#not me considering writing a FF8-themed cookbook?!???!

[angelosearch]

Behold! My Final Fantasy VIII-themed Dinner

In case anyone is curious...

Cocktail - Quezacotl's Thunderstorm

Pretty simple - Vodka, orange juice, (meyer) lemon juice, and plain seltzer served in a light-up novelty glass. (not pictured: the logo on one side for the Christmas event it came from LOL

Appetizers - Mini Hot Dogs and a Balamb Garden Salad

Each ingredient of this salad is representative of a different enemy that you fight in Balamb Garden at some point. There's iceberg lettuce (glacial eye), Radicchio (Grat), grape tomatoes (Bombs - the red ones are literally called sugar bombs), honey goat cheese (Granaldo), candied walnuts (raldo), green goddess dressing (green like caterchipillar), and tajin (something with a bite for bite bugs). I think this would have come together better if I had made the dressing, but I will be happy to have this for the lunch for the rest of the week.

The mini hot dogs were frozen from a box lol.

Side Dishes - Malboro Tentacles and Mashed Norg

The Malboro Tentacles are extremely tender, slowly cooked asparagus with A LOT of garlic (need that bad breath), and some chili flakes for spice. I also threw in some soy sauce for color. This is exactly how I imagined they would be when I set out to make them, so I am pretty happy about it.

Norg - pointless boss, great side dish. These are pretty basic buttermilk mashed potatoes but I wanted to maximize the yellowness. I used yukon gold potatoes (even peeled them, which I never usually do), a dash of tumeric, and lots of butter. That wasn't quite yellow enough so I dug to the back of my spice cabinet and found the saffron I was given as a gift and can never seem to find a meal special enough to use it for. HONESTLY, these were so good. Definitely going to do this again.

Entree - T-Rexuar Steak

I was REALLY worried making these. I've made steak before but I usually use pretty simple seasoning. But for a T-Rexaur, I wanted the outside of the steak to be reminiscent of a T-Rexuar hide. So I actually marinaded the steak in a Tikka-like sauce (paprika, cayenne, tumeric, ginger, garlic, lemon, yogurt) because I was looking for redness. I have NEVER put yogurt on steak before - YIKES what a risk. When I took them out to come to room temperature before cooking them, I patted excess marinade off and added a generous amount of salt, paprika, chili powder and garlic in hopes of creating a redish crust. Then I seared them.

Guys. I don't know if it was the marinade or what but this is some of the best steak I've ever made... or even had. The crust was excellent and the steak was so tender. Def getting a permanent +1 to strength for this one.

Stay tuned for dessert!