6 for this recipe, you probably will not want to leave the seeds in all of them. The inside of the chilis is what makes it burn your mouth. Depending on the hotness of the chilis (I find it varies by store/size/color), I will usually leave four of them with seeds in and two without. I will use that as a general rule – you may add or subtract as you think you can handle.
  3. Put a dollop of canola oil into your skillet – enough to just about coat the bottom – and turn your burner to a medium-high heat
  4. Add your meat to the skillet – after a bit you will see the bottom half start to turn brown. Add your onions and chilis.
  5. Cook uncovered about 15 minutes until meat is cooked through
  6. Add tomatoes
  7. Cover and cook a few more minutes until tomatoes are cooked down into a sauce
  8. If you decided to eat this with tortillas and you’re in a hurry, you can just heat them up in the microwave.

Hellfire Ranchero

Open mouth, insert noms!

Open mouth, insert noms!

(Based on Mulgore Spice Bread – World of Warcraft)

Submitted by Cadistra of World of Warcraft, eh?

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup dark corn syrup
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed (use the heel of your hand to press the sugar into the cup – add sugar until full)
  • 1 egg
  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup milk

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 325°F
  2. Combine corn syrup, brown sugar, and egg; mix well (if you have a mixer, use it on a very low setting)
  3. Combine dry ingredients in another bowl; use a mixing spoon or spatula to mix the dry ingredients together – just be gentle! (Optional – add 1 1/2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice for more spice!)
  4. Add dry ingredients to egg mixture and alternate with milk (just add a little at a time to properly blend it all together); mix well.
  5. Pour into a greased, wax paper-lined 9×5 loaf pan
  6. Bake for 80-90 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean (the toothpick test)
  7. Allow loaf to cool for 10 minutes in the pan before removing it; place on wire rack to allow loaf to cool completely (alternatively, if you don’t have a wire rack, a bacon rack or other item that allows air to circulate under the loaf will work as well).
  8. Wrap and let stand for 24 hours before slicing.

Enjoy!

Looks delicious, no?

Looks delicious, no?

Submitted by: Cadistra of World of Warcraft, eh?

Ingredients:

  • 3/4 cup frozen or fresh berries (blueberry, raspberry, blackberry, strawberry, or mixed)
  • 1/2 cup organic vanilla yogurt
  • 1/2 of a banana
  • 1/2 cup of cold fruit juice, your choice (recommended: blueberry or white grape)
  • 1 tablespoon wheat germ (optional)
  • 1 scoop vanilla whey protein powder (not required, but highly recommended)

Directions (This will be easy!):

  1. Put ingredients in food processor or blender, and pulse until smoothie reaches desired consistency. (For a thicker shake consistency, or if you use fresh berries, add ice cubes.)
  2. Enjoy.

This isn’t your usual gamer blog. You won’t find us talking about the latest video game release or the most recent World of Warcraft content, here. We just talk about food.

So why are we doing this?

Well, let’s be honest. Gamers aren’t exactly known for their healthy eating habits, right? It’s all too easy to rush into your living space after a long day, throw a Hot Pocket into the microwave, and slide into your computer chair for an evening of smashing pixels… with other pixels. The problem with that isn’t the fact that you like to game, it’s that what you’re eating… probably isn’t really good for you.

We’re here to help.

We are dedicated to providing awesome meal recipes that are easy to make, and usually require little or no preparation or time spent monitoring your cooking, with easy-to-follow instructions, and no hard-to-find ingredients. The best part is, these recipes aren’t being provided by professional chefs (or if they are, we don’t know it); they’re gamers, just like you.

So pause your game, pull up a chair, and check out our recipes – we’re sure you’ll find something you’re going to love!

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