1. Darby O’Gill and the Little People: I’ve watched this movie every year of my life.  Growing up we weren’t allowed to watch it any other time, but St Patrick’s Day.  Please note that you must do the leprechaun dance for the Fox Hunt song.

2.  All Food Must Be Green or Irish: Corned beef and cabbage, green eggs and ham, Irish soda bread, Lucky Charms, green grilled cheese sandwiches, green oatmeal, green milk, green pancakes, green sugar cookies….you get the picture.  Really, there isn’t anything you can’t turn green, including butter.

3.  Green Clothes: When I was a child you had to prep the night before and make sure you were wearing green to bed, otherwise you were woken up with pinches for not wearing any green.  I haven’t informed my roommate of this yet, and I don’t think I will.

How do you geek out over St. Patrick’s Day?

Yep, the foamy goodness of Boba Fett

It is times like these that I’m proud to be from the soggy, green, caffeine loving Pacific Northwest.  Thanks to Christopher for sharing his favorite barista’s artistic talents.  Here’s to hoping he does requests because how fanfrakkingtastic would a viper and/or cylong raider be in foamy goodnees?

Cori showing off her awesome

After much debating (we decided that Caprica Six and Helo would make to bizarre of a couple, for one) we settled on having Richard and Kahlan from Legend of the Seeker to be our cake topper.  But there are no LOTS action figures to be found!  What’s a girl to do?  Why, have the same magic friend make some custom fondant figures!  And so she did!

It's a combination of me and Drew and Kahlan and Richard, hence the different hair color

Details are as follows: the sword that Drew is holding is painted with real edible silver, edible 14K Gold, and is adorned with a real Swarovski crystal.  Ever the attention to detail Cori  also made the tooth necklace seen on his neck.

Details on Kahlan are the sleeves, the chest area, with the lacing detail on the front, and the hood in the back, and  detailing had the 14K gold on the arms.

Never mind the Medal of Yavin Drew has on, that's a post for a different day

Let me know if you’d like to see more of Cori’s stuff, it’s all on facebook.  Pictures courtesy my fantabulous photographer Christina Domingues.

Last week I announced to the Twitterverse that I had made a dish called enchilada casserole for dinner. And I was told I had to bring the yummy goodness to Geek6.

Before I give you everything you need, just remember I am influenced by Tex-Mex cuisine having grown up in Texas. And now, I make what I do because I am pretty SOL when it comes to Tex-Mex where I live now.

And another good thing is I like the kitchen. I cook. Sometimes it is healthy other times you can feel your arteries clogging before the cooking begins. And it will range the gamut from Mexican to Italian to some warm and fuzzy home cooking. Mushroom-Dill Rotini, Vegetable Pesto Penne, Grill Cheese, its all good.

Enchilada casserole is one that probably isn’t the best for you. Red meat, sauce, cheese….mmmmm good. So you asked for it? You got it, a recipe that I made not once but twice last week by request. Go figure. And if you want more, you just let me know.

Enchilada Casserole
1 lb ground beef (a little more is good too)
12-15 corn tortillas
3-4 cups shredded cheese Mexican blend
2 10 oz. cans red enchilada sauce

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

First brown meat and season as desired. I recommend using a taco mix or as I always do your own mixture of spices (garlic, onion, cumin, chili powder, coriander, salt, pepper, cayenne for a little spice).

In a round casserole dish pour a small amount of sauce on the bottom. Cover with a tortilla. Pour a light layer of sauce over the top of the tortilla. Now spread about 40% of the meat around the dish, spread in a cup of cheese (or a bit more if you feel you need to). Add a layer of tortillas, 4-5 in a circle around the dish is usually fine.  Add in another layer of sauce, meat and cheese. Add layer of tortilla. Add final layer of sauce, meat and cheese. Top with another layer of tortilla if desired.

The key here is to not use too much sauce as it will make the casserole a bit soggy. Watch out for using too little also as your casserole will be dry.

Bake for 30 minutes or until dish begins to bubble.

Will serve 4-5 with sides.

Pac-man goes nom nom nom

Did you know October is National Cookie Month?  I did, thanks to geekycookies!  Their website is still in beta, so there are only a few cookies to choose from but between codex’s staff and the 360’s red ring of death, well, lets just say I’m deliciously amused…

Today is the last day they’re accepting suggestions for their final National Cookie Month reveal, I hear Legend of Neil and Legend of Zelda are topping the list right now, what would you make?

