Well Fed Buff: Oronok Tubers

Well Fed Buff serves up tasty dishes to boost your HP, stats and appetite – with that special WoW twist, of course.

Skinners will recognize Shadowmoon Valley's Oronok Torn-heart as that cool guy by all the boars who'll buy your greys, sell you water, repair your gear and even give you a hefty heal when your hit points run low. Questers will recognize Oronok as "the tuber guy." Today's Well Fed Buff combines both convenience and tubers in a dish that's easy, tasty and provides a hefty +vitamin buff.

This is one of those dishes that turns out exponentially more delicious than the amount of time you spent on it deserves. If you can chop a few potatoes and shake stuff around in a bag, you can cook these tubers. It's like the quest: kinda easy, kinda cheesy and moves you along down the road with a nice buff at the end!

The mats
Enough of these tubers to fill a sturdy, gallon-sized Ziploc bag about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way (start with 1-2 of each potato type plus 1 onion and several carrots):

• Oronok's Tuber of Agility (carrots)

• Oronok's Tuber of Healing (sweet potatoes)

• Oronok's Tuber of Spell Power (onion)

• Oronok's Tuber of Strength (baking potatoes)

¼ cup vegetable or olive oil
2 Tablespoons Parmesan cheese (fresh or from the lovely canister)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon paprika
½ teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon pepper

You'll also need a sturdy, gallon-sized Ziploc bag and a large baking sheet. If you don't have a Ziploc, you can use a very large bowl.

The combine
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Scrub the tubers well and chop them into large pieces – think thick-cut, wedge-style potatoes. (No need to peel; more AC is better here.) We like baby carrots because they're already attuned; no need to chop them further. Put all the prepared tubers into the Ziploc bag.

In a small bowl, mix together all the other ingredients. Pour the mixture over the tubers inside the bag. Seal the bag tightly. Shake, massage, flip and otherwise cc the bag until all the tubers inside are well coated. (Word from the wise: Hold the bag over the baking sheet in case you get an AE fear ... especially if you're using cheap, generic Ziplocs.)

Dump the tubers out onto the baking sheet and spread them into a single layer. Bake for 20-40 minutes, turning at least once during baking. Total baking time will depend on how big you've cut your tubers; test each type with a fork to see if the fork pushes in easily. The regular potatoes usually take the longest, but your mileage may vary.

Off-spec hybrids
Scale the +dmg of these beauties by tweaking the amount of pepper, paprika or garlic powder. If you have it, chopped fresh garlic is much zestier than garlic powder. You can easily skip the Parmesan, paprika or garlic powder if you don't have any. Experiment with other seasoning combos, including a more traditional basil/oregano version. Different vegetables work well, too, as long as you perform a ready check near the end of the baking time. After you make Oronok's Tubers with your favorite ingredients a few times, you'll get a good feel for how long your particular group takes to clear.

Submit your own Warcraft-themed noshes for Well Fed Buff (subject line: Well Fed Buff) – we're always looking for a tasty stat boost!