The Daily Special (Generic Sustainable Fish with Random Vegetable)

I haven't really been able to ride much lately, which is particularly frustrating when your beloved new Ducati has returned from the shop after a month long absence. I've had a weird and intense head cold, and it must be messing with my middle ear or sinuses or something, because I can't really judge speed, distances, or even where my body is in space at all.   As it turns out, this is a pretty big problem when you are trying to aggressively ride a sport bike up (and down) a mountain road.  I'm also buried in work right now, which doesn't do much for one's ability to recreate.

So I'm fairly grumpy.

Here's my "I'm So Grumpy I'm Slamming Pots and Pans Around for No Reason" Ten Minutes or Less dinner that I made tonight. Not bad, given my state of mind, now that I think of it.

Recipe:
Put leftover roasted potatoes* in toaster oven.  Go post a few comments on Facebook about being grumpy, because the potatoes will probably take 10 minutes, and it will only take you four minutes to prepare the rest of dinner.

Remove one of the  pieces of generic sustainable fish you now stash in the freezer (I like halibut) because it turns out most days you don't approach consuming even half of the RDA of protein for a person of your gender, age and size.  Not that you believe everything the government says in regards to what you should eat (or in regards to anything at all), but come on, HALF of the RDA?  Perhaps that might have something to do with your hypoglycemia??  Ya THINK?  Anyway, take the piece fish you transferred from freezer to fridge yesterday and put it in a microwave safe dish.  Yes, I said microwave. I don't use it for much, but for fish it's not a bad way to go.  Even James Peterson says so.  Sprinkle said fish with salt and pepper, splash with two or three tablespoons of white wine (pour yourself a glass while you're at it), and top with a pat of butter.  Cover the whole thing with a plate or something, since plastic wrap gives you the creeps.  Microwave for one minute, while chopping up your random vegetable.  (a tomato and slice of onion in this case)  Whack!  Whack! Whack!  Check your fish - it will probably need another minute.  Turn it if you are so inclined.  Saute your vegetable for a minute in olive oil.  Check fish.  Add another 30 seconds.  (YMMV**)  Continue sauteeing the random vegetable, while you viciously grab a green leaf or two from your herb garden.  If you don't have one, it doesn't matter.  Look to your spice cabinet (make sure you slam the cabinet door), or omit all together.  Add that to your random vegetable.  Ding!  Fish is done. Dump random vegetable on top of it and throw pan into sink.  Crash!  Apologize to the dog for startling her.  Ding!  Potatoes are done.  Take ONE photo of your finished product, because you are in no mood.  No.  Mood.  Click.
Total prep time, 10 minutes, but blame that excessive delay on the left over potatoes.
*If I wasn't grumpy, or if I had either in the fridge, I'd use polenta or rice instead.
** Your Mileage May Vary

Colorado Collage - Photos

Here's that Colorado photo collage I was going to post in, oh, May or June. I think if you click on it, you can see it in its full glory. This entry goes along with the Colorado Word Collage and the Colorado Map I posted more promptly. I didn't have lots of great pictures, since this was about the time my Lumix digicam bit the dust.
Time to get crackin' writing up my summer Utah travels, lest I have another glut of "What I Did Last Summer" posts this spring.

Gearing up for the long cold winter...

I made my annual trip to Richcrest Farms to can tomatoes a week or two ago (on the Kawasaki.)  You gotta love a top box that fits a case of canning jars!  I'll spare you the details, since I wrote about it here a couple of years ago, but I thought I'd show you my winter rations to date.



Top shelf: Mexican lime curd, prickly pear jelly, pickles, strawberry preserves
Middle shelf: raspberries, peaches, rhubarb
Bottom shelf: tomatoes, tomato juice, apricots

It hasn't been a great year for stocking up.  The fruit in Utah came late, and I had to leave before I could get my cherries and blueberries.  Somehow I didn't get as many apricots as usual, either.  It was a bad year for tomatoes in Arizona, too. For a while, it looked like I'd be buying canned ones for the first time in several years, but I managed to get a few quarts at the eleventh hour.

Soon to be added:  apples, applesauce, and the pate I raved about here.

The contents of my freezer are getting interesting as well, but the freezer is not quite as photogenic as my cabinet.

 My sharp eye noticed some new wheels at the farm.  I wonder which set belongs to Farmer Jim.

Pleasant surprise on the way home from Richcrest:  the ten mile stretch of Dragoon road was completely a-flutter in butterflies!

Next time:  I swear I'll visit the pistachio orchard I pass by each year on the way to the farm.  I'm always worried about that pesky night-time riding constraint of mine.  Word on the street is that this year was a bumper crop.

Baby, We're Back! (Maiden Voyage II)

When I looked out my bedroom window upon rising one recent morning and saw this...

...it startled me!  A desert Santa left me a Ducati under the mesquite tree!  In reality, of course, I had picked it up from the dealer the afternoon before, almost one month to the day after its demise.  But I was so loopy with a nasty cold that it was all I could do to ride it the few miles home from the shop.

"That's a mighty nice bike you got there, Pretty Lady, " said the guy who watched me take this picture. A sleek, sexy, Italian bike does wonders for any gal's looks - call it "Ducati Goggles."

I was going to take an awesome picture with a drop dead background to celebrate the event.  I really was.  I even borrowed a tripod for the occasion. (Thanks, Martha!).   But fiddling with the tripod, finding the best viewpoint (a counter-intuitive process, I discovered), positioning the bike just so etc., kinda takes the sport out of sport riding.  It was as bad as, if not worse than trying to take a good picture of your dinner when you'd rather be eating it.  So I snapped all of two I-really-should-fix-my-helmet-hair-shots, said "enough of THIS," and hit the road.  Vroom!

Ducati 696: more money than I had any business spending.
Air cooled bike that smokes my hams at stoplights: yow!
Speeding tickets: might become a problem

Unbeatable power to weight ratio, torque to spare, and feet flat on the ground: as they say, priceless.

Baby, we're back!

Due to popular request (that means by more than one person! By some people I haven't even met, believe it or not!), I've added ways to subscribe to this silly blog of mine. For email notification, look at the top right of the page. At the bottom right of the page you can "follow" or get notifications on your browser bookmark bar. Hope it works!