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Category: food

Impromptu Cheese Spread

Published June 13, 2009

This is what happens when I’m cleaning the fridge and decide to turn the leftover (and rather old) stubs of high quality cheese into cheese spread. Taking the general idea from this Good Eats recipe I took about six ounces of cheese, 1.5 Tbsp of butter, one clove of garlic, and a pinch of (inadvertantly) refrigerator dried parsley and processed it all together. The resulting spread is very good, but quite salty. I think it’ll work best as a potato or corn topping, or maybe a sandwich spread to compliment something else.

The cheeses used were very dried pieces of Montgomery Cheddar, Stitchelton, Raw Milk Clothbound Cheddar, and Caerphilly which were grated on a Microplane to near the rind. These grated cheeses were then padded out to roughly six ounces with about two ounces of Tillamook Vintage White Extra Sharp Cheddar which is waiting around for me to use in more macaroni and cheese.

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My Random Day

Published June 9, 2009

Instead of a post talking about something in particular, I’ll talk about the last 28 hours or so of my day:

To start, as seen above, Danielle and I came across both Deluxe and Old Fashioned hot dog buns from Aunt Millie’s in VG’s. When comparing them, there was no substantial difference. Beyond the price (about $1/package difference) only a few things at the very bottom of the ingredient list, vitamin supplements mostly, varied.

This photo shows the large wrapped stack of boxes waiting on my front porch when I got home. These are CD-sized outside tuck corrugated mailers from Planned Packaging of Illinois Corp. which I will use to box my CDs and store them in closets in the basement. The CD rack in my office (see this fisheye photo) will then be removed and replaced with a bookshelf to hold both my and Danielle’s books.

After work I went for a ride around the mountain bike trails at Stony Creek. I hadn’t eaten properly today, polishing off a bag of trail mix before leaving the office, and this made it really difficult to ride. Despite this I pushed myself quite a bit, and thus I kept having cramps in my lower back. I think that lowering my handle bar will help with this, because most of the cramping came with trying to stand and pedal, but with the bar relatively high I could pull on it properly and likely overdid things.

Dinner tonight was two garlic chicken sausages from Trader Joe’s, along with salad, potato chips, a bunch of spicy cheese popcorn, and a bottle of Le Fin du Monde. I made a point of drinking the dregs from this bottle to experiment with the gastrointestinal results of ingesting a quantity of yeast. My next experiment will likely involve a teaspoon of bread machine yeast. Danielle says that I’m not allowed to do this when she is around, so it’ll probably happen next week.

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Strawberry Banana Gu Gel

Published June 7, 2009

Wanting a gel without caffeine for while riding, I picked up a Strawberry Banana-flavored Gu gel. While it does the job, I really don’t like the flavor. I think I’ll stick with the vanilla / chocolate Gu flavors, and maybe pick up this Hammer Nutrition gel flavor sample pack and try these out.

Today I went for a ride around Stony Creek after eating not quite enough food, so I had to eat two 100 calorie gels to keep myself going. The lack of food and my pushing myself meant that I kept feeling a bit shaky and dizzy until I ate something.

While riding around I came across this really swampy area filling in one of the paths, but thankfully there was a bit of newly worn trail going around the side of it. This is a route that I hadn’t taken before, but as it generally follows the normal route through Stony with a slightly new dimension, I think I’ll continue taking it. It exchanges two grueling back to back climbs for a quirky turn around a tree to avoid falling in the scummy swamp. (Weirdly, in the aforementioned photo it appears as if something disturbed (or started to go into) the swamp. I really hope it was a turtle and not one of the people heading out from that area as I was riding in.

Oh, and if you’re interested, here is what my legs looked like after today’s ride. No, those aren’t tan lines… That’s just dust from the trails.

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White Castle Is Bad For Me

Published June 6, 2009

Ordering up a meal consisting of five cheese sticks, mashed potatoes and gravy, and a sack of biscuits is exactly why I shouldn’t be allowed to eat at White Castle. Not only is it bad for me, but I eat most of it then feel terrible.

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Canadian Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA (Strong Beer / Bière Forte)

Published May 28, 2009

Per section B.02.131 of the Canadian Food and Drug Regulations, Canadian versions of Dogfish Head’s 60 Minute IPA must be labeled as Strong Beer, or in French, Bière Forte. This is a bottle that I brought back from Canada when Danielle and I went there to visit Dominic.

Here’s a table describing how strengths of beer in Canada must be labeled, taken from the aforementioned section B.02.131:

Percentage alcohol by volume Qualified common name or Common name
1.1 to 2.5 Extra Light Beer, Extra Light Ale, Extra Light Stout, Extra Light Porter
2.6 to 4.0 Light Beer, Light Ale, Light Stout, Light Porter
4.1 to 5.5 Beer, Ale, Stout, Porter
5.6 to 8.5 Strong Beer, Strong Ale, Strong Stout, Strong Porter, Malt Liquor
8.6 or more Extra Strong Beer, Extra Strong Ale, Extra Strong Stout, Extra Strong Porter, Strong Malt Liquor

(Please also note that Canada’s Food and Drug Regulations also state that Wieners and Beans must contain no less than 25% wieners, while Beans and Wieners must contain no less than 10% wieners.)

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Dried, Rotted Apple

Published May 28, 2009

Danielle found this apple in her car while cleaning it out. It was left in the car and then ended up beneath a car seat where it shriveled, rotted, and dried. I had to partially tear it open and observe the internal texture before I was able to identify it as an apple.

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Special Spicy Dosa

Published May 24, 2009

Rangoli Express‘ Special Spicy Dosa is sort of like a normal dosa, except it’s not rolled, smeared with chili chutney, and has had its potato-based filling spread out over it. It is then cut into quarters, like a giant pizza. Since I wasn’t given a spoon, eating the sambar involved a fork and drinking it out of the metal cup. This was not a bother, though.

Also, please excuse the terrible white balance.

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Gatorade and Erma’s Custard

Published May 24, 2009

This afternoon was a nice, brisk ride from Dodge Park to Metro Beach and back, along with Brian, Nick, and Marty. Total moving time for this ride was just under two hours, which is a nice pace for that route.

After returning to the parking lot at Dodge Park, not wanting to miss a BBQ, Brian had to leave, but then we continued on to Erma’s Frozen Custard in Utica for some tasty, tasty custard. I ate a nice, small cone of Dulce de Leche flavor, which was really good, not overly sweet, and just the right size. Adding on Erma’s, our total ride was a little bit over 37 miles.

On the way home I was able to stop and get pita from Yasmeen Bakery, which should go nicely with the hummus I’ll be making for a BBQ tomorrow. Now it’s time to shower, assess which ingredients need to be purchased for making the hummus, and figure out what I’ll be having for dinner. Having eaten a Gu Chocolate Outrage Gel, drank half a bottle of lemon-lime Gatorade, the custard, and a few handfuls of raw almonds I’m not too hungry yet, but when the need for calories catches up with me, I want to be ready.

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Salad: The Hard Way

Published May 23, 2009

There. Two rows of lettuce seeds have now been planted: Mereveille des Quatre Saisons and Forellenschuss. Danielle acquired both of these seed packs from Seed Savers Exchangeand had enough spare that I was able to plant some.

Per directions they were sowed 1/4″ deep and about 1″ apart, then after they sprout I’ll be thinning them to 8″ apart, as I want looseleaf lettuce. If I were growing them as heads, which isn’t really possible in that planter, they would be thinned to 12″ apart.

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