Category Archives: Food

The pizza and homebrew gathering was a success.  I rode over around 9:00pm – right after work – covering the seven miles in about 20 minutes.  I’d never ridden to Steven and Emily’s place before, but wanted to get a feel for it since that’ll be my new commute starting in May.  It’s a fast and smooth cruise to/from downtown.  Pizza from the 800 degree earthen oven was fantastic.  It was a thick(er) crust style pie, and after some difficult choices, I ended up with mushrooms and fresh basil as my toppings.  It was ready in about five minutes.  We drank a homemade lemongrass beer (on tap), and I chatted and played Boggle with Steven and Emily until midnight or so.  Then I made short work of my eleven mile ride home.

Yesterday was an eventful one.  I was up at 6:45, after about four hours of sleep, to go ride my bicycle with the 2009 Texas 4000 team.  My breakfast of scrambled egg and bacon rice cakes was with me as I walked out the door, and after a quick stop at JP’s Java for coffee, I was ready to ride with the others at 7:30.  The goal for the day was 75 miles, out west going towards Johnson City.  I decided to tag along with Carolina’s group, and together we led five other riders for the day.  It was a good day for a long ride – not too warm or too cold, too windy or too wet.  The roads to Johnson City are tough – rarely flat and rarely smooth; one of the hardest long ride routes you can take around here.  The folks we were with were the less experienced cyclist of the new team, giving Carolina and I the opportunity to pass along a lot of great information as we pedaled throughout the day.

It was a long day in the saddle.  The high mileage and difficult roads prevented us from ever really pushing the pace.  But we pushed through, and pushed each other along.  It’s difficult to explain to people outside of Texas 4000 the determination and motivation that these riders have – it still humbles me to be a part of it when I can.  After nine long and sometimes rainy hours on the bike, we made it back to Austin.  Most cyclists rarely touch the six hour mark, and I’ve never been introduced to a two month old cyclist who could even get close to doing something like this.  These kids are rock stars.

As a side note, the rice cake experiment went quite well, and I’ll be creating these guys for my future long rides when I need a break from ProBars.  The sushi rice is like glue, even when warmed by my body heat.  I felt myself wanting a more salty mixture though, and will add a touch of soy next time.

I was out of steam yesterday afternoon after the marathon ride, but on the upside, I caught up on all my sleep last night.  I go to work tonight from 7:00pm to 1:00am or so, to move the store around while a crew cleans our carpets.  That should be fun.  I’m working almost everyday this week, but longer hours mean more money, which is helpful for next month’s move and hopeful job transition.

It’s been a productive morning, starting around 9:00am.  I’ve done my laundry, cooked oatmeal for my breakfast, and embarked on the culinary journey touched on in the last post.  The objective was to throw together my version of Allen Lim’s Rice Cakes, chilling them over the course of the day, so I will be able to eat them for tomorrow’s ride.  This would be my first time working with sushi rice, since I usually leave that job to the pros.

I assembled three eggs (scrambled together), a cup of short grain sushi rice, my Canadian bacon, olive oil, and sea salt.  First step was cooking the rice.  The procedure differs from your standard rice cooking in that the rice starts by soaking in it’s water for about 30 minutes.  (Usually, for long grain rice, I’ll boil water, then add the rice, then simmer.)  You’ll then bring the rice to a boil before turning it to simmer for another 20 minutes.  A little longer procedure, but it yielded a really beautiful, fluffy and sticky pot of rice.  I removed the lid to make sure it wouldn’t over-steam and over-cook itself as I moved into the other parts of the recipe.

Next was scrambling the eggs.  I broke them up into pretty small pieces, the goal being an easy to eat final product.  Also on hand was my Canadian bacon, nicely chopped up into bite size pieces as well.  So, once the components were prepped and ready, it was time to assemble.  I had my silicone brownie pan coated with olive oil and sea salt waiting, and transferred my pot of rice here to start things off.  Add the eggs and bacon, and mix well, insuring all parts are equally and evenly dispersed.  I like consistency in my cycling food, getting the same thing with each bike and minimizing surprises.  I rather concentrate on the road instead of my food.  Once mixed well, I shaped it all into a perfect rectangle, about an inch and a half tall.  It’s pretty amazing how well the sushi rice keeps it’s form, even when warm.

And that was it – quite easy.  I set some wax paper over the top, and threw it into the fridge.  I’m excited to see how well it all hardens up, and what will happen to the form factor after it’s been in a jersey pocket for a while.  You, and I, will have to wait until tomorrow to find out.

Today will be a good day.  I go to work this afternoon, from 2:00pm to 9:00pm.  Afterward, I’m heading over to Steven and Emily’s place (aka my future home) to make pizza in the earthen oven and drink homebrew.  That should be a blast.  There’s been some ideas tossed around about starting a nonprofit, and we’re planning on talking about that too this evening.  I can’t have too much homebrew though, because I need to be on the bike at 7:30am tomorrow morning.  I’ve accomplished some pretty grand physical feats in a very hungover state, but I don’t really like it.  I want to be nice to my body.

I wish I knew more about the world of freelance writing, especially how to jump into it.  I’ve been doing some research, checking out freelance-austin.org and similar sites.  There seems to be a lot of other websites dealing with the connection process between job and freelancer, for a fee of course.  freelance-austin seems to be the most unique I’ve found, and their “find a freelancer” page is a particularly nice touch, but I wonder how far I’d get with that.

There are a lot of people on that page.  Keyword “grant” pulls up six people, some with 10+ years of experience.  I have to question exactly what that means in today’s world though.  If, with the way technology changes and evolves, an “experienced” worker is really the best bet.  It looks like experience strongly correlates to a lack of web design skills.  Maybe a fresh, young, technically savvy, and up-to-date perspective is the ticket to eclipsing my lack of experience.  I guess we’ll see.

Given the economic slump, the freelance market might be my best bet.  Companies and organizations still have projects that need to be done.  Instead of paying regular employees, workers who require additional expenses like an office, a dedicated HR department, health insurance, retirement plans and other benefits, they can contract work from an external source.  My only requirement for productivity is a cup of coffee.

Enough of those ramblings though.  They help me to conceptualize things, but they’re probably not too interesting for you, and they’re definitely not getting me a job.  I rode my bicycle yesterday for the first time in 2+ weeks.  It was especially windy outside, and I didn’t make it any easier on myself by going to the hills out west.  Regardless, it felt great to be back.  Physically, the first ride back after a prolonged period of time off always feels oddly good.  I always feel strong.  The second ride is another story altogether – that’s when the time off hits me.  But mentally, the first ride back is what brings me back every time.  The freedom, the air, the wind on my face – I can’t get away from it.

I made salsa yesterday.  It was an inspired mission.  I cruised through the neighborhood to the Fiesta Mart – our large Mexican supermarket in East Austin, because they have the largest selection of peppers.  Spending a total of $5.36, I headed home with a messenger bag full of fresh produce – 1.5 pounds of tomatoes, a poblano pepper, jalapeños, onion, dried ancho chiles, fresh cilantro, and such – and some corn chips.  I chopped, roasted a few jalapeños on the stove, chopped some more, then hit it all with the stick blender.  Now I have enough fresh salsa to last me quite a while.

I go back to work today, which is good, because I probably need some money.