Liver and Brussels Sprouts

No, that's not the title of a child's nightmare, but in reality, two of my favorite foods and what I had, along with a few other things, at a restaurant last week in New York.
I'm not much of a meat eater, but I've somehow placed liver in a different category. I'm chronically anemic, so perhaps it's a subconscious craving for iron that attracts me to liver. Sporadically over the years, I would order a chopped chicken liver sandwich at a deli and always loved it. I'd say this happened once or twice a year.
But last year in New York, when faced with medallions of calf liver on the menu at Al Di La in Brooklyn, I decided to take the plunge. I was not disappointed. The liver was sliced thinly and it was medium rare. The onions served with it were cooked until wilted. The liver was accompanied by a triangle of baked polenta. This past trip, the four of us decided to pool some appetizers. As usual, we ordered Nancy's favorite, chard stuffed with cheeses. As always, it was delicious. I asked that if we could order the roasted Brussels sprouts as an appetizer. Amazingly, everyone at the table loved Brussels sprouts, so we ordered them. They were sliced in half and roasted with oil, butter and cloves of garlic. Simple and delicious.
I repeated this at home last week, but I didn't have whole cloves of garlic so I substituted shallots. They were good, but not as good. I think what I might like to try is some garlic-infused olive oil. I think that will make a really good dish even better.
The liver was on the menu again this year. It was very good, although the medallions were not as tender as they were the year before. Amazing what flavors and textures we can remember, even after months or even years pass.

I feel lucky that I love liver and Brussels Sprouts. I can kind of understand why children don't like them. They are strong, aggressive flavors, and children have more acute taste buds than adults. mmm. Just thinking about that dinner makes me hunger for more.

Sisterhood of the Traveling Lycra

When I was considering doing AIDS Lifecycle I emailed someone who worked at UCSF to ask her what she thought. I had never met Charlie. At the time she was an OR nurse and I had read an article on the UCSF website about her and some other UCSF riders. Charlie (or Charlene, as I knew her then) wrote back a wonderful email encouraging me to do the ride and told me I would have the time of my life.

I finally met Charlie and she gave me what were my first pair of bicycling shorts. I can't remember the details-- they didn't fit her, or they were extra, or something. But they were my very first pair of cycling shorts and I still wear them.

Charlie was in school to get her master's in nursing and she has not done the ride these past two years. But her shorts have.

On a training ride today we stopped at Shark's in Tiburon, and who should appear-- Charlie! She's finished her master's and is now the head of the Prepare Clinic at UCSF. And she's back to do the ride again. It was so great to see her.
we caught up on UCSF gossip, and more important, talked about riding. It was so wonderful to see her today, and I'm looking forward to more training rides with her.

Today was a very short ride, but considering we haven't ridden awhile, it was okay. As weeks go on, we'll add miles. Home now, I'm thinking about what I might have for lunch. Dinner will be popcorn at the movies, so I'm thinking I'll eat a fairly substantial lunch, though I won't go overboard. I'd like to lose a pound or two I gained in New York.

Feta for the masses

I'm just recently back from New York. Every Martin Luther King Day weekend, I make the trip to the Golden Festival. This is a multi-day music and dance extravaganza. Saturday night is the big night-- three venues with bands ranging from a capella Georgian singers to the What Cheer Band-- a scramble/marching/stageshow unexplainable group of musicians.

I've been attending this festival when it was in a dance studio above a bar in Soho. Now, it is held in a school in the very northern corner of Manhattan. It has gotten so popular that tickets are sold in advance, and, at times, people have to wait at the door until someone leaves so another person can attend. More than 1,000 come to the festival.

My participation, besides being a fan, is to participate in food preparation. A group of volunteers work in what can barely be described as a kitchen. It does have a sink, but other than that, it's long tables where we work on food prep.

