Saturday night I was in College Station for AggieCon. I'm looking for
good BBQ and Mexican food places in towns I go to often, so I chose a Mexican joint for dinner. I wish this place was in my hometown. We'd be going there often.
Loc Molcajetes impressed me.
I had the enchiladas verdes, my usual choice when trying a new joint. The sauce was nice and tangy and the chicken was tasty. The charro beans had a nice flavor, the broth was a bit cloudier than I like, but that's a very minor issue. The rice was nicely done, as well. The chips were mostly scraps and not very warm, but the salsa seemed to be fresh, with a nice amount of heat.
For dessert, I had the Tres Leches and I actually enjoyed it.
Here's the score card
Atmosphere: 5
Green Salsa: unrated
Red Salsa: 5
Chips: 3
Rice: 5
Beans (charro): 5
Enchiladas: 5
Margaritas: As I was alone, I did not try a margarita
Friday night I was in College Station for AggieCon. I'm looking for good BBQ and Mexican food places in towns I go to often, so I chose a BBQ joint for dinner. I wished I'd gone to one K. and I had visited in the past.
J. Cody's was a disappointment.
I had the regular combo with Sausage and Brisket and a dessert of peach cobbler. I waited for the plate to be delivered to me, and then went up to the sides bar. I picked up the corn bread, beans, cole slaw and potato salad. The sausage and the corn bread were the best things of the meal.
The brisket was dry and flavorless. The potato salad was not very interesting, the beans were ok, and the cole slaw was pretty standard.. The corn bread was nice and light, not the style we make at home, but pretty good. The sausage had a nice flavor, but was a bit overground for my likings. The peach cobbler seemed like a standard Sysco offering.
No workout. Came down with con crud over the weekend and went home and slept for 14 hours.
This week, the competition was not playing well. We handled them easily, with the closest game at 15-8, I think. I don't believe they scored more than 8 points in either of the previous games.
We don't play next week, but the following week we play "How I Set Your Mother", another team with a losing record.
Elliptical: 14 minutes, incline, level 3, 2.0 miles, 192 cal
Leg press (both): 2 x 15@130 lbs
Leg press (left): 2 x 15@80 lbs
Leg press (right): 2 x 15@80 lbs
Leg extension(both): 2 x 15@60 lbs
Leg curl (both): 2 x 15@50 lbs
Standard chest straight motion: 2 x 15@100 lbs.
Aikido players: Dan the Elder
Ukemi:
A couple of warm-up falls
The Walk:
Not on Thursdays, normally.
Releases:
Not on Thursdays, normally.
Techniques:
We worked through #1 (shomen-ate) and #2 (aigamae-ate) of Ju Nana Hon Kata
We
spent a lot of time on the footwork of 3-step techniques. Footwork improved and the techniques improved as well. We did not spen much time on aigamae-ate, but got a few repetitions in.
Aftermath:
None of note.
After another week off from volleyball (because of Spring Break), we did ok as a team. I was fairly incompetent, or at least did not play as well as I would have liked. We almost lost the middle game, I think it was 21-17.
Next week we play "Bumpin' Uglies", a team with a losing record.
Friday:
Lunch at Casarez,
Stopped at JK's restaurant supply
Took me 40 minutes to get back to work due to beach traffic
Aikido
Back to work to investigate some database issues
Started refreshing the sourdough starter
Saturday:
Up at 6:15 a.m.
Made some banana muffins
Nap
Aikidostopped by work
Picked up Boots from my mom's fro her week long visit to our house
Worked on Sourdough and Pain sur Poolish
Dinner with K at nobi Public House
Dessert at Franca's
Stayed up til midnight working on breads
Sunday:
Breads
LoneStarCon3 skype meeting
Breads
Elliptical: 14 minutes, incline, level 3, 1.9 miles, 186 cal
Leg press (both): 2 x 15@130 lbs
Leg press (left): 2 x 15@80 lbs
Leg press (right): 2 x 15@80 lbs
Leg extension(both): 2 x 15@60 lbs
Leg curl (both): 2 x 15@50 lbs
Standard chest straight motion: 1 x 15@80 lbs, 1 x 15@90 lbs.
Looking for a muffin recipe to use up some stored away bananas. This recipe looked promising, but after trying it, I'm going to try to alter my Blueberry muffin recipe to use bananas instead and see how it turns out.
This one ended up being too sweet, with not enough of a crown on the muffins. The tops were too flat. I did not manage to get any pictures.
