Riding, Yes. Eating, Not So Much

The last couple of weeks Jerry and I have been trying to amp up our miles. We rode "Day on the Ride" last weekend, which is an attempt to simulate what it is like to do a day on AIDS Lifecycle. Except the day is generally harder than any day on the actual ride. This year the ride took us over almost every hill in Marin and then into Sonoma. We clocked 77 miles, which is shorter than most ride days, but there is no day that has that many difficult climbs. I'm happy to say we completed it, though the usual spot where the crease in my leg meets my behind was screaming by the end of the day. I knew it had to be time to schedule a bike fit. A fitter in Mill Valley came highly recommended to me, so we made an appointment. I know there are lots of great fitters out there, including at least one friend, but Colin was close by and had rave reviews, so we took ourselves over there. He made some very important discoveries. My legs, are indeed, significantly different in length. It wasn't just my lopsided shoulders and hips; there was a great deal of leg length discrepancy. He put shims under the cleat on my right shoe and recommended we get a shorter crank on the right side. My hope was with less straining to reach, the pain and irritation on the right side would subside. No such luck. On Sunday's ride things seemed to start out well, but that nagging, gnawing began at around mile 40. I do have to say though, that my pedaling power is definitely improved with the changes made. I felt a lot stronger and Jerry and I rode our fastest average time ever. Our hill climbing clocked slightly faster, and overall, we had good to great speed. Jerry's cyclometer is out of commission, so he didn't realize it. He was pleased with the news. We'll go back to Colin later this week for a little more tweaking and maybe a new saddle. I am determined to get this issue fixed before ALC. To get more saddle time, I've started going to spin class. While it is certainly different that riding the tandem, I know it's good for my quads and cardio, so I will make it a regular part of my routine. If nothing else, I sweat a lot. I'm still doing Weight Watchers and I earned 75 activity points this week. But I didn't touch them, and their lies what I think is the problem. I frequently do not use up my daily point allowance, and I think my body thinks it is going into starvation mode, so I am not losing any weight. In fact, this week I gained a little. So, starting tonight, things are going to change. We are going to go out for pizza, and I will have wine with it. I am going to start working on using more points, and ironically, I think it will result in weight loss. Seems counter-intuitive, but my guess is my theory will prove right. I'm not going to pig out, but I am going to start eating more. And I probably will start enjoying it more. I have definitely been in an eating rut: the same green salad with three ounces of chicken; the same cottage cheese and pears. I'm going to mix it up, add a little more excitement and a little red wine. I'm also deep into planning mode for this year's Jonathan Pon Memorial Ride. While I really should be cycling the event, I will be in the kitchen with a few friends, cooking for 200 hungry cyclists. I'm excited and a little nervous by the challenge. The kitchen at Cassini Ranch, where we have dinner and breakfast is woefully inadequate so I will be doing as much prep as possible ahead of time. This is the third or fourth time I've done it and it always is wonderful, but if I didn't worry about it I wouldn't be me.

Hills, Activity Points and Cauliflower Puree

If I ate all the "activity" points I've been earning on Weight Watchers, there is no way in Hell I would lose any weight. But it's kind of fun seeing those numbers.

Today, a 52 mile ride earned me more than 50 points. I started having pizza fantasies, but I really want to try to lose another 10 pounds or so before AIDs Lifecycle in June. And pizza is not the way I will get there.

Today, Jerry and I set out from the house, not sure exactly how far we were going to ride. We knew we would go as far as Lagunitas, and then we'd decide if it was time to turn back or continue.

Jerry and I are woefully behind in our training. He's been out of town a lot, and when he's not here, I don't ride. Oh, I might tool around the neighborhood on my recumbent trike, but I don't really consider that riding. Because it's not.

But today we rode. When we reached Lagunitas we decided to ride through Samuel Taylor Park, or as we like to call it, The Magic Park. We think it's magic because it truly feels downhill in both directions. Before we got to the park we rode on a trail, mostly used by mountain bikers. It was not a highlight of my day. Being, as I like to say, goal oriented, the slow pace on the trail was destined to take down our average speed. Also, it was bumpy and I had a genuine fear of getting a flat. But we made it through and then got to the Park. I do like riding through the Park. We ran into some other ALCers at the rest room. They were on their way back from a training ride that left at 7 am, a time when Jerry and I were still asleep.

