Woke up a little late on Sunday morning, missing the morning dog walk, but feeling refreshed and ready for the day ahead.
After breakfast and a quick blast on one of my bass guitars (put new strings on them on Saturday - love a guitar with new strings...) I started making dough for the rolls we would have with our barbeque. Once this was set aside to rise I got to work on the chili dog sauce, using a recipe that was sent to me by one of my wonderful blog buddies...
The recipe was written for a semi-industrial scale, I reduced the amounts to a more managable level. The only risk I took was to interpret "Red Pepper" as "Cayenne Pepper"....
After the sause was cooked, I put a lid on it and set it aside for reheating later on. In my experience, things like this often benefit from a good standing time to allow the flavours to develop fully.
The rolls rose and baked to perfection....
The sausages that were to make up the chili dogs were put onto the barbeque last, catching the lower heat that was good for warming them through...
Then it was time.
I cut open a roll, and placed one of the sausages in it. Slight misjudgement meant that an inch or so of sausage hung out of each end of the roll, but hey, that is not serious.
Then a couple of generous spoonfuls of the chili mix.
I swear there was a Chorus of Angels at this point.
The chili dog also glowed briefly, I kid you not!
OK, so maybe the Police were chasing someone on the bypass.
And MAYBE someone picked up their glass which reflected the bright sunshine.
Maybe.
But there is no denying that this was the Holy Grail of chili dogs. It was absolutely wonderful. As was the 2nd and 3rd. Many thanks for the recipe, wReggie - I am forever in your debt.
And now we come to the beer part. I had bought some nice German beer to go with the chili dogs, but as I was cooking and baking in the heat from the sun (hotter than most of the summer had been!) I added some appleade to it. It was a wonderfully refreshing combination. Mrs RC pulled a face when I told her what I was drinking, but she then drifted back for a sip. After that she returned for several more, admitting that it was rather good!
Later that evening I had another beer and watched a dodgy disaster movie - a "just how bad can the continuity get" movie. A great way to round off a wonderful weekend.
Hope you had a great weekend and have a great week to come!
Monday, 3 October 2011
Friday, 30 September 2011
Surfin' USA...
Well we are finally having a summer here in England! Better weather this week that most of the summer was, so this weekend will see barbeques and beer! Oooooh Yeah! Real Beach Boys weather!
A feature of the barbeque will be chili dogs, thanks to wReggie's inspiration. I am going to look for some good German sausages for this and will probably make my own rolls. Looking forward to it!
Had an extreme guitar dream last night - must get into a band once the dissertation is done. I had a bass guitar that had built in synthesiser stuff, including a joy-stick that did all sorts of stuff to the sound and pitch of the notes I was playing. I want that guitar! Not that it exists. Unless I just invented it. In which case, maybe I should look into building the damn thing!
Meanwhile, I still have more figures to paint for the Robin Hood game as well as the next part of my Persian army - next in line are Indian chariots. These are real monstrosities with 4 horses and 6 crew each! Will post photos of these when they are done as they are really something.
So, have a great weekend - hope you get to relax with some beer and a chili dog or something - more next week!
A feature of the barbeque will be chili dogs, thanks to wReggie's inspiration. I am going to look for some good German sausages for this and will probably make my own rolls. Looking forward to it!
Had an extreme guitar dream last night - must get into a band once the dissertation is done. I had a bass guitar that had built in synthesiser stuff, including a joy-stick that did all sorts of stuff to the sound and pitch of the notes I was playing. I want that guitar! Not that it exists. Unless I just invented it. In which case, maybe I should look into building the damn thing!
Meanwhile, I still have more figures to paint for the Robin Hood game as well as the next part of my Persian army - next in line are Indian chariots. These are real monstrosities with 4 horses and 6 crew each! Will post photos of these when they are done as they are really something.
So, have a great weekend - hope you get to relax with some beer and a chili dog or something - more next week!
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Getting to know me...
I have stolen this Meme from Nanette at Life Candy, who stole it from someone else so I guess it is blog-business as usual?
Here are my answers to some random questions:
1. Name someone with the same birthday as you. No one seems to share exactly the same birthday as me, so I will go for John the Blind, King of Bohemia/Count of Luxembourg, born in 1296 and killed at the Battle of Crecy, charging into battle with someone else holding his horse's reins...
2. What has been your favorite age so far? 40. That was the year when everything in the world seemed to go right.
3. Where did you meet your wife? In a friend's bedsit. She was going out with another friend of mine at that point, who she then married and divorced in sort order before hooking up with me.
4. How many children do you have? 4, although our eldest is no longer with us.
5. Have you ever sung in front of a large number of people? No, but I did play bass guitar in a band when I was young. Never had the courage to stand in front of the microphone.
6. What’s the first thing you notice about your preferred sex? Usually it is their hair, unless I am close enough to see their eyes.
