The Moose Factory - Virtual Bar and Grill - Version 3

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

On 4/29/2021 at 6:38 AM, catty-cb said:

...the population is now down to 30 million

ONLY 30 million? Is that all that are left? And they're tasty? Why don't we have some invasive-species possum curry for dinner tonight? I think I may eschew that and just eat the vegetable version myself (mushrooms, onions, potatoes, deep fried tofu cubes). Oh hey, it's a surprise CURRY SUNDAY! I'm still not feeling 100% since my shot (was much better when I woke up Thursday morning, but just feeling like I'm dragging compared to usual) but this will be sure to get me ready for whatever the next week will throw at me. Let's eat!

[catty-cb 4,411]

10 hours ago, NMUSpidey said:

ONLY 30 million? Is that all that are left? And they're tasty?

Never tried it, but according to people that have it tastes great ..... like rabbit

Old news article on possums and power poles

http://www.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-express/6969320/Great-lengths-to-foil-possums

  Edited May 3, 2021 by catty-cb  
added a bit

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

I've been on an Allman Brothers Band kick recently. "Whipping Post" is such a great song, and I was yesterday years old when I first heard their epic performance of it at Fillmore East. Great stuff, so bluesy, so powerful.

 

For tonight let's have some pierogi. We'll saute up some onions and bacon to eat alongside them and why not some garlic bread, too? Garlic bread makes any meal complete.

[SIM-ple Jack 17,450]

On 5/3/2021 at 7:22 AM, catty-cb said:

Never tried it, but according to people that have it tastes great ..... like rabbit

 

You sure it's not chicken?

Nasty little creatures that nest in dark places and freak you out when you stumble upon them.

Remind me of Mr. Barlow in Salem's Lot

 

Beef and bacon-wrapped colossal shrimp fajitas, tomato salad and vodka martinis on my menu today. And...

 

 

[Lisenden 2]

*Stumbles in, brushes snow off jacket*

Greetings from the Canadian Rockies! Yes it's currently snowing.

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

Alison Krauss' duet album with Robert Plant was amazing. I don't normally listen to that style of music, but when I do it's that album.

 

I miss snow. We barely got any of it this year. We average 10' of it annually, but we probably got 2 or 3 and that was it. It was all melted and gone by March. It felt like a Toledo winter, to be honest. Very disappointing. I guess we'll have to wait to see if next year pulls us back to the average.

 

We face the onslaught of another week. What better way to get ready for it than with a CURRY SUNDAY? For tonight's curry, we'll do a Mother's Day special of mutton curry over basmati rice. Garlic bread will be served on the side, but only after a garden salad, because we have to keep our vegetable intake up. Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there, and fathers, don't forget they wouldn't be where they are today without you.

[catty-cb 4,411]

10 hours ago, SIM-ple Jack said:

You sure it's not chicken?

Nasty little creatures that nest in dark places and freak you out when you stumble upon them.

Remind me of Mr. Barlow in Salem's Lot

I've got that book, it's been a few years since I read it.

That picture is of a opossum similar but different species, the ozzie possums are related to kangaroos, and that's another ozzie import to New Zealand, luckily the kangaroos died out, but the wallabies have thrived, which turns out to be a blessing cos a couple of our wallabies imports are nearly extinct in australia so hunters have been catching them and sending them back there to increase the population.

[SIM-ple Jack 17,450]

A tedious but productive week comes to an end. Don't have the energy to flip my own dough, so it will be a store-bought pizza pie from one of the chains, for dinner. Anything but Domino's!

[SIM-ple Jack 17,450]

I'm on standby today. Baby!

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

I have been feeling a bit run-down recently. Maybe I need to get more sleep. Maybe I need to change how I exercise, or improve my diet. In an effort to improve that aspect, let's enjoy that famous French peasant dish, ratatouille. We'll go heavy on the tomato, zucchini, eggplant, and bell pepper and layer them in very colorful slices and serve them alongside garlic bread. I'll pour tall glasses for iced barley tea for anyone who wants to join me, although that Sapporo Black Label on tap is looking awfully good right about now...

[catty-cb 4,411]

On 5/18/2021 at 11:13 AM, NMUSpidey said:

.....French peasant dish, ratatouille. We'll go heavy on the tomato, zucchini, eggplant, and bell pepper and layer them in very colorful slices and serve them alongside garlic bread. I'll pour tall glasses for iced barley tea for anyone who wants to join me, although that Sapporo Black Label on tap is looking awfully good right about now...

sounds yummy and as the weather has decided to got back to sunny autumn at least for a time a nice tall glass of iced barley tea sounds great

[catty-cb 4,411]

Curious fact the average New Zealander eats 15 meat pies a year or roughly 66 million pies a year, in Australia they eat an average of 12 meat pies a year, but because there are more Australians that's about 270 million pies a year.