We rode through the park and then decided to continue on to Point Reyes Station. Our speed made up for the slow movement on the trail. We got to Pt. Reyes, split a sandwich and a bag of pop chips, then headed back, though we decided to circle the reservoir on the return trip.

Mind you, we did absolutely nothing in the way of exercise in the past week, and our mileage has barely crested 20 or 30, so the ride back was a bit of a challenge. I hate Nicasio Valley Road. The hills seem longer and more steep every time we ride them. Today was no exception. Coupled with flagging energy, those hills seemed to be even worse than I had remembered. The "easy" side of White's Hill seemed longer as well.

But we finished the ride with a respectable average speed, and after a shower, I feel oh so much more human.

Tonight will be a move with popcorn (no butter), and tomorrow the Weight Watcher regimen will be in full gear.

One of my recent kitchen experiments, that actually paid off pretty well was cauliflower puree. I steamed the cauliflower with a couple of cloves of peeled garlic, then whirred the whole thing in my food processor. To that I added some nonfat yogurt, truffle salt and a bit of pepper. It was my next to no points dinner last night with leftovers for tomorrow. I will definitely make it again. It was delicious and filling. While it won't take the place of mashed potatoes, it will get me through those times when I need comfort food.

three wheels, bean soup and weigh-ins

My season of overeating officially came to an end with my last trip to the east coast. Hard to believe it was three weeks ago, but I made the trek back to the Baltimore/DC area to celebrate the retirement of a close friend whom I had worked with for years through numerous department secretaries and two governors in Maryland.

Jacqui and I met years earlier when she was working for the city and I was working for a non-profit. We bonded over a hurricane that blew over most of the Baltimore City Fair. The following year I went to work for state government and our paths continue to intertwine, at one point landing us both at the Maryland Department of Juvenile Justice, which then followed with both of us in Governor Parris Glendening's press office. She was events coordinator; I was a speech writer. Though I've been gone for more than 15 years, we've remained close and I usually stay at her house when I'm in Baltimore.

This trip was no exception, and this trip, as usual, took us to my favorite restaurant. No, not my favorite Baltimore restaurant: my favorite anywhere restaurant. Woodberry Kitchen is an upscale unfancy restaurant that serves locally sourced food in what could best be described as a rustic atmosphere. From the radishes and oyster appetizers to the homemade ice cream for dessert, everything has been perfect. They do have Maryland wines on the wine list, and next time, I swear, I will order one.

The culinary experience at Jacqui's retirement party was quite different from Woodberry Kitchen, but it was authentically Baltimore. Her party was at the Sons of Italy Hall. We dined on chicken, spaghetti with marinara, Caesar salad and green beans I decided to skip. They looked overcooked and then I found out they were flavored with something akin to marzipan. Glad I skipped them. The rest of the meal was certainly acceptable, but I didn't attend the event for the food. Jacqui's coworkers and friends gathered to pay her a well-earned tribute. It was a wonderful evening. I got to see lots of old friends, at least one former boss and a host of people who had great stories to tell.

The day after the party I made my way to the DC suburbs to spend a couple of days with my friends Len and Lisa. Len was between contracts, so we had time to go out and drink Ethiopian coffee and shop at second hand stores. We ate at our favorite Burmese restaurant with some other friends and also did some cooking at home.

The highlight of the home cooking was a vegan white bean soup that I have since made at home. It calls for two heads of roasted garlic and nutritional yeast. It also gets kale and carrots added near the end of the cooking. And it's glorious. I now have a large container of nutritional yeast, so I'm going to have to either find other uses for it, or make that soup. A lot.

But first I'll have to find out how many points are in said soup. After four months of out of control eating, I have gone back to Weight Watchers. I'm weighing, measuring and working hard to lose those gloriously gained pounds.

