What Happened to 186CS
879HZ is now my favorite Cessna 172 in West Valley's fleet because it's actually clean inside and it has more advanced avionics. But 186CS was once my favorite. My first flight, my first night flight, the first time I felt that I "got it"... were all in 186CS.
I saw this while walking through the Palo Alto ramp area:
What happened to the prop?
Then I looked closer and... it's more than just the prop:
I guess this is what an engine overhaul looks like?
The Best Sliders
I've been blasted with podcasts and videos about sliders recently and now know enough to know that I probably know that these probably originate as an onion infused mini burger from White Castle back in the 20s (the 1920s) and that they may or may not be called Sliders possibly because they're small enough to slide down your throat (although not really...).
Read the original J.Kenji Lopez Alt recipe for more, but the prep style of frying up the onions, sticking them into the patty, then steaming the bun on top of all that resulted in an excellent mini burger. I used Hawaiian rolls because that's all I had and loved the sweetness from the roll.
Hamaichi Kama
Is there a better use for fish collars than Japanese izakaya staple Hamaichi Kama aka Grilled Yellowtail Collar
Just fifteen minutes under the broiler and it's done -- that's it! Served with a side of Broccolini Gomaae.
Original recipes from Just One Cookbook:
Crispy Orecchiette with Spicy Ragu
My first Molly Baz recipe! Frying up orecchiette after cooking them al dente creates a unique crispy pasta texture which goes nicely with the Italian Sausage and Collared Greens ragu. This is also a very simple recipe with just a handful of ingredients. I'll have to pick up Molly's new book!
Ugly Chicken Stew
Biggest flavor bang for the time-buck! Just dump raw chicken into a pressure cooker with a bunch of veggies, cover, cook for 25 minutes (10 to heat up, 15 high pressure). And that's it!
Yeah it's not pretty. But it's oh so good!
I was surprised to learn that there's no need to add liquid to the pot. If the chicken is raw (meaning you didn't take the time to sear it) and you have veggies in there, you'll have all the liquid you need. In fact it comes out nice and soupy but not overwhelmingly so.
In my case, I used potatoes, parsnips, onions, carrots, tomatoes, many many many many whole cloves of garlic. Those cloves of garlic become deliciously mushy and lose much of their harsh garlic taste. Stick 40 of them in there if you want -- it won't be excessively garlicky. (40 clove garlic chicken stew is a thing and it's so good!)
As part of OMASL (Operation Make Anoop Suck Less) I'm trying to spend less time cooking while still eating the yummiest of things so I'll probably make this or variants of it frequently from now on!
Chickpea Confit
Slow simmered in a whole cup of fancy olive oil -- my new favorite way to eat chickpeas!
I added some aleppo pepper to give it a little spice kick, some shallot just because, and found that I definitely needed a nice squeezer of lemon in addition to the lemon peel.
On its own or on rice, this is a showstopper and super easy to make, and very versatile -- you could probably add loads of other things to it.
Ignore the recipe's ridiculous instruction to toss half the oil afterwards. That's the best part! If you don't want to eat the flavorful oil on its own, save it and put it on top of stuff! Seriously I'm watching you -- don't throw it away!
Mountain to Beach Marathon
My... I don't remember the number anymore... Xth marathon is in the books and it once again totally sucked! Well, it sucked less than the last one for sure, my famous failure in Honolulu in December where I couldn't run past the first 5k. This time I was working on pacing and was going quite slow but fast enough that I should've made it under the 5hr mark. But alas my feet started hurting, then my legs started hurting, and I ended up having a difficult time of things during the last 10K.
I did get a PR at 5hr 13min. I don't think it was because of the "mountain" to "beach" downhill thing, which was overhyped as there's plenty of uphill, including the first 3 miles or so. But in order to really get under the 5hr mark I'm going to need to solve the FOOT problem. I actually think if I can get under 5hr I can get WAY under 5hr.
San Francisco is just three months away...
The marathon itself was a mixed bag. It starts off in Ojai, a beautiful mountainside town and surrounding pastures. But once you get to the bottom, you're running alongside freeways, factories and even oil pipelines. You barely even run by the shore! I loved the first half so much that I was pronouncing it the prettiest marathon ever, but hated the second half part so much that I don't think I want to run again. (But if I do run it again, I'll stay in Ojai instead of downtown Ventura.)
Pliny for President
A Pliny the Elder / Allagash White ticket is something I could get behind.
Though I'm not sure why Whole Foods charged me 50 cents more than the regular Pliny the Elder when this seems to be the same thing with a different label. It's not like you're supposed to actually keep the bottle and label.
Headlands Half
My first long distance run under my new zone 2 running regiment, unfortunately not the best route for staying in zone 2 as it's super steep up for the first part so I had to walk to maintain zone 2 (actually zone 3 -- I have given up on trying to stay in whatever my heart tracker things is zone 2), then it was super steep down for the second part so I had to walk again.
But definitely the prettiest marathon course as you repeatedly turn into inspiring views of the Bay and SF.
I was distracted though, as I was trying to do some mental time travel as I ran because I'm pretty sure I came here on a three day field trip in 5th or 6th grade and I got sick during a hike so I wanted to travel back in time and encourage myself to continue with the hike rather than going back to the dorm to sleep, thus altering my life in unpredictable ways. But because you're reading this text, I obviously didn't succeed. Or maybe you're not reading it. I don't know.
Apparently I placed 3rd, as evidenced by this ribbon the organizer sent me. 3rd... amongst males 45 to 49. My group has gotten older and probably smaller so I wouldn't be surprised if there were only three of us.
Brown Butter Za'atar Pasta
I found a big thing of za'atar seasoning in the back of my fridge. I've no idea how long it's been there, and I don't know why I bought it, but I wanted to use it and I had a pasta craving and Google gave me this:
Brown Butter Za'atar pasta. It's just browned butter with za'atar and lemon juice as a sauce base for your usual emulsion of parm and pasta water. And it's so so good! Another great addition to my pasta collection! I'm going to one day make a book of pasta recipes I didn't invent but I always make.
