Matthew Supert

I can't believe that I forgot to post this. All the way back on October 14th we did our second Cook Book Series recipe. Well, technically Megan did since I wasn't home to do the cooking on this one. The second recipe turned out to be just as big of a success as the first one. It was honestly one of the best beef stews I have ever had. Usually with most beef stews I get hung up on too much potatoes, but this one was really well balanced and also had some really delicious dumplings. Another keeper of a recipe. 

Added bonus was that Megan made Apple Slices to go with dessert which I had never had before. They were such a huge hit that we brought another batch to work for my birthday and they were devoured quickly. 

For my birthday this year Megan bought me a new Kindle Voyage. I have been using my original Kindle 3G (the one with the keyboard) for close to five years now and I have it to thank for getting back into reading. I have been eyeing one of the new Kindles for quite a while now, especially one with the glowlight on it for nighttime reading. I had some major jealousy going on to Megan's Nook which had the glowlight. Problem was that my K3G was in perfect condition. Not a crack on it so it was hard to justify an upgrade. 

Well timing worked out well and Amazon a few weeks back was doing a good trade in credit for the old Kindle and it just so happened that my birthday was around the corner. So I have a fancy new Kindle Voyage, which is really nice. I have people occasionally ask me why I don't just read on a tablet. I do actually read on my iPad on occasion, but the LCD screen really isn't ideal for longer reading sessions. I am a big proponent of single purpose devices, not "do it all" devices so getting the best tool for the job I want is really what I am looking for. For reading, it has to be e-ink. It is just so much easier on the eyes. The new voyage also has a glass screen which really makes the e-ink pop in a great way. 

So Nanowrimo would normally be gearing up right about now and it would be starting on November 1st. I have done it successfully the past two years, largely on jumping in without much preparation. Despite all that success I am taking a pass on participating this year. I am instead going to focus my efforts on putting the same amount of time into recording music through the month of November. I have nearly half a dozen songs sitting that need to be finished and it is just a matter of me getting down to it and finishing it. I really want to get a new album out and published before the end of this year. 

After that is complete, I can then spend the rest of the winter trying to edit the books I have written from past Nanowrimos. 

So I had my first taste of cyclocross this weekend on Saturday. Cyclocross is, lets just call it offroad bike racing. It is apparently very popular in the Chicago area. 

My first race was in the Dan Ryan Woods yesterday. I was placed in the 4/5 Men's Group, which is basically the beginners group for the race. Races last about 30 minutes and the laps are determined by the pace of the top riders. So basically, that means that the race will end right around 30 minutes, not after a set number of laps. 

I was the only rider using a mountain bike for the race. Most people were utilizing cyclocross bikes, which are basically a road bike with a few modifications to allow for some off road wheels. Let me state that cyclocross is hard. I feel like I am in pretty good shape, but this was just brutal. It is full out as fast as you can for 30 minutes straight. The course has significant climbs on it and my lungs were literally burning. I could not get enough oxygen to my body through this race. 

So I finished in basically third to last place. There were a couple of people behind me and then I think three or four who did not finish. I have to say I am proud of myself, because there was a point there where I wasn't sure if I would be able to push forward. I think I'll definitely go out and do some more cross races. They are fun, but I don't see myself going and spending $800+ on a cyclocross bike. There are some people out there with just way to crazy of physical conditioning.

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Last Saturday we did our first Cook Book recipe from our new endeavor to begin cooking more recipes out of all of the cook books that we own. This first recipe came out of the Marshall Fields Cook Book.

Overall results on this one were great. The soup was easy to make in about forty minutes and it was rich and creamy. It was made a bit easier by the use of a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. It saved on some additional cooking time and the rotisserie chicken added some great flavor. 

We did almost have a mishap on this one because we didn't notice that the wild rice package called for the rice to cook on its own for about an hour. We disregarded that and threw the rice into the pot while the soup was simmering. I think it resulted in quite a bit more starch than was anticipated but for the first dishing up of the soup it worked out great. Reheating though wasn't quite as fantastic. Between the cream and the starch the soup reheated a bit too thick and that could in part be because of our mess up with the rice. 

Overall, a great recipe that you could totally make for a group of people for dinner. 

While eating lunch this past weekend I commented to Megan that we have a whole bunch of cookbooks on our shelf that we almost never crack open to get recipes from. We consistently get recipes from the internet, which is great for making meal planning easy. But we have some great cook books sitting on the shelf collecting dust. 

So I figured we should start working our way through each book. One book a week, one recipe from each book and we will just work through all of the recipes in the books. It probably gives us several years worth of cooking hear, but I figured it could make for a good blog series. 

The first recouped coming up this week is the Marshall Field's Cookbook; Boundary Waters Wild Rice Soup. We'll see how this series turns out. 

So yesterday I attended a two hour cyclocross introductory class. It was hosted at Caldwell Park downtown. I have to say that after just a couple of hours, that I find the whole thing to be awesome. It was a very similar excitement level that I had when I first started riding my motorcycle. 

The course had about fourteen people attending it. I would say that the bikes there were a an even mix between people who had cyclocross bikes, those who had mountain bikes and those who had road bikes. The clinic was put on by the BFF Bikes riding team and they ran us through three exercises that covered the basics of cyclocross. 

We started off by working on the start line. All of the riders lined up close together to simulate a real race and we practiced getting off of the line in an explosive manner. 

The second exercise was dismount, and carrying your bike over obstacles and the third exercise was a cornering exercise. For each exercise they gradually worked the group of to faster and faster speeds and forced us to ride tighter and tighter together. We ended the day of with a follow the leader exercise where we gradually sped up to riding as fast as we could. We did have one crash during the course when a woman riding next to me passed me and then low-sided in a corner. I inevitably ran into her unfortunately. She was fine, but she might have a bruise on her back where my tire ran over her. 

Overall I had a blast and it is something I will have to get into this fall. I did note that I definitely have to get some SPD pedals and a pair of more rugged MTB shoes to do this though as my feet were slipping off my pedals all over the place. 

As some of you may know, I have been getting more and more involved into biking over the past couple of years. I am not really into traditional road biking, but some of the longer touring stuff and off road biking definitely interests me. 

A couple of summers ago I got my old Trek 820 mountain bike out and was doing some trail riding out at the Palos Triangle. Unfortunately due to rain, most of the trails have been closed for a good portion of this past summer. There has been a lot of talk online about Cyclocross riding, which appears to be a big up and coming growth area in the biking sport. 

Cyclocross is basically offroad biking, but it is structured around a race course that has some defined obstacles on it, which usually include some sections of sand and obstacles that require to you dismount from the bike. The bikes themselves are surprisingly road bike looking. They have drop bars and 700 cc wheels and they are all hard frame. 

After doing some initial research online it does appear that I don't need to go out and buy a $800+ cyclocross bike and I can in fact use my existing mountain bike for the races. This looks really fun and appealing to me since cyclocross races in the Chicago area are focused around the fall and winter. 

I have ordered a pair of 26" cyclocross tires for my trek, since it is due for new tires anyways and I am planning on attending an introductory course this weekend to see if this is something that I might find interesting. 

Hopefully it will be a good time. The video above from the Chicago Cross Cup looks fun, doesn't it?