Fancypants vegan cheese quesadilla

With dipping sauces!

America Fuck Yeah!

Nothing quite commemorates throwing off the yolks of George III like deep frying your crumpets.

Vegan sushi al fresco!

What I did with my day

Got the oil changed, had Ethiopian food for lunch with mom, and hung a tree swing for my niece and nephews.

Vegan sushi for dinner!

Summertime, and the food porn is easy!

Grilled a pizza on our fancypants new gas grill last night (on a pizza stone.) Turned out pretty well, though I do need to fiddle with the details. I'll probably do it for longer on a lower heat setting next time.

Sauteed mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, ONIONS, and Daiya mozzerella.

And this is some brussels sprout prep before a hard coveredfry. Proportions shown: yes, I do use about eight cloves of rough chopped garlic for two pounds of brussels sprouts. Yum!

Travel season remains busy. Just got back from Appalachia, heading back to Massachusetts in a couple days, and then back to Appalachia in mid-June.

Seats you buy just for admission

Citi Field is huge and steep. I can more or less follow the game play from my cheap seat, and I like the mostly open main concourse. The condiments are decent but not amazing; I enjoyed a ton of sauerkraut on my vegan slice of pizza.

But it's not a park I'll go out of my way to return to.

Mixed message

Bad news? The flight is still delayed.
Good news? I'm still a star.

Sometimes, I love Google Voice

This is a partial transcript. I'm a star.

Fucking baseball prison

Jesus, no wonder the Rays attendance is dismal, despite their awesome performance. What a shithole.

Ballpark notes: Houston and St. Louis

Unfortunately I lost a bunch of draft text for Minute Maid Park in Houston. So some quick notes:

From the outside, it's without a doubt the ugliest stadium in major league baseball. It looks like a tornado ripped 2/3 of the roof off. Who knows what it looks like when the roof closed. I've seen better looking Little League fields.

Inside, the fan experience is one of the best in baseball. A wide open concourse with great field views all over the place. Nice people, good food, and positively the best condiment stations I've seen: pickle spears, pickle slices, onions, jalapenos, and the usual stuff.

The airport "express" bus, #102, between downtown Houston and IAH, is a miserable hour and a half long milk run, but only $1.25.

Compare Busch Stadium, which has dismal offerings: just Heinz brand pumps of ketchup, mustard, relish, ranch, honey mustard, and bbq sauce. Busch also has basically zero views from the main concourse, is huge, and features Mike's of walking to get to the upper levels. It is very well served by the Metrolink light rail, right across the street.

Tomorrow to Kansas City!

Can you guess where today's game is?

Bathroom graffiti: Minute Maid Park edition

I think the ignorant moralistic asshat means syphilis. And lifetime (which, no, it doesn't last. Either.)

It's Saturday, must be Dallas

Day two of Stadiumpalooza!

The Rangers game last night was fine, if a bit slow.

Globe Life Park is horrible: probably the second or third worst fan experience park I've been to, after US Cellular Field, home of the Chicago White Sox. Both are concrete monoliths, though at least Globe Life Park is (deceptively) attractive from the outside. Both are steep and huge - even with a front row seat in the cheap seats, I literally couldn't follow the action - I had to watch the fielders move to figure out where the ball had been hit. The railing and cables obstructed the view, the seats were small and uncomfortable, the concessions suck, and it's in Arlington, a soulless, charmless suburb convenient to nothing.

Since I could barely see the game, I walked the entire stadium, including the long, hard, tall, cold concrete ramps that are angled rather than circular, but otherwise very reminiscent of US Cellular Field. According to Wikipedia, the upper deck is one of the highest in baseball. They also note that it's one of the so-called "retro" parks; if so, it's the worst example of one I've been in.

With the good retro parks, and even some old-school parks, the main level concourse has great, close views to the field. Not so in Arlington: only the outfield concourse, conveniently located in the next zip code, looks onto the field. And they allow smoking throughout the outer edges of the concourse, so it smells like a nasty bar, even outside.

