Just Visiting : Hamburgh Holidays

Alright, so sometimes there's an interesting event in your own backyard that's worth mentioning. And for me I'm throwing out Hamburgh Holidays. This is a series of events that celebrates the various winter holidays in the town of Hamburg, NY. But why is it interesting enough to mention? I love when people ask that part.

Hamburgh Holidays is an event that kicks off this month on what they're calling "Green" Friday(Black Friday to most shoppers aka today), continuing through December 31st with a variety of events for the whole family. I'm particular interested in seeing the Santa Claus Parade on Saturday November 25th, maybe I'll find someone who wants to go with me.

Anyway check out the calendar below, and if you decide to go to the event, let me know what you thought. Have a magical weekend and I hope you found what you were looking for.

Unique Experience : Cooking with Dice

Games are something that are popular now more than ever. Many people enjoy playing them alone or with other people. There are games for every skill level, and for those who want a challenge it can be a great change of pace from daily life to play a game. but they almost all have the same limitation, usually the only true results are simple entertainment and an engaging way to pass time. But that seems to be changing as people look at ways to creatively combine world necessities with our inherent need to be entertained.

Which leads us to our unique experience, Cooking with Dice: The Acid Test. This is a cookbook and game experience that is going to be live on kickstarter March 14th. You can find out specifics about the campaign on their website www.cookingwithdice.com. You'll be able to get your very own copy to play through and enjoy!  But I'm sure you're wondering about how it plays, or how it works. So let's have a look at how our experience here at home has gone.

So before I get too far into this, as someone who prefers tabletop games and board games to video games on the most part, I have to say I found this to be appealing. The Acid Test Cookbook is a fantastic example of creativity at it's finest offering unique kitchen experience. It includes a few different play mode recommendations, single player, group, or team based on what you feel up to attempting. But remember some of the recipes need time to 'cook' so they may not be ready for consumption immediately. I attempted to run it in group mode, but we felt intimidated, so I ended up testing it on my own in single player mode.

I must admit that my first few attempts at working through any of the recipes left me feeling a little out of my element. Partially because I'm not very good at following directions, but also due to the fact my kitchen lacks a majority of the ingredients listed on the roll tables. Which made it a little difficult to just play the book from home without purchasing the ingredients before hand. A mistake I initially made. I'm a gamer who doesn't frequent the kitchen so it never crossed my mind you need to go get your ingredients first. My bad.

So after reading through more and examining things more closely the solution I came up with, was to roll the dice and make a shopping list. Yeah I know, this is what everyone else would have done in the first place when they want to prepare a recipe. But I'm not a cook, so to me it seemed I had come up with a great solution. Less creative I suppose than I want it to sound, but by approaching the recipes and die rolls in this manner it was far easier to actually follow the recipes and continue game play.

I think my favorite part of the book is that it does not require the use of the oven. The microwave really is one of my favorite cooking centers, so a book that offers more creative and inventive recipes to be made there is highly appealing. It was surprising though that they were much easier in practice than I was expecting.

Not only were the recipes easy, the results were impressive. I'm looking forward to actually using some of them for future holiday get togethers. My favorite recipe in the whole book though is the buttermilk cheese critter. I never realized I could make a cheese ball so easily at home. I've always found them to be a rather intimidating product when the holidays come around. We often purchase them and then set them out as needed.

The recipe that I rolled up for my cheese critter wasn't extremely difficult. But I did alter my recipe slightly because I wanted to pretend that I was brave. I ended up using: 2 cups low-fat buttermilk,1/4 cup grated mozzarella cheese, 2 tablespoons diced Ham, and 2 tablespoons of bacon bits. Those components made up the majority of my "Buttermilk Cheese Critter". For the coating I ended up using 2 tablespoons of crushed round crackers.

Personally I like the buttery taste of the crackers, and it let the ham flavor stand out more. The bacon bits gave it a little more of a crunch, and I know they'll be safe if I repeat this with some of my friends around. I know they weren't really included in the plans, but I wanted to have a little bit of a crunch with the ham and I wasn't sure I wanted to add nuts. I think I'll call this variation porky.

I'm going to have to do it again soon though so I can make it cute and take a picture of the results. So don't be surprised if there's another post in the near future showing off my rather new found acid based cooking skills! I wasn't entirely brave in my preliminary creations because I was more interested in tasting the results and finding out how difficult it would be. But I am definitely going to have to show off some results as soon as possible.

