I found the star anise was too much for our taste so I only put one in and more vanilla. Much more to my taste. Some extra browning sauce doesn't hurt.
Don't do what I did and accidentally simmer for longer than 10 minutes. It really doesn't need more than that and some of the spices and flavours will infuse more and possibly be too strong in the end result.
I had to make the browning sauce the day before. Get ½ cup of warm water and set aside. Get ½ cup of brown sugar, put it in a saucepan over low heat and heat it until it starts melting, stirring constantly. Once it's melted, keep stirring until the liquid sugar goes very dark brown almost black. Remove from heat and (this is the risky/exciting part) add a drop of the water at a time, stirring thoroughly after each addition. It'll spit angrily at first, that's why you add a drop at a time, but it'll settle down after you've added about half the water. Let it cool and jar it, it keeps for ages. I've messed up this part and damn near burnt the sugar, the liquid tasted burnt and I cursed lavishly. The next day it didn't taste burnt so I used it and it was fine.
At least the anti Musk protesters have doubled down after Trump's threats of prosecution (ie, if they damage a Tesla they're terrorists, lol) This is the spirit the US needs!
OMG I've had that with someone before! I was out walking and walking towards me was a guy who looked like the brother of the guy I'd just recently (at the time) broken up with. Having no beef with the bro I thought I'd be civil and say hello. We were both wearing sunglasses and he enthusiastically said hello as well, then we both took off our sunglasses and discovered that neither of us were who the other thought we were lol. We both just couldn't believe it, it was so weird and random.
Fucking good on you! You saved more than a few $ being able to do it yourself, that's for sure. Your partner is lucky to have a clever woman by his side!
Bonus BBQ sauce recipe
Seriously one of the tastiest BBQ sauces I've ever had, Minipeelers gave it a solid 10/10 on chargrilled chicken.