Miss Scarlett Cooks! Loaded Baked Potato and Chicken Casserole

Welcome, everyone, to the first installment of Miss Scarlett Cooks! I'll be sharing some of my recipes with you and trying not to feel too Paula Deen-ish as I do. The inaugural recipe is one of my guilt pleasures. This casserole tries to replicate a loaded baked potato, with some chicken tossed in. Definitely not something you have every week; it's more of a winter comfort-food type meal, great after some snow shoveling or a brisk walk. It is a heavy, heavy meal. The recipe can be found after the jump.

Odds and Sods

Hey, everyone! Just a quick weekend update. Everything's after the jump, because my version of "quick" does not contain the word "brevity."

Sailor Moon Collectibles Roundup

Okay, everyone, it's now time for yet another "Miss Scarlett, what kind of Sailor Moon junk did you pick up this time?" The column where I show you all the little things that I can't resist buying from one of the greatest franchises of all time, after the jump.

Woooo!

Good news, everyone! We finally have a release window for the Sailor Pluto S.H. Figuarts! She'll be released in Japan this November, which means that we in the States will be getting her in December, or possibly January. Given that we are getting Super Sailor Moon and Sailor V this summer and fall, that means that Pluto will be the last Sailor Moon Figuarts for 2015.

This means that we'll see Sailor Zoicite as a 2016 release, probably sometime in the spring. Whether or not we'll be seeing more figures is up in the air, although there's a chance we might get some news at the summer WonderCon in Japan, where the toy companies announce upcoming figures.

From what I understand, pre-orders for Pluto should be going live in the next month or so. She's 4500 yen in Japan, about the same as Uranus and Neptune. When I have a bit of cash free, I really need to grab Mercury and Mars; they just constantly seem to slip down the priority list.

Oh, and the pictures released for the next Sailor Moon Crystal Re-ment line are live and are driving me crazy. It's a "Birthday Cake" set, and will be released in late September.

Okay, off to sleep. Miss Scarlett has had a busy day...

Video Game Things...

Hey, everyone! Hope your summer has started well!

Summer sales!

Summer is almost upon us, boys and girls--true, hot-and-humid-dog-days summer--and you know what that means....SUMMER GAME SALES!

Yes, it's the season for that time-honored tradition of kicking off the summer by discounting hundreds of digital games, and I am ready to go. Admittedly, participating in the last few seasonal sales as whittled down my wishlist to next to nothing, comparatively speaking, but I am still hopeful.

To wit:

• GOG.com: Always kicks off the summer with their big summer DRM-free sale. (Granted, every big sale is DRM-free, but I digress.) Usually in June, and runs for a few weeks. They usually offer pretty nice series bundles, so if you are interesting in dipping your toes in a whole series, this greatly lowers the barriers to entry.
• Steam: They are usually the first sale of the season, often in late May/early June. Especially great if you're looking at more recent titles, and discount percentages are often bigger than GOG. 
• PSN: Also usually runs a summer sale, but usually isn't that impressive. It's almost always a small selection of games on sale, and the discounts are usually not higher than 30% off MSRP. 
• Xbox Live: From what my friends have told me, they run their sales at the end of the summer. I'm not an Xbox gamer, so I don't follow these, but I might make a mini post about it.
• Nintendo eShop: Nintendo themselves do not offer a storewide sale, but individual publishers will often do so. Off the top of my head, I believe Atlus USA and Ubisoft often do summer sales on their titles.

What Miss Scarlett is looking for:

• In the past few months, GOG have gotten the rights to sell classic LucasArts games, so I am looking forward to any kind of discount off of these. I also have a handful of indie point-and-clicks on the list, so I'll see if any of them are in line for a discount, too.
• I have been mulling over getting Portal for the longest time, so if Steam offers it at a nice discount, I might snatch it up. Also looking for a hefty discount off of RealMyst, since I've heard it's a much nicer redesign of classic Myst, which I liked.
• I am not getting my hopes up for anything from PSN. I have found that the flash sales they offer are almost always better. (I am still sighing in happiness from the 80% off flash sale they did a few months ago, can't beat $0.80 for a PS2 Classics game.) But there are a few PS1 Classics games I'm planning on getting eventually, so we'll see if Sony tosses us a bone or two this summer. Same for Nintendo (I have long consigned myself to paying full MSRP for anything from them) and Xbox (don't own one, don't buy the games).

