Basque Skillet Beans

I had a pot-luck meeting to attend, wrapping up our Sense of Wonder - nature camp for girls, so I prepared this dish from the Moosewood Restaurant New Classics Cookbook.

1/4 teaspoon crumbled saffron threads
1/4 cup boiling water
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 cup chopped onions
1 minced fresh chile (seeds removed for a milder hot)
1 3/4 cups canned tomatoes with juice (14.5-ounce can)
1/4 cup dry sherry (I sub. mirin)
3 cups cooked chickpeas (2 15-ounce cans, drained and rinsed - I substituted cannellini beans)
10 ounces fresh spinach, rinsed, stemmed and chopped
2 to 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
ground black pepper to taste

In a small heat-proof bowl, cover the saffron with the boiling water - set aside.

In a 12 inch skillet, warm the olive oil on medium heat & saute the garlic, onions and the chiles for about 5 minutes. I didn't have the chiles so I used roasted chili paste - about a teaspoon worth. Using your hands, crush the tomatoes into the skillet. I actually did this and made a MESS even with my Calphalon huge arse wok-like pan - yet I had fund doing so. Add the juice from the can (it happened while I crushed the toms with my hands anyways) add the sherry (did not have any so I used mirin), and the saffron with its soaking liquid.

Stir in the chickpeas (cannellini beans) and bring the mixture to a gentle boil. Arrange the spinach on top and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cover and cook - 5 minutes - until the spinach is wilted but still bright green. Remove from heat and mix in the spinach. season with lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. (lots of sea salt and pepper for me!)

The beauty of Moosewood - they note servings, prep & cook time and caloric information.

Serves 4 to 6, total time: 40 minutes (I usually reduce the serving size and double the time to prep and cook)
Per 10 ounce serving: 229 calories, 8.1 g protein 6.3 g fat, 33.9 g carbs, .8 g saturated fatty acids, zero mg cholesterol, 562.2 mg sodium, 6.5 g total dietary fiber.

Oh, and they give little tidbits on the dish, how the ingredients complement each other, or how this is Aunt Bessie's favorite dish because it would remind her of her love affair in Spain (oh, just kidding. If they would only be that colorful).

The meal is perfect for vegans and people that cannot eat wheat or gluten (celiac disease). I made a pot of brown rice with wild rice as a side.

Brad commented how he new the fabulous smell was coming from our house as he was riding home. He was excited dinner was ready, too. "Sorry honey, I am off to a meeting - with the dinner." We had leftovers - even better so dinner was ready after our Wednesday Worlds (that he won.)

Upstate NY - the home of Wegmans

Sheba had not been to a Wegmans let alone a Super Store Wegmans. Wegmans is like a Whole Foods but better. It has the normal bad grocery store food and the whole foods, organic, gourmet, bulk foods, prepared food, patio furniture, dishes, candles, many non-food things except clothes.

The Bon Jovi Cruise that got canceled was replaced with a shopping spree at Wegmans with us "buying lunch" for an early dinner at Jan's with a mellow visit to Green Lakes Park.

We are lucky we made it to Green Lakes Park as the "let's focus and be quick" so we do not spend two hours grocery shopping. Hmmmmm. I want to blame it on Sheba. I do but I am just as bad; we are too much alike. I have shopped at Wegmans before but my head was still swirling with all the wonderful prepared salads, olive bar, cheese selection, bad food section (pizza! Chinese food, ...) I called Karen to let her know we had arrived at Wegmans (1:30 pm). I call her around 2 ish to let her know we are just about done shopping and Sheba discovers the bulk CANDY section. Half an hour later, we were still milling around sampling Italian blood orange soda with french vanilla ice cream and Karen called. So how are you doing?! "We are heading to the checkout line." It was as if a scavenger hunt began and we scattered in 20 directions. I ran for ice cream (we loved the ice cream sodas), Sheba for the Smart Water, and the cart off to one of THIRTY-ONE checkout lines.

One last detour - the "gumball" machines in the entrance/exit area. Happy Bunny Stickers. I didn't know anything about them but I fell for it. We scrambled for all the quarters we could find to get Happy Bunny Stickers. Now I want this one.

Green Lakes State Park has two glacial lakes surrounded by upland forest. Both Round and Green Lakes are meromictic lakes, which means that there is no fall and spring mixing of surface and bottom waters. Such lakes have a high potential for evidence of ancient plant and animal life.

