Crazy fire behavior. Stuff they haven't seen before. The temps have been beyond record-setting and summer is only a day old. Australia is sort of like the Southwest in that they have a few higher elevation vegetation types and some mountain areas, but not a lot. As they burn off, it is hard to get them back. Australia is worse because so much of what is burning now is also near the coast, which presumably would have higher humidity and lower temps, but not this year. It's just a matter of time before we have a similar situation across the entire US west. We've had regions with horrific fire years, but never the entire west at the same time. Here are some stats from scientists: Large wildfires in the United States burn more than twice the area they did in 1970, and the average wildfire season is 78 days longer. (Globally, fire season has lengthened across 11.4 million square miles, roughly the size of Africa.) For much of the U.S. West, projections show that an average annual 1 degree Celsius temperature increase will increase the median burned area per year by as much as 600 percent in some types of forests. Temperatures are increasing much faster in the Western U.S. than for the rest of the Earth. Since 1970, average annual temperatures in the Western U.S. have increased by 1.9° F, about twice the pace of the global average warming. Since 1984, the area annually burned by wildfire in the US has doubled. Some scientists now say 50% or more of western forests could burn in the next three decades. In the Western US, fires greater than 1,000 acres have increased almost 600% since the 1970's and fires over 10,000 acres are up by over 700% for the same period. Since the 1980s, the area burned annually in the Pacific Northwest has increased 5,000 percent. In the Northern Rockies, it’s a 3,000 percent increase over the same period. Between 1978 and 1982, the average burn time of a large fire was just six days. Between 2003 and 2012, it was 52 days. In Australia, as in the US and an increasing number of countries around the world, an increase in temp means an increase in fire activity.
https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/a30065255/leonardo-dicaprio-amazon-fires-brazil/ Is Leo also responsible for the fires in Cali over the last few years?
So, no share, huh? Not even for compare and contrast purposes? I too have an award-winning chili recipe that I have freely shared on the bbs.
Buck, tried a search and too many threads came up--do you have a link? would love to try it with venison hopefully. thx
Austin (west) is so overdue for a monster fire -- really all of the Central Texas hill county a century+ of nearly unchecked cedar growth and constantly hovering around drought status. The Bastop fire was crazy -- I think the hills and cedar around Austin would create a much larger fire if the conditions get really dry again (which they will of course).
TP's early stuff was rocking. The tension in "American Girl" is awesome. Still, he got mellow in his later years and I have many more tunes by the Boss on my "Drive" playlist. Too much volume and variety by Springsteen to make the TP the choice here.
It's not really a recipe, more like an art. The basics are beer instead of water, no beans, jalapeno juice, and whatever spices I have laying around, to include a boatload of chili powder. Venison makes the best batch.
Nope. I live on the Pacific Coast and Asian cuisine is a bit more refined out here. If I could find a place with great Tex-Mex, BBQ, Cajun, and Thai, I'd be living there as long as they also had a Schlotzky's and a Burgerville. https://www.burgerville.com/about/
Europe is still a cultural vacation to me, but yeah, we plan on starting to combine the two next trip.
I probably could, but don't have time. I'm sneaking away from family stuff just to answer these questions.
Yep. 2011 was not a one-off, but foreshadowing. The next time those conditions align, it will have potential to be worse, especially with the arsonists rolling around the state.
Here ya gooooo: Here's mine, I know it's not "authentic" but it did get me invited to Terlingua. per 2 lbs meat (I like a mix of diced and very course ground, you have to ask the store to grind it as course as they can, unless you have your own equipment). I typically use venison and add some course ground pork belly or butt, but if using beef with a good amount of fat in it you shouldn't need to. Dutch oven small food processor (coffee grinder will also work, you may have to use it in batches. Clean out by chopping up cubes of staleish white bread) 2 cups liquid (any combination of water/beer/broth, I use Shiner Black and beef/venison broth) 3/4 teaspoon baking soda ~6 dried ancho chiles, 2 dried pasilla chiles and 3 dried red fresnos/chile colorados or comparable, stemmed, seeded and torn into 1" pieces 1/4 c ground tortilla chips 2 T cumin seeds 1 T coriander seeds 1 T each: paprika, dried mexican oregano 1 t fresh ground black pepper 1/2 t dried thyme 2 T beef tallow 1 medium onion, chopped fine 3 garlic cloves, minced 2 T canned chipotle chile in adobo, minced 4 oz tomato puree 2 t sugar 2 T cider vinegar Heat oven (smoker and a propane camp stove work just the same, if you're somewhere without a real kitchen) to 275 with rack in lower middle. Toss meat with 2 T water, 1 t salt and baking soda and set aside for 30 mins. Baking soda changes the ph of the meat, makes it retain moisture better and brown more evenly. Heat dutch oven on med-hi heat on the stove, add dried chiles and toast about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, lower heat and remove if they start to smoke. Remove and let cool (makes them crisp up a bit). Add cumin/coriander seeds, toast until fragrant. Add tortilla chips, toasted chiles and seeds, paprika, garlic powder, oregano, thyme & black pepper to food processor and grind until fine. Heat tallow in dutch oven. Cook onion until softened, add garlic & cook 1 minute. Add meat and cook until browned & fond (black sticky bits) begins to form on bottom of pot (12-15 mins). Add ancho mixture and chipotles in adobo, mix well and cook, stirring for a couple of minutes. Add 2 cups liquid, sugar, and tomato puree, bring to a boil, scrape bottom of pot to loosen browned bits, stir, cover & transfer to oven for 1.5 to 2 hours, stirring every ~20 mins to prevent sticking. Remove from oven, let stand uncovered for 10 mins. Add vinegar and salt to taste, stir. Do not skim off any fat, most spices are fat soluble, so that little orange slick is pure flavor. Garnish with whatever you want: cheddar/jack/whatever cheese, diced onion, serranos, avocado, lime juice, cilantro. Serve with whatever you want: fritos, corn chips, beans, rice, cornbread, tamales, crackers
