Iron chef cookoff 10-10-09

So a few months ago, Stephanie came to me with an idea that she'd been throwing around, and since she is a big foodie, and has her own blog about it...we decided to collaborate on some cooking and friendly competition. The first attempt ended horribly wrong,with the wrong people invited. hahahaha They were just the wrong fit. So after nixing that event, it went by the wayside. Jump to a month later, and I emailed Steph, and said, it is time to do this thing, and do it right. I offered to do a lot of the leg work, and invite the right cooks.
After talking amongst the cooks, we decided on my kitchen being the most central location in the Bay Area, as we'd have someone from Napa, Ca. another from Sacramento, Ca. and steph, down in San Jose, Ca. :)

The plan is to have an Iron Chef cookoff, with one ingredient made known to the chefs....it will be up to them to decide what they want to cook. The scoring will be based on 1) Originality of the dish. 2) Plating/Presentation and 3) Taste. (We initially had a time limit, but when Steph started cooking, we forgot to hit the stop watch. hahaha) so no time limit.

The secret ingredient would be...........SCALLOPS!

The cooks did not know who the judges would be, and the judges did not know who the cooks would be, as we are all friends, and I did not want any bias to be had before hand.

Cooks:
Stephanie
Virginia
Marco
Judges:
Myself
Dave
Linda and Brian

The day started off just right, as I'd gone up to Napa the day before, and with Virginias help picked out some great cheeses and food for the appetizers and what we would be grazing on, most of the day. There would be a lot of food. Being that I was hosting at my place, I wanted to make sure the kitchen was well stocked, and clean so each cook had an equal opportunity.

My contribution below. I decided on (with Virginias help), proschiutto wrapped figs for one of the apps.
Ingredients:
Figs of various sizes
Proschiutto
Italian Cream cheese
Reduced Balsalmic Vinagrette (till it's like syrup)
pepper

Mix reduced Balsalmic Vinagrette into the Italian cream cheese, till it's brown, and put some pepper in it to taste.
then smear the cream cheese on the cut figs, then wrap a small piece of proschiutto around it.
viola...instant appetizer.
(To reduce the balsalmic vinagrette, take a large bottle, into a sauce pan, under medium heat, till you see small/tiny bubbles, and continue to reduce till it is syrup in nature, then put into a squeeze bottle and ready for use)
Next, Caprese. Some wild and organic tomatos for taste and color, a baguette, cut into small pieces toasted with olive oil, and a piece of tomato on each, with a piece of mozzarella on each, and some shredded basil leaves, then olive oil drizzled on top, and then reduced balsalmic vinagrette drizzled on top of that. second appetizer. :D

The beginnings of an awesome day of eating and drinking. Above, the finished product, figs wrapped with proschiutto. (I used to much proschiutto on the figs..hahaha not a horrible thing though)

Some great color to the meal. And my presentation to the group.

The finished Caprese, which was freaking delicious. Steph hand stamped each letter and number on the score cards that we would use. And the final spread I provided for the judges and cooks for the day.

First up would be Steph as she prepared a sesame seed encrusted scallop on a bed of glass noodles...much more involved, and I'll let you guys read about it HERE...

Some scallop goodness. The guys out on the balcony overlooking the bay on a really nice and sunny day. The best part, is that the Blue Angels were flying over the bay, and visible from our balcony, and also they'd buzz our neighborhood while flying over from SFO.

Stephs plating was done, and she presented 4 dishes to the 4 judges, and after a bit of explaining about the dish, we had our taste, and then made some notes for the scoring.

Next up, would be Virginia (things worked out perfect, as Virginia and Marco had early morning committments and fit right into the cooking schedule that we set up without a hitch) She brought her chef jacket, probably for a little intimidation..and I think this is when Steph downed a couple extra glasses of wine.

Cooking with butter, and Extra Virgin Olive Oil is a fantastic thing. A quick view from our balcony over the bay, and that is Oakland/Alameda in the background.

Virginias 1st dish (yes, she made two) was a cauliflower puree topped with olive oil, and the seared Scallops, with Mache (greens) on top. Holy hell, this was good too. The judges dug right in.

