BS: All welcome on this thread

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 14 Sep 17 - 09:09 AM

Devils Bit Scabious is blossoming all over the Connemara

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 13 Sep 17 - 07:43 AM

Are we all done on here then?

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 12 Sep 17 - 04:45 PM

I think you may be on a (bank) roll Mr Red. Cash in on it while you have a yen.

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Mr Red
Date: 12 Sep 17 - 03:35 AM

A pound coin is, apparently, 3.15mm thick.
New or Old?
& not if you pound it!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 12 Sep 17 - 03:07 AM

There was a micro-brewery in St Louis that did some really good stuff. But, yea, probably had something cold and wet in the Irish pub :-) The other thing you don't get in America is cheese. They do stuff that they call cheese but I reckon some of it has never seen a cow.

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 11 Sep 17 - 08:09 PM

You did not get good beer in America, Dave. Now I'm going to be very nice to you and simply offer you the opportunity to rethink that post...


😂😂😂

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 11 Sep 17 - 04:56 PM

We went to an Irish bar in St Louis once and got fish and chips. It was crisps and fish goujons. What a disappointment. Still, the music and beer were good.

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 11 Sep 17 - 01:52 PM

I will be joined by my good lady tomorrow, she at present is on route to Holyhead.

Goodo !!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 11 Sep 17 - 01:31 PM

My wife is away babysitting so I thought I might investigate an upmarket burger and cocktail place that has opened about a half a mile away. I look at the menu and the first two sides are 'fries' and 'gourmet chips'. What are you trying to do to me? I have no idea if 'gourmet chips' is to be read as American or English. If they are both the same basic thing, call them both fries or both chips. Otherwise I assume you are making a distinction and 'gourmet chips' are actually what UKers would call 'gourmet crisps'.

No, it turns out they are both fries/chips. The change in terminology is purely to irritate customers like me ...

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 09 Sep 17 - 05:46 PM

It was indeed, Steve, and and here it is!

:D tG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 09 Sep 17 - 03:02 PM

But it was a nice post! I wouldn't have deleted it but I'm not the boss!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 09 Sep 17 - 01:05 PM

Thanks mudelf.

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 09 Sep 17 - 04:33 AM

Never you mind, Harpgirl. As I said, anything goes on this thread and it is good to see you are so well prepared. My Cousin and his wife up near Tampa are staying put but his mother has been moved from her care community to a bunker somewhere near Disneyland!

DtG

---

She re-posted on the thread she'd meant to put it in, [What's the weather like where you are?] so I deleted the duplicate on this thread.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 09 Sep 17 - 03:40 AM

On the 17th it is the simultaneous birthday of my daughter and myself, so we are at the start of a fairly long period of pre-and-post events. This evening we are off for a meal on the Wessex Belle, which should be fun, then on Friday we have a fairly packed day involving a tour of the Houses of Parliament, a visit backstage to the Royal Opera House and finishing off with a meal in Veeraswamy. Then later I will have some other celebrations with my other sons and their wives, before facing up to wedding anniversary celebrations on 30th.

A quick review: decades ago I booked a box at the Royal Opera house to take my then 4 year old niece to a ballet, because if she got fed up she could move and play a bit without disturbing anyone. It was, without a doubt, amongst the worst seats I have had anywhere. What I had not allowed for was that the point of those boxes was to be seen, not to see, so they face into the theatre, not towards the stage. By squeezing into one corner you could see most of the stage ...

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: keberoxu
Date: 08 Sep 17 - 01:26 PM

Dream, aspiration, idea, policy....
....and of course what I do best is procrastination and conflict avoidance. Don't hold your breath waiting for me...

anyway, I will be done with Arizona in a few more days, and already I can barely wait.
The one thing I haven't witnessed in my visit here, is that infamous advertisement posted at a bus-stop kiosk on a Phoenix Metro bus route. I was driving my car down that street at the time, so I saw the advert in passing, and missed everything except the big message in capital letters:

GUNS SAVE LIVES

LEARN TO SHOOT STRAIGHT

That was years ago, and I won't soon forget it.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Donuel
Date: 08 Sep 17 - 11:34 AM

Wow Dave your personal dreams can't be beat.

Mostly I think of dreams as something that happen to us.
On rare occasions aspirational dreams like MLK come to mind but are almost never practical. For example to solve the race problem I see a CRISPR genetic engineering project to make all future people of any race become technicolored like exotic birds in fractal patterns with no two alike. Beauty would be omnipresent in marvelous markings rather than weight height or faces.

