So just when i say avoid click bait this comes out and I like it, and share it. But This is one of the examples of a review of primary literature looking at both sides, and the arguments and presenting primary data.

Bias? Maybe, but it points out that the growing obesity problem isn't because people are ignoring their doctors, they are listening. They are eating less red meat, they are cutting back on fat. And replacing those calories with grains and sugars, and non-red meat protien source (chicken i'd wager mostly).

I like it and as Carolyn Johnson​ pointed out on Facebook it makes me even more critical and skeptical. But it fits very well with what seems to have happened. If nothing else, and esp if you disagree with it. Read it, follow the links to the primary research arcticles.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/31/upshot/red-meat-is-not-the-enemy.html

thought about posting to FB but man, not sure i have the constitution to moderate or deal with a discussion there... maybe i'll wing it up on twitter with a clickbait quote ;)

heddwch
G

Why is it important to stick with primary sources? Because journalism/reporting has gone to linkbait headlines.

Clicks count, and any way you can spin the report to get people to read it or to suit your target demographic, well go for it.

This morning there was one story that sounded great.

Headline: "One Cup of Coffee Could Offset Three Drinks a Day"

hey I drink coffee, that sounds awesome, but that article didn't list primary source or make it easy to find it.

So I punch into Google search: "World Cancer Research Fund study on coffee liver"

Found the two PDFs (the full report and the summary) from WCRF

But I also found a diversity of headlines all relating to this one study/press release.

"Science/health Journalists" were saying much like the first one.

But here's an incomplete list of headlines from this study:
"Consumping three alcoholic drinks a day may cause liver cancer - study".
"Coffee erases liver cancer risk caused by daily alcohol consumption"
"Coffee lowers the risk of liver cancer, new study suggests"
"Alcoholic? Coffee can negate potential liver cancer"
"Drinking Coffee likely decreases risk of liver cancer, diet soda can triple belly fat"

--TARGET YOUR DESIRED DEMOGRAPHIC--

What do you learn in inorganic/general chem?
"When in doubt, go to moles."

For health studies and food reccomendations and stuff that rings your bullshit meter (or more importantly when it sounds perfect) i suggest:
"Always go to the primary source."

and don't click on the linkbait

Also - as much as I like the idea that two cups of coffee can offset drinking a six pack/day, it probably isn't the best idea to draw that conclusion from the study.

But hey...  any reason to justify continued coffee consumption is okay by me!

Oh...

Bias, don't forget bias and funding. WCRF seems pretty okay, but I didn't dig much deeper than their web page, but nothing raised much of a flag, but also seemed a but less open about funding, so that's still making me wonder a bit.

heddwch
G

Wednesday we got out for Smackdown. Second one of the year.

First one was three of us, Syl and Andrew joined me. Syl showed up on his road bike even! I had spend the day outside on the roof working on the house after eradicating a starling from inside and keeping the nesting squirrel from coming back inside.

A goregous day, wet roads from snow melt but a day sweating on the roof must have done my legs good or the lack of morning commute or something. I felt great on the bike. Probably my best legs for riding since racing at Shedd Park in 2013. We were riding south on Prospect and I was just chatting with Syl riding side by side and he was breathing hard and had to drop back in the draft. I was just talking. It was strange. Andrew I think was just having a nice easy ride not too bad.

But hey that day was kind of fun. With the wet roads I stayed on the front just to keep a bit cleaner (and it worked). But I also led across every sprint point. And we weren't going too slowly. Not the fastest ever up anything but I was very nearly at my limit at the top of pine (won both sprint line) then also at Rocky Hill. Recoved and then went to the front to Hillside. Andrew took the lead at the base of Hillside and I nearly got dropped on the first section, but I held on and got back on the wheel before we started the last pitch. And Suddenly I was actually in contact with them and I couldn't but go for it at the last minute and I managed to sprint around the two skinny climber guys and take the sprint I never win. I paid for it but then we re-grouped a bit and I nearly got dropped again in the speed section leading over to Wheeler's Athletic complex. Recovered and managed to set a solid tempo up to 152.

Felt amazing. I won every sprint line and had a great ride. Legs were completely trashed but in a great way.

New (new last year) pedal stroke is natural now. No longer getting fatiqued and reverting to the old style.