A quick shot of the secret ingredients, and Virginias 2nd dish....Scallops on a bed of rissotto, with strips of Parmesan cheese on top, and some micro greens. Dave and I embellishing on the wine, and me representing the KIMCHI. hahaha Again, the meals were fantastic.

Marco finaly showed up, and would be the final cook. He started off with some homemade pasta that him and his son had made earlier in the day, and made a coconut milk sauce, covered over the scallops with a slice of Dutch Crunch bread on the side. Holy hell it was great.

The Judging would be tough, as all the dishes were amazing in their own right.

The judges were varied, especially since Dave did not eat seafood, and had never had an interest in scallops. He ate every dish without a problem...which to me is a very flattering move to the cooks, showing how good these dishes were.

After much deliberation, and many things taken into account, the tally was up, and the score was final. We gave feed back to the cooks and how we came to our conclusions...but in the end, everyone was a winner due to the amount of food, good wine and dessert (truffles rolled in cocoa powder with a nice bottle of port on the side) provided by me to all.

The standings

Virginia won 1st place (we only scored one of her dishes, btw)

Stephanie won 2nd

and Marco won 3rd.

All in all, a great success, and we are already planning another one.

Foreigner at "The Fillmore" on 10/8/09

Juke box hero coming on. Kick ass concert.

Kick ass drum solo, that he did with his bare hands.

Saw that Foreigner was coming to town some weeks ago, and immediately grabbed some tickets. Hell yeah...couldn't pass this up. grabbed two, and took a friend of mine to see the concert. She knew some songs, but had no idea it would kick as much ass as it did. I think she was more than happy to have come. :D

It was packed, but didn't sell out unfortunately. According to the guy, it was damn close...and it looked it. The crowd was energized and singing along to so many badass rock songs.

p.s. trying some new layouts for the photos. got tired of the long ass format of one photo stacked on the other one. :)

Travel time...Texas, here I come, ya'll!!!!

Well, in about 8 hours from now, I hop in the truck and begin the trek south to Austin, Texas. Took a temporary travel position at Dell Childrens Hospital in the PEDS E.R.

We'll see how that goes. I'll be renting a room with one of the greatest homos of all time. (M)SS. hahahaha

We'll see how this goes. pretty stressed yesterday during the day, trying to pack what I could in the truck, last minute of course, and then drive to work, which meant, i was up at noon yesterday, and now all night at work, and then drive out bright and shiny.

Hoping to make Tehachapi pass before I need a nap. and also trying to make the hash on Sunday in Austin, which is at 3pm, but the time difference may have me screwed, as I'll be gaining 2 hours, not losing 2 hours, like when I drive West.

Oh well, if I make it, I make it, if not, then drinky drinks and pass out, before boring orientation on Monday.

Gonna try and beat the sub 22 hour drive time I've done before.

jealousy

I was jealous of another rider today, as I watched him riding his motorcycle down the road (280), southbound, wind howling, with gusts strong enough to push my truck to the side. Into the valley near hwy 92, with the clouds 3 shades of black (dark, darker and blackest) looming in front...the rain beginning to come down in sheets.

I watched him 2 lanes over from my truck, visibly aware of all his surroundings, fighting the wind, senses heightened, glances to his mirrors, full on assault on this road, riding somewhere, either home or to work. All I could think of was that I should have ridden my motorcycle to work. Instead I was comfortable, warm and dry in my truck, listening to Aldo Nova. LOL

eh. Picked up a job in Austin, Texas to start in one week. I'll be canonballing to Texas this weekend. Look forward to seeing old friends, and visiting my family, and having some amazing food only found there.

Traveling again.

Working on a new contract. Will be traveling again soon. Excited to do that. Even though I'll keep the per diem gig in the bay area, and just commute back and forth once a month. :D

Where am I going? Wellllll, I do need to help out in planning TXIH 2010. :D

Countdown!!!

2 Days and counting till I leave for Reno and the Iguanas H3. Setting the trail on Saturday and looking to destroy a few people. :D hahaha

Then on on to Burning Man. I "think" I have everything I need, most likely, not.

back to the packing.

