January 2014

Mind Bender

So I recently retrieved my Argonaut 505 Amateur Radio Transceiver from storage. Turned it on, no hiss from the speaker. That’s… unusual, points to a dead audio amplifier.

Geek line, do not cross. Geek line, do not cross. (TLDR: I solved the problem)

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Never happened!

The Hobbit / Smaug. You can sit watching it and shout “Never Happened!” all. the. damn. time. and you’d be right more often than not.

OK, you also need “no FSCKING WAY!”, especially when barrels are involved. But impossible as it is, that also Never Happened.

Dayumn. There’s a book. And there’s a movie. And there’s a correlation with the name and most many of the characters.

Hell no.

 

(And is it just me or did they skimp on the CGI? Some of those wargs reminded me of Apple ][ games, just a bit)

 

 

 

 

 

Gemsbok chili

I learned to make chili from the Foodie Handbook. It calls for beans and plenty paprika. We like beans in our chili. And get your paprika from the good guys, that brown stuff from Robertson is useless.

So while digging through the freezer, I found a hunk of meat labelled “silverside”. I thought it was eland but when I started working with it I realised it’s gemsbok. Half of it went into a tomato bredie with the other half earmarked for a curry of some sort. Put it in a bowl, covered it with buttermilk, left it in the freezer overnight.

Found this recipe for venison chili (the one halfway down with the “crab bake” which I don’t have and didn’t use). Adapted it a bit.

Olive oil + butter in the flat bottom black pot, shake most of the buttermilk off the meat, fry the meat in batches and remove. Fry two chopped onions, one green pepper, about a tablespoon of garlic. Add the meat back in, add a tin of chopped tomatoes, a tin of kidney beans, a tin of borlotti beans and a tin of red beans (that’s what I had in the cupboard). I used less chili powder than the recipe calls for, small people in the house. Three four heaped tablespoons paprika, tin of tomato paste, heaped teaspoon cayenne. Some mixed spice and a tablespoon chicken stock powder. And some herbs, can’t remember what, probably rosemary. Add fresh (well, fresh from the freezer in this case) danja right at the end, serve with creme fraiche if you have (we didn’t, used normal cream).

It could have cooked for longer but we were hungry. That’s also why there are no pictures.

Slapstick

I suggest all of y’all out in the meme-o-sphere start using “slap the tree” in place of “jump the shark“.

How I met your mother should have been canned last season.