You too can consume a 45 million year old strain of yeast.

I don’t drink, so I really don’t have all that much interest in beer.  However, after visiting the LA County Fair and becoming mesmerized by the wall of homemade beer I remembered this random bit of info I stumbled across.  The 45 Million Year Old Beer.  What does that mean?  Basically that scientist Dr. Raul Cano isolated a strain of yeast that was preserved in the gut of an amber encased bee for over 40 million years.  The yeast was then used to brew this somewhat unique beverage.  Fossil Fuels Brew Co. is currently selling their 45 Million Year Old Beer on tap through Kelly Bros. Brewing Co. and Stumptown Brewery, both in northern California.  Plans are in the works to distribute to other locations.

The Wall of Homemade Beer at the LA County Fair

What is it? An entire line of soda with a Dungeons & Dragons theme. You can quaff yourself a Potion of Healing or a Dwarven Draught. And you can do it for a nice low price of $18.99 a twelve pack. All I know is that Jones Soda Co. needs to stop by the GeekSix offices and let us try a few samples. I will totally pimp myself out for their bottom line, and more importantly getting my hands on these.

You know after the best geek cereals, I didn’t really ponder upon the other finer points of geek cuisine. I should do that. Be back to you in a week or so. But until then, take a gander at these.

So when should I expect Jones Soda Co. to be knocking on the door?

So when should I expect Jones Soda Co. to be knocking on the door?

So when should I expect Jones Soda Co. to be knocking on the door?

So when should I expect Jones Soda Co. to be knocking on the door?

So when should I expect Jones Soda Co. to be knocking on the door?

The FDA is set to approve the use of lasers to label fruits and vegetables.  How cool is that?  No more sticky labels to peel off.  Though I do have to admit it seems kind of creepy futuristic, but I’m all for embracing change if it comes with scifi tendencies.  Laser labels will not affect the taste of food.  The technology was invented by Greg Drouillard, the director of research technology for laser development for Sunkist Growers Inc.  Anything can be “etched” onto the products with the only real restriction being the speed at which the product passes by the laser.  So, does that mean we’re going to start seeing ads on our fruit?  Or apples as party favors with your 2 year old’s face on it?  The possibilities really are endless.

A few weeks ago, Twitter friend @maribiscuits mentioned that she was sitting down to a lunch of “bread, a hunk of cheese and Branston Pickle — real ploughman’s food.”

Evidently, the British have absorbed our custom of eating bread, as well as cheese, but this “Branston Pickle” was something new. Being a friend to all vegetables somehow rendered dead and unhealthy, I began a quest to find it.

I searched all over the valley. Reports came in from people in other cities that their local grocer even stocked it. I was so vociferous in my hunger for Branston Pickle, that the nation of Britain all got together and agreed to just send me a jar if I’d quit going on about it.

Luck came in the form of a small, shabbily bohemian store in the suburbs — the kind of place Jimmy Buffet would have if he were a grocer. They had both the original, and small-chunk version of Branston Pickle. I opted for the original.

Some notes, based on the outside of the jar: It’s not all pickle, at least not in the traditional sense. It also contains rutabaga, dates, onion, carrots and marrows. I’m not sure what vegetable a marrow is, but since it’s British, it’s probably made with intestines.

I got home and opened the jar, and was instantly hit with a powerful scent. The tangy and acrid vinegar leapt up from the jar, in addition to something sweet. The color was much less pickly than I’d hoped, instead being a dark, dark brown, like molasses.

Not my picture, but pretty accurate all the same.

I used a spoon to spread some on a slice of bread. It’s chunkier than relish — we’re not quite talking dice-sized pieces, but maybe lima-bean sized chunks. It was a very distinct taste. Sweeter than most off-the-shelf relishes. Almost too sweet. And the basic slice of bread was way wrong — this Branston Pickle wanted something more rough hewn.

Thanks to Mrs. Josh, a loaf of sourdough and block of extra sharp cheddar made their way into the pantry for the next night’s experiment. Dinner was half a loaf of bread, some thick chunks of cheese and a liberal dollop of Branston Pickle.

Now THAT’s how it was meant to be eaten. The salty taste of the cheese and round coolness of the sourdough was a perfect match for the cloyingly tangy-sweet sauce of Branston Pickle.

Good stuff.

I’ll be through this jar soon, and while I may not always have to stock it in the cupboard, I’ll definitely hit the store for another jar this fall.