It’s once again an Australia Time Friday! It’s FRIDAY!!!!
The Tucker
After the long description of Lamb Stew / Scotch Broth from last week, this week is simple and trivial.
1/2 pound of ground (minced) lamb, sprinkled with dried garlic granules. Fried about 4 to 5 minutes a side (about 1/3 – 1/2 inch thick) in olive oil. Lay a slice of Havarti on at the second turn back (first cook, turn, second cook, turn back, heat off, cheese on) while you prepare the plate and sides. As the cheese is just melting, plate it with a generous portion of fries.
I’ve taken to using the electric skillet at 375 F with 90% beef tallow and 10% coconut oil. Tonight was Store Brand “First Street” from Smart & Final straight cut fries (frozen) straight into the oil for 8 minutes with a bit of a stir now and then.
I also included a 1/2 cup of “Dressing” or “stuffing” from the big batch made for Valentines Day (Cornish Game Hens) where almost all of it was not going into 2 game hens. So instead a bread LOAF Pan of it was cooked about 25 minutes 375 F. Then to the fridge after dinner. So we’ve got about a week of 1/2 cup servings to work through… and then some. 2 x 30 second zaps in the microwave. About 3 minutes between zaps.
The Wine
Rawson’s Retreat Merlot. 2018.
It’s a bit tannic. So it would stand up to a couple of years bottle aging in the wine rack. Fruit is very good. Deep ruby color, and a nice but not spectacular nose.
Richness on the side of the tongue, but not a lot of strong characters in the glass. I’ve come to appreciate that single variety wines are just not as complex as the blends after my own experiment in blending. IMHO, this is a very nice single variety wine that would be at its best in 2 to 4 years on the shelf.
But, I’d be really interesting in blending it with another wine. Perhaps one a bit weak in tannins and character, but long on fruit and a bit cloying. Something that needs a bit of a kick in the pants.
Will this bottle survive the night? I’m sorry, but “No Way!”. It will not be aged and it will not be “left over”. This bottle will be drunk tonight (as, hopefully, will I be ;-) It’s quite acceptable in the glass next to a fork full of garlic laced lamb with some fries. BUT, had a bit more discipline and could let it age a few years, it has potential to be so much more, then. Tannis muted. Smoothed and mellowed. Depth improved. Or just pair it with something spicy now and enjoy the moment ;-)
I’ll buy more of this one. Though I’m likely to try another Cabernet / Shiraz blend experiment with this one as part of a “3 Way” tryst. We’ll find out in a few years IF I can let it lie, or if I’m just not that self controlled and it either gets used up in “experiments” or just goes down the gullet with a bit of Garlic Bread and Marinara Ravioli ;-)
Musings from the Chiefio 
Ha! A little digression on Havarti cheese.
Mrs. H.R. likes Havarti on her sammies and burgers. I actually like Havarti well enough, but I like dilled Havarti far better. I don’t see dilled Havarti much anymore, just plain, but dilled Havarti was pretty much the only way it was sold around the parts I was raised. What, Germanic influence driving the dill preference?
When it comes to burgers and sammies, I prefer Monterey Jack with jalapeno and habanero peppers mixed in. That, or a blue or gorgonzola. I’m also growing fond of smoked gouda cheese.
Party on, Garth. It’s FRIDAY in Australia!
@H.R.:
We regularly rotate the Sliced Cheese in the fridge. Whatever is there is what goes on the burgers. Sometimes Havarti, or Jack, or Colby Jack, or American (rarely…), or Cheddar (also now rarely since not a good idea with history of kidney stones), or Provalone, or Swiss, or Gouda, or several others.
The spouse doesn’t like strong flavors, so I don’t get the Pepper Jack or Dilled {whatever} unless I’m out and about… Oh Well, we all make sacrifices for our loved ones and this is a minor one.
I really like smoked Gouda on a burger ;-) (Smoke flavor is hard to add otherwise, but you can always add the peppers ;-)
No comment on Fakebook cutting off Oz? I thought that would be the topic of the day.
