Black Friday Group Ride: The Leftover Roll

As some of you may or may not be aware, my favorite holiday is approaching rather quickly and, no, I'm not referring to Black Friday. Vegan Thanksgiving, of course! Time to try and out-do eachother at the potluck parties, yet again. The best part of Vegan Thanksgiving is watching my friends get motivated to put forth the effort of curating a well-rounded (vegan) dish, whom otherwise aren't so comfortable in the kitchen. I'm not a snob when it comes to home-cooked meals, I enjoy devouring them equally. And since the third Thursday of every November is all about being thankful for what you do have while eating and drinking as much as possible, what better way to spend the following afternoon than with a nice bike ride? Good company, swapping experiences of the prior's day coma-induced cuisine, COFFEE and a nice ride to burn at least a fraction of the calorie surplus we all accumulated. Yes.

If you know myself, Bryan Clark Smith (Emerald City Bicycles), Greg Mertzlufft or Ryan Schuetze (Go Means Go) then you are invited to join us on the 1st Annual Leftover Roll. If you don't know any of us, come along anyways and make some new friends.


"After spending your Turkey Day with friends and family stuffing your face and drinking your fill you will be looking forward to the leftovers the next day. Especially The Leftover Roll. Meet up at Fremont Coffee @ 1:30pm, the ride will roll at 2pm sharp.

Expect a casual paced, friendly group ride of about 15-20 miles. Ride will wrap up before dark, but be sure and bring a lock and lights if you plan on staying out after the ride." - via FB

(https://www.facebook.com/events/293257467459455/293425797442622)

-Fremont Coffee Co, 459 N 36th St, Seattle, Washington 98103
-All bikes welcome.

Quick Fire Friday: Tomato Soup

A friend of mine occasionally surprises me with a recipe request via text. Depending on what he's in the mood for and what he has lying around in the cupboards, he'll ask me what to do with them or even something specific. I've decided to share these "quick fire" recipes with my loyal viewers and lurkers. These are simple, non-pretentious, vegan meals that are meant to be nutritious and delicious. To start this series, which I shall call... Quick Fire Friday? I'm open to suggestions, really. I give you Tomato Soup. Method shall be written verbatim as I have sent it via SMS.

Ingredients:

-oil
-salt
-2 cloves of garlic, minced (chopped extremely fine)
-1 onion, diced (white, yellow, or sweet, preferably)
-.25c tomato paste
-apple cider vinegar
-24oz (roughly) canned tomatoes
-12oz water or veg stock
-herbs/spices
-.25c nutritional yeast (small or large flake)

 Method:  

"Him: You got a good tomatoe soup recipe?

Me: Tomato soup.

Him: Tomatoe

Me: In a pot with a little oil and salt brown 2cloves garlic minced, 1 onion diced, then .25c tomato paste. Paate has to get browned too. Small splash of apple cid vinegar to stop the carmelization from burning, then add 2 big cans of diced (or whole if you wanna chop em) tomatoes, 12 oz. water or stock, a little black pepper, cinnamon and fresh thyme.

Me: Boil that shit on high for 15 min, taste and boil down until flavor develops

Me: Add .25c nutri yeast if you got it to enrich.

Him: Yes! Thank you

Me: Think of me when you dip a sandwich in it"

At this point, you should have a chunky and robust soup to accompany a delicious sandwich or just enjoy on its own. If you want to get fancy, stick an immersion blender in that pot and puree or cool, and demolish it in a blender then reheat and enjoy. If you don't cool something before it enters and spins in a blender, the pressure created by the steam trapped in that blender will combust upon "pureeing" and you will end up with hot tomato all over you and your kitchen. But don't take my word for it...

Maui 2012

As some of you may know, Jessica and I recently (10/16-25) went to Maui, HI for our honeymoon. We've never been. Let me just say one thing about this trip before I "get into it."
DAYUM.