No more earth tones.

btw the technicolored markings are not present at birth but evolves from a gold color to full spectrum radiance as children grow.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: MikeL2
Date: 08 Sep 17 - 10:54 AM

Hi Steve

<" Maybe you don't cook your steaks properly rare, Mike.">

Hi Steve Idon't cook steaks. I leave that to my wife. She was a Cordon Bleu cook and worked for many years in the Family restaurant business.

When I met her she owned a Pub that had a fantastic restaurant.

I do cook as these days now we are both retired. So we share it.( just in process of cooling a vegetable risotto.

But I will concede that I am not a good shopper. I don't always look around for the best buys - but I'd like to think I know quality when I see it.

Cheers

Mike

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 08 Sep 17 - 09:23 AM

Just posted on another thread about us (the global 'we' on Mudcat) not really doing much to change the world. If we stick to our specialist subjects, IE folk, blues and related minority pastimes, we do a pretty good job. But as we all know these below the line thread go well beyond that remit. Perhaps we can do something though. I did make the point that we can post our dreams and aspirations for that brave new world. Maybe what we can do is have a 'think tank' for how we get there. No dream is unachievable. No idea too daft. But please remember the opening sentiment of not coming here to argue.

My dream, like that of many others, is for global peace and a stop to wasting our precious resources.

My idea to achieve it is to drop all borders and educate everyone equally.

My policy on defense is to paint all de fences white so no one can sit on them.

There. Your turn :-)

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 08 Sep 17 - 02:54 AM

A pound coin is, apparently, 3.15mm thick.

You learn something new every day!

:D tG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 07 Sep 17 - 07:32 PM

Heheh! It's an Ottolenghi recipe. I think he says to use "cooking chorizo". But I always buy a spicy 200g job, skin it and cut it into rounds of about half a centimetre. But anything goes. I was going to have it again tonight, having sourced a lovely cauliflower in Sainsbury's, but Mrs Steve wanted a fine-herbe omelette, and who am I to demur! (She does do all the cleaning, so what can one do...)

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Sep 17 - 07:03 PM

Clearly I've missed some good recipes by not dropping in here sooner. That cauliflower and chorizo bake of Steve's sounds amazing. How thick are two one pound coins?

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 07 Sep 17 - 05:58 PM

Well, generally the steaks from Donald Russell are pretty expensive, even with their mixed steak offers. But I've found the quality to be unfailingly good, and, if you're not happy, they'll sort you out anyway. I only ever buy stuff from them when it's on special offer and when I can get free delivery. I'm dead happy, but my bottom line is that I only buy stuff that I could otherwise not get locally at the same quality and price, and I'm a smart shopper!

Maybe you don't cook your steaks properly rare, Mike...

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: MikeL2
Date: 07 Sep 17 - 03:01 PM

hi Steve

<"Some years ago we bought steaks from Donald Russell by mail order.">

We were not impressed by the quality or prices. Maybe we were unlucky.

Now we buy most of our meats from a local farm shop. Great quality at good prices.

I bought some steaks and lamb chops from them last week and they gave me a bagful of sausages for free. Bloody lovely too.

Not that keen on burgers. Best we ever had was in Menorca where a Spanish Restaurant made them out of freshly baked bread and we watched the chef made his mince chopping fillet stakes with two large knives - bloody lovely.

Cheers

Mike

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 07 Sep 17 - 10:49 AM

Ah Jaysus, here's me calling it a tipper when in fact it's correct name is a Cipin.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 07 Sep 17 - 10:25 AM

There are Bodhrans ................. and one or two people can actually play them, but none at the session on Tuesday. My good Lady plays one, quite well as it happens.

If she couldn't I might have introduced a razor blade onto her tipper.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 07 Sep 17 - 04:47 AM

I think someone is marching to a different beat here...

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Mr Red
Date: 07 Sep 17 - 03:24 AM

OK, OK. Don't keep banging yer drum on that one!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 06 Sep 17 - 07:52 PM

Of course there were no bodhrans. Raggytash did say back to the music!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Mr Red
Date: 06 Sep 17 - 03:03 AM

No Bodhrans?

