I have been having very unusual cravings for red meat since back in January when I increased my weekly mileage quite a bit, which I'm sure is the reason for my cravings. Last week, my latest incarnation of this craving was for a burger, and I wanted to try something new, so after a couple scotch and sodas, I met up with James at the Jackalope to try it out. I read some positive reviews on yelp, so I figured it was worth a shot. Of course, it would have been too easy to get there on time, so Jezebel decided to have her third flat in as many days, but that's neither here nor there...
I met up with James at the bar, where we were told we had to go back to the kitchen to order food. Little did we know the place is a wannabe labyrinth, but we found the kitchen just as we were about to bust out a map and compass (that's right, screw your iPhone/gps). We find the kitchen dimly lit and a bit grimy, with delicious, greasy smells filling the air, and two guys who gave the impression that the cooks for the night had not shown up and the bouncer and bartender had to fill in. Nonetheless, it was a no-frills, straight up kitchen, and I had a good feeling. I ordered the four chile cheese burger and James the chipotle bacon cheese burger, with a basket of fries to split.
I met up with James at the bar, where we were told we had to go back to the kitchen to order food. Little did we know the place is a wannabe labyrinth, but we found the kitchen just as we were about to bust out a map and compass (that's right, screw your iPhone/gps). We find the kitchen dimly lit and a bit grimy, with delicious, greasy smells filling the air, and two guys who gave the impression that the cooks for the night had not shown up and the bouncer and bartender had to fill in. Nonetheless, it was a no-frills, straight up kitchen, and I had a good feeling. I ordered the four chile cheese burger and James the chipotle bacon cheese burger, with a basket of fries to split.
Back at the bar, we discover we had already been forgotten and two ladies had taken our place and our drinks tossed (thank goodness they were just waters). The bartenter asks, rather snidely, if we would like two more waters, but we gave her a 1-2 combo by ordering two Full Moon Pale Rye Ale from none other than Texas's finest brewery, Real Ale. And thus we waited.
After 20 minutes sans food, per the cook's suggestion, I headed back to the kitchen to find two burgers waiting and the cook serving up the basket of fries. Perfect timing.
These burgers deserve their own paragraph. Well, the burgers and the cooks. First of all, the patties were a huge 1/2 lb each!! Not only that, but all their burgers lay seductively on a whole wheat bun, no need to remember to ask for it every time or pay extra! Speaking of cash monies, you get all this for $5.95! While I realize that's no bargain, what without drink or fries included, you get a REAL 1/2 lb. burger on whole wheat, and the kitchen is open until 1 AM! I would probably pay more, but don't tell them that. Ok, ok, I may sound like I'm making a big deal out of nothing, but here's the kicker: both the fries and burger were seemingly salt-free! This is amazing to me, especially to find it in a place such as this. Seeing as about 95% of the people who work in food service smoke, the food, particularly in bars is almost always over-salted. But here we were, in a bar, and I had to add salt to my burger and fries. I cannot tell you how happy that made me.
Ok, maybe I wrote too much about the Jackalope, but it was just a wonderful surprise, and really the perfect way to kick off a weekend. I wound up going to bed before midnight and arising before 8 AM. Combine that with the fact that I had been drinking scotch and soda, I think that puts me at a lifestyle age of about 48. Oh damn, I'm turning into my father! Aye
Either way, I was up early on Saturday with nothing to do until my ride at Noon, so I decided to commit to making sure that everything I ate throughout the weekend was nothing short of delicious. Of course, this meant a trip to Fiesta for the necessary ingredients. Recently, I have been trying to step outside my culinary comfort zone and try making new dishes, which include several (quite successful) forays into the land of bread, banana bread, and belgian waffles. Well, it was time to add a new Mexican dish to my quiver, so I went with chilaquiles:
They turned out to be quite a bit more simple than I thought they would be, and only took about 45 minutes to make, which included frying the tortillas, making the sauce from scratch, and everything. I added some chicken to the sauce, and topped it with Queso Oaxaca, avocado, Crema Mexicana, Queso Cotija, and cilantro. Yes, it was as good as it sounds! The deliciousness only continued with half a papaya with key lime and sea salt (regular lime and salt just don't cut it, a glass of oj with lots of pulp, and an americano to feed my caffeine addiction. Oh yeah, that's a breakfast of champions right there! And with five hours of riding with what seemed to be a headwind almost the entire time, this was the perfect fuel! It was so good, in fact, that I made the same thing the following morning for breakfast, and the picture above is actually from Sunday (shhh, don't tell!)