The meeting I go to is a short distance from home, so last week I rode my recumbent trike. I do have to ride on a busy street with no shoulders, but I've got a flag on the trike, so I'm pretty visible. It was my first solo trip on the trike-- usually I ride around the neighborhood with Jerry on his single-- but it was less scary than I had imagined and actually fun. No question I get lots of puzzled looks and kids get a real kick out of seeing me.

So while I'm missing the browned butter shortbread cookies and polenta, I've already lost a couple of pounds and I'm eating so much healthier.

And I've never looked forward to AIDS Lifecycle so much. A week when I can eat almost anything and not gain a pound.

Tib Loop X 3

The last three weekends have been devoted to getting back in the saddle, exercising and eating more healthy. Mostly, I'm succeeding.

We have been joining AIDS Lifecycle training ride in Marin, rather than cross the Golden Gate Bridge, so our rides are a little shorter, but we've done this in past years and it works out for us.

Today's ride was out to Fairfax, route of 1,000 (well, 15) stop signs. It is annoying, but actually good for training. We have to stop a lot, and then get ourselves going. Good for the quads. After a turnaround in Fairfax, we did the mini Tiburon Loop, a lovely ride that is very popular with cyclists in this area. Lots of rollers and windy roads. Fun.

Our speed was a little down from last week, but I attribute that to all the stop signs. Hard to really cruise at 18 mph when we keep starting and stopping.

The last two weekend rides were riding the entire Tiburon Loop, though two weeks ago, it wasn't really supposed to be. The ride calendar was wrong, but we didn't know that, so we got in extra miles and still met up with the group at a deli in Tiburon.

We've also managed to get back to the gym. I've started taking Zumba classes, and they are a great workout. It takes a lot to get me to perspire, but Zumba does it. And since it's dancing I don't feel like I'm exercising. Fun.

And I've actually been cooking healthy food. Our friends Beau and Eddie came over for dinner last week and I oven poached a large salmon filet, steamed some broccoli and roasted potatoes. The sour cream dill sauce I made to go with it had fat free sour cream in it. Trader Joe's fat free sour cream actually tastes good. It's not full of stabilizers and sugar. It might not taste exactly like sour cream, but it makes a lovely sauce.

Beau has always liked my dips, so I whipped together some feta, fat-free yogurt, garlic and sun-dried tomatoes. My new Breville food processor did such a gorgeous job. Mixed it up beautifully without liquefying the tomatoes. I also roasted brussel sprouts halves and put out some olives and aged gouda for appetizers. Most of the gouda is still in the refrigerator, and I'm proud to say I haven't touched it. Yes, it is calling to me-- It's my favorite cheese-- but so far I have resisted. I know a weak moment will overcome me at some point, but at least it hasn't happened yet.

And speaking of weak moment, I baked some more brown butter shortbread cookies, sprinkled with fleur de sel. I guess the only positive I can say is that a week later there are still some left, and I think there might have been one day in the past week when I didn't have one. Or two.

With the activity and better diet I've lost a pound or two, and I'll try to keep it up until the end of the month when I go to Baltimore for my friend Jacqui's retirement party. I'm also taking her to my favorite Baltimore restaurant, Woodberry Kitchen, and I don't plan on missing a thing when I'm there. So I know, when I get home, I'll probably be back to square one. But Woodberry Kitchen is so worth it.

This week I vow to get to the gym again, and continue healthy, portion-controlled eating.

Jetprop to Eat

The eating orgy continues: this latest time in San Antonio and then Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.

Jerry had a conference in San Antonio and I tagged along in his new jet prop. Jerry and a partner acquired a Piper Mirage converted to a jet prop, so it zipped right along, especially with the killer tail wind we had.

We got to San Antonio in about five hours flying time. We stopped in Arizona for a very undistinguished lunch, and were back in the plane in no time, getting to San Antonio before sundown. Very civilized.

Once we checked into the Crockett Hotel, Jerry and one of his coworkers and I set out to find dinner. We were really hungry so settled on a place a couple of blocks from the hotel. I ordered boneless pork chops, mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables. The vegetables were not overcooked and the pork chops were just a tad overcooked, but we survived.