This week was a bit different. Tuesday, the day before, I wondered what kind of time I might be capable of at the Providence Fight for Air Stair Climb tomorrow (saturday) so I did the 128 steps in the building next to us 2x. First time in 50 seconds not going too hard. Second time later in the afternoon I did it in 30 seconds no hands. Yes the climb is 348 steps so who knows if my sprint can hold out for ~90 seconds probably not but that 30 was in pants and vans. Not shorts and running shoes. Point being I think it fatiqued my quads a bit, the supporting muscles that normally don't pedal much were kind of sore and that impacted the total power I was able to make (also just not recovered probably on Wed). That and while I ate a big breakfast sandwich after getting to work (two eggs from my brother's chickens, a big leaf of swiss chard, some cheese and dry italian hard salami on bread) and had a taco salad (packed from leftovers the night before) for lunch I was still pretty hungry by 3pm. From past experience that is usually not a good sign. Esp when, like now, I'm not drinking any beer at night.

The ride in wasn't as slow as I wanted it to be, or as easy with the wind. So there was that in the morning going for me. AND the weather was going to be in the 40s. WARM OMG SO NICE OUT.

wrong

It was f'n windy, not as windy as last week when we cancelled the smackdown, but it was blowing out of the south and with no sun 40 was cold. Jersey and arm warmers with bib tights wasn't quite enough clothing. But once we got going hard it was warm enough.

At the start it was just me and Andrew and a new kid. He had a sweet bike, lots of dreamy gadgets, but was nearly dropped over the bridge as I was leading out easily. We picked up Fox (who claims not to be riding at all, but has been posting blistering fast running races in all distances this winter) riding through EP. And rolled out on 152 to woodward. Rolling along casually but not slowly until Andrew decided it was time to make some tempo and we fell in line and started moving. New kid on the nice bike started getting gapped but never really losing ground, just 75 yards or so back, out of the draft.

As we turned right on Prospect, we turned right into the wind. Andrew, then Fox, then me. Rotating through into the wind. Not an easy pace but I was still breathing through my nose. Headed down Broad/Jacob we kept rolling. And then Pine we had the tailwind. I started the climb and kept it pretty hard for myself. Not at the limit and this time not trying to go fast enough to discourage anyone from coming around but still not slow enough that they would want to come around too soon. Just after the first sprint line it was go time for Andrew. I heard the click click as he dropped it down a couple cogs and came past with Fox in tow.

I was able to jump on Fox's wheel and when Fox drifted off of Andrew's wheel I was able to jump around him but not quite close the gap to Andrew.

Andrew was climbing well. As he should relative to me, I have to keep reminding myself that even in my best shape I'm still hauling an extra 40-60 pounds more than these guys I'm riding with. We got to the top and regrouped, I recovered surprisingly quickly and went to the front to drag us out over to Homestead. Then Andrew and Fox cranked out the next tempo section to Rocky Hill.

Fox lead the turn around the masssive snow bank and we climbed the little rise and started drilling it. We passed three guys coming down with the tail wind as we were fighting the wind up hill. I knew given Andrew's strength lately that there's no way I could set a tempo to hold anyone off, much less beat him to the telephone pole so I just burried myself at the bottom of the hill. Thinking about the strava segment and hoping for a better time than the first smackdown this year. Just crushing it with Andrew and Fox on my wheel.

Getting close to the final couple bends Andrew came around as I started to fade, Fox didn't come off my wheel but we say Syl (on his mt bike), who turned around and tagged onto Andrew's wheel. the two of them hit the top of the hill together. Fox and I came up next. I was at my limit.

We regrouped a bit rolling over to Hillside and well somehow I wound up setting tempo up the first section. And I liked it. It felt good to dictate the pace. The rhythm was my own. I felt strong. Was a memorable feeling. Out of the saddle rocking back and forth in the big ring, powering up. Got around the bend there as it levels out and shifted, sat down and tried to keep the pace up. As we got to Medalist, Andrew and Syl went past and gapped me a bit. I pulled them back as we gathered speed before hitting the last steep pitch, but wasn't able to keep in contact. I did manage to out climb Fox on Hillside with is a rare enough feat and was status quo with the little skinny guys Andrew and Syl deftly floating up out of reach on the climb.

From the top of Pine I came around Syl and started hammering. Always amazed at being unable to turn the pedals over one more time and then not even 3 minutes later I'm pouring on the coals and back at tempo. We turned over onto Read and well. Downhill, this is my section so I just dropped it into the 46-11 and cranked it around until we got to Wheeler. I burried myself that whole stretch, which was really actually kind of stupid.

