echappist

impressive! but i'm afraid you may be the exception to the general trend.

All very good points to consider.
guess i'll need to go bug you about it

the shop has done a few Foil retrofits before, but would be good to make sure. Not really worried about resaleThe bike is a franken bike of sort anyway, with mis-matching Sram shifters and all. Doubt i can get much more than $300 for the frame

Heathpack 

@Heathpack, making grown men cry since 1998.


Just had to break it to a guy that even though he's here about what was thought to be a disc problem, his dog's symptoms actually localize to the brain. Elderly dog, progressive symptoms: realistically this is going to turn out to be a brain tumor.

Bandera

"Q" is a cultural heritage in this part of TX w/ brisket being a particular obsession for us home cooks.
For several decades it's been a ritual to go down to Rudy's original location in Leon Springs TX where the Masters serve it up right.
Make sure you get the cream corn as a side, a cold longneck out of the ice filled galvanized trough and lot's of "Sause".

https://rudysbbq.com/home/

PS: There most certainly is Prime brisket, well and properly aged the Q of the cognoscenti.

-Bandera

Racer Ex 

MacGyver skills and the Glamorous Life part 2.

After my Zwift ride with Shovel and Ibo (Sara missed a turn) I repair a malfunctioning gas fireplace and lubed a squeaky garage door.

Next task: Smoked salmon pasta with tomatoes, peas and a citrus sauce, and a side of heirloom tomatoes dressed with basil and balsamic.

Then I paint this church ceiling after dinner.

Hermes

Ok. I can definitely improve my brisket technique. I am having leftover brisket and it is totally yummy.

Post mortum I need some type of pre-cook routine to prep the meat for smoking. I took it from the package and used salt and pepper with olive oil. Then right to the smoker.

Mop sauce - I used the one from Traeger modified by what I had. Do not mock me for this but it was supposed to be beer or coke with apple cider vinegar and Worcestershire sauce. I used Diet Coke and apple cider vinegar.

Also, it was supposed to be smoked for 4 hours and I did it for 2 hours. So the slower and longer one cooks the brisket without drying it out, the more tender it is for the cut of meat. Of course, start with a better cut and it is going to be more tender.

Also, I think that a bigger piece of meat may turn out better such a 4 pound versus my 2.5 pounds.

I am a notorious beef eater. I was invited to a "racer" cookout bring your own food. I brought dark chocolate, red wine and beef tenderloin to put on the grill.

For example, the female pros chopped up some lettuce and put on a little vinegar for their dinner while I chomped on a bloody steak with blood streaming down the corners of my mouth from my mediam rare steak. I suspect they found that disgusting but I knew somewhere in the country, probably Texas, someone would approve my choice of dinner.

echappist

and in other news, i bought loc-tite for my rear camera mount. i'm a sad excuse for macgyvering
wtf

full of win

i love me some brisket, too bad i'm in a weight shedding mode and can't indulge right now

Bandera

Preparing & cooking Q is considered a lifelong learning/improving process here & well worth the effort.

The pit masters have earned the title and guard their "secrets" closely.
Without a real pit cooking environment, decades of experience and a dedicated supply chain we home cooks can only do what we can to put up a good feed for family & friends.

For what it's worth here's what I do.

Brisket: The largest that will fit in your hardware. Prime, grass fed & hormone free if possible.

Ageing/Prep: A dry rub (secret of course) liberally applied and rubbed in. Stash the brisket on a wire rack over a sheet pan & "age" for several days uncovered in the 'fridge. Flip & examine daily until it looks like it lost a bout w/ Mike Tyson. The environment of the fridge will desiccate the meat intensifying flavor and letting the uber-secret rub permeate and dry what will become the "bark" on real Q. Remove the brisket, re-season w/ rub and bring to room temp.

Low & Slow: No substitute for time/temp to turn the tough into tender and render collagen & fat into unctuous-ness. Precise control of temperature and time are critical, hence the amazing cooking/smoking contraptions on porches all over TX dedicated to Q. Pick one type and learn it's quirks & foibles of hot/cold spots, time to replenish fuel and heat-up/cool-down. A remote digital temp probe in the brisket is critical to my process, no guessing about time/temp.

Wet or Dry: Here's just one schism in Q, either can delicious but requires a different technique.
I adhere to the Gospel as told by Rudy's:

"Along with time and oak, we cook with a dry spice that ensures each plate of Rudy's Bar-B-Q is perfectly ready for you. Apply some of our famous " Sause" and dinner is served."
-Rudy's Leon Springs TX

Quality food carefully prepared with skill and care is neither simply fuel or poison, it's culture and connection with family and friends.

Have fun & enjoy.

-Bandera

Heathpack 

Haha, @Hermes, I'd stick with you at that cookout. That's my kind of food. I love meat.