My first, and most important job, is making the beet salad. I start with Macedonian marinated beets-- about 10 very large jars-- and I start slicing them. The way I do this is dump them in a large tub and attack them with knives. Next comes the walnuts and red onion, followed by some fresh lemon juice, olive oil and fresh dill I had minced finely. Last, I throw in feta and work it through with my hands. Every year it comes out a little different, but every year it is good. Some day,I'll make it at home; I just somehow never remember to. It's easy, not that expensive and a wonderful way to eat beets.

We also have a lot of other food-- ajvar (a red pepper spread), hummus, baba ganoush, tsatsiki and taromsalata for dips. To go with the dips we have pita, raw vegetables and chunks of good bread. We also have grape leaves, several kinds of cheeses, a variety of beef and pork sausage, and a hot white bean dish we reheat in crock pots. We have marinated vegetables and several kinds of olives. Sweets consist of nuts, dried fruit, lots of chocolate and a Greek breadlike cake. The food is supposed to be a "snack" but since the event starts at 6 pm, many look at it as dinner. The line starts queueing up as soon as we start to bring out the trays to put on long tables.
There is also beer at the festival. Kegs and kegs of Brooklyn Lager. We ran out around midnight. Considering the festival goes until 4 am, that's pretty early. I suppose the volunteer committee that runs the festival will decide what to do for next year.

While the festival is wonderful, perhaps the highlight for me is brunch the next day at Emerson's house in Brooklyn, where Jerry and I stay. It is a real chance to visit with people. Brunch starts around 1 pm and lasts until after midnight. We sit around eat, drink, talk and eat some more. This year I made bread and brought peppermint bark. Emerson always cooks a turkey and a ham. We had breads, cheeses, sausage, sweets, wine, and a variety of other food and drink. We sit around Emerson's dining room table. There were nine of us staying at Emerson's this year, down from last year's record 20-some people. I'm not sure how many people came over to Emerson's this year for brunch, though I do know three people who came to brunch stayed so late they spent the night.

The festival, the dancing, the sitting around talking and eating, remind me what friendship is really about. These are people whom I have known for a long time-- some close to 40 years, and it seems wherever I move to, I gravitate back to this group. It's good to know that no matter where I travel, I always have a place I can call home.

Ghost Bikes in Brooklyn

Just back from a week in New York. Dancing, visiting great friends, and, of course, eating. But I'll get to that later.
My friends Nancy and Paul live in Park Slope, and there are two ghost bikes in their neighborhood. These are bicycles, painted completely white. One had been put there very recently, and artificial flowers still decorated its frame. Above each bike is the name of the person who was killed at that spot, the person's age and how he or she died. The one a block from their house was a 50-year-old man who had been hit by a bus; the other, a few more blocks away was a 28-year-old woman killed by a truck.
I have seen the first one on several occasions; it's been there more than a year. I've seen a few others in a few other spots in the United States. They always leave me sad. But they also leave me wondering. How did it happen? How could it have been prevented?

That is the million dollar question. And that question needs to be answered by all of us, cyclists, pedestrians, vehicle drivers. While walking in Brooklyn yesterday, I saw a cyclist come tearing down President Street. He wasn't wearing a helmet and he ignored the red light and sailed through. Fortunately, no traffic was coming so he didn't have a problem. Another cyclist who was riding right behind him stopped. This second cyclist was carrying a pizza; he was making a delivery for a local pizza shop. Funny-- I assumed someone in a hurry to make a delivery would have been the one running the light. But he stopped, waited for it to change and went on his way. Mind you, it was snowing at the time.

So as I see these ghost bicycles I have to wonder, were the cyclists more like the first or second cyclist I saw at the corner of President and 8th. There are people in vehicles who hate cyclists, and of course, many cyclists who hate people in cars. I've seen lots of bad riding and bad driving. No one is immune to being at fault. I wish I had a solution. I don't. But I mourn for those cyclists and I hope those ghost bikes serve as a reminder for all of us.