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 05 Sep 17 - 10:18 AM

Well after a GREAT weekend for Galway hurling and two days of partying the town is a little quieter today. People were still savouring the victories of both the Junior and Senior teams late on Monday night.A

Hurling is possibly the best spectator sport I have ever come across. I love cricket and enjoy Rugby Union but Hurling is a class apart. So fast and so skillful and not many prisoners taken, respect for the referee and a shake of hands whoever wins at the end of the match.

Tonight it will be back to the music (after watching Ireland play in the World Cup qualifiers) with some fantastic musicians. I anticipate there will be at least one melodeon, one banjo and three guitars plus whoever walks through the door.

And copious amounts of excellent Guinness of course in a superb bar.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 05 Sep 17 - 10:02 AM

Did you know that shinty hurling was an anagram of hurl shity ginn.

Just saying.

:D tG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 04 Sep 17 - 04:00 PM

And then, it seems, there is shinty-hurling

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: keberoxu
Date: 04 Sep 17 - 03:43 PM

Shinty, I was right.
They filmed a scene with a shinty game in "Outlander", with boots and kilts and those mean-looking sticks, and rather a lot of mud.


I looked Shinty up here on the Mudcat search engine.
A fellow Mudcatter recalls playing Shinty on New Year's Day, every year, but ON ICE. Now that sounds downright perilous.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 03 Sep 17 - 07:01 PM

I wish to speak up for the Herb Fed poultry company, based in Yorkshire I believe. I bought two of their free-range chickens a while back at Gloucester Services as they were half price due to that silly sell-by date thang. Great big hearty beasts they were, coming in at about six pounds each. I got them for just over six quid each and whacked them straight into the freezer.

Well we had one tonight, roasted with all the spuds and veg out of the garden. I've had many a damn fine bird in my time but this was the best chicken we've ever had. Lovely texture, gorgeously moist and full of flavour. They'd be well worth the money even at full price, which is actually not much more than Morrisons' corn-fed or Waitrose finest free-range (both very good). With chicken you get what you pay for. This one was the absolute numero uno. I will not countenance the pappy M&S Oakham jobbies, nor those other cheap supermarket barn chickens that give off a ton of watery slop when you cook them and taste like dirty dishcloths.

As for stuffing, I must make my own. Mrs Steve and I have almost approached divorce proceedings over the stuffing we have at Christmas, but all the rest of the year is mine.

Take twelve of the finest butcher's pork sausages you can get your hands on. Squeeze all the meat out into a big bowl and discard the skins.

In another bowl, put a good big handful of breadcrumbs, some finely-chopped fresh herbs (thyme, parsley, sage, or all three) and a finely-chopped onion. Add some salt and pepper. Pour in a small glassful of boiling water and mix like mad. Then add that to the sausage meat and mix thoroughly. I love doing it with my bare hands. I will not be deprived of that. Divide the mixture into three and put two lots in plastic bags and freeze them. The other third is for tonight. Form it into a shallow brick and put it on to a sheet of non-stick baking paper on a metal tray. It goes into your hot oven, along with the spuds you're going to roast, for about 45 minutes. You can't buy stuffing as good as that in shops, and it's so easy.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 03 Sep 17 - 05:24 PM

Well, we laid Dad's remains to rest in the family grave at St Augustines. It was a lot easier than I imagined it would be and a very uplifting experience. Went for a meal at the Henry Boddington (there's a name that some will know!) after and had a generally good day. We kept a bit of him and hope to take that to Poland at some point in time so at least part of him goes home. Nothing official. I think he would appreciate being smuggled through customs ;-)

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: keberoxu
Date: 03 Sep 17 - 01:57 PM

The other thing that the hurling discussion made me recall,
was the Scottish Highlands thing called, is it Shinty?

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Raggytash
Date: 03 Sep 17 - 01:26 PM

GREAT DAY FOR GALWAY !!!!

Both the junior and senior teams WON their All Ireland Finals

Party time beckons !!!!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 03 Sep 17 - 10:35 AM

A most indulgent lunch: a few weeks ago my daughter spotted a jazz lunch at a highly rated brasserie and as is her wont persuaded my wife and I to join her and her partner. So a long and leasurely lunch listening to jazz and enjoying seared trout with a 1er cru Chablis. Then a local cheeseboard to finish.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 03 Sep 17 - 06:43 AM

These days I buy my minced steak mail order from Donald Russell. It's of superb quality and it's often on special offer, six packs for £19.90 last week (you do pay postage unless you spend forty quid). That's as cheap as the three-packs-for-a-tenner in supermarkets, and it really does taste like steak. I use it, among other things, to make the quickest and easiest burgers imaginable. You need to add nothing at all to the mince.