But I think Fakebook just went a bridge too far. They may skate, but now they have the entire commonwealth taking a very critical look at them.
Well Done Oz!!!
Didn’t have lamb this Friday Party time, had lasagne and Greek salad instead and did happen to have Havarti cheese and biscuits as dessert. Pre dinner whisky, Famous Grouse. An international taste treat fer a serf from down_under.
“No comment on Fakebook cutting off Oz?”
Or Fascistbook, according to one commenter to this video.
She tells how FB cut off Oz with zero warning to anyone, in response to laws that have not even been passed yet. FB has united all the parties there. Her comment at 6:40 — “only a company with monopoly power would treat its users in this way.” Her comment that Zuckerberg is immature is also relevant. Zuckerberg may be safe from Biden, but the rest of the world?
@PhilJourdan:
Since I don’t do Facebook, and think nobody else ought to either since all it does is expose you to potential abuse, having them cut off news from Oz is, IMHO, a good thing, as it will cause some people to think a little bit… maybe…
Just shift over to one of the dozen or so alternatives that are free of spying, censorship, manipulation, etc. etc.
The list of alternatives to Faceplant is long a varied:
“en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_services”
Has dozens listed…
IMHO, the simple answer to FaceBollocks is “go somewhere else”.
IFF you are ‘afraid’ of being cut off an isolated in some small community as your friends join different things, pick one in the Fediverse as they can and do exchange pages with each other.
“en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fediverse”
I’m looking at Pleroma, Diaspora, and Mastodon as the three most likely for me to bring up on the i2p side of things. Folks needing a new place to land NOW can just get an account on one of the existing Mastodon, Pleroma, Diaspora, etc. etc. systems and be back up in no time.
Facebook only matters if you let it matter. Just “let it go” and move on…
P2P social media without any intervening company holding or looking over your data:
https://www.manyver.se/
On Google, F-Droid and Apple phone app stores…
Also:
Diaspora is on servers, many and independently run, but you can roll your own if you wish. About a million folks already there…
https://diasporafoundation.org/
I am glad Facebook is cutting off Oz. Who needs to be part of a Dr Edward Bernays- mind- altering big-untruth movement?
A couple on Oz vs facebook
https://richardsonpost.com/paulzanetti/20701/australian-publishers-shoot-themselves-in-the-foot/
https://richardsonpost.com/paulzanetti/20705/did-murdoch-really-want-his-news-limited/
Sounds a “nice bloke” that zuck
beththeserf: “I am glad Facebook is cutting off Oz. Who needs to be part of a Dr Edward Bernays- mind- altering big-untruth movement?”
When will people learn that there are other ways to share pictures of the kids and grandkids and where they went on vacation?
When will people learn that when someone is giving you their product for free, you’re the product?
AFAIK the FB news page didn’t have the full articles, but connected through to the source sites for that. Just showed the first few words of the news item, which would be termed “fair use” for most people. FB doesn’t block people getting to the news sites, and in fact feeds them click-throughs. I’m thus not seeing why they would be liable to pay in the first place unless they show a cached copy of the news site rather than sending the customer to the site.
Ditto I don’t see why not showing the summaries has upset people so much. If you want to read the news, you simply have to go direct to the news site. Whether or not FB has a page with summaries doesn’t really make a difference, except that FB may not now know what news interests that customer.
I’m not trying to defend FB here, since a lot of what they do is intrusive. However, in this case I think the Aussie politicians and newspapers don’t really have a leg to stand on. It seems a lot of Aussies found the single location in FB for news summaries was useful, and it acted as a portal to access the news sites themselves, so the news sites would actually receive more views than they would otherwise have done. It will be interesting to see how many views the newspapers get without the FB aggregator/summaries. If it rises, then maybe they have a case for charging FB to provide their news summaries. If it drops, then FB has a case to charge the newspapers to make their summaries. Obviously, I think it’s going to drop, so FB were in fact doing the newspapers somewhat of a favour for free.
