A baking and gardening journal. Mostly.
By Iron Chef Leftovers
So last night I cracked open a Maine Brewing Company “Another One” and a Nantahala Brewing (they are from North Carolina) “4 Food Drop” and then realized that there was humor in that there beer:
Get it? I thought it was funny.
by A.J. Coltrane
Deck Heroes: Legacy – An android-based free-to-play collectible “battle” card game.
Basically, you collect creature and hero cards, assemble a mini-deck of 7-10 creatures and one hero, then battle computer-run decks. When in combat the object is to either eliminate all of the opposing creatures, or reduce the opposing hero to zero hit points. There’s a campaign with around 100 nodes to clear. After that their idea is that you’re hooked enough to spend money in the pay-to-win endgame.
The creature and hero cards fall into one of four factions — human, faen (elf), mortii (undead), and neander (beast). Heroes are functionally “generals” — they don’t directly fight, but they can buff your creatures, or damage or impede the opposing creatures. Cards from the same faction tend to have synergies, such as “all cards of this type get +100 damage”. The cards can be upgraded (leveled), and can be augmented with collectible runes.
A couple of minuses:
Deck Heroes can be played as free-to-play, though the progress gets pretty slow after a while.
The art can be sexist, with ridiculous boobs everywhere. Here’s one of the tamer cards:
Flame Brave is a caster. The pictured card is level 0, with 238 attack and 849 health. A level 10 version of that card would have 428 attack and 1399 health.
All of the cards gain more and better abilities as they level up. Her level 0 version also deals 150-250 damage to one random enemy creature. At level 5 she gains the “deal 210-350 damage to all enemy creatures”. Then at level 10 she gets “inflicts ‘flaming’ on all enemy creatures, causing them to lose 120 HP after their action.”
Overall Deck Heroes has some decent depth and strategy for an Android title.
Recommended game if you can put up with the artwork.
By Blaidd Drwg
A friend of mine recently posted on Facebook about how the Pats have been to 12 AFC championship game and the Broncos to 9 in the last 3 decades. That is a pretty good run, but it got me thinking, what about Super Bowls? I decided to shrink the window and only look at the last 21 years. Why, you might ask, well, I figured I would be looking at the expansion era in the NFL, which started in 1995 and from 1991-1994, the Buffalo Bills were the AFC representative in the Super Bowl, so 1995 seemed like a good place to start.
So since 1995, there have been 8 AFC teams that have represented the conference:
| Team | Number Of SB Appearances | % of AFC Total |
| Patriots | 7 | 33% |
| Steelers | 4 | 19% |
| Broncos | 3 | 14% |
| Ravens | 2 | 10% |
| Colts | 2 | 10% |
| Raiders | 1 | 5% |
| Chargers | 1 | 5% |
| Titans | 1 | 5% |
There is a bit of rounding there, but, counting this year because it will be either the Pats or Broncos representing the AFC, the Pats, Broncos and Steelers represent 15 out of the last 22 AFC champions, or 68% of the appearances, with the other 32% represented by the remaining 5 teams on the list, meaning there are 8 AFC teams that have not made the Super Bowl in the last 21 years. What about the NFC you might ask? Well, in the same time period, no NFC team has been to more than 3 (Seattle, GB and the Giants are all at 3) and only 3 teams have been to more than 1 (SF, the Rams and the winner of the Carolina/Arizona game this weekend). Talk about dominance vs. parity.
So it got me thinking, if the Pats, Steelers and Broncos have been to that many Super Bowls, how have the fared in AFC Championship game appearances? Well those numbers are quite scary:
| Team | Number of AFC Championship Appearances | % of Total Possible Appearances | % of Conference Total |
| Patriots | 11 | 52% | 26% |
| Steelers | 8 | 38% | 19% |
| Colts | 5 | 24% | 12% |
| Broncos | 5 | 24% | 12% |
| Ravens | 4 | 19% | 10% |
| Jets | 3 | 14% | 7% |
| Chargers | 2 | 9% | 5% |
| Titans | 2 | 9% | 5% |
| Raiders | 2 | 9% | 5% |
The list of teams that have been to the Super Bowl is no less dominating when you factor in the AFC championship game. Heck the only team that has been to the AFC championship game that has not been to the Super Bowl in the last 21 years are the Jets, losing all 3 times they appeared in the conference championship.