So considering that I have actually had positive results, even though I have little skill, I recommend this cooking experience. Even for younger children, as long as you supervise them. If you're looking to make creative game based meals, or just to challenge your family to create food at home, this cookbook will be a wonderful addition to both your cookbook collection and your game collection. Check out their website for further information, www.cookingwithdice.com and MAKE SURE to check into their kickstarter once it's live! You don't want to miss out on this.

What's on Screen? Baby's Day Out

When it comes to the early 90's there's a ton of movies that are considered to be classic. But no matter who you ask, what these films are vary. But in our house as I grew up, there were some movies that were on constantly. Mr. Boogedy, Bushwacked, Home Alone, and the movie that we're watching today. Baby's Day Out.

My father loves this movie. Almost a little too much to be honest. We've probably had almost 50 copies of it through the years. I might be exaggerating slightly, but I want you to understand how important or beloved the film is. It still is. I found the copy I'm watching for someone else. My brothers children requested it for the holidays. But it wasn't to be found in time for that. But since I don't give up easily, I found it! I picked it up at a game store in Buffalo when I was hanging out with a good friend.

Movie Poster from Web

So why is this movie so much fun to watch? It's not hugely mainstream, so it's not like everyone has seen it. It doesn't have the greatest special effects, You can tell the gorilla isn't real. There's no hard core fighting. Instead there's a baby outwitting 3 grown adults while following the storyline of his favorite book.

While this might sound absurd, I have to admit it's actually enjoyable. The movie itself has a lot of the classic comedy physical humour that you would associate with other humorous film, such as Home Alone or most of the Three Stooges material. It is a great example of how exaggeration can be used to create amusing situations in unexpected manners.

If the weather has you feeling a little down and you need a laugh, I highly recommend this movie. I don't know how hard it might be to find, but if you can find it, I hope you see why it makes me laugh. Not just small giggle laughs, mouth grin laughs. And I hope it turns the corners of your mouth up too.

Just Visiting : Darien Lake

Darien Lake is an amusement park in Western New York. I've been to this amusement park many times in my life. It's passed through different hands, and they've tried a variety of different approaches to stay afloat. But it's always been a good time, whether you go there in a big group or a small one doesn't matter.

So far this season I've been to the park three times. So I'm  not making an uninformed post. But I have to admit that it's changed a bit since the last time that I was there. This isn't a good or a bad thing, it's just an observation.

The amusement park and the water park were both open when I was there this past Sunday. So that means you should pack your swimsuits and towels, and maybe an extra set of clothes if you're heading out for the day. There's a variety of rides that are kid friendly throughout the park, and as some of you know there's still the same roller coasters. So there's coasters, various medium thrill rides, and a few classics. The ferris wheel is really something if You want to get a birds eye view of the park.

What did I see that I liked? Moose on the Loose, was an interesting experience. You ride a moose around on a track. You can ride alone or double with a child. I got lucky enough to take one of my nephews on. I was a bit... shocked. It's a ride even adults seem to like. Not a bad thing, it's comical, cute, and well, just fun in general. I also liked the plastic drums that are set up in the center of the kiddie park. They're in the area where there used to be a ball pit or something of that nature. But now there's these interesting plastic drums and picnic tables.

Oh! Yes you can take food in with you but your cooler must fit into a certain size. So the smaller it is the better, or break up things into peoples backpacks. Because as usual, it can be expensive to feed a large group when you're out.

How did I manage to go to the park three times already this year? I could fib and say that I sneaked in under the fence, but that wouldn't be true. A number of my family members have season passes for the park. They were able to get me into the park using their free entry passes for guests. Each season pass holder gets a few of these, so it helps to balance out if you want to bring someone else to the park with you. A ticket for the park includes BOTH the water park and the amusement park. And I do think if you live in the area and intend to go, it's worthwhile to have a season pass. Since it does offer unlimited entry for the park.

Darien Lake
9993 Allegheny Road
Darien Center, NY 14040

The hours really vary a lot this year. So I can't really give you a set schedule. What I do advise you to do if you're going to be heading up that way, is to check the online schedule. Their online schedule lists the dates and times that they're open as well as the events that you can expect to see. They're having a wide variety of concerts through this year, so if you're a music buff check it out.