Category: food

Markwood @ 40 Miles

Published March 17, 2012

Today I set out for a longish ride and got exactly what I was looking for. Setting out from home I first headed up to Stony Creek where I ducked through the Trolly Trails and Fitness Trails before heading over to the normal MTB trails. Here I ran into a bunch of people that I knew. After a first go through the Roller Coaster with some folks I ran into my friend Jeff who was taking his son on his first MTB trail ride. I rode two laps of The Pines with them, then a bit more with Mark, who happened to cross our path on his way into the park.

From here I headed north, without much of a goal in mind. I ended up over at Bald Mountain, which was a mixture of wet and perfectly good. The climb up to Lake George was particularly wet, so I ducked out of there, headed over to Markwood (where the photo above was taken), and made this my turnaround point. I probably could have taken a different way home, but the PCT was a nice, inviting, smooth highway and I was getting a bit tired, so it did nicely.

Once back in Rochester, after stopping at the police station (the only open public bathrooms around) to refill on water and mix up some more sugary drink I navigated the crowds and headed off to River Bends. Half a lap of River Bends and some old slaughterhouse dirt trail riding later I was in downtown Utica and on my way home. Total for this ride was 71.30 miles, with a moving time of 05:29:51 out of a total time of 06:31:05. I lost half a mile and 2 or 3 minutes out of that from resetting the computer a short distance from my house after dealing with some HRM issues, but that’s pretty inconsequential in the scope of the whole ride.

After getting home Danielle made an outstanding mushroom pasta for dinner, then her and I curled up on the couch and watched The King’s Speech. This has been a good day.

Hopefully I can keep doing rides like this and push myself up to 8 or 10 hours of moving time. For now, it’s bed time.

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Final Kegerator Drip Tray Design

Published March 5, 2012

This past weekend I put the finishing touches on the tap portion Kegged Beer Cooler (Kegerator) by finishing off the drip tray. It was built using a 14″ wide stainless steel drywall mud tray that has been caulked with RTV silicone. I’d originally attempted to hang it using hard drive magnets, but as can be seen here this didn’t look as nice as I’d hoped, and the magnets sitting off of the wooden support blocks made it a bit unstable.

This past weekend I cut some new blocks out of oak (picture), stained and sealed them to match the collar, drilled holes in them so epoxy could penetrate nicely (picture), then epoxied 24 square (1/4″ x 1/4″ x 1/8″) neodymium magnets on the back of each (picture). These blocks were then epoxied to the metal tray, and they now hold the drip tray nicely under the taps. As expected the magnets are quite strong, so spaced evenly along the block the tray is held on with considerable force. I imagine I could fill it with liquid and it wouldn’t budge.

This isn’t a particularly fancy design, but at a total of ~$30 I’m quite happy with how it came out. It serves the need of collecting drips, is easy to remove for cleaning, and looks pretty good.

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Bundaberg and Underberg

Published February 23, 2012

Recommended to me late last year by my friend Joy is this, a mixture of Bundaberg Ginger Beer and Underberg herbal digestive bitters. Gently mixed together with a bit of ice, this is a wonderfully herby (sort of) soft drink. From a bit of reading I think this is a San Francisco thing, but I still enjoyed it on a warm (for February) day here in Michigan.

It amuses me that, despite being 44% ABV, Underberg is not sold as an alcoholic beverage at most stores. At Meijer it’s found in the import asile and not listed as age restricted when checking out, and at a local German market which isn’t licensed to sell alcohol it’s right next to the counter.

Then again, last time I bought some at the German market the teenage-ish girls behind the counter started laughing, exclaiming that they couldn’t believe I liked it. I suspect that the need to control it is rather limited, as apparently one of them noticed the alcohol content and bought some to drink before going out one evening. They told me that they hadn’t realized what it tastes like and couldn’t drink even one (1 oz.) bottle. Underberg is definitely not something that one ingests to become intoxicated.

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LP Gas Tank Weights

Published February 18, 2012

My LP gas tank, when essentially^† empty, weighs 17.82 pounds. When freshly filled by Metropolitan Tool Rental in Shelby Township it weighs 36.32 pounds. The TW (tare weight) stamp on the chime indicates that the empty tank should weigh 17 pounds.

