Why I don't like Settlers of Catan: A Rant

In all honesty, Settlers of Catan was pretty much the first geeky board game that I've ever played. By first geeky board game I mean that I don't count the games like Scrabble, Chess or Checkers, games with no theme and no abstract gameplay. Settlers of Catan were the first game where I played something like a settler colonizing an island, gathering resources and building cities. This make-believe style of playing was so refreshing, so intriguing to a 12 year old boy that I quickly fell in love with exchanging sheep for bricks and hoping to have the longest trade route.

As time went by, I played more and more board games and even watched as couple of my friends designed and published their own board game to a modest success. I started to understand the mechanism inside the games and I saw the two extremes of pure control (as in Chess) and pure luck (as in Monopoly).Settlers of Catan eventually gave way to other games and when I played Settlers again after about 2 years, I tried in vain to enjoy the game like I had used to. The rolling of dice, that seemed to hate the numbers I needed, made me groan as bad luck was indeed the prime factor that influenced the enjoyment from the whole game. I asked myself what changed, what happened to me that made this game so uninteresting?

Apple and Cinnamon Cake for Remoska

My first attempt on baking in Remoska and it was a nice success. I decided to use apples because they are cheap and I could finally start saving money :) Apple and cinnamon is a well known combination that just goes well together. I used about a spoon of vanilla sugar and I've heard that it is not so common in other countries. So in case anyone was interested in making their own, just get white sugar in a jar, stick a vanilla bean in it and in two weeks you have a jar of vanilla sugar. Or use vanilla extract instead I guess :)

Back to the cake. I didn't use any recipe, I tried going with what I know (almost the same ratio of flour and sugar, mix egg with milk, use butter) and see how it turns out. Maybe I used bit too much baking powder for my small remoska. The cake rose dramatically and the top got slightly burned but it was nothing that a knife wouldn't fix.

I'll see how good it is tomorrow but right now when it is still warm, it is DELICIOUS!

Chocolate Chip and Cranberry Muffins

To celebrate a family lunch with my grandma I looked for a recipe where I could use the rest of the cranberries. Muffins were the ideal thing to bake because they take short time to prepare and bake. My grandma said they were excellent and since she spent all her grandmotherhood baking, I'm sure she knows what's good and what's not :)

The original recipe called for lemon zest for some reason, I omitted it because it sounded weird. I changed the cranberry to chocolate chip ratio too, as the original used too much of cranberries that would supress the chocolate flavour IMO.

Personal memo: I wonder how different would it be if I used buttermilk instead of milk.