The perks of racing

Great cities, people, cool aunts/friends/family, food. Reading, Rochester Twilight Crit, Syracuse Wegmans SUPER store with my evil twin Sheba and my mates.

Just say NO to Disco

I must remember not to pack my ipod in my cycling bag that gets put in the trunk when we travel. I found "Flashback weekend" on Sunny 102.1 - from Phoenix, NY.

I think we caught the disco weekend! Not quite race music but I deemed it podium music. Shake your Booty, Love will keep us together, The Hustle, More than a Woman, Staying Alive ... So we laughed and sang, all dreaming of podium spots for our team.

I do not like driving LONG distances anymore for racing, especially for criteriums because the time on the bike is WAY less than the time in the car. Since I am on a crit monster team, I try to make mini-vacations, parties or adventures in the cities we race. Sometimes the cities make the adventures or parties for us! (Watch out Charlotte class reunions) On that note, I want to highly recommend the Saturn Rochester Twilight Criterium to everyone racer (especially the women!!!) and non-racer. It is a fabulous course to race and spectate. The city of Rochester has a population of about 220,000 with buidings in the downtown area that look like they were out of the batman movies. Now this is from 1995 so no batman buildings yet.

The crowds were fantastic. The event was screaming loud with cool pump you up race music with Richard Fries loosing his voice. I love him because he makes everyone shine in the race, whether you are on the front or on the back of the field (another opportunity for the Bellie to be waving to the crowd as I was still attached to the bunch). The race was fast, dry and technical with all the turns, man-hole covers and grates. A smaller women's field made it even more challenging with the the wind but it rocked. We did our best attacking halfway through the race and covering the major players. Others helped as the race almost came down to a field sprint until Jesse McLean attacked from the back right of the bunch on the backside of the course in the final lap (I could not react fast enough because of her amazing explosiveness!!). She had a gap of a few seconds and held it to the finish. We did not get to Shake our Booty on the podium this time. Hopefully another day soon.

Syracuse

My friend and training partner, Karen was so gracious to lean on some friends in Syracuse for host housing for Hub Racing. We rolled in Friday night around 11:30 to a spacious house that backs up to a golf course. We grabbed our beds and were out for the night.

I rode with Ron and Karen for an hour + flat ride. It was a beautiful cool morning as I wore a wind breaker on the way out. The weather was unseasonably cool with the high at 19C/66F. We passed a farm that had at least 7 foals ranging in age from a couple days old to weeks old. They were the cutest little buggers.

When we got back, Ron and Karen took Leeanne and Beca out on their mid-morning ride to see those baby foals, too.

Lunch was in the village of Liverpool, NY was at the Retreat. Karen worked in Syracuse years ago and one of her friends, Ray, took us to the old hangout. The restaurant got slammed as we placed our order so we ended up freezing our butts off on the desk for two hours. It is the end of June. I am excited about this weather but wow, we truly froze. Ray was our "Bon Jovi boat cruise" connection. I found out on Friday that the "cruise" was to take place on Wellesley Island in the 1000 Island region - not the Finger Lakes, hence the need for passports. A death of a friend canceled the "cruise" adventure. After Ray met the bubbly Hub Racers, he too, was saddened that the adventure had to be canceled. Maybe Bon Jovi will be releasing a new album again around this time next year so we can help promote it. (I'm not a Bon Jovi fan, really. I just got stuck growing up in the 1980s) Gosh, those screaming women sound like the Bob Barker contestants. Binky, this is for you: The Price is Right (Another confession: I loved that game show!) I think the invitation for the boat ride, I mean "cruise" will be available next year so maybe we will have a full roster for the Saturn Rochester Twilight Criterium. Binky, I am finding you a job on the East Coast so no more excuses.

Full Hub Racing Roster for Father's Day Weekend

There has been a lot of transporting this weekend for racing, team dinners, shopping and riding. I have lost lots of sleep and my legs are humming from it and from the intense racing.

I am tempted to cheat and link you to my teammates blogs about the weekend. Their writing is more entertaining than mine, too. I hope they all landed safely in NZL, ONT, UK, CA and drove safely to WV.

Okay. I will make you cheat. Some of the links are to the left and are updated regularly.

I am going to work on that sleep. Bonne nuit.

Liberty Classic 2007 - Laughing (no group)

Lap 3 - the Wall after stopping halfway through to let the pro-men's field pass. Surprisingly, the spectators at my "rest stop" did not have ANY beer. Around the 2nd steep section, I held my hand out and someone obliged me.

As my one of my teammate's laughed, I had been caught - red handed!