Hossenfeffer

A free-range chicken, seasoned with paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, white pepper, and cayenne.

A can of a fairly mild IPA shoved up its fundament (about a third of the can decanted into me first to prevent boilover).

Cooked at about 180'C in a Kamado cooker for roughly an hour and a half. The photo was taken at about the one hour mark.

Served with a creamy mac and cheese and a sharp, homemade coleslaw.

A nice end to the summer!

From Jason Lefkowitz

"After “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” ended, Graham Chapman worked with an up-and-coming young writer named Douglas Adams on a new sketch comedy show for the BBC. It was called "Out of the Trees," and it bombed. Only one episode was made, and that aired only once, on January 10, 1976.

Once the Beeb gave up on "Out of the Trees," they did to it what they did to so many other programs of that era: they erased it. They wiped the master tapes so they could be re-used. "Out of the Trees" went into the history books as lost media.

That changed nearly 30 years later, when Chapman's partner, David Sherlock, approached Dick Fiddy, an archivist at London's National Film Theatre. Sherlock revealed that Chapman had in fact recorded a copy of "Out of the Trees" onto videotape from his home TV the one and only time it aired.

But there was a problem. That air date was in 1976, before VHS or Betamax became global videocassette standards. Chapman had recorded the show on one of the very earliest home videotape formats -- Philips' "Video Cassette Recording" (VCR), which had reached the market in 1972. The rise of Beta and VHS had, however, led Philips to abandon its VCR format. The last compatible players had been made in 1979. By the mid-2000s, they were impossible to find. Sherlock had been left with an historic tape, and no machine to play it on.

Fiddy says it took two years to build a compatible player, but eventually it was done. And that is why you can watch the one and only episode of "Out of the Trees" ever produced on YouTube today.

Is it any good? Ehhh, not really. It's not Chapman or Adams' best work, that's for certain. But it's a good example of what the future will hold for lots of cultural artifacts, if we're not careful."

I quite enjoyed it and had no idea it existed before now. So, thank you, @jalefkowit@octodon.social

Smash burgers. Fantastic.

The best burger I’ve ever had was the Green Chilli Cheese burger from Meat Liquor. No matter what I do, I can’t quite match that perfection. Has anyone come close?

https://meatliquor.com/

The long-awaited print-on-demand edition of “New Pavis: City on the Edge of Forever,” volume one of Ian Thomson’s Pavis & Big Rubble Companion Director’s Cut, is now available to order from DriveThruRPG: just $35.95 for a massive 224-page colour hardcover tome.

The PDF has been available for a while, but this is for old gippers like me who don't entirely trust PDFs and is a very welcome release.

And it's just first volume in a hugely expanded re-release of the original Companion series.

This is 'old school' stuff, all updated to the new rules system (RQG), but written in the classic style of gameplay (RQ2).

Focused around independent adventurers in search of wealth and glory, who slowly but surely become more and more connected with the Cult of Pavis and its allies, and end up being Champions of the Old City!

About twenty-five chicken wings, marinaded overnight in yoghurt, lemon juice and a Tandoori spice mix.

I put these on a Kamado Joe barbecue at 120'C for about half an hour.

Then raised the temperature to 180'C for another, maybe half an hour, flipping the wings every five to ten minutes to make sure they got some char but didn't burn.

Meanwhile, I washed, soaked, and drained some basmati rice. Then I toasted some cumin and coriander seeds, then crushed them in a pestle and mortar. I added some turmeric and a pinch of kashmiri chilli powder, a couple of bruised cardamom pods, and gently fried the spices to let them bloom. I added half a chopped onion, a couple of cloves of garlic, and a little grated ginger. I continued to fry that gently for about five minutes then turned up the heat and added the rice, frying it in with the oil and spices for a couple of minutes.

Then I added 1.5 times as much vegetable stock, added a good pinch of salt, brought it to a boil, covered the pan, and turned the heat down as low as possible. I left it for just over 10 minutes until all the liquid had been absorbed, then put a piece of kitchen towel over the rice, lid back on, and let it rest for 10 minutes.

I also made some Cucumber Raita (grated cucumber, yoghurt, mint, and coriander), but the only photo I took of that makes it look horrid, so you'll just have to imagine it!

Nice.

Probably the most important publications in Runequest / Glorantha in years are the new Cults of Runequest books.

There will be 11 books in total, listed here in no particular order: Prosopaedia, Lightbringers, Earth, Mythology, Darkness, Water, Solar, Lords of Terror, Horned God, Invisible God, Lunar Way. Those in bold are already available. The Mythology book is coming in October.

The first one was the Prosopaedia, published first simply, I think, because it was ready first. On its own it's not that great a resource for players - though may be for GMs because it's effectively a summary of what was to follow in the individual pantheon books.

The Lightbringers and Earth pantheon books are a different kettle of fish. Containing, between them, 35 cults, including those most commonly used by players of Sartarite and Praxian focused games, and adding the same kind of detail as the ground-breaking Cults of Prax from all the way back in 1979.

One of the great things about the cults books though, are the cults which players don't tend to play. These are not just a bunch of cool new spells and skills for PCs to bring to bear, they're part of the monumental world-building of Glorantha. Some of these gods exist not to be be part of a party's toolset but simply because they are interwoven into the mythology of Glorantha and deserve to be present.