Tonight I'm taking a candidate for our open neurologist position out to dinner. We're being sent to a fancy Italian place for dinner. Of course I've researched the menu. I'm torn between the rack of lamb & the beef tenderloin. Meat, wine & two veg is my perfect dinner. I'll probably spring for the cannoli at the end though, unless the waiter says the lemon sorbet is some kind of rock star.

Being a meat lover helps when navigating a fancy Italian menu. Makes it easy to skip the aracini and pasta, although I do like those things for sure. And if I get to dinner & overwhelmingly feel like pasta, I'll get it without too much fretting.

Friday I have to go meet with my eye surgeon. He is at Cedars Sinai which for those of you unfamiliar is basically in Beverly Hills. Friday is the day Dine LA starts which is basically our restaurant week. Except that it's two weeks and happens twice a year. My appt will finish up around lunch time so I've been studying the Dine LA menus for the best option. Um it will not be healthy.

Hermes

@Bandera Thanks. Got it. I will work on my technique and supply chain.

Hermes

If the beef tenderloin has a balsamic vinegar reduction that may sway me over the rack of lamb. Otherwise, I would opt for the rack of lamb.

Besides just liking meat, I have pesky food allergies and one of them is seafood. So many times my options are limited. And ordering a grilled plain steak is a safe bet for me so that I do not ruin everyone else's dinner and my own by getting sick.

If you have not already been to Brazil, it may have some of the best meat selections. Brazilians are notorious meat eaters and the Brazilian Churrascaria is an amazing restaurant. Of course, in Brazil, dinner does not really get started until 10PM which was always late for me.

They bring different cuts of beef on a skewer and cut a piece for you on your plate. One has a round chip with the words stop and go, red and green. When you want meat, you display the go green side.

Brazil offers the hump of the bull. That is not available in the US. The hump is quite fatty but tender and allegedly where all the drugs are injected into the bull. You may have some incite on that truth or myth.

I used to travel to Helsinki Finland. The Finns love seafood however, they also feature game on the menu and are highly influenced by the Russians. So when I was in Helsinki, I had bear, venison and reindeer. Also, there is the dill pickle, honey and sour cream salads as well as taking a dill pickle, dipping it in sour cream and then adding a little honey. It sounds odd but the taste is really good.

And one cannot eat the dill pickle, honey and sour cream without starting with a shot of Finnish Vodka.

echappist

correct choice is neither. Osso buco is the obvious secondi

or you can get seafood risotto, with a side of meatball and spaghetti, of course

Hermes

@echappist

The pro and elite women racers have to watch their diet. Many just to do not burn that many calories per Kilojoule. It seems that their bodies may be more efficient. Kj to calorie conversion is based upon a human efficiency of 25%. Who knows if that rings true all the time for all people. I doubt it.

I was on a charity ride and about 3/4 of the way along, I had generated 800 Kj. We were at a supported rest stop with food. One woman is looking over the table and was wondering if she could eat a cookie. Two others were eating a celery stick. I felt guilty and ate a small potato with salt.

The normal riders were eating the cookies, candy, pretzels, potato chips and other food put out by the organizers.

With respect to drilling carbon... Sure talk with R'Ex. I think he has the right take. The key point is how to absolutely assure that one does not somehow, when drilling the frame, start a hairline crack or create a weak point in the frame such that there is a failure when you are on the bike.

It sucks but IMO, we have to treat our bikes much like pilots and aircraft mechanics treat aircraft. We cannot afford a failure since the outcome may be terrible.

Speaking for myself, I chose to have more exotic high performance equipment and therefore, I have to make sure that it functions properly and only do those procedures that are approved by the manufacturer and performed by certified maintenance personnel.

Arguing both sides of the point, I stopped by my former coaches cycling gym and he was there drilling a carbon frame with a hand held drill while the owner looked on. The coach is Russian. These are the guys that are good at invasions. How would Putin install Di2?

sarals 

I don't have the Cooking Gene. I can boil water. Which mean I can make coffee and espresso. Which I do well! Oh, I can open a bottle of wine, too. I'm good at cleaning up after dinner so that I don't feel totally inadequate and have to surrender my Woman Card.

Such is my cross to bear....

Heathpack 

From @Cleave's Facebook page:

Megan Guarnier: The (not so) natural | VeloNews.com

Interesting article about the professional cyclist Megan Guarnier. I can relate- she likes the training as a thing unto itself!

echappist

Guarnier is bad ass. The article doesn't mention that she graduated Phi Beta while completing a bio degree at an elite liberal art school. One thing I disagree with the article is its downplaying of her natural talents, as anyone good enough to letter in an aerobic varsity sport in high school has sporting genes. I particularly identify with her steady progression she's taken in the sport and how she's learned early on the skills needed to become a complete bike racer. While I wasn't even good enough to play a varsity sport as I was chubby back then, I paid a lot of attention to race craft when i started bike racing as it helped me close down the physiological gap I had to others more talented, some of whom never learned how to race properly and flamed out as early as Cat-3.