Stupid because I know Andrew usually crushes me on the final run on Walker to 152. Sure enough, I lead on to Walker and Andrew starts flying, i manage to grab Fox's wheel... then dangle just out of the draft... after the bend to the left I dug down and powered back on his wheel and managed to hang on until the end but completely at the limit. the hip end of the quads were on fire (from the stairs i think) and I could feel a fuel bonk hovering. This was way too much intensity for this big slow freak at the end of the day on an empty stomach, but also a really good training day. totally emptying the tank is like cycling the battery. Use it all up so you know you can and your body gets used to it.

Syl was trying to get back home for 7pm and we had a monster headwind facing us heading south. So we kept the pace on all the way back. no recovery chill chatty sections rolling through EP. It should have given us a great overall loop average on the strava segment. We pushed it over the bridge, up to college hill, grabbed my backpack, and headed towards the bike path into the wind.

Trying to hang with a motivated Syl was tough without the backpack or the headwind. Now I had all three to contend with. We started rotating, about 30 second pulls into the wind once we got to the causeway and the strongest of the wind. I made it almost to the Lighthouse before I just couldn't even stay in his draft anymore.

Boom.

That was the limit. Hello limit. Ouch.

Actually it was pretty close to perfect timing. Just the right distance/time to get a true recovery (and much needed) before getting home and off the bike. So we chatted about his remarkable day about the student worker trying to explain her dog costume to him.

And my legs... shredded. So good. So good.

great great ride... went to turn off Strava and upload the ride only to find it was off. It had only captured a tiny part of it. Seriously? FUUUUUUCK.

it is irrational to be mad at it. I got the ride in, I had a great freaking ride. Not having it recorded isn't a big deal. It is not a new route, I know the roads, I know how long of a ride it was. BUT STILL IT IS DATA THAT I WAS EXPECTING!  GRRR.

Lately actually anytime i took a photo, opened 'gram, made a call, got a text, the Strava app would stop working and I'd have to restart it. Usually it happened when I was stopped so no big deal.

This time i turned off the wifi (after strava was running) and I just never thought that something that simple would have disrupted the ap. I got a phone call mid-ride that I ignored, and I initially thought that was what crashed the ap but it wasn't. Oh well.

On the plus side I was asked if the phone was old, so I looked at which version of strava I was running (4.3.1) and the phone OS (4.4.2), should have been fine. But then I looked at the update time. Hey it has been flakey for a while. I'd filled the phone with snow pictures from the storms and when I cleaned it up Strava auto-updated and suddenly worked like shit.

Turned out they had just released 4.4.0. So I updated and BOOM fixed. I was able to take photos w/o the ap crashing. Back to expected reliability. Hopefully.

We'll see who shows up next week for the smackdown. Looks like some of the club guys who can't make the Wed ride are going to start the west side smackdown on Tuesdays. More options for hard/fast rides in the PVD area!

Today's ride was nice, missed the rain...  nice and easy... trying to be fresh and somewhat recovered for tomorrow. Hoping to get close to Paul Curly's time, it is a race afterall. I'll be honest, I'm worried about warming up properly. Would love to ride there but it is early and it will be cold and there's no secure storage and stuff. Probably going to wind up driving but then where to warm up, maybe I get on the trainer before leaving home and have a good warm up while drinking coffee and then just show up and check a string back with some pants and jacket in it. We'll see. At least I made my fundraising minimum, not quite to the VIP $500 status but that's fine with me.

Damnit that's a lot of words for today. Two smackdowns strava and stairclimbing.

better turn off the flow of words before it gets worse or I start talking about our new dogs (yes plural, we have TWO new members of the family).

heddwch
G

At some point during the day - between emails, questions, busted stuff and staring at some of the slowly accumulating clutter on my desk (but i DON'T WANT TO CLOSE MY MCMASTER CATALOG NUMER 121 - open to page 2048-2049) I opened this tab because I had an idea, something in my brain that I wanted to write down.

I forgot and just as I was typing 121 I got interupted and have been busy since (hours ago now). Yes - tabs live a long time here on GeWilli's desktop. Much like how McMaster's new Catalog doesn't really get closed.

http://www.nicecycling.com/

It is a well designed and simple page. No not a huge depth to the content but absolutely precise and spot on,

I related very much to it because, I suppose, it mirrors my commuting and riding style. That's how I ride to work.

