Life of Mama Val

I'm an introverted thirty-something mom of two, artist, and stay-at-home mom. I enjoy cooking, playing MMORPG games, camping, and more. I created this blog as a form of personal therapy, enabling me to share and look back at the things that I enjoy in life. Such as being able to vent my frustrations, share my observations as a mom, and helping to cope with post-baby blues. If I'm able to help or make others feel better in the process, then even better.

[lifeofmamaval]

FFXIV Eorzea Cafe at Home: Tonberry Omurice

Keep reading for how I made Tonberry Omurice!

Ingredients:

2-3 Eggs

2-3 tbsp Pesto sauce

1 tbsp cream or milk (optional)

White rice - about 2 cups, cooked

Butter

Vegetable oil/cooking spray

Salt

Pepper

Ketchup

Basil leaves or parsley for garnish

Tools:

Saucepan, small pot, or rice cooker

Omelette-sized skillet pan

Chopsticks

Spatula (Wider and more flexible, the better. Make sure it can scrape the sides of your pan well.)

Small bowl or something to mold the rice into

Small bowl to mix the eggs

Directions:

Make the rice, following the instructions on the package. For my package it was 1 cup rice to 2 cups water.

Mix in the pesto sauce into the rice, 1 tbsp at a time until at desired ratio.

Add salt and pepper to your tastes.

Put rice into a small bowl or mold, and place rice-side down onto the center of the plate. Leave the mold on for now to help keep it warm while you cook the omelette. (I used one of my kid's bowls).

Beat the eggs in a small bowl, mix in a little salt, pepper, and cream or milk.

Season the pan with vegetable oil or cooking spray. Pour in the egg mixture.

Make the omelette. See the video from the omurice “master” below for the technique. Remove from heat immediately! Do not keep on a hot burner even if it’s off, as the residual heat can still cause the eggs to overcook.

Remove bowl/mold from the rice.

Gently hold pan over the rice, slowly turn the pan and using the chopsticks, let the omelette roll onto the chopsticks and onto the omelette.

Drizzle desired amount of ketchup or other sauce on top.

Add garnish if you want and eat!

**Some tips if trying to make a true omurice omelette. Super tricky!

You will need to work fast! Make sure you don’t have any distractions.

High heat gives less time to work. Too low of heat will cause eggs to stick. Have to find the “sweet spot” for the heat.

Do not be afraid to take the pan off heat!

Scrambles best if using chopsticks.

Create a thin omelette - think of it like a slightly thicker crepe. (Mine were too thick).

Don’t hold the pan over the heat horizontally or let the pan just sit on the burner. You WILL have to hold the pan up the entire time to angle it how you need to at a moment’s notice.

For the flipping and turning step, a soft, wide, and flexible spatula is recommended, but it also has to be a utensil you’re comfortable using.

Flipping and turning step is the hardest step!

You’re having to kind of scoop, turn the edges over, and rotate the omelette all at the same time to make the omelette into a jiggly pocket. As you rotate the omelette, the heat seals the seams.

I made this as a breakfast, and it tasted good! At first the hubby and I were unsure about the pesto/ketchup combo, but it works. The omelette itself tastes like your usual omelette, just a different but welcome texture. Mine came out a little overcooked compared to the “master”, but it still gave the desired effect and I tend to like my scrambled eggs on the drier side anyway. Overall I’d say not bad for my first two attempts. Watching Chef Motokichi’s videos helped me so much. The two videos that helped me the most are linked below.

Eorzea Café at Home | FINAL FANTASY XIV Digital Fan Festival 2021

Learn all about the Digital Fan Festival 2021 Eorzea Café at Home activity.

[lifeofmamaval]

My Attempt at Yoshi-P's Coffee Biscuit (Cookie)

*Note that these are more of a crunchy cookie like a shortbread, rather than a chewy, gooey cookie.

Ingredients:

*(Original recipe in metric, US measurements in parenthesis).