Quote

An Australian or New Zealand meat pie is a hand-sized meat pie containing diced or minced meat and gravy, sometimes with onion, mushrooms, or cheese and often consumed as a takeaway food snack

Have filled up one of the freezer's with a selection of Maketu Pies for our Moose Factory visitors to try out

http://www.maketupies.co.nz/range

Recommended drink with pie is a beer, but really anything cold will do 

[Whte_rbt 1,431]

OK, that Morrocan Lamb pie needs some investigation.

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

Morrocan lamb pie sounds like what's on the menu tonight! Let's bake up a few of those.

[SIM-ple Jack 17,450]

On 5/20/2021 at 6:59 AM, catty-cb said:

Curious fact the average New Zealander eats 15 meat pies a year or roughly 66 million pies a year, in Australia they eat an average of 12 meat pies a year, but because there are more Australians that's about 270 million pies a year.

Have filled up one of the freezer's with a selection of Maketu Pies for our Moose Factory visitors to try out

http://www.maketupies.co.nz/range

Recommended drink with pie is a beer, but really anything cold will do 

Meat pies in the US are usually those Jamaican spiced ground beef pastries you get at gas stations, because A- you have a hangover, B- you know you wont make it to your break time, or C-  your dog is hungry and they're only 50 cents. What you have pictured is what we call chicken(or turkey or beef) pot pies. Usually made by some mega-food processing company like Swansons or Banquet, and the meat is ceremoniously waived over a vat of frozen veggie- laced gravy before the gravy is injected into a pastry shell. Pop in the microwave, and you will likely burn your mouth so bad, that you wont notice how bad it is.

[catty-cb 4,411]

12 hours ago, SIM-ple Jack said:

What you have pictured is what we call chicken(or turkey or beef) pot pies. Usually made by some mega-food processing company like Swansons or Banquet, and the meat is ceremoniously waived over a vat of frozen veggie- laced gravy before the gravy is injected into a pastry shell.

Australia and New Zealand share the same food standards (law) concerning pie contents and that states that a meat pie in either of our two countries must contain at least 25% of either beef, buffalo, camel, cattle, deer, goat, hare, pig, poultry, rabbit, sheep or kangaroos, but not any wild caught animal.

The rest of the pie is made up of its pastry, vegetables, cheese and gravy, I'm not very adventurous re pies so never been tempted by the buffalo, camel or kangaroo pies, the last pie I had was last week when the canteen was out of sandwiches and I had a steak and cheese pie for lunch.

[Whte_rbt 1,431]

Got to say that UK regulations are far more horrific. The legally mandated minimum meat content is 7%. Fray & Bentos Pies are lucky to contain three chunks of 'meat', hard to call it that seeing as gristle apparently counts as meat too.

[catty-cb 4,411]

6 hours ago, Whte_rbt said:

Fray & Bentos Pies are lucky to contain three chunks of 'meat', hard to call it that seeing as gristle apparently counts as meat too.

Think here it's always been 25%, but years ago it used to be anything that came from an animal and then someone sent some pies to a laboratory to find out what was actually in them and it nearly put some companies out of business because of what they had been adding to pies as "meat" so now its specified in the food standards act that it has to be "meat flesh" and if you included anything else from an animal like kidneys then it has to be included in the packaging with how much is actually in the pie and what type of animal it came from.

[SIM-ple Jack 17,450]

With all this pie talk, I think I'll whip up a shepherd's pie for din-din tonight. And some Guinness to wash it down.

and one for me-

 

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

All this talk of meat pies/pot pies has me hankerin' for one tonight. Of course, since tonight is also CURRY SUNDAY we'll be having a curry pot pie. We'll make it with 100% grass-fed mutton and every bite will yield tender, tasty, curried meat. Let's add in some onions and potatoes and wrap it in a homemade pie crust and that should be a delicious way to face down the oncoming week. This week I actually have a project to work on. I hope I get it all done tomorrow so I have an easy rest of the week after. Let's see how it goes!

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

This week kind of snuck away from me. Is it already Friday? I must have been busy at work for it to have gone this fast.

 

How about a taco bar tonight? We'll lay out the refried beans, taco meat, shredded cheddar cheese, diced tomatoes, avocado, and lettuce, salsa in a variety of spiciness, rice in both texmex style and cilantro lime, and sour cream. Is there anything else you'd like for your tacos? Just let us know. We'll make sure you get it the way you want. Bon appetit!

[catty-cb 4,411]

9 hours ago, NMUSpidey said:

......How about a taco bar tonight? We'll lay out the refried beans, taco meat, shredded cheddar cheese, diced tomatoes, avocado, and lettuce, salsa in a variety of spiciness, rice in both texmex style and cilantro lime, and sour cream. Is there anything else you'd like for your tacos? Just let us know. We'll make sure you get it the way you want. Bon appetit!

