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chuckroIn the morning, Jethrien gave me my birthday presents: A PS4 Pro, and copies of Final Fantasy XV, Final Fantasy Type-0, and World of Final Fantasy. I set up the system and played some of the latter, which is “Final Fantasy Pokémon that you stack on your head” at first glance. I’m expecting a whimsical experience.
I had pizza bagels for lunch, because birthdays are a time for weird indulgences.
Meanwhile, I also got the smoker going for my party in the evening. I did a smoked pork carnitas, which marinated in orange juice, lime juice, salt, garlic and chipotle overnight, then smoked for 10 hours in oak smoke. It could have smoked even longer, but it came out very nicely. I also did a smoked steak proof-of-concept with a fajitas recipe out of my smoker cookbook, which was tasty but tough, as I did it with a London broil. (Apparently, I balk at paying $10.50/pound for skirt steak when I can buy prime rib for $7/pound or London broil for $5/pound.) I did the whole thing as a taco spread with yellow rice, black beans, salsa, guacamole and the like. Mithrigil made a fruit salsa, and Jethrien made me a rainbow cake with chocobo decorations.
The party wasn’t the biggest we’ve ever thrown, but 16 people is respectable and everyone seemed to have a good time. I have found and purchased a bottle of Nassau Royale Liquor (a delightfully sweet rum that we’d had in the Bahamas years ago) and was encouraging people to try it; and also got ginger beer, a perennial favorite for mixing.
Sparticleman brought his 3-year-old daughter to the party, and she was apparently very concerned about the cake and making sure she would get to have some. She apparently has been checking in repeatedly that there would, in fact, be cake and that they would stay long enough to eat it. (There was, she did.)
I had pizza bagels for lunch, because birthdays are a time for weird indulgences.
Meanwhile, I also got the smoker going for my party in the evening. I did a smoked pork carnitas, which marinated in orange juice, lime juice, salt, garlic and chipotle overnight, then smoked for 10 hours in oak smoke. It could have smoked even longer, but it came out very nicely. I also did a smoked steak proof-of-concept with a fajitas recipe out of my smoker cookbook, which was tasty but tough, as I did it with a London broil. (Apparently, I balk at paying $10.50/pound for skirt steak when I can buy prime rib for $7/pound or London broil for $5/pound.) I did the whole thing as a taco spread with yellow rice, black beans, salsa, guacamole and the like. Mithrigil made a fruit salsa, and Jethrien made me a rainbow cake with chocobo decorations.
The party wasn’t the biggest we’ve ever thrown, but 16 people is respectable and everyone seemed to have a good time. I have found and purchased a bottle of Nassau Royale Liquor (a delightfully sweet rum that we’d had in the Bahamas years ago) and was encouraging people to try it; and also got ginger beer, a perennial favorite for mixing.
Sparticleman brought his 3-year-old daughter to the party, and she was apparently very concerned about the cake and making sure she would get to have some. She apparently has been checking in repeatedly that there would, in fact, be cake and that they would stay long enough to eat it. (There was, she did.)
