The Sword and Laser discussion

Well, if any Sword & Laser pick is appropriate for a "What are we nomming?" or "What are we sipping?" it must be Legends & Lattes! So what are you eating, snacking, drinking, sipping while reading the novel?

And because it's 2023 I have again asked ChatGPT for a cocktail and baked goods suggestion for accompanying Legends & Lattes*:

For the cocktail recipe, I present to you the "Martini Orcchiato."

Ingredients:

1 shot of espresso
1 oz vanilla vodka
1 oz amaretto liqueur
1 oz heavy cream
Chocolate syrup
Whipped cream

Instructions:
1. Prepare a martini glass by drizzling chocolate syrup on the inside.
2. In a shaker, combine the espresso, vanilla vodka, amaretto, and heavy cream.
3. Add ice to the shaker and shake vigorously for about 10 seconds.
4. Strain the mixture into the prepared martini glass.
5. Top with a dollop of whipped cream and drizzle more chocolate syrup on top for decoration.

And for the comforting baked good, I offer you "Orcish Oatmeal Cookies."

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup raisins

Instructions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
3. In a separate bowl, cream the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla extract.
5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, mixing until just combined.
6. Fold in the oats and raisins.
7. Drop rounded tablespoons of dough onto the prepared baking sheet, spacing them about 2 inches apart.
8. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown.
9. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy your cozy reading with these delicious treats!

*) My prompt was: "Please create a new, creative and unique cocktail recipe to accompany the reading of the cozy fantasy novel "Legends & Lattes" about an orcish woman opening a coffee shop. Let yourself be inspired by a Latte Macchiatio! Give it a punny name! Oh and maybe you could also create a recipe for a nice comforting baked good, like a cookie, a cupcake or something similar!

I'll be having Scwuns and a Cappuccino. 😉

(With credit to Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth for the name Scwuns) or as she put it 'sc 1s')

I did have the Cappuccino.

To makes Scwuns

1½ Cups of Plain Flour
1 Rounded Tablespoon of Baking Powder
½ Teaspoon of Salt
2 Rounded Tablespoons of Butter
1 Rounded Tablespoon of sugar
280 mls (¼ pint) of milk

1) Set Oven to 220° C (493 Kelvin)
2) Flour a baking tray
3) Sift flour with other powdered ingredients
4) Rub in the buter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in sugar.
5) Make a deep well in the flour. Pour in all the milk and mix to a soft, spongy dough.
6) On a floured surface, knead the dough (we all need the dough 😉) very lightly until it is smooth.
7) Roll or press out to about 2.5 cm (0.082021 feet) and cut out into round shapes (or use round cutter) about 5 cms (0.164042 feet) wide.
8) Sprinkle the scwuns with flour
9) Bake at top of oven for 7 minutes or until well risen and brown.

Serve while still warm. Cut in half, butter. Then Serve with raspberry jam & cream.

For cheese scwuns, substitute 1 rounded tablespoon of grated strong cheese (Instead of the butter and sugar) I don't recommend the jam & cream with these. Just a small dob of butter.

The whole Fannish food thing cracks me up. Long around the release of the Hitchhiker's Guide books the only obvious fan thing was the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster. Pretty much Everclear with blue dye. Many a convention had game fans drinking it to be fannish only to get trashed. But hey, the hoopy froods wanted to show they knew where their towel was...

I made pumpkin seed and anise biscotti to go with my morning cappucino.



Recipe is from here: https://www.seriouseats.com/almond-an... but, y'know, I had no almonds.

This book has me drinking so much coffee as I read. I find my self surpassing my usual one cup a day.

The other thread reminded me of this funny story about my dad and chocolate shakes. (He died last year and I’m old, so you have to indulge me, it’s the law.)

In college I worked at a fast food place called GD Ritzy’s. It was basically a combination of Wendy’s and Baskin Robbins, with a 1940s soda shoppe theme. (There are still a couple around: https://images.app.goo.gl/z2av7aiPmcC...)

So my dad, he of the infinite sweet tooth, would drop in when I was working and order a chocolate shake. The recipe for a chocolate shake was simple:
2 scoops vanilla ice cream
1 cup of milk
2 squirts of chocolate

For my dad, I altered it somewhat:
4 scoops chocolate ice cream
1 cup milk
10 squirts chocolate

One day he stopped in when I wasn’t working and ordered his usual chocky shake, so whoever was working made it per the directions. He took one look at it and said, “I ordered a chocolate shake, this is vanilla.” My manager assured him that was chocolate and told him how it was made. My dad goes, “Well that’s not how my son makes them!”

I got in a lot of trouble for that. I didn’t change how I made them. 😆

Later my friend Chuck and I were put in charge of making the ice cream, so we would make “special batches” for ourselves. Like cookies’n’cream called for 1 bag of Oreos for a 5-gallon tub: we’d put in 4 bags. Our versions were always the most popular.

Ah, the things you can get away with when working with food!

I used to work on a supermarket deli and hot counter, and part of our work included baking doughnuts. We were only able to sell them in bags of 6, but, somehow, we always seemed to mysteriously miscount when cooking them, inexplicably making as many over as there were people working on the deli that day. Of course, since they couldn’t be sold, these would have to be, erm, wasted. Cough, cough, I’m admitting nothing! ;P

Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth wrote: "Ah, the things you can get away with when working with food!

I used to work on a supermarket deli and hot counter, and part of our work included baking doughnuts. We were only able to sell them in..."
So no Bakers Dozen at that counter then. ;-)

Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth wrote: "Ah, the things you can get away with when working with food!

I used to work on a supermarket deli and hot counter, and part of our work included baking doughnuts. We were only able to sell them in..."

😂

As mentioned in the acknowledgements, someone made a thimblet recipie based on the book. Maybe I can get my mother to make it.

https://fantasycookery.com/thimblets/

The quantities look a little small; only 125g of flour is going to make teeny tiny thimblets if you make them into two 10 inch logs. I'm almost out of the anise seed ones, I'll try these next. Just need some dried currants.

Doubled up the recipe. It didn't specify green or black cardamom so I made half with one and half with the other. Green is much more pungent so hopefully not overwhelming.

Pass me one?

First bake. They are quite flat. I thought the recipe proportions were a bit sus as they seemed very wet after mixing. Shouldn't affect the flavor tho. Just needs to be cut and have a second bake.

And in for a second bake. I may or may not have eaten the end pieces and found them quite tasty. The green cardamom was not too pungent when cooked, I think I prefer it over the black. If making again, and I may well do that, I would add a little more flour and shape them taller and narrower to start.*



* I try to make a recipe first time exactly as written. I always find it cringe when you read recipe comments and somebody posts something along the lines of, "I didn't have cream so substituted powdered milk instead. We don't like nuts so left those out. All that sugar looks unhealthy so we used 1/4 of the amount. Overall, didn't like it very much. Was very dry and tasteless. Would not recommend."

Oaken, you're a champ, those look great. I may need to find myself some biscotti this morning.