Southside, Hana Hwy

Getting Into It
Since words can't do more justice than some solid pictures, I'll try to be brief. First off, VISIT THIS ISLAND. We did our best to stay as far away from "tourist" anything. In fact, we started to doubt the authentic "legitness" of anything we partook in if there were too many white people present. To clarify, I'm not talking about anyone that's white, I'm talking W H I T E PEOPLE.
-Asks couple (us) sitting on local (coffee roastery) cafe patio "hey, do you know where Starbucks is?"
-Eats at (insert corporate-conglomerate-food-chain HERE) while visiting Maui.
-Resort hounds.
-Hawaiin Shirts.

Need I go on?

Most of the places we saw and visited on our trip were sourced to us via word-of-mouth. We live in a city, thus know how it works. You want the best of what the city offers? Go where the locals tell you.

For example, in 9 days we learned:


-There is enough sand for everyone, explore and find your own "secret beach."


-Every hike is worth it.


-Bring your bike.


-Maui Brewing Co. is owning the HI beer scene.


-FRESH COCONUTS

If you're vegan, then you have the potential to have the time of your life just like we did. Save these business names:
-Taqueria Cruz, Kihei (https://twitter.com/TaqueriaCruz)
-Cafe @ The Plage, Kihei (http://www.cafe-maui.com/en)
-808 Bistro, Kihei (http://808bistro.com/)
-Southshore Tiki Lounge, Kihei (http://www.southshoretikilounge.com/)
-Stella Blues, Kihei (http://stellablues.com/)
-Lahina Coolers, Lahaina (http://www.lahainacoolers.com/)
-Maui Brewing Co, Lahaina (http://www.mauibrewingco.com/mbc/MBCHome.html)
-Mana Foods, Paia (http://www.manafoodsmaui.com/index.htm)
-Flatbread Co, Paia (http://www.flatbreadcompany.com/FlatbreadMaui2010.html)
-Cafe Mambo, Paia (http://www.cafemambomaui.com/)
-Moana, Paia (http://www.moanacafe.com/)

Flickr Photoset found HERE

HSP Garage Sale

Head over to Herriott Sports Performance (101 Nickerson Street, Suite 150 Seattle, WA 98109) for their annual Garage Sale:


-"HSP presents the 2nd Annual Garage Sale September 21st & 22nd. Friday from 7AM-6PM & Saturday 7AM-3PM we’ll be blowing-out close-outs, demo gear/bikes, certified pre-owned products, race team equipment, rental fleets & more. We’ll have bins full of saddles, helmets, shoes, clothing, small parts, frames, handlebars, etc. This is a great time to get next seasons race wheels, build up a TT bike, cross bike or rain bike. Get there early…it only happens once-a-year! We’ll provide the coffee."
(via- http://hspseattle.com/wp/events-and-presentations/)

Personally, I've been in the market for a PowerTap powermeter hub for quite some time. I showed up at 7:09am this morning to make sure I got first pick at the goods. By goods, I'm referring to the hope of a PowerTap. Naturally, my luck seems to be timeless so there was one, WITH A CAMPY FREE HUB, hiding in the back destined for the internet. This puppy, was hand built by Thomas Broadrick and laced to a HED Belgium Series C2 wheel. I won't tell you how much I paid for it, but I will tell you that they could have made a profit off of it - instead, they sold it to me at a price I could just afford. I am forever grateful for the generosity HSP has always shown me.

You better hurry over there before everything is gone! Just as forced myself to leave, I watched a guy scoop up a pair of Zipp 808's at $900. FUUUUUUUCK. The BMC Time Machine frameset (size large) was still there at $375. That's the kind of deals I'm talking about. Show your support for the best bike shop in America.

I do.

I did. Get married, that is. September 15th will forever be the day that I publicly watered eyes because a lady, I just so happen to be completely in love with, walked down an aisle in a pretty white gown to exchange vows with me. We even put rings on eachother's left hands to prove it! Contrary to common belief, we executed a rather small event and were still completely satisfied with it. 45 can be a crowd, but your friends probably invited 150 or more to theirs. Suckers.

Our friend, Scott Duncan (yes, like the yo-yo), did a phenomenal job taking pictures for us. We even requested that everyone leave their phones and cameras alone so they could experience the moment, an "unplugged wedding" one could say. Not a single shitty photo has surfaced because of it, thank Jeebus.