Seattle and back... prologue

Finally made it back from Seattle, after 6 long days of riding the motorcycles, drinking a lot of beer, and hashing, and then riding back in the central California valley heat.

Sitting here at work, still jazzed from an amazing trip. Pictures to come, unfortunately can't grab them while at work, so will just wait till I get home to post up a decent trip report.

Needless to say, my buddy Ben, had a trying time. LOL First, I didn't realize he did his longest motorcycle ride on the first day that we rode out of San Francisco. San Francisco to Madras, Oregon. It didn't seem like a lot to me, but later on that night he told me that it was the longest (approx. 600 miles) hahaha

Jason rode down from Seattle and met us there, for the ride back north.

Ben lost his wallet as it shot out of his jacket pocket...I saw this, pulled over (as he rode on, not even noticing) and there I am sprinting across 2 lanes of traffic to the center divider at the end of a long left hand curve...blind to the oncoming traffic, grabbing wallet, cash, license, and credit cards. About an hour later, after returning his wallet, I saw a nice shiny phone go smashing down the road. LOL

a few of the highlights...
Conversation with a Washington State Trooper...
enough beer to kill a donkey....
hashing with Tacoma on their 600th run....
river crossings.....
converting another person to the joys of Cheladas.....
riding our motorcycles north to Seattle and back......

more to come....back to work for me.

Glad to get some shifts in, as our work acuity has picked up. Not bad, as I am seriously looking for a new motorcycle, and I have decided which one it will be for sure this time. :D

With a little help from my friend A.J. at MotoCorsa in Portland, Oregon...I am going to get a hoped up Ducati to tour on.

more to come....

Seattle roadtrip

It's been a while since I visit Seattle, Wa. So I figured what better time than the Tacoma H3's 600th run out in Landsburg, Wa. The illustrious hare, Magot, should be putting on a fine trail up in the mountains, as well as providing his milk goats for warmth and caressing at night. LOL

I talked a friend of mine into going with me. This was kind of a last minute deal, as I like to be spontaneous, sometimes...hahaha most of the time. Well, truth be told, I was told to quit making things so spontaneously, as most of the guys can't ride out on these trips, cause I don't give them enough heads up.

Either way, Ben, works from home, so he's packing his lap top and is in.

Leaving in a few hours, and after goading Jason into it, he is going to ride down, from Seattle, after work this morning and meet us somewhere in mid-Oregon.

Looking forward to getting out on the road, punching out some miles, listening to some music, and spending the weekend with friends, regardless of how far the bike makes it. I say this, in an effort to ward off any gremlins that may rear their ugly head. I keep saying that the Duc is not going on any more long trips, and yet, here I am, blasting out of town in a few hours.

Finally got some hours in at work, as we've been super short on patients (mostly cause one of our surgeons went on vacation), so now that I have rent and food covered, it's all good. :D

Plan is to go home right after work, nap for 2 hours, the bag is packed, and Ben will come up around 11am, for our departure. Slab it up the IH-5 for about 280 miles, turn off at Weed, Ca. (hahaha), and north to Klamath Falls, Oregon area. Gonna try and swing through Crater Lake National Park . For some pictures and some twisty roads.

The plan is to make it to northern Oregon, meet up with Jason, chill with some beers and food, and then on Friday, we'll bug north and arrive Seattle, for the hash happy hour. My idea was to ride around Mt. St. Helen's area, and grab a couple shots with the bikes up that way. I haven't been there in about 5 years, and a few years back, the mountain started belching smoke so bad that they had to reroute flight paths for commercial airliners. Kinda want a good picture and ride through there before it blows again. :( Here is a short video of the 1980 eruption that killed 53 people, and whose volcanic ash made it around the world, basically leveling an entire mountain.

Rain? Really?

I don't know why it makes me laugh so hard when people around here (Bay Area) freak out at the slightest drops of rain on the road. We hardly ever get any rain, but when we do, it's the end of the world for them. People start freaking out, they don't go to work, they whine and complain about how wet it is outside. how lame.

That whole process got me thinking and missing actual rain. You know the kind that just comes down in torrents, soaking everything, loud and replenishing. Sitting on the porch or watching out the garage door (like back in Corpus Christi) waiting for a bit of respite, so you can go ride your motorcycle. Nonetheless, still a very cool thing that I am missing at the moment.