300g cake flour (all purpose flour should work just fine if you can't get cake flour) (Roughly 1¾ cups + 2 tbsp for those in the US)

130g granulated sugar (or ⅔ cups)

100g unsalted butter (or 0.88 of a full stick)

2 egg yolks

3 tbsp milk

1 tbsp baking powder

2g instant coffee powder (about 0.4 tsp)

Chocolate chips or anything else you like as toppings

Tools:

2 Mixing bowls

Measuring cups

small bowl (standard breakfast size)

Cookie Sheet

Parchment Paper (NOT Wax Paper!)

Baking Spray or equivalent

Spatula

Stand or Hand Mixer

Sifter (optional but preferred)

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 180C (355F), take eggs and butter out of the fridge and let them get to room temperature.

Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit your cookie sheet. Place on cookie sheet. *Optional: Spray cookie sheet with baking spray.

In a separate bowl, sift the flour, coffee powder and baking powder together. Set aside.

Separate the egg yolks from the whites. Put whites in resealable container in fridge to use in a different recipe.

Whisk butter until it turns white-ish and a little foamy, Going slowly add the sugar, yolks and the milk bit by bit while whisking.

Slowly add in the flour mixture and gently mix it with a spatula (or mixer with dough hook on low speed) until incorporated.

Place parchment paper on your baking tray. Take around 30g (or 2 Tbsp) of dough for each cookie, roll it to form little balls before evenly flattening them out to around 1cm in thickness.

Add your chocolate chips (or other toppings of choice).

Put in preheated oven, bake for 13 minutes at 180C (355F). Keep an eye on them through the oven window, but don't open the oven lots. If they smell done and get golden-brown around the edges sooner than 13 minutes, PULL THEM OUT! Trust your nose!

Although I personally prefer chewy cookies, these are still yummy! Hubby and I plan on having these with a late-night coffee tonight while we watch the Keynote Address.

[lifeofmamaval]

FFXIV Eorzea Cafe at Home: Sausage and Sauerkraut (with peppers)

Keep reading to see my take on IRL Sausage and Sauerkraut!

Ingredients:

1 package Bratwurst, Italian Sausage, or whatever you have available

1 bell pepper, sliced into strips and then cut in half to shorten the strips.

1 large onion, sliced into half-rings

1 jar sauerkraut

1 package of bratwurst or hot dog buns (optional)

Butter and/or olive oil

Salt

Pepper

Suggested Condiments:

Spicy Brown Mustard

Sour Cream

Tools:

1 pot

1 sautee pan

Tongs

Cooking spoon/spatula

Directions:

Fill pot with enough water to cover sausages. Place sausages in water and turn on heat to high. Once water is boiling, turn heat to medium or medium-low to prevent boiling over. Cook sausages until done and no longer pink in the middle, about when they start floating to the top and there’s a “froth” in the water. Turn off heat.

While sausages are cooking and almost done, place oil and butter in a sautee pan, turn on heat to medium. Once the butter is melted, put in the onions and bell peppers. Add salt and pepper to your tastes.

When near done, place the sausages into the sautee pan to finish them off and give them a nice caramelized color. Sautee until they reach desired doneness. Turn off heat.

*Optional: If sauerkraut is preferred hot or warm, you can add the sauerkraut to the sautee pan with the peppers and onions near the end to heat through.

Place sausage in bun (optional), top with peppers and onions mixture, sauerkraut, followed by your chosen condiments (in this case sour cream and spicy brown mustard).

Enjoy! (Goes great with pierogi!)

I wanted to have as much fun with the FFXIV Digital Fan Festival as much as possible, and I love cooking, so I wanted to set up a nice festive menu for the hubby and I. As someone of Polish and German descent, I grew up eating sausage and kraut a LOT! Sometimes I eat it traditionally, other times I do my own spin on it, such as serving it on a bun. Thank you for reading!

