Cheeseburger "Hot Pockets"

You ever find something in the freezer you forgot you had in there? Sometimes it's like finding treasure, other times it's like that episode of Cowboy Bebop with the mold-covered fridge. I keep my fridge pretty clean, partly because I'm always hungry and partly because I don't like messes, but with the freezer you can just put things in there and forget about it.

Long story short, I found some puff pastry from 2001. That's... a long time ago... but it's just dough, right? If I develop some weird disease I'll let you know, but it worked and tasted fine to me.

So what to do with this puff? Well, Alton Brown had a recipe in Good Eats: The Early Years for a chicken pot pie with curry powder. He said to bake it in a baking dish, and place small circles of puff on top, as a sort of crust. So I made that, and it was good.

But there was still one more sheet! Luckily my man AB had me covered; he did an entire episode on puff pastry! The salmon turnovers sounded good, but there were a lot of ingredients. A note to the side of the recipe held my answer: "My favorite puff filling? Manwich mix and cheddar cheese." Yes.



Homemade Cheeseburger Hot Pockets

1 lb ground beef, or anything else would work, too
1 can Manwich/Sloppy Joe sauce
1 sheet puff pastry
1 egg beaten with 2 Tbsp (for egg wash)
grated cheddar cheese

Thaw the puff on a towel for 30-40 minutes, and heat the oven to 400 degrees F.

1) Brown the meat in oil.
2) Drain the meat if you want, then add the mix to the meat.
3) Place 1 tablespoon of meat filling in the center of each square. Sprinkle with grated cheddar cheese as desired.
4) Brush inside edges of puff pastry with egg wash and fold over to make a triangle. Seal the edges by pressing down with the tines of a fork. Poke a slit or two in the top of each turnover. Brush tops with egg wash. Bake in oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown.
5) Cool for 10 minutes before eating, they're hot!

Easy, no? Here's some tips:
-You don't want to overfill the puff pastry. Make sure you leave enough room around the edges to seal it. 
-You'll have LOTS of sloppy joe meat left over, so buy some rolls or more puff or something.
-Monitor the puffs in the oven to make sure they don't burn. Mine only took 20 minutes to cook.

The only problem I found working with puff pastry that's 9 years old is that it's very hard to work with. Maybe if I let it thaw longer it would have gotten more flexible, but after 45 minutes it was still stiff as a board. So instead of making triangular turnovers, I just cut each third of the sheet in half, and made three turnovers from that by making "sandwiches" with rectangles of puff and meat filling. Bam, instant Hot Pockets!

Mmmmmm, so good. Flaky and moist puff, savory ground beef, and sharp cheddar cheese. Not healthy at all, but 10 times better than Hot Pockets. Thank you, Alton Brown.

The Mind of Robert E. Howard

I read this entry over on Scans_Daily today, which features a comic called "'The Adventures of Two-Gun Bob'. They are stories about Howard's life, drawn from his letters, biographies and friends/lovers memories." I've never read any Conan the Barbarian before (though Korgoth of Barbaria was awesome), or seen the movie (though my friend always tells me I need to), but just reading these stories about him has gotten me interested. This one story really struck me, as I'm sure it does anyone who's interested in creating things.

Golden Boy - new OP with Big Black

I saw a commercial the other day that pissed me off. I can't find it now cause I forget what car it was advertising (way to go, ad people) and I haven't seen it since. Good riddance.

The premise was this: some girl is on a blind date with a young guy in a suit. She rushes out of the café, telling the guy she has to go cause her ride is there. She gets in her friend's car, and they start giggling (as women tend to do whenever they get together). The girl tells her friend, "He said he was a student... of life. Single lane ahead, that's where I'll be."

Sigh... you silly woman... you just passed up on pre-dropout GOLDEN BOY!

I'm guessing he was still in law school cause he was wearing a suit... but maybe he had a job where he was wearing a suit.

Super Mario Bros. Afterlife

Click for the big version.

Oh yeah, I rock at Photoshop. Apologies to Nintendo and Snapple.

I used to love the Mario games. Super Mario Bros. 3 was the first game I played, and my dad taught me all the tricks. I even enjoyed Sunshine. But New Super Mario Bros. on the DS was bad. Real bad. The only reason I finished it was because I just had my wisdom teeth removed and I was out of commission for a few days. It was like they weren't even trying. "Hey, what new things should we add to this game?" "How about Mario becomes gigantic and destroys everything in his path?" "Okay great, meeting over. Send that shit to print."

Galaxy actually looks like fun, but I haven't played it yet. I'm just surprised they went straight from an island to outer space; it'll be hard to ONE-UP themselves now (pun intended)!

ETA: Of course now I find out they actually are making a second Galaxy game. I could change the 2 to a 3, but it still works.

Braid, Machinarium and Samorost 2 box art

For Christmas, I gave my brother Machinarium, Samarost 2, and Braid.

Since they're downloads and didn't come with boxes, I took some old computer game boxes and made some box art.

 

None of this art is mine, of course. I used the art from the games and patched it together in Photoshop. The hi-res images that came with Machinarium and Samorost 2 were of great help, and so was David Hellman's Braid Graphics Briefcase.

They're all great games, and last I checked they were super-cheap. Samorost 2 was nice and short, and I've only played the Machinarium demo, but I bought Braid for myself and it's really great. And hard. I'm still stuck in world 4, I think.