The next day Jerry had a class to teach and I went out to explore. One of my goals was to find non Tex-Mex restaurants, and I succeeded pretty well. We had dinner one night at a Mediterranean restaurant which did a good job. For the life of me I can't remember my main entree, but the Caesar salad was quite good, with a very good dressing, crisp romaine and sadly, one lone anchovy.

Another day when I wandered off on my own I hit the Blue Star Art Center, which is also home to the Blue Star Bicycle Shop and the Blue Star Brewery. At the bike shop I bought a t-shirt and checked out their stock. Lots of fixies and cruisers and nice staff.

I hit the Brewery for lunch. The food was typical pub fare, but the Brewery did their own beers, though I passed. The bicycles hanging from the ceiling added to the decor.

The eating highlight in San Antonio came courtesy of the restaurant, Feast. The restaurant was decorated very starkly, with white tables and clear plastic chairs. A glowing reviewer said he (or she?) felt they could have been in New York or San Francisco. I would have to disagree because the lighting was way too bright. That may be about the only negative thing I could say about Feast. Take it down a notch, please.

The menu, while a bit cutesy, held some real treasures. It was divided in sections with such headings as "melty" and "grilly." We decided to try something from every category except large plates, figuring it would be more fun to have tastes of a lot of different things. I think we made a good decision.

We started off with a pear and onion salad with raspberry vinaigrette. Normally I steer away from sweet food, but this was definitely a winner. We went on to Mac and cheese with garlic breadcrumb topping. Okay, but not standout. Our starchy standout came in the way of homemade Yukon gold potato chips with a bleu cheese bechamel. We also had grilled brussel sprouts and tuna tartare with pomegranate seeds.

Dessert for me were mini churros with lemon-lavender pot de creme. And good coffee.

We knew we would be flying into a headwind on the way home, so we decided we would pop in to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, and visit my friend Kathleen.

I hit the internet to find a place to stay and had no idea, that I had once again, hit the jackpot. Sierra Grande Lodge and Spa is truly an oasis in what appears to be a depressed little town. The owner's son fetched us from the airport and delivered us to a very western lodge full of New Mexico and new agey touches. Included in our lodging was the opportunity to soak in one of the hot springs tub.

We met Kathleen for dinner at the local upscale Italian restaurant. All of the other diners were guests at the lodge: I have a feeling it keeps them in business. I ordered something that was unfortunately better sounding than it was: pasta with various vegetables in a cream sauce. It had far more cream sauce, which was overly gloppy and pretty well tasteless, than vegetables. Jerry seemed to fare better with a more traditional eggplant Parmesan.

But the soak made up for all of it. Kathleen had been told by her doctor that soaking was not a great idea for her, but she decided to give it a try anyway. She happily reported to me the next day that she suffered no ill effects.

We spent more than an hour lolling in delightful, delicious hot water, talking and relaxing.

We left town too early to see much of Truth or Consequences, but with the lodge, I think we hit a very wonderful highlight.

Back at home, I'm trying to eat a more reasonable diet. This whirlwind of traveling, which began in October, has definitely taken its toll on my waistline and my energy. Time to clean up my act before I hit the road in February...

New York, Walking, Dancing, Squab and Soujouk

And so the eating continues.
Just back from a handful of days in New York. Official reason for going was to attend the Golden Festival, an annual overload of Balkan music and dance. But as with most of my travels of late, eating was an important part of the itinerary.

Jerry and I arrived early Wednesday morning after taking the red eye. We knew a nap was in the offing but first there was a task at hand: cooking 40 pounds of soujouk, a Turkish beef sausage.

Last year Paul, our host was the soujouk chef de cuisine, but since he was in Las Vegas for the Consumer Electric Show, the job was left to his wife Nancy, Jerry and me. We hauled out Nancy's crab pot and set to work.

We crammed as much sausage as humanly possible into the pot and waited for it to boil. Once it finally did, we waited the prescribed 10 minutes for it to be done. Then, that batch went into the sink where the next task was to pull off the skin while the next batch cooked.