Lifecycle Kick off

Well, they've actually changed its name, but it will always be the Lifecycle kickoff to me. The San Francisco AIDS Foundation is adding more and more events for people to raise money. I suppose it's a good idea but I hope Lifecycle doesn't lose its identity. It is the biggest event and it pretty well dominated the day.
On the way in the door we ran into Stephan and Lilly. They own a trapeze studio in Oakland, and Lilly also works as a nurse at Children's Oakland. Stephan has been wanting to do the ride for ages, and he has signed up this year. I'm so thrilled for him. He will have the time of his life, as we all do.
The event was a lot of fun. Lots of friends to see. There are always a host of raffles at this event. One friend really needs a bike, so we pooled our raffle tickets to up his chances. Alas, he did not win. If wishes were horses... but someone is lending him a bike for the ride.
There was good food at the event. A number of restaurants donate food in hopes, I assume of attracting customers. A lot of the food had pork in it, but there were several really wonderful dishes. Delfina had fresh mozzarella with caponata and a couple other vegetable-laden sides. I sprinkled it with fleur du sel and fresh ground pepper. Delicious! Another restaurant-- I forget the name right now but I did snag a card-- had a delicious ceviche and some tuna carpaccio. Both were quite delicious.
When we got home, I was not particularly hungry, so I had a grapefruit. If only I'd gone upstairs as soon as I had finished it. Lurking in a big tin were the butterscotch blondies I had made. I think this will be the last treat I make without chocolate. It's way too tempting for me to have treats in the house. At least when I bake with chocolate, I can't eat it.

Sweating it out, or at least trying to

Jerry is finally over a cold that has been nagging him, and while I figured it was inevitable that I would get it, I tried my best to avoid it, but to no avail.

Sunday morning I felt the bug creeping up on me, but decided that going out riding might actually help. We joined a group of riders at Mike's Bikes for a not very long ride around Tiburon Loop. It was pretty cold, but I had lots of layers and did pretty well. Of course, that evening the cold announced itself in all its sneezing and runny nose glory, but I'm still convinced the bike ride helped at least a little.

Sunday's ride was organized by the Positive Pedalers, a group of HIV positive men and women who are riders and roadies on the AIDS ride. Talk about walking the walk, or in this case, pedaling the bike. The Pos Peds I know are all male, although there are a few women who are members. And these guys are my heroes, not only because they are HIV positive and are out there putting a very public face on HIV and AIDS, but they are the most generous, kind, fun people I know.

I remember Jerry and my first training ride two years ago. Jerry was in better shape than me, but in reality, neither of us was going to win any strength or endurance prizes. I was a few months out of having knee replacement surgery and I had been inactive for years. That ride took us up what now doesn't seem like a terrible hill, but at the time it was Mt. Everest to us. A guy we didn't know who was a training ride leader hung with us, encouraged us, chatted with us and really made us feel that we could do it. Beau has a habit of doing this with lots of riders. He truly is one of the kindest people I know. He and the other Pos Peds are really a big reason why I keep coming back to do the AIDS ride year after year. There are other charity rides, but as long as I've got friends fighting this disease, I'm there.

Iranian East Coat New Year

As has become our tradition, Jerry and I celebrate New Years with our friends Sha and Lora. And has become our tradition, we celebrate "East Coast" New Year, so we can celebrate early.

Sha is a wonderful cook and I always look forward to dinner he's cooked. It is a Persian tradition to have fish to welcome the new year. Normally, it would be fried, but since we are all watching our weight and our arteries, we had grilled scallops, accompanied by roasted peppers and mushrooms, and the wonderful rice Sha makes. Jerry calls it "Sha Fried Rice." It is green, it's got baby lima beans in it, and it gets this wonderful crust on the bottom.

I made dessert. I made a pumpkin ginger cheesecake. I have made this before, but I used a new recipe. I'm famous for trying new recipes out at dinner parties. I'm either crazy or adventurous. This cheesecake had pieces of crystallized ginger in it. It didn't set up as well as come cheesecakes, but in any case it was a winner. The crust was gingersnaps, butter and pecans.

In the tradition of most Americans, I have gained weight over this holiday season. I blame it mostly on eating too much, followed by rain and Jerry's cold that has kept us off our tandem.

But here's hoping a new year full of healthy food, good cycling weather and love, fulfillment and steady work.