7. What really turns you off? Smoking.
8. What do you order at Starbucks? I have never been there! I would probably go for some sort of hot chocolate...
9. What is your biggest mistake? Trusting a certain doctor until it was too late.
10. As a child, what did you want to grow up to be? Happy.
11. Say something totally random about yourself. I have got 3 nipples.
12. Do you still watch kiddie movies or TV shows? I love Sponge Bob Squarepants.
13. Did you have braces? No.
14. Favorite Social Network? Blogging - far better than FB...
15. What is the most romantic thing someone of the preferred sex has done for you? This won't be the usual sort of answer to this one. One night we were walking home and I was pushing our daughter in a pram and a drunk guy decided he wanted to kick my head in. No reason. My wife took him on, told him what an idiot he was and told his girlfriend to get him under control before she got really angry. They went of quietly.
16. When do you know it’s love? When you automatically think "we" instead of "I"?
17. Do you speak any other languages? No. Unless you count profanity as a seperate language.
18. Have you ever been to a tanning salon? Nah.
19. What magazines do you read? None at the moment! Used to read ones about toy soldiers but gave up.
20. What is playing on your iPod right now? I don't own one! If I put some music on my PC right now it would probably be Foo Fighters or Thin Lizzy.
21. Have you ever ridden in a limo? Nope. Never felt the need to be honest.
22. Has anyone you were really close to passed away? Our daughter. It was the worst thing imaginable - thank God for good friends, great children and a strong loving wife.
23. Do you watch MTV? No. I occasionally watch Kerrang or Scuzz.
24. What’s something that really annoys you? People who complain that they are poor and can't afford things for their kids when they smoke, drink and have an expensive phone.
25. Which television show were you sad to say goodbye to? Dead Like Me. It was strangely theraputic.
26. Can you dance? I am great after a few beers.
27. What’s your favorite place in the world? Anywhere that I am with my wife and kids.
28. Have you ever been rushed by an ambulance into the emergency room? No, I am very careful.
29. If you could meet anyone (dead or alive) who would it be? I would like to have a beer with George W Bush.
30. If you could change one thing in the world for your child, what would it be? I just hope that they find love and happiness, whatever they end up doing.
Anyone else want to try this? Feel free to steal it from me...
Here are my answers to some random questions:
1. Name someone with the same birthday as you. No one seems to share exactly the same birthday as me, so I will go for John the Blind, King of Bohemia/Count of Luxembourg, born in 1296 and killed at the Battle of Crecy, charging into battle with someone else holding his horse's reins...
2. What has been your favorite age so far? 40. That was the year when everything in the world seemed to go right.
3. Where did you meet your wife? In a friend's bedsit. She was going out with another friend of mine at that point, who she then married and divorced in sort order before hooking up with me.
4. How many children do you have? 4, although our eldest is no longer with us.
5. Have you ever sung in front of a large number of people? No, but I did play bass guitar in a band when I was young. Never had the courage to stand in front of the microphone.
6. What’s the first thing you notice about your preferred sex? Usually it is their hair, unless I am close enough to see their eyes.
7. What really turns you off? Smoking.
8. What do you order at Starbucks? I have never been there! I would probably go for some sort of hot chocolate...
9. What is your biggest mistake? Trusting a certain doctor until it was too late.
10. As a child, what did you want to grow up to be? Happy.
11. Say something totally random about yourself. I have got 3 nipples.
12. Do you still watch kiddie movies or TV shows? I love Sponge Bob Squarepants.
13. Did you have braces? No.
14. Favorite Social Network? Blogging - far better than FB...
15. What is the most romantic thing someone of the preferred sex has done for you? This won't be the usual sort of answer to this one. One night we were walking home and I was pushing our daughter in a pram and a drunk guy decided he wanted to kick my head in. No reason. My wife took him on, told him what an idiot he was and told his girlfriend to get him under control before she got really angry. They went of quietly.
16. When do you know it’s love? When you automatically think "we" instead of "I"?
17. Do you speak any other languages? No. Unless you count profanity as a seperate language.
18. Have you ever been to a tanning salon? Nah.
19. What magazines do you read? None at the moment! Used to read ones about toy soldiers but gave up.
20. What is playing on your iPod right now? I don't own one! If I put some music on my PC right now it would probably be Foo Fighters or Thin Lizzy.
21. Have you ever ridden in a limo? Nope. Never felt the need to be honest.
22. Has anyone you were really close to passed away? Our daughter. It was the worst thing imaginable - thank God for good friends, great children and a strong loving wife.
23. Do you watch MTV? No. I occasionally watch Kerrang or Scuzz.
24. What’s something that really annoys you? People who complain that they are poor and can't afford things for their kids when they smoke, drink and have an expensive phone.
