Jason's Log

Los Altos Grill

As today is our seven year wedding anniversary, Young and I made a trip down to Los Altos. We decided on dinner at the Los Altos grill, which is located right off San Antonio in downtown Los Altos.

Although we did have to wait 20 minutes on a Monday night, it was wall worth it.

Their smoked salmon appetizer was awesome. Smoked on premise, it was easily the best smoked salmon I have tried. Their salads were also very good.

For the main course, I had the prime rib, done medium rare. It was spectactular. Cooked exactly as ordered, both buttyer soft and flavorful at the same time. Quite a treat. Young had the pork chops, where were also quite good.

Definitely a better prime rib than I have had in a long time. Well worth the price.

Tweaking the cole slaw

Young and I have decided on a few slight tweaks to the low-carb cole slaw recipe, which now looks like:

My low-carb version:

1 (16 ounce) package of shredded cabbage
1/3 cup Splenda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 tesapoon freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1.5 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2.5 tablespoons lemon juice

The changes are:

Increasing the black pepper from 1/8 tsp to 1/2 tsp. We like our slaw a bit spicy, so others may not like this.

Switching to white wine vinegar, as the original recipe called for. It has a more mild flavor than the rice wine vinegar I had used previously.

More improvements to the ribs

Well, it seems that by using an aluminum foil tray I can prevent the flareups that singed my previous attempts at slow-roasted pork ribs. The problem is that my reduction in cooking time doesn't give me that 'fall off the bone' tenderness I was looking for.

So for the next attempt at ribs, it's going to be 250 degrees for 3 hours, followed by 1 hour steaming in foil and saran wrap to fully tenderize.

That being said, keeping the ribs top-side up really did help preserve the spice rub flavor, which was more pronounced this time. A big improvement.

A really long day of travel

I just got back from my first ever business trip to St. Petersburg, Russia. Although the trip was productive, and our half-day of tourism activities was cool, the act of getting there and back was incredibly painful.

For example: Our return flight left St. Petersburg at 7am local time. We got up at 4am, which is 5pm on the previus day California-time. We flew from St. Ptersburg to Frankfurt to Dallas to San Francisco, arriving at San Francisco at 6pm.

That means I was awake for 25 hours upon arrival in SFO. In order to reset my sleep clock, I had to stay up another 4 hours. So by the time I finally went to bed, I had been awake for nearly 30 hours.

Ugh.

Proposed Poison Oak Regimen

The next time I'm out for a ride in which I may have come into contact with poison oak, this is the preventitive treatment regimen that I will be following. Thanks to all the ROMP mailing list members who helped me put this together!

1. Immediately after a ride, rub some Tecnu on legs and arms (rub for two minutes, like the bottle says).
2. Use alcohol baby-wipes to remove Tecnu and PO oils.
3. Cover car seats with old crappy towel.
4. Drive home.
5. Undress in the laundry room. Throw all clothing and towel into laundry.
5. Take shower immediately, touching nothing en route to the bathroom. Do one more Tecnu treatment, and final scrub/rinse using Dawn dishwashing liquid.
6. Use Benadryl Poision Ivy/Oak/Sumac anti-itch cream or gel after drying off.

I'll see how this works the next time out.

Joining the Poison Oak Club

If any of you have had the (mis)pleasure of riding with me, you have probably heard me laughing callously at everyone else's stories of poison oak contamination. I have even been known to claim that "I must be immune, as I have been riding here for years and never had a reaction!"

What a fool am I.

About two days after the CCCX race at Ft. Ord (Sunday, May 2nd), I noticed what appeared to be a series of mysterious bug bites along my left shin. I flippantly attributed this to 'mosquito bites', and thought nothing more of it.

As the weekend approached, I noted that these bug bites were actually becoming progressively more itchy as time passed. In fact, they appeared to be slowly growing in size, which is unusual for either mosquito or spider bites. Still, I thought nothing of it, and started scratching away at them.

Monday rolls around. I'm at work. I notice an itchy patch of skin on my right forearm, with a few small bumps in the area. Hmm. That didn't used to be there. A bit later, I notice something eerily similar on my right bicep. This is now starting to cause some concern.

That evening, I call my friend Mike who has had some legendary run-ins with poison oak and the scars to prove it. I ask "What do the initial symptoms of an poison oak outbreak look like?"

"Well, it starts out looking and feeling like just a bunch of mosquito bites," he says.

I reply, "That's really funny."

Fifteen minutes later, I am at Walgreens in the first aid aisle. I grab two containers of Tecnu, and two tubes of Cortisone cream.

Ugh.

Grilling Steaks - A success

Well, after three previous failed attempts, I think I'm finally starting to get close to a successful grilled steak.

I started with a porterhouse steak that I picked up from Safeway. To season it, I used Bobby Flays steak rub, which gives it a southwestern flavor:

1 cup ancho chile powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon dried coriander
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons dry mustard
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

I rubbed the steak generously with the rub, and set it aside. I heated the grill for 15-minutes on high as usual then scraped the surface clean. I left one burner on high, and the other on medium. I grilled the steak for 3 min on each side over the hot part of the grill in order to sear the surface and lock in the juices. I then reduced all burners to medium, and let the steak go another 6 minutes.

I then removed the steak from the grill and let it sit for 5 minutes before cutting/eating.

Although it was probably cooked a bit more than I prefer (I would call it a solid medium), the flavor was very good. The steak was not chewy or tough, and in fact could have almost bean eaten without a knife.

Progress!

Zibibbo Restaurant, Palo Alto

Wow, what a disappointing dining experience. Dag's hanger steak was rubbery, Christian's ribs were no good, and my lamb was mushy and flavorless.

For such an upscale restaurant with a high-end wine list, I was really disappointed in Zibibbo's.

Mark that one off the list.

My first ever bike race

For reasons still not totally clear to me, I participated in my first mountain bike race this past weekend. The event was the Central Coast Mountain Bike Series held at Fort Ord near Salinas, California. I entered the beginner division event, Men's 19-34 group.

The Beginner event was 3 loops around a 5.3 mile track with about 500 ft. of vertical climb per loop (which isn't very much). There were approximately 100 entrants in the Beginner event. I finished the race in 1 hour, 21 minutes, which put me in the lower end of the middle third of finishers overall. I wasn't last in my group or division, so I have little to complain about. I'm especially pleased with my results given that I did no additional training or preperation for the race.

The only problems that occured during the race was a persistent cough that is a hangover from my cold last week. This was exacerbated by the dusty conditions of the trail.

Young was gracious enough to attend the event as my cheering section, moral support, and photographer. For her first time using an SLR camera, she did a wonderful job taking pictures.

Some highlights include:

The start

Women's Group

Junior Rider

Me, close up

The face of pain

Sport division riders

Dad's Sauerkraut Recipe

Here's how he explained it to me when he was in town last week:

1 medium-sized jar of sauerkraut
5-10 whole black peppercorns
1 tbsp butter
1/4 medium onion, sliced

Drain the water from the kraut that it comes packaged in. That water is very acidic. Once drained, rinse the kraut in fresh water. Transfer to medium sauce pan. Add enough water to cover the kraut. Add butter, onions, and pepper corns. Bring to boil, then reduce to a simmer. Simmer for 1.5 to 2 hours.

Eat, enjoy.