My WIFE, made these boutineers for the boys so we could match a little: Jesse, Michael, Ben, Theodore, Eric (that's me!)

Mollie McGrath somehow making Jessica EVEN MORE BABLY. "Is that an avocado behind your ear?" or are you just happy to see me?

Don't worry, we kissed first.

South Side Park, Sacramento, Ca. 9/15/2012b000000m.

FOODS, ERMERGURD!

You should know that I'm fine tuning a Quinoa-Black Bean Burger recipe and releasing my coveted Smoked Habenero Salsa recipe to be worthy of a food post. Stay tuned, racing is over, my excuses for poor blogging frequency are running out!

Ronde Ohop: Recap

The Ronde Ohop, my last race of the 2012 season, was pretty rad. This is mostly attributed to the Cat 3's being combined and scored with the Cat 1/2's, who are much wiser and faster. In addition to the top-3 prize purse, there was also a $600 team prize. This team prize is awarded to the team that stacked the most riders in the top 20 overall. It was discussed on a team email how we could execute this, but more importantly, "if you don't contribute, you don't get a cut [of the money]". Since I only get to race with our elite team (Category 1 & 2's) on Thursday night at Seward Park, I wanted to make sure to show them I had the legs and smarts to race as one of them.

NOTE: I one day want to be PRO so this is sorta important.

For this race Will Teal (Cat 2) and I were under specific instructions to instigate a breakaway from the gun. Since neither of us wanted the responsibility of covering moves from other teams to bridge up to said breakaway, it was a race between Will and I. As per Rocket's instructions, we lined up at the front of the group to have the best spot in the house. At the gun, he managed to clip in before me, thus, getting up the road before anyone else. That jerk, now IS the breakaway.

I could type on about specifics on how the break came to be an HSP club ride, but I couldn't do more justice than THIS. Instead I'll just tell you what little bit my oxygen depleted brain remembers:

Ryan Iddings (Audi, elite team) was a marked man, so I made sure to follow him like Thor Hushovd followed Fabian Cancellara in the 2011 Paris Rubaix. Since he didn't have a full team of 8 like we did, he did his best to launch many attacks and do about 80% of the work required to pull our breakaway back. He never succeeded. However, he made the first lap of this course so hot I thought I was going to get dropped. It turns out I just should have warmed up more, and I can actually handle responding to 30+ attacks for 40 miles. I covered just about all of them, some I probably could have left alone out of racing etiquette, but I just wanted to finish this race and have TH and/or Rocket tell me that I did my job, well done. It wasn't until the last 10+ miles of dirt section that I started to fall back a little. With the break at 6 or so, and another chase group of atleast 6 ahead of me, I entered the dirt mid-pack. Not so ideal. Furthermore, continuing the race at my highest intensity until the very end (NO MATTER WHAT) was especially crucial for me since, theoretically, all 15 or so racers in front of me could flat out a mile away from Neutral Support, thus leaving me to pass them all and be the front of the race. I watched that happen in the final laps of the previous races. Single-track on road bikes is no joke.

Luckily for me, only Todd Herriott (HSP) and Dave "Rocket" Richter (HSP) where the only ones in the race to lap me. I eventually caught TH after he flatted, but gave him a short pull to get back in the game and escape 3rd place. In fact, I caught everyone in the break (b/c they all flatted and had to run to Neutral Support for a spare wheel) and chase group except maybe 7 guys. Unfortuantly, the results got put on shuffle super bad but we all left after the 30min grace period to protest. I have been awarded 17th overall and 10th in Cat 3's. In reality I was closer to 6th overall and 4th in Cat 3. But that is neither here nor there. This was easily the hardest race I've ever done on my bike. The Ronde Ohop is true hardman shit. Race it next year.

Upon finishing my complimentary Rainier beer and exiting the "parkinglot," or grass field as most would call it, Richter approached us with a much needed affirmation that we rode a perfect race. Mission accomplished.