Wow, this guy in Australia calls Biden out for his dementia. I wish they would show this on American tv.
E.M.
A wine name for your just in case file
https://joannenova.com.au/2021/02/weekend-unthreaded-348/#comment-2407837
Link is behind the Murdoch wall but you’ll get the idea
@EMS – re: Fakebook cutting off Oz – I agree. I was just kind of surprised on your Oz blog you did not mention it. I think the faster they fall, the better for all.
@Phil:
One of my “fundamental rules”: IF something is already being 4-walled everywhere, I have no value to add so do not mention it.
That said:
The real reason I didn’t say anything about it was that I didn’t know it had happened. Yeah, I was a bit out of touch. What can I say… I can’t be everywhere at once and I was busy “down the rabbit hole” of social media alternatives while I was also experimenting with a week on “Gin & Tonic”… Yeah… all week…
My conclusion is that it works as an antiviral but I can’t keep it up for more than one week ’cause I’m a light weight on hard stuff…. I did 2 weeks on “just tonic water” about a year ago and that was OK but was a bit rough on the taste buds… Doing it with Gin is easier to keep swallowing it, but … I’m not able to do it for more than one week.
But worry about what Facebook is doing? Since I do not use it At All and think anyone on it ought to Get The Hell Off, NOW!!! I don’t really spend any time paying attention to it in any way, shape, or form.
I knew Australia was working on a way to milk them for some money (as is the EU) but didn’t really care. To me, they are dead anyway. Go ahead, have a food fight over the corpse…
So I missed it and you broke the story. H/T to you.
@EMS – understood. But, and I am being bold here, perhaps you should say something on the 4 walled things. This goes back to my last comment on another thread.
Rush use to say that once he said something on a subject, it was the final comment. And he was right all the time.
you are not Rush. But you have a very loyal following. Who do not care about fake news when they 4 wall an item. They care about what you say. I am not saying you are a Rush replacement. But what you say is important to many.
We can agree or disagree. But we do want to know what you say.
History worth the remembering…
History being destroyed by the woke.
There is no honor any more.
A bit more on that
“Battle of Beersheba” -Centenary 2017 by Ted Egan – YouTube
Search domain http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdNLR0Ao1Cghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdNLR0Ao1Cg
On October 31 1917, 400 years to the day Islamic forces had taken over the Jewish settlement of Beersheba, the 4th and 12th Australian Light Horse regiments .”
The last great cavalry charge – the charge of the 4th Australian Light Horse at Beersheba,late in the afternoon of 31st October, 1917,. Such bravery, brings a lump to yr throat.
http://www.lighthorse.org.au/the-battle-at-beersheba/
Beth
Definitely.
FWIW Wikipedia lists some more cavalry charges further up that campaign towards Jerusalem by the same group.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Beersheba_(1917)
I haven’t decided if that is trying to denigrate Beersheba or not though
Doesn’t mention Ion Idriess and “The Desert Column” in its literature
BYW did you realise that at Gallipoli Idriess was Billy Sing’s spotter for a while?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Sing
Ian,
Re Ion Idriess, Billy Sing and courage in wartime and elsewhere. So many true stories and in great literature, unfoldings that combat the narrowness of stereotypes, life in the bubble … whereASS WOKE ideology reinforces witch-hunt group identity. Here from the serf way-back machine a modest proposal regarding reading literature, https://beththeserf.wordpress.com/2014/03/02/13th-edition-serf-under_ground-journal/
bts.
The order of battle and the forces as they faced off.
I’d not known that their horses had been without water for 48 hours in the desert. They start dying not too long after that, so taking the water supply was vital.
@EM – I like that list of alternatives to FaceBerg, as I call it. I was surprised to see 4chan on it, but I guess it is a social media platform of sorts. I also noticed that Voat is on the list, but they shutdown at the end of last December due to a lack of funding. Too bad, it was a great alternative to Reddit. And I’ve heard good things about Minds, which I think is enough like FaceBerg as far as user interaction goes, that people would be comfortable making the switch.