Form one pack of minced steak into six little burgers with your hands. Press them to make them thin in the middle and thickest at the rim. Cook them dry in your best frying pan on the highest heat for absolutely no more than two and a half minutes a side (under two minutes for me). Don't move them around. Have faith. That isn't blood. It's juice.

Done! Great with chips and some cherry tomatoes done for five minutes in the oven with seasoning, olive oil and fresh basil. I prefer to leave the burgers for a few minutes to rest in a warm oven before scoffing, as you would with a steak. You won't bloody BELIEVE how good they are. No salt, no pepper, no onion, no mustard, no nothing!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Mr Red
Date: 03 Sep 17 - 06:41 AM


Well, neuro psychologists say 'learning styles' are a myth.

well bugger me. Allow me to (in my ignorance an experience) be contentious.

1) When I was at Uni I found writing things helped memory retention. Motor actions refer.
2) When I wrote songs I found that learning the finished song was essential, and an entirely different process from composing. Divergent cf Convergent. Writing it out, (repetition). Singing in the car - more repetition. Listening to my own renditions (recording).
3) I heard and practice the style when meeting new people to repeat their name back to them. Or even write it down. The motor actions put the memory in different parts of the brain.
4) I read in (think) the New Scientist that recall is better in the same context as when you learned it. And saying that to a guitarist at a session he came back with the immortal observation. "Yea, there are 1/2 pint tunes, one pint tunes and the ones you daren't try before the second pint."

Ring any bells anyone?

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 03 Sep 17 - 06:25 AM

That is indeed one of the tastiest things you can make. You might care to go easy on the salt to start with, as the olives and chorizo may already have enough. I love doing things in one tray or pot that I can leave for half an hour. You can do most of the clearing up before you eat and enjoy a nice glass of something while it's cooking.

This next one is the easiest thing you'll ever cook and it's devastatingly tasty. Make sure the tinned tomatoes are good quality (Cirio or Napolina) and don't contain salt. I prefer to use the whole plum ones and break them up a bit as they're cooking. If you've got really good home-grown toms, use them instead. It's up to you, but I really can't be arsed to skin tomatoes.

Marcella Hazan's butter and onion tomato sauce

Peel an onion and cut it in half. Put it in a saucepan with the tin of tomatoes, some salt to taste and a large knob of butter (easy on the salt if you use salted butter). About a quarter of a pack, maybe just under, is good. Simmer uncovered for about 45 minutes. Discard the onion - honest!

That's it! You can serve this tossed with spaghetti (toss the cooked pasta with a bit of butter first, not olive oil). Grate some Parmesan over it.

Or you can have it with potato gnocchi. You can buy good vacuum-packed gnocchi these days but I usually make my own. Make sure that the gnocchi you buy is no more than about 30% flour. Cook the gnocchi as instructed (dead easy), lift out with a slotted spoon as they rise the top then put them gently into the tomato sauce. You can add some little pieces of mozzarella to the pan with the tomato and gnocchi sauce for a minute. Then serve in bowls with some grated Parmesan and some little basil leaves on top. Voila - Gnocchi alla Sorrentina! It's amusingly stringy to eat on account of the mozzarella but who cares about that when it's so tasty. A lot of recipes tell you to bake the mixture in a dish, but you honestly don't need to. Keep it simple is my motto!

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 03 Sep 17 - 03:43 AM

...provided that you are polite and not here just to argue.

Just a gentle reminder :-)

I have tried one or two of your recommended recipes, Steve. That looks like another!

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 02 Sep 17 - 06:31 PM

I think that cabbages need to be organic. Waitrose and M&S both sell a sweetheart organic hearted cabbage that is a thing of beauty, though at an eye-watering £1.50 each. Once you've grown your own cabbages (and picked out the slugs and caterpillars of the Small White), you won't enjoy a bog-standard savoy ever again. Though M&S do sell, on occasion, bags of ready-washed, chopped mixed greens that you just chuck into boiling water for five minutes - not epic, but not bad. I find that supermarket cauliflowers can be excellent if you rummage a bit. The little packs of purple sprouting or tenderstem are a ripoff. I have purple sprouting from Christmas to May in my garden and I have a decent crop of summer purple sprouting just coming in. I also have loads of Cavolo Nero that I've never tried before - dead easy.

For two people.

