Hossenfeffer

Family coming over for lunch and I’m doing a (variation on) porcetta. I’ve got a lovely piece of pork belly which has been airdrying in the fridge since yesterday morning. Should be cracking crackling. If the weather holds I’ll do it on the rotisserie on my Kamado Joe.

If you like a barbecue (or a barbie, bbq, or braai) come and join us at Cooking With Fire. We need more regular posters!

Blue Lights is really good. Very tense!

Ooh, Sledge Hammer was fun. My memory says something like David Rasche for the lead?

Gary Oldman’s Jackson Lamb is the most perfect portrayal of a character from a book I’ve ever seen. I’d read three or four of the books before the first series came on, and when I saw him on screen for the first time I was blown away. The look, the delivery of his lines, everything is spot on.

Being a “real man” I like a pen that is mightier than a sword. I struggle to write neatly with it because it is so heavy.

[Also, I like an Edding 55, fineliner 0.3 mm.]

Discovered Mountain of Love at the weekend, featuring a couple of the guys who started Alabama 3. Released one album in 2012 apparently, then not much since. So I’ve been giving that a bit of a listen.

Ooof. Tough question.

Probably one of:

Iron Maiden, Sheffield City Hall, Somewhere on Tour, 1986
Metallica, Sheffield Arena, 1992
Depeche Mode, supported by Sisters of Mercy, Crystal Palace, 1993
Sisters of Mercy, the Fenton pub, Leed, 1996
Primal Scream / Alabama 3, Rock City Nottingham, 1998
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Brixton Academy, 2001

Big arena things like Metallica at the Sheffield Arena are so different to intimate pub gigs like the Sisters of Mercy at the Fenton that it’s really hard to compare.

I’ve got 2kg of boneless chicken thighs marinading in the fridge right now.

I’m doing chicken shawarma on my kamado grill for some of the family tomorrow (if you like cooking over fire, come and join us on !cooking_with_fire@feddit.uk).

Planning on serving that with some flatbreads, hummus, labneh, tabbouleh, zhoug, and homemade pickles. Mmmm.

After that, my only plan is to chill the fuck out and eat leftovers!

I cooked Oklahoma onion burgers yesterday.

Really simple.

1. Season your mince with salt and form into small rounds.
2. Smash the burgers topped with really finely sliced onion smashed straight into the burger on a hot griddle (I used a soapstone in my Kamado).
3. When the lacey edges of the burger are starting to caremalise, flip and add a slice of cheese.
4. Place the top of the bun on top of the cheese and the bottom face down on top of that. This lets the buns steam a little and soften.

Serve.

Five ingredients: beef mince, onion, salt, cheese, bun.

Great burger.

My lawnmower.

Bear with me.

When I was a kid my dad had a proper lawnmower. It was petrol-powered with a cylinder cutting head and a heavy roller at the back. A Suffolk Colt. There was something about it, the combined smell of petrol and freshly mown grass, the perfect stripes it laid on the lawn, the neatness of the cut. When I was old enough I was allowed to use it to mow the lawn. The only chore I was given that was pure pleasure. I loved running that machine over the grass, loved the the pull of the eager little engine when I opened the throttle, loved the sound, loved the smell, loved everything about it…

I’m in my 50s now, but it wasn’t until I bought my own, refurbished Suffolk Colt, about 10 years ago, that I felt maybe, just maybe, that I was a proper grown-up like my dad was. 10-year old me would smile and understand.

Hellmann’s.

Reading this made me cross.

I am doing great.

I’m staying at a ridiculously opulent villa on a sun-drenched hillside in Italy. I had a fantastic watermelon salad with feta and prosciutto washed down with half a bottle of an excellent dry rosé for lunch. I’ve just finished a really good book and I’m about to go for a quick dip in the pool, then will probably play a board game with my wife and kids.

I tell you all this, not to gloat, but to highlight change and the possibility of it.

I’ve experienced depression and crippling anxiety in the past and, while you’re in the depths of it, it can be hard to believe things will ever change for the better.

But they can and they will.

You will have light and love and laughter again, my friend. You just need to tell yourself that this time is just a moment and like all moments it will pass, it is transitory like a cloud passing in front of the sun, a shadow cast over you.

I’ll raise a glass to you and drink to the shadow moving on from you sooner rather than later.

Woo-hoo, I’m a youngster (in this deomgraphic)!