Oh, and, I'm sitting at DFW, one of my least favorite airports on the planet. Getting through the security checkpoint, with exactly four people in front of me, took a full ten minutes. Sure, not that long on balance, but c'mon: there were only four people in front of me. (And the slowness was all TSA, not the passengers.) At least the people are pleasant.

But enough complaining: I'm on an eleven day tour of ballparks in nine different cities: life is GREAT!

It's not quite like being in a prison

But a Globe Life Park, home of the Texas Rangers, is... underwhelming. Still, it's a gorgeous night to see a ballgame!

Perhaps my final food porn from Tahoe:

Nachos: Daiya pepper jack, tomatoes, kalamata olives, green onions, pan fried onions and fresh jalapeños, tomatoes.

Two words: Strong lines.

Strong. Lines.

I made nachos the night my friend S was taken off of life support, a week and a half ago.

I couldn't say much about it then. I still have a hard time talking about it now.

We mostly new one another through cooking. Specifically, for me, cutting shittons upon shittons of vegetables, while chatting in the kitchen (or tent, shack, outdoor tables, or whatever.)

So it seems appropriate that my final food porn of Tahoe is very similar to what I made while thinking about S.

I don't use people's real names on this blog, but:

S: ¡Presente!

One last visit to the lake

This season, that is. I'll be back sometime.

I'll drive by the lake tomorrow on my way too drop off keys with the property management company, which will keep my streak intact.

Bye, Tahoe. It's been a good season.

May in South Lake Tahoe

Great weather for a walk down to the lake!

Good lines from terrible movies

I was struck by this fairly hilarious quote from a fairly horrendous movie, Baseketball.

Narrator: Soon it was commonplace for entire teams to change cities in search of greater profits. The Minneapolis Lakers moved to Los Angeles where there are no lakes. The Oilers moved to Tennessee where there is no oil. The Jazz moved to Salt Lake City where they don't allow music. The Raiders moved from Oakland to LA back to Oakland... no one seemed to notice. 

Especially since the last line playes well with my geography of despair theory of sport fan fanaticism.

Some good ol' fashioned FOOD PORN!

A bunch of traveling done, and a bunch yet to come.

A1 and I made a rather extravagant breakfast in Berkeley the other day, with a bunch of delicious ingredients from the new Republic of V, a new-ish vegan specialty shop.

This is a delicious vegan breakfast sandwich, with cashew cream cheese, breakfast sausage, and hot sauce on a salt bagel (yum) pick up around the corner at Local 123.

Today's lunch started as toast and leftovers, and then I decided that it was a great day for a fancypants grilled cheese. This is caramelized onions, jalapenos, and Daiya mozzarella, and slow pan fried in Earth Balance. It was delicious.

I posted this Mediterranean style quesadilla the other day from my phone, but the image got cut off. It's dry cured black olives, and preserved Meyer lemons.

Gotta finish up packing up the Tahoe apartment to move out on Monday, and I'm reading several great ebooks from the library, a couple of which have expired (so I just haven't turned on wifi on my tablet to allow it to sync.) And I need to keep up my perfect streak of seeing the lake every day that I'm physically present in South Lake Tahoe, so I'll probably go do some reading at the public library.

Western Burger

At Flaming Icecube,  Boardman, OH. YUM.

Pittsburgh: PNC Park

Really pleasant stadium: feels cozy, and empty.

Giants already up 2-0 after one half inning.

Overheard in restaurants

I'm in Pittsburgh. I just heard some brodude scumbag explaining to his British colleague that where it all went wrong in the United States was that originally only landowners could vote, but then we changed that.

Jackass.

What's more,  from their conversation, I think they work in fracking.

Pirates game tonight!

As my brother said, why the hell did I come all the way to Pittsburgh to see a Giants game?

Vegan enchiladas!

With tofu, poblanos, ONIONS, and Daiya.

Car packed for adventure!

If the adventure is driving to Sacramento...

