Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Last day of work before the New Year's holiday! The traffic has been very light -- if only it was always this light -- but it has been heavier than I expected.

It started raining last night and hasn't stopped. I took the car to work -- I haven't waterproofed the gear yet.

I'm not sure if I'll get any riding in this weekend. I have a lot of catching up to do with things around the apartment. I had hoped to take the bike out of town for the holiday, but I'll be home.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

It's been raining since Friday. It wasn't too bad yesterday morning but it got heavy in the afternoon. I got 3 blocks from work and the rain was already soaking through my jacket. By the time I got home I was soaked to the skin and all my leather was waterlogged, including my boots. Everything was still wet this morning. Yuck! I took the car to the training because I didn't want to put on wet gear. I bought Nikwax waterproofer last night and will use it on everything.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

On the 14-5 fwy interchange a guy with a bad moustache was trying to block me but in a passive-aggressive way. He didn't make any sudden moves, he just was on the lane marker and wouldn't look at me when I rode by. When will people realize that a)Lanesplitting is legal in California, and b)Even if you do block me, you're only delaying me for maybe 5 seconds. Does it really make people feel better to harass riders? How pathetic their lives must be.

On the 101 I caught up to another rider on a sportbike. He wouldn't move over but I was too tired to care. I stayed behind him until we transitioned to the 110. He took off and I got off at Wilshire.

Monday, December 6, 2010

A couple miles from where I get on the freeway I was lanesplitting in the carpool lane behind a rider on a cruiser when a motocop suddenly swung over in front of me. He scared the hell out of the other rider. I don't think the other rider even knew it was a cop at first - he just saw a bike coming into his lane. I don't know where that first guy went - the cop was behind him, and then we came around a bend and he was gone. The motocop kept going so I followed him. He ended up getting off the freeway one exit before mine, so I just followed him in the entire way. I stayed off his ass - they hate when you ride close - but rode the same speed. It was great!

Random Weirdness

Several weeks ago I was commuting on the 210 fwy when I started to lanesplit next to a city bus that was in the #1 lane. Just as I started to go by, the driver suddenly put on the left-turn blinker and swung onto the left shoulder. I thought something must be wrong. Nope, he just wanted to get by some of the traffic. He traveled on the shoulder for about a mile before swinging back into the #1 lane. Odd.

New Direction

I had to close down the baking business a few months ago. I just couldn't make it profitable. As such, I'm changing the focus of this blog. No longer will it be a little about motorcycles and mainly about food. It will now be mostly about motorcycles and a little about food and my travels.

I commute 80 miles, 5 days a week (400 miles/week) and almost daily there are incidents that I want to relate or vent about. It might be interesting, it might not be, but I'll be posting about them nonetheless.

Enjoy the ride....

My Weekend in Sacramento – Sunday

After a hearty breakfast of eggs, bacon, and hash browns, C and I headed out to Sutter’s Fort. The fort is located in the middle of downtown Sacramento. It’s a great place to visit and we had a lot more fun than we had expected. We got to watch them fire a musket and a Russian-made replica of the Russian-made cannon that Sutter had used to keep his enemies at bay.

After Sutter’s Fort we went to Old Sacramento, commonly called Old Sac, which is next to the Sacramento River, just south of where the American River flows into it. We sat on the deck of the Delta King, an authentic Mississippi river boat, and had drinks.

Candace had an unexpectedly large glass of Viognier and I had a new gluten-free beer called Redbridge (by Anheuser-Busch, which was a surprise, and made with sorghum). I had tried a gluten-free beer once before and poured it out. I was pleasantly surprised by this one.

It’s a pilsner-style beer, which I’m not a fan of; I like dark beer. But after not drinking beer for so long, it was nice to enjoy the flavor of a decent beer. I’d like to find a gluten-free dark beer, but in a pinch, the Redbridge will do.

After our drinks we walked around Old Sac, which is a collection of restored 19th century buildings.


There are gift shops, candy shops, and restaurants. We wondered into a fantasy-themed shop that smelled really good. It was cramped and crowded, but the mingled scents from the incense, candles, and soaps were very relaxing.

After getting our fill of smell-good stuff, we decided to find some lunch. We left Old Sac and went to a café that Candace likes, but it was closed. Luckily Café Bernardo/R15 was open (http://www.paragarys.com/go/prg/locations/cafe-bernardo/). Candace had grilled polenta with tomato-basil sauce, Parmesan, and mixed greens. I had a grilled chicken quesadilla. Both were very good, though the quesadilla could have been grilled slightly longer, as it was a touch doughy.

For dinner, Candace did the preparing and her hubby did the grilling. They made grilled filet mignon kabobs marinated in olive oil, garlic, and rosemary; and grilled prosciutto-wrapped asparagus spears. Everything was yummy and we drank an absolutely lovely Kathryn Kennedy.

The next morning, Candace drove me to the airport, I had pizza for breakfast, and then it was time to return home. It was a wonderful weekend of great food and wine, excellent company, and being pampered!

Next post, something with chocolate...