[lifeofmamaval]

Safe House Apartment - a quiet little place with the basic necessities for my shady character to get away from it all. Visitors welcome. [Crystal | Mateus] Mists, W5 sub., Apt. #45

[lifeofmamaval]

I used to have a VIP FC Room for Genisys Nightclub a couple of years ago, and have now remade and updated it in my alt’s apartment. I was always aiming for a chill, relaxing bar where people could get away from the large crowds and chat scroll, but still have that bar/club feel. There’s also a small dressing room backstage for performers. Visitors welcome and open for RPers to use. [Crystal | Mateus] Mists, W5 sub., Apt. #44

[lifeofmamaval]

The old Genisys Nightclub, Mateus bathroom I made in my FC Room back in 2019. With a hidden “sauna” up the stairs with the red hingan lanterns. Inspired by IRL fancy club bathrooms. 

[lifeofmamaval]

Having an Oronir Xaela as my main character, I wanted to create a yurt/ger based on an IRL traditional layout. Initially made in 2017, updated in 2020. Visitors welcome. [Crystal | Mateus] Shirogane W8 Main, Apt. #58

[lifeofmamaval]

People have been telling me to post my various FFXIV housing decor. Most of my designs aren’t super fancy. I prefer to create simple yet effective designs, with minimal wasted space and minimal use of glitches. This is one of my oldest “modern” designs from a few years ago. Visitors welcome. [Crystal | Balmung] Mists, W11 Main, Apt. #37

[lifeofmamaval]

Patch Downtime Checklist and Ideas

Don’t know what to do while FFXIV is down for the patch? Here’s some ideas!

- Hygiene! Shower/bath, shave, trim nails, etc. Use the extra time you might have to relax and enjoy your shower/bath. Use that bath bomb that’s been sitting unused for the past few months. Pamper yourself.  ^.^

- Catch up on laundry and chores. Even if you just do a little bit each day, it goes a long way. Get laundry in right away, then while that’s going, do some dusting/vacuuming. Or make sure your dishes are clean.  

-  Stock up on food/Refill Prescriptions if needed. Make your list ahead of time, and if available, use online ordering/curbside pickup for low-contact and time-saving. Running low on food and funds? Check out your local food bank distributions and schools! Many are simply “show up, get food”, no questions asked, especially during this time. Look on school websites or their Facebook pages, or google “food distribution near me” for details.  

- Meal prep or at least plan out your meals for the day/week, so you’re not scrambling for what to eat last-minute. Don’t feel like cooking on patch day and have a crockpot/Instant pot? Prep your ingredients today, then tomorrow morning, toss them into a crockpot and let it do the cooking! Then when you’re hungry, all you have to do is dish up and eat! Want easy cleanup as well? Get some crockpot liners! 

- Need recipe ideas? Check out Yummly, AllRecipes, Tasty, Delish, or just a simple google search. The FREE Yummly app lets you filter recipes based on what you have in your pantry.

- Do something different! Go for a walk (maybe finally open Pokemon Go or Wizards Unite that you’ve left unchecked for months), exercise or stretch, play some music, read a book, watch a movie/show, or play some other games from your backlog. Try your hand at a craft or something new. 

- Make your list of what you want/need to get done once the patch hits. Think Unlock locations, where new gear will be, or if you're a crafter/gatherer, where new nodes/items are, custom deliveries, Ishgard Restoration, new recipes, etc. Once the Database is updated, this will help with your prep too. The folks on FFXIV Reddit made a great list of where to unlock all of the new things: https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/i5ik45/patch_53_checklist/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/i72ain/where_to_unlock_patch_53/

- Rest up! Set an alarm (or ten across the room so you have to get up) to wake up if you “don’t want to miss a thing.” Get some much needed sleep tonight. Too excited and having trouble sleeping? Try some of these things:

- Listen to some form of white noise (don’t have a white noise machine? Check out the FREE “White Noise Deep Sleep Sounds” or “White Noise Lite” apps which have so many sounds and features to choose from).

- Try aromatherapy (room sprays, incense (only while awake if using ones that require a flame), potpourri or essential oil diffusers (if you have pets, make sure the potpourri or oil you choose isn’t harmful to them)).