Another recipe tried this weekend. Another one with a minor flaw on my part. I think I did too many rise/degas cycles. Mainly becuase of a meeting I had, I wasn't going to be able to put it in the oven on time.
The taste was great, but the final appearance lacked any oven spring.
Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal Bread
Makes 3 loaves
24 oz (5 1/2 cups) bread or all-purpose unbleached flour
8 oz (1 7/8 cups) whole wheat flour
5.3 oz (1 5/8 cups) rolled oats
20 oz (2 1/2 cups) water
3.5 oz (3/8 cups) milk
2.4 oz (3 tablespoons) honey
2.4 oz (5 1/2 tablespoons) vegetable oil
.7 oz (1 tablespoons plus 1/2 teaspoon) salt
.37 oz (1 1/4 tablespoon) instant yeast
.5 oz (2 tablespoons) ground cinnamon
10.6 oz (2 cups) soaked and drained raisins
At least half an hour before you begin, soak the raisins in warm water.
Doing so plumps them, which makes them softer and moister in the loaf and also prevents the ones on the surface of the loaf from burning. Just prior to adding the raisins to the loaf, you'll pour the water out.
Next, soak the oats in the 2 1/2 cups water for 20 to 30 minutes.
If you are using active dry yeast instead of instant yeast, which I did, withhold 1/2 cup of the water to proof the yeast in.
Mix the flours, yeast, milk, honey, oil, salt, and cinnamon into the oats. Mix well, until all of the flour is hydrated. Knead by hand for 5 minutes or in a standmixer for 3, then mix in the drained raisins. Knead or mix until the raisins are distributed throughout the dough.
Cover the bowl of dough and allow it to rise for 1 hour. Then remove the dough from the bowl and fold it, degassing it gently as you do. The images below illustrate this technique.
Place the dough on a floured work surface, top side down.
Fold the dough in thirds, like a letter, gently degassing as you do.
Fold in thirds again the other way.
Flip the dough over, dust off as much of the raw flour as you can, and place it back into the bowl.
Cover the bowl and allow the dough to rise in bulk again for another hour. Then divide the dough in thirds and shape the loaves.
Place each shaped loaf into a greased bread pan.
Spray or gently brush each loaf with water and sprinkle with some more oats.
Cover the pans and set aside to rise until the loaves crest above the edge of the pans, roughly 90 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 450. Place the loaves in the center rack of the oven. After 5 minutes, reduce the oven temperature to 375. Rotate the loaves 180 degrees after 20 minutes, and bake for another 15 to 25 minutes, until the tops of the loaves are nicely browned, the bottoms of the loaves make a hollow sound when tapped, and the internal temperature of the loaf registers above 185 degrees when measured with an instant read thermometer.
This recipe came from thefreshloaf.com. This was my first attempt with it. The dough was a bit too wet, but I attempted to follow it exactly. Next time, I'll add flour to get the right feel. The crust and crumb were nice, but it did not hold a shape well.
My Pain Sur Poolish (Daily Bread)
Makes 2 loaves
Poolish
1 cup flour
1 cup water
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
Final Dough
1 pound flour
10-12 ounces water
1 teaspoon instant yeast
2 teaspoons salt
all of the poolish
Combine the ingredients for the poolish in a small bowl the night before baking. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave the poolish out at room temperature overnight.
The next day, prepare the final dough, either by using the autolyse method of flour and water first then the rest of the ingredients with minimal mixing or by combining them all and mixing until you have decent gluten development (8 to 10 minutes).
I typically fold the dough once an hour twice during primary fermentation, then shape the loaves and give them a longer final rise, typically around 90 minutes. Meanwhile, my oven and baking stone are preheating as hot as they can safely go.
Baking, with steam, takes me 20 minutes, 5 minutes or so at maximum oven temperature, the remainder at 450-475. I rotate the loaves once half way through the baking.
I've been using the recipe here
from northwestsourdough.com for my basic sourdough and it's been
turning out well. It turned out quite well this weekend.
I made two loaves. I'd bumped up my reserve of starter so that it was overflowing the container by the time I used it.
510g starter
397g water
1 Tbsp oil
935g bread flour
22g salt
Mixed the following:
510g starter
397g water
850g flour
1 Tbsp oil
Let it rest for 20 minutes
Added in:
22g salt
85g flour
Placed the dough in an oiled bowl to bulk ferment, with plastic wrap over the top to prevent drying.
I stretched and folded the dough several times during the ferment.
After
about 10 hours, I turned it out of the bowl and shaped it into a
batard, and then placed it in a well-floured banneton, covered it with
plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator.
