Pea soup and ham sounds good, but I've been eating a lot of soup lately, as I have been under the weather since Wednesday of last week, which is why I did not post under TGIF last week. I'm much better now, probably at 95%, but I will still take it easy this week-end. It's gotten cool here (mid 60s) and I think we may have had rain last night, which might happen again this week-end, which would be wonderful. If I'm up to it, I will make tamales. I found corn husks at Sprout's, but they cost $5, which I found to be expensive. Last Saturday (when I should have stayed home), we went to what I thought was a Von's close to our house, but it is now a dollar (or 99 cent) store, and I guess corn husks are too expensive for them to carry! Before that we went to a grocery/liquor store that is even closer to our house, and its doors had been chained, as it is going through a change of ownership. The large recycling center in its parking lot was still open, however, but that was all that was going on. Kevin said that he had seen people who collect bottles and cans get vouchers for what they had collected and then used those vouchers to buy lottery tickets! I think they should have given them food stamps instead. There are too many dollar stores now, I think. The fruit and vegetable market that we used to go to is also now a dollar store. I will say that the dollar store that used to be a Von's is much cleaner than the Von's was, and I did not shop at the Von's because it was not very nice. It would be nice if a dollar store would reopen as a vegetable market. Maybe I'll make pizzas this week-end and put some of my Roma tomatoes on them. I've been mostly avoiding cheese while I was sick, as I think it makes congestion worse. I think I'll be fully recovered by tomorrow. I want to make something besides soup. I did make some very good cabbage soup while I was sick, and it was quick and easy and much better than I expected, although it did not have much of a cabbage flavor. I had Kimchee flavored soup yesterday. I turn the TV off whenever anything Superbowl comes on - it's just a lot of annoying noise as far as I'm concerned. Stay well, everyone and have a great week-end! Lars

Chicken rice soup was great, I made a big pot and it was all gone by nightfall. Made the stock from the chicken carcass, 1 hour in the pressure cooker, done as the meat was roasting. I diced the carrots, celery, and chicken breast into neat little cubes, and it really looked cute. Cooked some arborio rice in chicken stock and held it on the side, to be added to each bowl of soup at service (the rice gets mushy if left in the pot of soup). dcarch, that bike looks interesting. I have also seen e-bikes where the motor drives the crankset through an additional chainring, which allows the bike's gearing to act as the motor's transmission. Of course, your legs then have to pedal with the motor, so it is a more "active" sort of e-bike. Supposedly e-bikes are getting popular here in Portland, but I almost never see any on the roads. It makes a lot of sense for heavily loaded bikes - cargo bikes, bikes hauling kids and groceries. The type I'm most interested in use the motor as an intelligent assist - the bike senses if you are pedaling, and adds motor power to the human power in a constant proportion. The principle is sort of to simulate a very strong rider, rather than an electric moped. There is also a "stealth" system called the Gruber Assist that hides the battery and motor in the bicycle's seat tube, and drives the crank through a bevel gear on the bottom bracket, for an invisible and relatively light installation. But, reports say, the noise of the motor gives it away in actual use. This post was edited by johnliu on Mon, Nov 18, 13 at 10:38

No cooking this weekend, no interesting cooking anyway. Took daughter to school for her Speech & Debate tournament at 6:30 am. I was not happy about getting up at 5:30 am on Saturday. By the time I got home, it was still dark, but it seemed pointless to go back to bed, so I put on bike gear and went to ride laps up Mt Tabor, our local hilltop park. The "mountain" in Mt Tabor is a very miniature one, it is really just a big hill that used to be a volcano way back when. There are a couple different roads that lead to the top. They start in pretty neighborhoods then climb up through trees and past fields and reservoirs for about a mile, though some are shorter and steeper while others are longer and easier. On my first ride up the hill, I watched the sun rise through the tall trees, and that really made my morning. I kept climbing to the top, circling the peak of the hill which became more sunlit on each lap, descending through the fog and mist, turning around at the bottom and trying a different route up. On one lap I saw a familiar jacket ahead and caught up to it. When I first took my bike to Mt Tabor a few years ago, I met a guy who rides laps up the hill every day. On weekdays he does a few laps as part of his bike commute, on weekends he does laps in the mornings. He'd explained to me that severe arthritis runs in his family, and climbing hills on the bike was the only way he could stay pain free. His mother had both hips replaced, his sister has had one replacement and is needing another, but he is still fit and mobile on his original equipment. I was so impressed that I started riding Mt a Tabor semi-regularly, and have done ever since. But not like this guy. He's ridden up the hill over 40,000 times. When I first rode up the hill it seemed awfully hard, even on a mountain bike with very low gears. I struggled and my heart pounded as I gasped for breath. Now I'm better at climbing, so I ride a road bike with fairly high gears and can have a conversation while climbing, as I did today with this guy. There are much steeper climbs around Portland and I am still not a good enough climber for some of them. The idea I had a few months ago is to make my Mt Tabor laps more difficult by only using the big chainring (that is, forcing myself to use the harder gears) and pushing so that I am struggling on my last lap. I hope it works like weightlifting, where you get stronger by pushing your muscles to failure, and that I'll do better on the steeper climbs now. If I really wanted to be a better climber, I'd lose 20 or more lbs. The best climbers on a bike weigh 140 lbs. But they don't hang around the Cooking Forum either. When I was done, it was still early. I rode to a Saturday farmers' market where they were just setting up. One stall sold breakfast burritos, and I got a duck and lamb burrito (only in Portland). It came fat and hot and wrapped in foil. I slipped the burrito in one of my jersey pockets and it kept me warm on the ride home. Unfortunately, when I got home I was so hungry that I ate the whole burrito and raided the fridge and didn't stop until I'd eaten what I estimate was 1,600 calories. It wasn't even 10 am yet. Talk about undoing all the morning's good work on the bike. And that is why I am not cooking this weekend. I think I need to not think about food for a couple of days! This post was edited by johnliu on Sat, Nov 9, 13 at 23:45

TGIF everyone. I've been too busy to get into the holiday spirit this year. Bagged putting up a tree, and didn't bother with the usual lights. Work is decorated and that's where I spend most of my time. We'll go to The Kid's for Christmas and she's all into being a Martha (Stewart), so I don't feel too deprived. It's a long weekend for me, with a rare Saturday off. It's been an odd week, including bunch of deadlines, contentious meetings and being the victim of a random act of kindness (detailed on the Conversations side). I started out my weekend Thursday night with a deep tissue massage... came home, had a glass of wine and fell soundly asleep in my chair. Ahhhhh....... Today was a trip to town for a doctor appt. during our first real snow. People got complacent, I think...wrecks and ambulances everywhere. So we grabbed some groceries and ran for home. I got my sis's package mailed.... main mission accomplished. Tomorrow I'll wrap the kids' presents, put together goodie baskets for work. Maybe bake something using the wonderful crystallized ginger one of my girls brought me from Australia. Sunday DH made an appointment for a hearing test. At noon. At Costco. On the Sunday before Christmas. argh. Clinking with a cup of eggnog laced w/ rum. Be healthy and travel safely everyone.