- Read a book in bed

- Limit being on a device for the hour before you get into bed

- Listen to relaxing music or ASMR

-  Try some meditation, mindfulness, or breathing techniques like the “4-7-8 method”

- Drink a soothing and relaxing beverage like Chamomile or “Sleepytime” Tea or warmed milk or hot cocoa.

- Mind racing? Try writing down your thoughts for the day in a journal (even if you plan on burning it later).

- Do showers/baths relax you more than energize you? Try taking your shower/bath before bed.

- Supplements/Medication (if cleared by your doctor)

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/ways-to-fall-asleep

https://www.sleepfoundation.org/articles/healthy-sleep-tips

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/teas-that-help-you-sleep#1

- Wake up! Get your download started! While you’re waiting for the download, brush teeth, get dressed (even if it’s just clean comfy lounging clothes for the day), eat some breakfast (or a little snack), coffee or beverage of choice, get your dinner in the crockpot (if applicable).

- Breaks! Remember to take food/drink/potty/stretching/posture breaks. Help your eyes too! “To prevent eyestrain, try to rest your eyes when using the computer for long periods. Rest your eyes for 15 minutes after two hours of continuous computer use. Also, for every 20 minutes of computer viewing, look into the distance for 20 seconds to allow your eyes a chance to refocus.”

https://www.aoa.org/patients-and-public/caring-for-your-vision/protecting-your-vision/computer-vision-syndrome

- Medication! Remember to take any medication or vitamins you’re on. Set an alarm if needed if you think you might get distracted from all the shiny new things in game.

Enjoy the patch and stay hydrated! 

~Mama Val (and likely moms/parents everywhere)

[lifeofmamaval]

Been doing some work in the garden the past couple of weeks. Fresh mulch in the flower beds too. #backyardgarden https://www.instagram.com/p/CA0_1AEFbFo/?igshid=1nsekinu346v9

[lifeofmamaval]

Been trying new things while we are all at home. Tonight we tried our hand at making the Dalgona whipped iced coffee, and last week I made an apple cobbler, and the week before that I made some ice cream from all the milk we had. #dalgonacoffee #staysafestayhome #cookingathome #sahm https://www.instagram.com/p/B_5zfpZJ-y_/?igshid=ibna6guddtyp

[lifeofmamaval]

4.5 housing items - There’s a sink! And a Loft! And a new carpet, window, and more! **Rejoicing**

[lifeofmamaval]

Super excited to give my new litebox a try. Better photos of my jewelry and leather are now possible! 🙌 All thanks to the hubby for finding a great deal online by chance! https://www.instagram.com/p/BsWOMyFhXLp/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1x0npswsy4eku

[gw2collective]

Guild Wars 2: How will you roll?

Our @wintersdayzine dice, available until Nov. 15th, just came in! These are the D6 “race” dice, with one side as the ‘random” roll. They are made of zinc and engraved with racial designs. Its accompaniment, the D12 professions dice, will be posted with photos later this month.

The proceeds of this project go toward Save the Children. The dice are ONLY guaranteed with the bundles. This is part of the sponsored @guildwars2 project, Journeys.

Please check it out and support a good cause & our project! These are available as a set in the Tyria and Elona bundles. >>> https://gw2collective.bigcartel.com/

[lifeofmamaval]

A fitting song to end trick or treating with #halloween 🧡🍫🍬👻🎃🖤 https://www.instagram.com/p/BpnrqF4hguD/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=g864am60ugqh

[lifeofmamaval]

Ended the night with LOTS of candy! Almost needed another bucket! #halloween #trickortreat 🧡🍫🍬👻🎃🖤 https://www.instagram.com/p/BpnrechhleN/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=fn47cf19dtsi

[lifeofmamaval]

Ended the night with a fitting song and LOTS of candy! Almost needed another bucket! #halloween #trickortreat 🧡🍫🍬👻🎃🖤 https://www.instagram.com/p/BpnrM4ahXFh/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=faewh5n5a404