In the past i've felt like (and sometimes still admit to the feeling) I'm going into battle against the 2 ton death mobiles. But that's a shitty way to go about thinking about cycling and commuting by bike. Prepare for war means you're loaded with ammo and armor, much more likely to use it if you're carrying it no?

A comment from G+ got me to expound and clarify the filtering forward connundrum that many people have.  MC's comment:

I agree with almost all of that, except for the assumption that you should stay in the flow of traffic. At least here in Chicago, it's completely legal for me to filter up a line of stopped cars. I see little point in being stuck in a traffic jam of cars if I can filter to the front of the line safely, then go through the intersection when the light changes, or it's my turn, whatever. If folks in cars want to get their drawers in a twist because I don't have to suffer the traffic jam like they do, then maybe they need to be on a bike instead.

My response:

Careful MC your justification falls into a very similar argument of "you don't like getting run off the road, get in a car."
Filtering when there's room is one thing. Filtering where you have to weave between mirrors and space on a tight road is another.
Filtering when you ride past 20 cars then they have to pass you right back over and over again or even only once is too many times. Every time you make someone pass you more than once you increase the potential for their frustration/anger/rage to increase. Doing that while, sure, seems great, just get on a bike, is a super good way to set cycling advocacy back and make the roads more dangerous for every other cyclist that individual encounters down the road.
Filtering when you're never going to see the cars again? I'm fine with that, but falls under a very different circumstance. 
I find it very much worth while being patient and waiting 3-4 or even 6 cars back from a red light, esp if it means I will get through the red light once it turns green. And even if I don't What's waiting for one red light going to cost me vs the potential aggravation others will feel from my filtering actions?
These are the things I think long and hard about. They are feelings and guidlines I follow having been in traffic on a bike since the 80s. 

There was a discussion about stop signs and stop lights from the RIBike email list a week or so ago.

ST shared an experience that happens quite a bit. You stop for sign. Car starts to go through (who has right of way) and your slow poke buddy comes flying past you and through the stop signs pissing off the car who had just started to go forward. I wrote this in response to ST's long story (I won't quote ST here)

So many thoughts on this very topic.
I have a rolling criteria based on my [short] lifetime of riding.First I prescribe to the vehicular cyclist model. lay that out first.Not really a surpise maybe to those who've ridden with me.
Red Lights are a curious thing. Over the years I've watched most ofthe stoplights I have to interact with go to detection/switchinghardware that can see a cyclists waiting at the light and switch it.IE most of the ones in Providence. In places that have coils I'velearned how to ride over the coils and trigger the light change (youneed metal ~32 spoke wheels to do it).
I don't see going through red lights as a viable, responsible action,with very few exceptions (there are always exceptions).
I am not a fan of filtered past cars unless the line of traffic is solong that they won't pass you again, at all or for a very long time(like tonight with traffic stopped on Waterman from Hope to the RedBridge). Even then, I still waited for the red light to turn green atButler even though there were no cars anywhere near that could enterthe intersection.
The laws may not suit us very well. And officers may wave us throughbut unless the officer does, I will be waiting in line, being veryconservative about when I filter forward. We don't have green boxes,and I'm not sure they are a good thing honestly, but that's a personaljudgement.
It is slower, it is more conservative but I believe very strongly thatit is safer and is a responsible thing to do. Running red lights evenif only one person sees you still puts you in the wrong. Sure, carsspeed, they cross double yellow lines to pass, they roll through stopsigns. Yes, people driving are the problem not the cars, but mostpeople do follow the laws. But it seems most cyclists don't. Or atleast barely enough to hit 50%. At least in areas where there isn'tany enforcement or penalty.
But do we really need enforcement or the threat of burning foreternity in hell to do the right thing? If so, maybe well, tangent andphliosophical topic not appropriate for the list. To the point thoughI feel running the red light...  is just not the right thing to do. Itsaddens me when others do it, and I've been nearly creamed by, i'msure nice cyclists, who've run stop signs or red lights because therewere no cars, there was just me and well - because I'm payingattention neither of us were sent to the ER. I hate that I have to bethe one to be aware of you red light, stop sign running riders (I usethe 'you' with a bit of liberty hoping no one here would treat acyclist in the intersection with less right away than their own givensignage and vehicular code).
Life is a journey of making choices. Every choice you make impacts others.
I feel that picking a path of peace making on the bike whilecommuting/riding is the right choice. Now I have a temper and can bepushed to far and have come close to fighting more than I like toadmit, but each interaction lately has been more zen like andentertaining to me. I guess that's sort of the premise here. Andalways, always I prefer to be wrong than dead right. I would prefer towait at a frustrating red light with no other cars coming for whatfeels like an eternity than roll through and give even just one car inline behind me the satisfaction of saying "HAH SEE TOLD YOU THEY ARETHINK THEY ARE ABOVE THE LAW"
Use every red light and stop sign as practice. for Cyclocross startsor trackstand handling practice. Make use of each opportunity toimprove. Getting somewhere faster without learning is a waste. Theaccumulated lessons make us wiser and better at this whole being humanthing.