That brings us to the ride. My intention was to have a big group ride with everyone on the cycling team who would be racing in the C category to see what the team looked like. After about an hour of riding, we split into two groups, one led by Kyler, and the other by me. Well, only 4 (including myself) of the 12 or so who originally showed up ended up coming with me since Kyler talked up my ride and I think scared a lot of people. Boo. Either way, we had a very windy, but still awesome ride out to Lime Creek and back. Clay showed his strength by dropping me hard on Lime Creek, and I did not see any sign him until we regrouped and he was celebrating his breakaway:
haha All in all, a very good ride, and I think we all enjoyed it much.
I forgot to mention that while I was walking by the seafood department at Fiesta, something caught my eye. In general, I am pretty intimidated by cooking seafood, though I love eating it, but I always like to at least window shop. They had wild Alaskan salmon for $2.69/lb, which is a great deal! Silly people around here only like the crappy Atlantic farmed salmon, but they don't know what's good! I asked the guy behind the counter for two so I could put one in the freezer and cook one, but when he pulled them out, they were about 10 pounds each, too large for my freezer! So I just bought one.
Following the obligatory post-ride, stretching accompanied by chocolate milk and a snack I had the task before me of filleting and cooking a salmon. It was my first time to fillet any type of fish, and the first fillet was not too pretty, but I think I got the idea for the second one. Not as bad as I thought it would be. I applied some lemon, butter, and spices, and stuck it in the hot box for 15 minutes, and then headed up to Danielle's with a portion of my catch to join her and her roommate for a dinner to which we all contributed. It was delicious, and I'm still wondering how Danielle managed to get not one, but two guys to cook for her in the same night....
SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY!!
Sunday morning I was definitely feeling the miles and wind from Saturday, and did not feel like doing another road ride. I decided instead to hit the trails and spend some much needed alone time improving my mtb skills on the Greenbelt. But first, I needed fuel. The chilaquiles were so good Saturday that I made them again, only this time I baked the tortillas instead of frying them, and it tasted every bit as good, if not a little better for the knowledge that it was better for me! And I was off!
I managed to go over the bars within a mile of the trailhead on a section that had never before given me trouble, right in front of a couple of guys coming the other way. They asked if I was alright and I just tried to hide the embarrassment. I could feel a couple future bruises, but decided to get back on the bike and keep my muscles warm so I could keep riding without the pain until later when I cooled down.
Riding on, I spent some time sessioning obstacles that have been giving me trouble (i.e. ones I have never cleared) such as this bad boy:
James makes it look so easy every time, but I just psyche myself out and can't do it. Aargh.
Then there's this twisty little number, which I actually managed to clear this time! Huzzah!
It's a delicate art balancing your weight between the front and back of the bike, being only partially out of the saddle, and using your upper body to get you through tight spots, definitely things you never experience with road riding.
I ran into a Mojo group ride sessioning this obstacle:
They invited me to join them for post-ride beer, but I was only about 45 minutes into my ride and my legs were itching for more, so I had to respectfully decline. Plus, they probably would have dropped me just on the way to Tacodeli... I did however clear that section for the first time going down! (They were sessioning it going up, far more difficult)
And then came the Hill of Life:
I locked out my fork this time, which was a huge help, will definitely have to do that from now on (note to self: do not to forget that fork is locked out once you get to the top of the hill...), and was actually doing pretty well, until I saw this:
Not sure if you can see or not, but those are guys on UNIcycles descending the Hill of Life. Yupp. Well, that just made me feel like I was riding with training wheels... At least they had to walk up the hill. Otherwise, I may have just gone home with my tail between my legs.
The rest of the ride went pretty smoothly, and I must say I am feeling more and more comfortable on the Greenbelt, which is a great feeling! Reappearing in Zilker, I came upon the madness that was the 81st annual Zilker Kite festival:
I had planned on spending some time checking it out, but I was beat, and there were just so many people that I decided to bail. I did, however, spot James's Panasonic on my way home, so I stopped by to say hey to him and Carolina before I left.