So next time someone wants to talk about the “dominance” of the Seahawks, just remember, the last time that the Patriots were NOT in the AFC championship game was 2010 (they lost to the Jets in the divisional round) and the last time they did not make the playoffs was 2008, when Brady was out the entire year and they still finished 11-5 and managed to not make the playoffs because of tie-breakers for their division and the wild card. Actually the last time the Patriots failed to win 10 games was 2002 (they were 9-7) and the last time they didn’t make the playoffs was last century, when they finished 5-11 in 2000, with some coach named Belichick, who was in his first year with the team and that Brady guy was their third string QB, behind Drew Bledsoe and the combination of John Friesz and Michael Bishop.
You won’t find a bigger hater of the Pats than me, but, damn, even I have to concede that is a long time to be that dominant.
by A.J. Coltrane
A two-hour focaccia:
I feel like this may have been the best “quick” focaccia yet.
The Tweaks:
It made a terrific dinner with a bit of cheese and SeattleAuthor’s charcuterie:
The formula: 400 grams Bread Flour, 280 grams room-temperature water (70% hydration), 12 grams olive oil (3%), 9 grams kosher salt (2.25%), 1 teaspoon instant yeast.
For comparison, here’s a 100% hydration, 6% olive oil focaccia from 2014. It couldn’t be dimpled because it was already collapsing under its own weight. It was baked at 425F and even with the higher oil content it was a lot lighter in color. Here’s another that was baked at 425F. And another. None of them are all that brown.
By Blaidd Drwg
Yesterday I as saddened to hear of the passing of Monte Irvin on the 11th of January at age 96. If you don’t know who Irvin was, he was a former NY Giant great and the first baseball Hall of Famer I ever met, back in the early 1980’s at a baseball card show at St. Peter’s College in New Jersey (I was probably 10 or 11 at the time). He appeared with another former Giant teammate Dusty Rhodes. I had the pleasure of sitting down with the both of them for about 20 minutes to talk baseball since there was no one there getting autographs. I remember Rhodes talking about how he became a tugboat captain after he retired from baseball and Irvin talked about his experiences in the Negro Leagues, which I knew very little about at the time. Thanks to Irvin, I became interested in Negro League history, which at the time, was not easy to find any information about and it is directly responsible for me being a long time supporter of the Negro League Museum in KC, a place that I sadly have not yet been to. Rhodes passed away in 2009 (not before I had a series of correspondences with him about his post-baseball career and I still have the letters that he sent – yep, we corresponded old school and I do have an unhealthy obsession with tugboats) and with Irvin passing on the 11th, we lost yet another link to the Negro Leagues.
I am sure that Irvin had no idea that a 20 minute conversation he had with a kid 30 years ago would have such an impact, and, frankly, I had not realized it myself until I reflected on my interaction with Irvin. A friend of mine sent me a link to an article on nj.com about Irvin’s passing, written by someone who actually knew him. I would suggest reading the article, but I wanted to include a snippet of it just to make a point about how much the Negro Leagues meant to Irvin:
There was a moment about a decade ago when I researched all the Hall of Famers who played in Newark for the New York Yankees farm team called the Bears, the Eagles and the turn-of-the-century Newark Indians. Joe DiVincenzo, the Essex County Executive had hung plaques for a ring of honor just above façade behind home plate at the Bears and Eagles baseball stadium in Newark.
Monte was one of them. He was in a wheelchair, and afterward I walked over to him and hugged him. Monte, being Monte, the conversation went like this:
“Listen,” he said, “I’ve got to tell you something. You can’t die.”