Many words - but it does come down to a zen like state in a way. Maybe being too empathetic makes this approach easier for me than someone who's more prone to exploitation for personal gain, balancing that part of me is the part that is prone to lose it violently, but I know that's not good and have found ways to keep that in check. All that said, I do firmly believe that the Nice Cycling page's clearly stated guidelines can benefit everyone and move cycling advocacy forward in a productive manner and make it all safer for everyone.

heddwch
G

First post was a product of the over-thinking bike ride this morning.

So much going on, and yes my legs decided to say hey lets see how little work we can get away with while I was preoccupied with stupid brain thoughts.

You know what I mean right?

Check the clock 4:30 have an intense and complex series of dreams and then look back at the clock and it is only 4:35, no way did that whole sequence happen in 5 min, it feels like an hour, sometimes a day.

That's what my brain was doing on the way home tonight.

Occilating between gut wrenching sadness hearing about Lesli having to make the brutal desicion to say good by to her beloved companion. Overclocking on the red light, and at the same time...  thinking about finishing Ready Player One... and the cascade of emotions and feelings and thoughts generated from it.

Doesn't help that I finished reading Ender's Game on Saturday, had some very deep and philosophical discussions on the ride on Sunday with Syl and David.

And just finished Read Player One today.

Add on top of it all some serious soul searching and challenging lately.

One moment of the ride home was a desire to write a Facebook post, turn off the comments and say:

Thank you, each and every one of you for being my friend. Not just a facebook friend, but a real friend. Many if not most of you it has been a long time since I've really talked to you, spent time with you or really been a friend in a physical sense. But you are still a friend. And I mean a friend in the sense I am grateful for what you've given me for affording me the tolerance and the patience and acceptance of my idiosyncrasies, even if superficially.  The last year has been a sgnificant awakening. Won't know for a few years if i can call it an epiphany, but it was, none the less, formative and eye opening. Making choices that ultimately really really hurt and what felt wrong and needed was the opposite. Losing friends and close confidants when you have few is never easy. I'm a challenge, a mess, few people really ever understand me. But I had unwittingly found a team that did. And then they were gone. And the void was pretty huge. Probably completely my own doing but I make some really dumb choices sometimes. "The choices you made" one of the most influential people in recent memory kept hammering into me. These are indeed the choices I made and I alone have to live with them.
And honestly I think I can. Most of them. The ones that have wound up hurting others are the toughest to deal with. They are challenging. So forgive me, please. I'm not new to this being human thing, but I am still figuring it out. 

The one thing I struggle with, still, is the awareness of when people fuck up, or have a position based on wrong information, or act on bad/wrong facts. I'm really struggling but at the same time really working on it. My brain is going overtime trying to find a way to respond and react in a positive helpful direction. I fail spectacularly still. But, failures are getting further apart it feels. And, yes, you can't even begin to fathom how self critical I am. Seriously. Not Possible.

Life is a weird weird thing. Honestly so much of the Ender's Game book and Ready Player One resonated with me. On a level that is both exciting and scary but in a weird way validates so many feelings and observations along the way. So many of my friends have wound up being the smartest people I know, mostly because we are all equally disfunctional and frustrated by the f'n idiocy in the world around us. Or driven together by common interests.

Life isn't easy on this end of the mendoza line. It can be fucking unbeliveably brutal.

Maybe some (one) of the people over here maybe I over estimated, or got played big time. But in the end, I often take comfort in knowing I helped, at somepoint open doors, get through struggles, make new connections, find new confidences, find something that clicks.

Some old (younger than me) pain in the ass guy said once: "You have a lot to offer the sport, and the people around you. It doesn't go without you. I mean that sincerely"

I rarely get any sort of praise, recognition or acknowledgement.  Much less thanks. It happens, but so infrequently that I think maybe it is just fake and contrived and insincere. And that's okay. I'm an observant asshole.