With a test today, my plans for Sunday evening included studying and nothing else. But, I couldn't let such a grand weekend end on a sour note, so I threw together a dinner, made entirely of leftovers, fit for the weekend that preceded it:
A piece of salmon leftover from Saturday night's dinner, avocado leftover from the morning's chilaquiles, fresh steamed broccoli leftover from some (delicious, in spite of being over-cooked) stir-fry earlier in the week, rice leftover from the stir-fry as well with cilantro and lime added for good measure, and a Modelo to wash it down leftover from when we busted out the grill for the first time in 2009, which needs to be repeated soon.
Who ever said leftovers had to suck? While in the kitchen, I decided to make up a batch of salsa since I was out, whereby this:
was turned into this:
Mmmm. That ought to last about a week or two, the way I eat it.
And that was my weekend. Jealous yet? If not, I'll leave you with a pretty close-up of the tomatoes and jalapenos prior to cooking:
Aaaaand, the latest song by the band Phoenix, to which I was recently introduced by someone special:
These burgers deserve their own paragraph. Well, the burgers and the cooks. First of all, the patties were a huge 1/2 lb each!! Not only that, but all their burgers lay seductively on a whole wheat bun, no need to remember to ask for it every time or pay extra! Speaking of cash monies, you get all this for $5.95! While I realize that's no bargain, what without drink or fries included, you get a REAL 1/2 lb. burger on whole wheat, and the kitchen is open until 1 AM! I would probably pay more, but don't tell them that. Ok, ok, I may sound like I'm making a big deal out of nothing, but here's the kicker: both the fries and burger were seemingly salt-free! This is amazing to me, especially to find it in a place such as this. Seeing as about 95% of the people who work in food service smoke, the food, particularly in bars is almost always over-salted. But here we were, in a bar, and I had to add salt to my burger and fries. I cannot tell you how happy that made me.
Ok, maybe I wrote too much about the Jackalope, but it was just a wonderful surprise, and really the perfect way to kick off a weekend. I wound up going to bed before midnight and arising before 8 AM. Combine that with the fact that I had been drinking scotch and soda, I think that puts me at a lifestyle age of about 48. Oh damn, I'm turning into my father! Aye
Either way, I was up early on Saturday with nothing to do until my ride at Noon, so I decided to commit to making sure that everything I ate throughout the weekend was nothing short of delicious. Of course, this meant a trip to Fiesta for the necessary ingredients. Recently, I have been trying to step outside my culinary comfort zone and try making new dishes, which include several (quite successful) forays into the land of bread, banana bread, and belgian waffles. Well, it was time to add a new Mexican dish to my quiver, so I went with chilaquiles:
They turned out to be quite a bit more simple than I thought they would be, and only took about 45 minutes to make, which included frying the tortillas, making the sauce from scratch, and everything. I added some chicken to the sauce, and topped it with Queso Oaxaca, avocado, Crema Mexicana, Queso Cotija, and cilantro. Yes, it was as good as it sounds! The deliciousness only continued with half a papaya with key lime and sea salt (regular lime and salt just don't cut it, a glass of oj with lots of pulp, and an americano to feed my caffeine addiction. Oh yeah, that's a breakfast of champions right there! And with five hours of riding with what seemed to be a headwind almost the entire time, this was the perfect fuel! It was so good, in fact, that I made the same thing the following morning for breakfast, and the picture above is actually from Sunday (shhh, don't tell!)
That brings us to the ride. My intention was to have a big group ride with everyone on the cycling team who would be racing in the C category to see what the team looked like. After about an hour of riding, we split into two groups, one led by Kyler, and the other by me. Well, only 4 (including myself) of the 12 or so who originally showed up ended up coming with me since Kyler talked up my ride and I think scared a lot of people. Boo. Either way, we had a very windy, but still awesome ride out to Lime Creek and back. Clay showed his strength by dropping me hard on Lime Creek, and I did not see any sign him until we regrouped and he was celebrating his breakaway:
haha All in all, a very good ride, and I think we all enjoyed it much.