25. Which television show were you sad to say goodbye to? Dead Like Me. It was strangely theraputic.
26. Can you dance? I am great after a few beers.
27. What’s your favorite place in the world? Anywhere that I am with my wife and kids.
28. Have you ever been rushed by an ambulance into the emergency room? No, I am very careful.
29. If you could meet anyone (dead or alive) who would it be? I would like to have a beer with George W Bush.
30. If you could change one thing in the world for your child, what would it be? I just hope that they find love and happiness, whatever they end up doing.
Anyone else want to try this? Feel free to steal it from me...
Stealing from the rich...
So, my video camera overheard me plotting to replace it and promptly started working again!
Here are some quick snaps I took of some of the figures I am painting for the Robin Hood game that a friend and I are working on:
King Richard, back from the Cruades.
A beggar and the woodcutter.
A pair of monks.
Another monk, or perhaps King Richard in disguise?
This game is going to be great fun - will post photos of the full game when we play it...
Tuesday, 27 September 2011
Monday, 26 September 2011
Time passes, as it tends to do
I post by TechnoBabe, celebrating her 5 years as a blogger, made me realise that I am approaching my 5th anniversary too!
Although it wasn't until January 2007 that I actually started blogging regularly, during the previous autumn a friend of mine (James) started to drag me into Blogdom. I created my first blog ("Don't talk to me about life") which I never posted to. As the name indicates, I was at a bad place in those days, but reading around different blogs made me see that there were some great people out there and I was hooked.
Over the years bloggers have come and gone - a few of the old gang that I hooked up with are still around, but many have either vanished entirely or have moved to Facebook, which is a shame. Blogging and Facebook are totally different things - you can't make new friends on Facebook as it does not allow for deeper discussions and connections. For example, on blogs I have discussed just about every topic imaginable:
And I am now it a much better place than I was 5 years ago - thanks in no small part to you guys out there who have helped me through tough times. I cannot thank you enough for your love and support, it really does mean a lot to me.
5 years - doesn't seem like that long, but then again I have trouble remembering NOT blogging! Isn't the mind a funny thing!
So, thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy my random little posts because there are a lot more on the way!
Although it wasn't until January 2007 that I actually started blogging regularly, during the previous autumn a friend of mine (James) started to drag me into Blogdom. I created my first blog ("Don't talk to me about life") which I never posted to. As the name indicates, I was at a bad place in those days, but reading around different blogs made me see that there were some great people out there and I was hooked.
Over the years bloggers have come and gone - a few of the old gang that I hooked up with are still around, but many have either vanished entirely or have moved to Facebook, which is a shame. Blogging and Facebook are totally different things - you can't make new friends on Facebook as it does not allow for deeper discussions and connections. For example, on blogs I have discussed just about every topic imaginable:
- Religion and faith;
- The loss of loved ones;
- Children asking questions such as "So do you and mommy still do IT?";
- Childhood;
- Parenting;
- Pets pooping everywhere;
- Aging parents;
- Food - lots about food!;
- Music;
- History;
- How cool it is to have Polish ancestry!
- and a load more that my old brain can't quite recall on a Monday morning!
And I am now it a much better place than I was 5 years ago - thanks in no small part to you guys out there who have helped me through tough times. I cannot thank you enough for your love and support, it really does mean a lot to me.
5 years - doesn't seem like that long, but then again I have trouble remembering NOT blogging! Isn't the mind a funny thing!
So, thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy my random little posts because there are a lot more on the way!
Friday, 23 September 2011
Start of term
This week has been the usual start of term mayhem - new students arriving, established students returning, class lists constantly updated, last minute things needing to be done, etc, not to mention the piles of photocopying!
So the weekend is more than welcome! I need to put my feet up, sip a beer and relax with the old guitar...
Might get some more toy soldiers painted too. I have started painting up some to go with a friend's Robin Hood set up. Yes, he has Robin Hood, the Sheriff, the Merry Menne, etc. I am adding a bishop, some monks, a few peasants and good old Richard the Lionheart, freshly returned from the Crusades. These are looking very nice and I will post photos when I can take some nice shots.
Well that is about it! Just about to finish of updating a PC lab for next week and then it is more or less time to run for home!
Have a great weekend - hope to be more with it next week!
So the weekend is more than welcome! I need to put my feet up, sip a beer and relax with the old guitar...
Might get some more toy soldiers painted too. I have started painting up some to go with a friend's Robin Hood set up. Yes, he has Robin Hood, the Sheriff, the Merry Menne, etc. I am adding a bishop, some monks, a few peasants and good old Richard the Lionheart, freshly returned from the Crusades. These are looking very nice and I will post photos when I can take some nice shots.
Well that is about it! Just about to finish of updating a PC lab for next week and then it is more or less time to run for home!
Have a great weekend - hope to be more with it next week!
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