Once, long ago my sister described some guy as the creepy guy who stood in the corner and stared at people. She didn't know, probably doesn't know to the day that as she talked about this "creepy guy" she was describing me as I was standing there. It opened my eyes to how my shyness was manifested as I grew up or at least explained how/why everyone reacted to me the way they did.

But moving on. Moving on. One thing that has been reoccuring lately is just by follwoing my sub-concious how luck I am, well, not lucky enough to have a reliable car, or disposable income or a garmin or anything else luxurious. But that's a negative spiral. No, there are elements that I realize are difficult to explain, but also possible to explain, just not easily.

This may or may not be one of the most revealing or most cryptic posts ever. I think that is going to depend on who you are reading this.

Another realization riding home, my youngest may be indeed the smartest of the two despite the insane potential the oldest is exibiting. Reading the Jazz/soccer/coach article a while back, the youngest gets it. And I fucking hate that she got subjected to being put on a team where she's the strongest and the biggest because I wasn't playing the politic game like a few other dads were. But on the other hand it taught me so many lessons, Coach Kurt's links have helped, and perspective has helped. Also, youth sports and the whole system is really f'n broken and stupid. That said my kid has taught me so much.

This verbal unloading is probably because today someone said my beard had acheived wizard power. Could be. It has never been this big/full or amazing. Shopping on Sunday there were kids with their parents who couldn't stop staring at me. It was entertaining and at the same time kind fo made me feel a bit wizard like. This strange human like person who is different but special and distinctive and memorable but you don't quite know why.  No. Don't worry. I'm still as full of self doubt and have still zero self confidence, and pretty much no idea how to move forward still. But. I have a commitment to myself.

This is what hit me riding home. A commitment, to figure out how to see the flaws and help people without alienating them or pissing them off or making them feel like I'm trying to insult them or make them feel inferior. Fucking impossible task honestly. But you know what? Fuck it. I don't wany any easy challenges. We live once. Then we're gone.

That should be enough motivation to try...

I should proof read this verbal expulsion but I won't. I will ask Tommy D to give me a call if he reads this, shit anyone else wanna call? call...  you have my number...

Heddwch
G

about running a red light...  and pondering the possibilities:

i wrote this:

So many thoughts on this very topic.

Not a pre-meditated meal, just what was on hand. Hmm I have left over beans from making a black bean soup with the adzukis, and some chicken i needed to cook up or freeze. And collards were on sale this weekend so I had those.

But no plan to make this until tonight.

Starting with:
one smallish onion
one largeish green pepper
4-5 cloves of garlic
1 quart cooked Adzuki beans
2 chicken breasts (could sub any protein of choice or omit if you want)
1 1/3 cup long grain brown rice
two bunches of collard greens
chili powder
oregano
small can tomato paste
cooking fats (oil + saved bacon fat or other saturated cooking fats)
salt
pepper
stuff to make it taste amazing

Prep:
Start cooking the rice. put 1-2 teaspoons of chili powder in (make the rice dirty)
dice onion
dice pepper
de-rib and cut collards into 2-3cm squares (wash)
cut chicken breast, fist the thin part off then the fat part cut down so it is half the thickness (hard to describe maybe but this makes them all a consistent thickness - important to cook the breast through w/o drying out - if using thighs no need to cut), dry it completely with paper towel, then liberally coat with chili powder.

melt the bacon fat in the pan, add some extra virgin olive oil, once nice and hot stick chicken in there - keep moving it around so it doesn't stick (well seasoned pan is always best - whatever you cook it in make it heavy and make sure it is compatible with your heat source). If the pan is hot enough it should brown and crisp up, then flip, same thing.

When the chicken is finished pull it off and set it aside to cool (never cut into it while hot). Once cool then cut into small bite size cubes.

Into the pan the chicken was just cooking in put the onions and peppers, add a bit of salt, sweat them down. More oil if it looks like it needs it.

Once those are underway cooking, in a big tall sided stock pot put a bit of oil in and dump the washed (but still very wet) collards in, add a splash of vinegar (cider or rice is best) and a bit of soy sauce (salt and umami/aka depth of flavor). Let that cook down until they are completely wilted and soft and borderline becoming crunchy.