On being a ski bum

Yep, the season is basically over. I'm headed back down the hill today, and Sunday is closing day for skiing at Heavenly, Northstar and Kirkwood. I did some late season skiing on Monday (Kirkwood), Tuesday (Heavenly), and Wednesday (Heavenly). While I'm glad I did, it wasn't great skiing: a lot of heavy, wet, sticky snow at Heavenly, and relatively few options (although a few good ones) at Kirkwood. 

Total stats for the season (not counting four days & nights at non-Vail Management resorts) are:
32 days at Vail resorts (Heavenly, Northstar, Kirkwood, Canyons, Breckenridge)
(36 days grand total: including Mt. Rose, Brighton, and Snowbird) 
376,593 vertical feet

I definitely progressed from being a high green (beginner) skier who could negotiate basic blue (intermediate) runs, to a solid advanced intermediate skier who can confidently go fast on most blue runs. By the end of the season I was choosing some black diamond (advanced) runs.

Several friends gave me basic pointers (square to the slope, hands up, lean forward, carry a tray) which definitely improved my skiing. I still never got around to taking any formal lessons, and perhaps the biggest impediment in my becoming a true advanced level skier is my lack of formal instruction. (I've had one "lesson" ever, an hour or so with J's father about eight or nine years ago.)

I have to admit: I have kind of fucking loved being a ski bum for the season. Not that I haven't continued working, and the fantastic snow of March was essentially lost to me due to a ton of travel. But it was a pretty damn lucky, privileged life to lead for a season.

Now I'm starting to pack up the apartment in South Lake Tahoe, moving stuff back to Sacramento, and waiting to hear on a couple balls that remain up in the air. The future remains wide open.

View from the Heavenly Gondola

What the hell am i doing on my device?!?

Shades of Blue

Lake Tahoe. About five different shades of blue, even if they don't turn up in the picture.

Forgot my phone

When i went skiing today at Heavenly. It was a lovely four hours offline.

Reclamation

Under the pavement, the forest.

Getting older

Isn't all bad. Sometimes you're awfully cute.

HERB GARDEN!!!

Just planted.

From left: basil, sage, lemon balm, rosemary. (Japanese maple providing the fork in the road background.)

Another singlespeed as cargo vehicle!

I love loading up bikes with random shit and riding it around.

The Great Brussels Sprouts Massacre of 2014

Longtime readers of this blog know that brussels sprouts are one of my favorite foods.

So I was really excited to grow some.

And they bloomed, from seed, with impressive vigor, and lasted through Sacramento's cold snap, and dry winter.

 But then, didn't do a damn thing except look pretty. No fruit whatsoever.

So today I finally tore them out.

Going to plant some stuff today: random extra seeds I had in the garage, and an herb garden out front.

Grill and fry extravaganza!

Singlespeed as cargo vehicle!

Res ipsa loquitor, no? (Well, res ipsa loquitor if you click on the picture to see the whole image.)

After

See "Before", posted last week. Pulled out the pretty but non-producing Cavolfiore cabbage, and the prodigious but dry and fibery radish.

 

Not sure if I'll plant a summer garden to speak of or not: too many balls in the air.

Fresh OJ

c'mon: who doesn't like a nice glass of fresh squeezed orange juice?
The Valencia tree in the yard is just now sweet enough to juice and eat (the navel tree was good around Christmas.)

Hot salad!

This is the dinnertime food spread that J and I refer to as "hot salad" since most of the ingredients get cooked first. J has a Burner camp buddy in town, and we're feeding shit up!

Clockwise from bottom left:

• pan fried cauliflower with fresh lemon juice from the back yard
• caramelized onions
• pan fried zucchini coins
• flash fried red bell peppers (with almost a full head of garlic) 
• fried salt and pepper tofu (with almost another full head of garlic)
• lettuce from the front yard garden, three different kinds (baby oakleaf, red sail, and one I don't remember) 
• dressing
• fresh roma tomatoes, with fresh basil from my mom's herb garden
• leftover shishito peppers from Mother restaurant, a delicious new vegetarian restaurant in downtown Sacramento

A damn fine meal, if I do so say myself.