Sunday afternoon, I did a bunch of baking. The sourdough loaves were the last to get baked, so they cam out of the fridge late after noon. I left them warm up for a couple of hours.
I turned the loaf
onto the bread peel, slashed the top with my lame, spritzed it heavily
with water and then slipped the loaf onto the baking stone. I then
covered the loaf with the steam catcher, and let it bake for 20
minutes. I then removed the steam catcher and let it bake for 10 more
minutes. I then rotated the loaf 180 degrees and let it bake for a
final 10 minutes. I did the same thing for the second loaf.
The crust was nice, and the crumb was nice.
Below are the results:
Saturday night, K. and I went out to eat. She'd not eaten much during the day and had worked hard, so she needed beer and sustenance. We chose nobi Public House for the beer and sustenance due to recent notice in the Houston Press food blog and rumors from friends.
It's a nice little craft beer bar with some good food. We got there around 5:30 and there were plenty of seats. When we left, another group swept in and took our place.
It looks like they've got about 30 or 40 taps for draft beer and a vast selection of bottled beer.
I chose a Schneider Weisse Original for K. and a Guanabara Imperial Stout for myself, with a St. Arnold's Draft Root Beer on the side. All 3 were quite good.
For dinner, K. had the Charbroiled Pork over Vermicelli. I had the Chargrilled chicken over stir-fried noodles. The pork and the chicken had nice, different flavors and were scarfed down quite quickly.
Took the time to drive up to Hobby again to try Casarez. Houston Press reported it as being one of the 10 best places to eat around the airport, so I figured I'd give it another chance. Short and to the point: good, but still not worth the 15 minute drive from work. And definitely not worth the 40 minutes it took to get back to work due to Spring Break beach traffic.
The
place was decently filled with locals grabbing lunch. I ordered Nachos Cadillac with beef fajita meat.
I seem to remember the green sauce for the chips being awfully spicy last time, it had a nice amount of heat this time.
Atmosphere: 5
Green Salsa: 3
Red Salsa: unrated
Chips: 5
Rice: unrated
Beans (refried): hidden by everything else
Enchiladas: unrated
Margaritas: no bar
Aikido players: Tim, Troy, and Dan the Elder
Ukemi:
Got a full set in
The Walk:
Twice as usual
Releases:
We did round robin releases. Troy and Dan uked for me (right and left side, respectively). Dan and I uked for Troy. Troy and I uked for Dan.
Techniques:
Dan and I uked for Troy for Hiki-otoshi. Troy and I uked for Dan on Shomen-ate at 3-step distance
Aftermath:
None
of note.
Aikido players: Tim, Troy, Marvin, Gail, Dan the Elder, and Hossein (we also had a potential new student sit and watch)
Ukemi:
A couple of warm-up falls. I then watched over Gail and Marvin
The Walk:
Twice as usual
Releases:
I worked with Marvin.
Techniques:
I worked with Marvin on Shomen-ate at 3-step distance. We worked on it quite a bit. His footwork improved by the end of the evening. We did one attempt at Oshi-taoshi, my knee complained so we did no more reps of that. We did a few reps on Aigamae-ate
Aftermath:
None
of note.
Aikido players: No students
Aftermath: No class. I turned the mat back over to the karate students for sparring
Elliptical: 14 minutes, incline, level 3, 1.9 miles, 183 cal. I guess I was just running a bit slower.
Leg press (both): 2 x 15@130 lbs
Leg press (left): 2 x 15@80 lbs
Leg press (right): 2 x 15@80 lbs
Leg extension(both): 2 x 15@60 lbs
Leg curl (both): 2 x 15@50 lbs
Still no
arm work.
Elliptical: 14 minutes, incline, level 3, 2 miles, 193 cal
Leg press (both): 2 x 15@130 lbs
Leg press (left): 2 x 15@80 lbs
Leg press (right): 2 x 15@80 lbs
Leg extension(both): 2 x 15@60 lbs
Leg curl (both): 2 x 15@50 lbs
No arm work, as my left arm was still a little number from sleeping wrong over the weekend. An old (20 years ago) volleyball injury making its presence felt
I drove up to Shuttle Burger this past Friday. It is hidden away in a
strip center, away from the freeway. It still only took about 10-15 minutes to get there. It's received a high percentage of thumbs up on b4-u-eat and was listed as one of the 10 best places to eat near Hobby Airport by the Houston Press.
It was a nice place, with a little bit of a space program decor.. A crowd of regulars, I'd bet, made up the patrons.
