I Have to Work Late Because I Played Tales of Xillia 2 All Day …
I had so much work to do today, but I’m going to be up all night finishing it because I … uh … may have spent six or seven hours playing Tales of Xillia 2, which was released last week. When I woke up, I just didn’t feel like going anywhere or doing anything so I threw on comfortable clothes, grabbed a cup of coffee, made myself a plate of white cheddar, honey, and golden raisins on baguette slices, paired it with a big glass of milk, and went to the living room to lose myself in the world of Rieze Maxia and Elympios.
The sequel is a great follow-up to the original, which I used to talk about the power of the mere association mental model; how the brain can behave in irrational ways based one evolutionary quirks. I started playing last Wednesday and am already 40 or 50 hours into it, I think, but I’d need to check the save file to know with certainty. There have been some nights I’ve gone to bed at 4 a.m., forcing myself to finally put down the controller. I’m one of those do-every-side-quest-get-the-ultimate-weapons-for-everyone types (which should be evident by my Skyrim obsession a couple of years ago).
Toward the end of my session, it was getting late. Aaron had already put in a full day at work and wanted to know what we were doing for dinner. We decided to use whatever we had on hand at home and throw together something quickly. We ended up roasting a chicken French style and baking granny smith apples in a mixture of sugars and butter. It smelled wonderful as I attempted to fight off a terrorist attack aimed at ending the life of a high-ranking politician. Now, though, I’m paying the price. Time to start checking items off my agenda.
It’s still crazy to me how much more, and better, food you can get when you cook for yourself instead of eating at a fast food joint. You’d think the wonder would go away at some point but it hasn’t. Take the dessert. It seems excessive – all that butter and sugar – but it was only 270 calories per serving (we divided it into four ramekins) and still well within the daily sugar guidelines for a healthy person. Compare that with a pre-made dessert from a gas station and you’d be looking at several times those values. So much of it comes down to the preparation techniques. You can a tremendous amount of flavor in a slow roasted chicken, whereas if you wanted to make it quickly and have it taste good, you’d need to fry it.
The chicken had to sauteed on both sides to lock in the juices, the put over a bed of herbs and vegetables, placed in the oven, and slow roasted. Later, you strain the vegetables out of the juices, put the juices back on the stove and concentrate them down, making a natural au jus that gets spooned on top of the servings. It had a much more down-home flavor than Hazan’s fantastic lemon chicken and wasn’t nearly as intense as one of my personal favorites, the rosemary, garlic, and white wine chicken, but it’s definitely a great recipe. It filled the house with a fragrance that reminded me of visiting one of my grandmas on holidays when there was food in the oven.
The au jus was incredible.
We had some granny smith apples so we turned them into dessert …
We should have paired it with a bit of vanilla ice cream, which would have made it perfect, but it was delicious nonetheless. I think, maybe, during one of the upcoming dinners I’ll make individual pies like this. Cutting tiny lattice work might be a bit of a chore but I think I can do it.
I’m secretly hoping I get done early so I can go play more of the game. Or better yet, Aaron can start it while I work on the MacBook and watch him …
Oh, and favorite character? Hands down, Gaius / Erston. I’ve spent most of the game playing as him rather than Ludger. Muzét still freaks me out, though. Her mental instability of years past makes me scared to be around her. I know quite a few of you who read the blog are playing it. I love the battle system, especially the Kresnik powers.