“Ever?” I said.
“Never,” he said. ”You are the last writer to ever see us play in the Negro Leagues. You die and that leaves nobody to tell our story. The kids won’t even believe we had a league. Don’t die.”
So in honor of Irvin’s passing, go read a book on tugboats, or the a book I highly recommend on the Negro Leagues, “When Only the Ball Was White.” Better yet, go make a donation to the Negro League Museum – a place that would not existed if it were not for the efforts of guys like Buck O’Neil and Monte Irvin and lets make sure a very important piece of American history does not get forgotten once those who were part of it are all gone.
by A.J. Coltrane
The holidays are past, and that means one thing: It’s now time to empty out the refrigerator before stuff turns.
A very fast weeknight pizza:
The dough: 400 grams bread flour, 120 grams water, 120 grams beer (the beer was a holiday gift — for reference, the water and beer combine to create a very normal ~60% hydration in total, if you don’t count the beer solids), 1 tablespoon dry oregano, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 tablespoon “garlic infused olive oil” (another holiday gift), 8 grams kosher salt, 1 tsp instant yeast. Mix on low speed for 10 minutes, lightly coat the bowl and dough with oil, cover, and let rise for up to two hours. I only let it go an hour since we were hungry.
The Topping Ingredients: Garlic olive oil (that same gift as above), TJ’s “Bruschetta” sauce (mostly tomatoes and garlic), SeaStack cheese, herbed goat cheese (both cheeses left over from entertaining guests), diced Boar’s Head salami (another gift), crumbled cooked bacon (we bought too much bacon for guests). The outer crust got Penzy’s “Brady Street Cheese Sprinkle” (another gift — finely grated dried romano cheese with dried garlic, dried basil, and green peppercorns.)
The Process:
There are a few good “weeknight cheats” this time. Substituting beer for the water creates flavor when there’s not enough time for flavor to happen naturally. The addition of sugar adds flavor, somewhat helps the dough rise, and promotes browning. The flavored oil can be thrown around liberally, and that helps too.
The ingredients were excellent. The Penzy’s Sprinkle and flavored oil both added interest to the crust. I’m sure the Penzy’s thing is overpriced, but it’s really good. Romano cheese on the crust may be my new not-so-secret weapon.
Finally… bacon.
Everything exuded some liquid, so the pizza wasn’t crisp. Still, it was very tasty, and made for a good way to Use Things Up.
I’d be ok with eating like that all the time.
by A.J. Coltrane
Title: Bang! (We own Bang! The Bullet, which includes the expansions.)
Game Type: Shoot ’em up card game.
Number of Players: 4-8. Better with more.
Complexity of Rules: Low. It’s a party game rather than a “deep” game.
Time to Play: The box says 20-40 minutes. With our group it’s usually 30 minutes or less.
The Concept: It’s a spaghetti western! One player plays as the Sheriff. All of the players know who the Sheriff is. Everyone else secretly plays either as a Deputy, an Outlaw, or the Renegade. The Sheriff and Deputies win if they kill the Outlaws and Renegade. The Outlaws win if they kill the Sheriff. The Renegade wins by killing everyone except himself. In addition to that, each player plays as a random (in)famous person from the old west — all featuring different bonuses and drawbacks.
At the start of the game you only own a pistol, and you can only shoot at the person next to you. You can increase your reach around the table by drawing a rifle card, or a scope card. If you get a horse card it effectively makes you further away from your enemies. You can hide behind barrels. You can pass lighted dynamite around the table. You can recover health by drinking beer..
Why I Like It: It’s fun, fast, and violent. A big part of the game is figuring out Who is Who, or at least Who you think is Who. The secret roles mean that there’s often a feeling out process before the shooting begins in earnest, but once it does the game can get really chaotic. It’s light on strategy, but playing smart still helps.
We bring it out almost every GNOIF, and it’s always a hit.
No pun intended.
—————-
BoardGameGeek page here.
FlatbreadGarden 