Though competition in pro women's peloton isn't as deep, being able to win both a classics race and a grand tour is still effing hard, as winning the former requires shrewd racing tactics and bike handling skills while the latter requires high aerobic attributes. Stevens has the latter, but not so much the former, and it's plainly obvious to anyone watching bike racing as Stevens would routinely lose 3-4 bikelengths any time she comes out of a 90-degree turn, even in a small group.

What is also unsaid in the article is that the beef between the two actually goes back a month prior to Rio (and a month after Philly), when Stevens basically said eff-it to team orders and freelanced in the Giro Rosa, all the while Guarnier was in the race lead. She didn't come close to pulling Hinault's stunt in the 86 TdF, but the acts were similar. I love how Stevens has the temerity to complain about being left behind at Philly when video replay shows that Guarnier was sitting 3rd wheel going into the climb while Stevens was ~13-15th wheel. Wtf is she doing getting caught out of position on the turn into the finishing hill? In other words, Stevens is the type of racer that bike racers love to rag on b/c she's the type with the racecraft of a triathlete, an Andy Schleck type, if you will. Yet, the American cycling public fawns over Stevens because of her backstory, and an unsaid but non-negligible part of this has to do with her looks. I'm tired of all the trite PR pieces about Stevens and welcome more on the underappreciated cycling star that is Guarnier.

btw, here's another article on Guarnier that fills in some of the backstory: Endurance sports -- Megan Guarnier overcomes another challenge and looks toward Rio

sarals 

I met her at the NCNCA Awards. She's a no nonsense gal, let me tell you. Very driven, very focused, very smart. She's quite a person!

Heathpack 

Met with the eye surgeon today to go through all the pre op stuff for next weeks cataract surgery. I have to decide if I want the plain vanilla lens or an upgraded lens that will enable me to maybe see without glasses, except I'd still need glasses anyway on account of my left eye also needing cataract surgery, just not necessarily right now. The upgraded lens is a totally out-of-pocket expense but of course I'm going to spring for it, no glasses eventually (after the left eye eventually getting cataract sx too) sounds awesome to me.

Afterwards, I call my Mom to chat. She is still in the rehab hospital and feeling guilty that she did not get us any Christmas presents. We don't care. I'm telling her the gist of the ophtho appointment, making conversation really, and she interrupts that thats what she wants to get me for Christmas, my intra ocular lens. Total lol. Ok, I will admit that's a pretty unique Christmas present.

Weather was crappy before appt, so I didn't get out on the bike in the morning for my openers for tomorrow's 40k TT. Grabbed lunch after my eye appt and then we scooted home, I had a couple of phone interviews for interns to do. By the time I was done I found myself stressed by the idea of racing tomorrow and getting everything ready for that. It was mega windy and just did not seem appealing to go out and ride and we'll have that same wind tomorrow. Vacillated a bit but finally decided to bag the race, just a few too many balls in the air right now. Texted a friend, we're just heading out for a road ride tomorrow.

So having freed up a little chunk of time, I went out to my lemon tree and picked 9 lemons. Thirty min later, I had turned them into 5 jars of lemon curd. My idea was to use my lemon crop as a Greek yogurt mix-in and that's what I had for dinner: Lemon Greek Yogurt. It was so good, I could see making another 4 or 5 batches of this and eating it for over the next 6 months.

However if anyone has any suggestions for uses of lemon curd besides the usual things (on toast, scones, pancakes, crepes, gingerbread, angel food cake etc or to fill cakes or tarts or mixed with whipped cream to make a mousse), I'm all ears. Savory uses perhaps?

valygrl

For the chick with two SRMs .. duh, on the lens upgrade.

I think that lemon curd would go well on a spoon.

I may get to ride my bike outside today for the first time this year (Tuscon holiday excluded). Crossing fingers, knocking on wood.

LAJ

Words to live by. That phrase works well for so many things, but lemon curd works very well in this case.

Not sure about outside today, as those clouds just keep getting lower.

valygrl

i jinxed it

Heathpack 

It's a iPhone, to my knowledge no upgrade available and anyway the idea of cell phone photography is really the immediate accessibility of the gadget IMO. You whip it out & take a pic. Simple, done, shared. It's not really about the raw photographic quality. Which apparently I don't really get anyway because I look at that pic of a jelly jar and it actually appears good to me. I must have an unsophisticated eye.

I had lemon curd schmeared on pancakes for a pre-ride snack this am, blackberries on the side, dusted with a little powdered sugar. Can vouch for curd-on-cakes, that's a solid breakfast taste sensation.

Sorry about the ride. We've had rain all week & finally brilliant sunshine today. Windy as heck, but sunny.

valygrl

I did end up riding outside, with a teammate. Yay!!!

Heathpack 

Sweet. We are go green here after the rains. Refreshing.

revchuck 

Hermes

On my way to Park City, UT to ski. So far Uber, TSA and SWA perfect. Almost fell like Fifty Shades of Grey. Connecting in Oakland.