wren

Freedom of speech is protection from legal restrictions, not protection from criticism from David Tennant

I am aware you already have a good profile picture now! but you may as well have these squid offerings since i made em :)

It's the worst thing I've seen all day but it's not worse than the human brain organoid computer from a few weeks ago

No need to apologise, I agree :)

I'm also in a labour safe seat, and grateful I can vote my conscience, I'm just sad other people aren't so fortunate. Labour are saying some tiring stuff now to win over the Conservative voter base: it's the one time where I hope that politicians lie. Let's hope that Labour uses their win for good things, as they've promised in previous years.

May we all get to vote for more positive things within the next decade 💚

Some of Labour's recent policies (and stances on Palestine, trans people, etc) are scary and harmful. It's emotionally hard having to vote for a party that has spoken about removing your rights.

Pragmatically though: I know voting Labour will still shift things towards being better, even if that "better" is way worse than I wanted, and I would never begrudge anyone for voting for them. There's always more we can do in-between elections anyway

Surprised it's only 16%!

I used to be a party member but left years ago when it got rough! Maybe getting back into politics more directly is the way to go: changing parties from within!

It's just getting more and more difficult to feel okay voting Labour. I know splitting the left wing vote isn't tactically smart, but voting for labour isn't even a left wing vote anymore :(

(I'm still pro-tactical voting, I'm just doing it with more frustration than ever before)

Book purchased! As well as the other one mentioned by Destide earlier. Excited to learn lots, thanks for the recommendations

We've got a gas grill, but didn't know you had to clean the tubes. I always look in all the crevices to check for spiders anyway tho, so hopefully no future accidental fires

Also: I didn't know what a big green egg was until earlier today but they look fantastic! Hope your eggy barbecue dreams are coming true with having one :)

I definitely agree about veggies/vegans getting stereotyped as too-healthy :) Although I do find that, even if a recipe has technically same level of unhealthiness, the vegan equivalent of a meal never makes me feel quite as unhealthy as a meaty one.

I think veggie/vegan creativity makes for much better meals than just your standard unseasoned beef and bread combo. If I'm going to use meat, I might as well use it wisely, but if I can get the deliciousness of meat, without using meat, then that's even better! So SauceStache is a perfect recommendation, thanks! I'm going to watch a lot of his videos (especially the one on DIY Beyond meat).

I've tried bbq-soy-sauce-feta-watermelon once before - I think I was the only person who genuinely enjoyed it. I might end up being my own guinea pig if I end up being too adventurous again :)

Thanks for this, really helpful stuff :)

That book looks great! I love how-to-cook books instead of just recipe books (i.e. Salt Fat Acid Heat or Sohla's Start Here) and that looks like a great BBQ version.

wrt food safety, I should be alright! One of the reasons I haven't BBQ'ed much in the past is that I'm very safety focussed.

Another reason is that I don't eat much meat unless I'm planning on making it really delicious! Meat thermometers will definitely help (with both deliciousness and safety).

The Number 1 reason I don't BBQ more often is that my garden is down a ladder at the moment! Once we've got stairs, (and meat thermometers!) there'll be nothing stopping me :)

Did you have any advice for cooking for veggies? (a lot of my friends are vegan and they deserve good food too!)

It's surprising how climate change gets co-opted into sinister ideals. It's a similar problem to the rise of ecofascism - an unbelievably pervasive school of thought in environmentalists (who you would hope were leftist!)