I forgot to mention that while I was walking by the seafood department at Fiesta, something caught my eye. In general, I am pretty intimidated by cooking seafood, though I love eating it, but I always like to at least window shop. They had wild Alaskan salmon for $2.69/lb, which is a great deal! Silly people around here only like the crappy Atlantic farmed salmon, but they don't know what's good! I asked the guy behind the counter for two so I could put one in the freezer and cook one, but when he pulled them out, they were about 10 pounds each, too large for my freezer! So I just bought one.
Following the obligatory post-ride, stretching accompanied by chocolate milk and a snack I had the task before me of filleting and cooking a salmon. It was my first time to fillet any type of fish, and the first fillet was not too pretty, but I think I got the idea for the second one. Not as bad as I thought it would be. I applied some lemon, butter, and spices, and stuck it in the hot box for 15 minutes, and then headed up to Danielle's with a portion of my catch to join her and her roommate for a dinner to which we all contributed. It was delicious, and I'm still wondering how Danielle managed to get not one, but two guys to cook for her in the same night....
SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY!!
Sunday morning I was definitely feeling the miles and wind from Saturday, and did not feel like doing another road ride. I decided instead to hit the trails and spend some much needed alone time improving my mtb skills on the Greenbelt. But first, I needed fuel. The chilaquiles were so good Saturday that I made them again, only this time I baked the tortillas instead of frying them, and it tasted every bit as good, if not a little better for the knowledge that it was better for me! And I was off!
I managed to go over the bars within a mile of the trailhead on a section that had never before given me trouble, right in front of a couple of guys coming the other way. They asked if I was alright and I just tried to hide the embarrassment. I could feel a couple future bruises, but decided to get back on the bike and keep my muscles warm so I could keep riding without the pain until later when I cooled down.
Riding on, I spent some time sessioning obstacles that have been giving me trouble (i.e. ones I have never cleared) such as this bad boy:
James makes it look so easy every time, but I just psyche myself out and can't do it. Aargh.
Then there's this twisty little number, which I actually managed to clear this time! Huzzah!
It's a delicate art balancing your weight between the front and back of the bike, being only partially out of the saddle, and using your upper body to get you through tight spots, definitely things you never experience with road riding.
I ran into a Mojo group ride sessioning this obstacle:
They invited me to join them for post-ride beer, but I was only about 45 minutes into my ride and my legs were itching for more, so I had to respectfully decline. Plus, they probably would have dropped me just on the way to Tacodeli... I did however clear that section for the first time going down! (They were sessioning it going up, far more difficult)
And then came the Hill of Life:
I locked out my fork this time, which was a huge help, will definitely have to do that from now on (note to self: do not to forget that fork is locked out once you get to the top of the hill...), and was actually doing pretty well, until I saw this:
Not sure if you can see or not, but those are guys on UNIcycles descending the Hill of Life. Yupp. Well, that just made me feel like I was riding with training wheels... At least they had to walk up the hill. Otherwise, I may have just gone home with my tail between my legs.
The rest of the ride went pretty smoothly, and I must say I am feeling more and more comfortable on the Greenbelt, which is a great feeling! Reappearing in Zilker, I came upon the madness that was the 81st annual Zilker Kite festival:
I had planned on spending some time checking it out, but I was beat, and there were just so many people that I decided to bail. I did, however, spot James's Panasonic on my way home, so I stopped by to say hey to him and Carolina before I left.
With a test today, my plans for Sunday evening included studying and nothing else. But, I couldn't let such a grand weekend end on a sour note, so I threw together a dinner, made entirely of leftovers, fit for the weekend that preceded it:
A piece of salmon leftover from Saturday night's dinner, avocado leftover from the morning's chilaquiles, fresh steamed broccoli leftover from some (delicious, in spite of being over-cooked) stir-fry earlier in the week, rice leftover from the stir-fry as well with cilantro and lime added for good measure, and a Modelo to wash it down leftover from when we busted out the grill for the first time in 2009, which needs to be repeated soon.
Who ever said leftovers had to suck? While in the kitchen, I decided to make up a batch of salsa since I was out, whereby this:
was turned into this:
Mmmm. That ought to last about a week or two, the way I eat it.
And that was my weekend. Jealous yet? If not, I'll leave you with a pretty close-up of the tomatoes and jalapenos prior to cooking:
Aaaaand, the latest song by the band Phoenix, to which I was recently introduced by someone special:
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