I’m not sure if I’ll go to Metropolitan for another tank fill, as they seem to charge a fixed price for tank filling regardless of amount needed. I was getting one tank filled and another (which was about half empty) topped off, and I was initially told that there was a flat rate for filling any tanks. Asking them if it’d really be full price to have one tank partially filled they cut that price in half. Next time I’ll try and find a shop that simply charges by the quantity of fuel sold plus a base service charge or something.

^† Essentially empty is defined as when the tank is empty enough that, while operating a turkey fryer burner for brewing beer, it would not produce a normal flame and thick frost was developing on the very bottom of the tank. Upon swirling the tank to warm the liquid the flame would return to normal size, but within a few minutes it would settle back town to a trickle. I’m presuming that the gas level was low enough that any evaporation (read: liquid turning to burnable vapor) was sufficiently chilling the remaining liquid so that it wouldn’t readily evaporate.

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Notched Pink Foam

Published February 6, 2012

This evening before heading home I stopped off at Home Depot and picked up some pink foam to line the inside of the Kegged Beer Cooler / Kegerator collar for additional insulation. It cut nicely and before long I was sticking it to the inside of the collar with hot melt glue. I was even able to notch it to fit cleanly around the tap fittings.

The wire basket fits nicely on top of the foam, and with the basket moved to the other side there’s now enough room for the fourth keg. Not that I have anything to put in it, nor a gas with which to connect it… But it fits!

All that’s left to do on this project is finish off the drip tray and add a Y fitting to one of the gas lines.

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Tokyo Banana

Published January 22, 2012

Jeff recently visited Japan and brought Danielle and I these Tokyo Banana snacks. These are banana custard filled sponge cake and are excellent. Apparently these are one of the most popular souvenir gifts from Tokyo, and for good reason.

I particularly like the English writing on the front of the package which reads:

People gather to TOKYO from here and there with memories of their home. And then, TOKYO gets everyone’s home town. TOKYO BANANA.

I’m hoping that these’ll be available at local Japanese shops.

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Two Six Packs of Hopslam

Published January 21, 2012

Bell’s has released this year’s batch of Hopslam and per usual it’s not at all stores. Thanks to Jon Boughner pointing me to Busch’s in Rochester Hills I was able to pick up two six packs for $15.99/ea. I believe there were six or eight cases of it sitting on display just waiting to be purchased.

I’ve got one pack sitting in the fridge, and I’ll let the other sit (and age) in the basement until warm weather arrives. Hopslam is always a nice surprise for people when summer comes around.

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Winter Beer Assortment

Published December 23, 2011

It’s been a while since I purchased an assortment of beer, but finding myself near Red Wagon this afternoon I decided to stop in and pick up a bunch of winter-y beers. The assortment purchased today is as follows, from left to right:

· North Peak Brewing Company‘s Dubious Black Chocolate Stout
· Delerium Tremens
· Samichlaus Bier
· Lagunitas Hop Stoopid
· Young’s Double Chocolate Stout
· New Holland Brewing‘s Dragons Milk
· Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier
· Southern Tier Brewing Company‘s mokah
· Brau Brothers Brewing Company Moo Joos Oatmeal Milk Stout
· Weihenstephan Vitus
· Genesee Beer
· Keeweenaw Brewing Company‘s Widow Maker Black Ale

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Bob’s Deer Camp Blend from Dead River Coffee

Published December 4, 2011

This morning’s breakfast includes a pint glass of Bob’s Deer Camp Blend from Dead River Coffee in Marquette, MI, which some friends (Nick and Marty) brought back for me on a recent trip. This blend, brewed up in an AeroPress, almost tastes a bit spicy. At first I thought that it might have a wee bit of cinnamon or cayenne in it, but after looking through the beans and finding nothing extra in there I think it’s just the chosen beans and roasting.

I’m really enjoying this coffee. Now I just need to find something to eat for breakfast with it… Hmm…

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Everything Dust

Published November 24, 2011

The Everything bagel that I purchased from VG’s must have been the last one made, just as the baker was running out of everything topping. It is only coated with a dusting of crumbs and flavor-y bits. It worked out fine for me because I was applying cheese and a bit of olive oil and black pepper to it to make a sandwich, but the lack of meaningful toppings looks a bit sad.

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