The GOG sale is live, and Steam's sale will be starting on the 11th. Happy bargain hunting!

Ever After High "Darling Charming" Signature Doll Review

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Hobby Haven! Today, I am bringing you another review from the world of Ever After High. That's right, today we're meeting the third Charming sibling, Darling! So pull up a chair (unless you're already seated), and let's get to it! Everything you need to know is after the jump.

It's that time of the year!

Woo-hoo! Good Old Games' DRM-free Summer Sale is LIVE! You're excited, you know you are.

They're offering daily bundle deals--today is LucasArts' classic point-and-click adventures, some really goodies there!--and are uploading new deals twice daily. They're also offering free games when you reach a certain purchase threshold. None of the free games interest me (SIM City 2000, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Xenonauts), but it's great that they're trying out different things.

And now to stock up on cheap games that will increase my backlog... (I'll play them! It just...takes me a while...)

Miss Scarlett, signing out!

News Roundup!

Just some odds and ends, you guys...

• SDCC has announced both the Monster High and Ever After High exclusives! We knew that Evil Raven Queen was the EAH offering, but Monster High will be getting a two-pack of Kieran Valentine and Whisp ("guest" characters in two of the MH movies: Why Do Ghouls Fall in Love? and 13 Wishes), plus a vinyl figure of Nefera de Nile in her Boo York, Boo York outfit. As always, first dibs are given to convention-goers and registered members of Mattel's Matty Collector website before the general public (if any are left).
• Japanese miniatures maker Re-ment is continuing their partnership with Toei and offering more Sailor Moon Crystal sets. They just released the Cafe Sweets line (I ordered one of the sets and will be reviewing it later), and will be releasing an "everyday" and a "birthday cake" line. We'll see them in July and September, respectively. I'll be ordering the Sailor Venus/Minako sets from both these lines when available.
• Also in Sailor Moon news, Bandai will be releasing the Sailor V S.H. Figuarts in September, one month after the debut of Super Sailor Moon. Will we see both Sailor Pluto and "Sailor Zoicite" this year? Time will tell. Given that Bandai has announced that they are making Sailor Starlights Petit Chara figures, I have high hopes for getting Starlight Figuarts. But we probably won't hear anything about 2016 figures until the big Japanese summertime conventions. (Same with the Magic Knight Rayearth figures...these companies usually withhold prototype figures and release dates for the big conventions.)
• Also also in Sailor Moon news, the first box set of Sailor Moon R will be released in July...here's hoping that Viz will give us the release date of the second R box set soon, maybe at Otakon or AX or the like. Also hoping for the release date of S season to be revealed this summer...can't wait for that one!
• Just a reminder that E3 starts in roughly two weeks! If there's any exciting news regarding Persona, Kingdom Hearts, or Final Fantasy games, I'll post it here. But you can also check out Kotaku, since they will be covering every press conference during E3.

Time for lunch, so I'll see you later! Miss Scarlett, signing out!

Convention Season!

And so it begins, my friends--the start of the summer convention season, when we get oodles of anime and video game announcements, thanks to conventions like PAX Prime, San Diego Comic Con, Anime Expo, and E3. I always get excited for summer, because every month has something to look forward to. Even if I don't get to go to them, there's always some interesting piece of news to pick up!

I'm debating whether or not I'll post any info here...maybe if I have downtime at work and want to natter.  My friend Icaro*and I will probably be live-commenting on the E3 announcements like we did last year (*not her real name). We watch the press conferences and make post Facebook threads or tweet each other about our thoughts. It's a lot of fun. I may end up posting the highlights!

Here's what this summer's convention season looks like:

E3, June 16th
Anime Expo, July 2nd
San Diego Comic Con, July 9th
Otakon, July 24th
PAX Prime, August 28th
Dragon Con, September 4th

These are just the big ones that I follow, there are tons of smaller cons out there. Looking forward to lots of news!