I Embark On a Quest!

So, I recently joined the YMCA near my current job. The facility is less than a year old and has everything. I can't stop saying good things about it. However, I do have one beef. They offer a bunch of classes in the lap pool which constricts the number of lanes available for just swimming laps. As a former competitive swimmer/water polo player, hopping in the pool and playing tag with the wall is a natural way to start the day for me. Unfortunately all these classes have cut into my swimming time. What makes it even more frustrating is that I've never been a big fan of classes. I enjoy setting my own workouts and don't generally even like having workout partners.

But, I've come across an obscure phrase of striking wisdom. "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." As such, I decided to try a class or two. On the other hand, I'm also a big fan of the phrase "Go big or go home," which is why I'm going to take ALL THE CLASSES!

Okay, there are a couple of limitations. There are a few classes that are only offered during the day and there are some with age restrictions. That still leaves me with a pretty good-sized list of classes:

• Zumba 101
• Shallow Water Fitness
• Deep Water Aerobics
• AquaZumba
• Boot Camp
• Cross Train
• Kickboxing
• Zumba
• River Fitness Bootcamp
• Kick Camp
• Iaido
• Cycling
• Core NRG
• SwimFit
• Sculpt
• Awaken Yoga
• Foam Rolling
• Hip Hop
• River Fitness
• Tai Chi
• Power Yoga
• Caribbean Rhythms

Yeah, seriously, I'm going to take a class called "AquaZumba." I'm not even sure what sort of class "Caribbean Rhythms is." Dancing? Do I need to bring my own steel drum? "Foam Rolling?" What? How bad can these be? Actually, I anticipate that I'll probably regret this decision a few times, probably really dislike some of the classes. On the other hand, I'm sure I'll enjoy a few of them. In fact, I'm even looking forward to a few.

I need to figure out the timing on the classes, but I figure I'll start next Monday morning with one of the aquatics classes. The offerings are SwimFit, River Fitness and Deep Water Fitness.

Wish me luck!

French Onion Soup

Yesterday I made french onion soup (FOS). I wasn't pleased with it. It was decent, but I don't settle for decent. Thus, I made more today. Prior to making another batch of FOS I spent a bunch of time looking at recipes online, grabbing ideas and just absorbing approaches to making the stuff. There were a few things I knew early on that I wanted to change, but wasn't sure how much impact they'd have or even if I was going in the right direction. The research helped reassure me, but ultimately, I figured I'd appeal to a higher power.

Yup, I called Gavin.

Gavin, my brother, an incredibly talented chef of high repute.

We talked for a while, largely about the caramelization of onions, but also about other things FOS-related. Shortly thereafter I went to the store where I got a ton (well, 6 pounds) of onions, some sherry and beef stock. Then, back in the kitchen I started my second batch of FOS, this time, cooking the way I normally cook.

With yesterday's batch, I had a recipe, I followed it diligently. While for some things, I don't mind that approach, I much prefer to just go with my gut. On the other hand, prior to yesterday, I'd never made FOS, nor really even thought about making it before, so my gut would've been worthless as a guide. But, now that I had made a batch, plus the additional research and conversation with my brother, I felt confident just digging in and making some SOUP!

I started by slicing up those 6 pounds of onions and slowly caramelizing them over the course of about an hour and a half with about 4 tablespoons of butter and a bit of salt. After I was satisfied with the progress, in went some flour and pepper. Then it was broth time, 32 ounces, into the pot. Simmer simmer simmer simmer simmer, then a splash of sherry and a good pour of dry white wine. Oh, yeah, and a bunch of dried thyme and parsley got mixed in as well. I had started making it around midday so it would have plenty of time for all the flavors to marry by dinner time. After returning home from picking up Natalie at work, I fired up the broiler, sliced some french bread and grated some gruyere. After ladling a bowl each, about 3/4 full, topping each bowl with bread, then spreading cheese on top, they went into the oven until the bread and cheese were all nice and happy.

We just finished eating our dinner and both agree that this pot was VASTLY better than yesterday's. My desires for next time will be to make my own stock and maybe use some better sherry. I also am interested in trying some different onions.