All sounds very yummy, here we are waiting to find out just how bad the "red warning" from the weather people is going to be as its only the second one that they have ever issued

https://www.metservice.com/national

I am luckily outside the "red warning" area so shouldn't have any problems, but I do have family in the area so it is a bit of a worry.

-catty

[SIM-ple Jack 17,450]

B.J. Thomas died over the weekend, so a little raindrop in his memory-

And now, ladies and gentleman, Mr. Burt Bacharach-

 

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

Well, we were out all day yesterday because it's a three day weekend and I get paid for my day off because I no longer work for a totally disorganized cheapskate so I guess I missed CURRY SUNDAY. So since it's Memorial Day we'll do the whole cookout thing that's popular around these parts. Let's grill up some hot dogs and hamburgers and corn on the cob. We'll make potato salad (with mustard not mayo because mayo is revolting) and pasta salad and salad salad and plenty of beer, what would you like? We have it on tap! And thus, for us Americans anyway, summer has officially started. We're going to spend as many weekends outside as we can until Labor Day brings the season to a close. Then when the colors change we'll go on many a bug-free hike until it's too cold to go outside any longer. At least for my wife. I'm fine with the cold.

For those of you in the southern hemisphere, I'll make sure to have some hot cocoa prepared for you as you begin your long winter months. We'll trade again in a few months, that seems fair.

[catty-cb 4,411]

On 6/1/2021 at 11:18 AM, NMUSpidey said:

For those of you in the southern hemisphere, I'll make sure to have some hot cocoa prepared for you as you begin your long winter months.....

Perfect for cold night  and much appreciated

On 5/29/2021 at 11:09 PM, catty-cb said:

here we are waiting to find out just how bad the "red warning" from the weather people is going to be as its only the second one that they have ever issued....

People are certainly going to be paying a lot more attention the next time the weather people go announcing a "red warning" weather event, four months worth of rain in two days and the town of Ashburton (pop: about 35 thousand) was about half a metre away from the river that runs thru town overflowing the river banks and flooding the town.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/300320388/canterbury-flooding-in-pictures-heavy-rain-and-rising-floodwaters-make-big-impact

Family in the area were ok, and house didn't flood but they did have to move the horses over to a neighbouring farm to get them onto higher ground.

Thru the ski fields people are over the moon, cause normally we don't see enough snow for the ski fields to open till very late June or sometime in July so having enough snow at the beginning of June for people to start skiing and a public holiday coming up 

-catty

[SIM-ple Jack 17,450]

On 5/31/2021 at 7:18 PM, NMUSpidey said:

For those of you in the southern hemisphere, I'll make sure to have some hot cocoa prepared for you as you begin your long winter months. We'll trade again in a few months, that seems fair.

We have 100% humidity right now. The last thing I want is a hot drink. I'll take a Hurricane though!

7 hours ago, catty-cb said:

...announcing a "red warning" weather event...

We have "red tide" events. That's when the algae off-shore is so bad, your eyes water.

 

I think I'll make my mouth water with some black bean soup with an obscenely large pork roast swimming in it. And a Cuba libre. The weekend swiftly approach-eth!

[SIM-ple Jack 17,450]

Bogie!

 

[catty-cb 4,411]

The raised gardens are almost done, two of the three planters now have a mix of raspberries, blackberries, loganberries, boysenberries, blueberries, etc growing in them ..... still need to add strawberry plants and possibly some orangeberries

The third planter which you can see just at the edge of the second picture is going to have herbs in it.

Took alot more bags of soil that I was anticipating 18 bags per planter and each bag with 30 litres of soil or compost in them.

-catty

 

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

Those look lovely! Fresh berries are always nice, I hope you get good yields from those. I also hope the height keeps at least the rabbits away from them. We grew some vegetables and sunflowers and rabbits and other assorted vermin did their best to prevent us from enjoying any of it. They failed in the end, but they still tried! Also, up here there are lots of big patches of wild blueberries. We usually go berry picking every summer, and one of the places we camp had a lot of thimbleberry bushes. The blueberries, though, are almost everywhere, they love the sandy soil up here.

 

Tonight we'll do some barbecuing. I want some chicken breast slathered in barbecue sauce and a potato and corn on the cob and some deep-fried zucchini. I love deep-fried zucchini.

[catty-cb 4,411]

2 hours ago, NMUSpidey said:

Tonight we'll do some barbecuing. I want some chicken breast slathered in barbecue sauce and a potato and corn on the cob and some deep-fried zucchini. I love deep-fried zucchini.

That all sounds very yummy

Unless the neigbours pet rabbit escapes that shouldn't be a problem as I'm in a quite urban area with a lot of tall fences so that cuts out the deer, pigs and goats as well.

The only animal that I have to worry about is the hedgehogs and despite the government wanting to kill them all, i think they are really cute plus they like eating snails and other bugs so good for the garden.