Dive? Not too bad. Almeda mall and then a little bit west. (8405 Almeda Genoa Rd Ste A)
I ordered a double meat burger with fries, and a tea. Total was a bit less than $8, iirc.
The fries were a bit limp, but tasty. The patty was decent, not much spice too it, but a nice amount of ooze. Tea was freshly made.
This place is probably better than Burger House. It's cheaper than Fudd's, but on a flavor/dollar ratio, it's right a bit better. I'd have to try9'er's Grill again to compare.
They also do a breakfast, looking at their menu.
This is a recipe from thefreshloaf.com I altered the filling, as I did not want to use up a bunch of fresh blueberries. We did have a bunch of Blood Orange Marmalade around the house, so I used that instead.
Makes 2 braidsFor the sponge: mix the sugar, yeast, and flour together in bowl. Pour in the warm milk. Beat until smooth, then cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 1/2 hour.
Sponge
1 tablespoon instant yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 cup warm milk
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
Dough
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup sugar
3-3-1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
Egg Glaze
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk
Cream Cheese Filling
3/4 cup cream cheese
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon egg glaze
This is a recipe from thefreshloaf.com
We bought a container of Herbs de Provence a couple of months ago and I thought this would be a great recipe when I spotted it.
Pain De ProvenceThe night before baking, make the poolish by mixing together 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of water, and 1/2 teaspoon of yeast to make a batter. Cover the container with plastic wrap and set aside for 8 to 16 hours until you are ready to make the final dough.
Makes 1 large loaf
Poolish:
1 cup bread or all-purpose unbleached flour
1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
Dough:
All of the poolish
2 cups bread or all-purpose unbleached flour
1/2 cup Herbes de Provence
1 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup liqueur such as Beauchant, Grand Marnier, or orange Curaçao
1/4-1/2 cup water, as necessary
This is a recipe from allrecipes.com
We baked 3 recipes this weekend. We had a ton of bananas in the freezer, and still have enough to make some more. We would have baked 4, but could not find our usual recipe. It's got to be somewhere in the house.
2 cups
all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon
baking soda
This recipe comes from gourmeted.com
We baked 3 recipes this weekend. We had a ton of bananas in the freezer, and still have enough to make some more. We would have baked 4, but could not find our usual recipe. It's got to be somewhere in the house.
Thess’s Nana’s Banana Bread
Ingredients:
This is a recipe from allrecipes.com
We baked 3 recipes this weekend. We had a ton of bananas in the freezer, and still have enough to make some more. We would have baked 4, but could not find our usual recipe. It's got to be somewhere in the house.
1/4 cup
butter, softened
Friday:
Lunch at Shuttle Burger
Grocery shopping for weekend bread baking
Aikido
Saturday:
Started work on Banana Breads
Aikido
Finished work on Banana Breads
Started work on Pain de Provence and Fruit/Cream Cheese Braid
Dinner with K. of a nice crock pot recipe
Sunday:
Sprang Forward
Worked on the braids and the Pain de Provence
Art Show work
Long Nap
Sunday's breads:
Aikido players: Marvin, and Dan. Tim arrived late.
Ukemi:
A couple of warm-up falls
The Walk:
Twice, as usual.
Releases:
Marvin and Dan worked together, with my oversight
Techniques:
We worked on Shomen-ate at 3-step distance. The big problem at the moment is the footwork. Doing the proper approach to the technique would help them get their timing and their technique in better shape. They are not taking consistent steps from attempt to attempt and that messes with distance and timing.
Aftermath:
None of note. Slava dropped by and we sat and chatted with him for a while.
Aikido players: Tim, Marvin, Gail, Dan the Elder, Hossein, and Rob
Ukemi:
A couple of warm-up falls. I then watched over Gail
The Walk:
Twice as usual
Releases:
I worked with Hossein. We spent a good portion of the evening on releases. I think most of the other folks did, as well.
Techniques:
We worked on Shomen-ate. He needs to take the off-balance in his playground and get the footwork correct.
Aftermath:
None of note. I was wearing volleyball knee pads and was able to do my first lap of knee-walking since my injury in June. It was nice. I look forward to the day when I attempt to do it without the knee pads.
Aikido players: Sal, and Dan the Elder
Ukemi:
A couple of warm-up falls
The Walk:
Not on Thursdays, normally.
Releases:
Not on Thursdays, normally.
Techniques:
We worked through #1 of Ju Nana Hon Kata, Shomen-ate.
We spent a lot of time on the footwork of 3-step techniques. This was review for Sal and new learning for Dan. Still more work to do for Dan in getting the footwork correct.
Aftermath:
None of note.