Meat in Tubes, Chapter 1

First, a bit of background: This past Christmas I got a meat grinder. Shortly thereafter, I made a huge pot of chili, which kicked off my Week of Ground Meat. During the Week of Ground Meat, I used the meats of a few different animals and genuinely enjoyed doing it, both because it resulted in yummy food and because I got to play with my new toy. But, another motivation was to get more familiar with the meat grinder, leading to the next step in what I planned to do with said grinder. After the weak of ground meat, I began surfing around and talking to my chef brother about stuffing ground meat into tubes. My birthday was last month, and I just received my final birthday gift (it had to be ordered and took a bit): Charcuterie, by Ruhlman and Polcyn. This book was recommended to me by Gavin and I was very excited to get it and it is ABSOLUTELY my favorite cookbook (right now).

OK, on to Chapter 1:

For my first adventure in sausage-making, I picked a fairly straightforward,fresh sauasage. (The main types of sausage, as far as I've determined, are cured, like a salami; emulsified, like a hot dog; or fresh, like the normal artisanal sausages you'd buy from the grocery store, the ones in the deli case or with an expiration date that can't be measured by presidential election cycles.) With a fresh sausage, you simply grind everything up and stuff it all into casings.

In this case, I was making a Polish kielbasa. Granted, it's not the smoked beef in a long ring that comes to mind when you hear "Polish Sausage" or "Kielbasa." That one is an emulsified sausage, using beef, that has been smoked. In truth, "kielbasa" just means "sausage" and this one is a fresh sausage, using pork, garlic and marjoram. Thursday evening, I cut up five pounds of pork shoulder and tossed it with the garlic, marjoram and some salt and pepper and put it in the fridge overnight


Friday afternoon, my 10-year-old (almost 11) daughter and I got to work.

First we ground the meat


Then, after adding some water and mixing it into a paste, rather than the strings of ground meat, we put it in the fridge and made a couple of patties for a test taste.


While the meat chilled some more, I cleaned out the grinder and got it set for stuffing. That included getting rid of the blade and grinding die and replacing it with the stuffer tube and loading up the tube with casings.


With Colleen feeding the meat down the grinder and me handling the casings (trying to figure out how much to stuff into the casings so they'd be just the right amount of full, no pictures were taken. Plus, it goes well with the old adage about sausages and laws.

After feeding all the meat into the casings, I began twisting off the links, with a break to show some pre and some post twisting sausage.


Ultimately though, the true test is in the eating and Colleen and I both agreed they were delicious. On the one hand, we made them, so there's some bias there. On the other, we can both be pretty hard on ourselves, especially when it comes to cooking. Plus, three more people have since tried the sausages and echoed our approval.

Oh, and I mentioned I was uncertain as to how full to stuff the casings...well, the recipe said that it would yield 10 feet of sausage. We ended up with 10' 1".

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I'm very excited to make more and look forward to chronicling all these experiences here. Next time, I plan to make two different sausages. I want to make a cured sausage, though the frustrating thing will be the waiting while it cures. However, I'll temper that by also making another fresh sausage, which I'll get to eat immediately!

Colleen on Fighting

So, Colleen's not feeling well, so we're laying low, watching a John Wayne movie.  A fistfight breaks out between two characters in the movie (neither of them The Duke).  The fight is temporarily broken up to establish some ground rules, such as "no biting or kicking."  Colleen's response was that "It's not really a fight if there's no biting."

What kind of scuffles go on at her school!?!?

New RC boat

A quick note to follow up on the RC committee decision.  I was down at the club today to check out a few things, among them to FINALLY see the new boat that we bought.  It looks great and I'm VERY excited that it will get it's first service for us this Saturday.  But, the big thing here is I wanted to show a pic I took of it.  I took a few and, hopefully, I will jump on again later and upload them and provide commentary, but for now, here she is!

Decision Part II

Okay, so it's not "tomorrow" as mentioned in the last entry.  I was detained from my blogging.  But, here is the continuation of the saga of the new RC (race committee) boat for PMYC (Port Madison Yacht Club).