My Weekend in Sacramento – Saturday

After hanging with C's family, we went to the new Squeeze Inn location (www.squeezeinn.com). They moved to a larger location but the new place isn’t very big. This was my first visit, though I had heard about it on Guy Fieri’s show Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives.

(this picture is from the Squeeze Inn web site)

The cheese skirt is what they’re famous for. Candace and I both got their basic cheeseburger, the Squeeze with Cheese, and added jalapenos, and her hubby got a basic Squeeze with Cheese. We also got 2 orders of fries.

I wasn’t impressed. The cheese skirt was super good - it’s crispy melted cheese, how could it be anything but good?! But the burger itself was somewhat bland, even with the jalapenos, and slightly overcooked. I think the basic cheeseburger from In-n-Out is much better, though smaller and no cheese skirt.

The fries weren’t very good; Candace said they used to be much better. It seems they’re now using frozen French fries. Very disappointing. I don’t know why they wouldn’t stick with the fresh. If In-n-Out can do it, there’s no excuse for these guys not to. It’s not like they’re serving people quickly – between standing in line and then waiting for the food, it took over 1.5 hours. I expected a lot more based on Guy Fieri’s review. Not worth going back there again.

Of course, dinner was much, much better – Candace was cooking.

Her friend Gwen came over for dinner and showed off the uber-cool Art Deco wall sconces she’d found in a local antique shop that afternoon. We nibbled on shaved Parmesan cheese and drank wine until dinner was ready.

Mmmmm, braised beef with olives and tomatoes, served with roasted fingerling potatoes. The beef was tender and delicious, and the olives gave it the perfect bite. Excellent food, good wine, and perfect company.

My Weekend in Sacramento - Friday

After arriving in Sacramento, Candace picked me up from the airport and we went to Hot Italian (www.hotitalian.net) and got these lovely little concoctions of gelato drenched with hot espresso. The first sensation was that the espresso made it too hot to eat. But that quickly passed as I took a spoonful of the gelato with a puddle of the espresso. So good. The last few sips were a mixture of espresso and melted gelato. It was the perfect afternoon pick-me-up.

After some relaxing and catching up, we met C’s husband and family for dinner at Paragary’s (http://www.paragarys.com/go/prg/locations/paragarys-bar-oven/), a local fixture in Sac. Candace and I both started with a glass of Malbec, a nice full-bodied red wine. I don’t remember much else about this wine, as it was eclipsed by the next selection.

Before the next wine we all shared three appetizers:
--Warm herbed goat cheese with pistachios, roasted pears, red wine syrup, and crostini
--Scampi - gulf prawns, tomato, white wine, shallot, garlic, butter, virgin olive oil, and grilled bread
--Brushetta - grilled garlic rubbed bread, mashed chickpeas, pancetta, asparagus, and Parmesean

I didn’t try the brushetta, but the goat cheese was amazing. The combination of flavors was something I wasn’t expecting. The scampi was very good, with large shrimps and grilled bread. The scampi sauce was incredible! After the shrimp was gone, all the bread on the table went into that bowl. Yum!

C’s dad had brought a bottle of wine for the main course: a 2002 Harlan Matriarch. While the earlier Malbec was a nice glass of wine, the Matriarch was in an entirely different class. It was full and luscious and complex and so many other things that I should have written down at the time.

And it went perfectly with my entrée: Grilled Hanger steak with Potato-leek gratin, Bloomsdale spinach, Trumpet mushrooms, and red wine sauce. The steak was tender and flavorful, the gratin creamy and delicious, and the spinach, mushrooms, and sauce complimented all of the other flavors brilliantly.

Although we were all stuffed, no one could resist dessert. I chose the Warm Valrhona Chocolate Cake with Espresso ice cream and chocolate sauce. What can I say? It was incredible, delicious, intense, and all of the yummy adjectives currently floating through your mind.

A night cap after we returned home, and the evening was complete.

The rest of my weekend soon…

Filled Chocolates - the first experiment

This weekend I spent a wonderful weekend with my friend Candace in Sacramento. I wanted to bring something yummy for her and also to experiment with chocolates. So I made my first molded chocolates.

They’re dark chocolate ganache on the inside and covered with semi-sweet chocolate. They were a good first try, and they were pretty tasty, but the tempering didn’t work out perfectly. I’ll have to play around a bit on the next batch.

Welcome to my spot!

Come in, grab a seat, and hang awhile. Here, on my first blog, I will share my passion for my two favorite subjects: chocolate and motorcycles. I am a baker, amateur chocolatier, and relatively new motorcycle rider (3+ years). My baby is my 2006 Kawasaki Ninja 650. It's a good bike and loads of fun.

My favorite dessert? Anything with chocolate, of course! For baking I prefer Guittard, but it's generally hard to find locally (I usually have to buy it on-line), so I end up using Ghirardelli a lot (not a bad second choice). I've been baking and making candy since I was a kid and have been making a little money selling my baked goods for about 1.5 years. Recently I've been experimenting with chocolate candy, both truffles and molded chocolates. I still have lots more experimenting to do...

See you soon.