Off to Seattle for the weekend with some friends on the bikes. Maybe we'll get some decent rain on the way up.

photos to come.

Half-Sleeve update...

So it's affectively been 8 months since I last went in for any ink on my arm. I just put it on the back burner, and it was not really at the top of the list. Having settled a bit, what with being out of town a lot of weekends, I decided to give my tattoo guy a call and chat with him about the background needed to finish up my right arm. Well, one conversation led to another, and that was this past Tuesday, and yesterday I went in for a brief session.

Well, the thought was to have a brief session and finish the front part of the arm, as he drew free hand on the arm with sharpies and then outlined things and colored it in. After an hour and a half, he had finished the front, but for the ribbon and a couple of the details, and we decided to go on with the rest of the background (wind bars, clouds, shading, etc.) Next thing you know, it's been 4 hours, and I'm starting to wince and he finishes.

Hahaha had to finish with the upper most portion of my underarm....that smarted, but good.

here is some photos. I'll try and drag up photos from the beginning and do one long post with the progressive photos, once I am done with the arm piece.

BOHICA campout

Rode down to Lake Isabella area for a hash campout, after bagging on the races for this weekend (July 11th)

Started off as a long night on Friday with the Bostones at the fillmore, and lots of beer till about 4am. Well, there went my well laid plans to leave at 0530 to make it in time for the mountain bike bash. hahaha Regardless, I got up around 9am, had breakfast at the pork store with everyone that spent the night at my house. After a very leisurely morning, the guys kept harassing me to just stick around. and even bet on it. Well, that led to one thing.....I'd be rolling down to southern California without a doubt. :D

About 1pm, I was packed and ready to roll. one change of clothes, some shorts, my runners, and my sleeping bag with my hash mug attached, and I was out the door, much to the surprise of the guys who are worse than women when it comes to getting ready. The ride down was pretty uneventful, I was just going for time. So bombed down the 101 to Gilroy, and then over the 152 and Pacheco Pass onto IH-5 for the run south. 100 miles later, I cut east past Hwy 99 and onto hwy 155. I realized I'd been on here before with Leyla many years before. There is a nice spot to get off the road and take a break, up in the mountains. ;)

There is no cell service up at the A frame, so I would be going on coordinates alone and hope to find it. After turning off on Kelso Valley Rd, and going 25 miles, I found the dirt road that led to the property. 8.5 miles of this, and I'm almost there. and ready for some beer.

Long shadows in the evening, but the bike is running fine, and not doing too bad in the dirt. I'm ready to get off the bike though.

Once I arrived, there was no mistaking it...as the bike is loud enough to hear from miles away. Everyone was in the hot tub (situated just to the left of that big boulder in the photo above). It's a man made hot tub, with a wood burning stove next to it, that cycles water through it, heating it up, and making it a kickass thing to have up in the mountains. No sooner had the bike been turned off, that Kenna was hollerin' for me to grab a beer she had poured. I think I was down to my skivies by the time I hit the hot tub a mere 20 ft away. :D righteous way to finish a long day of hangover and riding.

Dusty boots. The dry clutch does not approve.

Allison and Kenna being very welcoming. I love the BOHICA.

The toy. Polaris Razor. So Saturday night, Jimmy took this thing out and was giving folks rides. Phallus was in it with him, when they were drifting (sliding) around a corner at full throttle, and the left side tires blew out (pressure was probably too low) and the wheels caught in the dirt and launched the 4 wheeler in the air, then rolling 1 1/2 times. so awesome. All the guys were jealous that she was in the car and not them...including me.
Cause it must have been a helluva ride.

The next day everyone pitched in to try and get the tires back on and catch the bead while trying to air them up.

It was obvious after we got the two tires aired up, that the rear axle was jacked. as the right rear tire was further forward than the left rear tire. so much for rides. so off to lunch/breakfast we went.

Stripper dogs are the best. Bacon wrapped hot dogs, with beer for breakfast and dinner.

With that done, and a trail already laid by Numb Nutz, and us having completed it, it was time to make BOHICA shirts. So the stencil and the spray paint came out.