All available from Chaosium, of course, as print (with free PDF) and also from local game shops which are part of the Bits and Mortar initiative.

If you run a game, or play a game, based in Sartar or Prax, I'd say these books are pretty close to being essential to deepen your understanding of the cults of Glorantha.

Seasoned and air dried in the fridge overnight, except the tandoori wings which marinaded in spices and yoghurt.

On the Kamado Joe at 120'C for half an hour.

Then I opened the vents up to get to about 200'C and flipped several times for about another half an hour.

Once they were done, I took them off to rest and quickly grilled a couple of hotdogs for The Boy.

Meanwhile, I made up Buffalo and BBQ sauce and tossed some wings in each.

Bonebowl.

Jamaican Curry Chicken

Feeds 6 or so, I reckon.

• A dozen boneless chicken thighs, each cut into about 3 pieces
• 2 large carrots, sliced
• 1 large potato, diced
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1 cup coconut milk

Marinade

• A hefty glug of oil
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, grated
• 1 bunch spring onions / scallions, chopped
• 1 scotch bonnet, chopped
• 1 tbsp Jamaican curry powder
• 1 tbsp Jamaican all purpose seasoning
• 1 heaped tsp ground allspice
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• A few decent grinds of black pepper

1. Mix all the marinade ingredients in a bowl, combine with the chicken, leave to marinate ideally overnight.
2. In a large skillet or dutch oven, heat some oil then fry the chicken in batches so as not to crowd the pan.
3. Return the chicken to the pan with the carrots, potato, and stock, stirring to deglaze. Mostly cover and simmer for 30-40 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked and the liquid reduced to a gravy.
4. Reduce the heat, add the coconut milk, stir and warm through for 5 more minutes.
5. Serve with rice and peas.

In the interests of it being an akshul recipe, tho':

INGREDIENTS
Bread, two slices, your choice of white, brown, granary, artisinal ancient-grain loaf, etc
2 good pork sausages
1 large egg
A sploosh of Reggae Reggae sauce

METHOD

• Fry the sossies, then cut them in half so they don't fall out of your sarnie while you're eating it.
• Fry the egg - you want the yolk to be gooey rather than runny so it doesn't drip down your arm while you're eating it.
• Spludge the Reggae Reggae sauce on one of the slices of bread, take the other slice and put it on top then waggle it about a bit to ensure even coverage on both top and bottom, then separate for construction. I like barely enough to go around but some people are sauce hogs, in which case, go wild.
• Construct the sarnie - put the sossies on the bottom slice, put the egg on top of the sossies, put the top slice on top of the egg (sauce side down).
• Eat.
• Grin.

If you're using a traditional charcoal grill or a barrel smoker like this one, I recommend using a charcoal chimney to get the party started. I fill mine 3/4 full of charcoal, then roll a couple of sheets of newspaper with a drop of vegetable oil and kind of wedge it under the chimney. Lights first time and gets the charcoals going quickly.

To add a little flavour to the smokiness, I used Jack Daniels barrel wood chips, bay leaves, and allspice berries soaked in water for an hour or so before the cook.

After the chicken temp hit about 65'C I took the chicken off the hooks, put the grill grate in and left the lid off to finish the chicken over a higher flame and get the skin a little more crispy.

Served with potato salad; red cabbage and pecan coleslaw; watermelon, mango, feta, cucumber, mint and basil salad.

So warm and comforting. Every mouthful a hug. It was cobbled together a bit from other recipes but approximately this:

1. Make a roux. I took it to a dark hazelnut level of colour.
2. Add finely chopped onion, celery, and green pepper to the roux and fry, stirring often for a few minutes..
3. Add chopped garlic and fry, stirring often. I was going to add some anchovies at this point, but couldn't find them, so I didn't.
4. After a couple more minutes, push the veggies to one side then add a decent squeeze of tomato puree to the clear half of the pot, stirring it to release the aroma, then mix it in with the rest of the veggies.
5. Add spices and aromatics. I went with a Cajun spice mix (called 'Slap Ya Mama'), salt, pepper, thyme, oregano, and a couple of bay leaves. But really you could do pretty much anything at this point depending on the spice profile you fancy - saffron or smoked paprika would both work really well here to give a more Spanish feel for example.
6. Add some dry white wine, or beer, slowly, stirring. The roux will glob up, but just keep gently stirring and adding liquid until it's started to loosen. I'd guess I used about 250-300ml. Keep on the heat, stirring, for about 5 minutes to let the alcohol cook off a bit.
7. Add chopped tomatoes - fresh or canned.
8. Add more liquid. I went with a bottle of beer and 500 ml of fish stock, but just fish stock would work fine.
9. Gently simmer for an hour, or so, stirring every 15-20 minutes, letting it approach the consistency you want because it'll thicken over time.
10. Adjust the seasoning.
11. Add chopped fish / prawns / other shellfish. Stir gently because you don't want the fish to break up. I gave it about five minutes and the fish was perfect, but adjust depending on what you're adding.
12. Garnish with finely chopped parsley and spring onion, and plenty of lemon for people to squeeze over.
13. Serve with fresh baked, crusty bread to mop up the juices.

Argentinian grilled chicken cooked over charcoal and wood, basil roasted baby potatoes, heart of palm and avacado salad, and homemade chimichurri.