A & A Cycles- Custom Bicycles

Two friends of mine are starting a bicycle company. A & A Cycles in San Jose, building custom long john bicycles. This bike can carry up to 225 lbs, not including the rider. This is Margret, the second bike built and also the company bike. Last week I used this bike to complete a wide range of errands.

One day I used it to make two runs down to the recycling yard. In my first load (pictured above) I took an old tv and some bottles. The second load I carried bags of cans and plastic bottles. During both trips, the bike handled beautifully and got lots of cheers from passerbys.

Another day I used it to take my air compressor to my friends shop. Also on another run, to pick up a table saw that the same friend was giving away. Awesome.

Burritos

I made these puppies last night! Oh and were they delicious. Tofu seasoned with chorizo in mind, spanish rice, whole beans, zucchini, onions, roasted garlic and jalepenos with fresh tomatoes and avacado. Oh yeah, you know it...awesome!

Lavash Wraps

I made my first wrap last night for dinner. As far as presentation goes, I could have arranged these differently for more eye appeal. In any case, the wraps came out really good. I started out with whole wheat lavash bread wraps, mayo, whole grain dijon mustard, hard and soft salami, smoked gouda cheese, mixed greens, onions and roasted jalepenos.

Stormy Sundays

Storms and Scrabble go hand in hand on Sundays!

Sourdough Baguette, Attempt No. 1

My first run of making a sourdough baguette with out a baguette pan. After kneading the dough, I lightly rolled out two rolls and placed them on a parchment lined 1/4 tray, topped with plastic wrap and left it to rise. Mel told me that this bread, because of its size, would be more like a filone. Either way, it came out soft enough to eat as a sandwich. I love having sandwiches on baguettes or rolls, however often times, a french roll is the only thing soft enough to eat comfortably. My goal: create a sourdough baguette for sandiches that doesn't leave your mouth feeling like it chewed through 3 feet of stale bread. Awesome.

Sausage and Pesto Pizza

I'm not sure what to name this pizza, exactly. I don't think that the above title really gives this pizza due justice. The crust is a run of the mill yeast dough with some added spices (garlic, cloves, pepper and cayenne). The pesto is an arugula pesto with the usual ingredients (arugula, cashews, garlic, salt, pepper, lemon, white balsamic vinegar) that I mixed with dijon mustard before spreading onto the dough. I actually added too much dijon, so I mellowed it out with some splenda and more white balsamic vinegar.
Next are yellow onions and roasted jalepenos sauteed in white whine. Italian sausage and pineapple finish off the top layer. I wanted to use tofutti as well, but the stuff in the fridge went bad, so I defrosted and drained some soft tofu and put it in my cuisinart chopper. I pureed it until it was smooth and added flavors to try to mimic cheese, specifically ricotta. Why ricotta, well Mel told me since the tofu had been frozen, that it wouldn't come out smooth. Wrong.

So I added salt, garlic powder, lemon, tumeric, parsley, sage and rosemary. After the correct flavor was achieved, I added an egg to bring it together when it was cooked.

Despite some difficulty getting this pizza off the cutting board and onto the stone in the oven, it came out really well. Also, the tofu and egg helped bring together other ingredients and give the effect of having cheese.

Grilled Peppered Pork Loin Sandwich with Carmalized Onions

This sandwich was pretty good. It actually took me two sittings to finish it. I like this photo, however in this picture the bread seems to better showcased than the sandwich or innards. That's okay though, you know why, because the bread is one of my jalepeno monster sourdough loaves. Awesome!

Estate Sale

About a month ago, now, Mel and I and our friend, Ms. Stephanie went to an estate sale. Actually it was more like an estate give-away because everything was free. Among our scores, here's a few worth mentioning in type: glass humming bird feeder (i think nowadays they are all plastic), a roll of carpet (I'll be using this when I finally build my cat tower), an old three-way switch (I used this on my ped, for an on-off switch), Beethoven's complete 9th Symphony (still in original packaging and on cassette!), No Trespassing sign (I'm officially starting a collection), foam, batting, mason jars with lids (only 3), vinyl tint for exterior windows (cuts our uv rays) and a cat poster from 1983. It is hard to tell from this picture, but the all the cats here, have rainbow whiskers, which all led us to ask, "Smoke what, exactly?"

Stuffed Pork Cutlets

I made these babies last night. Cut from a pork loin and then stuffed with collards and garlic sauteed in a white whine. Delicious.

Santa Rosa (March 31st, 2010- C. Chavez Day)

Pictures from a trip I took to see family in Santa Rosa on Wednesday

Backyard

Dung!

Well & Pump House

Great View from what used to be the back patio, but now is a dining room

The vineyard across the street

My Grandfather's Shop. I hope someday I have a shop this big in my backyard. Although I hope it isn't as cluttered as this one is on the inside.