The morning following the search committee's meeting I perused craigslist to see what I could find that met, or at least approached, the criteria to which we'd all agreed.  In fact, what I found was a 17' Arima, much like the boat we'd discussed heavily the previous eve (though a slightly different model).  Not only that, but it was for less than half of our budget! (Look at Thrifty Geoff!)  

I passed along the link to the committee, as a "jumping off place" with my actual hope being that it would fit the bill accomplishing a few things:

• Saving thousands of dollars for the club to use for other matters (including any improvements we wish for the boat)
• Getting the boat found in time for the next big race, the Jim DePue, on February 28th.
• The sense of satisfaction from having contributed further to the cause, having found the boat. (It should also be noted that I am a very big fan of PMYC, having grown up in the club and elated to be able to contribute to its betterment.)

Well, as it turned out, the overwhelming response was to check out this boat, because it MAY BE THE ONE!  I was thrilled at that response and it was decided (and arranged with the seller) to view it the coming Saturday (yesterday, as I write this).

Colleen (my daughter) had a practice competition for her Destination Imagination team (another time, perhaps I'll explain), so I decided to skip the boat viewing, as a bunch of other members of the committee were also going out there (and, as proud as I am of my club, Colleen's got it beat by a MILE).  

That evening, I sent an email out, asking how it went.  Well, the owner agreed to a reduced price (saving even MORE money) and now Andy will present it to the club's Board on Tuesday...given that it got raves from all in attendance AND is considerably less money than budgeted, it seems highly likely that it will sail through approval and by midweek, it will be the club's new RC boat!

In case you hadn't gathered, especially given all the exclamation points and all caps words, I'm VERY excited about this. 

Decision Making in action

My yacht club, the Port Madison Yacht Club (PMYC), needs a new boat to serve as Race Committee for our big boat (keelboat) races. As the chairman of the big boat racing program, I'm involved in the search for a new boat. There are other members of the club who also are involved for various reasons, essentially, they're knowledgeable and active in the club. These are people who know of what they speak and also will benefit (or be hurt) by this decision.

Our committee consists of seven people. Of those seven, I'm certainly the youngest. That may matter to some, but it's something that I'm frequently aware of in these settings. I'm not nervous or cowed by that fact. I also don't get any pride out of it. I'm there because I should be. I joined PMYC in 1985 as a junior (I was 12) and have raced a ton in the subsequent years. I've worked on many projects at the club. I've served as work party chair for a few years before being asked to take on the big boat racing program. I know I've even been considered for a commodoreship. I do wonder at times if others who attend these meetings pass any judgment on me because of my age. Some of these people remember when I was a junior in the club and they were making decisions then. Many of them are friends/contemporaries of my father, who was commodore in 1999. As such, they may think of me as "Gary's kid." In truth, I'm proud to be his kid, but when it comes to these situations, I need to be Geoff, a bright, capable guy who's here because he has something of value to offer.

Well, last night we met at the house of Ken, one of the committee, and a former commodore. Also in attendance were Jim (another former commodore), Randy (frequent race committee, especially on the club's longest race), Ros (dinghy racing chair), Lubo (former commodore, top notch racer), Andy (current Vice Commodore, preceded me as big boat chair, excellent racer) and myself.

For about a half hour we went around the table and talked about what we felt the boat needed, coming to no consensus and frequently using very subjective terms. Finally, Lubo, to his infinite credit, asked, "Can we find one criteria that we can all agree on?" His question was indicative of any disagreement or fractiousness, simply that while we were all talking, we were circling the objective, but not closing in on it. Well, we started talking about a minimum size, came to consensus and a few more criteria rolled on in after to unanimity. Wow! How great was that! We had a framework! A rough sketch of what we wanted!

A few specific boats had been discussed, notably a 17' Arima that Andy had brought up. Additionally, I'd printed out a few listings from craigslist that showed a broad cross-section of what was currently out there on the market and some were overlooked and others received closer scrutiny, as one might expect of "a broad cross-section." The point is, we walked away from last night with something approaching a unanimous consensus on a fairly specific set of criteria for a boat.

Then, something happened today. But, that story is to be written tomorrow.