After the first batch Jerry discovered that if you immediately doused the sausage with cold water the skin practically slid off by itself. It was incredibly satisfying for the casing to just peel off the sausage.

Three batches later we were done, and we loaded the sausages into coolers, topped them off with ice and then Jerry and I headed to our basement room for a nap.

Not sure what the rest of the week would bring, we decided that night would be dinner at our favorite Park Slope restaurant, Al di La. Al di La takes no reservations, so we headed down to 5th Avenue to arrive in time for its 6 pm opening.

We were quickly seated at the same table we sat at last year, and once again, I had no idea what wine to order. I'm pretty good at California wines. I've even expanded my repertoire beyond Napa and Sonoma into Lodi and the central coast, but Italy is still a complete mystery. Nancy suggested a bottle she had tasted during a previous visit, and she picked a good one. It was a nice peppery red with an interesting aftertaste, that admittedly took a bit of getting used to, but after a few sips and a little air, went down easily.

Though on any other day of the year I don't eat beef, I generally make an exception at Al di La and I order the medallions of beef liver. I pretty much assumed I would do so again, but the specials were enticing. One was a squid risotto and the other squab with wild mushrooms. I had never had squab before,and with a little coaxing, I went for it. I was not disappointed. The plate was an orgy of richness: delicious meat surrounded by more rich mushrooms. I don't think I will order squab again because I'm not sure it could live up to the wonderful dish I experienced.

No trip to Al di La would be complete without at least one order of Malfatti-- a Swiss chard dumpling filled with a blend of ricotta and herbs, topped with fried sage. We always order it and are never disappointed. We also shared a farro salad. It was okay, not my favorite, but Nancy loves it.

We decided to skip dessert because I had brought cookies with me. We went home and I brought out my tins of biscotti and brown butter shortbread topped with fleur de sel.

The brown butter shortbread is my current favorite cookie to make and to eat. It is incredibly easy to make and the brown butter gives it a rich nutiness. The fleur de sel makes each bite explode with flavor.

After cookies, Nancy wanted us to try some liqueur called Domaine de Canton. It was a rich, sweet ginger liqueur and was fantastic. We drank way too much and slept incredibly well that night.

The next day brought a light rain, but Jerry and I headed into the city and spent a good chunk of the day at the Museum of Modern Art. Earlier that day we went to the half price ticket booth and got tickets for "Seminar," a play with Alan Rickman. I have loved him since I saw him in "Truly Madly Deeply" in 1990.

Last year before we went to the theater we had found a really good Chinese restaurant, and through a little detective work, we managed to find it again. We were a bit smarter this time and ordered only one entree-- a very nice chicken and vegetables. I found it interesting that the restaurant had no condiments on the table, but in reality, we didn't need any. The seasoning was just right in both the chicken and the hot and sour soup.

Friday was a trip to my favorite Brooklyn store: Sahadi's. A trip to Brooklyn would not be complete without buying some halvah, dried herbs, and maybe a jar of ajvar, or this time, some grapefruit marmalade. After Sahadi's, we had lunch at a diner-y sort of place. I had a smoked salmon scramble and more good coffee.

Friday night, we grazed on cheese, good bread and wine for dinner. Nancy said Paul would never accept something like that for dinner, but Jerry and I do it all the time.

Saturday we made another trip into the city to Soho. We window shopped and had lunch at another Italian restaurant. More wild mushrooms, this time with pasta.

We got home in time to get ready for the Golden Festival. The day before we left for New York I found a pair of gold shoes, so I was all set.

Food at the Golden Festival has not changed in years. People are always reminded that the food is for snacking, not dinner, but since the event starts at 6 pm and people use a lot of energy dancing, there is an incredible amount of food, including several kinds of sausage, feta and kasseri cheese, baba ghanoush, ajvar and hummus, vegetable trays and a hot bean dish. Normally there is a beet salad that I make, but if there was any this year, I didn't see it. There was a cash bar with not very good wine, but the music and dancing more than make up for any shortcomings in the wine.

