More Intake than Outgo

I suppose I shouldn't expect any different, especially at this time of year, but my caloric intake is most definitely exceeding the calories I'm burning cycling.

Yesterday, we rode about 50 miles. In the morning, we joined up with the Cat 1 Crawl ride at Mike's Bikes and rode to Lagunitas. We were not feeling particularly strong, and it was cold.

I think one reason for our bit of lethargy was our popcorn dinner the night before. Jerry and I have a tradition of having popcorn and a diet soda when we go to the movies. Friday night we saw Slumdog Millionaire. It was an amazing, beautiful film. I recommend it highly.

In any case, we had our popcorn dinner and went cycling in the morning. It was a chilly morning, and we were layered up appropriately, though layering does take its toll on a ride with lots of ascending and descending. Hot, cold, hot cold. But we survived.

Jerry and I split a sandwich in Lagunitas. I find I can't eat a whole lot while riding. It just doesn't sit well with me. That meant when we got home I was really hungry and I ate a big bowl of pasta with homemade sauce. It was delicious. I put lots of mushrooms, onion, garlic and chicken sausage in it. We have switched to whole wheat pasta and at this point, enjoy it more than so-called regular.

After some food and a rest, we headed out to Newark to go with a small group, led by Russ Mendevil, to look at Christmas decorations through his neighborhood. We once again bundled up, and rode through Newark and Fremont to do our Christmas sightseeing. That was, of course, accompanied by, what else, eating.

We had little french bread pizzas, dip, cookies and cheesecake.

This afternoon we went to Johnny and Theresa's Comfort Food Cafe, and this evening we are having dinner with neighbors. I just baked some butterscotch bars to take along, along with peppermint bark and some pecan shortbread.

I've made the pecan shortbread before, but something didn't work right this time. The end result was fine, but the dough was very very short. I couldn't roll it out. I had to kind of knead it with my hands and then flatten it out. With no small round cookie cutter, I used the top to a squeeze bottle to cut out the small rounds.

The butterscotch bars are my invention, though I'm sure others make similar cookies, if not exactly the same thing. They are loaded with walnuts, butterscotch chips and butter (of course). They are very dangerous for me to have around the house. I will try to give lots away and hide the rest in the freezer.