Pretty snazzy way to make event shirts if you ask me. cost? a couple cans of spray paint. how? well, the hashers bring a shirt of their choice, and then the logo is spray painted on the shirt. My shirts have gone through the laundry plenty of times, and the logo is still happily bright and clear.

Of course, shorts were made too. This was the first ever BOHICA shorts made. Much to the pleasure of all the guys at the campout. hahahaha It also became the first ever BOHICA (butt)tattoo, as the paint went right through the spandex. god bless harriettes. :D

On to circle, with chewcaca having driven in from Oklahoma to arrive at about 3am on Sunday morning, to drink, run trail and then get on the road to go see his family. hahaha

GA + Y = well, you know the rest.

A future Bohican/Knuckledragger.

After drinking all morning on Sunday, I tapered off some, and decided I needed to get home. 355 miles to go. not feeling the best, but I took off. Got off the mountain, and the heat was brutal. At my first gas stop, I almost puked....got some heat exhaustion, chugged some water and gatorade and made my way out on hwy 155 again, into the central valley. Hot as HELL!!!!

had to stop and rest at my gas stop on IH-5, but got home reasonably early...about 8:30 pm.

Rolled into the cave (my room) and chilled the rest of the night.

I have to say one thing about the BOHICAn's, they truly are the essence of what a hash campout should be. No bitching or whining, they are all very self sufficient, most of them run long distance, if not mountain bike regularly, so no one complains about the difficulty of trails, mtn bike or running....and they like to drink heavily, and get crazy. it's small enough, so the big planning is non-existent, and I always have a blast with them. hence I keep going to visit. To me, that's the secret to a great H3 campout. On to the next one.

A quick shot of the bike on the way down the hill. No more photos from here, as I was just on a mission to get home. Great time.

"May your air be filled with tires" -Bohica

NEEDS TO BE DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, the "Tour de In & Out" needs to happen soon! hahahaha



Yep, that's right, Donnie, I'm looking at you buddy!



No matter who I talk to about it out here, all I get is doubt and negativity, over the idea of riding around the bay loop (approximately 110 miles) and stopping at the 8 easily accesible In & Out burgers along the way to eat a cheeseburger (yep, I've dropped it down to a cheeseburger so that these fools would have better incentive) and still nothing.

I, on the other hand, think it's a phenomenal idea....as does Donnie. :D

Time to fast for a day, gas up the bike, grab the camera, map and ride. He who holds down all the burgers, wins. hahahahaha

Now to pick a day.

Mighty Mighty Bostones @ the Fillmore

So a few weeks back I was talking to some friends about ska and we brought up the Bostones, and how nothing had been heard from them, and mostly the guys were saying that they didn't tour anymore. Imagine my surprise when I saw them pop up on the fillmore lineup. So I grabbed 2 tickets to the show. Managed to convince some friends (Correne and Dave) to come out to the show. With a co-worker of mine sharing the other ticket, we were on our way.

Then I get a call from my buddy Shawn asking me to buy him some tickets, since he's on his way, and he'll give me cash at the door. So I get two more tickets and text him. He arrives at the restaurant and says he bought tickets cause he didn't hear back from me. wth?! hahahaha

well Shit!!! So we call Ed, and Stan and they both are game, so now we got 6 of us out at the concert. Couldn't have worked out more perfectly. I was stoked to catch a band that I listened to a long time ago.

Funny, cause on stage the lead apologized for their long drawn out hiatus and promised that a new record is in the mix....as he put it, he became like "Axl Rose" of guns&roses, and he was sorry for that, and how long it took to get more songs out.

With that the show went on, and man it was jammin...

Non stop....

hahaha I ran into the mosh pit, and had my phone camera set to take pics. snapped this one off in the middle of getting bounced around, and running the pit. Some jackass decided it was a grand idea to bring a pint of beer into the pit. : Sherioushly dude,! WTF?!?! hahaha the beer didn't stay in the glass for that long, and I was wearing a good portion of it. but who cares, it was too much fun.

A good closing encour...badass time, and really great show.

a nice mention....

Read this race report from the WS100. Nice little mention. :)