Cut a fairly large cauliflower into bite-sized florets. Put into your biggest mixing bowl.

Take a 200g chorizo of your choice. Skin it and slice it into rounds as thick as two one pound coins. Throw it into the cauliflower.

Add 30g pumpkin seeds.

Skin three garlic cloves, bash them with your hand and throw them in. Optional.

Cut up a couple of onions roughly and throw them in.

Get about 50g of green olives, the best you can get, chop them up roughly and throw them in. No stones.

Add a tablespoon of smoked paprika, some black pepper and a pinch of salt (easy, tiger). Glug in at least four tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.

Get in there with your hands and mix the whole lot thoroughly,

Get a baking tray about 30x40 cm and line it generously with greaseproof paper. Tip the whole mixture into the tray and spread it out. Whack it into the oven at 180 degrees for about 25 minutes. Half way though, toss it around a bit.

While it's cooking, chop up a big handful of fresh parsley. When the cauliflower is done, share into two bowls and sprinkle the parsley on top. Eat with a fork in front of Holby City. You'll need a glass or two of red to take your mind off the telly.

This is good on its own but if you're a pig have it with a bit of garlic bread. It is an amazingly tasty recipe, I promise, and it's so easy. Kudos to Yotam Ottolenghi.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Donuel
Date: 02 Sep 17 - 05:45 PM

A new word comes to mind for intense sensation; pansynthethesia
That means all senses cross over and overlap with all other senses with more intensity than what each discrete sense would deliver.

An experience like tasting black raspberry sherbet hearing music that images orange red cliffs above aqua waters and diving into carbonated water during orgasmic coitus would be a pansynthethesiatic experience.

combining 3 or so sensations would merely be supersensory

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 02 Sep 17 - 02:22 PM

No, Brexit is much more suited to the combative threads. This one is, I think, more for shoes and ships and sealing wax, cabbages and kings.

Perhaps not kings, though. Too much risk of a republician/monarchist disagreement, and we all know where THAT led.

Cabbages, now. I quite like most of the brassica, but I have always found savoy cabbages too bitter and dominant a flavour...

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Stanron
Date: 02 Sep 17 - 01:54 PM

Dave the Gnome wrote: I must say I a quite disappointed that the uk bollocks thread has overtaken this one.

I posted on the other thread because I wanted to talk about Brexit and how well I thought it was going. As long as Dave Davies doesn't give away all the money before talking about a trade deal I'll be happy. Do you really want to continue all that here?

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 02 Sep 17 - 12:26 PM

I went on a Whisky appreciation course once. Can't remember a thing about it... :-D

I must say I a quite disappointed that the uk bollocks thread has overtaken this one. Just shows what motivates more people. C'est la vie as they say in Yorkshire.

Come on people, keep the better thread up there!

DtH

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: DMcG
Date: 02 Sep 17 - 04:51 AM

Donuel's earlier comment has got me thinking about those strange gaps in languages where there ought to be a word, but it is either so rare few people know it, or it doesn't exist at all.

A couple of years back I went on a short evening course of wine appreciations (2h a week for 8 weeks). This was given by a woman who used to be a sommelier at the Dorchester in London and was born and raised in the Champagne area of France. It soon became obvious at that (and a follow-on one matching wine to food) that she had a intense awareness of taste in the way some people do with colour. It is, if you like, the opposite of anosmia. But is there such a word? And while wine appreciation is primarily taste, the smell and colour are also involved, as are many senses that are not included in the classical five. So what word to describe this? 'Sensual' is perhaps closest in the strict sense, but clearly that word is not used, really, for anything to do with senses...

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Donuel
Date: 01 Sep 17 - 05:48 PM

I had a dream about the testimony of Mueller before the US Congress regarding the Russia investigations. It was magnificent, patriot affirming and a pulling back from the cliff of intolerance, racism and hate. Then it was up to Congress to judge the President and themselves based on all the evidence that seemed to be beyond reasonable doubt. That's when it all fell down and I woke up.

Subject: RE: BS: All welcome on this thread
From: Donuel
Date: 01 Sep 17 - 03:43 PM

What learning style (how do you learn) - (not your ability to learn)do you use depending upon content and subject?

Visual, auditory, word, spatial?

Well, neuro psychologists say 'learning styles' are a myth.
Repeated practice is the only thing that works.
"We have to debunk these brain based style theories and get back to basics."

remember the crazy Mozart effect fad 15 years ago?
bunk

I knew that.