I remember the days when I not only stayed until the end of the Golden Festival, I helped with clean up and carting things out, but I'm not as young as I used to be so after Slavic Soul Party played at around 12:30, we called a car service and headed back to Nancy and Paul's.

While the "official" festival ends Saturday night, what is perhaps my favorite part of the event is on Sunday. Emerson, whom I've known since I was a teenager, lives in Brooklyn and people start arriving at his house around noon for an all day and well into the evening "brunch." It's the best time to have a good visit with friends, many of whom I don't see from one year to the next. My friend Kathleen, who lived in Montana the same time I did, was in from New Mexico, and we had a great visit.

So it was another day of eating, drinking a little wine and slivovitz, and spending time with great friends.

Now that I'm back home I'm determined to start to have a more healthy diet, although today was the Fancy Food Show, full of great cheeses, salted caramels and basamic ice cream, and later this week I'm going to San Antonio, tagging along with Jerry to a conference.

So maybe next week I'll go back to my two vegan meals a day. But who knows what adventures next week might bring.

Mill Valley, Salmon and South Africa

Today was a little ride to Mill Valley with the Positive Pedalers. Their AIDS Lifecycle training series started today. Since Jerry and I don't like to cross the Golden Gate Bridge on the tandem, we picked up the ride on the south bridge parking lot. So I'm talking little ride, less than 20 miles. But it was, once again, a nice day for a ride. Sun was shining and not too cold.

We met up with our friends in Mill Valley and it was wonderful to see everyone again after what felt like quite a while. Looking forward to continuing to ride with this group when we are in town, which in the near future, doesn't look like it will be all that often. We are off to New York next week, and a day after we get back we head to San Antonio for a few days.

Our bike rack broke somehow on the way to the ride, so we had to figure out how to get a tandem in a Honda. Thank goodness the back seat folded down and Jerry always has supplies. He pulled rope out the wheel well and we got the frame in sans wheels and back handlebars. We slid it in and drove home carefully.

The ride did have one big climb, or should I say series of climbs. The hill out of Sausalito back to the parking lot does go on and on. But we rode it fairly well. Our average speed was decent and we were happy with the ride.

We were particularly happy because we went out to dinner Saturday night and shared a bottle of wine. There were three of us, so it's not as if we had a huge amount, but any the night before a ride is more than we usually have.

We met Bryan Urbsaitis at Luna Park in the City. Bryan lives in New York and was in town for a couple of days. While I had never met Bryan, we have been Facebook friends for some time because of our love of cycling and our involvement in HIV and AIDS organizations.

Bryan runs AIDS Ride South Africa, a cycling adventure that, in close to three weeks, spans most of South Africa. It has intrigued me but I really wanted to learn more.

And the more I heard the more intrigued, and interested, I became. Because of the expense of getting to South Africa, the ride has been small-- fewer than 10 people-- but it is still a new ride and has the potential to grow. Along with cycling there are stops at animal preserves and a chance to meet local people as well.

While Africa has never been at the top of my "must visit" list, this ride does sound like the ideal way to see it: cycling with a group of like-minded folks who want to raise funds and awareness for the terrible problem of HIV and AIDS in South Africa.

While I have yet to sign on the dotted line, I am seriously thinking of doing this ride, and Jerry is having positive thoughts about it as well. What I will do, ride or not, is try to help Bryan with some PR and possibly see if we can get some bicycles for some young South Africans to accompany us. Mike's Bikes, a northern California bicycle shop, has a program donating bikes to Africa, and I would like to talk to them about the possibility of lending some of those bikes to the ride.

We spent hours at Luna Park, part of which was spent eating. I started with a beet salad, but I have to say I was a bit disappointed. It was quite low on beets, with more mandarin orange slices than beets. But it was okay. I had salmon as a main course and its surface was deliciously grilled with the inside on the rare side, just the way I like it.

We even had dessert. My fruit crisp with a dollop of ice cream was lovely, though it really did gild the lily.

I had several cups of coffee with dinner, but generally, coffee does not keep me away. And I don't believe it did last night. What did keep me up were thoughts of Africa.