While the collards are cooking now you put in the garlic in the peppers and onions. Add more chili powder, dried oregano, cayenne, black pepper, salt (yes more salt - because the beans are just beans, nothing else, as is the rice). Then put the small can of tomato paste in there. Add water until it is still thick but more soup than solid (a little at a time), time for secret flavor touches. 1 teaspoon of mustard powder, 1 teaspoon cocoa powder, couple splashes of liquid smoke (more cayenne).

While the sauce base is simmering and developing flavor put the beans in with the collards and warm them up.

After sauce is close, add the rice in, add more water if needed to make it still more soup than solid. Then add the chicken to the sauce. Mix and taste, let it simmer a touch so the rice and chicken can soak up the flavor.

Finally transfer contents of sauce into the tall stock pot with the beans and collards. Gently toss and mix. Simmer (add water if too thick).  Be gentle mixing so you don't smash all the beans. But make sure it is all well incorporated and let it hang out. Give it 5-30 min to mellow and mature (or longer if you want).

Then serve. Just like that. doesn't need anything else on top.

No no photos of it. Ate it all up. Gone.

belly happy

There a long list of potential subs and variations, and yes in usual GeWilli fashion i can go on at lengths about each one and weight the benefits and reasons and debate why this vs that...

Andouille Sausage instead of or in addition to the chicken would be brilliant. Heck stick some okra in there too.

It is a creol dish at the root, sort out the flavors that make sense.

A good pile of steps i guess, three dirty pots but not that much dicing, and each step is season to taste and adjust. Without the liquid smoke and cocoa powder it was a bit missing something, the bitterness and the smokiness made that final dimension work and enhanced the rest of the flavors without being identifieable or overwhelming.

That's it. Cooking. Simple. Food.

heddwch
G

neither, fresh ground. Perfect amount of crunch but with more consistency and w/o the bread destroying chunks of nuts. If i wanted to eat peanuts I'd grab a handful. If i want nuts on my peanut butter I'll put them on when I make my sandwich. Super smooth is wrong too. that perfect middle, like that fresh peanut butter grinder thing in the store.

Add salt after you put the PB on what ever you put it on.

Could be worse. But that's still a lot of snow to put somewhere.

A photo posted by geoff (@ge_willi) on Mar 2, 2015 at 4:30am PST

Moved snow...  lots of snow. Over and over again. Move it from here to there. then from there to up there. from up there onto the pile. At least the plow truck had come through before I got up, no need to worry about dealing with plow berm and it is sunny and bright. Should easily melt the rest of the way dry from the shoveling.

More snow mid-week too?

The long ride yesterday on the shitty wheels the Studded tires are on didn't help them much. They are the crappiest wheels I have, and usually just see a few days here and there through the year. This year? Not so much.  Yesterday's long ride and extra hills torqued the hell out and now it is all wonky again.

And the bottom bracket is starting to self destruct. I have bearings at home, hopefully I can get there without it pulling a Plymouth 2013 where the drive side bearings completely grenaded. It isn't quietly imploding either. So we'll see how tonight's ride goes.

Before the bottom bracket started sounding like frostquakes, I was tired. Between the ride yesterday and the shoveling before the ride....  oof.  Tried to take it easier on the ride in, tried to find some recovery pace. Sort of worked. Kind of.

Probably going to keep up the lower profile other places and more content here... need a bit more time i think. not ready...

heddwch
G

first since maybe I dunno Virginia and venturing out to HBFit Studio?

Was not a bad ride. https://www.strava.com/activities/261820368  Studded tires are loud and slow. But other than being a lot heavier than tubless MTB tires, probably an equalizer. Until we came to the hills.

Riding with Syl, even when he claims to be out of shape and having stayed up till 2am and started the morning off with Hot Yoga at 8am, is fun until the road turns up. Then it hurts.

With the studs I picked the inside line, riding over the ice mostly, no studs on Syl's MTB but he stayed upright and we only had a few stretches where he was forced onto ice.

One odd encounter with a guy but hey, it was just surreal, mostly and at the end of the ride.

I got home just as the snow was starting. And man is the snow going full force now. Again. 4-7" is what they are saying, we'll see what I wake up to in the morning.

40 miles outside, sure much easier mentally to do those outside than in, but it is just very strange that it took until march 1 for me to get out on an outside ride (trainer and commuting aside).

I peeked at the twitterverse, felt again compelled to say stuff, to reply. but didn't. not missed means not needed. At least here if you want to debate, you have to do it on my terms and it isn't as instantly inflamatory as twitter or FB can get.

Life is a strange thing.

heddwch
g