Construction debris flying about in the garage, family detritus in the neighborhood, and a future full of possibility. Big times!

Before

 

See followup post "After".  

This is the last shot of the "full" garden before I pulled a bunch of stuff out. For a look back at where it came from (these plants were all from seed) check out this post. 

Black bean tofu artichoke heart roasted red pepper stew!

Confidential to Room 318

The person getting minimum wage to clean up your room service tray from the hallway doesn't give a shit what you thought of your burger.

 

(click on the image to see the whole note if your browser view cut off the right side.)

And we'll all flot on okay...

On a Horizon Air Q400 from SEA to PDX. Only one more flight to go today, back to SMF.

Board Room SEA

That's a triple espresso with a shot of vegan dark chocolate syrup. GOOD MORNING!

Adventures in P-traps!

A new installment in the plumbing chronicles:

I've cleaned out literally hundreds of P-traps. This one (at my otherwise delightful friend H's house) is definitely in the top ten nastiest I've seen.

That's a solid halfpipe of gooey smelly soapy gel-y hairy foulness. The sink now drains great -- woo!

Amazing skiing yesterday at Breckenridge, but today my back is sore, and the road conditions sucked, so headed to Watercourse for lunch, and then probabl ywander Denver a bit.

Ohhhhh, City, O City (POST # 1,000!!!)

City, O City in Denver: still the absolute best damn vegan buffalo wings on the planet. (sample size =/>75)

HOLY CRAP, after posting this, I realized that THIS IS MY 1000th POST!!! (Only fitting that it should be food porn.) 

Sacramento gardening porn!

Living in an apartment in South Lake Tahoe has made me miss gardening. A lot.

Blowing back through Sacramento to fly out (three back to back to back trips in a row) but took some time to prune the citrus, and harvest a bit from the winter gardens:

This is the front yard: fennel, three kinds of lettuce, and some (unproductive) broccoli in the back. 

Same bed, from the other side: three varieties of kale, and (already harvested) broccoli. 

Back yard: from left (along fence): fava beans, cabbage, radish, and in far right near the other fence, brussels sprouts (which unfortunately don't look like they're going to produce.)

To get a sense of how the garden is progressing over the months, take a look back at this earlier post of the back yard and this earlier post of the front yard.

Tahoe

I'm not especially sorry that my season pass is blanked out this weekend for the holiday weekend: Heavenly is largely on wind hold, so what few lifts are open are likely going to be jam packed.

Did some great skiing on highly variable conditions yesterday with friend Z at Kirkwood. Including skiing my first (intentional) black diamond run, and going off piste for the first time (intentionally) except for some easy tree skiing long ago at Alta.

An upshot of the consistent high wind is the beautiful scent of Jeffrey pine it brings in the windows, which I have every one of wide open in my apartment. Nature's air freshener!

excitement!

Dearest readers,

How is THIS for a scintillating, edge of your seat, come back again and again blog post ?

===
TEDIOUS KEYBOARD TESTING:

why did some keys suddenly stop working on my crappy little Acer Aspire One netbook?


Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

does my Q key work? how about r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z?

e? e is a really important key, as any wheel of fortune fan can tell you.

123456789
!@#$%^&*()
QWERTYUIOP[]\
ASDFGHJKL;'
ZXCVBNM,./

okay, the stupid little piece of shit seems to be working better.

seems that unplugging it, removing the battery, holding down the power key for more than five seconds, then letting it sit for a few minutes without plugging it back in worked.

i wonder what will happen when i plug the battery back in. we'll see. trying that now.

the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.

THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPED OVER THE LAZY DOG.

now with with a/c unplugged, and running on battery power.

a/c is unplugged. can the quick brown fox still jump over the lazy dog? yes, evidently, it can.

now i'll restart and try this whole annoying bit of testing again.

Festive tofu!

I bought some Christmas-themed cookie cutters for $2 at Grocery Outlet, mostly because I wanted the star one.

Here is the unexpectedly festive (super firm) tofu that resulted in their first use!

Tofu stars!